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Is Microsoft power-snooping on Skype conversations?

Has Microsoft gone crazy and committed business suicide by spying on all your Skype chat messages? Heise Online warned that Microsoft is reading everything you write in Skype.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 05/15/13 - 10:19am.

First there were reports that made it sound as if a kindergartener could easily social engineer Skype Support to hijack accounts. Now, holy wowza, a German publisher is claiming that Microsoft is power-snooping on Skype conversations.

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Microsoft patches Pwn2Own & IE8 'nuke' critical holes

It's Patch Tuesday again and Microsoft worked to quickly resolve the zero-day exploiting IE8 in watering hole attacks and the vulnerabilities exploited at Pwn2Own.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Tue, 05/14/13 - 3:16pm.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines, but be ready to reboot as Microsoft released 10 security bulletins to patch 33 vulnerabilities that are listed as critical or important.

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Comedian Rob Schneider stars as Google Docs in Microsoft Office 365 videos

Microsoft shows it has a sense of humor while bashing Google Apps with videos starring former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Mon, 05/13/13 - 10:35am.

Microsoft showed that it does have a sense of humor.

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U.S. government is 'biggest buyer' of zero-day vulnerabilities, report claims

While the Pentagon is pointing its finger at China for hacking and cyberespionage, a Reuters report claims China's not the only cyber-devil...we are too. In fact, the U.S. government is the 'biggest buyer' of zero-days and hacking tools.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Sun, 05/12/13 - 12:01pm.

When it comes to exploiting zero-days for cyberweapons and cyber-spying, China's not the only "devil"...we are too, according to a Reuters report that claimed the U.S.

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Microsoft: What are people really asking for when they ask for a Start button?

Windows Blue can be previewed in June, but Microsoft said it heard our cries for a Windows 8 Start button. A Start button "might be helpful," but Microsoft is trying to understand "what people are really asking for when they're asking for that."
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 05/08/13 - 10:03am.

Microsoft sold more than 100 million licenses for Windows 8, keeping up with Windows 7 sales at the six-month mark. In June, people who have Windows 8 will be able to preview Windows Blue.

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Google's patent for email snooping? Microsoft offers your boss email spying powers now

Google's 'Policy Violation Checker' patent may give your boss new snooping powers in the future; but in the name of 'data loss prevention,' Microsoft already gives your boss that power to monitor your emails.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Tue, 05/07/13 - 12:19pm.

Filing for a patent does not always mean a company will follow through and make that product a reality, but it is still interesting to see what patents are filed.

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Microsoft confirms zero-day vulnerability exploiting IE8

The watering hole attack that exploited a zero-day in IE8, disabled antivirus, and was aimed at U.S. Department of Labor nuclear researchers was also found on nine other websites targeting aerospace, defense and security markets.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Mon, 05/06/13 - 1:52pm.

After reports of a zero-day vulnerability exploiting IE8 for watering hole attacks, Microsoft confirmed the flaw and released Security Advisory 2847140. Microsoft Security Response Center wrote, "Internet Explorer 6, 7, 9 and 10 are not affected by the vulnerability.

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Former FBI agent: All phone calls recorded, no digital communication secure

A former FBI counterterrorism agent says the government captures and stores all your phone calls and all other digital communications.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Sun, 05/05/13 - 11:58am.

Last week, the press focused on Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston bombing suspect Tamarlan Tsarnaev, as officials have been trying to determine what she knew about the bombing.

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Journalist threatened, warned not to write about face-recognition at Statue of Liberty

Journalist threatened by alleged supplier of Statue of Liberty face-recognition tech, warned not to write about facial recognition implentation at America's icon for liberty and freedom.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 05/01/13 - 2:30pm.

America's 59 national parks and 108 national monuments are some of our countries greatest treasures, but sometimes things pertaining to "national security" just get really weird.

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Officials to investigate DHS ammunition purchases

The Government Accountability Office issued the newest DHS report card, but the GAO and Congress are reportedly investigating allegations that DHS is 'stockpiling ammunition.'
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Tue, 04/30/13 - 11:06am.

It's been 10 years since 22 federal agencies were folded under one Department of Homeland Security umbrella that is now the world's "largest homeland counter terror organization." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has put out the newest DHS report card [pdf], but we'll get back to that after looking at claims of DHS "stockpiling ammunition."

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Skype accounts easily hijacked via Skype Support, warns hacker

After a security researcher had his Skype account hijacked six different times within one day, he's trying to raise awareness about how easily Skype Support can be socially engineered. He says the Skype account recovery policy needs to be changed.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Mon, 04/29/13 - 11:43am.

Microsoft has been "reimagining" itself for years, but after a security researcher had his Skype account hijacked six times in one day, he wants Skype Support to reimagine itself with more security.

[10 AWESOME Ways to Celebrate Star Wars Day (May the 4th...)]

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Intelligence system FAIL: Tsarnaev wiretapped, listed in terrorism database

The U.S. Intelligence community had Tamerlan Tsarnaev on their radar 18 months ago. The Russians wiretapped him discussing jihad and warned the U.S. Was the ball dropped? Could the coming tsunami of more surveillance and less constitutionally-protected rights boil down to spelling errors?
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Sun, 04/28/13 - 12:29pm.

The Associated Press reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev showed up on U.S. intelligence radar about 18 months ago. The CIA wanted Tsarnaev's name added to the terrorist database, which is called "TIDE, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment," after the Russian government contacted the agency in September 2011 with concerns that he had become a follower of radical Islam.

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Hacktivists take on 'Olympus Has Fallen' scare tactics style

One hacktivist group allegedly threatened to bomb the White House if we don't go to war with North Korea; another group hijacked AP tweets and caused a financial scare. Twitter is reportedly planning to implement two-factor authentication.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 04/24/13 - 11:52am.

Twitter is a great place if you want news that is so red-hot off the press that the e-ink is still steaming. But with the likes of the Syrian Electronic Army hijacking Twitter accounts and tweeting disastrous fake news as if Olympus Has Fallen is a reality and not a movie, Twitter is finally going to implement two-factor authentication.

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Verizon report: China behind 96% of all cyber-espionage data breaches

Verizon's 2013 Data Breach Investigation Report is out and fingers China as the top source of cyber-espionage data breaches.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Tue, 04/23/13 - 9:49am.

Verizon's 2013 Data Breach Investigation Report is out and includes data gathered by its own forensics team and data breach info from 19 partner organizations worldwide. The report covers about 621 confirmed breaches and about 47,000 security incidents that occurred in 2012. Security incidents do not necessarily mean the attackers were able to breach an organization and could include DoS attacks.

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Post Boston: Privacy advocates warn about coming tsunami of surveillance cameras

After Boston, there is a cry to increase surveillance cameras. But facial recognition technology didn't identify the bombing suspects. Privacy advocates warn that creating more of a surveillance society, further decreasing privacy, is not the answer.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Mon, 04/22/13 - 11:41am.

In The Dangers of Surveillance, Neil Richards, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, made a case for legally recognizing why surveillance is harmful.

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Air Force hackers win NSA's 13th annual Cyber Defense Exercise

Students from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies competed on the cyber battlefield against about 60 NSA and DoD hackers for the Cyber Defense Exercise trophy.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Sun, 04/21/13 - 12:52pm.

Did you hear about the big game last week? Perhaps not, since "this annual battle might not yet have achieved the same mythic status as, say, the Army-Navy football game," but there was a simulated cyberwar being waged from April 16 to 18.

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Kaspersky Lab launches world's first anti-malware product for UEFI

As malware writers continue to develop anti-forensic techniques to keep their malicious payload from being analyzed, Kaspersky Lab releases the first, and so far only, anti-malware product for UEFI.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 04/17/13 - 1:57pm.

Microsoft Malware Protection Center recently discovered a sneaky Trojan that deletes its components to stop forensic investigators and researchers from analyzing it. The downloader was the payload.

On the MMPC blog, Jonathan San Jose wrote about TrojanDownloader:Win32/Nemim.gen!A:

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Refuse to be terrorized after Boston Marathon bombs; stay calm, stay free

President Obama said, "The American people refuse to be terrorized."
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Tue, 04/16/13 - 2:44pm.

The Boston Marathon bombings were horrifying, and the people of Boston are in my prayers, but as President Obama stated, "The American people refuse to be terrorized." Right after it happened, the president avoided called it a terrorist attack, but the FBI almost immediately called it an act of terrorism.

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Law professor makes a case for legally recognizing the Dangers of Surveillance

In The Dangers of Surveillance, law professor Neil Richards tackles the legal problem of surveillance law and making the courts understand why surveillance is harmful.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Mon, 04/15/13 - 10:37am.

The Dangers of Surveillance, written by Neil M. Richards, Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, was recently published on the Social Science Research Network.

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Hacks to turn your wireless IP surveillance cameras against you

Thousands of wireless IP cameras are vulnerable to remote attacks. At Hack in the Box security conference, researchers showed how to exploit the devices in "To Watch or Be Watched: Turning Your Surveillance Camera Against You" and released a tool to automate attacks.
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Sun, 04/14/13 - 12:18pm.

Sergey Shekyan and Artem Harutyunyan, researchers from the security firm Qualys, said the search engine Shodan shows about 100,000 wireless IP cameras that have "little or no emphasis on security." At the recent Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam, the researchers presented, "To Watch or Be Watched: Turning Your Surveillance Camera Against You" [

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