Plenty has been speculated since the Snowden documents were made public about the NSA’s interest in building a quantum computer that could break current encryption securing communication worldwide. Quantum computing on a practical scale is a distant goal, but some do exist that leverage some aspects of quantum physics and small numbers of quantum bits....

Facebook today began a test program rolling out opt-in end-to-end encryption for its Messenger service called Secret Conversations. The end-to-end encryption is based on the Signal protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems, the same protocol that stands up the crypto in the Signal and WhatsApp messaging applications. The Facebook version of the encryption service is...

Facebook today began a test program rolling out opt-in end-to-end encryption for its Messenger service called Secret Conversations. The end-to-end encryption is based on the Signal protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems, the same protocol that stands up the crypto in the Signal and WhatsApp messaging applications. The Facebook version of the encryption service is...

If you’re one of the millions who rocked out at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas or slurped noodles at a Noodles & Company fast food chain in the past year, it’s time to get paranoid. Both companies announced this week separate breaches that include unauthorized access to credit card data. The Hard Rock...

A hacker selling upwards to 655,000 healthcare records on the dark web allegedly obtained them after exploiting a vulnerability in how companies implement remote desktop protocol, or RDP, functionality. The hacker, who goes by the handle “thedarkoverlord,” allegedly penetrated three healthcare organizations and made off with a database from each, according to Deep Dot Web, who...

Last week Apple cleared the air as to whether or not it intentionally released an unencrypted version of its iOS 10 beta kernel to the developer community, stating the move was intentional. “The kernel cache doesn’t contain any user info, and by unencrypting it we’re able to optimize the operating system’s performance without compromising security,”...

A scathing rebuke of medical professionals’ attitudes toward information security reveals nurses and doctors fumble over protocols often putting patients at risk. The revealing study, “Workarounds to Computer Access in Healthcare Organizations (PDF),” offers a fascinating look behind the privacy curtains at hospitals. The study, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College and the...

The FBI’s apparent capability to unmask users of the Tor Network has caused hand-wringing among those concerned with privacy and civil liberties, many of whom are busy trying to win legal battles to get law enforcement to confess as to how they’re doing it. A team of academics and researchers, however, have come up with...

White hat hacker Chris Vickery uncovered a database of 154 million U.S. voter profiles on an unprotected server chockfull of sensitive data that includes voter names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, gun ownership information, preferences on gay marriage and links to individual social media accounts. The data was owned by voter data broker L2 which sold...

After settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission this week a mobile advertising company will pay nearly $1M after it was determined the company tracked customers – including children – without their consent. InMobi, an India-based firm with offices across the world, will pay $950,000 in civil penalties, the FTC announced via press release on...