If you’re an active Sony Playstation network user, you’re aware that it was “game over” last week as hackers made their way into the network and made off with a ton of your personal data. Sony has said that they are not certain whether sensitive credit card data was taken. According to discussions in underground hacker forums, the hackers got your numbers. Comments in these forums, which are being monitored by security researchers, reportedly claim that the hacked database included customer names, addresses, usernames, passwords and up to 2.2 million credit card numbers. The hackers hope to…

Facebook. If you have an internet connection and a pulse there’s a good chance that you have an account. If you have an account, there’s a good chance that you haven’t made adjustments to your settings to protect your privacy, enhance your experience, or stay as secure as you want to be. It’s a minefield. Facebook has been under fire in the past for having a complicated interface when it comes to personal settings. Despite recent changes they’ve made to the UI, it’s still not very easy without a roadmap. Thanks to our friends at ZoneAlarm, we have just the ticket for you. This graphic gives you everything…

With security being a major concern for Twitter over the years, they have been continuously making improvements and securing internal systems to tighten up the service. The https option has been available for a while, but only by typing it into a browser as such. Today, Twitter announced that they are making it an option for profiles and that they will eventually make it the default setting. Under a user’s settings, they can now scroll to the bottom and select “Always use HTTPS.” Whenever the account is accessed from any device or Internet connection, it will automatically be secure. The goal is…

Infections of various types are normally the cause of computer problems. It could be malware, worms, viruses, or any number of security threats that spread from computer to computer through networks and the Internet. In this case, the problem was pretty easy to isolate. When over 32K objects are currently infected on your device, it’s likely that there is some sort of problem with your security. Did you install Norton or something?…

With online security filling the news, even becoming a government issue with the National Internet ID on the horizon, Google has taken a step towards improving security of the user accounts by adding an optional layer of security. Their advanced sign-on feature allows users to opt-in to a double-tap login process, requiring a second unique identifier to thwart hackers. Similar to the technique used by many financial institutions, users will need to know a password as well as a separate code sent to their cell phone. This information will be cookie-based so users can set their code to be remembered…

The news is jam-packed with stories about online privacy, “do not track,” and Internet security issues. With proposals for a National Internet ID and do-not-track legislation on the table, it’s clear that 2011 will be a year when much will boil over in the privacy arena. This infographic design by Sitejabber takes a look at ways that companies (and less-than-honorable organization of non-business intent) are able to track your activities and use it to target you for various reasons. Opponents to do-not-track technology claim that the information they receive from tracking allows them to…

According to the security gurus Trend Micro, the most dangerous site on the net in 2010 was none other than google.com. Of course, no one would believe this out of hand – Google’s had its problems in the last year, what with user privacy snafus and other ballyhoo, but when you consider Google’s immense popularity, it becomes a different story. Factoring Google’s reputation as the (second-)most visited site on the net (Facebook passed it this past year), it is a prime target for blackhat SEO schemes, leading to all manner of malware and other threats. Naturally, it takes two to tango, and the user…

Say what you will about these kids’ moral characters, but this is kind of clever. Uploading music to the iTunes store, a group of UK teens has been accused of using stolen credit cards to download their own tracks thousands of times – ultimately reaping almost £500,000 (almost $775,000!) in royalties. One teen has already claimed responsibility for 2000 of the 6000 song downloads, and the rest of the group is slated to appear in court beginning January 25th. Like I said – I don’t pretend to endorse the actions of these kids. Credit card fraud is bad, and wrong, and all that. But damn, as far as iTunes…

Painfully unfunny Russian jokes aside, it’s also true – porn sharing site YouPorn is now under fire for having pulled a minor Google by sniffing users’ browser history. For those of you out of the loop, browser sniffing is not a website’s scanning of your internet activities for scent. A website, as you may have noticed, generally keeps track of links you’ve clicked by assigning them a ‘clicked’ or ‘have not clicked’ colour – typically purple for yes, blue for no. Browser sniffing works, essentially, by a website’s asking your browser which colour link to display. If your browser answers ‘purple’,…

Apparently, Ben the Bodyguard is some sort of data-security app. The truth is, after a quick Google, there’s excruciatingly little information as of yet. But one thing’s for sure: the promotional website for the app is gorgeous. You really, really need to check this out, it’s a brilliant concept. Based on its total awesomeness, though, it’ll probably freak out if you’re on IE. So, like, fair warning. With a website this well-designed, hell, I’d buy the app almost regardless of what it was….