Security

Microsoft has forged a deal with Baidu, China's largest search engine, to provide search functionality in English. The deal comes a year and a half after Google exited China's search market with much fanfare, announcing it could no longer stomach the censorship the government applied. By the end of ...

Several weeks after the Sony PlayStation Network was brought to its knees by a massive security breach, the company has decided to clean house with an executive reshuffling. Among the changes: Akira Sato, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, and Ken Kutaragi, honorary chairman, will retire, ef...

The average American credit cardholder carries 3.5 credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice. Today, consumers use credit cards to pay for more than just large-ticket items. Everything from household items and utilities to insurance premiu...

It's time for corporations to wise up and use the latest, most effective weapons to safeguard and secure their data. High-tech devices, software applications, emails, user accounts, social media and networks -- even those presumed safe -- are being hacked with alarming alacrity and ease. Security to...

More than 200,000 Citigroup bank accounts were hacked in last month, according to just-released data from the company, and federal regulations could tighten because of the security breach.

Thousands of federal employees will be using cloud-based email systems as government agencies take their first steps in meeting a mandate to inaugurate cloud services within their information technology systems. The White House has directed 25 large agencies to launch at least one cloud-migration pr...

The official vision of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is a government-coordinated, private-sector initiative to increase the security of the Internet. In their words: "Individuals and organizations utilize secure, efficient, easy-to-use, and interoperable identity solutio...

The breach of Sony's PlayStation Network will cost the company at least US$171 million according to the company's preliminary financial forecast released on Monday -- the latest predictions for its fiscal year ending March 2012. The total figure will likely grow. . . and grow. Sony has racked up exp...

Information technology providers and politicians on both sides of the aisle are applauding the Obama administration for wading into the complex issue of cybersecurity. The administration issued its package of Internet security legislative proposals last week, spurring hopes that the U.S. Congress wo...

The cloud-based storage system Dropbox is the most recent online provider to be criticized for misleading customers in terms of of privacy and security, according to an FTC complaint. Dropbox deceived customers by making them believe that its employees did not have access to their data, alleges Chr...

Sony's PlayStation Network has been rebuffed in the company's home country. The game-maker relaunched the troubled online service elsewhere around the world, but it has been blocked in Japan by government order. Japan wants Sony to implement further preventive security measures and make more progres...

A key element in the shifting political winds in Washington is a call for less business regulation, especially from the conservative wing of the now ascendant Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. But one leading Republican last week tossed that mantra aside and launched into a t...

The hackers who penetrated Sony's PlayStation Network, Qriosity music service and Sony Online Entertainment are planning to launch another major attack against the company this weekend, according to a reader of an Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers. The hackers claim to have access to S...

Most of the talk about protecting users' privacy on the Web has centered on preventing the collection of information that would aid companies in creating targeted ad campaigns. I appreciate the efforts of all those people -- from the myriad consumer watchdog groups to former presidential candidates ...

The Obama administration has come up with a proposal for both improving and simplifying identity protection for consumers using the Internet, computers, and mobile devices. The plan would greatly reduce the need for consumers to use and remember multiple passwords or fill out separate privacy forms ...