Headline News Archive

2017

August

17

• How to make your house a smart home. Nearly everything in your home — including air-conditioners, thermostats, lights and garage doors — can be connected to the internet and be remotely controlled with…

16

• New online scam targets tax preparers. Do you trust your tax preparer not to fall for this simple phishing scam?  The Internal Revenue Service is warning tax preparers about a new…

• Is LinkedIn trying to protect your data — or hoard it?. When you create a public profile on a social network such as LinkedIn, it isn't just your friends and contacts who can see that data. For…

13

• Two online security steps you should stop putting off. No password will ever be impenetrable, and no online account can ever be fully secure. But password managers and two-factor authentication can get us as…

04

• Anonymous browsing data isn't as anonymous as you think. It’s a revelation that will shock precisely nobody: Your private data is not as private as you think.

03

• There's money to be made in taking complaints. A new breed of human resources start-ups is cropping up to help companies figure out how their employees feel. Like Glint, Convercent lets companies send…

July

31

• Google’s new program to track shoppers sparks federal privacy complaint. A prominent privacy rights watchdog is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a new Google advertising program that ties consumers’ online behavior to their…

27

• 2017s most common travel scams & how to avoid them. Anyone who is well travelled will tell you that, regardless of how prepared you are for your journey, it’s likely that you’ll come across a…

26

• Republicans introduce bills to scrap new bank arbitration rule. Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills calling for the repeal of a just-announced regulation that would make it easier for consumers…

• Lawmakers call for a net neutrality faceoff between Google and Comcast. For years, tech companies and Internet providers have been at each others' throats on Internet policy — and net neutrality especially. Now, House Republicans are teeing…

• Dust isn’t the only thing your Roomba is sucking up. The company behind the Roomba vacuum, iRobot, has grand plans to one day sell the mapping data its robot cleaner collects to giant technology companies…

25

• Stealing IDs and accounts using LINE app (Chinese). (星島日報報導)詐騙集團的手法層出不窮，近年來最常見的手段之一，是詐騙集團藉由盜用民眾的通訊軟體帳號，假冒他人傳送訊息借錢。近期，洛杉磯也有華裔居民接獲類似的詐騙訊息，而警方表示，若接獲可疑的訊息，務必打電話親自向對方查證。 根據台灣刑事警察局資料，詐騙集團第一步先入侵友人的臉書或其他通訊軟體，假冒成他向被害人詢問其電話號碼，再用該手機號碼在通訊軟體LINE上註冊成為新帳號。歹徒成功盜入受害人的帳號後，假冒成受害人的身分繼續向他人詐騙，形成一個惡性循環。 資料指出，LINE公司並不會要求用戶代收驗證碼，因此警方呼籲民眾勿再提供驗證碼，免得自己身分遭竊。該公司強調，驗證碼只能自己使用，不可告知任何人。 警方提醒，若收到親友透過LINE借錢，應該親自致電本人查證，以防被騙。

• Wisconsin company to install rice-sized microchips in employees. A Wisconsin technology company is offering its employees microchip implants that can be used to scan into the building and purchase food at work. Whether or…

24

• Social Security and its purported death spiral — a scam. So what do the numbers look like for Social Security?  Post columnist Allan Sloan crunched some numbers: Sloan writes that we should be concerned. Seniors…

• Beware the debit card crooks hacking is easier than ever. Our financial lives have become a series of debit card swipes.  We swipe for groceries. We swipe for gas. But the card you rely on…

• Mini-CFPB? Pennsylvania attorney general launches consumer unit. While there is a serious push in Washington, D.C. to blunt, if not do away with the CFPB, Pennsylvania’s Consumer Financial Protection Unit will be led by one…

20

• IBM enhanced encryption led a breakthrough in security technology (Chinese) (Encryption anti-hacker security technology breakthrough). (星島日報報導)保安界流傳這種說法，世上只有兩類公司：已被黑的和還未察覺被黑的。IBM要一次過解決這問題，周一公布已在保安技術上取得突破，可以讓所有商戶大規模地把他們的客戶數據加密，令IBM新大型電腦上的大部分數碼資訊，即使被黑客取得也是無意思的亂碼。 據《華盛頓郵報》報道，IBM大型電腦業務總經理Ross Mauri估計，自2013年以來，只有4%被盜取的數據是曾經加密的。由於影響到美國企業的數據入侵事件持續上升，每年導致數以百萬計民眾的個人資料外泄。IBM聲稱全面加密可以是解決黑客疫情的答案。 據IBM高層指出，關鍵在於驅動這些功率強勁大型電腦的晶片的一項更新。這些大型電腦儲存了企業或機構的資訊，每天為全球處理數以百萬計的交易，例如自動櫃員機提款、信用卡付帳以及訂機位。 現時一些電郵服務供應商及數據儲存服務已經常有採用加密。但由於在資訊由一方傳輸至另一方時要快速加密和解密是需要極大的電腦運算能力，不少企業只是選擇性加密。去年12月網路保安公司Sophos的一項研究發現，雖然每四個機構當中有三個是經常有為客戶或帳單資料加密，但絕大部分未有為它們的知識財產或人力資源記錄加密。研究並發現，有60%的組織並且讓員工建立的工作檔案不作加密。對IBM而言，加密亦是一項重大商機。據公司高層指出，商戶每年花費超過一萬億元來確保它們的保安符合政府標準。

• Hiring a bank lawyer to attack CFPB bank rules. President Trump and Republicans in Congress have broadcast their every intention to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president’s budget attempted to defund it…

• Voters support CFPB, strict financial regulation. As Republicans push to overhaul Dodd-Frank, a new poll shows that voters favor strict regulation of financial institutions and the goals of the controversial CFPB.…

19

• Trump’s voter commission off to a rough start. Even before Trump's voter commission panel of 12 holds its first official meeting at the White House complex, it has sparked more controversy — and…

• Google rediseña aplicación de búsqueda en móviles con información personalizada. Google anunció el miércoles cambios en su aplicación de búsqueda para móviles...

17

• Going cashless? Bad for tax cheats, privacy, poor. Economists see great payoffs in a cashless society: lower transaction costs, new tools to manage economic growth and an end to tax evasion and money…

16

• Behind the velvet rope of Facebook's private groups. Private groups have existed on Facebook for years. But the decision to emphasize them now—at a time when Facebook’s cultural and political influence is being…

• EEUU: Facebook impugna pesquisas gubernamentales a usuarios. Las principales compañías tecnológicas y grupos defensores de las libertades civiles han cerrado filas con Facebook en la lucha que ésta libra en tribunales contra…

15

• Travelers just won back a bit of their privacy at the border. Travelers worried about having their smartphones or other electronic devices searched when they enter the United States can breathe a small sigh of relief: U.S.…