Category: Security

Internet Security news and articles on the Privacy Online News blog from Private Internet Access VPN Service.

Your Cell Phone Carrier Is Selling Your Real-Time Location Data to Third Parties

All major cell phone carriers collect and sell their customers’ real-time location data to third-party advertisers, information disclosed in a recent court case has revealed. Krebs On Security even discovered that LocationS According to AndroidCentral, the case hearkens back to 2014 when a sheriff in Missouri began using a prison telecommunications service called “Securus” to … Continue reading “Your Cell Phone Carrier Is Selling Your Real-Time Location Data to Third Parties”

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  • May 9, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever

VPNs are an indispensable part of online life, and they protect many aspects of privacy. But there’s a class of threats that VPNs can’t defend against: crypto backdoors, which allow even the strongest encryption to be bypassed. That’s why it’s important for everyone who cares about their privacy and security to be aware of any … Continue reading “Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever”

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Another day, another breach: At what point does storing passwords in plaintext become criminally negligent?

The third largest breach ever in Finland happened yesterday. Passwords were stored in plaintext. At T-Mobile Austria, they explain that of course they store the password in plaintext, but they have so good security so it’s nothing to worry about. At what point does this become criminally negligent? News of the Finnish breach (Google Translate) … Continue reading “Another day, another breach: At what point does storing passwords in plaintext become criminally negligent?”

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  • Mar 4, 2018 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Networking, News, Security,

Researchers detail new 4G LTE vulnerabilities allowing spoofing, tracking, and spamming

4G LTE isn’t nearly as secure or private as you think it is. Mobile privacy and security are both at risk. Researchers from Purdue University and the University of Iowa have released a new research paper detailing ten attacks on 4G LTE networks. Some attacks allow fake emergency alerts to be sent to a phone, … Continue reading “Researchers detail new 4G LTE vulnerabilities allowing spoofing, tracking, and spamming”

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  • Feb 5, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Programming, Security,

The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization

At the end of January, Nathan Ruser posted a tweet about Strava, a Website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS coordinates. It concerned Strava’s global heatmap: “the largest, richest, and most beautiful dataset of its kind. It is a visualization of Strava’s global network of athletes,” as the company puts it. … Continue reading “The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization”

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  • Nov 22, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • News, Privacy, Programming, Security,

The latest threat to your online privacy: exfiltration of personal data by website session-replay scripts

Last week, Privacy News Online reported on a worrying trend of increased surveillance in the workplace. This kind of spying includes capturing every keystroke workers make. The practice is regarded in many jurisdictions as acceptable because people are working on equipment provided by their employer, and use it to carry out tasks for the company … Continue reading “The latest threat to your online privacy: exfiltration of personal data by website session-replay scripts”

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  • Nov 20, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, Privacy, Security,

Two ways to help preserve privacy in an age of massive leaks and deep hacks

We live in the golden age of leaks. That’s not to say that leaks didn’t happen before. But the move to digital data and the availability of high-speed Internet connections has made the exfiltration of data on a massive scale much easier. Where in 1971 Daniel Ellsberg had to photocopy 7,000 pages of what became … Continue reading “Two ways to help preserve privacy in an age of massive leaks and deep hacks”

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  • Nov 13, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • News, Privacy, Programming, Security,

Welcome to the brave new world of workplace surveillance

Here on Privacy News Online, we write a lot about government surveillance and its impact on privacy. Sadly, constant spying has been normalized to such an extent that workplace surveillance is a thriving new business sector that startups and established companies are rushing to serve. For example, InterGuard promises “complete end-user auditing and control”, and … Continue reading “Welcome to the brave new world of workplace surveillance”

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Paywalls drive mass surveillance and give the NSA the advantage

Putting network specifications behind subscription paywalls gives the NSA and other surveillance agencies a decisive advantage against the freedom of the Internet. That is the unescapable conclusion of the recent KRACK vulnerability. There’s been a lot of debate about paywalls lately – not the least about whether so-called “journalism” of mainstream media is supposed to … Continue reading “Paywalls drive mass surveillance and give the NSA the advantage”

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  • Nov 9, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

What the Sci-Hub saga and DNA testing services can teach us about privacy

Privacy News Online has just written about an “unprecedented” injunction granted by a US judge against the site Sci-Hub. The reach of that injunction is clearly deeply problematic for lots of reasons, and creates a very troubling precedent. But there’s an aspect of the story that merits further consideration, since it has broader implications for … Continue reading “What the Sci-Hub saga and DNA testing services can teach us about privacy”

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