It’s 10pm, do you know where your data is?

There is an interesting article from Andy Baio over at Wired that looks at how easy it has become to give total strangers a window into our lives. With the advent of OAuth, people can easily sign up for new services and apps by relying on their Facebook and Google profiles. Instead of filling out a lot of forms and trying to remember a new password, you can just rely on these companies to handle … Continue Reading

TerraEchos fights security threats with data, attracts $1.55M seed funding

Hacking into government systems just got a bit harder. TerraEchos, a security company using big data to identify and thwart security threats, announced today that it’s raised $1.55 million in seed funding to be an internet security vigilante.

“For the past three years we’ve been working on problems funded by the US Navy and the Department of Energy, on how to process and analyze huge amounts of information and find the most meaningful security alerts,” … Continue Reading

From Google to Facebook, online privacy concerns aren’t going away (infographic)

Ever since Google announced its new, controversial privacy policy two weeks ago, interest in online privacy has spiked as more people question how Google and other companies are managing their data.

Google announced last week that it would change its privacy policy by combining 60 existing policies into one, with the changes going into effect March 1. While simplification of hard-to-read policies is nice, Google attracted criticism because it will now combine user data across … Continue Reading

Solera raises $20M from Intel and others for real-time network security

Solera Networks has raised $20 million in a fourth round of funding led by Intel Capital, the investment arm of the world’s biggest chip maker.

The money will finance Solera’s business of providing real-time network security using high-speed security appliances. The large funding shows that security continues to be a hot market for investments.

Other existing investors Allegis Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, and Trident Capital also participated in the deal.

The Salt Lake City company … Continue Reading

Lookout releases app that shows mobile threats as they happen

Mobile security company Lookout Mobile released a new app today to show just how many mobile threats exist.

The app, called Mobile Threat Tracker, opens up to a view of the earth, shadowed like nighttime. A glow across the globe suggests Lookout Mobile users. It shows attacks in real time as Lookout Mobile’s security application detects and deflects them. This is then translated into what seems like a shooting star. You can travel around the … Continue Reading

Set hidden traps for cyber criminals with Mykonos Software

Mykonos Software sets “tar traps” to catch of cyber criminals trying to hack your Web app. The company announced a $4 million first round of funding today.

“After 20 years of leading technology companies that sell to large enterprises, I believe that Mykonos’ ability to use deception in cyber security could forever change the economics of hacking,” said investor Jeff Clarke, who serves on the board of Red Hat, in a statement.

The company’s technology, … Continue Reading

Absinthe jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 saw 1M first day downloads

Proving that anticipation was exceptionally high for a full iPhone 4S jailbreak, the folks behind the Absinthe jailbreaking tool report that it received over 1 million downloads within its first 24 hours.

Even more impressive, the number only includes downloads for the Mac version of Absinthe, as the Windows client debuted a day later, Cult of Mac reports.

The figure shows that jailbreaking — or hacking your iPhone to run unauthorized apps and services — … Continue Reading

Security champ Symantec makes a play for the cloud with $115M purchase of LiveOffice

In a move to bolster its cloud credentials, notable anti-virus and security player Symantec has acquired e-mail archiving company LiveOffice for $115 million, the company announced this morning.

LiveOffice primarily helps companies archiving e-mail in the cloud, ensuring that they always have access to important communications. If a company’s e-mail client goes down, for example, its employees can still send and receive messages. The company’s archiving, hosting and compliance solutions will bolster Symantec’s popular security … Continue Reading

Zappos user accounts get hacked — but your credit card info is safe

Zappos customers got more from the online shoe retailer this month than a pair of winter boots. They all received a bit of a shock on Sunday when CEO Tony Hsieh revealed that the company suffered a security breach on one of its Kentucky servers.

It appears the hacker was able to get access to data such as customer names, home addresses, and last four digits of customer credit cards (which can be found on … Continue Reading

Stratfor site is back online after recovering from Anonymous attack

Stratfor, an organization that provides international intelligence reports to a large (and often influential) clientele, has finally brought its site back online after last month’s Anonymous-driven takedown.

Anonymous, a hacktivist collective, opened fire on the site for reasons unknown. The group gained access to and then published contact and financial information for hundreds of thousands of Stratfor subscribers.

“In the global commons, anonymity is an option,” said Stratfor CEO George Friedman in a statement this … Continue Reading

Anonymous exposes 860K Stratfor users (and 75K credit card numbers)

Hacker collective Anonymous has just dumped 200 GB of names, email addresses and passwords for around 860,000 Stratfor users. Anonymous also exposed credit card numbers for 75,000 paying customers of Stratfor.

Stratfor, a highly trusted source of international intelligence, provides reports on international security and related threats to government and military personnel as well as to the private sector.

It is unknown whether Anonymous gained access to other, more sensitive information during the Stratfor hacks, … Continue Reading

Blizzard makes $26M on World of Warcraft security authenticators [update]

Update: As pointed out below in the reader comments, these estimates are likely off by a sizable amount as they do not take into account the free Battle.net Mobile Authenticator. Users of the free app are entitled to the Core Hound Pup in-game pet (which was used to come up with the $26 million figure) just as users of the paid authenticator are, so it’s virtually impossible to calculate how much revenue has actually been … Continue Reading

Stratfor puts off website relaunch for a week after Anonymous attack

Following a major attack by the hacker group Anonymous, security research firm Strategic Forecasting, better known as Stratfor, has said it will delay putting its website back online by about a week.

Stratfor yesterday sent an e-mail to its free subscribers about the delay, Reuters reports. Its website has been offline since the attack on December 24.

By not relaunching immediately, the firm, which provides “non-ideological, independent analysis of international affairs and security threats,” will … Continue Reading

Analysis: Anonymous stole over 9K active credit card numbers in Stratfor hack

A clearer picture of the damage from the Stratfor hacking incident on Christmas Eve is coming into focus, with an independent analysis confirming more than 9,000 active credit card numbers were stolen from the security think tank.

In a high-profile incident that blew up the news on Christmas, the notorious hacker group Anonymous claimed to have stolen credit card data and other client details from Austin-based security think tank Stratfor, with the intent of donating … Continue Reading

Hacker group Anonymous steals sensitive info from Stratfor security firm

Hacker collective Anonymous claims to have stolen credit card data and other sensitive details from U.S. security think tank Stratfor, with plans to donate $1 million in stolen cash to charity.

Austin, Tex.-based Stratfor is a research group that posts a daily newsletter on security issues and counts the Defense Department, Lockheed Martin and Bank of America as clients. But for being a so-called “intelligence company,” the organization did an awful job of protecting its … Continue Reading

Facebook on government audit: “We could have been more transparent.”

After a thorough audit from the Irish government, Facebook has stepped forward with a statement on how it could have handled some privacy issues a little bit better.

While the company said the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) commended its security measures, its lack of user-tracking software and its real-names-only policy, the DPC also noted a few areas where improvement was needed — and Facebook agreed.

For facial recognition features in Tag … Continue Reading

Cyber-Ark gets $40M in funding to protect sensitive corporate data

Cyber-Ark, a security services company that manages and protects highly sensitive information, announced Wednesday that it has received a new $40 million round of funding. The round was led by Goldman Sachs and Jerusalem Venture Partners.

Cyber-Ark protects important and sensitive data including passwords, financial records and top secret files. “Cyber-Ark has always been focused on solving sophisticated threats that enterprises are facing” Cyber-Ark CEO Udi Mokady told VentureBeat. The company helps protect its customers … Continue Reading

Here’s how AT&T and Sprint are using Carrier IQ’s data

Moblie carriers Sprint and AT&T have revealed how much they each use data from Carrier IQ, the mobile data monitoring service that’s been raising eyebrows across the globe.

In the ongoing saga of Carrier IQ, we’ve focused a lot of attention on the company but relatively little on how carriers are using the information it gathers. The company collects information on around 150 million cell phones around the world — information about battery performance, app … Continue Reading

It’s not an investigation: Carrier IQ asked FCC & FTC for meetings to clear its name

Carrier IQ, the beleaguered firm that monitors cell phone data, has sought out meetings with both the FTC and FCC in an attempt to clear its name of wiretapping and privacy-violating allegations.

While other outlets are reporting that Carrier IQ is undergoing a federal investigation, the company tells us it contacted these agencies first, not the other way around.

“Investigation is the wrong word here,” a company spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email today. “We … Continue Reading