I know this is TLDR fodder of the highest order, but I'd like to read to you from a press release--for a security product, even. Here it goes:

The entire line of Spyrus Hydra PC USB encryption drives are invulnerable to such attacks because no password authentication values or keys are ever stored on Hydra PC devices after logoff or removal. Unlike any competing USB encryption drive, the Hydra PC reconstitutes a Master Key Encryption Key at logon using a FIPS-approved Key Derivation Function which utilizes, at a minimum, an Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) public/private key pair … Read more

Everyone is talking security these days. Does this include Facebook?

I ask because a group called "Kill Obama" was on the social-networking site for more than a month before Facebook's attention was drawn to it by CNET late Monday evening.

The group, which appears to have been created in Alberta, Canada, had 122 members and five administrators. Its existence originally caught the eye of Brian Cuban, brother of tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

Brian Cuban, who has long criticized Facebook for its attitude toward Holocaust denial groups, used his blog, the Cuban Revolution, to point out the apparent … Read more

A California company filed a software piracy lawsuit on Tuesday against the Chinese government, two Chinese software developers, and seven PC manufacturers alleging that they illegally copied code from its Web content filtering program and distributed that code as part of a censorship effort sponsored by the Chinese government.

Santa Barbara, California-based Solid Oak Software, which sells the Cybersitter program, filed the $2.2 billion civil action in federal court in Los Angeles.

In addition to the People's Republic of China, the named defendants are PC makers Sony and Toshiba of Japan; Lenovo, Acer, AsusteK Computer, and BenQ of … Read more

Smartphones aren't just smart, they're personal computers. Unlike a desktop or even a laptop PC, those devices and other mobile phones can easily slip out of a pocket or purse, be left in a taxi, or get snatched off a table. They let you store photos, access e-mails, receive text messages, and put you one browser click away from potentially malicious Web sites.

In effect, gadgets like the Apple iPhone and those running Google's Android software can be as risky to use as PCs, except that the wide variety of mobile platforms has deprived malicious hackers of … Read more

Illegal activity can sometimes be an excellent barometer of a society's soul.

You might, therefore, either leap dangerously close to your chandelier or bang your forehead against your winkle pickers in despair when I reveal to you the list of most pirated e-books of 2009.

I am grateful to the hardened aesthetes at Freakbits who have obtained this list from someone they met on a street corner. Wait, no. This list actually comes from BitTorrent's tally of nefarious downloads.

You will, no doubt, be expecting that the pirates of the Nook and Kindle would have reached for novels … Read more

Since explosive materials were sneaked onto a U.S. domestic flight on Christmas Day, full-body scanning machines are far more likely to make their way to security lines at your local airport, even though they might not have detected said materials.

While the Transportation Security Administration already has 40 such devices in place, it just bought 150 to be placed in U.S. airports and says it plans to buy 300 more (they go for $170,000 apiece). On Wednesday, the Netherlands announced that these scanners would be used on passengers for all flights out of Amsterdam to the U.… Read more

This week brought some bad news for mobile phone users. German security expert Karsten Nohl showed how easy it is to eavesdrop on GSM-based (Global System for Mobile Communications) cell phones, including those used by AT&T and T-Mobile customers in the U.S.

Nohl, who has a doctorate in computer engineering from the University of Virginia, made headlines last year publicizing weaknesses in wireless smart card chips used in transit systems around the globe.

CNET interviewed Nohl via e-mail on Thursday about his latest work and what the implications are for the more than 3 billion GSM mobile … Read more

An Indiana man filed a lawsuit against RockYou this week alleging that the provider of social-networking apps failed to secure its network and protect customer data, enabling a hacker to grab passwords of 32 million users earlier this month.

The suit seeking class action status was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by lawyers for Alan Claridge, of Evansville, Ind., who registered with RockYou in August 2008 to use a photo-sharing application. RockYou is a publisher and developer of online apps and services like "SuperWall" on Facebook and "Slideshow" on MySpace.

Claridge … Read more

A Miami hacker who had already pleaded guilty to computer fraud and identity theft for breaches at retailers T.J.Maxx, OfficeMax, and many other merchants, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to similar charges related to breaches at Heartland Payment Systems, 7-11, Hannaford Brothers supermarkets, and two other companies.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, reiterated terms of a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Boston. A week earlier, co-conspirator Stephen Watt of New York, appeared in that same court and was ordered to serve two years in prison and pay $171.5 million in restitution for developing a sniffing program used … Read more