Security

The news sounded bad for Microsoft. Barely six days after the company announced an aggressive stance on blocking advertisers from tracking you in the coming Internet Explorer 10, a new standards draft from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) appeared to kill the plan.

Except the new standards for the Do Not Track (DNT) browser header did nothing of the sort.

Microsoft's Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch told CNET in a statement, "We are engaged with the W3C, as we are with many international standards bodies. While we respect the W3C's perspective, we believe that a standard … Read more

Sooner than you think, the Holy Grail of mobile password security could land on your phone thanks to new tech from Nuance called Dragon ID.

Dragon ID is a voice biometrics system from the same company behind the voice-recognition tech in Dragon Dictate for PCs and Dragon Go for iOS and Android. It promises a hands-free login system, but Nuance isn't putting it out in an app.

Instead, it's licensing the technology to manufacturers so they can build it into their phones.

"We're going to be pretty aggressive with our longstanding OEM partners, so we certainly … Read more

Let me introduce you to Norm.

"Norm!"

No, not George Wendt. Norman is an IT security company based in Norway that's selling a box that just might save the world from the next nuclear disaster.

Perhaps you've heard of a beefy piece of malware dubbed "Flame" that's been getting some attention lately. This week it became the latest dark monarch to reign in the underworld kingdom of scary code. Norm -- sorry, Norman -- says its new box could douse Flame and stop destructive cousins like Stuxnet and Duqu in their tracks, too.… Read more

What's your favorite doomsday scenario? Epidemic? Nuclear fallout? The Rapture redux? How about the Mayan apocalypse?

None of these will ruin your day if you live in Survival Condo, a converted nuclear ballistic missile silo in Kansas. With supplies of food, air, and water, you can wait out Armageddon underground.

For years, developer Larry Hall, a former software engineer, has been working on a 1960s-era Atlas F missile silo in north-central Kansas, turning it into luxury lockdown residences in preparation for inevitable end-times (see cleanup photos here). He says all units in the complex sold out this month, and there's even a waiting list. … Read more

When it comes to anti-malware and security software for OS X, while tools like ClamXav and the recently released Sophos home edition for OS X are popular free options, another package that has fallen off the radar has been the relatively lightweight iAntivirus utility.

iAntivirus was originally developed by PC Tools in 2008 as a free Mac-specific antivirus tool, but the project did not last long and the latest version (1.36) was released in 2009 with no further updates. This has resulted in iAntivirus losing its relevance as a valid anti-malware tool for OS X users, and PC Tools … Read more

Antivirus firm Avira said it has fixed a problem that led several of its products to mistakenly block legitimate Windows applications during an Avira software update.

"This issue has been resolved. Your Avira products should now be functioning normally," the German company said in a note on its Web site. "We deeply regret any difficulties this has caused you. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Shortly after the company began releasing Service Pack 0 for Avira Version 2012 yesterday, customers began complaining about problems running Windows, Office and Works, as well as a host of … Read more

In a better world, vulnerable accounts like banks, medical records, e-mail, and cloud drives would be protected with biometric systems. A swipe of a finger or a retina scan would allow access to your most important data.

Alas, eight-or-more-character passwords still dominate Web service log-ins. Anything from your investment portfolio to your Facebook account is simply accessed with an e-mail address (or username) and a few characters.

Yet, many Internet users continue to use easy-to-guess passwords like "123456," "qwerty," or their first names. Even worse, users repeat the same password (or a variation of one) across … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--AT&T will finally make good on its promise to let consumers remotely control every facet of their home -- from the thermostat to the door locks -- through any smartphone, PC, or tablet.

A day before the CTIA Wireless conference kicks off, AT&T said it would enter the home security and automation business in a big way. The company said it has formed a digital life services group to push these services, which will be available nationwide and work with any Internet connection.

The creation of the group represents a completely new business for AT&… Read more

Leave it to the Dutch and their famous flair for design to come up with a way to put a little panache into the censoring of Google Earth.

As Granta reports, Dutch artist Mishka Henner has discovered the remarkable way in which the government of the Netherlands has censored Google Earth's satellite views to block out certain military, political, and other sensitive sites.… Read more