Searching for one’s destiny online — be it a lifelong relationship or a one-night stand — has been pretty common for quite some time. Dating apps are now part of our everyday life.

To find the ideal partner, users of such apps are ready to reveal their name, occupation, place of work, where they like to hang out, and lots more besides. Dating apps are often privy to things of a rather intimate nature, including the occasional nude photo. But how carefully do these apps handle such data? Experts decided to put them through their security paces.

Google is offering security experts a bounty to identify Android app flaws as the Alphabet Inc unit seeks to wipe out bugs from its Google Play store.

Each flaw will score at least $1,000 under the program announced on Thursday to back up automated checks that have failed to block malware and other problems that security experts say infect the 8-year-old app store far more than Apple Inc’s rival App Store. Google will partner with HackerOne, a bug bounty program management website, to target a list of apps and flaws such as those that allow a hacker to redirect a user to a phishing website or infect a gadget with a virus. 

Mr. Robot has won the hearts and captured the minds of a lot of people around the globe by showing a captivating view of the information security world — and how vulnerable we all are to cyberattacks. When you see how main character Elliot and the hacker group fsociety hack whole corporations, never mind just regular accounts, it starts to seem like nowhere and nothing is safe.

But if you look more closely, you’ll notice most of the hackers’ victims in the series exposed themselves to danger by their own ignorance or carelessness. In this post, we look at where they went wrong and come up with some rules to follow.

Just like any other digital device that can connect to the internet, your mobile phone poses a security threat if you don’t take the steps required to protect it. With so many new apps being released in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store every day, it’s difficult to know which ones can be trusted.

There have been plenty of reports of users installing apps on their phones which can then do anything from track everything you type to taking control of your camera without your knowledge. This is a seriously scary prospect if you value your privacy and don’t want identity thieves to be able to steal your identity or bank details.

Hackers are joining forces with U.S. governors and academics in a new group aimed at preventing the manipulation of voter machines and computer systems to sway the outcome of future U.S. elections, a source familiar with the project said on Monday.

The anti-hacking coalition’s members include organizers of last summer’s Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas, the National Governors Association and the Center for Internet Security, said the source, who asked not to be identified ahead of a formal announcement due to be made on Tuesday. The Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank and several universities are also part of the project, the source said. 

Facebook has been fined 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million) for allegedly collecting personal information from users in Spain that could then be used for advertising, the national data protection watchdog said.

The fine stemmed from an investigation into the social network company conducted alongside similar probes in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The 1.2 million euro fine is a fraction of Facebook’s quarterly revenue of about $8 billion and stock market capitalization of around $435 billion. AEPD said it found three cases in which Facebook had collected details of its millions of Spanish users without informing them how such information would be used.

Earlier this summer the House Science Committee sent letters to 22 US government agencies requesting information on their use of Kaspersky Lab security products.

As the federal government continues to investigate claims of ties between the Trump administration and Russia, officials in Washington have expressed concern that the government's use of software from Kaspersky Lab—a well-known security vendor based in Russia—could compromise domestic intelligence. This request represents the most recent action in an aggressive campaign by Congress.

More bad news for folks in China. Chinese internet users will no longer be able to post comments online anonymously as of Oct. 1. The new ruling is the latest in the government's move to tighten control over internet usage in the country.

Sites like social networks and discussion forums will have to verify the real identities of registered users before they can be allowed to post anything on their platforms. Comments on news stories will also have to be reviewed by the website before they can appear online. For example, Zhihu, a Quora-like discussion site, has already started asking users to verify their identities.

China has launched a digital "cyber-court" to help deal with a rise in the number of internet-related claims.

The Hangzhou Internet Court opened on Friday and heard its first case - a copyright infringement dispute between an online writer and a web company. Legal agents in Hangzhou and Beijing accessed the court via their computers and the trial lasted 20 minutes. The court's focus will be civil cases, including online shopping disputes. Judges were sworn in and the first case was presented on a large screen in the courtroom. Defendants and plaintiffs appear before the judge not in person, but via video-chat.

In a mind-boggling world first, a team of biologists and security researchers have successfully infected a computer with a malicious program coded into a strand of DNA.

It sounds like science fiction, but I assure you it’s quite real — although you probably don’t have to worry about this particular threat vector any time soon. That said, the possibilities suggested by this project are equally fascinating and terrifying to contemplate. The multidisciplinary team at the University of Washington isn’t out to make outlandish headlines, although it’s certainly done that.