A list of the most popular passwords of 2014 reveals that internet security continues to be far less important to most people than simple memorability - much to the frustration of security experts worldwide. SplashData compiles a list annually by collecting stolen data published by hackers throughout the year and analysing the passwords.
It excludes data from non-English speaking countries. During 2014, as in the year before, the most popular password was “123456”. In second place for the second year was “password”. Experts recommend using a password of eight characters or more, made up of lower- and upper-case letters, numbers and special characters.
Read moreLockheed Martin recently announced that it is making real progress towards developing a compact nuclear fusion reactor capable of providing unimaginably vast supplies of energy, in exchange for a couple handfuls of clean, somewhat easily available fuel.
And yet, we’re still stuck memorizing ever-longer lists of passwords like it’s 1999. If we’re going to rely on an ancient authenticator for future technology, then we might as well come up with a solid way to remember our passwords. Unfortunately, it turns out that remembering long lists of complicated passwords requires us to do something that no one likes: study.
Read moreA group, which claimed to have affiliation with Anonymous, released a file after hacking some combinations of passwords and usernames. The information is said to be used in a number of sites.
Other types of data that were compromised include the users' credit card numbers and card expiration dates. The file also included the accounts of several dating and porn sites. News of the hack came just a day following the network connection failure with Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox Live. The hacker group Lizard Squad claimed to be responsible for the attacks on gaming platforms.
Read moreHacking is a regular occurrence worldwide over the internet. Email, social networking and other online accounts are at risk from being hacked. There could be any number of explanations as to why a certain program is running painfully slow or why your computer has started acting differently.
While it could be your processor’s fault, you can’t rule out the possibility that your online security has been compromised and you are being hacked, which is obviously more alarming. Below you will find symptoms, which if you ever come across, should make you consider the possibility of having been hacked.
Read moreTech columnist Christopher Mims wrote a piece about two-factor authentication and how awesome it is. The idea of a code being sent to your phone to log you into a site — rather than relying just on a password that can be guessed or stolen — is so awesome that he thinks it’ll make the password completely irrelevant.
To show how awesome two-factor is, he decided to just give up his Twitter password to anyone who wants it. He thinks that the password is finally dying, if we want it to. Ironically, you need a WSJ password to read the piece. But his handing out his password happens in the first paragraph which all can read, and it was, quite honestly, the only novel part of the piece.
Read morePhysically, Adelson and Sands are well protected. He appears in public with a phalanx of armed bodyguards, said to be former agents of the U.S. Secret Service and Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Sands paid almost $3.3 million to protect Adelson and his family last year, according to a company filing. That’s on top of what Sands spends on vaults, security cameras, biometric screening devices, and one of the largest private police forces of any U.S. company, all to safeguard the millions of dollars of cash and chips that flow through its operations every day. But the company has been slow to adapt to digital threats.
Read moreIt was written about the dangers that public Wi-Fi hotspots pose to users time and time again, but today let's talk about threats that come specifically from home wireless networks. Many wireless router users do not consider them to be threatening, but we are here to shed some light on this unfortunate reality.
This guide is by no means complete, but several of these great tips can help you improve your home network security. One of the most serious mistakes often made is using the default, out-of-box, admin password. Combined with some non-critical remote vulnerability or an open wireless connection, this might give criminals full control over the router.
Read moreThe danger of not changing the default passwords on digital equipment is finally hitting home, after a hacker published the video streams of webcams onto the internet. Anyone who had purchased an online webcam with remote viewing capabilities was at risk.
The hacker from Russia decided to take action to expose the cameras. He programmed a script to search the world for any webcams connected to the internet, and then gained access to them by using a default password set by the manufacturers. This password is publicly available, so anyone could have been accessing these cameras at any time without the owners knowing.
Read moreA new tool called Password Changer is designed to change multiple passwords for different websites all at once – especially useful in light of Heartbleed and other security threats.
A new product from Dashlane could take much of the hassle out of changing your major website passwords, which could be particularly handy in the event of a security breach. Cyberattacks and hacks against major websites seem to have turned into a daily occurrence, often leaving user log-in credentials exposed. And people who use the same password at all or most of the sites they visit can be particularly vulnerable.
Read moreThe Trojan has once again branched out beyond its roots as banking malware and is now targeting the master passwords guarding major password management products. A new configuration file found on an infected computer targeting processes used by the respective password management tools.
Citadel, like most widely distributed malware families, is crossing over more and more from the realm of cybercrime to APT-style targeted attacks. New features and a hunger for legitimate credentials make the malware, which is already sitting on hundreds of thousands of machines, particularly dangerous to critical infrastructure, in addition to financial services.
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