Tuesday Tidbits

* Online dating services: Risking more than a broken heart

“People looking for companionship are trusting online services more than ever. Is that trust misplaced? Michael Kassner looks for the privacy and security gaps in online dating.” Read more..

* Hacking now responsible for most of exposed records

Until last year, lost and stolen laptops were to blame for the largest percentage of breach types. Now, hacking has claimed the top spot.Computer intrusion was responsible for 83 percent of the total reported exposed records in 2011 and a third of the total breaches, according to the year-end “Data Breach Intelligence” report from Risk Based Security, affiliated with the Open Security Foundation, which chronicles security incidents.

Last year saw nearly 368 million records breached, the highest ever, and the all-time tally sits at 1.3 billion, according to the report, released last week. The previous high was 191 million records in 2009.” Read more..

And we trust these machines? (And the people running them?) Why should I try to protect my PII when some clown in a data center is going to cough it all up for me??
“Breached” is Geek for “stolen by a hacker”.

* Patient data available on Google, Yahoo due to security mishap

“The health records of more than 30,000 patients at five California hospitals may have been publicly accessible via search engines due to improper server configurations.” Read more..

“Mishap”? Is that what you’d call it?

* Why big business is dealing with big security concerns

“Businesses are forced to implement specific security mandates even if they don’t support their actual security goals.” Read more..

* Could the Internet collapse?

“Here’s the good news — a total collapse of the Internet would be almost impossible. The Internet isn’t a magic box with an on/off switch. It’s not even a physical thing. It’s a collection of physical things and it’s constantly changing. The Internet isn’t the same entity from one moment to the next — machines are always joining or leaving the Internet.” Read more..

(I guess whoever wrote that never heard of Conficker..)

* It Could Still Happen To You: 2011’s Top Android Malware Threats

“Juniper’s Mobile Threats Report identifies more than a half-dozen of the more serious Android malware attacks in 2011.” Read more..

Happy reading! (It’s not depressing. Really!)

Bonus!:

What?? Salim?? Again?!

… AOL support …

Wow.

Think they’re targeting a certain type of computer user?

Today’s quote: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~ Socrates

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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