Patreon Hack is a Prime Example of Pointless Hacktivism

In one of the year’s weirdest attacks, a Gamergate-aligned troll has hacked the crowdfunding website Patreon, exposing 15 gigabytes of users’ personal information. People who don’t know much about the internet might need some help unpacking that sentence, but rest assured: this story is the perfect storm of angry black-hats, stupid admins, and pathos. First, … Read more

The Security Problems of Social Media Connectivity

Recently in the news, a staff writer for Wired suffered a massive hack attack when criminals got ahold of his Apple ID information. Through that one access point, they were able to wreak havoc on his accounts, change his passwords, take over his Twitter – even remote wipe his devices, erasing precious family photos. Mat Honan was … Read more

T-mobile Hack Exposes Continued Risk of Working With Vendors

Approximately one-third of successful cyber attacks are accomplished via the compromise of an insecure vendor. This is, to use a technical term, absolutely nuts. Imagine that you’re a large company. You’re doing everything right, in terms of information security. You’ve got three kinds of firewalls, a stable of well-paid analysts, and all of your critical … Read more

Why You Can’t Trust Your Doctor

Credit cards + banks = security worries. False. Face up to reality and understand that equation – which most of us think sums up the present reality of our insecurities – is horribly false. We have gigantic security worries. It’s just not banks that are the problem. Big financial institutions, big online retailers, big bricks … Read more