Sara Jerome reports: Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, accused Google on Friday of making a “conscious effort” to collect private user information from Wi-Fi networks. Google admitted last month that it had collected and stored Internet users’ private data, including passwords and entire e-mails, from Wi-Fi…
Category: Breaches
New FTC portal to assist businesses in complying with privacy and security laws
From the FTC’s press release: The Federal Trade Commission has a new Business Center at Business.ftc.gov that gives business owners, attorneys, and marketing professionals the tools they need to understand and comply with the consumer protection laws, rules, and guides the FTC enforces. The Business Center provides practical, plain-language guidance about advertising, credit, telemarketing, privacy, and a host…
Banks Rush to Fix Security Flaws in Wireless Apps
If you use a wireless app for banking, you’ll want to read this. Spencer E. Ante reports: A number of top financial companies and banks such as Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and USAA are rushing out updates to fix security flaws in wireless banking applications that could allow a computer criminal…
Facebook Responds to Firesheep WiFi Security Controversy
Kashmir Hill discusses the current controversy over a Firefox add-on, Firesheep, that allows a user who has installed it to hijack social media accounts (or any accounts, for that matter) that are open over an unsecured wi-fi connection (think Starbucks). Since the add-on was released, a lot of people, this blogger included, have asked why…