It Might Not Help To Have Workers Change Passwords
Most office drones have had to deal with a job that requires them to keep changing their passwords like clockwork, maybe every six months or so. The longstanding IT security practice is based on the idea that flushing out old passwords will cut off access for bad guys who may have figured them out. But according to the Federal Trade Commission’s chief technologist, Lorrie Cranor, the strategy has some major holes. “Unless there is...
Hackers Re-Emerge With New Identities
After Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked shortly before Thanksgiving of 2014, the attackers — who dubbed themselves the Guardians of Peace — went quiet. Or so it seemed. But now researchers say they’ve linked the attackers — whom the U.S. government has said were directed by North Korea — to a chameleon-like group active since at least 2009 and still on the digital warpath, attacking systems in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. A...
Researchers Get Closer to Reality Of X-Ray Vision
Cambridge, Mass. — X-ray vision, a comic book fantasy for decades, is becoming a reality in a lab at MIT. A group of researchers led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dina Katabi has developed software that uses variations in radio signals to recognize human silhouettes through walls and track their movements. Researchers say the technology will be able to help health care providers and families keep closer tabs on...
Google Raids Canada’s Tech Talent
With a tech industry one-third the size of California’s, Canada has confounded expectations by becoming a leader in the booming market for artificial intelligence. Pioneering technologies developed in Canadian labs can be found in Facebook’s facial recognition algorithms, Google’s Photos app, smartphone voice recognition and even Japanese robots. Now Canada risks losing its AI edge to Silicon Valley. Several leading Canadian...
Experts: Fingerprint as Password Is a Bad Idea
Ever since Apple introduced TouchID for iPhones, more and more smartphones feature fingerprint scanners. And that has some security researchers worried. “If you leak a password, you can just change it; if you leak a fingerprint, it’s lost for your whole life,” FireEye researcher Yulong Zhang said at a presentation at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas last week. Zhang was part of a team that revealed that several Android...
