dan tynan on Feb 05 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, National insecurity, Privacy
A couple of days ago I received a scary sounding email from Twitter. It started like this: Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account. My first thought was that this email was bogus [...]
dan tynan on Dec 11 2012 | Filed under: Identity Theft, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
Don’t look now, but there’s a crime wave surging across the Webbernets. Everywhere you look people are recklessly sharing dangerous and illegal hyperlinks. Lock up your children, barricade the doors and windows, throttle your broadband connection, and pray that the FBI gets to these scofflaws in time. Am I being a bit too sarcastic? Maybe. [...]
dan tynan on Sep 09 2011 | Filed under: (anti) social media, censorship, ITworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Uncategorized
Last week I was in Germany, as a guest of the IFA Berlin consumer electronics show. That means, of course, that I had to perform the airport security samba. I took off my shoes and my belt; stuffed my watch, keys, cell phone, and loose change into the pockets of my jacket; took my laptop [...]
dan tynan on Feb 11 2011 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity, Spy v spy
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This will be the year of the hacker – or rather, the year hacking goes mainstream. It’s been brewing for quite some time. According to McAfee, a team of Chinese hackers has been infiltrating computer networks for the world’s largest oil and gas companies. Last week [...]
dan tynan on Dec 22 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft, National insecurity, yahoo
It’s been quite a year. And in what has become a tradition here in Cringeville, it’s time to honor the most malicious, obnoxious, offensive, or nonsensical behavior in technology. This year’s winners include captains of industry, titans of technology, sultans of sweat, and a number of other people desperately in need of a clue. Among [...]
dan tynan on Jun 22 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Incredible sadness, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics
While it doesn’t quite rank up there with dumping 100′s of millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean while your CEO goes yachting, Google’s huge WiFi spying "oops" may become the search giant’s BP moment. To recap: Last month, Google admitted that its Street View vans — the camera-festooned vehicles that roam highways [...]
dan tynan on Jun 17 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, Julius Baer + Wikileaks, National insecurity, politics
It’s like a Hollywood thriller. A military spy is arrested, betrayed by someone he thought to be a comrade in arms — a brilliant yet mentally unstable hacker. A journalist is on the run, hunted by the authorities who want to know what he knows. All we need is to add a love interest and [...]
dan tynan on Mar 31 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
It’s been just two days since I last wrote about the Google China soap (not soup) opera, and yet it feels like weeks, so much has happened in the interim. To wit: Earlier this week, Google’s US executive bio page suddenly displayed in Chinese. (A "bug, Google called it. Yeah, right.) On Wednesday, YouTube, Twitter, [...]
dan tynan on Mar 25 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
So Google finally made good on its promise to uncensor its Chinese search engine and/or leave the Chinese market back in January. And China is now making good on its promise to make Google very sorry for ever bringing it up. Gotta say "the G" were pretty clever about it. Redirecting Google.cn to Google.com.hk seems [...]
dan tynan on Mar 19 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, Microsoft, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Web 2.0
Privacy is all over the news these days, including social networks, where it seems the Feds like to play.
dan tynan on Mar 16 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Crazyass cults, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, Julius Baer + Wikileaks, National insecurity, Privacy, Spy v spy
I just received an email from Wikileaks editor Julian Assange that’s pretty wild. It accuses the US government of deliberately trying to take the whistle-blower site down two years ago. As proof, Wikileaks has posted a 32-page classified document [PDF] from the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis program, dated March 2008, which details "the counterintelligence [...]
dan tynan on Jan 24 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
Yes, "information imperialists." That’s what the People’s Republic of China is calling us now, thanks to Google and the US State Department. Hey, it’s as good a description as any. The blowback against Google’s announcement that it was hacked by Chinese cyber agents– and in response would be lifting the restrictions that keep users of [...]
dan tynan on Jan 18 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
So far, 2010 has started off with a bang. Google decides to take on Apple in the ultra-smart phone market, while Apple appears on the verge of creating yet another new market for touchscreen tablet PCs. Google says "bite me" to China, after Chinese cyber-attackers target it and three dozen other tech firms. Yahoo chimes [...]
dan tynan on Dec 08 2009 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Spy v spy
Location, location, location. It’s not merely the key to success in retail. It’s also the key to your privacy — or what little is left of it. And that too is rapidly disappearing, thanks to that wondrous gizmo you probably carry with you at all times: the cell phone. Earlier this week, security researcher and [...]
dan tynan on Oct 16 2009 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, Microsoft, National insecurity
Microsoft may have recovered most of Sidekick users’ missing data, but the bigger point remains: We’re deeply dependent on tech. When it screws up, lives can be lost.
dan tynan on Apr 17 2009 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity
The residents of Cringeville had some strong opinions about my “turn out the lights” blog post last week. Here’s what some of them had to say.
dan tynan on Apr 10 2009 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, National insecurity
Is the power grid under cyber attack? US spooks say yes. Better hunker down before Russia or China pull the plug.
dan tynan on Mar 30 2009 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity, Spy v spy
By now you’ve probably read about GhostNet, the vast spy network that was uncovered after the office of the Dalai Lama asked researchers at the University of Toronto to examine their computer networks for malware. The researchers not only found nasties there, they uncovered an entire network that connected almost 1300 computers in 103 countries [...]
dan tynan on Nov 18 2008 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, National insecurity, politics
It’s a lousy job, but somebody’s got to do it. Once we find someone who’s crazy–err, patriotic enough to take the position as our nation’s first CTO, what should he or she do? It might possibly be the worst job in the world, outside of replacing Jerry Yang as Yahoo’s CEO. Yet people seem to [...]
dan tynan on Nov 03 2008 | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld, National insecurity
As the presidential election finally arrives, we’re hip deep in horror stories about voting machines run amok. Here’s how to make sure your vote really counts.
