Security

Privacy groups have long worried about Google's privacy policies --- and now it appears that consumers have followed suit. Google has dropped off the list of the most trusted companies when it comes to privacy protection. Check out my blog for details, and to find out how other companies like Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and eBay fared.

In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch Apple upgrade Max OS X to 10.5.6. Not to mention I can has popcwn?..

When all the terminals at this company suddenly stop responding, this pilot fish soon finds the problem's cause -- and it's hard to miss.

The defunct McCain-Palin campaign is selling off the assets, and an investigative journalist from a FOX affiliate was able to get his hands on two Blackberrys for $20 each. But the information on them turned out to have quite a bit more value.

I know I’m gonna get some flak for this, but when I heard about it, I just had to share. I read Larry Copeland’s USA Today article "Technology may help police halt hot pursuits" and I had to laugh.  Apparently, GM is doing something right during this otherwise turbulent time for car producers. OnStar, GM’s GPS manufacturing unit now offers Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology. What an uncanny technology.

In Friday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch Google lose the "beta" tag from its Chrome browser. Not to mention Charlie The Unicorn II...

Court records from the Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich case gives out some details on how the feds got the goods on Blago.

In Thursday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch hackers exploit a vulnerability that Microsoft "missed" on Tuesday (and breathe). Not to mention the tweets of Sockington the cat...

In today's podcast: Intel completes smaller chip technology; HP to offer long-lasting battery; and Microsoft warns of WordPad flaw.

There has been some "chatter" lately about Apple pulling its advice that users install antivirus software on their Macs. Remember that Apple originally contended that Macs were secure and largely immune to the malware circulating the information superhighway. Nevertheless they recently decided it is better to be safe than sorry and went so far as to suggest that running AV would offer that ounce of prevention our mothers would recommend.

In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch this month's Patch Tuesday -- a huge, steaming pile of security fixes. Not to mention the insane price of Nikon's new D3x...

The Mumbai terrorists' most powerful weapon appears not to have been guns or grenades, but instead their handheld VoIP phones, which allowed them to get detailed, live instructions from handlers on how to evade police, and where to attack next, while the police where powerless to detect them. So reports the New York Times.

In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch Firefox 3.1 get ready to rumble. Not to mention Remi Gaillard's real-life Mario Kart...

There was a story on ABC's Good Morning America on Friday about some car dealers in Oregon installing hidden GPS tracking devices in vehicles sold to individuals with poor or downright bad credit. The rationale apparently is that the devices would help the dealers quickly track down and repossess their vehicles in the event that a customer defaulted on payments. According to the report, the devices are often installed in an undisclosed location in the vehicle because the dealers don't want customers disabling or tampering with them.

This was a new one to me when I read about it in Robert McMillan’s "FTC Has a Message for Vishing Victims". Vishing is much like phishing, but instead of urging e-mail recipients to click on a link (to a bogus website) this message instructs the reader to call a telephone number to rectify a problem with your account.