Consumer Security

The breach of Sony's PlayStation Network will cost the company at least US$171 million according to the company's preliminary financial forecast released on Monday -- the latest predictions for its fiscal year ending March 2012. The total figure will likely grow. . . and grow. Sony has racked up exp...

A key element in the shifting political winds in Washington is a call for less business regulation, especially from the conservative wing of the now ascendant Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. But one leading Republican last week tossed that mantra aside and launched into a t...

The hackers who penetrated Sony's PlayStation Network, Qriosity music service and Sony Online Entertainment are planning to launch another major attack against the company this weekend, according to a reader of an Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers. The hackers claim to have access to S...

Most of the talk about protecting users' privacy on the Web has centered on preventing the collection of information that would aid companies in creating targeted ad campaigns. I appreciate the efforts of all those people -- from the myriad consumer watchdog groups to former presidential candidates ...

The Obama administration has come up with a proposal for both improving and simplifying identity protection for consumers using the Internet, computers, and mobile devices. The plan would greatly reduce the need for consumers to use and remember multiple passwords or fill out separate privacy forms ...

The closer you look, the uglier it gets. More evidence about the Sony hacking has emerged. Apparently, Sony Online Entertainment was part of the target when the Sony PlayStation Network was hacked. SOE handles online multilayer games. The SOE hacking was part of the Sony breach in mid-April that le...

Sony confirmed that its recent site outages were caused by compromised security in a blog post on Tuesday. Between April 17 and 19, hackers gained access to PlayStation Network and Qriocity user account information, the company revealed, and its shutdown of PSN and Qriocity on April 20 was a reactio...

The world's largest permission-based marketing firm, Epsilon, reported on Friday that its computer system was hacked and an unspecified number of email addresses and names were stolen. Epsilon sends around 40 billion emails a year on behalf of its 2,500 clients, which include major banks such as Cap...

E-commerce continues to experience significant growth. In fact, in 2009, e-commerce sales grew by 5.5 percent to $205 billion. Online retail sales are expected to increase by another 12.7 percent in 2010, according to Javelin Research. While the research proves that e-commerce sales will continue to...

Despite advances in technology, online fraud and payment security continue to be significant issues and cost drivers for e-commerce merchants. Web applications are the leading source of data breaches and account for the majority of compromised data records. The majority of these records contain pa...

E-commerce security has never been more top-of-mind for retailers. Security breaches like the one that happened at TJX in 2007 reverberate not only through the media, but also -- more importantly -- through consumer confidence, for years. Even with an aggressive clean-up strategy, an attack can crea...

In a set of coordinated investigations, federal, state and local officials filed charges this week against more than 70 defendants who allegedly used cybercrime techniques to defraud both individuals and corporations out of millions of dollars. New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., ...

It's likely not illegal, and it may not even be improper, but the fact that security consultant Ron Bowes gathered and aggregated the information from about 100 million Facebook profiles has created quite a stir. Bowes created his data torrent to aid the development of a password-cracking-protection...

If I wanted to hack your e-commerce business, I'd have your help. It's a fact that no one runs a business from one location (or one computer) anymore. In today's world, work gets done everywhere -- in offices, in homes, in hotels, at airports, and while sipping mocha and siphoning Internet connectiv...

The Truth in Caller ID Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. The bill aims to prevent misrepresentation of the called-from number on voice calls through any channel. Called "caller ID spoofing," the practice involves using various types of software to insert a name and number pe...