In-brief: That’ll be $99, or $150 without the vulnerabilities! A lawsuit in Germany is trying to force stores to come clean about security holes in the products they sell to consumers.
online shopping
IoT Hackers: The FTC Wants You!
In-brief: The Federal Trade Commission announced this week that it is creating a new Office of Technology Research and Investigation to expand the FTC’s research into areas such as privacy, data security, connected cars, smart homes, algorithmic transparency, emerging payment methods, big data, and the Internet of Things.
Doctorow: Fearing an Internet of Things That Do As They’re Told
In-brief: In an essay for O’Reilly Radar, Cory Doctorow argues that remote management features that allow carriers to disable mobile phones are a mistake – taking technology owners’ autonomy and control over their data away in the name of preventing muggings and other crimes.
Obama Uses Executive Order To Push Chip and Pin
Add data security to the long list of issues on which U.S. President Barack Obama has resorted to unilateral action in order to push the government forward on a crucial matter. On Friday, President Obama signed an Executive Order directing the government to require the use of so-called “chip and PIN” technology for any newly issued or existing government debit and credit cards. The Order was intended to make the federal government “lead by example in securing transactions and sensitive data,” the White House said in a statement. The new BuySecure Initiative will provide consumers with more tools to secure their financial future by assisting victims of identity theft, improving the Government’s payment security as a customer and a provider, and accelerating the transition to stronger security technologies and the development of next-generation payment security tools. The Order launches a new initiative dubbed “BuySecure” intended to “drive the market towards more secure payment systems” […]
New York City Phone Booths Add Beacons, Stoke Controversy
The web site Buzzfeed has a scoop today about a stealthy deployment of beacon technology in Manhattan that has some privacy experts concerned. According to the exclusive report, by Buzzfeed’s Joseph Bernstein and Jeremy Singer-Vine, Titan a media company that sells ad space in more than 5,000 phone kiosk panels in New York City’s five boroughs, has installed about 500 beacons on its ad panels. The company went forward with the deployment with the blessing of New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), but without any public input, Buzzfeed reported. Beacons are wireless devices that interact with mobile phones and other portable electronics. They’re used to provide location-specific data and interactions, such as advertisements linked to nearby businesses or to track the movements of an individual within a defined space (such as a show floor). In the case of the phone booth beacons, Titan and Sbordone, the company that provides the display […]
