A controversial cybersecurity bill passed the U.S. Senate yesterday by a 74-21 vote, despite opposition from organizations and businesses that claimed the measure does not support the idea of a free and open Internet. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), if signed into law by President Barack Obama, would allow businesses and government agencies to … continue reading
Google has announced it is expanding its Brillo operating system and communication platform Weave to a broader range of developers. Brillo and Weave are the company’s developer tools for building connected devices. Brillo provides an embedded OS based on Android, a developer kit, and a developer console for building devices. Weave lets devices communicate with … continue reading
Let’s Encrypt has announced its first-ever certificate. Let’s Encrypt is a new certificate authority, made up of tech companies, organizations and researchers, whose goal is to make HTTPS the default protocol for the Web. “Today we mark an important milestone in our march to encrypt all of the Web: the first-ever certificate issued by Let’s … continue reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), privacy company Disconnect and a coalition of Internet companies have announced a new “Do Not Track” policy setting for browsers. The EFF and the Internet coalition—consisting of AdBlock, DuckDuckGo, Medium and Mixpanel—are calling the policy a standard for browsers to protect users from sites that secretly record and follow Internet … continue reading
As our lives become more digital through social media, e-mail, mobile apps and online accounts, we leave a trail of data throughout the Internet. To help users ensure that they aren’t leaving parts of that trail in unsafe places, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released its annual “Who Has Your Back?” report. The report … continue reading
IBM has announced plans to invest US$3 billion over the next four years to help customers build Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. The company plans to establish a new IoT unit and provide new cloud data services and developer tools. “Our knowledge of the world grows with every connected sensor and device, but too often … continue reading
Microsoft is reportedly investing as part of a US$70 million funding round in Cyanogen, an Android ROM company, aiming to wrest control of the open-source operating system away from Google. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft would be a minority investor in the company, and a source stated Microsoft’s interest is … continue reading
In its latest programming language rankings, RedMonk announced Apple’s Swift language has risen 46 spots from No. 68 to No. 22 in the rankings from Q3 to Q4. “The growth that Swift experienced is essentially unprecedented in the history of these rankings,” the rankings report stated. “When we see dramatic growth from a language, it … continue reading
If there was one word that could best sum up the software security situation in 2014, it would be “Egad!” With major enterprises like Target, Home Depot and Sony getting not just hacked but completely compromised in 2014, what hope do smaller firms have at keeping the attackers at bay? Fortunately, things are already looking … continue reading
Ever since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed the agency’s online surveillance activities, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been working to increase cybersecurity and defend online rights. Today, the EFF will continue its fight against the NSA, arguing that the NSA’s data collection is unconstitutional before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White in … continue reading
Privacy advocates including Amnesty International, Privacy International, Digitale Gesellschaft and the EFF have teamed up to unveil Detekt, an open-source software tool to detect government spyware. Detekt scans Windows computers for traces of known surveillance spyware used to target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world, according to the Detekt website. The … continue reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with a coalition of tech companies, organizations and researchers, have announced Let’s Encrypt: a new certificate authority (CA) initiative to implement the HTTPS encryption and communications protocol across the entire Web. Let’s Encrypt, which is also backed by Akamai, Cisco, IdenTrust, Mozilla and University of Michigan researchers, is intended as … continue reading
