Technology, Computer Security | featured news

Kidnappers used to make ransom notes with letters cut out of magazines. Now, notes simply pop up on your computer screen, except the hostage is your PC.

The FBI issued a warning Thursday about a new malware scheme that is meant to deceive and frighten computer users into thinking it's from the law enforcement agency itself. Worse, the malware also tries to immediately extort users into paying a fine online and it can lock your computer

Microsoft is speeding up plans to kill off the Windows Gadget platform after receiving word that serious security vulnerabilities will be disclosed at the upcoming Black Hat security conference. According to a brief abstract from the Black Hat site, researchers Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg plan to discuss weaknesses associated with Windows Sidebar and Gadgets and demonstrate "nastiness" that can be done on the platform.

As technology enables smartphones to function like cash, lawmakers seek answers to questions about competing systems for mobile payments and their security and privacy. When Abraham Lincoln allowed the Treasury to print money for the first time in the depths of the Civil War, it was a major innovation born of a pressing reality.

If you've seen the 1983 movie "WarGames," in which a young Matthew Broderick accidentally uses computers to bring the world to the edge of "global thermonuclear war," then you have a pretty good idea what hackers and security researchers are super-concerned about these days -- in real life.

The names and e-mails of customers of Citigroup Inc and other large U.S. companies, as well as College Board students, were exposed in a massive and growing data breach after a computer hacker penetrated online marketer Epsilon.

It will take several more years for the U.S. government to fully install high-tech systems to block computer intrusions, a drawn-out timeline that enables criminals to become more adept at stealing sensitive data, experts say.

Intel Corp. is making the biggest acquisition in its history with the $7.68 billion takeover of computer-security software maker McAfee Inc., an expensive example of Intel's commitment to serve an increasing array of Internet-connected devices.

It's not the major player in network security, but McAfee is something of a specialist in the field.

AT&T Inc. on Wednesday acknowledged a security weak spot that exposed the e-mail addresses of apparently more than 100,000 users of Apple Inc.'s iPad, a breach that could make those people vulnerable to precision-targeted hacking attacks ...