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A 1.4GB trove of internal documents, files and sensitive financial data purporting to be from the Qatar National Bank (QNB) has been leaked online. The massive data dump appears to contain hundreds of thousands of records including customer transaction logs, personal identification numbers and credit card data. Additionally, dozens of separate folders consist of information on everything from Al Jazeera journalists to what appears to be the Al-Thani Qatar Royal Family. However, it is a folder listed as "SPY, Intelligence" that quickly catches the eye. Upon analysis, it contains a slew of records listed as Ministry of Defence, MI6 (the...

Snooping on a tablet computerImage copyrightThinkstock The US Supreme Court has approved a rule change that could allow law enforcement to remotely search computers around the world. Previously, magistrate judges could order searches only within the jurisdiction of their court, often limited to a few counties. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said the change was necessary to modernise the law for the digital age. But digital rights groups say the move expands the FBI's hacking authority. The DoJ wants judges to be able to issue remote search warrants for computers located anywhere that the United States claims jurisdiction, which...

[The clown and Michelle] mean business—arms crossed, game faces on, voices exuding no nonsense. “Hey, Prince Harry,” first lady Michelle Obama says with a menacing tone in a video posted to her Twitter account Friday. “Remember when you told us to bring it at the Invictus Games?” ..., the goal behind this very public “feud” lies in raising awareness for the upcoming Invictus Games, to be held May 8-12 in Orlando, Florida. The competition is “an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick Service personnel,” according to the Invictus Games website.

In the next decade, there will be tens of billions of connected devices—from thermostats and cell phones to parking meters and cars. Increasingly, these connected devices that make up the Internet of Things will be imbued with intelligence so that they can not only communicate, but transact, negotiate, collaborate and exchange value. The Internet of Things needs a Ledger of Things How will we handle this mind-boggling volume of data being transmitted, and do it in a secure way? “The Internet of Things needs a Ledger of Things,” says Alex Tapscott, coauthor with his father, Don Tapscott, of the "Blockchain...

Wanted: Ten million Chinese students to “civilize” the Internet By Xu Yangjingjing and Simon Denyer April 10, 2015 China wants to recruit 10 million young people, mostly university students belonging to the Communist Party’s youth wing, to “spread positive energy” on the Internet — in other words, to use social media to praise and defend the government. Web users recently posted a document issued by the China Communist Youth League dated Feb. 13 that asks for no less than 20 percent of its members to be recruited as “cyber civilization volunteers”, who would be expected to become “good Chinese Netizens”...

WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA announced his support last week for a Federal Communications Commission plan to open the market for cable set-top boxes — a big win for consumers, but also for Google — the cable and telecommunications giants who used to have a near-stranglehold on tech policy were furious. AT&T chief lobbyist Jim Cicconi lashed out at what he called White House intervention on behalf of “the Google proposal.” He’s hardly the first to suggest that the Obama administration has become too close to the Silicon Valley juggernaut. Over the past seven years, Google has created a remarkable partnership with...

Correct the Record, a pro-Hillary Clinton political action committee (PAC), is spending over $1 million on online trolls in order to 'correct' Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters on social media sites. According to Correct the Record, the task force will “combat online political harassment,” boasting that it has already “addressed more than 5,000 individuals who have personally attacked Secretary Clinton on Twitter.” "The task force will provide a presence and space online where Clinton supporters can organize and engage with one another and are able to obtain graphics, videos, gifs, and messaging to use in their own social spaces," the group...

Sens. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina and Dianne Feinstein (D) of California should be stripped of their positions for introducing a bill that would endanger American digital security and privacy. The Burr-Feinstein antiencryption bill isn't just bad, it's evidence of a dangerous incompetence in congressional leadership that is undermining America’s security. In fact, the draft bill, leaked two weeks ago and now officially released, is compelling evidence that Senate leadership should strip – or at least not reappoint – Senators Burr and Feinstein of their positions on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.... To say this most recent Burr-Feinstein...

U.S. government recommends uninstalling software after security holes discovered If you’re still using Apple’s QuickTime on a Windows PC, it’s time to stop. Apple confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it is no longer supporting or updating the 11-year-old QuickTime 7 for Windows, and has posted instructions for uninstalling the software. Keeping it installed on your computer may pose a risk. Last week, researchers discovered two new security holes that could allow bad guys to create malicious files to launch within Apple’s media player. Trend Micro, the security research firm that found the vulnerability, said that it hasn’t yet...

Apparently, we’re in the middle of a “global infidelity crisis,” a crisis that can only be solved by a smart mattress that pings your phone when it’s being used for sex. Wait, what? Smarttress is a real-looking product from Spanish company Durmet, which claims to use ultrasonic sensors to detect when two people are going at it on a bed. It then pings your phone to inform you of this fact. I’m still partly convinced that this is a late April Fool’s, but working on the terrifying assumption that it’s not, let’s look at this idea on its merits. On...

Liberal broadcaster MSNC is alarmed by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s growing support on the popular social media site Reddit. Describing the businessman and presidential candidate’s supporters on the site as “trolls,” MSNBC goes into an in-depth analysis of Reddit’s growing Trump following. thousands of users have posted gifs, memes, and links to articles praising Trump and tearing into his perceived opponents. The subreddit r/The_Donald scored nearly 52 million page-views in March, up from 12.6 million in February and 1.3 million in January. In doing so, it lapped the next most popular candidate subreddit, r/SandersForPresident, which attracted 35 million views in...

Facebook employees admit they are willing to manipulate social media to prevent a Donald Trump presidency Last month, Facebook employees used a company poll to ask Zuckerberg whether the company should try “to help prevent President Trump in 2017.” Their believing that Facebook has a responsibility to influence the 2016 election is very concerning. It shows that Facebook employees are willing to censor opinions they don't agree with in the name of "social justice." If you've ever been suspended from Facebook for something extremely mild, this probably explains why. Facebook already proudly censors negative views on refugees In January is...

The Office of Personnel Management is preparing for a pilot program to automatically track public social media postings of people applying for security clearances. OPM is conducting market research to find companies that can perform automated social media tracking and other types of Web crawling as part of the background investigation process, according to an April 8 request for information posted online. Responses from interested companies are due by April 15.

Mark Zuckerberg opened Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference with a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump. ....Zuckerberg said that “it takes courage to chose hope over fear” and criticized “fearful voices talking about building walls”. He added that immigration was essential to the economic success of the country.

Yahoo is for sale, and bidders are lining up to grab their own, ever-shrinking piece of Internet history. The once-great Internet pioneer is entertaining offers...reluctantly. CEO Marissa Mayer would like to see Yahoo through its struggles, but impatient investors are looking for a way to cash out. Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30) has reportedly given interested parties until April 18 to make their offers. The company is expected to fetch something like $8 billion for its core Internet business. Who's buying? The list of interested parties matches the potpourri of businesses that Yahoo operates. Media companies, such as the Daily Mail and...

It wasn't triggered by politicians or political parties, but by a determined group of well-organised, highly-motivated individuals. GeenPeil, a project stemming from the popular Dutch blog GeenStijl, collected some 420,000 signed, verified, signatures triggering this referendum. It is an extraordinary achievement that highlights how western democracy is evolving. The internet truly is the gamechanger of our time. A small collection of individuals with an idea can find thousands of other kindred spirits who join them in championing a cause. That develops, becoming tens of thousands and then allowing a message to reach out to millions. This revolution is sweeping Europe...

“We’re at war,” the video began. “No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack.” The narration continued, delivered over swelling music and video of protests and gunfire: “One very specific man might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence.” The man being offered as the savior of a doomed world is Donald J. Trump. And on Monday Mr. Trump shared the video with the millions of people who follow him on Twitter and Facebook as he tries to secure the Republican nomination for president. But the original version of the...

Adobe-FlashAdobe has issued Flash Player security updates for OS X, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS to address "critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system" by way of ransomware. Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a user's hard drive and demands payment in order to decrypt it. These type of threats often display images or use voice-over techniques containing instructions on how to pay the ransom. In this particular "CERBER" attack (via Reuters), affecting Flash-based advertisements, attackers have reportedly demanded between around $500 and $1,000, to retrieve the encrypted files. Adobe...

President Obama urged students to open up their digital life to the federal government, if they wanted to be protected by the government, calling the current privacy expectations from Americans unrealistic. “People have a whole new set of privacy expectations that are understandable. They also expect though that since their lives are all digitized, that the digital world is safe, which creates a contradictory demand on government,” he said. Obama discussed the issue during a conversation about the Supreme Court at the University of Chicago, where he used to teach Constitutional law. He pointed out that citizens expected the government...

It starts like a joke — Gov. Rick Scott walks into a Gainesville Starbucks — but one patron wasn’t laughing. Scott stopped in at the coffee chain for a cup Tuesday after touring the recently opened factory and headquarters for biopharmaceutical company Nanotherapeutics. Cara Jennings, a former Lake Worth city commissioner, saw Scott in the downtown store and ripped into him, from her seat, over health insurance and cuts to women’s health services, and calling him an expletive