Medical data from some of the world’s leading athletes has been posted to the web and the World Anti-Doping Agency says Russians are to blame. Even the hackers seem to agree, adopting the name “Fancy Bears” — a moniker long associated with the Kremlin’s electronic espionage operations. But as cybersecurity experts pore over the hackers’ […]
What’s a bitcoin? A look at the digital currency
LONDON (AP) — Early Tuesday, the world’s most established exchange for bitcoin disappeared from the Internet, sending the price of the virtual currency tumbling and prompting fears that the world’s biggest experiment in electronic cash could soon be strangled by fraud or regulation. Here’s an explanation of what bitcoins are, how exchanges work, and why […]
In Worldwide Surveillance Age, U.S. Has Big Edge
The saga of Edward Snowden and the NSA makes one thing clear: The United States’ central role in developing the Internet and hosting its most powerful players has made it the global leader in the surveillance game. Other countries, from dictatorships to democracies, are also avid snoopers, tapping into the high-capacity fiber optic cables to […]
USSR’s Old Domain Name Attracts Cybercriminals
The Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than two decades ago. But online an ‘e-vil empire’ is thriving. Security experts say the .su Internet suffix assigned to the USSR in 1990 has turned into a haven for hackers who’ve flocked to the defunct superpower’s domain space to send spam and steal money. Capitalist concerns, […]
Bitcoin Bursts: Hacker Currency Gets Wild Ride
It’s a promising form of electronic cash free from central bankers and beloved by hackers. It — Bitcoin — may also be in trouble, registering catastrophic losses that have sent speculators scrambling. Although the cybercurrency has existed for years as a kind of Internet oddity, a perfect storm of developments have brought it to the […]
Record-Breaking Cyberattack Hits Anti-Spam Group
A record-breaking cyberattack targeting an anti-spam watchdog group has sent ripples of disruption coursing across the Web, experts said Wednesday. Spamhaus, a site responsible for keeping ads for counterfeit Viagra and bogus weight-loss pills out of the world’s inboxes, said it had been buffeted by the monster denial-of-service attack since mid-March, apparently from groups angry […]
Cyberwar manual lays down rules for online attacks
LONDON (AP) — Even cyberwar has rules, and one group of experts is putting out a manual to prove it. Their handbook, due to be published later this week, applies the practice of international law to the world of electronic warfare in an effort to show how hospitals, civilians and neutral nations can be protected […]
Researchers: We May Have Found a Fabled Sunstone
A rough, whitish block recovered from an Elizabethan shipwreck may be a sunstone, the fabled crystal believed by some to have helped Vikings and other medieval seafarers navigate the high seas, researchers say. In a paper published earlier this week, a Franco-British group argued that the Alderney Crystal — a chunk of Icelandic calcite found […]
UK reopens investigation into Google Street View
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s data regulator has reopened its investigation into Google’s Street View, saying that an inquiry by authorities in the United States raised new doubts about the disputed program. Steve Eckersley, enforcement chief of the British Information Commissioner’s Office, said Google Inc. had questions to answer about Street View, an attention-grabbing project which […]