Since your phone is almost always close at your side, either in your pocket or bag, it’s easy to skimp on security. But take a moment and consider just how precious the info you’ve got locked up therein and you may want to take steps to safeguard your phone. [More]
security
Amazon Wants You To Change Your Password Too
By 12.16.10
Since the internet exploded with the Gawker hacking fiasco, it’s become en vogue for everyone to change their passwords out of fear an identity thief will download their info and go after their money, as well as post lame comments under their names. Amazon has gotten into the act, resetting customers’ passwords and telling them all about it via email. [More]
BofA Charges Me $35 Overdraft Fee After Identity Theft, But Twitter Rescues Me
By 12.13.10
An identity thief robbed Scott’s Bank of America account of $600. Adding to the pain, the bank spun its wheels on offering a refund, bludgeoning him with a $35 overdraft fee. [More]
Woman In Wheelchair Strips To Lingerie, Still Gets TSA Patdown
By 12.2.10
In protest of the enhanced TSA pat-down, a woman arrived at the airport this week wearing only lacy black lingerie and holding her white poodle. She had hoped that if she “had nothing to hide” then she could avoid a pat-down. She failed in this endeavor. Naturally, it was captured by a fellow passenger and uploaded to YouTube. [More]
Parody: TSA's New List of Banned Carryon Items
By 12.1.10
The holidays are here so that means it’s time for the TSA to release a new list of items that you think would bring holiday cheer but actually need to be banned to protect national security. UCBComedy’s The Brig parodies TSA policies in this new sketch that is probably more disturbing (warning: blood n’ candy canes) than uproarious. [More]
4th Amendment Underwear
By 11.29.10
Safeguard your junk while asserting your rights in this fetching line of underwear featuring the 4th amendment – the one about unreasonable search and seizure – emblazoned in metallic ink. The maker claims the words are readable on TSA scanners. “Let them know they’re spying at the privates of a private citizen,” reads one of their slogans. [More]
Opt-Out Protest Field Reports, With Bikinis
By 11.24.10
An opt-out protestor wore a bikini through security. [NBC Los Angeles]
A male college student did the same in a Speedo with “SCREW BIG SIS” markered on his back. TSA said he wasn’t detained as he was not a threat. [JonAndEric]
Two protestors at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix AZ held up signs mentioning “pornoscans,” drawing both “sidelong glances” and “words of support.” [AP]
Half a dozen protestors at Tampa airport talk about tyranny. [TBO]
Overall, checkpoints are running smoothly with no major delays. “Most travelers seemed more interested in getting to their destinations than in making a political statement.” [NYT]
Body Found Outside Boston May Have Fallen From Plane
By 11.23.10
Reuters says police are investigating the possibility that the body of a 16-year-old North Carolina high school student fell from a plane approaching Logan Airport. So far, they have been unable to explain why the boy, who ran away from home, would have been found dead in Milton, MA. [More]
Catch Up On All The TSA Story Madness
By 11.19.10
There has been quite the cubic ton of stories this past week or so written about the TSA security procedures, the backlash to them, and the backlash-backlash. It’s hard to keep up with them all. So, to keep you sounding smart and making up-to-the-minute references, security guru Bruce Schneier has a massive, yet accessible, link roundup. Keep those wingtips up! [More]
These 100 Body Scan Images Should Not Exist
By 11.16.10
The TSA and other agencies have repeatedly told the public that the body scanner devices automatically delete the images after they’re reviewed. But in August, it came out that US Marshals at a federal courthouse operating the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner were storing the images. Now you can see what they saw, as Gizmodo has acquired 100 of the 35,000 images through a FOIA request. [More]
Badware Hosting Sites Growing More Sophisticated, Offer Menu Of Services
By 11.15.10
The illicit economy of phishers and malware perpetrators is growing more sophisticated, and more brazen. “Bulletproof” hosting sites that offered to protect their users from attacks and takedown requests now have corporate-like web pages offering a menu of a la carte services. The only limit is no spam and no porn. Hey, even they have standards. [More]
Delete All Facebook Apps You're Not Using
By 11.5.10
Here’s a fun lil’ project to protect your privacy in just a few minutes. Go through Facebook and delete all the apps you’re no longer using. That way they’ll no longer have access your data so they can’t mine it or sell it. Here’s how to do it. [More]
The Password Is Dead
By 11.4.10
It’s not going to be too long before you’ll have to have your face scanned before you can open your email, at the rate the password cracking arms race is going. [More]
Your Facebook Login Can Get Jacked By A Monkey With A Mouse
By 10.27.10
The guy sitting next to you in the coffee shop might actually be logging into your Facebook account, using the info beaming out your computer. It’s called “session hijacking” or “sidejacking” and despite it being a well-known vulnerability, most websites aren’t protecting their users from it. After a developer recently unveiled a user-friendly bit of code that makes “sidejacking” as easy a few mouse clicks, the problem is getting fresh attention. [More]
A First-Hand Account Of A TSA Pat-Down
By 10.22.10
While that ExpressJet pilot in Memphis was refusing to be scanned or pat down by TSA screeners, travel writer Julia Buckley was busy detailing her adventures with both security procedures for Jaunted.com. [More]
Airlines Want Air Marshals To Stop Flying First Class
By 10.19.10
The airlines are fed up with with seeing armed air marshals taking up free seats in first class. A trade group representing the major U.S. carriers has asked the Federal Air Marshals Service to consider putting their agents in coach. [More]
Bureaucrats Abuse Gov Databases, Snoop On Neighbors And Lindsay Lohan
By 10.15.10
Low-ranking government apparatchiks are wasting taxpayer dollars and violating our trust by exploiting their access to massive government databases to look up private information on their neighbors and ex-spouses, and “doc gawk” on celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Matt Damon, James Taylor, and Tom Brady. [More]
Help! My Gmail Account Was Hacked! How Do I Clean This Up?
By 10.12.10
Reader Lisa would like to ask the Consumerist hive mind for advice on cleaning up her recently hacked Gmail account. Here’s her story: [More]
