Law & order

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'Revenge porn' to be made illegal in England and Wales

by Lee Munson on February 12, 2015 | 1 Comment

'Revenge porn' is now illegal in England and Wales

England and Wales today amended the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to make revenge porn an offence punishable by up to two years in prison.

Gamer swatted while live-streaming on Twitch.TV

by Lisa Vaas on February 10, 2015 | 13 Comments

A gamer has been targeted by anonymous trolls in the middle of a Twitch stream of RuneScape.

The end of the Silk Road for Dread Pirate Roberts - 60 Sec Security [VIDEO]

by Paul Ducklin on February 7, 2015 | Leave a comment

Here's our weekly "60 Second Security" video.

Enjoy a fresh and entertaining take on the latest security news in just one minute...

Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht found guilty, may face life sentence

by John Hawes on February 5, 2015 | 10 Comments

Silk Road suspect Ross Ulbricht hit with three new drug charges

Ross Ulbricht, the founder of notorious online underground marketplace Silk Road, has been convicted on seven criminal counts by a Manhattan federal jury and could face life in jail.

Cat and mouse game is over for Japanese death threat hacker

by Lisa Vaas on February 5, 2015 | 5 Comments

A Japanese programmer, who taunted police by leaving clues in a memory card that he tucked into the collar of a cat found wandering an island off Tokyo, has been sentenced to 8 years in jail.

Canary Watch site will keep an eye out for vanishing warrant canaries

by Lisa Vaas on February 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

Canary Watch will track changes to these transparency report statements that would indicate providers had received subpoenas with gag orders.

Revenge-porn website operator Kevin Bollaert guilty of identity theft and extortion

by Lisa Vaas on February 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

Kevin Bollaert was behind ugotposted.com and its companion extortion site, which would take down frantic victims' photos (for a tidy sum, of course).

Baby monitor hijacked; change default password urges Foscam

by Lisa Vaas on February 2, 2015 | 4 Comments

A nanny was spooked last week by a cyber creep peeping in on her via a baby monitor while she changed a baby's diaper.

IsAnybodyDown's Craig Brittain banned from the 'revenge porn' business

by Lee Munson on January 30, 2015 | 4 Comments

https://app.retailtower.com/channels/google/stores/1680/export.txt

The operator of a 'revenge porn' website got away with a slapped wrist after publishing nude photos of over 1,000 women online.

Super Bowl XLIX - a costly spectacle amid heightened security and surveillance

by John Zorabedian on January 30, 2015 | 2 Comments

The Department of Homeland Security has declared that there is not a specific, credible threat against the Super Bowl this year, but that's not stopping the agency from going all out on security and surveillance.

Hotels that block personal Wi-Fi hotspots will get busted, says FCC

by Lisa Vaas on January 29, 2015 | 7 Comments

So ends Marriott's campaign to block guests' hotspots and force guests to pay for its own Wi-Fi, even though they don't threaten security.

Cop who stole nude photos from arrested women's seized phones escapes jail time

by Lisa Vaas on January 29, 2015 | 19 Comments

CHP car. Image courtesy of Ken Wolter/Shutterstock.

Sean Harrington pleaded no contest to felony charges related to secretly forwarding suspects' photos to his and other officers' phones.

Massive DEA license plate reader program tracks millions of Americans

by Lisa Vaas on January 28, 2015 | 23 Comments

DEA tracking millions of license plates in "forfeiture" program

The DEA is using license plate reader cameras to capture information on an enormous number of motorists, with nearly 800 million license plates stored in a database used by federal and local authorities.

Facebook vs 25,000 users - privacy class action lawsuit has initial hearing date set

by Lee Munson on January 28, 2015 | Leave a comment

Facebook men. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

An Austrian court has given the go ahead to a class action lawsuit brought against Facebook for alleged privacy violations across Europe.

Google asked to muzzle Waze 'police-stalking' app

by Lisa Vaas on January 27, 2015 | 20 Comments

US police are typically the ones to surveil, not the other way around, as Google's crowd-sourced, police-mapping traffic app is doing. Now sheriffs are asking Google to pull the plug on it.

Anonymous journalist Barrett Brown sentenced to 63 months in jail

by Lee Munson on January 23, 2015 | 14 Comments

Barrett Brown has been sentenced to 63 months in prison on charges related to the Stratfor hack.

Fake Facebook account case settled with DEA who admits no wrongdoing

by Lisa Vaas on January 23, 2015 | 7 Comments

Facebook friend request. Image courtesy of dolphfyn/Shutterstock.

The Feds have agreed to pay $134,000 to settle a case over having taken a phony Facebook profile out to lure suspects. Nothing in the ruling prohibits future use of such deceptive tactics.

School rule-breakers to hand over Facebook and Twitter passwords

by Lisa Vaas on January 23, 2015 | 16 Comments

Students who cyberbully may forfeit social media passwords

US school students in the state of Illinois may be forced to give up their social media passwords if they're suspected of cyberbullying or of otherwise breaking school rules.

Silk Road 2.0 deputy arrested after 6-month attack on Tor

by Lisa Vaas on January 23, 2015 | 3 Comments

Feds arrest alleged Silk Road 2.0 deputy after 6-month attack on Tor

Brian Richard Farrell, aka " DoctorClu", was arrested last week. A search warrant shows that the drug market's kingpins were unmasked after a 6-month assault on Tor.