Tag: THEFT

In a case of Internet espionage that makes the antics of double agent Cold War operatives seem like frivolous child play, Bing has been caught stealing search results from Google with its Bing toolbar and IE8's Suggested Sites feature. Google first suspected foul play in May 2010. By October 2010, with Bing results beginning to look uncannily like Google's, it knew something had to be done ...

The last couple months of this year are starting to look like Breachfest 2010, and a new report in The Columbus Dispatch indicates that the latest victims are registered owners of Honda and Acura vehicles. As was the case with the McDonald's incident, it wasn't Honda or Acura specifically that was attacked -- but rather a third-party company who handled a customer email database. In addition ...

Looking for an inexpensive -- or better yet, free -- way to track your laptop or Android smartphone in the event it gets stolen? Check out Prey, an open source project that offers multi-OS tracking, reporting -- and countermeasures! Just download the Prey client software, install, and register an account -- you'll need one in order to be able to access the service's Web-based control panel. ...

iPhone users have fallen victim to rogue developers who are hacking accounts and using them to buy fake apps, stealing Apple customers' money and driving up the popularity of their useless apps at the same time. TheNextWeb has a thorough report on the scams, along with plenty of testimony from users who say they've been duped out of hundreds of dollars. At first, it seemed like this ripoff was ...

Update 13 January 2010: He's been caught! Only in England, I tell you! digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2009/12/28/british-man-jailed-for-7-years-escapes-prison-updates-facebook/'; An escaped prisoner -- jailed for seven years for aggravated burglary -- escaped the confines of his jail back in September. He's been updating his Facebook page on a regular basis since then. ...

I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of Malwarebytes. It's easily the best free malware removal app in my toolkit, and it's the first program I turn to when cleaning up an infected system. The Malwarebytes team has worked incredibly hard since their application burst onto the scene, and countless technicians and PC users appreciate the phenomenal work they've done. Now, for the past ...

Sxipper is a Firefox (1.5 or 2.0) add-on that allows you to set then forget your personal details. All your logins will be kept safe behind your own personal guard dog. It strikes me a lot like roboform, but is free for use and stores all your info for work, personal, openID, and all your other identities. Sxipper lets you hand-pick the color and icon for your profile, and even import a v-card. ...

Worried about unsavory individuals lurking around your office or home and jacking your computer gear? Have no fear! With the help of your Windows PC, webcam, some free software, and this handy tutorial from Simplehelp, you can set up a reasonably sophisticated DIY security system. The core of the tutorial is Dorgem, an open source utility that captures images from your webcam and can save images ...

Is it just me, or is the market for novel anti-theft apps for laptops exploding? Undercover is a program for Apple laptops from Orbicule that does a number of things to help you recover your laptop in the event of its theft. When the laptop boots, Undercover checks Orbicule's web server to see if you've reported your laptop missing. Once it knows it's been stole, Undercover begins doing all sorts ...

Your MacBook Pro has a built-in tilt sensor and camera. Since using Apple products for their intended purpose (like, say, running Mac OS X), here's a cool way to repurpose those features: iAlertU is theft alarm software that monitors your MacBook's camera and tilt sensor and, if it thinks your laptop is being manhandled while you've stepped away to grab another latte, sounds a loud alarm. ...

Over at Mac Geekery they've got a cool guide to making your laptop (in this case a Mac) delete your important files in the event that it's stolen. The meat of the thing is a shell script that periodically checks a remote web server for a file called "youve_been_stolen," and if it finds the file it quietly deletes the files in your home directory. You can also make it alert the new owner ...