The Password is Broken

Google Declares War on the Password | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com: "2012 may have been the year that the password broke. It seemed like everyone on the internet received spam e-mail or desperate pleas for cash — the so-called “Mugged in London” scam — from the e-mail accounts of people who had been hacked. And Wired’s own Mat Honan showed everyone just how damaging a hack can be. The guys who hacked Honan last August deleted his Gmail account. They took over his Twitter handle and posted racist messages. And they remote-wiped his iPhone, iPad, and laptop computer, deleting a year’s worth of e-mails and photographs. In short, they erased his digital life. Passwords are a cheap and easy way to authenticate web surfers, but they’re not secure enough for today’s internet, and they never will be."

Google 'Ad Cops' Police Web for Bad Advertisements | TIME.com: " . . . Google employs a mix of machines and humans to catch bad ads. Its first line of defense is software that searches for ads with specific attributes Google finds unsavory. For example, ads related to online gambling automatically get snagged because the practice is illegal in the U.S. Because the automated system isn’t perfect, Google also relies on actual humans to determine some ads’ legitimacy. And even then, about 2% to 3% of accounts that are shut down are overturned after being mistakenly suspended. . . . "

Microsoft Security Essentials fails anti-virus certification test, Redmond challenges results | The Verge: "Microsoft's popular Security Essentials anti-virus software has failed to gain the latest certificate from the AV-TEST institute. In antimalware testing against a range of products, AV-TEST failed to certify AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0, Microsoft Security Essentials 4.1, and PC Tools Internet Security 2012 out of a total of 25 different vendors. Microsoft's own anti-virus software failed to adequately protect against 0-day malware attacks, scoring an average of 71 percent vs. the industry average of 92 percent."


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