It's so easy, even News of the World could do it

The recent scandal that has hit the former News of the World newspaper has highlighted something that most people neglect, the security of your phone.  Most of us do not put a password on our phone to access it.  Primarily this is a result of our desire to immediately access the device, but also of laziness.  It's just not obvious to us the risk that we are taking.  For those who have spent a lot of time under a rock this past week, employees of the former News of the World were systematically hacking into phone messages of various celebrities and politicians in the U.K.  How simple is it to do?  Check out this article and learn.

No more flimsy passwords for Hotmail Users

Microsoft issued a blog today detailing how new users will be unable to create flimsy passwords for new Hotmail email accounts.  What counts as flimsy?  Check out this previous article, but in short, any of the most popular 100 passwords would count, such as, password, 12345, etc.  It's all in the name of protecting you from hacked email attempts and other web mischief.

Maybe Internet Explorer is safer after all

Independent tests conducted by NSS Labs over a period of 19 days in April has shown Microsoft's Internet Explorer to be superior in blocking social enginering malware attacks.  For years, it was assumed by techies that Internet Explorer.....well stunk.  We all moved to Firefox, Chrome and Safari for our everyday surfing.  Well, it looks like Microsoft has learned some lessons and has improved.  Is it enough to make you move back?  Check out the article from PCWorld for details on the testing.

18 years for hacking a neighbor's Wifi network....good

Normally I would say this was overkill.  Although hacking a neighbor's wifi signal is bad, it typically would not warrant a prison sentence of 18 years in the clinker.  However, in this case, it is warranted.  In Minnesota, a man hacked his neighbor's Wifi network in an act of revenge.  Once inside the network, he attempted to frame his neighbor for child pornography, sent sexual emails to his neighbor's co-workers and threatened to kill the Vice-President, Joe Biden.  His acts went on for two years before it was discovered.  Read more at PCWorld.

Netflix and the rate hike

Seems like Netflix users are pretty upset at the 60% rate hike in service fees to access the content.  In many ways it is not their fault, as Hollywood and the ISP's make it more expensive to exist.  One curious note is that their followers on facebook as grown substantially over the last 24 hours.  It appears everybody is liking them in order to access the comment section on their page, to leave a negative comment.  Despite the rate hike, Netflix still has the cheapest service.  How bad has the negative comments come in?  Eric Mack of CNET was writing a column on the onslaught of negativity in reaction to the announcement and in the time it took him to write a paragraph for the article, over 300 comments poured in.  Let's see where this eventually goes Netflix.

You may need to start surfing the net anonymously, seriously..

Recently, many of the Internet Service Providers signed up for the "Copyright Alert System".  This system essentially has your ISP sending you warnings when you are suspected of downloading copyrighted material over the Internet.  For more information, check out this article from PCMag about the particulars. One other note, now the National Sheriff's Association is now arguing that ISP's should be mandated to keep your online records for 18 months.  By online records, we are talking everything you do online, every site, every email, etc. 

There are many problems with this system, the biggest being the lack of due process.  You can merely be accused of downloading copyrighted material and get a letter.  To head off all of this, many should consider the many ways you can surf the Internet anonymously.  This article from SmashingApps details the top ten free programs you can use to hide yourself and your surfing habits online.  Happy hiding.