Bug affected users of Google Takeout exporting from Google Photos in late November
Google has said a software bug resulted in some users’ personal videos being emailed to strangers.
The flaw affected users of Google Photos who requested to export their data in late November. For four days the export tool wrongly added videos to unrelated users’ archives.
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Not so long ago we searched Google. Now we seem quite happy to let Google search us
Probably too late to ask, but was the past year the moment we lost our technological innocence? The Alexa in the corner of the kitchen monitoring your every word? The location-betraying device in your pocket? The dozen trackers on that web page you just opened? The thought that a 5G network could, in some hazily understood way, be hardwired back to Beijing? The spooky use of live facial recognition on CCTV cameras across London.
With privacy there have been so many landmarks in the past 12 months. The $5bn Federal Trade Commission fine on Facebook to settle the Cambridge Analytica scandal? The accidental exposure of a mind-blowing 1.2 billion people’s details from two data enrichment companies? Up to 50m medical records spilled?
We gleefully carry surveillance machines in our pockets and install them in our homes
Related: Cybercrime laws need urgent reform to protect UK, says report
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Amazon founder interviewed as FBI conducts inquiry into Israeli firm linked to malware
Jeff Bezos met federal investigators in April 2019 after they received information about the alleged hack of the billionaire’s mobile phone by Saudi Arabia, the Guardian has been told.
Bezos was interviewed by investigators at a time when the FBI was conducting an investigation into the Israeli technology company NSO Group, according to a person who was present at the meeting.
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Former senior government figures voice security fears as PM chairs meeting of NSC
Former ministers have sounded their final warnings to Boris Johnson about the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei ahead of his expected decision on whether it will play a part in the UK’s 5G network.
The prime minister will chair a meeting of the national security council (NSC) later on Tuesday before making a judgment on the firm’s future in the country after months of concern around security, including from the US president, Donald Trump.
5G is the next generation mobile phone network and it promises much higher connection speeds, lower latency (response times) and to be more reliable than the creaking 4G networks we have now.
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Judge orders NSO Group to fight case brought by Saudi activist and pay his legal costs
An Israeli judge has rejected an attempt by the spyware firm NSO Group to dismiss a case brought against it by a prominent Saudi activist who alleged that the company’s cyberweapons were used to hack his phone.
The decision could add pressure on the company, which faces multiple accusations that it sold surveillance technology, named Pegasus, to authoritarian regimes and other governments that have allegedly used it to target political activists and journalists.
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Support for Windows 7 has ended, leaving Marcy wondering how they can protect themselves
I do a lot of work on a Windows 7 desktop PC that is about five years old. I’m a widow and can’t afford to run out and get a new PC at this time, or pay for Windows 10. If I do stay with Windows 7, what should I worry about, and how can I protect myself? I have been running Kaspersky Total Security for several years, which has worked well so far. Marcy
Microsoft Windows 7 – launched in 2009 – came to the end of its supported life on Tuesday. Despite Microsoft’s repeated warnings to Windows 7 users, there may still be a couple of hundred million users, many of them in businesses. What should people do next?
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US agency revealed flaw that could be exploited by hackers to create malicious software
Microsoft is rolling out a security fix to Windows 10 after the US National Security Agency (NSA) warned the popular operating system contained a highly dangerous flaw that could be used by hackers.
The NSA revealed during a press conference on Tuesday that the “serious vulnerability” could be used to create malicious software that appeared to be legitimate.
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Software that demands money with menaces has hit the big time. Here are some of its most lucrative forms
Cyber-attacks that threaten to publish a victim’s data or block access to it unless a ransom is paid have grown internationally since 2012.
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Exclusive: former Microsoft contractor says he was emailed login after minimal vetting
A Microsoft programme to transcribe and vet audio from Skype and Cortana, its voice assistant, ran for years with “no security measures”, according to a former contractor who says he reviewed thousands of potentially sensitive recordings on his personal laptop from his home in Beijing over the two years he worked for the company.
The recordings, both deliberate and accidentally invoked activations of the voice assistant, as well as some Skype phone calls, were simply accessed by Microsoft workers through a web app running in Google’s Chrome browser, on their personal laptops, over the Chinese internet, according to the contractor.
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‘Systemic failures’ found in the retailer’s management and protection of customer data
Dixons Carphone has been hit with the maximum possible fine after the tills in its shops were compromised by a cyber-attack that affected at least 14 million people.
The retailer discovered the massive data breach last summer and a subsequent investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found the attacker had installed malicious software on 5,390 tills in branches of its Currys PC World and Dixons Travel chains.
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