Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

The Obama administration has reached into Microsoft's ranks for the tech talent it needs to fix the Affordable Care Act cock-up The White House on Tuesday named Kurt DelBene, who started at Microsoft in 1992 and most recently served as president of its lucrative Office Division, to oversee HealthCare.gov, the website for consumers shopping for heal...

Smartphones hacked to run unauthorized programs or unlock features are being targeted by hackers and can pose a threat to enterprise networks, warned Marble Security Modifying a smartphone to enable unauthorized behavior -- called "rooting" in the Android world and "jailbreaking" in the iOS realm -- makes the mobile vulnerable to infected jammer so...

Microsoft on Tuesday previewed the third generation of its Photosynth technology, touting it as a dramatic step forward in smoothness and simplicity. Four effects are now available in Photosynth. There's Spin -- which lets you rotate an object in the photo around itself -- and Panorama -- which lets you "stand" at the center of a photo and rotate ...

A malware decline and ransomware rise are in the security crystal ball for 2014 There will be less malware spreading through networks next year as hackers focus on obtaining credentials that allow them to access systems under the guise of authentic users....

Law enforcement officials and mobile phone makers last week knocked heads with wireless carriers over planting "kill switches" in smartphones Led by a district attorney in San Francisco and attorney general in New York, law enforcement would like all smartphones to contain firmware that allows a consumer to "brick" a mobile that's lost or stolen....

Mobile apps for consumers have been criticized for gathering more information from users' devices than they need. It seems, however, that mobile apps from companies fare no better Ninety-seven percent of some 2,000 mobile apps produced by 600 companies accessed at least one private information source on the device they were installed on, according ...

There's a campaign afoot to put a 3D printer in every school in America. MakerBot -- along with education crowdsourcer DonorsChoose.org, America Makes and Autodesk -- on Tuesday announced MakerBot Academy. Individuals and businesses can contribute money to the initiative through DonorsChoose.org. The funds will be used to award MakerBot Academy bu...

Google's mobile operating system Android has been a whipping boy for some segments of the security community, but the latest version of the software may begin to rehabilitate its reputation Android 4.4, or KitKat, contains a number of new and improved features that are garnering the praise of malware fighters. They include improved implementation o...

Mammoth tomes about high-tech entrepreneurs with a secretive bent are almost a sure bet to stir up a hornet's nest of controversy when they're published. That's certainly been the case with Brad Stone's The Everything Store about CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon. The twist here is that the critic in the point position for Amazon is Bezos's wife, MacKenzie...

Using social engineering to distribute malware is a favorite of hackers. That's because it unloads the burden of infecting a computer onto its operator. By duping an Internet innocent into making just one errant click, an online bandit can inflict a world of hurt Socially engineered malware attacks attempt to deceive a user into downloading malicio...

A federal judge in Idaho appears to have had a fit of hacker madness In a case involving a former employee and his bosses over software for protecting the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, federal district court Judge B. Lynn Winmill found the employee's privacy rights could be ignored because he was a self-proclaimed hacker....

Strong encryption and natural language search can be like oil and water. That's because encrypted data can't be digested by your typical search engine. However, CipherCloud announced a solution to that knotty problem last week The latest version of the 3-year-old company's cloud-based service includes something it's calling "searchable strong encry...

A press freedom advocacy group announced Tuesday it would be taking charge of a project started by Aaron Swartz to protect whistleblowers leaking confidential documents to journalists The Freedom of the Press Foundation will provide in-site installation of the DeadDrop technology, renamed "SecureDrop," as well as support for news organizations that...

When Russian authorities nabbed the alleged master hacker behind the Blackhole malware kit last week, they sent a shockwave through the digital underground As soon as news spread that Blackhole's author, known as "Paunch," and his partners had been arrested, the malware apparently began to suffer. Blackhole, typically updated once or twice a day, w...

The company that brought Apple-style elegance to the lowly home thermostat is attempting to do the same for the common smoke detector Nest Labs, founded by Apple emigres Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, on Tuesday announced Nest Protect, a US$129 combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector with more smarts than others in the market....

If you want to prolong your email's stay with the NSA, just encrypt it Among the documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden is one describing the National Security Agency's treatment of communication it intercepts authored by U.S. citizens. In short, if the domestic communication is in plain text, it has a five-year shelf life. If it's encryp...

After three years of wrangling with Google over its alleged anticompetitive business practices, the European Union has suggested there may be some light at the end of the tunnel "We have reached a key moment in this case," European Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia, who is responsible for competition policy, said at a Parliament hearing Tu...

Almost all cyberattacks these days require an element of social engineering. Spammers are always looking for that hot button to induce a click on a link or an attachment. Drive-by artists continually experiment with poisoned banner ads designed to steer the curious into an online dark alley. Spearphishers put together persuasive pitches pretending to be friends or a trusted institution...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday unveiled a plan to identify existing Park-n-Ride facilities, rest stops and parking areas on the state's highways as "Texting Zones." There's nothing now -- other than impatience -- preventing drivers from pulling off the road into those areas to read and send text messages, but with the new initiative, appropr...

Allowing workers to use personal phones and tablets to do their jobs has created security risks in the workplace, but those risks can be minimized if they're managed What should such a risk management program do? "The first step is you have to protect the device," IBM Application, Data and Mobile Security Director Caleb Barlow told TechNewsWorld....