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‘It’s not awesome’: Master of understatement Mark Zuckerberg hits out at NSA spying scandal

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Mr Zuckerberg was urging the telecoms industry at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to back his Internet.org initiative for basic online access to all, but he faced a barrage of questions about other issues including the NSA affair.

Despite his concerns, he said the situation was improving, presumably referring to Washingtons partial relaxation on how much internet companies were allowed to tell the public about what information they share with the NSA: Now I think the US government is getting there, he said.

Mr Zuckerberg, just days after buying the messaging app WhatsApp for 11bn, dismissed questions about further takeovers, such as another bid for Snapchat, saying: After youve bought a company for $16bn, youre probably done for a while.

He warned that efforts to connect the entire worlds population to the web are going way slower than most people imagine, as he urged the telecoms industry to back his Internet.org initiative for basic online access for all.

Mr Zuckerberg told the conference that it was crucial to encourage people in emerging markets to get web access, citing a Deloitte study that showed productivity can increase by up to 25 per cent.

The Facebook chief executive said this idea of connecting all of the world was a reason why he had bonded with Jan Koum, the founder of the messaging app WhatsApp, which Mr Zuckerberg bought last week for $19bn (11.4bn). He said mobile phone carriers should give cheap or free access to basic Internet services to connect the five billion people who are not yet online.

He admitted that would help Facebook to increase its profits eventually, but he maintained the social media giant would not break even on its investment in Internet.org for some time.

Mr Koum said he is aiming for two billion WhatsApp users in the near term.

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'It's not awesome': Master of understatement Mark Zuckerberg hits out at NSA spying scandal

How Encryption Works – HowStuffWorks "Learn How Everything …

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When we use the Internet, we're not always just clicking around and passively taking in information, such as reading news articles or blog posts -- a great deal of our time online involves sending others our own information. Ordering something over the Internet, whether it's a book, a CD or anything else from an online vendor, or signing up for an online account, requires entering in a good deal of sensitive personal information. A typical transaction might include not only our names, e-mail addresses and physical address and phone number, but also passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs).

The incredible growth of the Internet has excited businesses and consumers alike with its promise of changing the way we live and work. It's extremely easy to buy and sell goods all over the world while sitting in front of a laptop. But security is a major concern on the Internet, especially when you're using it to send sensitive information between parties.

Let's face it, there's a whole lot of information that we don't want other people to see, such as:

Information security is provided on computers and over the Internet by a variety of methods. A simple but straightforward security method is to only keep sensitive information on removable storage media like portable flash memory drives or external hard drives. But the most popular forms of security all rely on encryption, the process of encoding information in such a way that only the person (or computer) with the key can decode it.

In this article, you will learn about encryption and authentication. You will also learn about public-key and symmetric-key systems, as well as hash algorithms.

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How Encryption Works - HowStuffWorks "Learn How Everything ...

Still got Bitcoin? Protect it from malware, experts warn

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Businesses considering accepting Bitcoins or other forms of cryptocurrency should be prepared to battle a rising number of malware aimed at emptying digital wallets.

Thats the takeaway from a new study by SecureWorks, computer maker Dells security unit. Researchers found that the number of malware targeted at stealing cryptocurrency from Windows PCs increased along with the rise in value of Bitcoin since the beginning of 2013.

As of January of this year, SecureWorks had identified on the Internet 100 unique families of malware capable of stealing wallet files or digital currency from users exchange accounts. The increase in the number of cryptocurrency-stealing malware made it one of the fastest-growing categories of malware, the study said.

While Bitcoin is not the only type of cryptocurrency, it is the most popular and the most valuable. The price has ranged from a high of roughly $1150 in early December to a low of $420 on February 25. Bitcoins price on Thursday was about $565. Other digital currencies include Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, PPCoin, and Mastercoin.

The recent shutdown of Mt. Gox, which once had the largest market share of all digital currency exchanges, highlights the risk of cryptocurrency traded over the Internet. The Bitcoin exchange closed this month after cybercriminals stole $400 million. The heist is under investigation by U.S. federal authorities.

The rising popularity of digital currency has led to its adoption by retailers. Overstock.com became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoins, and industry observers expect others to follow. The site SpendBitcoins lists many places on the web where people can spend their digital currency.

To protect the digital wallets used in conducting transactions, SecureWorks researchers recommend the use of a split wallet, which has a portion of the file on the computer connected to the Internet and the rest on a system with no network connection.

The file kept on the Internet-enabled system would let the business track its running balance and perform transactions with customers. On the offline system is the private key for authorizing a transaction before it is transmitted.

Electrum is an example of a split wallet done through software. Examples of hardware-based products include Hardware Wallet and Trezor, which plans to release its product soon.

By using the proper security, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of accepting digital currency, Pat Litke, security researcher for Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit, said.

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Still got Bitcoin? Protect it from malware, experts warn


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