Privacy

The world of information security is, as we know, a constant arms race between the hackers and cyber criminals and the protection industry.

Since the focus has turned to making money rather than simply causing disruption it's become big business too. 2014's string of retail and other security breaches is testament to this.

China's monitoring and control of how its citizens access the internet is something that has been going on for some time. Now there is something new for Chinese smartphone owners to worry about. Security researchers at Palo Alto Networks have discovered a backdoor built into millions of handsets produced by Coolpad.

Known as CoolReaper, the backdoor potentially places more than 10 million smartphone owners at risk. The security firm conducted investigations after users complained on message boards about suspicious activity on their handsets. After downloading multiple copies of the stock ROM used on Chinese CoolPad phone, it was found that "the majority of the ROMs contained the CoolReaper backdoor".

Google today revealed a new feature for Gmail that should help to increase inbox security. Newly added support for Content Security Policy (CSP) keeps Gmail extensions in check to ensure that none are malicious or try to interfere with your Gmail session.

It's essentially server-side malware protection for Gmail extensions, and this is just the latest move from Google that aims to increase inbox security. Email security is of interest to everyone online, but it's something that is particularly important to business and enterprise users -- groups Google is keen to keep happy.

Microsoft is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the US government, and the fight has led to an unlikely alliance between several rival companies. Microsoft was handed a government order requesting access to emails stored at a datacenter in Ireland. The company has been battling the order for several months, and now Apple, Amazon, Verizon, and HP are among the big names lending their support to the fight.

It's not just technology firms who are putting their names forward in support of the challenge of the search warrant. Several global media outlets, including the Guardian, the Washington Post, and CNN as well as numerous trade associations and advocacy organizations have signaled their support for Microsoft.

In a near-perfect example of how there is always more than one way to look at things, Edward Snowden has very different views on Amazon than Amazon users do. On Friday, Snowden appeared -- as ever -- via video link at the surveillance symposium at the Cato Institute. He condemned Amazon's lack of encryption of customers' searches, referring to the practice as "morally irresponsible".

But Snowden's condemnation of Amazon comes at the same time as a study by Bizrate Insights which finds that more than 45 percent of online shoppers trust the site with their payment and personal information. So why the disparity?

The shift to mobile computing has led to some major changes for enterprises, not least in how the security and confidentiality of data is governed.

A new report, commissioned by data protection specialist Druva from Forrester Consulting, surveyed 205 IT and legal professionals in enterprises in the US and UK. It suggests that 20 percent of CIOs could lose their jobs in 2016 for failing to implement information governance.

Internet users from the UK and Germany are more likely to stop using or delete an account for an online service than those from the United States, according to research into data privacy concerns.

The report by German software firm Open-Xchange, called Crossing the Line, investigated how online behavior has been affected by Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding government surveillance programs.

Blackphone, the handset that claims to be able to protect users against surveillance and other security threats, is set to launch its own app store.

The service will be available from January 2015 and will offer privacy-focused apps and software that have been selected to provide the highest level of security available.

The Iranian government is reportedly working on a new system to block Internet anonymity.

The Middle Eastern nation, which has a long history with online censorship, will be able to identify any individual who goes online in the country according to the AFP.

Usually it's the big guys, or at least national and international organizations, that stand up to fight against the government. But on Monday, a nurse from Idaho will continue to fight the case she brought against Barack Obama and government intelligence agencies. Anna Smith says her Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the NSA collected data about her from phone records.

A district court ruled against Smith when she first started to fight the case, but now she has the backing of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho.

Amnesty International hit out at a court ruling that found communication surveillance carried out by UK secret services did not breach human rights. Amnesty UK and Privacy International brought the case to court following revelations by Edward Snowden that showed GCHQ (UK secret services) and the NSA had been spying on people by monitoring their correspondence.

But a panel of judges found that the actions of GCHQ do not contravene the European Convention of Human Rights. Amnesty said the result was "disappointing if unsurprising" and indicated that it will appeal at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

As the IT landscape changes and employees are more likely to be accessing cloud services on a range of devices, it's important that they remain properly protected from threats.

Cloud-delivered security service OpenDNS has announced that it's opened up its platform to other security vendors to fight attacks through intelligence sharing.

Like any company, Google wants to appeal to as many people as possible. Google Docs has been tweaked to increase its appeal to enterprise and business users, and Gmail is constantly primped and poked. Appealing specifically to children is not an entirely new idea for the search giant -- Google Code-In is targeted at 13-17 year olds, for instance -- but now Google is setting its sights on a younger audience.

Talking to USA Today, Vice President of Engineering at Google, Pavni Diwanji explained that the company is looking to create new versions of its products that are "fun and safe for children". Starting next year, the company will launch new versions of existing services, this time aimed at those aged 12 and under.

Ads are hard to avoid at the best of times, but it has a tendency to get a little worse in the run-up to Christmas. Advertising has become increasingly prolific on social networks, and this is certainly true of Facebook. As we enter the holiday season, Facebook is providing advertisers with advice that will enable them to deliver finely-tuned ads at highly specific sets of users.

If you picked yourself up a new tablet in the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, Facebook makes it possible for advertisers to pick you out of the masses. The social network is not only rolling out a couple of new features to help with targeted advertising, but also providing tips for more successful campaigns.

Over the years Twitter has come in for a lot of flak for the level of abuse that runs rife on the social network. Now the site is taking action by making improvements to the existing blocking features as well as refining the harassment-reporting facility. With the likes of #gamergate and various other high profile cases, Twitter users have found themselves on the receiving end of vitriol, hatred and abuse.

Today's updates aim to clamp down on these activities, making it easier for users to report problematic tweets and easier for Twitter to respond quickly to problems. There is a particular focus on making life easier to users of mobile versions of Twitter, and the blocking feature is now more prominent in apps.