Tech World

Black and gray markets for computer hacking tools, services and byproducts such as stolen credit card numbers continue to expand, creating an increasing threat to businesses, governments and individuals, according to a new RAND Corporation study. One dramatic example is the December 2013 breach of retail giant Target, in which data from approximately 40 million credit cards and 70 million user accounts was hijacked. Within days, that data appeared — available for purchase — on black market websites. “Hacking used to be an activity that was mainly carried out by individuals working alone, but over the last 15 years the world of hacking has become more organized and reliable,” said Lillian Ablon, lead author of the study and an information systems analyst at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “In certain respects, cybercrime can be more lucrative and easier to carry out than the illegal drug trade.” The growth in cybercrime has been assisted by sophisticated and specia...

A Facebook post claiming that a “giant anaconda” or the “world’s largest anaconda” has eaten a zookeeper in South Africa is nothing more than a scam try to get people to click on a webpage for pageviews. When one clicks on the post, they are directed to a website designed to look like Facebook. It then asks the user to share the video first before viewing the content. There is no video of a “giant anaconda” eating a zookeeper. The image used in the post has been used in other scams, and it has been used for several years. A Hoax-Slayer post in January shows a scam with the same exact image. The scam “is a very poorly rendered composite that users the following image as its source. The “zookeeper” has been ineptly added to the original snake image via Photoshop or another image manipulation program. The original image has circulated in different contexts for several years,”  Hoax-Slayer says. The scam either directs the user to a website for traffic, directs them t...

The universe is big. Really big.  A recent movie created by the American Museum of Natural History shows you exactly how unfathomably huge it really is, or at least how unfathomably huge are the parts of it that we know. Surely, there is more beyond.  The movie,  The Known Universe , takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe. Watch Video

Microsoft is showcasing a new virtual assistant as part of an upcoming update for Windows phones. The assistant, named Cortana, tries to be chatty like Siri on Apple’s iPhones and iPads, while anticipating information you might want, like Google Now on Android devices. Cortana will warn you of conflicts when you add items to your calendar, and it will remind you to ask about the new dog your sister just got the next time you communicate with her, whether that’s by phone, chat or email. It will offer to remind you of upcoming travel by scanning your email. Microsoft says the feature is in a “beta” test mode as the company tries to improve its voice recognition capabilities. In fact, during Wednesday’s announcement, Cortana made numerous mistakes, including offering weather in Celsius when the request was for the Kelvin temperature scale. Cortana is among the new features coming to a Windows Phone update called 8.1. The company says it will be available on new phones in about a...

Like many kids, Kristoffer Wilhelm Von Hassel from Ocean Beach, Calif., wants to play video games. And like many kids, his father had set a password on his Xbox One. Unlike most kids, five-year-old Kristoffer figured out how to get past the password. His hack is a bit simplistic, but it worked. After notifying Microsoft, the company awarded Kristoffer with a researcher credit, some games, and a year subscription to Xbox Live. Watch Video here

A viral Facebook scam is claiming to have video footage of a “pregnant girl” doing something will lead users to malicious websites. There’s several different versions of the scam, but one prominent one reads, “[Shocking Video] You Won’t Believe What This Pregnant Girl Does!” It shows a pregnant woman with a video play button over it. However, there’s no video and when Facebook users attempt to click on it, they’re directed to a fake website designed to look like Facebook. The website then asks users to share it before accessing the content. “The scammer cybercriminals behind this scam will change the website names and images, so watch out for similar scams with different website names and images,” Online Threat Alerts said in a post. The website can either have fake surveys that should not be filled out, malware, or a rogue Facebook app. “Once on the website, the victim will be asked to complete surveys or share the same website before he/she can view the video. Now, s...

A thin, soft stick-on patch that can stretch and move with the skin uses off-the shelf chip-based electronics to continuously track health and wirelessly send updates to your cellphone or computer. The patches stick to the skin like a temporary tattoo and incorporate a unique microfluidic construction with wires folded like origami to allow the patch to bend and flex without being constrained by the rigid electronics components.   Researchers say the patches could revolutionize clinical monitoring such as EKG and EEG testing—no bulky wires, pads, or tape required.  “We designed this device to monitor human health 24/7, but without interfering with a person’s daily activity,” says Yonggang Huang, professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University . “It is as soft as human skin and can move with your body, but at the same time it has many different monitoring functions. What is very important about this device is it i...