Smartphone and Gadget News by ElectroGeek

At the southernmost end of Brooklyn, just off Dead Horse Bay, there’s a weather-beaten helipad where the New York Police Department keeps a gray unmarked twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter. Detective Brendan Galligan ushers me aboard. “We don’t really let people see this,” he says.
We climb in behind the pilot and find ourselves facing a console [...]

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Computer users are increasingly at risk of being lured to Web sites that surreptitiously download malicious software onto their machines, but stolen or lost laptops still represent most of the security breaches reported, according to a new Microsoft report.
Exploits, malicious software, and hacking accounted for 13 percent of all security breach notifications recorded in the [...]

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On Monday, Microsoft released to manufacturers (RTM) the final code for Windows XP SP3. The upgrade provides support for WPA2 and the Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) used in Windows Vista, among other things. The public version will be available for download via the Web on April 29. Based on our initial installation, the upgrade [...]

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Despite privacy concerns, TSA says 90% of passengers who are subject to secondary screening opt for a millimeter wave scan over a pat down.
The Transportation Security Administration on Friday said that it’s beginning new pilot tests of millimeter wave scanning technology at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Millimeter wave [...]

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The fixes include patching a zero-day vulnerability in Apple’s Web browser that allowed researchers to compromise a MacBook Air.
Apple on Wednesday issued a security patch for its Safari Web browser that fixes a widely reported vulnerability and three other holes, two of which affect only Windows versions.
At the CanSecWest security conference last month, security researchers [...]

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Symantec is warning Windows users to install a critical patch or risk losing control of their computers.
The firm has seen attempts to exploit a GDI (graphics device interface) vulnerability in Windows that Microsoft patched last week, says Alfred Huger, vice president of development for Symantec Security Response.
“It’s our belief that the vulnerability is being successfully [...]

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MacBook Air hacked in 2 minutes using a zero-day vulnerability in Apple’s Safari 3.1 Web browser.
Before you run out and buy a MacBook Air you may want to read about Apple’s Safari browser security woes.
According to an article posted by InformationWeek , “ Mac OS X’s reputation for security was tarnished Thursday when a team [...]

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Best Buy Co. Inc. sold digital picture frames during the holidays that harbored malicious code able to spread to any connected Windows PC, the big box retailer has confirmed. It is not recalling the frames, however.
What Best Buy called “a limited number” of the 10.4-in. digital frames sold under its in-house Insignia brand were “contaminated [...]

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A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bug-fixing scheme has uncovered an average of one security glitch per 1,000 lines of code in 180 widely used open source software projects.
The program, called the Open Source Hardening Project, is sponsored by the DHS and carried out by Coverity and Stanford University. Launched in March 2006, the [...]

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