Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Numerous new accusations have kept cyberespionage firmly in the media spotlight in the run-up to President Barack Obama's meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping Within 24 hours, two separate stories broke about Chinese hackers pinching the designs for some of Uncle Sam's critical weapons systems and nicking the architectural plans for ...

Chinese hackers were accused of stealing the designs for more than two dozen U.S. military weapons systems in a report appearing Monday in The Washington Post The system designs pinched by the hackers were for systems critical to the country's missile defenses and its combat aircraft and war ships, the paper said....

China and Iran were accused last week of renewing their cyberattacks on U.S. computer systems after a brief hiatus A gang of Chinese hackers allegedly affiliated with the country's People's Liberation Army has resumed infiltrating U.S. computer systems after making a strategic withdrawal earlier this year, according to cybersecurity firm Mandiant....

Intel's new CEO Brian Krzanich showed Tuesday he's ready to put his stamp on the chipmaking giant by announcing a company reorganization that includes a division for new devices The division, headed by former mobile unit chief Mike Bell, will reportedly focus on emerging product trends. It will be a key component in Intel's attempt to boost its per...

Chances are you've never heard of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, but you may be familiar with its former Internet domain: PW That's because the domain, now owned by Directi, has become a favorite of spammers....

It appears that Microsoft won't be rocking the Windows Phone 8 boat very much until 2014 Microsoft spread some crumbs Tuesday about an update to its mobile operating system coming this summer, and the offering is pretty mild. Another scheduled update for the fall is expected to deliver more of the same....

Willie Sutton once said that he robbed banks because that's where the money was. If Sutton were living today, he might have made the career move to hacker That would allow him to do what he liked to do best -- steal money -- on a global scale, which is what a ring of bank robbing hackers have been doing. Eight of the alleged cybercrooks were arrest...

The Obama administration appears to be sending a message to privacy advocates that it's taking their issue seriously by creating a new position devoted to it -- and choosing a high-profile tech lawyer to occupy it The White House reportedly is tagging Nicole Wong, Twitter's legal director for products, for a top privacy post -- either as a chief pr...

There are 3.7 billion IP addresses on the Internet, and HD Moore has pinged every one of them Moore is chief security officer at Rapid7, a cyberthreat and risk management company. In February, he decided as a hobby project to conduct a census of all the devices connected to the Internet, using a nest of computers in a spare room in his home. What h...

Authentication requirements for some travelers looking for shared accommodations around the world will be getting a little tougher Airbnb -- which allows people to list, discover and book unique accommodations through a sharing model -- announced Tuesday that it will be asking for more personal information from U.S. consumers who want to use its se...

Cybercriminals have begun focusing their malicious endeavors on the sinew of the Internet to reap greater rewards For months now, Net bandits have targeted key infrastructure elements -- from the domain-naming service to certificate-issuing authorities to hosting services -- in order to spread cash-producing malware....

It's no secret that security experts don't have a lot of love for social media. Information freely available at social media sites makes it easier for net marauders to fashion targeted attacks on organizations However, social media may be undermining data security in a more profound way....

American Airlines created a nightmare for its customers for at least two hours Tuesday. Its electronic reservation system wentdown in the middle of the afternoon, forcing the carrier to hold allflights until after 4:30 p.m. ET. The incident may have exposed a rift between AA and Sabre, the company managing its computerized reservations system, which used to be part of the airline...

A lot of noise has been made about the consequences of data breaches for companies, but a recent survey of some of the largest U.S. businesses may have wrapped those noisemakers in a muffler Of the 27 largest companies reporting cyberattacks in their most recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, none said they sustained any ...

Google has revamped its Google Play Android app with designs on making it easier to use and better for discovering content. The search giant is also thinning its app catalog by removing what it considers to be low quality offerings. In what has become the rage in digital design circles, text will take a back seat to images at the new Google Play....

China has a reputation as a center for international hacking, so why would a U.S. security company want to set up shop there? Before hackers launch their international escapades, they typically cut their teeth in their local markets, explained Rakesh Loonkar, president of Trusteer, which announced last week that it was opening an office in China....

Nothing steams consumers like robocalls, which is why the Federal Trade Commission launched a contest last year calling for ideas to tackle the nuisance. The winners of that challenge were announced Tuesday Each of two winners will receive $25,000 to bring their robocall solutions to market....

One of the largest denial of service attacks in the history of the Internet didn't take rocket science to execute The offensive was conducted over several days last week after the anti-spam group Spamhaus placed a Dutch hosting service, located in a former NATO bunker, on a blacklist reserved for spammers....

Microsoft is once again being challenged in Europe over alleged anti-competitive practices A group representing Linux developers in Spain has filed a complaint with the European Commission charging that Microsoft's desktop operating system, Windows 8, supports technology that makes it difficult for users to place other operating systems on their co...

Cybersecurity news had a distinctive international flavor last week In South Korea, a cyberattack from unknown sources disrupted portions of the nation's banking and broadcast industries....