Tips & advice

Blackshades is a RAT and the FBI has just arrested a lot of people involved in its use and distribution. But what's a RAT and how will these arrests impact cyber crime?

Google, Facebook, Twitter and AOL have joined forces to stamp out fake tech support services where customers are fooled into calling bogus technical support lines, where they are encouraged, not to fix their comptuer, but to install malware - or give away details crucial for identity theft.

Many cybercriminals are not exactly Bond villain material - in fact, some are criminals with a level of weapons-grade stupidity that Bond villains wouldn't even employ as henchmen.

Technology giants with large ad networks need to do more to protect consumers from hackers infiltrating their advertising networks to deliver malicious adverts - or even point users to sites that serve malware, the U.S. Senate has warned.

The FBI is gearing up for a major crackdown on cybercrime, and says that arrests of major criminals will follow in weeks. Criminals in foreign countries will not be safe, a top FBI official said.

So-called phone hacking makes the headlines again, as new revelations are made. Have you properly secured your mobile phone voicemail?

Phil Zimmermann invented the most widely used system of email encryption in the world - and says that Fortune 100 companies are queuing up for his encrypted Blackphone, which allows "whispered" conversations, anywhere.

The popular online wallet site Dogevault is offline after attackers destroyed data on the site. The impact on user funds is unknown - although site users have reported withdrawals from their accounts, some as large as 950,000 Dogecoin.

The photo-sharing app Snapchat, popular with youngsters for its photos which would exist briefly then “disappear forever” has admitted that the photos did not, in fact, disappear, in a settlement with the U.S. government’s FTC.