Security news and updates from the last week

New York Times website breached by Chinese hackers
The New York Times recently discovered that their computer systems were breached by Chinese hackers. The hackers stole corporate passwords of each and every employee and spied on more than 50 individuals in a time span of 4 months. Apparently these attacks started when the Times started a series of reports on the personal wealth of the Chinese Prime Minister. It is not known if this was a state-sponsored attack. You can also read about other famous hack attacks by Chinese hackers.

Whatsapp infringes on international privacy of users
Data protection authorities from Canada and the Netherlands have charged Whatsapp with a breach of international privacy laws. Whatsapp is a cross-platform messenger application that works on the popular mobile platforms like Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone. However, Whatsapp users need to provide access to their entire contacts list and this is deemed as a violation of privacy laws in some countries.

Apple blocks Java completely after numerous security holes
After all the security issues that has plagued Java recently, Apple has taken the commendable step of blocking Java completely. Any programs and games that run Java on the Mac will be barred from functioning. Apart from the latest Java version, Apple has also blocked Java 6 (an older version) from running on an older version of its OS.

Rahul Thadani