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Category: Webcasts

23

May

For Twitter Users, Two-Step Verification Is Finally Here

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Twitter has finally rolled out a feature users have been clamoring for for months: two-factor authentication. The update adds a layer of security that should help defend you (and any news organizations that haven't changed their passwords yet) from unauthorized log-in attempts.

You can enable the feature when it's available by heading to your Twitter settings page and checking the box that says "Require a verification code when I sign in." (It might not be available yet; Twitter seems to be rolling out the feature gradually.) The next time you log in, Twitter will ask you to provide a shortcode that it'll send you via text message.

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Category: Webcasts

23

May

How to Stop Worrying and Love Twitters New Two-Factor Verification

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Twitter has added two-step verification to increase its security after all the recent hacks into high profile media accounts, but you should go sign up for it right this minute — because everyone's vulnerable to password attacks these days. Or maybe not right this minute, since there are some reports that Twitter is a little overwhelmed and others have reported the two steps aren't showing up for everyone. But at some point in the very near future, you get on that. Here's why, even if the new cellphone hiccup seems cumbersome.

RELATED: Pro-Assad Hackers Take Over AFP's Twitter with Syrian Propaganda Photos

Despite all the negativity surrounding the announcement — such as complaints that most people won't use it, and that major companies can't really take advantage of the system — this is a big, important step in the right direction for Internet security. Pretty much all of the hackers and security experts we've ever talked to keep insisting that the extra layer of password protection, by way of cellphones, may not be perfect but that it make it a lot harder for unwanted snoopers to get into accounts. And maybe your Twitter account doesn't sound that important, compared to say, your bank account, or your Gmail, but it's likely linked to those things and can act as a gateway to a life of hacked horrors. So, go do it. 

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Category: Webcasts

23

May

The HTC One Isnt Saving HTC from the Facebook Phone

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Despite all the glowing reviews of the HTC One, including all the reviews for the Samsung Galaxy S IV that ended up championing all the great things about the HTC One instead, HTC is currently falling apart — at least in part because of "disastrous" sales that wiped the HTC First (aka the Facebook phone) on its way out of the market. Two top executives have quit amid the company's decline: HTC's chief product officer, Kouji Kodera, left last week, sources tell The Verge's Chris Ziegler, while HTC Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik has also left, reports CNET. And those are just the most recent departures as employees have hurled themselves off the sinking ship in the last few months. "They're in utter freefall," an anonymous source told Ziegler. 

RELATED: Facebook Will Finally Resolve Rumors of the Fabled Facebook Phone in One Week

That's because HTC hasn't had a hit since 2011. After a year of poor sales, the once-popular Taiwanese smartphone competitor needed something like the One to lift it out of a bad year. The phone should have been good enough to do that, given all the laudatory praise. But it didn't: Sales of the device, which debuted in mid-April, started off slow, sources tell Ziegler — and that was a worse outlook than earlier reports, which had the One "selling well," but not as well as its biggest competition, Samsung's Galaxy S IV. One source attributes the lag to "supply issues," which had to do with internal disorganization. But even if they get on track, HTC might be too late to fix this mess. The Samsung Galaxy S IV has already captured a lot of that high-end, non-iPhone smartphone market, getting Consumer Reports' top pick and selling 10 million devices in less than a month. (The Galaxy S III took 50 days to hit the same mark.) 

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Category: Webcasts

23

May

Facebook posts: Suit filed over vets detention

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A civil liberties group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of an ex-Marine who was detained in a psychiatric facility after posting anti-government messages on Facebook, using the case to criticize a program that looks for veterans who may have become extremists.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed suit in Richmond over the weeklong detention last August of Brandon J. Raub, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attorneys for Raub claimed his detention came under a federal program called "Operation Vigilant Eagle" involving surveillance of veterans who express views critical of the government.

The 27-year-old veteran from Chesterfield was taken into custody last Aug. 16, after being questioned by local police and federal agents about strident Facebook posts against the government. The FBI said the interview was prompted by complaints from people who read his posts, including some that spoke of a pending revolution. One said "a day of reckoning" was coming, and another said: "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads."