The four major wireless providers in the United States have partnered with the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to curb cell phone theft, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The wireless companies will build a central database of stolen cell phones, which will track phones that are reported as lost or stolen and deny them voice and data service. The goal of the database is to reduce crime by making it very difficult to use a stolen device. Verizon Wireless and Sprint currently block pho...

Nearly a dozen suspects have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the theft and sale of AMOLED display technology under development at Samsung. Yonhap News Agency on Thursday reported that 11 suspects either currently or formerly employed by Samsung Mobile Display have been arrested. One 46-year-old researcher at Samsung is believed to have accepted a payment of nearly $170,000 from an unnamed “local rival firm” in exchange for trade secrets pertaining to proprietary Samsung technology...

Path caused quite a stir last week when it was discovered that the app secretly transmitted users’ entire contact lists to its servers. Without giving users the option to approve the transfer or even giving an indication that this data was being sent, Path was basically stealing personal data. The company’s CEO would later apologize and a recent update makes the process more transparent, but the damage has been done and the company’s image is tarnished. Apple is known for having strict guide...

Zappos on Sunday confirmed that hackers breached the company’s servers and accessed personal data belonging to many of its customers. The Amazon-owned shoe retailer known for top-notch service and surprising customers with express shipping at no extra cost confirmed that personal data from 24 million accounts was accessed during a recent security breach. The hackers gained access to range of sensitive data including user names, encrypted passwords, customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and the ...

The Carrier IQ scandal has shifted attention from malicious mobile threats to carrier-sourced spyware over the past month, but a new report suggests the threat of more serious mobile malware continues to intensify. More than $1 million was stolen from Android smartphones alone in 2011 according to Lookout Mobile Security, which pulled data from more than a million apps and 15 million handsets around the world to compile its 2012 Mobile Threat Predictions report. The likelihood of an Android user encounterin...

Lemko Corporation, a private software and systems developer, on Wednesday filed a complaint against Motorola Mobility alleging that it stole trade secrets and is financially benefiting from the misappropriation of Lemko’s source code. The company claims that Motorola hired an engineer who developed unique, protected code while employed by Lemko, and proceeded to implement the source code on Motorola’s servers without licensing the technology. The code in question relates to server side network-ba...

A recent online security breach involving the left of 360,000 credit card numbers will cost Citigroup $2.7 million, the company confirmed to U.S. government officials on Monday. Hackers infiltrated Citigroup servers last month and stole account numbers and personal information associated with over 360,000 Citi-branded credit cards. According to Citigroup, personal information and card numbers from approximately 3,400 cardholders was subsequently used to make about $2.7 million in unauthorized purchases. Citig...

Call it a meeting of minds or call it an unholy matrimony — in either event, the recent rash of high-profile breaches is about to get an adrenaline shot. Hacktivist group Anonymous and a crew of emerging merry hackers known as are joining forces to target the dissemination of government secrets and the defacement of other websites such as those belonging to banks. “As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Interne...

On its PlayStation Network blog today, Sony gave an official statement on when the PlayStation Network will be back online. The short answer is “at least a few more days.” Sony has also promised that both Qriocity and PSN should be available by May 31, however, so it could take a bit longer, too. Both networks went down after Sony suffered a massive security breach during which hackers stole 12.3 million credit card numbers and compromised personal data from 101 million accounts. “I know y...

In its response to a congressional inquiry over recent cyberattacks aimed at several of Sony’s online networks, the company on Wednesday claimed it possessed evidence of hacker activist group Anonymous’ involvement. Sony did state, however, that it could not be certain if Anonymous knowingly carried out Denial of Service attacks in order to facilitate the theft of customer data, or if the group was merely an unwitting pawn in a scheme carried out by more malicious attackers. Anonymous on Wednesday...

Charges have been filed by federal prosecutors in Seattle against a Microsoft employee accused of wire fraud. Robert D. Curry was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with stealing $515,000 from Microsoft using a series of wire transfers sent from Microsoft to Curry’s bank account. According to Curry, the transfers were payments for services rendered but prosecutors contend that Curry provided no such services. According to the charges, Curry created a shell company and used one of Microsoft’s v...

HP on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Adrian Jones, the company’s former head of enterprise sales for the Asia region, to stop him from sharing hundreds of documents he allegedly stole before leaving the company and joining his current employer, Oracle. HP said it had planned to fire Jones earlier this year after having launched an investigation into his expense reports and his alleged relationship with another HP employee who worked beneath him. Jones left the company, however, and HP alleges that he...

Following Google’s recent admission that it accidentally stole passwords, emails and other personal information with its Street View cars, the Federal Trade Commission has decided not to issue any fines. Earlier this week, Google confirmed accusations that its Street View cars — the vehicles Google uses to take Street View images for its popular Google Maps service — inadvertently stole sensitive personal data from various homes with open Wi-Fi networks. Wednesday, the FTC confirmed that a resulting...

We’ve seen pretty wild iPhone thefts in the past, some involving serious injury, but you just know it’s bad when Interpol gets involved. Thousands of iPhone 3GS’ were stolen from a Belgian warehouse through a hole in the roof directly above the smartphones, and they’re now surfacing in Russia. The iPhone 3GS is definitely going to be a hot commodity there because of the vast grey/black market and because the 3GS hasn’t been officially released in Russia. If you’re planning ...