Best of the Best: the South Korean school for hackers hitting back against the North

At the fortified border between South and North Korea, students on a computer hacking course are instructed to peer northwards across a strip of empty land toward the enemy state.

“Our country is divided and we are at war, but you can’t see that division in cyberspace,” said Kim Jin-seok. “So we take them to see it in person.”

Kim manages a program called Best of the Best, the goal of which is to train the next generation of so-called white-hat hackers, netizens with elite cybersecurity skills who are able and willing to defend South Korea against malicious hacking attacks, many of which are believed to come from North Korea.

Edward Snowden’s Haven app turns your laptop into a security system

Most sensitive users of technology, especially those in journalism and activism, have to fear online surveillance and hacking. To help alleviate that fear, on 22nd December the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden and a team of collaborators have launched a new Android app called Haven. The app will help Journalists and others in protecting their information.

Cyber Warfare Is Real — Should We Blame the U.S. and Israel For Starting It?

In late 2009, something almost laughably scary started happening at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran: centrifuges — slim cylinders containing powerful rotors used to enrich uranium — began exploding.

It wasn’t clear why. Or how. The operating data for the impacted centrifuges gave the impression they were functioning at normal levels, and when technicians monitoring that data received visual or aural clues that not all was well, the emergency shutdown system refused to initiate.

German government wants ‘backdoor’ access to every digital device: report

Germany’s Interior Minister wants to force tech and car companies to provide the German security services with hidden digital access to cars, computers, phones and more, according to a media report from Friday.

Kaspersky Labs: Warning over Russian anti-virus software

The British government has issued a fresh warning about the security risks of using Russian anti-virus software.

The National Cyber Security Centre is to write to all government departments warning against using the products for systems related to national security.

The UK cyber-security agency will say the software could be exploited by the Russian government.

Security firm Kaspersky Labs, accused in the US of being used by the Russian state for espionage, Kaspersky Labs is widely used by consumers and businesses across the globe, although they are not being advised to stop using the software, as well as by some parts of the UK government.

denied wrongdoing.