Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to the wild world of security and surveillance. From CCTV to massive government spying initiatives, there’s no escaping it. Recent high-profile leaks have served as a sobering reminder of just how present it is in all of our lives, so we figured what better time to take a deep dive? We kick things off with one of the strangest (and raciest) segments in Engadget Show history: a visit to the set of John McAfee’s latest web video. The one-time security software guru and fugitive discusses the state of antivirus, bath salts and offers some unsolicited advice to Edward Snowden, one exile to another. Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation sits down for an animated discussion of recent NSA surveillance revelations, including a breakdown of which major tech companies are doing right by their user base.

Boing Boing editor, sci-fi author and privacy activist Cory Doctorow climbs a tree in San Diego to discuss Wikileaks, the NSA, the “surveillance state” and more. “Edward Snowden is a hero,” he begins, not speaking on behalf of the EFF, mind you — and things get really good from there. Cryptographer and computer security specialist Bruce Schneier also chimes in on wiretapping, whistleblowing and “security theater.”

Next up, we pay a visit to The New Yorker‘s midtown office to talk Strong Box, the magazine’s secure deposit box for anonymous whistleblowers. The team behind Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs joins us to discuss partnering with computer security company Kaspersky to bring a realistic portrait of the world of hacking to its much anticipated title. And one-time hacker turned head of security community outreach at Microsoft, Katie Moussouris, discusses Redmond’s Bluehat bounty program and working with the hacking community to build safer software.

All that, plus the usual prognosticating from resident philosopher John Roderick in this month’s Engadget Show, just after the break.

Filed under: Cameras, Gaming, Wireless, Internet, Software, Microsoft

Comments

Thanks to technology and the way games are headed, it is common to see more developers start creating open-world games on a more regular basis. Titles such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Assassin’s Creed, and Skyrim come to mind, and […]

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

It’s been too long since there’s been an official game starring the Rabbids, which starred in a number of mini-game themed titles over the past couple of years. Nowadays, Rayman fans have been focusing on Ubisoft’s latest games, Rayman Origins […]

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame will be available on iOS and Android on July 25.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Yesterday, game publisher Ubisoft was hacked, leading to usernames and passwords on their ubi.com website being stolen. However, it seems that a lot of Ubisoft fans are wondering if it’s a serious situation or just a publicity stunt for a marketing campaign for Ubisoft’s upcoming game Watch Dogs, which is a game based on hacking into various computer systems.

When Ubisoft posted about the hack on their Facebook page, many fans commented on and questioned whether or not the hack was actually legitimate, or just propaganda for Watch Dogs. Users asked questions like, “Are you sure its not just a watch dogs promotional stunt?” and commenting, “this is probably a Watch Dogs stunt,” and “hacked by Aiden Pearce.”

It seems the questionable hack was brought up after the fact that users received an email from Ubisoft, but noted that the email looked like spam with some users saying that the email was in German and full of grammatical mistakes. Other users noted that there was no signature attached to the email, so they couldn’t tell who it was from. Even the email address seemed a bit weird: email_ubi@email.ubi.com.

However, Ubisoft clarified over and over that it was a real hack, giving users a link to change their passwords. While the game publisher says that passwords are encrypted, there’s still a chance that they could be cracked by the hackers, so they’re warning all users to change their passwords before the hackers end up cracking them to get access to further information.

Ubisoft also says that financial information is safe, as the publisher doesn’t host that information on their website or server, but rather through a third-party. Then again, if a hacker ended up logging into your account, they could eventually find their way to your financial information and other personal info. Hacked or not, it’s always a good idea to change your password every so often to prevent peeping eyes from gaining access to your info.

Ubisoft hack spawns Watch Dog promo conspiracy theories is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.