The U.S. National Security Agency should have an unlimited ability to collect digital information in the name of protecting the country against terrorism and other threats, an influential federal judge said during a debate on privacy.“I think privacy is actually overvalued,” Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said during a conference about privacy and cybercrime in Washington, D.C., Thursday.“Much of what passes for the name of privacy is really just trying to conceal the disreputable parts of your conduct,” Posner added.

Research shows a growing concern for online privacy, but internet users give up personal information every day in exchange for the convenience and functionality of a variety of online services.

A new kind of point-of-sale malware similar to that which struck Target is being sold in underground markets for US$2,000.The malware, LusyPOS, was found on VirusTotal, a website where people can submit malware samples to see if one of several dozen security applications detects it.It had also been advertised on an underground carding website, where people buy and sell stolen payment card data, said Brian Minick, vice president of the advanced security business of CBTS, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based security company."It's the first we've seen of it," Minick said.

EU: You can't 'secretly identify or single out users' Website operators that turn to new "device fingerprinting" technologies to track internet users' behaviour in place of "cookies" have to obtain users' consent in accordance with the same EU legal standards that apply to the use of cookies, an EU privacy watchdog has said.…