Software Ransoms: The year 2014 is shaping up to be a year of digital hostage and ransomware with a larger number demands made by hackers to users, to pay cash for restoration of certain software. This year iOS users had a scare when their iDevices were locked through the ‘Find My iPhone Services’ app. They were demanded a ransom for restoration of their devices by hackers.

Another such incident was in June when Domino pizzas was hacked in their Belgian and French Websites, demanding a ransom of 30,000 Euros, wherein failure to pay would mean the release of customer information. This hack was done by a group called Rex Mundi.

GNU Flaw: This is UNIX like computer operating software that comprises wholly of ‘Free Software’. So in February this year Apple and Linux faced problems on the SSL, scrambling to fix the flaw implementation of online security protocols. In Apple, there was an accident addition of an extra ‘goto fail’ programming that left encrypted data open to hackers.

This data is sent through SSL/TLS lines. Whereas in Linux’s case, the GnuTLS library had a programming flaw exposing user data to potential breaches. In the case of Linux, the programming flaw existed as long as 10 years.

Outlook blocked: This year Microsoft confessed to snooping on a blogger who happened to be a former employee. The reason behind the snoop was that the specs for Windows 8 were out early and the leak stirred curiosity.

Though they have been criticized for this act they were justified later due to company privacy concerns. After this incident Microsoft improved on the privacy settings of the Outlook to make it a safer place.

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