Watson, the IBM computer created to be a champ-challenging contestant on Jeopardy!, chewed up and spat out humanity's finest knights of trivia Wednesday night in a $77,147 drubbing of past record winners Ken Jennings ($24,000 total) and Brad Rutter ($21,600).
A security researcher has discovered a means of hijacking sensitive information from cookies in Internet Explorer. The 'cookiejacking' technique could expose credentials from Facebook, Twitter, Gmaiil, or other online services, but Microsoft doesn't consider it a serious threat. So, is the sky falling, is the security researcher crying wolf, or is the real risk somewhere in between.
Recently, online properties like Hulu, MSN and Flixster have been caught using a tougher version of the common cookie. These "supercookies" (aka "Flash cookies" and "zombie cookies") serve the same purpose as regular cookies by tracking user preferences and browsing histories. Unlike their popular cousins, however, this breed is difficult to detect and subsequently remove. These cookies secretly collect user data beyond the limitations of common industry practice, and thus raise serious privacy concerns.