Evernote Discovers "Suspicious Activity" And Forces Users to Reset Their Passwords

The drumbeat of corporate security issues pounds on, with hybrid cloud/local notekeeping service Evernote reporting this weekend that its internal security team "discovered and blocked suspicious activity" aimed at sensitive areas of Evernote's service. Although neither billing information nor actual client notes were exposed in this breach, Evernote does acknowledge that some user account information -- usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords -- was accessed.

While none of the user passwords were stored in the clear, the fact that they may be in the hands of hackers (along with the corresponding user credentials) led Evernote to force a password reset for all its millions of users. If you've gotten a password reset notice from Evernote, it's almost certainly legitimate, but in the interest of proper procedure you should not click the login link in the email. Open a trusted browser (these days, that means one with Java applets disabled) and type in "www.evernote.com" directly to reset your login credentials.

As more and more cloud services are subject to attacks that target user login details, it's become overwhelmingly clear that just having a strong password isn't enough; if you reused your Evernote password on any other service (especially your email account), you have a potentially serious problem. Managing unique passwords for scores or hundreds of accounts is no picnic, but utilities like 1Password or LastPass can make it easier to find and change your re-usedpasswords. [TUAW]

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Rim Rebrands App Store to Blackberry World Ahead of BB10 Launch

As it gears up to launch its next-gen OS, BlackBerry 10, RIM has made a small but significant change to the branding of its store — dropping the word ‘app’ to turn BlackBerry App World into BlackBerry World. RIM mentioned this change was coming when it discussed the future of the store at the BlackBerry Jam Americans developer event in October, noting then that music and videos would be added to BAW (or BW as it’s now presumably known). RIM has reused its own conference branding for the new store name — but says the BlackBerry World conference will get a new (as yet undisclosed) name.

The BlackBerry-maker is following Google’s lead in ditching the word app from its mobile store. Google’s Android Market evolved into Google Play last year, after Mountain View overhauled the look and feel of the store to put more emphasis on its multimedia content.

RIM has now hung the new sign above the door of its web store. Writing in a blog post, the company said the new branding will also be rolled out to BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook owners in the “coming weeks”.

It described the new BlackBerry World store as a “one-stop shop” for “mobile entertainment” but did not specify who would be providing the music and video content users will be able to download. RIM has previously said “music and video store access may by limited in some regions” — so it looks likely there will be regional supplier variation. We’ve reached out to RIM for clarification and will update this story with any response.

In a bid to boost the number of apps its new platform has at launch — due in Q1 — RIM recently held a port-a-thon to encourage developers to port apps they have built for other mobile platforms to BB10. The event ended with more than 19,000 apps being ported to RIM’s platform, according to its VP of developer relations, Alec Saunders. The total amount of apps at launch is likely to be “about 70,000″, according to RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

Despite some inevitable focus on app quantity, Hein also talked up app “quality”, telling the newspaper: “There are studies that say that, for example, of all Android applications, only 50 percent have been downloaded at least once. Of course, you need a certain selection [of apps], corresponding to regional preferences.” [TechCrunch]

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How Would You Change The Nokia Lumia 610?

A step too far? Perhaps. By iterating its Windows Phone range so much, it's difficult to see why one low-end Lumia is better than the other. The principal nitpick of Nokia's Lumia 610, is that its dwarfed by the similarly-priced yet better-specced 710. But does it do the job as an ultra-budget handset? Well, this is your opportunity to tell us, you never know, maybe some of the folks from Finland are reading what you say, too. [Engadget]

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