More than a year after millions of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls customers found out their credit card information had been hacked into, the discount stores' operator agreed to have its information audited but avoided paying federal fines. TJX was one of three firms that agreed to settle charges that it "failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information," federal regulators said in two unrelated data-breach decisions.
Piracy Profits Funding Terrorism, Attorney General Says
Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned that the huge profits generated from piracy and counterfeiting are fostering terrorism. Terror groups are taking their cues from organized crime and funding their operations with money they make committing intellectual property crimes, he told a gathering of Silicon Valley executives.
Search Queries "Poisoned," Security Analyst Says
A million search queries have been "poisoned," at dozens of well-known Web sites over the past several weeks, according to security analyst Dancho Danchev. Attackers are using programming errors to hijack keyword searches by automatically attaching malicious HTML code to specific search queries.
Supermarkets Blame Malware for Massive Data Breach
Unauthorized software that was secretly installed on servers in Hannaford Bros. supermarkets across the Northeast and in Florida enabled the massive data breach that compromised up to 4.2 million credit and debit cards, the company said. The Scarborough, Maine-based grocer confirmed a report in The Boston Globe that it told Massachusetts regulators about the link between the breach and the illicit programs, known as "malware."
Net Neutrality Debate Sparks New Political Activists
For the first time, Congress and the FCC are debating wide-reaching Web regulations and policies that would determine how much control cable and telecommunications companies would have over the Internet. The issue has given rise to a new political constituency raised on text messaging and social networking and relies on e-mail blasts and online video clips in its advocacy.
Lawmaker Defends Proposed Changes to Copyright Law
Rep. Howard Berman, who heads a congressional panel in charge of writing copyright legislation, lashed out at Internet pirates and defended his effort to add stiffer anticopying penalties to federal law. Berman, a Democrat who represents the congressional district near Hollywood, said at a technology policy conference that he was on track to enact the so-called Pro-IP Act by the end of 2008.
Hackers Deface Indonesia Site After Porn Restrictions
Hackers have defaced the Web site of Indonesia's information ministry in response to a government move to restrict access to pornographic material on the Internet, an official said. Indonesia's parliament passed a new information bill that criminalises the transmission of pornographic material on the Web.
Patent Office Leader Vows to Stay "Technology Neutral"
Open-source and free software fans who despise software patents shouldn't look for an ally in the head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent Commissioner Jon Dudas says his office is all about staying "technology neutral," so long as the invention meets certain standards.
WIPO Reports Record Number of Domain Name Disputes
The World Intellectual Property Organization ousted a record number of "cybersquatters" from Web sites with domain names referring to trademarked companies, foundations and celebrities in 2007. WIPO, a U.N. agency based in Geneva, received 2,156 complaints alleging "abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet" last year, up 18 percent from 2006 and 48 percent more than the filings lodged in 2005.
Comcast Changes Policy, Adopts Net Neutrality
Comcast Corp., an Internet service provider under investigation for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers, announced an about-face in its stance and said it will treat all types of Internet traffic equally. Comcast said it will collaborate with BitTorrent Inc., the San Francisco company founded by the creator of the peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol, to come up with better ways to transport large files over the Internet instead of delaying file transfers.
Copyright Fight Leads TorrentSpy to Shut Down
A prolonged legal fight with the movie industry has forced TorrentSpy, BitTorrent's popular search engine, to shut down. "The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile," said a note on TorrentSpy's front door.
Jury Rules for Rambus in Antitrust Trial
Rambus, the small company whose memory-chip technology is inside virtually every personal computer, won a major court victory in its decade-long effort to get royalties from the world's major chip makers. After a seven-week trial, a San Jose jury deliberated just a few hours before deciding that Rambus didn't violate antitrust or fraud laws when it patented technologies that an industry group ultimately adopted into the standards for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
YouTube Removes Videos That Led to Ban by Turkey
YouTube has removed several video clips that had prompted Turkish authorities to block access to the video-sharing Web site, a move the company believes will lead to a restoration of access soon. In a statement in Turkish sent to The Associated Press, YouTube said the company "reviewed the videos that led to the most recent ban on access and removed them because of their content, which violate YouTube's content policy."
Google Investors Seeking Ban on Censorship
A group of Google investors is proposing that the Internet company create a committee on human rights and establish policies that forbid it from engaging in censorship. Google will let shareholders vote on the measures at its May 8 annual meeting, according to a regulatory filing.
Website Lets Hackers Exploit Flaw in Excel
Researchers at Symantec said they've spotted a Web site that tries to exploit computers lacking one of the recently issued patches for versions of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program. The vulnerability involves a malicious Excel file that when opened can allow a hacker to execute other code on a PC.
Number of Personal Data Breaches Rose 40% in 2007
Despite the public outcry over identity theft, the loss of personal information still appears to be on the rise. Experts say the number of reported "breaches," where sensitive personal data such as credit card numbers or financial information is lost or stolen, increased more than 40 percent last year.
Amazon Succeeding with DRM-Free Music Sales
The music industry is finally comfortable selling digital music without copy protection, but the huge shift hasn't resulted in dramatically higher sales. Instead, it produced something that major music labels have long sought: a strong No. 2 competitor to Apple.
Syria Cracking Down on Critical Bloggers
Syria is cracking down more on Internet use, imposing tighter monitoring of citizens who link to the Web, as well as jailing bloggers who criticize the government and blocking YouTube and other Web sites deemed harmful to state security. The tighter hand is coming even as Syrian officials show off a press center with fast Internet access and wireless technology for journalists covering the Arab League summit.
Apple Settles Lawsuit Over "Millions of Colors"
The heated debate over whether Apple is tricking you into believing you can see millions of colors on your Mac has come to a quiet conclusion. Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by two professional photographers claiming that the company falsely advertised the capabilities of their MacBook Pros as being able to display "millions of colors."
Judge OKs Settlement Over Second Life Sex Toys
A dispute over sales of virtual sex toys has resulted in a real-life slap on the wrist for a Texas teenager. Eros LLC, a Tampa Bay-area company that creates virtual sex scripts in the online world Second Life, sued Robert Leatherwood, 19, last year claiming he copied, displayed or distributed Eros products without permission.
