Tiffany & Co. announced on that it is appealing a recent federal court decision that said eBay is not responsible for policing counterfeit listings on its auction site. In July, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan ruled that eBay could not be forced by trademark law to examine individual auction listings.
Congress Probing Deeper Into Online Privacy Practices
Online data collection and privacy policies are attracting the attention of Congress. There is no broad privacy legislation governing advertising on the Internet. And even some in the government admit that they do not have a clear grasp of what companies are able to do with the wealth of data now available to them.
San Francisco Updating Computer Security Measures
San Francisco is being forced to overhaul security measures on the computer network that controls data for its police, courts, jails, payroll and health services, as well as other crucial information, after the technology administrator entrusted with the system blocked access for everyone but himself last month and for days refused to reveal the password, even from jail.
Social-Networking Sites Attracting Plenty of Hackers
Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are fast emerging as some of the most fertile grounds for malicious software, identity thieves and online mischief-makers. The biggest danger from social networking sites is that they are all tripping over themselves to embed powerful features that most subscribers will never use, such as digital image or media files with the ability to download content from third-party Web sites, said Shawn Moyer, chief information-security officer at Agura Digital Security, a Web and network security firm.
Three Men Plead Guilty to Online Gambling Charges
Three men who helped promote the online gambling firm BetOnSports have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Attorneys for the Miami men said they were minor players caught up in a high-profile investigation.
Judge Blocks Talk About Hacking Subway Cards
A federal judge granted the Massachusetts transit authority's request for an injunction preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation about hacking smartcards used in the Boston subway system. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the students, anticipates appealing the ruling, said EFF senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.
CNN Warns About "Fraudulent" E-mail Not from CNN
A spam message purporting to be from CNN has been circulating the Internet, CNN reported on its blog. The message, claiming to contain CNN's Top 10 news stories and videos of the day, is fraudulent and did not originate from CNN, the news operation said.
Spammers Using Olympic Interest to Their Advantage
Public interest in the Olympic Games is helping spammers, who are using text related to the games in e-mails to get users to click through to their malware and phishing Web sites, or to go to product sites, according to an executive at Symantec. While spam is increasing overall as a trend, there has been a spike ahead of the Beijing Olympics, said Shantanu Ghosh, vice president of Symantec's India product operations.
Web Companies Nearing Code of Conduct with China
Just days before the Olympic torch will reach Beijing, Internet leaders Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft say they are close to an agreement on a code of conduct for doing business in China and other countries that censor the Internet. Sen. Dick Durbin released separate letters from the companies, stating they have "reached agreement on the core components of the principles" of the code, as Google put it.
Journalists Expelled from Security Conference
Three journalists for a French security magazine were kicked out of the Black Hat security conference after they allegedly sniffed the press room computer network. The journalists work for Global Security Mag, which was a media sponsor of the event.
Internet Security Flaw Could Compromise E-mail, Too
A newly discovered flaw in the Internet's core infrastructure not only permits hackers to force people to visit Web sites they didn't want to, it also allows them to intercept e-mail messages, the researcher who discovered the bug said. Considering the silent nature of the attack and the sensitive nature of a lot of electronic correspondence, the potential for damage from this second security flaw is high.
Trademark Office Examining Dell's "Cloud" Application
Dell had received near-final approval for its trademark application of the term "cloud computing," but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled its "Notice of Allowance" and changed the status to "returned to examination." Dell first applied for and got a trademark for the term "cloud computing" in March 2007 when it introduced its Cloud Computing Solution, a set of servers, other hardware, and services.
Court Reviewing Definition of E-mail "Interception"
A federal appeals court in California is reviewing a lower court's definition of "interception" in the digital age, in a case that some legal experts say could weaken consumer privacy protections online. The case, Bunnell v. Motion Picture Association of America, involves a hacker who in 2005 broke into a file-sharing company's server and obtained copies of company e-mails as they were being transmitted.
11 People Indicted in Hack Attacks at Large Retailers
Eleven people were indicted for allegedly stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers, federal authorities said. The indictments, which alleged that at least nine major U.S. retailers were hacked, were unsealed in Boston, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California, prosecutors said.
Olympic Ticket Websites Targeted in Court Shut Down
An online operation that has failed to deliver promised Beijing Games admission tickets to hundreds of consumers worldwide unexpectedly closed down, hours before a federal judge in San Francisco approved a restraining order aimed at halting the websites. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White's order prohibited Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Ltd. from using more than a dozen website names.
Trojan Software Found in Fake Twitter Profile
Twitter, the microblogging service, once the playground of the Web 2.0 digerati, is now mainstream enough to be targeted by online criminals. Kaspersky Lab has uncovered a fake Twitter profile created solely for the purpose of infecting people's computers.
"Grand Theft" Sales Stopped in Thailand After Murder
A Thai video game distributor halted sales of "Grand Theft Auto" on after a teenager confessed to robbing and murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the controversial game. "We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games," saidf Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era Interactive Media.
EFF Opposes Prosecution of Mother on MySpace
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is opposing the prosecution of a Missouri mom who allegedly created a fake MySpace account to harass a teenage neighbor, saying the prosecutors' misuse of a federal law that targets computer fraud could turn millions of Americans into criminals. The civil liberties organization filed an amicus brief, urging a Los Angeles federal judge to dismiss the indictment of Lori Drew.
Geller Settles Copyright Suit Over Online Videos
Controversial "paranormalist" Uri Geller has settled a lawsuit claiming he misused copyright law to squelch criticism. But much like Geller's mysticism, the legitimacy of his legal dispute remains rather ambiguous -- the terms of the settlement are mostly confidential.
Online Voyeur Gets Four Years in Jail in Cyprus
An online voyeur was jailed for four years in Cyprus for spying on a teenage girl over a webcam in her bedroom that he switched on remotely. The 47-year-old was found guilty of installing "Trojan Horse" software in the computer of a 17-year-old he met in an online chatroom.
