A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station. NASA has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus.
Computer with Bank Customers' Data Sold on eBay
An investigation is under way into how a computer containing bank customers' personal data was sold on eBay. The computer, bought by IT manager Andrew Chapman for £77, had the sensitive details on its hard drive.
U.K. Authority Bans Apple's TV Ad for iPhone
The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has banned an ad for the iPhone that promised users access to "all parts of the internet" on their Apple device. As the device doesn't offer Flash or Java, and not all Web sites can be seen in their entirety, the complaints said.
Immersion to Pay Microsoft $20.75 Million Settlement
Immersion Corp., which develops and licenses touch feedback technology, said it will pay $20.75 million to software maker Microsoft Corp. as part of the settlement of a litigation. The companies agreed to resolve Microsoft's claim under a 2003 sublicense agreement, as well as Immersion's counterclaim that Microsoft breached a confidentiality agreement dated May 2007, Immersion said in a statement.
Court in Turkey Lifts Ban on YouTube
A court in Turkey has lifted a ban on YouTube, the video sharing website, after hundreds of sites voluntarily blocked themselves in protest at growing internet censorship. Access to YouTube had been blocked since May in the latest of a series of bans triggered by the posting of videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state.
Judge Says File-Sharing Defendant Destroyed Evidence
The recording industry appears to have won a closely watched copyright infringement case over charges of evidence tampering. Judge Neil Wake ruled that Jeffery Howell, a defendant in Atlantic v. Howell, had willfully and intentionally destroyed evidence related to his peer-to-peer activities after being notified of pending legal action by the RIAA, according to a report by Ars Technica.
Data Breaches This Year Exceed Total for 2007
More data breaches have been reported so far this year than in all of 2007, according to a report released by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud. Identity Theft Resource Center of San Diego found that 449 U.S. businesses, government agencies and universities have reported a loss or theft of consumer data this year.
Security Breaches Highlight Need for Repairs, Experts Say
Three very big and very different computer security breaches that have dominated recent headlines did more than show how badly the Internet needs major repairs. They also exposed the huge rift between corporate America and the federal government over who should fix it, cyber-security experts say.
Mac Clone Maker Plans to File Charges Against Apple
Mac clone maker Psystar plans to file its answer to Apple's copyright infringement lawsuit as well as a countersuit of its own, alleging that Apple engages in anticompetitive business practices. Miami-based Psystar, owned by Rudy Pedraza, will sue Apple under two federal laws designed to discourage monopolies and cartels, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, saying Apple's tying of the Mac OS to Apple-labeled hardware is "an anticompetitive restrain of trade," according to attorney Colby Springer of antitrust specialists Carr & Ferrell.
Inventor Sues Google, Verizon Over Voicemail Patent
Emboldened by settlements with Apple and AT&T, inventor Judah Klausner filed a new voicemail patent lawsuit against Google, Verizon Communications and others. The inventor's company, Klausner Technologies Inc, also named as defendants LG Electronics, Comverse Technology, Citrix Systems, Embarq in a patent infringement complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas, according to a court filing.
Facebook Drops Scrabulous in New Copyright Dispute
Already blocked from Facebook users in the United States and Canada, Scrabulous -- the online imitation of the popular Scrabble board game -- has been yanked by Facebook in all other countries except India in response to a copyright tussle over the game. Facebook said it decided to block access to Scrabulous throughout most of the world in response to a formal request to do so from Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside North American.
Software Developer Pulls Tetris-Like Game from iPhone
A young software developer has decided to pull his iPhone game from Apple's App Store because it was too similar to the classic arcade game Tetris. Noah Witherspoon, a college student in Atlanta, created a free game called Tris for Apple's handset platform.
Newegg Stops Collecting New York Sales Taxes
Online electronics retailer Newegg has stopped charging sales tax to its New York customers, according to a posting on the Consumerist.com. The move by Newegg reverses action the online retailer took in June, in which it began to charge applicable sales tax for all shipments to New York, following passage of a new state law that required certain companies to charge sales tax on shipments to New York state.
Apple Limits Developers Talk on iPhone Applications
The software development kit that Apple Inc. distributed to programmers bound them to not discuss the process of creating programs for the iPhone. Companies typically waive such legal restrictions once the product in question launches, but Apple didn't. And it won't say why.
Private-Street Residents Complain About Google Service
Google's Street View service apparently thinks your "no trespassing" and "private road" signs are just for decoration. Residents in California's Humboldt County are complaining that the drivers who are hired to collect the images are disregarding private property signs and driving up private roads.
Woman Sues City for Ordering Her to Delete Hyperlink
A Wisconsin woman says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city's police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit. The city's actions torpedoed Jennifer Reisinger's Web site marketing business and led to death threats against her, according to the lawsuit.
Biden Has Mixed Record on Technology Issues
By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.
White House Missing 225 Days of E-mail Messages
The White House is missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating back to 2003 and there is little if any likelihood a recovery effort will be completed by the time the Bush administration leaves office, according to an internal White House draft document obtained by the Associated Press. The nine-page outline of the White House's e-mail problems invites companies to bid on a project to recover the missing electronic messages.
More ISPs Setting Limits on Customers' Traffic
Phone company Frontier Communications Corp. is one of several Internet service providers that are moving to curb the growth of traffic on their networks, or at least make the subscribers who download the most pay more. This could have consequences not just for consumers -- who would have to learn to watch how much data their Internet use entails -- but also for companies that hope to make the Internet a conduit for movies and other content that comes in huge files.
Spam Malware Campaign Purports to Come from FedEx
More than 21 million spam e-mails claiming to be notification of non-delivery from FedEx have hit the Web, managed e-mail security vendor MX Logic's vice president of information security Sam Masiello said. This accounted for about 80 percent of all the e-mail borne malware over the 24-hour period, Masiello said.
