Bank of America Works to Protect Against WikiLeaks Attack

A team of 15 to 20 top Bank of America officials, led by the chief risk officer, Bruce R. Thompson, has been overseeing a broad internal investigation to protect against an attack by WikiLeaks -- scouring thousands of documents in the event that they become public, reviewing every case where a computer has gone missing and hunting for any sign that its systems might have been compromised. It has also sought advice from several top law firms about legal problems that could arise from a disclosure, including the bank’s potential liability if private information was disclosed about clients.

Microsoft Warns of Malicious Code Targeting Word

Microsoft's Malware Protection Center issued a warning that it has spotted malicious code on the Internet that can take advantage of a flaw in Word and infect computers after a user does nothing more than read an e-mail. The flaw was addressed in November in a fix issued on Patch Tuesday, but with malicious code now spotted in the wild, the protection center apparently wants to be sure the update wasn't overlooked.

FBI Seizes Hard Drives Used by WikiLeaks

The FBI raided a Dallas firm last month and seized two hard drives from a server officials suspect was used to coordinate attacks against PayPal for cutting off payments to WikiLeaks, according to an FBI affadavit published by The Smoking Gun. According to the affadavit, members of the hacker group Anonymous used Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to coordinate attacks against corporations who cut off relationships with WikiLeaks under the moniker "Operation Payback."

China Says 350 Million Pieces of Online Porn Removed

More than 60,000 Web sites were shut down and about 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent content were eliminated from the Internet in 2010, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Police investigated 2,197 cases involving 4,965 people suspected of disseminating pornography via the Internet or cell phone in violation of China law, according to the report.

Move Would Make Skype "Unavailable" in China

China may soon ban Skype, the government's official newspaper said, potentially putting the popular Internet chat and phone service in the same boat as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. According to the People's Daily, Chinese authorities have said that only China Telecom and China Unicom will be allowed to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to customers.

Google's Attempted Airfare Deal Drawing Scrutiny

Google's attempt to buy the company that made it easy for travelers to compare airfares, ITA Software, has prompted a coalition that includes Microsoft, Expedia and Kayak to push regulators to thwart the deal.  After examining the transaction, Senator Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, wrote a letter this month to Christine A. Varney, the assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, urging a careful review and certain stipulations.

Oracle Ordered to Pay $16.5 Million in Interest to SAP

Oracle Corp. must be paid interest on the $1.3 billion copyright-infringement jury verdict it won against SAP AG, a federal judge said. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, said the interest amounts to about $16.5 million based on the calculation method ordered yesterday by U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton in Oakland, California, who presided over the trial of the 2007 lawsuit.

Suit Claims Apple Gave iPhone Users' Data to Advertisers

Apple Inc., making of the iPhone and iPad, was accused in a lawsuit of allowing applications for those devices to transmit users’ personal information to advertising networks without customers’ consent. The suit claims Cupertino, California-based Apple’s iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they’re used and for how long.

ISP Refuses to Disclose Customers in Larry Flynt Lawsuit

Time Warner Cable, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, has refused to turn over customers accused in a lawsuit by Larry Flynt Publishing of pirating one of the company's porn films, according to Flynt's attorney. In October, Dallas-based attorney Evan Stone filed three separate lawsuits against more than 4,000 "John Does," alleging the defendants illegally shared the movie "This Ain't Avatar XXX."

Man Charged with Felony for Accessing Wife's E-mail

Prosecutors in Michigan, relying on a state statute typically used to prosecute crimes such as identity theft or stealing trade secrets, have charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony after he logged onto a laptop in the home he shared with his wife, Clara Walker. Using her password, he accessed her Gmail account and learned she was having an affair.

New Net-Connected Devices Create New Security Risks

As Internet TVs, smartphones and other popular Web-ready gadgets become more popular, experts say, consumers can expect to run into familiar scams like credit card number thefts as well as new ones that play off features in the products. And because the devices are relatively new, they do not yet have as much protection as more traditional products, like desktop computers, do.

Rule Change Allows Lawmakers to Use Gadgets on Floor

A new rule appears to mean that BlackBerrys, iPhones, iPads and the whole burgeoning universe of applications that run on them and are now available to members of Congress even as they are working hard (or not so hard) on the House floor. The rule, if it is adopted without change at the start of the 112th Congress, would still require members to silence their devices.

Allen Refiles Patent Suit Against Tech Companies

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has refiled a lawsuit against several major technology companies over claims of patent infringement. In his revised complaint, Allen alleges that 11 tech companies and retailers -- Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, eBay, Netflix, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples -- are violating patents granted to him when he headed Interval Research, a small R&D firm that he started in 1992 and ran until it went out of business in 2000.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.