An official Sony Twitter account has leaked the PlayStation 3 master signing key at the heart of the company's legal offensive against a group of hackers being sued for showing how to jailbreak the popular game console. Kevin Butler, a fictional PS3 vice president, retweeted the metldr key in what can only be assumed was a colossal mistake.
A U.S. grand jury will consider evidence collected by the FBI about Anonymous, which attacked websites of four companies to punish them for blocking contributions to WikiLeaks, according to court papers and an informal spokesman for the group of activist hackers. The federal grand jury in San Jose, California, will begin reviewing evidence that includes computers and mobile phones seized from suspected leaders as prosecutors probe the coordinated so-called denial-of-service attacks in December, according to a federal subpoena and the spokesman, Barrett Brown.
Cellphone security threats rose sharply last year as a proliferation of Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets provided new opportunities for cybercriminals, security software maker McAfee said. In its fourth-quarter threat report, McAfee said the number of pieces of new cellphone malware it found in 2010 rose 46 percent over 2009's level.
A controversial British law firm that sent letters to alleged illegal file sharers has been told it cannot drop its cases to "avoid public scrutiny." ACS:Law contacted thousands of people accusing them of illegally downloading movies and songs and demanding payments of £500 to avoid court action.
Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, an influential academic and author who popularized the term "net neutrality," has been appointed senior advisor to the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Wu, 38, will start his new position on Feb. 14 in the FTC's Office of Policy Planning, and will help the agency to develop policies that affect the Internet and the market for mobile communications and services.
A key lawmaker called on U.S. securities regulators to work with criminal authorities to crack down on hackers following reports that cyber attackers have repeatedly tried to break into trading systems run by Nasdaq OMX Group. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the agency to take a closer look into hacking incidents and what can be done to prevent them.
For the first time, a group of Hollywood film studios has filed a copyright lawsuit against a cyberlocker. File-hosting service Hotfile has made a business out of offering a stash box for people to store their pirated movies, the Motion Picture Association of America claims in its suit against Hotfile.
A company that fired a worker after she posted negative remarks about her boss on Facebook has settled a complaint brought by the National Labor Relations Board by agreeing to revamp its rules to ensure they don't restrict workers' rights, the NLRB said. A separate, private settlement was reached between the employer -- ambulance service American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. -- and the employee, though terms of that agreement weren't immediately available.
More than $10 million in counterfeit iPods, iPhones and other items have been seized from a sophisticated downtown warehouse operation in a theft case begun by Los Angeles Port Police. Investigators said they thought that the shipment was designed to get Apple Inc. lookalike products into the market during the recent buzz over the Consumer Electronics Show.
Anonymous hacked security firm HBGary Federal in retaliation for the company's efforts to track the people behind a spate of denial-of-service attacks. "Anonymous" launched an attack against security firm HBGary Federal, taking down its website and stealing corporate e-mail in retaliation for the company's efforts to track down "hacktivists" tied to cyber-attacks conducted in support of WikiLeaks.
The Obama administration is quietly seeking the power for it and other governments to veto future top-level domain names, a move that raises questions about free expression, national sovereignty, and the role of states in shaping the future of the Internet. At stake is who will have authority over the next wave of suffixes to supplement the venerable .com, .org, and .net. At least 115 proposals are expected this year, including .car, .health, .nyc, .movie, and .web, and the application process could be finalized at a meeting in San Francisco next month.
EBay Inc. must face a lawsuit claiming it fraudulently hid its intention to start a competing classified advertising site during negotiations to buy a stake in Craigslist Inc., a judge tentatively ruled. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer in San Francisco rejected eBay's argument that Craigslist's lawsuit should be dismissed because shareholder agreements between the companies allowed them to compete.
Google wants to avoid a lengthy legal battle with European Union regulators investigating its market dominance, the Sunday Telegraph quoted its chief executive as saying. "We'll find out and make sure we are operating well within the law and the spirit of the law, " Eric Schmidt told the paper in an interview.
Federal regulators plan to launch a new effort to overhaul an $8 billion subsidy program to fund new broadband lines in rural America instead of phone service. The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to kick off its efforts to overhaul the program during a meeting, when it asks for comments on how to chart a new course for the Universal Service Fund, or USF, which subsidizes phone lines in rural areas and for low-income Americans.
Computer hackers have breached the systems of the company that runs the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York but did not penetrate the part of the system that handles trades, Nasdaq said. The exchange's operating company, Nasdaq OMX, said in a statement that it had discovered suspicious files on its United States servers, and that it immediately began conducting an investigation in conjunction with outside firms and federal law enforcement agencies.
Former Federal Communications Chairman Kevin Martin said he still believes the FCC had the legal authority to enforce network neutrality rules and that he would have appealed a court decision last year that ruled otherwise. Speaking after his keynote question-and-answer session at last week's ITExpo conference in Miami, Martin said that the FCC's 2008 order telling Comcast to stop throttling peer-to-peer protocols was on solid legal footing.
An outage affecting unclassified White House e-mail accounts began at around 7:45 a.m. Thursday and stretched well into the afternoon, which meant the most tech-savvy administration in history spent most of the day relying on papers, pens and landlines. President Obama, who carries a BlackBerry, was cut off from e-mail as well during his trip to State College, Pa.
Verizon Wireless warned customers it may clamp down on heavy users of its wireless data services before an anticipated deluge of Apple Inc iPhone customers. Verizon Wireless plans to start slowing down download speeds for the heaviest 5 percent of its smartphone data users as a document on its website suggests.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is concerned about an effort by the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the Justice Department to combat online piracy and counterfeiting by seizing Internet domain names. Wyden wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE Director John Morton seeking more information about their "Operation In Our Sites" crackdowns, saying they represent a "major shift" in how the United States combats online infringement.
In a post by Microsoft Senior VP and General Counsel Brad Smith and VP and Deputy General Counsel Horacio Guitierrez on the company's Issues blog, the pair outlined some things about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that the company believes could use some work. "In our view, the time has arrived to move beyond old controversies and focus on ensuring that the USPTO has the resources and tools it needs to improve patent quality and continue its efforts to tackle the enormous backlog it faces today," the post said.
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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.