Intelligence Director Warns of Chinese Cyber-Warfare

China's growing capabilities in cyber-warfare and intelligence gathering are a "formidable concern" to the United States, the top intelligence official told a Senate panel. "The Chinese have made a substantial investment in this area, they have a very large organization devoted to it and they're pretty aggressive," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Review Halts Sale of N.J. Computers with Personal Data

The State of New Jersey was about to turn over sensitive information on computers to the highest bidder, the state comptroller, Matthew A. Boxer, reported. After the comptroller’s office reviewed computer equipment that the state was preparing to auction to the public last year, it found that 46 out of 58 hard drives, or 79 percent, still had data on them, much of it confidential.

U.S. Agencies Help Anonymous Surfing in Middle East

The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments. Federal agencies -- such as the State Department, the Defense Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors -- have been funding a handful of technology firms that allow people to get online without being tracked or to visit news or social media sites that governments have blocked.

Senators Propose "Online Privacy Bill of Rights"

Sens. John McCain and John Kerry are circulating proposed legislation to create an "online privacy bill of rights," according to people familiar with the situation, a sign of bipartisan support for efforts to curb the Internet-tracking industry. Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, are backing a bill that would require companies to seek a person's permission to share data about him with outsiders.

Denial-of Service Attack Takes Down 5,000 Sites

A distributed denial-of-service attack that affected thousands of customers at Codero and other hosting providers appeared to come from within China and to be launched at a Chinese site that is critical of communism or its Domain Name System provider, Codero said. The disruptions that took Codero's customers offline for most of the morning were collateral damage in the attack, said Ryan Elledge, chief operating officer at Codero.

ICANN, Governments Disagree on New Domain Names

A rare rift has developed between national governments and the nonprofit organization that oversees Internet domain names, with neither side showing signs of backing down in a dispute that includes trademarks and free expression. In a statement, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, listed 23 areas of continued disagreement over the rules for approving new top-level domain names.

Sony to Appeal Seizure of Playstations in Netherlands

Sony Corp. said it will appeal the seizure of Playstation 3 game consoles by customs officers in the Netherlands following a court injunction initiated by LG Electronics over a patent dispute. The Dutch customs authorities notified Sony at the end of February that an inspection would be made into Sony products imported into the Netherlands, which has now resulted in Playstation 3 game consoles being temporarily withheld, Sony said.

Google Pressured on Security for Android Apps

A major software attack on mobile phones has put pressure on Google Inc. to do more to secure its online store for smartphone applications. The company behind the now ubiquitous Android operating system came under fire after computer-security experts uncovered more than 50 malicious applications that were uploaded to and distributed from Google's Android Market.

High School Student Charged with Hacking to Change Grades

A Nevada student who gave the opening address at his high school graduation last year has been charged with breaking into his school district's computer system and bumping up his classmates' grades for a fee. Police say Tyler Coyner, 19, was the ringleader in a group of 13 students who have been charged with conspiracy, theft and computer intrusion in connection with the case.

Judge Allows Sony to Subpoena Hacker's ISP

A federal magistrate ruled that Sony can subpoena the ISP of a hacker who has released a PlayStation 3 jailbreak, as well as order Twitter, Google, and YouTube to hand over information from his accounts on those sites. Sony is suing George Hotz, alleging that he violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud Abuse Act for distributing on his Web site his tools for jailbreaking the PS3, which enable PS3 owners to run home brew and pirated applications on their console.

Telecom Companies Complain About Broadband Rules

In a paean to deregulation, a group of top telecommunication companies and trade associations sent a letter to the White House, complaining that the Federal Communications Commission isn't doing enough to reduce federal rules. Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon joined organizations like CTIA and Broadband for America in arguing that the FCC, which regulates all of them, is not sufficiently following President Obama's order to review, and if necessary, cut regulations.

E-Discovery Software Helps Reduce Time, Costs

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, "e-discovery" software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. Some programs can extract relevant concepts -- like documents relevant to social protest in the Middle East -- even in the absence of specific terms, and deduce patterns of behavior that would have eluded lawyers examining millions of documents.