Groupon Inc's Indian subsidiary SoSasta inadvertently published its users' passwords on the Internet, but the sensitive information was quickly removed after the security breach was discovered. The world's largest daily deals site said an "information security expert" told the company about the problem, after which it immediately took down the data and began informing affected subscribers.
Even though LulzSec, the group of hackers who made a name for themselves by hacking Sony, Nintendo, and PBS among others, called it quits, another group wants to pick up the slack. After announcing the end of its activities, Lulzsec encouraged its 281,870 Twitter followers to follow the account of Anonymous, another hacking organization, which published new materials on counter-hacking tools and addresses of U.S. FBI locations.
A newly patented Microsoft technology called Legal Intercept that would allow the company to secretly intercept, monitor and record Skype calls is stoking privacy concerns. Microsoft's patent application for Legal Intercept was filed in 2009, well before the company's $8.5 billion purchase of Skype in May.
The Homeland Security Department unveiled a new system of guidance intended to help make the software behind Web sites, power grids and other services less susceptible to hacking. The system includes an updated list of the top 25 programming errors that enable today’s most serious hacks.
A teenager accused of attacking a string of U.K.-based websites has been released on bail. Nineteen-year-old Ryan Cleary was released on condition that he obey a curfew, wear an electronic tag and only leave the house accompanied by one of his parents. He’s not allowed to access the Internet.
Internet giant Google's tussles with some governments over Internet censorship could get worse, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said, adding he feared his own colleagues faced mounting danger of occasional arrest and torture. After the "Arab spring" saw revolutionary crowds largely organised over the Internet topple leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, governments in other authoritarian states have moved to try to lock down Internet dissent -- although with mixed success.
The Supreme Court struck down a California law that limited the sale of violent video games to minors, ruling the restriction violated the free-speech principles in the 1st Amendment. "Like books, plays and movies, video games communicate ideas," said Justice Antonin Scalia. "The most basic principle of 1st Amendment law is that government has no power to restrict expression because of its content."
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton introduced a bill to legalize online poker, hoping to pull the estimated $6 billion industry out of the shadows at a time when its top operators face serious legal troubles. The Republican lawmaker from Texas told The Associated Press that the bill would let states choose whether they want to allow residents to play poker on the Internet, and operators would be required to already have gambling licenses in at least one U.S. state.
Computer hackers have published personal information belonging to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the Internet, officials said. The file contained names, addresses and telephone numbers of Blair's contacts and it was being tweeted by users of Twitter, the Daily Telegraph reported.
LulzSec, the gleeful and secretive band of hackers who appear to be responsible for a string of high-profile and sometimes embarrassing Internet attacks, said it was disbanding. "For the past 50 days we've been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could," the group said in a statement posted on multiple websites.
About 50 of some of tech's best-known venture capitalists, including Marc Andreessen, Fred Wilson, and Vinod Khosla, wrote an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress and outlined how the Protect IP Act would not only fail to achieve its goal of protecting intellectual property but would also "stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness." The Protect IP Act would hand the U.S. Department of Justice the power to seek a court order against an allegedly infringing Web site.
Apple Inc. has filed a lawsuit in South Korea, claiming Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. infringed upon several patents, a court official said, in the companies' latest legal tussle over smartphone and tablet devices. The litigation comes as Samsung filed patent suits in South Korea, Japan and Germany in April over the U.S. company's iPhone and iPad after Apple claimed Samsung's Galaxy line "slavishly" copied its products.
Apple Inc. has received antitrust clearance to bid on a trove of high-tech patents that are being sold by Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. Apple's clearance was noted in a list of approved transactions released by the Federal Trade Commission.
Computer hackers who previously broke into a Senate server and brought down the CIA web site struck an Arizona police web site. Lulz Security, saying it opposed a tough anti-immigration law in Arizona, said it was releasing documents that related to border control and other law enforcement activities.
Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing ahead with another suit against Facebook, a day after they decided not to appeal a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding their $65 million settlement with Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg. In a status report filed with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, the twins and their business partner, Divya Narendra, said they would move the court for discovery on whether Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence" during settlement proceedings over claims that Zuckerberg stole their idea for a college social networking website.
A San Francisco man who was accused of taking information on 114,000 iPad 3G owners from AT&T’s servers pleaded guilty. According to the New Jersey attorney general’s office, Daniel Spitler, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers connected to the Internet, and one count of identity theft.
Viacom Inc. sued Cablevision Systems Corp. to halt what it called the unauthorized streaming of its programing on devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court, one day after court documents showed that Cablevision's larger rival Time Warner Cable Inc and Viacom are trying to settle a similar dispute, and have put related lawsuits on hold while they try.
Viacom Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. have put their legal fight over beaming live TV channels to Apple Inc. iPads on pause, amid a broader battle between media companies and cable operators over the rights to distribute TV shows and movies on the Internet and on mobile devices. The détente in litigation comes as the two sides attempt to negotiate a resolution in their dispute over whether Time Warner Cable has the right to put Viacom channels, including MTV and Comedy Central, on new devices.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is poised to serve Google Inc. with civil subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling the start of a wide-ranging, formal antitrust investigation into whether the search giant has abused its dominance on the Web. The five-member panel is preparing within days to send Google the formal demands for information, the people said.
Apple removed an application from its App Store after a Jewish human rights group and a top Israeli official said it contained anti-Semitic content and promoted violence against Israel. The app, “The Third Intifada,” notified people of upcoming protests against Israel and also highlighted anti-Israel news and opinion from around the Web.
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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.