Samsung Electronics Co. dropped a patent-infringement suit against Apple Inc., filed at a U.S. federal court in April in response to allegations its Galaxy products copied the iPhone and iPad. Samsung Electronics dropped the suit on June 30 “to streamline the legal proceedings,” said Nam Ki Yung, a spokesman for the Suwon, South Korea-based company.
Apple Inc. received a mixed ruling in the patent-infringement case brought by closely held S3 Graphics Co. over a type of chip used to play video games on mobile devices. Apple violates two S3 patents and was found to not have infringed two others, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge James Gildea said in a notice on the agency's website.
Google failed to win a bid on 6,000 wireless technology patents held by the bankrupt Canadian telecom group Nortel Networks Corp. A consortium consisting of Apple Inc., EMC Corp., Ericsson, Microsoft Corp., Research In Motion and Sony Corp. paid $4.5 billion for the patent portfolio.
Hackers broke into Fox's political Twitter account, posting updates saying President Barack Obama had been assassinated. A series of six tweets coming from the FoxNewsPolitics account reported that Obama had been shot to death in Iowa and the shooter was unknown.
The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Internet messaging-service Twitter Inc. and its interactions with at least one other company that builds programs using Twitter data, according to a person familiar with the matter. The precise focus of the review isn't clear, but representatives of the FTC's antitrust arm have requested information from a company called UberMedia Inc., which owns applications that let people read and send "tweets," or messages, broadcast by Twitter users, this person said.
Despite a promise of privacy, the first potential problem with Google+ has been spotted. Google's latest stab at a social network lets you categorize the people you know into different circles, so you can share with your friends what you might not want to share with your family.
A judge ruled that Google Inc. overstepped its bounds by enabling its vehicles to collect emails, Internet passwords and Web surfing behavior while photographing neighborhoods for the search giant's popular "Street View" mapping feature. Google has apologized for the snooping, promised to stop collecting the data and said what it did was inadvertent but not illegal.
Hacking group Anonymous promised it would target two U.S. companies and share data from them "soon." The group followed through on that pledge within a day, releasing data files and user passwords obtained from Universal Music and Viacom.
Internet search giant Google is bracing for a fine that could top $500 million, after a federal probe of illegal online pharmacy ads placed on the website over the past three years, CNN has confirmed. Law enforcement sources tell CNN that federal prosecutors in Rhode Island, along with undercover agents from the Food and Drug Administration, are heading up a massive investigation aimed at showing Google knowingly took advertising money from websites selling highly addictive drugs without a legitimate prescription.
Computer hackers shut down al-Qaida's ability to communicate its messages to the world through the Internet, interrupting the group's flow of videos and communiqués, according to a terrorism expert. "Al-Qaida's online communications have been temporarily crippled, and it does not have a single trusted distribution channel available on the Internet," said Evan Kohlmann, of Flashpoint Global Partners, which monitors the group's communications.
Google Inc. brags that computers running its recently released Chrome operating system are a lot safer than traditional PCs, partly because user data is stored in the Internet cloud and not on the machine. Yet researchers at an independent computer security firm warn that the Chrome PC's reliance on Web computing makes it vulnerable to the same attacks that hackers have been launching on websites and Web browsers for years.
Amazon.com Inc. may soon have to collect sales taxes in California after Gov. Jerry Brown signed an online tax-collection bill. California's legislation, which was signed by Mr. Brown, is the latest attempt by a state to force Internet retailers to collect taxes on online sales.
A new and improved botnet that has infected more than four million PCs is "practically indestructible," security researchers say. "TDL-4," the name for both the bot Trojan that infects machines and the ensuing collection of compromised computers, is "the most sophisticated threat today," said Kaspersky Labs researcher Sergey Golovanov in a detailed analysis.
Samsung asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the importation of Apple's iPhones, iPads and iPods, ratcheting up its dispute against Apple. The filing says Apple's iPhone, iPod digital music player and iPad tablet infringe on five of Samsung's patents involving telecommunications standards and user interface inventions.
Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, has told government officials that about 3,400 of the customers whose credit-card information was hacked have suffered about $2.7 million in losses, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, Citigroup has said its customers are not liable for any losses resulting from "any unauthorized use of their accounts."
Hackers broke into a Gannett Co database containing personal information about subscribers to publications read by U.S. government officials, military leaders and rank-and-file soldiers, the media company said. Personal data on government officials and members of the military is highly coveted among cyber criminals because it can be used to launch targeted attacks against computer systems that hold classified information.
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.
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