New Group Helps Law Enforcement Fight Cybercrime

A consortium of eight companies launched a campaign to provide better training for law enforcement agencies in order to tackle cybercrime, which costs the U.K. economy tens of billions of pounds annually. The group, called the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA), represents private industry's response to cybercrime, which has exceeded the capacity of law enforcement to contain, said John Lyons, the organization's CEO.

'Anonymous' Claims Hacking of Apple Server

The Internet vigilante hacker group Anonymous claimed to have broken into an Apple server and published a small number of usernames and passwords for one of the U.S. technology company's websites. Anonymous said via its account on microblogging site Twitter that Apple could be a target for hackers and released the data as part of its Anti Security, or "AntiSec," campaign.

FTC's Antitrust Arm Reviewing Twitter

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.

Judge Rejects Google's Argument on Street View Privacy

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.

Google Could Face $500 Million Fine for Drug Ads

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.

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Hackers Shut Down al-Qaida's Online Communications

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's Chrome OS Called Vulnerable to Hackers

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.