Members of the hacker movement "Anonymous" claim to have abandoned their campaign to expose supporters of Mexico's Zetas drug cartel. The group says one of its members who had purportedly been kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz has been freed.
So much sensitive information and research is on computer networks that foreign intruders can collect massive amounts of data quickly and with little risk because they are difficult to detect, according to the report to Congress titled "Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace." Foreign intelligence services, corporations and individuals increased their efforts to steal US technologies which cost millions of dollars to develop, according to a report by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a US government agency.
Hackers used a server in Belgium to collect data stolen from machines infected with the Duqu computer virus, after authorities shut down another rogue collection system in India, according to security experts. Governments and security experts around the globe are working to unlock the secrets of the elusive malware, which some say could be the next big cyber threat after the Stuxnet virus that was believed to have infected Iran's nuclear program.
Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, IBM, GE and other top-tier American companies urged the United States to fight for trade rules that protect the free flow of information over the Internet. The unveiling of principles hashed out by the companies over the last nine months comes at a crucial moment, Rick Johnston, senior vice president for international government affairs at Citigroup, told reporters.
Two key former officials with the nonprofit group that manages the Internet's domain name system are raising concerns with its plan to allow an unlimited number of generic Internet addresses, the top-level domain name suffixes that come after the dot like .com or .org. Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf and tech investor Esther Dyson -- who chaired the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers during its early years -- now said they see several potential problems with ICANN's latest domain name plan, which has sparked strong opposition from major trademark owners.
Facebook may be tracking the Internet activity of users even after they cancel their accounts, the German data privacy watchdog said. After an investigation of the way cookies are installed after a user opens and then closes a Facebook account, the Hamburg Data Protection agency said on its Web site that it suspected the company was unlawfully tracking subscribers.
The House approved a five-year freeze on any new state and local taxes imposed on cellphones and other wireless services, including wireless broadband access. The voice vote reflected a consensus that new taxes on wireless mobile services have far outpaced average sales taxes on other items and have become a deterrent to the spread of wireless broadband technology.
A federal law aimed at protecting the privacy of children under 13 has instead resulted in millions of kids lying about their age -- often with their parents' knowledge -- in order to join Facebook, social media guru Danah Boyd says in a new report. Facebook officially bans kids under 13 -- a move that Boyd attributes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits publishers from collecting personal information from users 12 and under without their parents' permission.
Sens. Ron Wyden, -D-Ore., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced a nonbinding resolution that calls on the Senate to exempt small businesses from legislation that would authorize states to require Internet retailers to collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers. "It is the sense of the Senate that Congress should not enact any legislation that would grant state governments the authority to impose any new burdensome or unfair tax collecting requirements on small Internet businesses and entrepreneurs, which would ultimately hurt the economy of, and consumers in, the United States," the resolution states.
A small Spanish tablet maker has won a patent infringement battle with Apple Inc in a rare victory against the U.S. company in its global defense of markets for its iPads, a court document showed. Spain's Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala has successfully appealed a 2010 injunction from a local court to ban the import of its tablet computer -- manufactured in China -- to Spain.
Microsoft Corp. said hackers exploited a previously unknown bug in its Windows operating system to infect computers with the Duqu virus, which some security experts say could be the next big cyber threat. "We are working diligently to address this issue and will release a security update for customers," Microsoft said in a short statement.
Governments must not clamp down on Internet and mobile phone networks at times of social unrest, the British government said — weeks after suggesting police should do just that during riots. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the fact that criminals and terrorists can exploit digital networks is not "justification for states to censor their citizens."
A message delivered via YouTube by the hackers collectively known as Anonymous said the names of government officials, taxi drivers and journalists who worked with the Zetas would be published online if Mexico’s most ruthless crime syndicate did not release one of their own.
Britain and the United States rejected calls from China and Russia for greater Internet controls at the opening of a major cyberspace conference, but Western states faced accusations of double standards. Ministers, tech executives and Internet activists are meeting over two days in London to discuss how to tackle security threats and crime on the Internet without stifling economic opportunities or freedom of speech.
The success of Apple Inc.'s iPad isn't just drawing more competition to the tablet market -- it's attracting thousands of counterfeit and knockoff products. On a single day in July, almost 18,000 fakes and clones resembling the iPad and Android devices were available for sale on 23 e-commerce sites, according to MarkMonitor, a San Francisco firm that helps companies protect their brands.
The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, introduced last week in the House of Representatives to the applause of lobbyists for Hollywood and other large content holders, is designed to make allegedly copyright-infringing Web sites, sometimes called "rogue" Web sites, virtually disappear from the Internet. That goes too far and hinders freedom of speech and innovation, the Consumer Electronics Association, NetCoalition, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association trade groups said in a letter sent to House members. SOPA could "constrain economic growth and threaten a vital sector of the U.S. economy and a major source of global competitiveness," it warned.
Beijing denied a U.S. commission's claim that China may have been responsible for hacking incidents on U.S. environment-monitoring satellites, saying that the committee had "ulterior motives" in writing such a draft report. At least two U.S. environment-monitoring satellites were interfered with four or more times in 2007 and 2008 via a ground station in Norway, and China's military is a prime suspect, according to the draft report to Congress.
At least 48 chemical and defense companies were victims of a coordinated cyber attack that has been traced to a man in China, according to a new report from security firm Symantec Corp. Computers belonging to these companies were infected with malicious software known as "PoisonIvy," which was used to steal information such as design documents, formulas and details on manufacturing processes, Symantec said.
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against Zediva, the controversial video-on-demand service that incurred the wrath of Hollywood earlier this year. Zediva's operators also agreed to pay $1.8 million to the six studios that sued the parent company of Zediva in April, according to a statement from the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
A U.S. company that makes Internet-blocking gear acknowledges that Syria has been using at least 13 of its devices to censor Web activity there -- an admission that comes as the Syrian government cracks down on its citizens and silences their online activities. Blue Coat Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., says it shipped the Internet "filtering" devices to Dubai late last year, believing they were destined for a department of the Iraqi government -- but the devices made their way to Syria, a country subject to strict U.S. trade embargoes.
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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.