The White House threatened to veto a proposal to overturn the federal government's controversial Net neutrality regulations. Opponents of the rules, which the Federal Communications Commission adopted by a 3-2 party line vote last December, have scheduled a Senate vote that would lift the regulations before they take effect on November 20.
Barnes & Noble is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Microsoft's patent-licensing tactics, accusing the software giant of trying to thwart competition with flimsy infringement claims. "Microsoft is attempting to raise its rivals' costs in order to drive out competition and deter innovation in mobile devices," Barnes & Noble lawyer Peter T. Barbur wrote in an October 17 letter to Gene I. Kimmelman, the chief counsel for competition policy in the Justice Department's antitrust division.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., are expected to introduce legislation that would close a loophole that now allows some Internet retailers to avoid collecting sales taxes from out-of-state customers. The bipartisan Senate bill is similar, though not identical, to a measure introduced last month in the House by Reps. Steve Womack, R-Ark., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., that would let states make online retailers collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers.
In a case that raises questions about the use of “supercookies” to track users online, the Federal Trade Commission said that it reached a settlement with an online advertiser the commission had charged with deceiving customers by using a type of tracker called a Flash cookie. According to the FTC complaint, ScanScout, an advertising network that places video ads on websites, instructed its consumers via its privacy policy page that they could opt out of receiving targeted ads by “changing your browser settings to prevent the receipt of cookies.”
Some Adidas Web sites remain offline as a result of a "sophisticated" cyber attack, the German sportswear company said. "On November 3, 2011, the adidas Group found out that it was the target of a sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack. Our preliminary investigation has found no evidence that any consumer data is impacted," the company said in a statement on its news stream site.
Indian authorities are investigating a computer server in Mumbai for links to the Duqu malicious software that some security experts warned could be the next big cyber threat. Web Werks, a Mumbai-based Web-hosting company, said it had given an image of the suspicious virtual private server to officials from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), after security firm Symantec Corp found the server was communicating with computers infected with the Duqu virus.
A German court granted a preliminary injunction against Apple Inc in a patent infringement case that banned the California company from selling some devices in Germany. But the ruling should not impact Apple's sales in Germany as the company sells all its product there through a local subsidiary, which was not covered by the injunction.
The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, birthplace of the Internet, plans to increase its spending on cyber research 50% over the next five years, and will increasingly focus on offensive cyber capabilities as well as defensive capabilities, agency director Regina Dugan said. "Modern warfare will demand the effective use of cyber, kinetic, and combined cyber and kinetic means," Dugan said, speaking before the DARPA Cyber Colloquium, a gathering of cyber professionals.
The United States should be more open about its development of offensive cyber weapons and spell out when it will use them as it grapples with an increasing barrage of attacks by foreign hackers, the former No. 2 uniformed officer in the U.S. military said. "We've got to step up the game; we've got to talk about our offensive capabilities and train to them; to make them credible so that people know there's a penalty to this," said James Cartwright, the four-star Marine Corps general who retired in August as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Law-enforcement and intelligence agencies are increasingly relying on information from the Web and electronic records to help solve crimes and evaluate threats, producing a stream of new business for companies that can help them crunch the data. From big defense contractors to smaller, specialized start-ups, companies are cashing in on healthy demand for software and other technology that can sort through and analyze mountains of government and private-sector data to help track down criminals or look for signs of terrorist activity.
The U.S. government accused the Chinese of being the world's "most active and persistent" perpetrators of economic spying, an unusual move designed to spur stronger U.S. and international action to combat rampant industrial espionage threatening U.S. economic growth. Russian intelligence agents also are conducting extensive spying to collect U.S. economic data and technology, according to a U.S. intelligence report released Thursday that concluded China and Russia are "the most aggressive collectors" of U.S. economic information and technology.
In an anonymous industrial park, CIA analysts who jokingly call themselves the "ninja librarians" are mining the mass of information people publish about themselves overseas, tracking everything from common public opinion to revolutions. The group's effort gives the White House a daily snapshot of the world built from tweets, newspaper articles and Facebook updates.
Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, isn’t “dominant” in Internet search and competes against companies such as Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., Chairman Eric Schmidt said in a written response to lawmakers’ questions. Schmidt submitted his comments to address follow-up questions from lawmakers after a Sept. 21 hearing where he conceded that Google fits one of the legal criteria used to determine whether a company has enough market share, or monopoly power, to quash competition.
Professor David Gelernter is fighting to prove his contention that his innovations were pirated by Apple for its computers, iPhones and iPads. He did it once, and a company whose original incarnation he co-founded won a stunning jury verdict, but then an extraordinary judicial ruling took it all away.
Facebook will not be targeted by Anonymous, the hacking group said in one of its Twitter accounts, again distancing itself from a threat that has gotten broad publicity since it surfaced several months ago. "We told you many times ddosing Facebook was a fake operation," reads a message posted in the group's AnonOps Twitter account.
Motorola Mobility has secured an injunction against the sale of Apple mobile products in Germany, according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller. Citing “a copy of what purports to be a default judgment by the Mannheim Regional Court,” this would mean that Apple is prohibited from selling any mobile devices that infringe upon on two Motorola patents in Germany.
Steve Jobs' legacy at Apple Inc. goes well beyond cool gadgets, a thriving retail chain and a music empire. He also launched the company's all-out legal war on Google Inc.
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.
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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.