Hackers Can Hijack Printers, Researchers Say

Could a hacker from half-way around the planet control your printer and give it instructions so frantic that it could eventually catch fire? Or use a hijacked printer as a copy machine for criminals, making it easy to commit identity theft or even take control of entire networks that would otherwise be secure? It’s not only possible, but likely, say researchers at Columbia University, who claim they've discovered a new class of computer security flaws that could impact millions of businesses, consumers, and even government agencies.

Australian Judge Questions Tablet Ruling Against Samsung

An Australian appeals court judge questioned the fairness of a ruling that granted Apple Inc.’s request to ban the sale of the iPad2’s biggest rival in a legal dispute with Samsung Electronics Co. over patent infringement. “The result looks terribly fair to Apple and not terribly fair to Samsung,” Federal Court Justice Lindsay Foster said at a hearing in Sydney on Samsung’s appeal for the ban to be overturned.

Patent Firm Sues to Stop Sale of HTC Phones in Germany

German patent firm IPCom plans to halt as quickly as possible the sale of all HTC smartphones in Germany, another blow to the Taiwanese firm just two days after it shocked markets by cutting its fourth-quarter outlook. IPCom said it would enforce an injunction based on a Mannheim court decision from February 2009 after HTC, the fourth largest smartphone vendor globally, withdrew its appeal.

German Merck Loses Facebook Page to U.S. Merck

German drug maker Merck KGaA has asked a New York City court to force Facebook Inc. to explain how the German company lost its page on the social-networking site to U.S.-based rival Merck & Co. According to a filing in New York State Supreme Court, the German Merck intends to "initiate action based on the apparent takeover of its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/merck" by Merck & Co., the similarly named but separate competitor.

13 Million Game Subscribers Hacked in North Korea

South Korea's communications regulator said that personal information of more than 13 million subscribers of a popular online game of Nexon Korea Corp, a leading game developer in the country, had been leaked in a hacking attack. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said in a statement Nexon reported to the commission that the company discovered the leakage of personal data of its online game Maple Story's 13.2 million subscribers.

Four Arrested in Manila in AT&T-Related Hacking

Philippine police and the FBI have arrested four people over a hacking operation that targeted customers of U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T to funnel money to a Saudi-based militant group. Those arrested in Manila were paid by the same group the Federal Bureau of Investigation accuses of having funded the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the Philippines' Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said.

U.S. Seizes 131 Domain Names Used for Piracy

The U.S. government has seized 131 domains allegedly associated with counterfeiting- and piracy-related websites, reports TorrentFreak. The action signals that U.S. authorities have resumed “Operation In Our Sites”, a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that aims to stop online piracy and counterfeit item sales by assuming control of a site’s domain name.

EU Court Rules for ISPs in File-Sharing Case

The highest court in the European Union said that Internet service providers could not be required to monitor their customers’ online activity to filter out the illegal sharing of music and other copyrighted material. The ruling, by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, is a setback for a Belgian group representing music copyright owners, which had sought tougher measures to crack down on online file sharing.

DHS Denies Cyberattack Caused Pump Failure

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said there is nothing to suggest that a recent pump failure at a Springfield, Ill. water utility was caused by a cyberattack as previously reported by an industrial control systems security expert. In a statement, DHS spokesman Chris Ortman said his agency and the FBI have completed a detailed analysis of the pump failure at the Curran-Gardner Public Water District in Springfield.

Gates Testifies in Novell Antitrust Trial

Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout presented the most challenges in the company's history, leading to several last-minute changes to technical features that would no longer support a rival software maker's word processor, Bill Gates testified in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of WordPerfect. Gates was the first witness to testify as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that's been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.

ITC Rules Apple Didn't Infringe S3 Graphics' Patents

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled Apple Inc. products don't infringe on patents held by S3 Graphics, an acquisition target of HTC Corp. The commission reversed a preliminary ruling that some Apple products violated S3 patents involving texture compression, which is used in computer applications such as 3-D games. The panel said it found "no violation" by Apple and "the investigation is terminated."

AT&T Probing 'Organized' Hacking Attempt

AT&T Inc, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, said it is investigating an "organized and systemic attempt" to access wireless customers' information but that it did not believe any accounts were breached. The company, which had 100 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter, said it is advising less than 1 percent of its mobile customers that there was an attempt to obtain information about their accounts.

Report Highlights China's Anti-Piracy Commitments

Software piracy in China isn’t going away anytime soon, but the effort to fight it looks as if it got a bit — just a bit — more serious, according to representatives of one of the industry’s main lobbying groups. The United States Commerce Department just released a summary of the results of a trade meeting between United States and Chinese government officials that occurred in Chengdu. Chinese officials made a number of commitments during the meeting to tackle what software makers believe is one of the worst and most fixable parts of the piracy problem in China: the use of unauthorized copies of software by government agencies and state-owned enterprises.

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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.