The first four of a planned 1,400 new net-address suffixes -- called generic top-level domains, or gTLDs -- were built into the fabric of the Internet. The first four new gTLDs, taking advantage of the newer ability to extend beyond Latin character sets, are the Chinese word for game, the Arabic word for Web, and the Russian words for online and site.
Entrepreneurs and start-up companies looking for backing will be able to solicit small investments over the Internet from the general public under a new proposal from U.S. regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission's "crowdfunding" plan is a requirement in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, a 2012 law enacted with wide bipartisan support that relaxes federal regulations to help spur small business growth.
The rise of Bitcoin, the little-regulated digital currency, is challenging law enforcement's ability to keep tabs on the criminal underworld. The virtual currency is essentially encrypted computer code that is accepted as a form of payment among users, with a fluctuating value set by a market and not by any country or central bank.
Facebook has removed one video of a beheading that was posted on the free-content ad-network -- and told its users to be more "responsible" about the material they dump on the site. The decision to yank the clip came after Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron attacked Facebook for allowing such material to be published and viewed by millions of people around the world.
The Obama administration released a highly anticipated set of cybersecurity standards for private industry. The preliminary rules are intended to help critical infrastructure operators, such as power plants and telecommunications companies, better protect their systems from hackers.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho decided that a self-described label of “hacker” is significant enough to be used as evidence for bad intentions. Furthermore, the Court decided that since the defendant called himself a hacker, that was evidence enough to allow for seizure, via the copying of a hard drive, even though the Court said that such copying “is a serious invasion of privacy.”
A lawmaker who is a staunch advocate of children’s privacy is investigating whether the data collection and analysis practices of the growing education technology industry, a market estimated at $8 billion, are outstripping federal rules governing the sharing of students’ personal information. Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent a letter to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, about how K-12 schools are outsourcing management and assessment of student data, including intimate details like disabilities, to technology vendors.
Aaron’s Inc. will settle Federal Trade Commission charges it played a role in its franchisees’ installation and use of software on rental computers that secretly monitored consumers including by taking webcam pictures of them in their homes. The FTC alleged the Atlanta-based rent-to-own retailer’s franchisees used the software, which tracked consumers’ locations, captured images through the computers’ webcams -- including those of adults engaged in intimate activities -- and activated keyloggers that captured users’ login credentials for email accounts and financial and social media sites.
Facebook has begun adding warning messages to videos on its site showing decapitations and other instances of extreme violence. The alert states: "Warning! This video contains extremely graphic content and may be upsetting."
China's state broadcaster CCTV News said one of its Twitter accounts had been hacked, and deleted a tweet claiming the country's president had set up a special unit to probe corruption accusations against a former domestic security chief.
Google unveiled three new tools to combat surveillance and attacks against websites as part of its fight against global censorship. The tools -- uProxy, Project Shield and the Digital Attack Map -- are an attempt to figure out "what might be done to better protect people confronting online censorship," the company wrote in a blog post.
Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer tried to slow the rollout of its search deal with Microsoft Corp and questioned its partner's commitment, court filings show, in the latest sign that their strategic relationship is fraying. A U.S. judge ruled that Yahoo must adopt Microsoft's search technology in Taiwan and Hong Kong under their partnership, forged in 2010, to try and lessen Google Inc's dominance in search advertising.
Facebook is allowing videos showing people being decapitated to be posted and shared on its site once again. The social network had introduced a temporary ban in May following complaints that the clips could cause long-term psychological damage.
A panel of European Union lawmakers on backed a measure that could require American companies like Google and Yahoo to seek clearance from European officials before complying with United States warrants seeking private data. The vote, by an influential committee at the European Parliament, is part of efforts in Europe to shield citizens from online surveillance in the wake of revelations about a far-reaching spying program by the National Security Agency of the United States.
Germany's antitrust watchdog accused Amazon of undermining competition when dealing with third-party merchants and said it would impose reform unless the Internet retailer changed its rules, a German newspaper reported.
Diverging high court rulings in New York and Illinois over 'Amazon taxes' point to a possible U.S. Supreme Court case to settle questions about the legality of states taxing online retail sales, lawyers said. With Congress failing to take action on the issue, courts have been intervening case-by-case in a long-running struggle between state governments and major online retailers, including Amazon.com Inc, over sales tax.
A few months ago, a group of Wall Street banks fashioned a risk-manager's worst nightmare to determine how they would survive. Luckily, it was all pretend. In a staged simulation called Quantum Dawn 2, bank executives in charge of operations, technology and crisis planning were tasked with detecting how a massive cyber attack was unfolding in the markets -- but each one only got to see a tiny red flag waving in a sea of information.
The United States has for years carried out extensive surveillance and eavesdropping operations targeting Mexico's government, according to new evidence obtained by Spiegel Online. The German publication says its information comes directly from classified intelligence leaked by Edward Snowden. Chief among the allegations is that the NSA successfully infiltrated the public email account of Mexico's former president, Felipe Calderon.
An Illinois law aimed at leveling competition between online and brick-and-mortar retailers while collecting more state sales taxes is unconstitutional, the state supreme court ruled, upholding a Cook County judge's decision. The opinion is another shot in the highly contentious nationwide battle over who should collect online sales tax and how.
Profits aren’t the only thing lacking at Twitter Inc. ahead of its planned initial public offering. It’s got a dearth of patents, too. The microblogging service said in its prospectus that it has nine issued U.S. patents. That compares with 774 cited by Facebook Inc. before its initial public offering in May 2012 and International Business Machine Corp.’s 6,478 patents accrued last year alone.
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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.