Efforts to put an end to e-mail phishing scams are working, thanks to the development of e-mail authentication standards, according to a pair of Google security researchers. Internet industry and standards groups have been working since 2004 to get e-mail providers to use authentication to put a halt to e-mail address impersonation.
The developer of a popular flashlight app for Android devices has agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that it shared users' geolocation information with advertising networks and other organizations without permission. The settlement between the FTC and Goldenshores Technologies, maker of the Brightest Flashlight Free app, prohibits the company from misrepresenting how consumers' information is collected and shared and how much control consumers have over the way their information is used, the agency said.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide on a key software industry issue of which kinds of computer-related software are eligible for patent protection. The court said in a one-line order that it would hear a case brought by Alice Corporation Pty Ltd, which holds a patent for a computer system that facilitates financial transactions.
Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar's plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news -- it's blocking websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market.
Nefarious cybercrime syndicates and villainous state-sponsored hackers are making the digital world an increasingly dangerous place. That's bad news for companies suffering growing losses from relentless cyberattacks. But it's good news for Silicon Valley, where cybersecurity has suddenly become the hot new-old thing.
Microsoft Corp. said it had disrupted the largest network of compromised personal computers, involving some 2 million machines around the world, since it stepped up its battle against organized online criminals three years ago. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant filed a lawsuit in Texas and won a judge's order directing Internet service providers to block all traffic to 18 Internet addresses that were used to direct fraudulent activity to the infected machines.
The U.S. House passed legislation to rein in some patent lawsuits that technology companies say could reduce the time they spend fighting such suits in court. The Senate has its own version of the legislation, which it may take up early next year.
In the past, China's video websites were rife with pirated films and TV programs, often put there by users. Now, Youku Tudou -- which legally distributes movies and shows -- employs a dozen sleuths who scour the web for pirated content, highlighting how China's online video industry is courting higher advertising revenues and better relations with foreign media firms by cracking down on illegal content.
Comscore Inc., which measures website traffic, will confer Dec. 16 on settling a 2011 group lawsuit over privacy invasion before a federal judge in Chicago, according to a filing. Plaintiffs accused the company of installing data-mining software on their computers to collect user names and passwords, credit-card numbers and prices paid for consumer goods purchased on the Internet for purposes not disclosed in its online policies, demanding as much as $1,000 per violation for each member of the class.
China's government banned financial institutions from trading in bitcoin, in what analysts said was a restrained first step towards regulating the digital currency that has exploded in popularity in China and soared in value in recent months. A statement by the central bank and four other agencies said that, while the computer-generated currency does not yet pose a threat to China's financial system, it carries risks.
Microsoft will be the latest technology company to announce plans to shield its services from outside surveillance. It is in the process of adding state-of-the-art encryption features to various consumer services and internally at its data centers. The announcement follows similar efforts by Google, Mozilla, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo in what has effectively become a digital arms race with the National Security Agency as the companies react to what some have called the “Snowden Effect.”
The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple's smart phone, the iPhone, for "security reasons," though he still uses Apple's tablet computer, the iPad.
A federal court in California has again dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by Google users who claimed the search giant broke the law when it combined the privacy policies of Gmail, YouTube and a variety of other services. In a decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal said, “[He] must do more than point to the dollars in a defendant’s pocket; he must sufficiently allege that in the process he lost dollars of his own.”
A U.S. appeals court closely questioned Google's claim that Oracle does not enjoy copyright protection over certain parts of the Java programming language. The issue, under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, is being closely watched by software developers in Silicon Valley.
Researchers have unearthed an online database full to the brim of stolen account information from popular services including Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, and Google. The security team at Trustwave's SpiderLabs revealed in a blog post that the database contained 1.58 million stolen usernames and passwords.
German police arrested two suspects in a fraud probe into illegally generated Bitcoins worth 700,000 euros ($948,000). Prosecutors in the southern town of Kempten are investigating whether several people used software to spy on digital identities and to create Bitcoins, Germany’s federal police said in an e-mailed statement.
Online video company Netflix met with the French president's staff to discuss a possible launch of its streaming service in Europe's third-largest market, in what would be a blow to traditional television companies. "Netflix wanted information about the legal conditions that would affect its potential arrival in France," an official at the president's office said, adding that the executives were also visiting Germany and other European countries.
The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with shielding the U.S. government from sophisticated cyber attacks, but the agency is again getting lackluster marks for its own security defenses. A recent report from the DHS inspector general yet again highlighted the agency's tardiness in updating its systems to account for known cyber threats.
When the Motion Picture Association of America first filed a lawsuit against Hotfile in February, 2011, some questioned whether Hollywood had gone too far in targeting a cyberlocker. Now, after more than two years of fighting, Hollywood studios will be collecting $80 million after the parties agreed to resolve the high-profile battle. In addition, the court has ordered Hotfile to cease operations unless it employs copyright filtering technologies, according to the MPAA.
India will ask the U.S. to share its technology on how to decrypt conversations over various services like Viber, Whatsapp, Skype, Wechat and Blackberry messenger while complaining about service providers in U.S. who invariably reject New Delhi's request for co-operation in investigating cyber crimes. As per an agenda note circulated by the Union Home Ministry ahead of the Indo-US Police Chiefs conference on December 4-5, India plans to tell the U.S. that the above-mentioned chatting services pose a "challenge" to security agencies to intercept and decipher communications and U.S. should share its technology on how it does the same, unless the chatting services share their decryption keys.
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