Bitcoins were dealt a blow in Norway as the government of Scandinavia’s richest nation said the virtual currency doesn’t qualify as real money. “Bitcoins don’t fall under the usual definition of money or currency,” Hans Christian Holte, director general of taxation in Norway, said in an interview.
President Obama has decided to keep the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare branch under the same command despite concerns that it concentrates too much power in the hands of a single military official responsible for both surveillance and directing a growing arsenal of cyberweapons. As a practical matter, the decision means that Mr. Obama must appoint a four-star military officer to succeed Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the first person to simultaneously run the two organizations, when he retires early next year.
Dupree Johnson, who's evinced an iron dedication to crime, racking up five felonies despite his youth, got down and dirty with Instagram, depositing some holy-mother-of-God-are-you-kidding-me images. A Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy came across the fracas; noted that Dupree had a rap sheet including grand theft, burglary, and felony possession of a firearm; and looked more closely at the pictures.
The European Banking Authority issued a stern warning on the value of buying and trading Bitcoin. In a statement, the EBA said that as Bitcoin's popularity rises, it comes with "a series of risks deriving from buying, holding, or trading virtual currencies."
Google Inc.'s hopes of settling its high-profile antitrust case in the European Union suffered a setback as rivals and consumer groups blasted its latest proposal for resolving the EU's competition concerns. Critics said the Internet company's new proposals were only a modest improvement on an earlier offer and would do next to nothing to improve competition in online search.
Aereo said it will not oppose broadcast television companies' petition for the US Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the online service that streams over-the-air programming. "While the law is clear and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and two different federal courts have ruled in favor of Aereo, broadcasters appear determined to keep litigating the same issues against Aereo in every jurisdiction that we enter," Chief Executive Chet Kanojia said in a statement. "We want this resolved on the merits rather than through a wasteful war of attrition."
Samsung Electronics Co.’s offer to settle a European Union antitrust investigation over key patents requires only minor changes to win approval from regulators, according to two people familiar with the case. The EU will tell Samsung this month that rivals and other interested parties gave mostly positive feedback in a review of its pledge to stop seeking injunctions in Europe in disputes with competitors over patents required for products that comply with global technology standards, said the people, who asked not to be named because the process is confidential.
A fired former contractor has filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging civil rights violations and disclosure of private information after Google auto-completed his Internet search from "How do I build a radio controlled airplane?" to "How do I build a radio controlled bomb?” The man claims the search caused the government to harass him to the point that he was fired from his job at Appian Corporation.
PokerStars' ambitions to re-enter the U.S. market suffered a major setback when New Jersey gambling regulators, citing the company's legal woes, said that it would not receive a license to operate online poker in the state for at least two years. Over the past few years, Isle of Man-based PokerStars has spent millions on lobbying, acquisition and partnership deals in anticipation of trying to come back to the U.S., where a handful of states are preparing to allow online gambling.
A Seoul court rejected Samsung's claim that iPhone and iPad models violated three of its patents, another setback for the South Korean electronics giant in a global battle with Apple over rights to technologies that power smartphones and tablets. A Seoul Central District Court judge ruled that Apple did not violate Samsung's intellectual property rights.
The day before China's Communist Party published one of its most important policy statements in a decade, a copy of the reform plans was already circulating on Chinese social media. The unprecedented November 14 leak fueled China's biggest stock market rally in two months as it spread on microblogs and passed from smartphone to smartphone on WeChat, a three-year-old social messaging app developed by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Microsoft fended off a challenge to its $8.5 billion takeover of messaging service Skype when Europe's second-highest court ruled against claims by rival Cisco that the 2011 deal would harm competition. The decision means Microsoft can continue to market Skype's video calls to consumers and businesses without making any concessions to Cisco or others offering similar products.
A San Diego man was charged with operating a website that let people anonymously post explicit photographs of others so that he could extort hundreds of dollars from the victims. Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, was arrested by California Department of Justice agents on 31 felony counts of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion.
Europe's top regulator has warned Nokia not to try to become a "patent troll" after the Finnish company sold most of its cellphone-making business to Microsoft Corp. this year but retained its patent portfolio. Joaquin Almunia said in a speech in Paris he had approved the $7.2 billion sale as not presenting problems on Microsoft's side, but there is a danger Nokia will now attempt to "extract higher returns" from its patent portfolio.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a report alleging that Dell computers have been sold to the Syrian regime despite the trade embargo in place, according to a July filing by Dell to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigation was prompted by a New York Times report on May 3 that Dell computers were being sold to the Syrian government through a Dubai-based distributor.
Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents. Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels.
Chinese hackers eavesdropped on the computers of five European foreign ministries before last September's G20 Summit, which was dominated by the Syrian crisis, according to research by computer security firm FireEye Inc. The hackers infiltrated the ministries' computer networks by sending emails to staff containing tainted files with titles such as "US_military_options_in_Syria," said FireEye, which sells virus fighting technology to companies.
Snapchat's legal team is going on the offensive in the hopes of preventing more seemingly incriminating video footage or statements from appearing in the press. The company's lawyers filed a motion with California's Central District Court seeking a temporary restraining order against the jilted Reggie Brown, who is suing Snapchat, its co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, and the company's investors for a stake in the application he claims to have invented in the spring of 2011.
Major U.S. technology companies have joined together to ask the U.S. government to reform surveillance activities. In a letter to President Obama and Congress, the firms say there is an "urgent need" to change government spying practices, which the companies claim undermine the rights of individuals.
A group of 13 defendants who had been charged in a cyber attack on PayPal's website pleaded guilty and admitted to the December 2010 attack over PayPal's suspension of WikiLeaks accounts. Following the release of a large amount of classified documents by WikiLeaks, PayPal suspended its accounts so that the anti-secrecy website could no longer receive donations.
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