China Announces Antitrust Probe of Microsoft

A Chinese regulator said it is conducting an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft Corp. over its Windows operating system, in the latest in a growing number of competition probes that have unnerved Western firms in China. China's State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) was also investigating a Microsoft vice president and senior managers, and had made copies of the firm's financial statements and contracts, the agency said on its website.

A Chinese regulator said on Tuesday it is conducting an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft Corp

Israeli Defense Contractors Compromised by Hackers

Three Israeli defense contractors responsible for building the “Iron Dome” missile shield currently protecting Israel from a barrage of rocket attacks were compromised by hackers and robbed of huge quantities of sensitive documents pertaining to the shield technology, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The never-before publicized intrusions, which occurred between 2011 and 2012, illustrate the continued challenges that defense contractors and other companies face in deterring organized cyber adversaries and preventing the theft of proprietary information.

OkCupid Admits to 'Experiments' with Users

It turns out that OkCupid has been performing some of the same psychological experiments on its users that landed Facebook in hot water recently. In a lengthy blog post, OkCupid cofounder Christian Rudder explains that OkCupid has on occasion played around with removing text from people's profiles, removing photos, and even telling some users they were an excellent match when in fact they were only a 30 percent match according to the company's systems.

Microsoft Says Chinese Officials Visiting Its Offices

Chinese government officials have made sudden visits to Microsoft Corp. offices in China, a spokeswoman for the company said, but declined to give any reason for the inspections. China's State Administration for Industry & Commerce, which Chinese media reported had made the visits to Microsoft offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, declined to give comment outside of working hours.

EU Regulators Still Working on 'Right to be Forgotten'

European regulators have not yet decided whether to try to force search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing to scrub results globally when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" in the region. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin -- who heads France's privacy watchdog and the WP29 group of EU national data protection authorities -- said in an interview no consensus had yet been reached on what she called a "complicated issue."

Security Experts Find Way to Access iPhone Data

Personal data including text messages, contact lists and photos can be extracted from iPhones through previously unpublicized techniques by Apple Inc. employees, the company acknowledged. The same techniques to circumvent backup encryption could be used by law enforcement or others with access to the "trusted" computers to which the devices have been connected, according to the security expert who prompted Apple's admission.

Judge Calls Apple E-Book Settlement 'Troubling'

A U.S. judge expressed concern over a proposed $450 million settlement of claims Apple Inc. conspired with five publishers to fix e-book prices, saying its provisions could drastically reduce money paid to consumers depending on appeals. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said she found "most troubling" a clause requiring Apple to pay only $70 million if an appeals court reversed her finding that the company is liable for antitrust violations and sent it back to her for further proceedings.

European Central Bank Reports Hacking Incident

The European Central Bank said that hackers had broken into one of its databases and stolen information about journalists and others, in what appeared to be part of a blackmail scheme. The central bank said that the information stolen was from people who have registered for central bank events, which include news conferences or gatherings of people from other central banks in Europe or elsewhere.

Major League Baseball Opposes Net-Neutrality Proposal

Count Major League Baseball among those who aren’t wildly excited by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to allow broadband providers to offer fast-lane Internet access to content companies. The sports league’s digital media arm told the FCC that the controversial fast-lane net neutrality proposal was a bad idea for several reasons, one being that the added costs to content companies to use those fast-lanes would likely ultimately be passed along to consumers.

EU Questions Google Over Removal Requests

Google's handling of "right to be forgotten" requests from European citizens came under fire by regulators after the search engine firm restricted the removal of Internet links to European sites only, a person familiar with the matter said. The European Union's top court in May ruled that people have a right to request that years-old personal information that is no longer relevant be removed from Internet search results.

FTC Commissioner Wants to Limit Health App Data

Federal Trade Commission commissioner Julie Brill has some serious reservations about the collection of health data by consumer apps. In a nutshell, the Commissioner made clear that she considers collection and use of data to be one and the same -- and she thinks there should be heavy restrictions, which would have a major impact on the future of mobile health.

Hamburg Orders Uber to Stop Operating

Hamburg has told Uber, a U.S. car service whose smartphone app summons rides at the touch of a button, to stop operating in the German city, adding to resistance the company has faced globally from local regulators and taxi drivers. San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc, valued at $18.2 billion in a fundraising last month just four years since its 2010 launch, has touched a raw nerve by threatening to open up a traditionally tightly controlled and licensed market.

Seven Arrested in StubHub Cyber Crime Ring

Police have arrested seven people on charges they were tied to an international ring that defrauded eBay’s StubHub online ticketing service of some $1.6 million, the latest in a string of high-profile cyber crime busts in recent months. They were charged with involvement in a cyber crime ring that used stolen credit card numbers to purchase thousands of tickets to events, including concerts of Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z as well as games for sports teams including the Boston Red Sox and New York Giants, according to court documents.

FCC Warns ISPs to Honor Internet Speed Promises

U.S. communications regulators reminded Internet service providers to promise consumers only the speed and quality of service that they actually deliver, or face penalties. In an advisory, the Federal Communications Commission urged both fixed and wireless Internet service providers (ISPs) to comply with regulations that say the companies must be clear and accurate in the information they tell consumers about their broadband services.

Researchers Find New Type of Nigerian Cyber Scam

In the last three months, security researchers at Palo Alto Networks, the Silicon Valley-based security firm, have been tracking a series of cyberattacks affecting clients based in Taiwan and South Korea. The attacks, Palo Alto Networks said in a new report, originate in Nigeria and are being orchestrated by some of the same people behind the Nigerian 419 swindle, in which fraud artists try to trick foreign victims into transferring money to their bank accounts.

Judge Refuses to Dismiss Android Privacy Lawsuit

A federal judge rejected Google Inc's bid to dismiss a privacy lawsuit claiming it commingled user data across different products and disclosed that data to advertisers without permission. Saying his decision was a close call, U.S. District Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose, California, ruled that Google must face breach of contract and fraud claims by users of Android-powered devices who had downloaded at least one Android application through Google Play.

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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.