Aviation Panel Reaches Preliminary Agreement on Cybersecurity

A panel of government and aviation-industry experts has reached a preliminary agreement on proposed cybersecurity standards for airliners, including the concept of cockpit alerts in the event that critical safety systems are hacked, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the recommendations, these people said, incorporate work already under way to create an entirely new category of automated in-flight warnings—intended to directly notify pilots if navigation signals are jammed or corrupted.

Supreme Court Ruling Helps Patent Owners Win Damages

The Supreme Court made it easier for patent holders to win larger financial damages in court from copycats who use their inventions without permission. The high court, in a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, overturned a specialized appellate court that had adopted a hard-to-meet legal standard for winning punitive damages, even in cases where the defendant’s patent infringement was willful.

After Orlando Shooting, Facebook Activates 'Safety Check'

Facebook activated its “Safety Check” function for the first time in the United States after a gunman massacred 50 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The Safety Check, first introduced in October 2014, allows Facebook users to spread the word that they are safe in wake of a natural disaster or a crisis, and allows searches for those who might be in the affected area.

Court Lets Model's Rape Case Against Website Proceed

A woman who used a website that connects freelance models to casting agents, photographers and others in the business is looking to sue ModelMayhem.com for failure to warn users of potential rapists on their website. A court ruling granted her the right to move forward with the trial, a decision which brings up questions of whether websites can be held legally accountable for sexual assaults that happen to their users in the offline world.

Company Claims New Way to Prevent Cyberattacks

Most security start-ups seeking funding today have resigned themselves to the inevitability of a breach and are focused more on identifying an attack as it plays out and praying that they can respond before the perpetrator makes off with something important. It’s as if everyone in the cybersecurity industry forgot that customers pay them to keep from being hacked in the first place.

Twitter Warns Millions of Users to Change Passwords

Twitter Inc. has notified millions of users that their accounts are at risk of being taken over after a database containing nearly 33 million purported usernames and passwords for the social-blogging service was made public. Michael Coates, Twitter’s trust and information security officer, said the company is “quite confident” that the records weren’t stolen from Twitter’s computers.

Commerce Dep't Approves Dropping U.S. Role at ICANN

Senior officials from the Commerce Department announced that they've approved a pending proposal aimed at offloading oversight of the Internet's name-and-address system to an international body made up of technologists, businesses, governments and public interest advocates. It's a move that's filled with symbolism: Supporters say it reflects the fulfillment of a longstanding promise by the United States to keep the Web an open place where no single government, corporation or other entity can singlehandedly influence how the Internet evolves.

Uber, Execs Fined $500,000 in France for Illegal Transportation

As part of the continuing global backlash over the popular ride-sharing service, Uber and two of its senior European executives were convicted and fined nearly $500,000 in France for running an illegal transportation business. In its push to expand around the world, Uber, the fast-growing start-up that is now worth $62.5 billion, has become a target in many of the 300 cities where it operates.

Justice Dep't Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Apple Patent Ruling

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that had favored Apple Inc. over Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in smartphone patent litigation, and asked that it return the case to the trial court for more litigation. Samsung had appealed a federal appeals court ruling to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

N.Y. Attorney General Warns Charter About Internet Speeds

The ink is barely dry on Charter's massive acquisition of Time Warner Cable — a deal that just formed the nation's second-largest cable company — but New York's attorney general is wasting no time pressing the firm on customer complaints about their Internet service. Thousands of Time Warner Cable's customers have written in to the attorney general's office saying they aren't getting the download speeds they paid for as part of an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into Internet providers' advertised speeds, according to a spokesman. And now, Schneiderman sent a letter to Charter calling for the cable company to "clean up Time Warner Cable's act" in the wake of the acquisition.

Privacy, Control Spark Web's Creator to Work on Next Phase

Twenty-seven years ago, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web as a way for scientists to easily find information. It has since become the world’s most powerful medium for knowledge, communications and commerce — but that doesn’t mean Mr. Berners-Lee is happy with all of the consequences. So now, Mr. Berners-Lee gathered in San Francisco with other top computer scientists — including Brewster Kahle, head of the nonprofit Internet Archive and an internet activist — to discuss a new phase for the web.

Yahoo Plans to Auction 3,000 Patents, Could Raise $1B

Yahoo Inc. has kicked off an auction for a portfolio of about 3,000 patents expected to fetch more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, the internet company sent letters to a range of potential buyers for the patents, which date back to Yahoo’s founding in 1996 and include its original search technology, one of the people said.

FBI Privately Warns Banks About Cyber Attacks

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation last month urged banks to look for signs of possible cyber attacks in the wake of the massive heist at Bangladesh's central bank, asking them to hunt for technical clues that they have been targeted by the same group. The private "Flash" notification, which provided technical information about the attacks, said a "malicious cyber group" had compromised the networks of multiple foreign banks.

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