murdoch

Hackers target Murdoch newspaper Web site

The LulzSec hacker group has turned its sights on Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper The Sun, hacking the site to direct visitors to a fake article claiming the media mogul had died and releasing information on journalists.

The group announced on Twitter that "The Sun's homepage now redirects to the Murdoch death story on the recently-owned New Times website. Can you spell success, gentlemen?"

The New Times site was inaccessible this afternoon, but screenshots captured before it was taken off line show a headline that says "Media Moguls Body Discovered" and a story that … Read more

Phone hacking scandal claims Dow Jones CEO

Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton is leaving the company in the wake of the PhoneGate hacking scandal. Hinton is the second high-ranking News Corp. executive to step down today, and the first major figure from the company's American operations.

Hinton has been under scrutiny in the past couple weeks because he oversaw News Corp.'s News International unit, the group that publishes its British newspapers, from 1995 through 2007. That's the same time that News Corp.'s News of the World tabloid is alleged to have engaged in systemic voicemail hacking, among other offenses.

Hinton's resignation follows … Read more

The 404 861: Where we're putting it all out there (podcast)

Have you ever received a phone call from a mystery number, but had no way to find out who was on the other side? A new online service called NumberGuru lets you perform a reverse number search to identify the source, and our friends from BeenVerified.com are in the studio to tell us all about it.

There are a few services like WhitePages that offer similar features, but NumberGuru is free and accessible from the Numberguru.com Web site, or with any one of its smartphone apps. Even better, the site lets you share comments on phone numbers to warn other users about spammers and telemarketers, and BeenVerified.com also offers background checks to dig up more details about the caller.

The 404 Digest for Episode 861

BeenVerified does background checks. Why bother to remember when you can just use Google? Great fear as PS1 discs begin to oxidize and degrade after 10 years.

Episode 861 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

FBI investigating News Corp. over 9/11 claims

The FBI has launched an inquiry into allegations that employees of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. tried to illegally hack the phones of September 11 victims.

An FBI spokesman told CNET in a phone conversation today that the agency "is aware of the allegations and we are looking into it."

Until earlier this week, the U.S. had remained out of the scandal in Britain surrounding News Corp. over cell phone hacking. However, the Daily Mail in the U.K. reported on Monday that News Corp.-owned News of the World, a British tabloid, had contacted a private … Read more

This Day in Tech: Netflix customers are angry birds

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Wednesday, July 13.

• Customers are not happy that Netflix increased subscription prices for its DVD and streaming video combo plan. Customers who want access to DVDs and streaming video must pay $15.98, up from the $9.99 they were used to paying. The 60 percent price hike didn't go over so well in the digital world; new community pages such as "I Unlike Netflix Today" sprung up to get the masses to quit Netflix. But … Read more

U.S. Senator seeks Murdoch investigation

The phone hacking scandal that prompted Rupert Murdoch to shutter one U.K. tabloid and withdraw a bid to take control of the satellite TV broadcaster BSkyB, appears to be hitting U.S. shores, with Senator Jay Rockefeller calling for an inquiry in this country.

"I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans," Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, was quoted as saying in The London Evening Standard. "If they did, the consequences will be … Read more

Reports: U.K. paper paid police to 'ping' phones

The scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's News of the World is growing, with new allegations that his papers bribed police to use cell phone-tracking technology to find the exact whereabouts of news subjects, as well as to obtain information about the royal family, and also targeted former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to reports.

Two former News of the World journalists said the practice of using the illicit cell phone tracking was known as "pinging" in the newsroom, according to The New York Times. The technology, for which one reporter said the News of the World paid nearly $… Read more

British tabloid to shutter in wake of phone hacking scandal

British tabloid News of the World is shutting down as a result of allegations that representatives of the newspaper hacked into phone accounts of news subjects, including celebrities, politicians, and a murder victim, and made payments to police.

The tabloid, which has more than 2.6 million subscribers, will shut down after Sunday's issue, the company said in a statement issued today.

Meanwhile, former News of the World Editor Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as communications director for British Prime Minister David Cameron over the phone hacking scandal, was asked to appear for questioning at a London police … Read more

The 404 851: Where some things even Justin Timberlake can't bring back (podcast)

We're taking a three-day weekend to celebrate Independence Day, which means that tomorrow we'll make our annual walk-of-shame to McDonald's for breakfast. So it's only appropriate that today we talk about a Consumer Reports survey that confirms McDonald's as the worst beef-on-a-bun you can buy.

Wilson insists on waiting until tomorrow for the return of Tang That Tune, so today's stories include Justin Timberlake investing in the return of MySpace, a TIL about the etymology of popular software company names, and the long-awaited review of the HP TouchPad tablet.

The 404 Digest for Episode 851

Justin Timberlake wants to bring Sexyback to Myspace. TIL how Apple, Google, Intel, Microsoft etc. got their names. "Science" confirms In-n-Out Burger is the best...guess which is the worst!

Episode 851 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more