Internet

Syria's Internet connection is up and running again.

Content delivery network Akamai revealed the Internet's return to life in the country, tweeting that traffic over its network to Syria started to flow again at about 15:30 UTC (8:30 a.m. PT). An image tweeted by Akamai showed Syrian traffic climbing up to within reach of its normal level.

Internet monitoring firm Renesys said routes to Syrian networks were restored at 15:26 UTC, which means the latest outage lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes.

A tweet earlier Wednesday from the state-run Syrian news agency said workers … Read more

Update: Syrian Internet access has been restored as of about 8:30 a.m. PT. Full story here.

Syria has again been cut off from the rest of the online world.

Internet access for the battle-torn country has been down since Wednesday, 7:01 UTC (12:01 a.m. PDT), according to an update from Internet monitoring firm Renesys. A tweet from Renesys says that BGP (border gateway patrol) is down, inbound traceroutes are failing, and DNS severs and government Web sites are down.

A tweet from the state-run Syrian news agency says that workers are trying to fix the problem … Read more

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed it has initiated legal action that prompted the Dwolla payment service to stop processing bitcoin transactions.

Nicole Navas, a representative for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed the legal action to CNET this afternoon.

Dwolla, a Des Moines, Iowa-based startup, which raised $16.5 million in funding two weeks ago, notified users about the move earlier Tuesday. It blamed the decision on "recent court orders" limiting its ability to send money through Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange.

"In order not to compromise this ongoing investigation being conducted … Read more

A federal judge has rejected attempts by the estate of the late Aaron Swartz to disclose confidential court documents that could have revealed key details about MIT's role in his prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston ruled today that the possibility of violence aimed at MIT officials -- some have reportedly received threats, and the campus was locked down in February after a gunman hoax -- outweighed the public's right to access court records that would have identified which professors, university attorneys, or staff members were involved.

"The estate's interest in disclosing the … Read more

Google+ users reading articles on mobile Web sites may now start to see recommendations to related stories.

Unveiled today, the new feature allows Web developers to add code to their sites so that users can discover more stories by that publisher on the same topic or from the same author.

As described in today's Google+ developers blog, a user reading a certain story on a mobile device will see a link toward the bottom of that story. The link suggests a related story that's been heavily shared or received a +1 on Google+. Tapping on that link brings … Read more

Joss Whedon fans can now catch the latest musings of their favorite creative guru in 140 characters or less.

Whedon finally hopped onto the Twittersphere early Monday using the nom de Twitter of @JossActual. Displaying his usual deadpan sense of humor, Whedon describes himself as a "ladies man, man's man, man about town... Java man, Isle of Man, Mandroid, Man Who Would Be King Ralph, girly man."

As of late Monday, the writer and director known for "The Avengers," "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly," "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" … Read more

Last month, Sen. Mark Udall and a handful of other privacy-focused politicians persuaded the IRS to promise to cease warrantless searches of Americans' private correspondence.

Now Udall, a Colorado Democrat, is taking aim at the Justice Department, which has claimed the right to conduct warrantless searches of Americans' e-mail, Facebook chats, and other private communications.

"I am extremely concerned that the Justice Department and FBI are justifying warrantless searches of Americans' electronic communications based on a loophole in an outdated law that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled was unconstitutional," Udall said in … Read more

Syria is back online after an Internet outage cut it off from the rest of the online world on Tuesday.

Internet monitoring company Renesys updated its latest blog post on Wednesday, saying that "Syrian Internet has returned." The outage itself lasted 19.5 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday.

A new graph tweeted by content delivery network Akamai shows a huge spike in traffic to Syria, indicating that the Internet is flowing once again.

Syria Digital Reports earlier confirmed the news by tweeting that it received reports that Internet connectivity was returning.

This latest outage marks the third time … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.

Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they're not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail. The IRS, on the other hand, publicly said last month that it would abandon a controversial policy that claimed it could get warrantless access … Read more