Security

Just a few days short of Super Bowl Sunday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today it had seized 307 Web sites that either live-streamed sports or sold fake NFL paraphernalia.

The federal agents also arrested a Michigan man on criminal copyright infringement charges who allegedly operated nine of the streaming sites.

"While most people are focusing on whether the Patriots or Giants will win on Sunday, we at ICE have our sights on a different type of victory: defeating the international counterfeiting rings that illegally profit off of this event, the NFL, its players and sports fans," more

Attackers repeatedly hacked VeriSign's network and stole information in 2010, the company revealed in a quarterly regulatory filing.

The Internet infrastructure provider did not disclose what information was stolen or other details of the attacks in its 10-Q report filed in October with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that was reported on by Reuters today.

"In 2010, the Company faced several successful attacks against its corporate network in which access was gained to information on a small portion of our computers and servers," the company wrote. "Information stored on the compromised corporate systems was exfiltrated."

The company more

One of the welcome features in OS X Lion was the replacement of Apple's first-generation FileVault file encryption technology, which only encrypted the home folder, with a new whole-disk encryption approach.

Unlike the first FileVault, which required a number of workarounds and still had compatibility problems with various programs and utilities, the new technology is transparent to the operating system and enhances security since it not only encrypts user data but also all other data on the drive, including system caches, application files, and system configuration files that might contain some personal information.

FileVault 2 requires the hard drive more

Well, this is something you don't hear every day.

WikiLeaks investors are currently working on completing a deal to buy a boat that would house the controversial site's servers in international waters, Fox News is reporting today, citing sources. By moving the servers offshore, WikiLeaks, which currently has servers in Sweden and Iceland, among other countries, believes that it will be able to evade U.S. law enforcement and save its founder Julian Assange from prosecution.

According to Fox News, one of its sources "within the hacker community" said that by moving the servers offshore, the site would more

Google has responded to Congress, defending its decision to make a controversial change to its privacy policy.

In a 13-page letter (document) to several Congress members, Google explained its decision for changing its privacy policy, and answered a host of questions posed by the lawmakers after the search giant announced its plans.

"Last week we heard from members of Congress about Google's plans to update our privacy policies by consolidating them into a single document on March 1," Google director of public policy Pablo Chavez wrote today in a blog post accompanying the letter. "Protecting people's privacy is more

In a recent interview, mixed-martial arts chief Dana White suggested that members of the hacktivist group Anonymous were "cowards" and "terrorists."

White, who helped found the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the nation's largest promoter of mixed-martial arts fights, then engaged alleged members of Anonymous in a debate via Twitter about his support for the controversial and now seemingly defunct Stop Online Piracy Act and the morality of hacking sites as a political statement.

According to a CNN report, Anonymous got the final word. Shortly after the debate, someone posted to the Internet White's social security number, mobile phone number, more

Online activists Anonymous are targeting the European Parliament and supporters of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which critics say would curtail freedom of expression and encourage surveillance by service providers.

Copyrightalliance.org was inaccessible today after Anonymous set its sights on the Web site for its pro-ACTA stance. Meanwhile, hackers were poking at the sites of the European Parliament and governments in the EU, with plans to dig up information on officials that could be released publicly, a source familiar with Anonymous' plans told CNET.

Anonymous has a history of operations against what the group complains are antipiracy efforts that more

Privacy advocates are one step closer to winning a big one in the European Union.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, today unveiled a set of proposals aimed at improving the privacy of personal data, like e-mails, Facebook posts, and Web activities, across the European Union's 27 countries. The EC, which claims 70 percent of Europeans are concerned that their private data is being misused, says the time has come for the continent to overhaul the 1995 data protection rules that currently govern privacy across the zone.

"Seventeen years ago, less than 1 percent of Europeans used more

Companies will be required to disclose security breaches within 24 hours of their occurrence under European Union proposals being made this week to strengthen data protection rules.

New rules are needed to protect consumers and reduce bureaucracy, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a speech at a conference today in Munich.

"Companies that suffer a data leak must inform the data protection authorities and the individuals concerned, and they must do so without undue delay," Bloomberg quoted Reding as saying at the DLD conference. "European data protection rules will become a trademark people recognize and trust worldwide."

Individuals would more