Logging The Cyber World

Tags: Google, google plus, search engine land, search results, social network

The long-standing and persistent accusation that Google unfairly uses its search engine to promote its other online services is once again in the spotlight, triggered by new social search functionality the company is rolling out this week that more tightly links its search engine with its Google+ social networking site.

The complaints have come from different quarters, including competitors and industry experts, and have focused on various arguments, but at bottom all charge Google with using its dominant search engine to deliberately boost Google+’s popularity, by giving Google+ pages and profiles an artificially prominent position in result pages.

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Tags: add-ons, browser, firefox, rapid release, twitter on firefox

Mozilla released Firefox 8 today, a version that weeds out some add-ons and that will shoulder more responsibility for the organization’s new fast-development process.

Giving the user control over the Web experience has been a longstanding Mozilla priority, and Firefox 8 takes a new step here. With earlier versions, third-party software could extend Firefox with new features–Skype’s tool for highlighting phone numbers for easy online calling, for example. With Firefox 8, though, third-party add-ons will be disabled by default.

“These add-ons installed by third parties present a number of problems: they can slow down Firefox start-up and page loading time, they clutter the interface with toolbars that often go unused, they lag behind on compatibility and security updates, and most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons,” said Mozilla programmer Justin “Fligtar” Scott in a blog post about the feature.

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In an effort to continue their reign of hacking news supremacy, both LulzSec and Anonymous have claimed responsibility for a 10 gigabyte file containing social security numbers, credit card details, and vast amounts of police files including emails and confidentially sent tips on crimes. This information comes from more than 70 so-called “small-down” law enforcement agencies. Both hacking groups say they want to show solidarity with with Topiary and the Anonymous PayPal LOIC defendants as well as others – Topiary being the supposed name of one Jake Davis, a teen suspected of working with LulzSec to illegally hack several institutions.

This team of hackers, Anonymous and LulzSec, working under the name AntiSec, aka Anti-Security, released this file containing aproximately 100,000 emails from officers in states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kansas amongst other files. Inside these emails was at least one appearing to contain dozens of tip-offs about local seemingly illegal incidents from members of the public, including names and addresses of the supposed offenders and/or tipsters.

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Tags: internet, Microsoft, skype, video calls, voip

U.S. software group Microsoft Corp. is in talks about buying Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA in a deal that could be valued at around $8.5 billion, according to published reports.

The possible deal, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal, may be unveiled as early as Tuesday and would be one of Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions in years.

The transaction is expected to value Skype at $8.5 billion including debt, according to several reports.

Representatives for Skype and Microsoft MSFT -0.15% couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The U.S. firm’s last significant deal was the 2007 purchase of online advertising group aQuantive Inc. for around $6 billion.

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Tags: browser, ie web standard, internet explorer 9, microsoft browser, modern browser

Microsoft has officially launched Internet Explorer 9. The browser, which is being touted by many reviewers already as the best version of the software the company has ever released, follows a long line of predecessors that at times won customers over and at other times failed miserably. But it’s a new day for Microsoft and Internet Explorer. The time has finally come for the company to face Google’s Chrome browser head-on.

But perhaps now Windows users are wondering if they should use Internet Explorer 9. Some of those folks are using previous versions of the browser and might be pleased with it. Others might be using Chrome, Firefox or Opera, and couldn’t fathom the thought of moving to Microsoft’s latest browser.

More on eWeek.com

Tags: Dick Costolo, facebook, Google, twitter, Zynga

Twitter’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, says talk of a $10bn (£6.2bn) acquisition of the messaging company by Google is “just a rumour” and that the site is already making money.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Costolo asked whether Google could afford a $10bn acquisition – following rumours that this was the price being considered by the search engine firm for the messaging startup. “People write that stuff all the time … I don’t know where these things come from, it’s just a rumour.” He fell short of an outright denial, however.

Costolo also suggested that Twitter, which started operations in February 2006, will this year introduce a new method of making money, to add to its existing roster of promoted tweets, accounts and trends. However, he did not specify what that would be.

More on Guardian.co.uk

Tags: botnet, botnet masters, mariposa network, ring network, virus infected computers

SAN FRANCISCO – Authorities have smashed one of the world’s biggest networks of virus-infected computers, a data vacuum that stole credit cards and online banking credentials from as many as 12.7 million poisoned PCs.

The “botnet” of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.

Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, have arrested the three alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. More arrests are expected soon in other countries.

Spanish authorities have planned a news conference for Wednesday in Madrid.

Read more at Yahoo News

Tags: 50 million tweets, daily tweets, total tweets a day, tweets a day, twitter

Twitter, a popular microblogging site, is continuing its phenomenal growth trajectory. The site, which was launched back in 2007, has seen rapid growth in the past months. Unlike other places where you need other metrics to measure growth, on Twitter, this is quite easy. The easiest way to check its growth is to track the number of tweets sent per day!

Twitter, which was launched in 2007, has enjoyed rapid growth in recent months. In 2007, around 5,000 tweets were sent per day. That increased to 300,000 messages per day in 2008 and now in 2010, it has reached a staggering 50 million tweets per day!

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Tags: credentials, internet, passwords, social networking, sophos, web users

A third of web users have admitted to using the same password for a number of different websites, says Sophos.

According to the security firm, just 19 percent never use the same password twice. Sophos added that three years ago, 41 percent of web users said they used the same password, indicating that just 8 percent of web users have realized the importance of strong, unique passwords.

“It’s worrying that in three years very few computer users seem to have woken up to the risks of using weak passwords and the same ones for every site they visit,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“With social networking and other internet accounts now even more popular, there’s plenty on offer for hackers and by using the same password to access Facebook, Amazon and your online bank account, you’re making it much easier for them. Once one password has been compromised, it’s only a matter of time before the fraudsters will be able to gain access to your other accounts and steal information for financial gain.”

Full article at PCWorld

Tags: file sharing, ifpi, legalize, norwegian minister, pirate bay

The trial of The Pirate Bay has not gone by unnoticed in Sweden’s neighbor country, Norway. The IFPI has ordered the largest ISP in the country to block the site, while on the other hand Norway’s Minister of Education is critical of the music industry, and wants to legalize (illegal) file-sharingEarlier this week the music industry, headed by the IFPI, gave Norway’s largest Internet provider an ultimatum; block access to The Pirate Bay within 14 days or we will take you to court.

ISPs have criticized IFPI’s move, and Pirate Bay’s spokesman Peter Sunde said that “the crazy people behind IFPI should be stopped.” Bård Vegar Solhjell, Minister of Education and Research in Norway sides with Peter in this assessment, as he vouches for the legalization of file-sharing.

In a recent blog post, the minister who is a member of the Socialist Left Party (SV), said that file-sharing is genius, and a great way to discover and access music. “You and I can get access to all the world’s music when we want. Fantastic!” Solhjell wrote on his weblog.

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