CYBERCRIMINALS FOCUSING ON CORPORATE TRADE SECRETS

Cybercriminals are increasingly moving from stealing just personal data to capturing trade secrets and other corporate intellectual capital that they can easily sell through the underground market, according to a new report from McAfee and the SAIC. In the release of a new study, “Underground Economies: Intellectual Capital and Sensitive Corporate Data Now the Latest CybercrimeScience Applications International Corporate find that the theft of trade secrets, marketing plans, R&D data, and even source code is on the rise, especially as such information is often unprotected. Currency”, McAfee and the

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4o1ez (Source: CNET News)

INDIA TO BLOCK NEW DOMAINS ENDING IN .XXX

India will seek to block the internet’s newly-formed red-light district after a global agency governing the web approved .xxx suffix for pornography websites, a senior government official said. “India along with many other countries from the Middle East and Indonesia opposed the grant of the domain in the first place, and we would proceed to block the whole domain, as it goes against the IT Act and Indian laws,” said a senior official at the ministry of IT.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4niYY (Source: The Economic Times)

JUDGE REJECTS SETTLEMENT FOR GOOGLE BOOKS DEAL

March 22, 2011

A U.S. judge rejected a $125 million settlement that would have allowed Google Inc. to create the world’s biggest digital-book library. Opponents of the deal said it violated international law.

• Read the article: Bloomberg

ICANN APPROVES .XXX DOMAIN AS PROTESTS CONTINUE

The agency governing Internet addresses approved the creation of a new red-light district on the Web, but the decision may not end years of fighting over the contentious plan. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers authorized the creation of an .xxx suffix for pornography Web sites.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4hYBa (Source: The New York Times)

EU OFFICIAL STRESSES PRIVACY RULES FOR WEBSITES

Social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google, may face court action if they fail to obey planned EU data privacy rules, European Union justice chief Viviane Reding said. Reding will propose an overhaul of the EU’s 16-year-old laws on data protection in the coming months to enforce more safeguards on how personal information is used.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4goOK (Source: Reuters)

TWITTER SETTELES PRIVACY CHARGES WITH FTC

The Federal Trade Commission accepted a settlement with Internet messaging service Twitter Inc. to resolve charges that Twitter deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by not safeguarding personal information. The settlement bars Twitter from misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of non-public consumer information for 20 years, according to a statement posted on the FTC website.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/4dwYi (Source: Bloomberg)

BRITISH MAN GOES TO JAIL AFTER BLOGGING ABOUT GIRLFRIEND

When most people end a relationship, they don’t start creating websites to insult, embarrass and terrorize their exes. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what one British man did — and now he’s been jailed for it.

Read the article: http://gigalaw.com/2011/03/10/british-man-goes-to-jail-after-blogging-about-girlfriend/ (Source: msnbc.com)

SINGAPORE TO HAVE DATA PROTECTION ACT IN 2012

The Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, told the Singapore Parliament in February that a data protection review had now been completed. The Government has concluded that it would be in Singapore’s overall interests to put in place a data protection regime, in order to protect individuals’ personal data against unauthorised use and disclosure for profit,The announcement came in response to a question from MP Lee Bee Wah, in view of what he said were “reports of offers to sell personal and contact information of key officers in various Government Ministries”. Minister Lui said that the proposed (data protection) law is intended to curb excessive and unnecessary collection of individuals’ personal data by businesses, and include requirements such as obtaining the consent of individuals to disclose their personal information. He further said, “It will also enhance Singapore’s overall competitiveness and strengthen our position as a trusted hub for businesses and a choice location for global data management and processing services.”

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SPEAKING OUT AGAINST ICANN

The California nonprofit organization that operates the Internet’s levers has always been a target for global heavies like Russia and China that prefer the United Nations in charge of the Web. But these days, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is fending off attacks from a seemingly unlikely opposition: the Obama administration.

Read the article: http://ow.ly/458Sl (Source: The Washington Post)

U.S GOVERNMENT SEEKS VETO POWER OVER NEW DOMAINS

The Obama administration is quietly seeking the power for it and other governments to veto future top-level domain names, a move that raises questions about free expression, national sovereignty, and the role of states in shaping the future of the Internet. At stake is who will have authority over the next wave of suffixes to supplement the venerable .com, .org, and .net. At least 115 proposals are expected this year, including .car, .health, .nyc, .movie, and .web, and the application process could be finalized at a meeting in San Francisco next month.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/htxmp (Source: CNET News)

FACEBOOK AGREES TO PRIVACY CHANGES IN GERMANY

Facebook, facing potential fines for violating strict privacy laws in Germany, agreed to let users in the country better shield their e-mail contacts from unwanted advertisements and solicitations it sends. Facebook, which has more than 10 million users in Germany, agreed to modify its Friend Finder service to let Germans better block its ability to contact people, including non-Facebook users culled from a user’s e-mail address books.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/52O4f (Source: The New York Times)

GOOGLE DELETES DATA COLLECTED BY STREET VIEW CARS

Personal data collected by Google’s UK Street View cars has been deleted. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/WpjSL (Source: BBC News)

WOMAN SUES GOOGLE FOR SHOWING UNDERWEAR

A Japanese woman is suing Google for displaying images of underwear hanging on her washing line on its Street View function. The woman, who has not been named, is suing the Internet giant for 600,000 Yen, claiming the images caused her psychological distress, according to Japan’s Mainichi newspaper.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/n46qk (Source: The Telegraph)

SMARTPHONES SHARING PERSONAL DATA, PROBE FINDS

Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner’s real name — even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off. These phones don’t keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/hI0z6 (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

DATA BREACH EXPOSES McDONALD'S CUSTOMERS' INFO

McDonald’s Corp. says some of its customers’ private information was exposed during a data breach. The company said Monday that a third party was able to get past security measures and see into a database of its customer information that included e-mail, phone numbers, addresses, birthdates and other specifics that they provided when signing up for online promotions or other subscriptions to its websites.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/XZ6JX (Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FTC ENDORSES "DO NOT TRACK" PRIVACY PLAN ONLINE

The Federal Trade Commission advocated a plan that lets consumers on the Internet choose whether they want information about their browsing habits to be collected, an option known as “do not track.” The FTC’s proposal, a framework for commercial use of consumer data, would make consumer privacy the default position and would let Web users decide whether Internet sites and advertisers can build profiles of their browsing and buying habits as well as collect other personal information.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/AqS0J (Source: The New York Times)

HACKER CLAIMS ATTACK ON WIKILEAKS WEBSITE

A computer hacker who calls himself “The Jester” claimed responsibility for the cyber attack which took down the WikiLeaks site, shortly before it started posting hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables. The Jester, who describes himself as a “hacktivist for good,” said he took the controversial site down “for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, ‘other assets’ & foreign relations.”

Read the article: http://goo.gl/mfMlA (Source: CNN)

U.K ENDS GOOGLE STREET VIEW PROBE AS DATA DELETED

The UK’s information commissioner has said that wi-fi data accidentally collected by Google’s Street View cars will be deleted “as soon as possible.” Deputy information commissioner David Smith told the BBC that there would be no further enquiries into the matter.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/o7VHb (Source: BBC News)

EU LAW ON INTERNET TRACKING FACES OBSTACLES

Europe’s effort to regulate online “cookies” is crumbling, exposing how tough it is to curb the practice of tracking Internet users’ movements on the Web. Seeking to be a leader in protecting online privacy, the European Union last year passed a law requiring companies to obtain consent from Web users when tracking files such as cookies are placed on users’ computers, but Internet companies, advertisers, lawmakers, privacy advocates and EU member nations can’t agree on the law’s meaning.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/9icvA (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

CHINESE WOMAN GETS 1- YEAR SENTENCE FOR TWEET

A Chinese woman was sentenced to one year in a labor camp after she forwarded a satirical microblog message that urged recipients to attack the Japanese pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, human rights groupsTwitter said. The woman, Cheng Jianping, 46, was accused of “disturbing social order” for resending a message from her fiancé that mocked young nationalists who held anti-Japanese rallies in several cities last month.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/1lsXD (Source: The New York Times)

DEFENSE SECRETARY WARNS OF "HUGE" CYBER THREAT

The United States faces a major threat in the future from cyber technologies that will require civil-military coordination to shield networks from attack, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. “I think there is a huge future threat. And there is a considerable current threat,” Gates told The Wall Street Journal CEO Council.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/jV1J8 (Source: Reuters)

PRIVACY QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT FACEBOOK MESSAGING

After Facebook’s struggle with one privacy issue after another this year, some in the industry are raising privacy questions about Facebook’s new messaging system. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the new system at a press conference, he never touched on how the company plans on keeping users’ messages private and secure.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/3s6SZ (Source: Computerworld)

POPE BENEDICT'S VIEW OF THE INTERNET RISK

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday warned that the Internet does not make people more humane but instead risks increasing a "sense of solitude and disorientation" among "numbed" young people.

"A large number of young people... establish forms of communication that to do not increase humaneness but instead risk increasing a sense of solitude and disorientation," Benedict told a Vatican conference on culture.

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WHITE HOUSE TO PUSH FOR INTERNET PRIVACY LAWS

The Obama Administration is preparing a stepped-up approach to policing Internet privacy that calls for new laws and the creation of a new position to oversee the effort, according to people familiar with the situation. The strategy is expected to be unveiled in a report being issued by the U.S. Commerce Department in coming weeks, these people said.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/rTQQw (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

COMPANY ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL FIRING FOR FACEBOOK POST

In what labor officials and lawyers view as a ground-breaking case involving workers and social media, the National Labor Relations Board has accused a company of illegally firing an employee after she criticized her supervisor on her Facebook page. This is the first case in which the labor board has stepped in to argue that workers’ criticisms of their bosses or companies on a social networking site are generally a protected activity and that employers would be violating the law by punishing workers for such statements.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/hyPXK (Source: The New York Times)

BRITISH OFFICIALS SAY GOOGLE BREACHED PRIVACY LAWS

British data protection officials said that Google had committed a “significant breach” of privacy laws when its Street View mapping service gathered e-mail messages, computer passwords and other personal information without the owners’ knowledge. Yet Google managed to avoid a fine, with the Information Commissioner’s Office accepting a promise from the company that it would take steps to avoid repeating what it has described as an inadvertent error.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/DrCao (Source: The New York Times)

JUDGE APPROVES $8.5 MILLION GOOGLE BUZZ PRIVACY SETTLEMENT

Google said that a settlement for a class action suit by Gmail users over privacy violations related to Google Buzz has been granted preliminary approval by a federal district court judge. The settlement, proposed in September, calls for Google to pay $8.5 million toward a fund for organizations focusing on Internet privacy policy or education.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/1PinD (Source: ZDNet)

BRITISH OFFICIALS REOPEN PROBE OF GOOGLE STREET VIEW

British officials said that they would re-open an investigation into Wi-Fi data collected by Google’s Street View cars after the search engine giant admitted that it captured entire e-mails, URLs, and passwords. “We will be making enquires to see whether this information relates to the data inadvertently captured in the U.K., before deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said in a statement.

Read the article: http://goo.gl/YFKwW (Source: PC Magazine)

PENTAGON CONSIDERS PREEMPTIVE CYBERSECURITY STRIKES

The Pentagon is contemplating an aggressive approach to defending its computer systems that includes preemptive actions such as knocking out parts of an adversary’s computer network overseas — but it is still wrestling with how to pursue the strategy legally.

Read the article: http://gigalaw.com/2010/08/30/pentagon-considers-preemptive-cybersecurity-strikes/ (Source: The Washington Post)