A creepy caricature of Google CEO Eric Schmidt drives an ice cream truck in this video produced by a consumer group targeting the search giant for its data collection practices. The video is part of a lobbying effort by Consumer Watchdog to get the government to create a so-called “Do Not Track Me” list “to prevent online companies from gathering our personal information , just as Congress had the Federal Trade Commission create... 

A phone-hacking scheme involving British royals and reporters working for one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers went far beyond what was previously disclosed and prosecuted, according to The New York Times . Andy Coulson, currently media advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is accused of having encouraged the hacking during his tenure as editor of Murdoch’s News of the World paper. According …  Read More →

After a daylong standoff, authorities shot an armed man wearing an explosive device who had taken three hostages at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia. Most of the hundreds of employees, including children at an on-site daycare center, had already been evacuated, police said. The station was airing its normal broadcast. The three hostages were safe and out of the building,... 

After a daylong standoff, authorities shot and killed an armed man wearing an explosive device who had taken three hostages at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia. Most of the hundreds of employees, including children at an on-site daycare center, had already been evacuated, police said. The station was airing its normal broadcast. The…  Read More →

A civilian defense attorney hired recently by alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning says the Army was so concerned about his client’s mental health prior to the alleged leaks that supervisors removed the bolt from his military weapon, disabling it. Attorney David Coombs told CNN, however, that other than sending Manning to a chaplain for counseling, the Army did little to address its concerns about him . “The unit has in fact... 

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK Notorious filesharing website The Pirate Bay is a long-standing enemy of the movie industry, but one Swedish filmmaker has plans to create a documentary called TPB AFK about the three founders of the site, and their reactions to being found guilty of being accessory to crime against copyright law and fined about $3.6 million. The director, Simon Klose , who has a law …  Read More →

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke issued a blistering diatribe against music piracy Monday, declaring it “a growing threat” that “should be dealt with accordingly.” “This isn’t just an issue of right and wrong,” Locke said in a speech at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the nation’s musical focal points. “This is a fundamental issue of America’s economic competitiveness.”... 

A top British codebreaker found mysteriously dead last week in his flat had worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the U.K., according to a news report. Gareth Williams, 31, made repeated visits to the U.S. to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al Qaeda... 

Pfc. Bradley Manning, the former intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, has hired a civilian attorney to defend him, according to a report. David Coombs, a former U.S. Army attorney in Rhode Island , was named as Manning’s new attorney, according to the Associated Press . According to his web site, Coombs’s civilian practice specializes in military court martial cases. He has handled military... 

A Las Vegas company established to sue bloggers who clip news content is expanding its operations to a second newspaper chain. Righthaven LLC has struck a deal with Arkansas-based WEHCO Media to expand its copyright litigation campaign, in which bloggers and aggregators across the country are being sued on allegations of infringement. Until now, Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson’s sole announced client had been Nevada-based Stephens Media .... 

An alleged carder arrested earlier this month in France has been added to a long list of defendants charged with participating in the coordinated $9.5 million global heist against Atlanta-based card processing company RBS WorldPay, in a revised federal indictment issued in Georgia last week. Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, aka BadB, was charged with one count each of wire fraud and access device fraud for his alleged role in the caper authorities... 

What the heck is that blue box on top of the Small Dome at MIT? Students starting school this week at the venerable geek institution were wondering that themselves. Let’s take a closer look … Yep, it turns out that the Doctor is stopping by to give the first lecture in 6.01, the infamously hard and awesome introduction to computer science class  Read More →

Social-networking upstart Teachbook said Wednesday it would challenge a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Facebook, which is demanding the teacher-oriented site remove “book” from its name. “It’s a David and Goliath situation,” said Greg Shrader, the managing partner of the Northbrook, Illinois-base Teachbook, which has yet to launch.  ”They’re throwing bombs at a mosquito. They believe we’re... 

WikiLeaks dug into its trove of unpublished leaks Wednesday to release a six-month-old classified CIA memo about foreign perception of the United States, underscoring that the secret-spilling website won’t be cowed by Pentagon threats, nor derailed by the Swedish legal problem now circling its leader. The memo, classified Secret, asks, “ What if Foreigners See the United States as an ‘Exporter of Terrorism?’ ” Dated... 

It turns out paperless touchscreen voting machines are actually good for something after all. Two computer-security researchers recently hacked this Sequoia AVC Edge to play the classic arcade videogame Pac-Man . They picked up the machine after it was decommissioned in Virginia in a statewide purge of paperless voting machines. J. Alex Halderman, of the University of Michigan, and Ariel J.  Read More →