Internet

A recently-arrested hacker reportedly used personal information found on Facebook to access women's email accounts. He then used the access to acquire and distribute bare photos of his victims to everyone in their contact lists. George Bronk, a ... 23-year-old Sacramento, California man, pleaded guilty to hacking dozens of email accounts, almost all of which were owned by females. According to reports from the Associated Press, Bronk was able to access the accounts by perusing Facebook for those who had posted a) their email addresses and b) lots of personal information, including their favorite ... (view more)

A day after Facebook denied rumors that it would be shutting down permanently March 15, 2011, it appears social networking rival MySpace may actually be headed towards oblivion. The company recently announced it will lay off nearly half of its ... current workforce. The 2010 movie "The Social Network" chronicles Facebook's rise from dorm room novelty to global phenomenon. If you didn't know better, you'd think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the whole social networking phenomenon. But before Facebook there was MySpace, which was drawing hundreds of thousands of members long before Zuckerberg ... (view more)

Facebook addicts recently got a scare when the tabloid Weekly World News reported that the social networking site would be shut down permanently after March 15, 2011. But Facebook brass says that's not about to happen. Despite the controversial ... reputation of Weekly World News (whose content usually concerns UFO sightings and escaped freaks of nature), the shutdown rumor spread across the web rather quickly. Weekly World News (WWN) reported the decision to shut Facebook down was the work of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly had said running the incredibly popular site was becoming too ... (view more)

After receiving an unsolicited email message ( spam ), most people would delete the suspicious message without giving it a second thought. One California man, however, is not only welcoming the prospect, but has been able to trap spammers for ... financial compensation, making a healthy living in the process. After being bombarded with spam on a daily basis, Dan Balsam had an idea: he would quit his job in the marketing field and go to law school in an attempt to fight those responsible for unsolicited email advertisements and messages. Since 2002, Balsam has fought, won and settled his way to ... (view more)

The British government may request Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block all adult-mannered web content. Users could still access the material, but only by specifically requesting that the block be removed. The idea is to limit the dangers of ... children being exposed to this type of content when they use the Internet. But the plan has attracted harsh criticism, against both the principle and the practicalities of carrying it out. Ed Vaizey, the government's communications minister said this weekend that "I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect [ ... (view more)

It seems most people don't need Google to look up their favorite social networking web site. According to a recent report, Facebook has surpassed the search giant's main site as the most-visited web page in the United States for 2010. The report ... comes courtesy of industry analysts at Experian Hitwise, which finds that in the past year Facebook eclipsed both Google and Yahoo in popularity. Of all visits to web sites made by American Internet users this past year (at least, between January and November), 8.9 per cent were associated with Facebook. By comparison, 7.2 per cent of website visits ... (view more)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has had a private meeting with the head of China's largest search engine, Baidu. It's prompted speculation Facebook is trying to find a way past that country's ban on the site. Zuckerberg had lunch with Robin Li, ... head of Baidu, while making a visit to China officially described ad as a holiday. However, a Baidu spokesman said he thought Zuckerberg wanted to "get the advice of someone who knows the Internet landscape well here." (google.com) The Great Firewall of China At the moment, Chinese users are blocked from accessing Facebook by a government filtering ... (view more)

Technical difficulties ruined one of the busiest days of the year for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company Skype. The video long-distance chat service experienced significant outages throughout the period December 23-25. Skype may be the ... cheapest way to see and chat with friends and family from around the world using a PC or laptop. The software is free to download, and costs nothing to use if two users of the program connect over their computers. The only charges apply where someone decides to dial into someone's phone with their laptop, but even in that case rates are incredibly low ... (view more)

For 'Millenials,' (individuals between the ages of 18 and 33), going online is as natural as brushing one's teeth or turning on the television. But a recent study finds that members of much older generational groups are rapidly catching up with ... their younger counterparts in terms of how much time they spend online. According to findings from the Pew Research Center, Millenials are still by far the most likely generational group to use the Internet via laptops, desktops, smartphones, or tablet computers. They are also mostly likely to connect to social networking sites like Facebook and ... (view more)

Internet activists that stand behind " Operation Payback " have waged war on corporations deemed enemies of the Wikileaks web site, the non-profit organization that publishes otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and leaks. ... Distributed Denial of Service Attacks Flood Targets What began as a vengeful campaign intended to target opponents of Internet piracy, Operation Payback utilizes distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against their enemies. In short, a DDoS attack occurs when many computers band together to flood a target computer (usually a web server) with ... (view more)