united states

United States Secretary of State (and former presidential candidate) John Kerry says the National Security Agency went too far with its controversial surveillance programs. Kerry indicated that he and U.S. President Barack Obama were largely unaware ... of the extent of the government's surveillance activity. "The president and I have learned of some things that have been happening in many ways on an automatic pilot, because the technology is there and the ability is there," Kerry recently noted. "In some cases, some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it ... (view more)

Edward Snowden, the former technical contractor for the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) who leaked critical details about NSA surveillance, has been granted asylum by the Russian government. He's also been offered a job. Snowden leaked ... information about NSA surveillance earlier this year. That prompted a media firestorm focusing on the ultra-secretive NSA and resulted in U.S. federal prosecutors charging Snowden with espionage and theft of government property. Snowden then fled the United States and until recently he was living in a Moscow airport. However, the U.S. ... (view more)

Megaupload's lawyers say that the United States Department of Justice's copyright infringement charges represent "prosecutorial overreach" and have no basis in U.S. law. The site's legal team made that argument in a white paper released to the media ... on Tuesday. According to that white paper, the Department of Justice is pursuing its case against Megaupload and site founder Kim Dotcom on a "theory" that the accused participated in criminal secondary copyright infringement. However, there's no basis for such an argument in U.S. criminal law. Secondary Copyright Infringement Not A Crime, Lawyers ... (view more)

According to reports, hackers recently infected the United States Department of Labor website with malware. Security experts have indicated that the attack may have originated in China, since the strategy employed by hackers is very similar to ... tactics used by Chinese hackers in the past. The hackers targeted the Site Exposure Matrices (SEM) page within the U.S. Department of Labor website. According to two security firms (AlienVault and Invincea), that page features data related to the storage of toxic substances at United States Department of Energy sites. Attack May Have Originated in China ... (view more)

According to reports, United States federal officials are investigating claims that people with ties to Microsoft paid foreign officials to use Microsoft software. The United States Department of Justice and the Security and Exchange Commission are ... reportedly investigating these bribery allegations, which pertain to Microsoft activity in China, Italy, and Romania. The allegations were originally shared with U.S. officials last year. Business Partner Told to Bribe Chinese Officials At the time, a Chinese citizen with business ties to Microsoft was told by a representative of the Redmond, ... (view more)

Google is reportedly preparing to open its very own retail stores in the United States. Such outlets would give the search giant an opportunity to show off its Android-based products, including smartphones, computers, tablets, and the upcoming ... Google Glass technology. The report comes via 9to5Google, which notes that "an extremely reliable source" recently told it that the firm "hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the holidays in major metropolitan areas." Retail Locations Allow Consumers to Try Out Products 9to5Google says that the decision was made because Google worries ... (view more)

Google has, for the first time ever, detailed exactly what it does when a government agency or court demands to see a user's personal data. That data includes the terms someone has used for an online search and the content of Gmail messages. Google ... says that it's reporting on this issue in an attempt to show that it aims to protect privacy wherever possible. The search giant has for several years produced statistics about how many requests for personal data it gets in each country and what percentage of those requests it complies with. This publication is an attempt to draw attention to the ... (view more)