The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to serve subpoena papers to search giant Google and begin a federal anitrust probe into the company. If the probe goes forward, this could be Google’s biggest legal challenge to date.

The investigation is expected to center around Google’s promotional search and advertising practices. Services like Kayak and Microsoft say that Google holds their sites to a higher standard for search position than Google’s own pages, routing users to Google’s own products unfairly. Google maintains that it has done nothing wrong, and that it simply provides the best search results regardless of their source. The WSJ points out that while it is not illegal in the US to operate a monopoly, companies can be prosecuted for abusing or  illegally obtaining one.

At 5:48 PM yesterday, hacker group Lulzsec claimed responsibility for taking down the CIA.gov website with a distributed denial of service attack. According to news outlets, the site was down or only intermittently accessibly until about 8:00 PM.

Since the CIA site is publicly accessible, the likelihood that any sensitive information was compromised during the attack is highly unlikely. That doesn’t make this attack any less embarrassing for the CIA, who surely do not take kindly to such provocations. While taking down the spy agency’s website may seem like no mean feat, Lulzsec claimed on their Twitter feed that it was far from their “biggest” operation. For that, they directed users to a torrent of data gleaned from an intrusion into Sony’s networks.

Lulzsec followed up their attack by releasing over 62,000 password and email combinations for various web services, which apparently included Facebook and dating websites.

Russia has announced plans to build eight floating nuclear reactors — the first of their kind — to enhance the country’s efforts to explore the Arctic for oil and gas reserves. The arctic is currently more navigable than it has ever been due to the melting of ice, which was previously an impediment to traversing the region. The arctic may be the last natural stronghold of oil and gas reserves in the world, so accessibility and control of the region is of high interest.

The floating power plants are designed to each create enough electricity for 45,000 people, and will have the extra option of purifying sea water into fresh water. With a cost of approximately $335 million each, Russia intends to produce the floating nuclear reactors for mass production. Countries like China, Algeria and Indonesia have expressed interest in purchasing the reactors. The first power plant should be completed sometime next year, and will be deployed to Russia’s Kamchatka region in the far east.

It’s a narrative that has been repeated often in the news: Social media is the burgeoning forefront of civil disobedience, and possibly revolution. But a case out of Malaysia could open up social media outlets as a platform for compulsory commuinty service. It stems from the case of Fahmi Fadzil who is tweeting out 100 apologies over Twitter as part of the terms of a defamation case.

Fadzil has been an outspoken activist in Malaysia and active user of social media, having amassed some 4,200 followers on Twitter. He apparently went to far when he recently tweeted about how his pregnant friend was somehow mistreated by her employer, the magazine company BluInc Media. Within hours Fadzil had recanted, but BluInc was unsatisfied, suing for damages and public apologies. The terms of the eventual settlement are still unknown, but Fadzil has been tweeting the following message about every half hour:

I’ve DEFAMED Blu Inc Media and Female Magazine. My tweets on their (human resource) policies are untrue. I retract those words and hereby apologize

Malaysian authorities have taken a heavy hand with online defamation cases, but all parties agree that the repetitious apology via Twitter is entirely new. For Fadzil, it’s likely a huge blow to his career as an activist, and will certainly damage his reputation online. The effect on his Klout score has yet to calculated. With this case now settled and Fadzil working through his 100 apologies, it’s hard not to wonder what we’ll see next. Enemies forced to “friend” on Facebook? A Tumblr blog entitled “FYeah I Lost a Defamation Lawsuit” or some such thing? The mind boggles.

(AP via Jezebel)

The Chrome browser has survived three years in the Pwn2Own competition it has fallen to the French security firm VUPEN. The hack takes advantage of so-called “0-day” vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system and could allow nefarious types to download and execute code within the browser. So far, the hack only seems possible on Windows computers.

Yet another large-scale personal information heist came to light today with news that the information of entrants to Simon Cowell’s star-seeking program, X-Factor, were stolen. About 250,000 U.S. residents are expected to be affected by the attack, which is currently under investigation by the FBI.

Thankfully for that quater-million people, the stolen information contained no financial or password information. However, the records could have include an entrant’s name, date of birth, gender, zip code, phone number, and email address. Identity theft is a risk, but the FOX network, which carries X-Factor in the U.S., is far more concerned that the scammers could pose as FOX officials and use the information to dupe contestants into giving out valuable personal information. So, to those that recently took a stab at fame, be extra wary of suspicious emails.

Read on after the break to see the text of an email FOX has sent out to those affected by this security breach.

Documents outlining the construction of a new Department of Defense office complex were accidentally made public on a website run by the Army Corps of Engineers, the organization responsible for the design and construction of the building. The 30-page document, marked For Official Use Only (FOUO), outlined not only the building’s design but also its bomb-proofing scheme.

The Alexandria, VA complex, called the Mark Center, is meant to consolidate some 6,400 DoD employees now working at disparate locations across the National Capital Region. The FOUO documents were never meant to be seen publicly, and have revealed that the building is designed to withstand explosive attacks far smaller than recent attacks on government buildings. (more…)

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently engaged in a war of words and requests for information on a device used by the Michigan state police that can extract information from cellphones. The device, which has reportedly been in use since at least 2008, is apparently being used by the police during minor traffic violations.

The device, called the Cellebrite UFED, has been tested by the Department of Justice which reported the device was capable of pulling all photos and video from an iPhone in under a minute and a half. Cellbrite says their devices also can extract, “existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags.” It can also extract your highly incriminating ringtones. These devices can also circumvent password protection, and are reported to work on over 3,000 cellphone models.

An Italian court has sided with a case brought against Google that the search engine’s autocomplete text contained libelous information, and was subject to censor.

The case was brought by an unnamed Italian man who found that when typing his name into Google’s search bar, it brought up words such as “fraud” and “con man.” Google had attempted to fight the case by claiming that it was simply hosting the data, a role which is protected by the E-Commerce Directive. But Carlo Piana, the lawyer for the unnamed claimant, held that Google’s autocomplete text was created by Google, and the search giant was therefore liable.

On his blog, Piana emphasized the limited scope of the case.

All I have to say is that it is by no means an endorsement to censorship, as notice to the sued company was given well in advance, the alligations of the complainant were fully discussed with them before even considering to go to court, and the requests was and is only for a very exceptional set of string (two). All cases are different, therefore there is no assurance that similar cases would see the same outcome.

Piana goes on to note that Google already censors some search results, citing in particular Google’s practice of removing search listings that could lead to copyrighted material.

Google has said that they are reviewing their options, and an appeal is no doubt forthcoming. Though censorship of the Internet is always a distasteful thing, this case seems to have not brought an enraging, overly broad interpretation. Instead, it has established some kind of precedent that could give users greater control of their own information. But it is worth asking how much control users deserve. This case aside, people could benefit greatly from seeing “con man” pop up in a search about a nefarious fraud.

(Carlo Piana via ZDNET)

Want to make convincing-looking but too lazy to mess around with contentEditable JavaScript? Well lucky you, there’s a new single-use web app called TweetForger that does just that.

From the FAQ:

Our artistic intent is to cause people to realize and think about just how subconsciously willing they are to suspend belief. If I get a tweet from a celebrity addressed to me, referring to something that only my friends know, do I immediately realize that it’s a joke, or do I even for a minute actually think that this celebrity is actually tweeting me? If I do, does that say something about me or does it say something about the world in which we all live? We are using Twitter “tweets” as an example of the kind of Internet communication that people tend to accept as fact, but the cultural phenomenon on which we are commenting could just as easily happen with Wikipedia, Facebook, or any other site on which people rely for information.

Deep! TweetForger is maybe a little too polite for mischief’s sake about highlighting the degree to which a Tweet isn’t real — the fake Tweet template proclaims the fakeness of the thing several times, and there’s even a giant box that eventually pops up that says “This is a FORGED tweet!” — and the tweetforger URL may be the biggest tell of all. (TweetForger plus a URL shortener which doesn’t auto-redirect could be more promising.) But that’s probably all for the better, and it does look pretty. Check er out here.

(TweetForger via TDW)