group

Some of the tech world's biggest players are joining forces to press for immigration reform. Led by Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, the group has now enlisted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve ... Ballmer. Zuckerberg's political action group is known as FWD.us, and is devoted to changing how the United States approaches immigration policy. Tech Firms Look to the World for Help Specifically, the group hopes to adjust immigration policy to allow foreign engineers and scientists easier access to the United States. Many tech companies have been ... (view more)

A group dedicated to protecting civil rights has released a high-tech bracelet that can automatically send out a location-based alert if the wearer is kidnapped. However, the organization says it needs financial assistance to protect more workers. ... The bracelet is produced by the Sweden-based Civil Rights Defenders group, an independent organization that sends workers into foreign countries to help prevent human rights violations. The idea for the bracelet came after the 2009 death of Natalia Estermirova in Chechnya. She was kidnapped and later found murdered. The organization believes she was ... (view more)

It seems like high-profile Twitter accounts have been under siege in recent days. The newest victim: 'hacktivist' group Anonymous. Anonymous has made headlines over the past few years for a series of attacks on major businesses and government sites. ... The group -- which has no formal structure and is made up of individuals largely acting independently -- practices what's known as 'hacktivism,' or politically-charged hacking. Although Anonymous doesn't have an official spokesman, members do issue public statements through a series of social media accounts, including @Anon_Central on Twitter. ... (view more)

A security firm claims a Chinese military unit is responsible for mass-scale hacking targeting the United States and other Western powers. Mandiant says the Chinese government is not only aware of the hacking but may even be funding it. ... Virginia-based Mandiant says the hacking group is known online as both the "Comment Crew" and the "Shanghai Group". Mandiant says that this group is a unit within the People's Liberation Army of China. Mandiant suggests that a 12-story building in Shanghai is the hacking unit's headquarters. (Source: nytimes.com ) Secret Document Points to ... (view more)

The group behind a collection of 'premium' hacking tools is apparently charging hackers $10,000 a month for permission to use their product. The proceeds are helping fund rewards for anyone who shares information with the hackers about previously ... unknown software vulnerabilities. According to security firm Sophos, the 'premium' hacking kit is the work of a group called 'Paunch.' This is the same group that previously offered hackers a set of tools known as the Blackhole kit, which users could access only after paying a $1,500 per year rental fee. (Source: sophos.com ) The Blackhole kit was ( ... (view more)

Hacktivist group Anonymous is reportedly seeking approval from the United States government for its politically-motivated hacking activities. The shadowy organization recently submitted a petition to U.S. President Barack Obama seeking his 'thumbs ... up' for the group's future distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Specifically, Anonymous wants President Obama to recognize DDoS attacks as a legal form of protest. Anonymous: Nothing Illegal About DDoS Anonymous claims that such attacks should not be considered illegal hacking. Instead, the group believes that kind of behavior should be ... (view more)

Austrian students are reportedly planning legal action over the way Facebook handles customer privacy. However, the lawsuit would be launched against European data regulators based in the Republic of Ireland, not Facebook itself. The students have ... formed a group dubbed Europe-v-Facebook. Its leader is law student Max Schrems, who made headlines in 2011 after exercising his right to demand a copy of all the data Facebook stored about him. Schrems learned the company had collected so much data about him it had to be delivered on a CD rather than in print. Shortly thereafter, Schrems discovered ... (view more)

Manufacturers of a three-dimensional printer have pulled the plug on a customer who planned to use the device to make a replica hand gun. The 3D printer works like a standard laser printer, but with two key differences. First, it uses a special ... "ink" made of plastic that becomes solid when heated. Second, it can print multiple layers on top of one another. Because the printer is driven by a computer, users can "print" almost any 3D shape using design software. 'Printed Gun' Info Tests Free Speech Limits A group called Defense Distributed wants to use the technology to make a point about ... (view more)

A recent study by Swedish researchers has led to claims that it is possible to erase emotional memories from the human brain. It's an idea that appears to come straight from the 2004 movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." The startling ... assertion is related to a new theory that suggests memories (predominantly those associated with fear) can be turned into benign memories and remain that way for a lifetime. Emotions Altered Before Becoming Long-Term Memory Scientists agree that a long-term memory is formed when individuals learn new information through the process of ... (view more)

A hacking group says it has acquired personal information associated with 12 million Apple user accounts, and that it got those details by hacking into an FBI agent's computer. So far, the group has published data from one million of those Apple ... accounts. The publication comes from LulzSec , a group whose name is a combination of "security" and a slang term for carrying out online activities for the sake of amusement ("Lulz"). Last summer, the same group leaked documents belonging to Sony Pictures. LulzSec claimed it ceased operations after a 50-day campaign. But later it re-emerged ... (view more)