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The assault on The Pirate Bay continues with five Dutch Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ordered by The Court of The Hague to block all access to the file-sharing site. The ruling comes only a week after a number of British ISPs were given a ... similar order by the UK High Court. UK Internet providers Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media were told last week to block subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay. The new ruling was motivated by the site's prolonged activity in providing users with access to content that, in some cases, violates copyright law. Supporters ... (view more)

The international hacking group Anonymous has targeted the British government with a recent string of attacks. As a result, websites for both the United Kingdom's Home Office and for Downing Street were disabled. Anonymous , which is a loose ... collective of hackers from locations around the world, has become quite renowned in recent years. Members of the group, who call themselves "hacktivists" rather than straight-up hackers, have targeted credit card companies, copyright protection agencies, and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They prefer the term "hacktivists" because their ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill S. writes: " Dear Dennis, [Why does it cost] $4,500 a month to maintain your website? That seems very high. I realize I run a much smaller site than yours [150 users / published once a month], but I paid $192 to register my ... [website via registrar] and have my site hosted by GoDaddy for four years. That works out to four dollars per month. I also subscribe to Windows Secrets Newsletter and frankly get much more information from that newsletter and associated site than from yours. It's contributions only by the year and I send them $25. " My response: Respectfully, I ... (view more)

Regarding our vote on February 15, 2012 -- I have read approximately 1,000 comments from readers, along with their ballots. I will provide insight with regard to the findings, as well as address some issues. This post is approximately 1,500 words. I ... realize some of you won't want to read all of it and just want the results. So, I would like to begin by saying this: According to the results of the vote, I am pleased to announce that Infopackets will remain online. Moving forward: all users will retain access to everything that they have now and well into the future. This includes free access ... (view more)

Microsoft's online store in India was compromised over the weekend by a group of Chinese hackers calling themselves the "Evil Shadow Team". The hackers were able to extract user IDs and passwords of the site. While many are questioning how the ... hackers were able to breach Microsoft's security system, more troublesome is the realization that the company might not have taken the proper steps to secure the credentials of their customers prior to the attack. Reportedly, Microsoft stored both login IDs and passwords for its users in plain text files, without any encryption system in place to ... (view more)

Files on Megaupload, the controversial file-sharing site now under US government control , could be deleted this Thursday (February 2nd). That's caused concern amongst both former owners and for people who used the site for legitimate purposes. The ... proposed deletions won't come though a court order, but rather as an indirect result of the legal crackdown. Megaupload's financial assets have been frozen, meaning the companies it hired to physically host the files are no longer being paid. As a result, they've threatened to begin deleting the files so that they can use the space for other ... (view more)

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has shut down a leading "direct download" file-sharing site: Megaupload. In addition, employees have been charged with copyright-related offenses. Megaupload is designed to share files, regardless of ... legality. The site also allowed users to post links to the copyrighted files so anyone could obtain them. Overall, critics suggest Megaupload was much easier to use than other file-sharing sites, such as torrents or newsgroups. The site was also free of charge for most users. Anyone prepared to pay for premium membership got priority service, higher ... (view more)

Valve Corporation, which is behind the major online video game retailer and social networking platform Steam, has been hacked. According to reports, gamer credit cards have been compromised, as well. Steam is a major online gaming platform that ... provides nearly 2,000 games for play by some 35 million users based in 237 countries. Not only can visitors to the site download games, but they can also use the platform to easily organize multiplayer sessions, and can interact with one another through instant messaging. User Database Infiltrated by Hackers Given the massive size of Steam's user base ... (view more)

The WikiLeaks website (infamously known for disbursing US State Department documents to the public back in 2010) has temporarily halted its work on publishing leaked confidential documents. Instead, the site will focus on a legal battle over money ... donated by supporters. Such resources are necessary in order to keep the site online. WikiLeaks Loses 95% of Web-Funds The site is said to have been operating on cash reserves for the past 10 months after major financial institutions began freezing money donated through their systems to WikiLeaks. It's estimated that the site has lost approximately ... (view more)

Facebook changed its News Feed a few weeks ago (for what feels like the fiftieth time this year), and has once again drastically altered the user experience. While the company says it believes the new design will help users navigate status updates ... and photographs better, most members thus far appear unimpressed with the new changes. Facebook fanatics would have noticed the change to their favorite social networking site sometime around September 20th. It essentially does away with the dual News Feed, which had previously divided status updates, photo updates, recommended links, videos, etc. ... (view more)