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NewsVerizon Awarded $33.15 in Damages against Cybersquatter

Posted 12/30/08 at 07:48:55 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Verizon has secured a major legal victory against OnlineNic, a San Francisco-based domain registrar, which has been tormenting it for quite some time by squatting domains related to the telecom giant’s products. The court has ordered OnlineNIC to pay a sum of $33.15 million for squatting more than 600 Verizon-related domains.

Although the court’s order is expected to serve as a deterrent against cybersquatting, it is not clear how the promoters and employees of OnlineNIC will be brought to book as their identities still remain a mystery. They seem to be adept at concealment just like many other cybersquatters. In fact, it is this ability of cybersquatters to operate undercover that allows them to operate with impunity.

Comments: 1
TAGS: Internet, lawsuit, Verizon, court, telecom, websites, cybersquatting, onlinenic, order, damages

NewsBritain: Facebook Slows Down After Frantic Run

Posted 10/10/08 at 07:57:40 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Facebook is the most visited social network globally and Britain is no exception to this fact. The website is the second most popular website in the UK after Google UK, according to Hitwise. Its popularity in recent times can be gauged from the fact that it registered a staggering growth rate of 2905% from September 2006 to 2007. Of course, the website is probably never going to replicate its performance during that period – its halcyon days. Its annual growth rate has come down to a more digestable level of 88%.

Its growth in the UK is certainly slowing down. There was only a 4% increase in its traffic between August and September, which is almost negligible compared to the 50% growth during the same period last year. Facebook’s average session time has also come down to 20 minutes.

Is there a message hidden in these numbers? Are social networking websites marching towards their popularity threshold? Will there be a corrective decline in their traffic?

Comments: 0
TAGS: Internet, facebook, Social Networking, traffic, websites, web, uk, britain, google uk

NewsMost Malware Served Up by Legit Websites That Have Been Compromised

Posted 08/06/08 at 10:55:01 AM by Chris Moody

Malware is the vile scourge of the internet. It invades your privacy, tracking where you’ve been on the internet to sell to marketing companies interested in your browsing habits. It invades your computer, sending pop-ups for products you don’t want, or it tricks users into buying some bogus program to fix nonexistent problems with their PCs. It steals resources from your computer, taking up CPU time, RAM and drive space. Being a malware programmer must rank up there with pimp-meister for jobs that you don’t tell friends and family that you do.

It used to be that you would pickup malware from ending up on a bogus site someplace, but it turns out that it is coming from almost everywhere now, according to a Websense report. About 75 percent of it comes from legitimate sites that have been compromised. That is an almost 50 percent rise over Q3 & Q4 of 2007. Of the top 100 websites on the internet 60 percent either hosted malicious content or contained a redirect to lure victims to malicious sites.

Always have your protection when surfing the internet boys and girls and not just FireFox like in the poster image below. An up to date Internet Security Suite is a must have.

You can visit the complete Websense report here for all the latest info on the filth lurking on the internet.

What do you do to protect your computer from Malware? Wrapping it in latex doesn't count.

Comments: 1
TAGS: Software, Security, malware, internet security, websites, hacked

NewsCensored Internet for International Media at the Beijing Olympics

Posted 07/30/08 at 04:47:34 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Internet Censorship During Beijing Olympics 2008

Hosting the Olympics is a matter of great pride for any country and more so for China. The Chinese authorities want the Beijing Olympics 2008 to project their country as highly progressive; and maybe, serve as a tawdry façade to rampant human rights abuse and gross denial of freedom. China has finally admitted that it has made no special allowances for international media personnel when it comes to internet curbs.

A government spokesperson announced on Wednesday that media persons will not be able to access many politically sensitive websites during their stay in China for the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese had initially shrugged aside the unavailability of many sites as a technical snag on part of the concerned websites.

The International Olympic Committee’s pantomime on the issue was briefly interrupted when it vowed to take up the matter with the Chinese authorities, after reports of the censorship first emerged. But it now remains in its timid stasis and continues to appease the Chinese.

Readers, at least you don't disappoint us like the IOC and, please, show your support for freedom of expression, in the comments section - geeks for freedom!

Comments: 7
TAGS: Internet, media, china, censorship, websites, beijing olympics 2008, restricted access

News172 Million Websites Inhabit the Internet, According to Netcraft's Survey

Posted 07/09/08 at 04:15:04 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Internet research and security firm Netcraft has released the findings of its June 2008 Web Server Survey. Netcraft pegged the number of websites at a shade over 172 million, an increase of 3.9 million from the preceding month. Although the main objective of this survey wasn’t to perform a headcount of websites but to size up web server usage trends, it still gives a fair idea of the website population.

Click through to find out how accurate Netcraft's census is and whether you need to make a beeline for that proverbial pinch of salt.