Top 10 Stories

Telegraph: The European Parliament has voted through the EU’s first major overhaul of data protection legislation since 1995, with the aim of giving people more effective control of their personal data online, and making it easier for businesses to operate and innovate in the EU's Single Market. The reforms include a 'right to be forgotten', allowing citizens to delete their data from companies' computer systems, and a 'right to data portability', making it easier for...

  The Intercept: Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process. The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative...

Dark Reading: Prolexic Technologies, now part of Akamai, today issued a high alert threat advisory on NTP amplification DDoS attacks. This attack method has surged in popularity this year, fueled by the availability of new DDoS toolkits that make it simple to generate high-bandwidth, high-volume DDoS attacks against online targets.   "During the month of February, we saw the use of NTP amplification attacks surge 371% against our client base," said Stuart Scholly, SVP/GM Security,...

Reuters: A mysterious computer virus believed to be from Russia infected hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe after attacking the U.S. military's Central Command in an unprecedented breach uncovered in 2008, according to the details of new research released on Wednesday. Costin Raiu, director of research at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, told Reuters on Wednesday that at least 400,000 computersacross Russia and Europe were infected with the virus, dubbed Agent.BTZ, based on the number of infections detected by his...

BBC: The head of the US Senate intelligence committee has publicly accused the CIA of improperly accessing computers used by congressional staff. Senator Dianne Feinstein said on the Senate floor that such activities "may have undermined the constitutional framework" of government oversight.  

BBC: The inventor of the world wide web has marked the 25th anniversary of his creation by calling for a 'Magna Carta' bill of rights to protect its users. Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC Breakfast the issue could be compared to the importance of human rights.  

FTC: Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges thatAaron’s Inc., a national rent-to-own retailer, knowingly played a direct and vital role in its franchisees’ installation and use of software on rental computers that secretly monitored consumers, including taking webcam pictures of them in their homes. Under the terms of a consent agreement, first announced in October 2013, Aaron’s is prohibited from using monitoring technology to gather...

Net Security: "The next phase of the internet will be data-centred and connectivity driven. Cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things; tools which support manufacturing, education, energy, our cars and more. The internet is no longer about emails," said Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, in her speech at CeBIT 2014 in Hanover on Monday. "To make the 'leap of faith' into this new world, reliability and trust is a pre-condition....

Capital: A federal judge froze the U.S. assets of the chief executive of a once-dominant online exchange for virtual currency and two related companies. U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman placed a temporary freeze Tuesday on the assets of Mt. Gox Chief Executive Mark Karpelès, a related U.S. company, and the Japanese parent company of the online exchange. The Japanese firm that operates the exchange was shielded from the order because of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.  ...

Register: Twitter has suffered a site-wide outage that stopped users from logging into their accounts and blocked access to all public profiles. Beginning about 1100 PDT here at Vulture Annex in San Francisco, Reg hacks began noticing that they were logged out of their accounts and the service was not accepting their passwords.