Happy birthday, World Wide Web! Hard to believe you’re turning 20 already. It seems like just yesterday we were hearing the pitter patter of little dial-up, delighting at the words “you got mail,” and getting frustrated when calling our friends and receiving that dreaded busy signal. You’re all grown up now, helping people learn how to farm and become overnight pop sensations. What, we wonder, will the next 20 years bring? At the very least, you’ll eventually have to move out of your parents’ basement, get a real job, and settle down. It’s hard to pay attention to that kind of stuff, though, when you’ve got another year of sneaking beers ahead of you. So go ahead, World Wide Web, enjoy yourself tonight — just make sure to be home by midnight.

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Facing an outcry from its subscribers, Facebook has backtracked and replaced its new terms of service (TOS) agreement instituted Feb. 4 with the previous version. Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s chief executive officer, announced the change in a blog post on the company’s site Tuesday night.

“A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use hoping to clarify some parts for our users. Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“Going forward, we’ve decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now,” he continued.

After a wave of criticism from users who have formed several Facebook Groups protesting the new ToS and an announcement from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a consumer electronic rights and privacy group, stating it planned to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

This is not an inconsequential matter,  said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC. “We’ve filed similar complaints in similar matters in the past like this. And Facebook was concerned, I think. They are also concerned because a lot of their users were opposing what they were planning to do. So it was a good result.

“I don’t think the privacy issues have gone away, but Facebook did the right thing, and we’re happy about that,” he added.

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via: TechNewsWorld

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Microsoft said it has organized a global response to the Conficker (Downadup) worm to disable domains targeted by Conficker. For the fifth time, Microsoft announced a $250,000 bounty to find the source of the worm – a strategy that’s worked four times already, and most recently led to the conviction of the author of the Sasser worm back in 2005.

Called a “reward program”, Microsoft said that the bounty is based on the firm’s “recognition” that launching the code into the wild was a “criminal attack”.

“Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch the criminals responsible. Residents of any country are eligible for the reward, according to the laws of that country, because Internet viruses affect the Internet community worldwide,” the firm said in a statement. “Individuals with information about the Conficker worm should contact their international law enforcement agencies.”

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via: TG Daily

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Linksys is teaming up with Trend Micro to put the Home Network Defender internet security software into the their routers, helping to block out unsafe sites before they reach any computer on your network.

Home Network Defender previously existed as an application for PCs that more or less did the same thing. But now that it’s installed on the router, any PC connected to the network will be protected. It’s not so much software to detect and clean viruses, since that would cause a certain amount of router lag, but instead a way to filter out dangerous sites before they reach your computer. There has been talk suspecting more advanced protection software to come in the future.

The software will basically deny access to any site it deems unsafe based on a set of predetermined criteria and constantly talks to Trend Micro’s server to determine how secure a site is. You will be able to adjust the sensitivity level of the filter and/or filter out specific sites as you desire. And if there’s a site deemed unsafe you think shouldn’t be, you can notify Linksys for consideration.

Home Network Defender will first be available preloaded on new Linksys WRT310N and WRT610N routers, and also available as an upgrade for those who already own these same models. Pricing runs at $60/year (with a special $10 discount for the first 60 days) for the service and includes 4 free copies of Trend Micro’s AntiVirus software, which will keep Windows machines disease-free.

via: Gizmodo

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