Data Security: News

The operators of The Pirate Bay will allow users to delete their accounts on the torrent-tracking site, a feature many users have requested since a deal to sell the site was announced Tuesday.

The owners of The Pirate Bay have agreed to sell the site to a Swedish Internet cafe operator for 60 million Swedish kronor (US$7.8 million), the company said on Tuesday.Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) said it wants to find ways to pay content providers and copyright holders when their content is downloaded via The Pirate Bay, which tracks who is sharing files over the BitTorrent peer-to-peer service.

A blind Boston-area teenager was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Friday for hacking into the telephone network and harassing the Verizon investigator who was building a case against him.

Less than 24 hours after Michael Jackson's death, fraudsters are exploiting public interest with their attempts to spread spam and malware. Security researchers say they've observed hundreds of cases of malicious messages masquerading as information about Jackson's death. Some of them, they say, popped up within minutes of the news.

Symantec has taken a relatively hands-off approach with its integration of hosted messaging provider MessageLabs since its acquisition of the company in November 2008, according to MessageLabs' former CEO.

The European Commission took a big step toward creating an enhanced pan-European system of security and surveillance Wednesday when it launched a proposal to set up a new independent agency to manage massive IT systems used by border control authorities.

The Pirate Bay is the target of yet another legal case -- the Dutch antipiracy organization BREIN wants to close the file-sharing site in the Netherlands, and wants to see its founders appear in the Amsterdam district court on July 21, it said Tuesday.

Microsoft's free security software passed a preliminary antivirus exam with flying colors, an independent testing company said today.

Adobe Systems has released a patch for its Shockwave Player to fix a critical vulnerability, the company wrote on its security blog on Tuesday.

When security expert Bruce Schneier tried to sell a used laptop on eBay, he thought it would be easy. Instead, a sale was aborted twice -- first by a scammer using a hacked eBay account and then by a buyer who tried to trick Schneier into sending her the laptop after she cancelled payment.