internet

Gmail of journalists in Myanmar said to be hacked

A handful of journalists who cover Myanmar received warnings from Google over the past week. The Web giant told them that their Gmail accounts might have been hacked by "state actors" or "state-sponsored attackers" and that they should change their passwords and tighten their security settings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Google said that it has systems in place to detect possible state-sponsored malware or hacking but would not give the Wall Street Journal further information on how these systems work.

The Myanmar government has now responded to these allegations and denies any involvement in … Read more

How we test Web browsers

The Web browser is the most-used kind of software in the world, having become the de facto way that people access the Internet. Today, virtually all computing tasks can be completed in the browser.

Testing browsers can veer from incredibly complex to shockingly simple, depending on what you're looking for and why. At CNET, we prefer a holistic approach to browser benchmarking, looking at a combination of tests that benchmark general browser behavior, as well as several "real-world" tests that look at browser performance in common scenarios.

Note about mobile testing: We are still finalizing our standards … Read more

Kaspersky update hoses Internet access for Windows XP users

Windows XP users who run certain Kaspersky antivirus software may find themselves offline after downloading a new update.

Released yesterday, the update causes Windows XP computers to lose their connection to the Internet.

IT administrators who use Kaspersky Endpoint Security at their organizations chimed into the Kaspersky forum yesterday and today complaining of connectivity problems. One person who manages around 12,000 computers with KES installed noted a slew of calls to the help desk from users knocked offline.

Some IT admins said they were able to restore Internet access by shutting down the monitoring of certain ports or disabling … Read more

U.S. just getting on board Safer Internet Day (podcast)

In 2004 the European Commission created Safer Internet Day to be celebrated on the second day of the second week of the second month -- which this year is tomorrow.

On this day, organizations in various countries conduct public events, tweet-ins, press conferences, and otherwise spread the word about how young people can use the Internet safely and securely. This year's theme is "online rights and responsibilities" with the slogan, "Connect with Respect." The event is coordinated by Insafe, a European network of "Awareness Centres," that promote "safe, responsible use of the … Read more

Internet usage sacked during Super Bowl for loss of 15%

Internet usage dropped 15 percent during the Super Bowl as the football-obsessed and casual fans alike huddled around their TVs to watch the showdown between the eventual NFL champion Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

That was the conclusion of a study released this morning by Sandvine, a firm that analyzes traffic on broadband networks.

And while hordes of people were pounding out tweets and Facebook status updates by the millions with their impressions on the Super Bowl ads, the blackout during the game -- and the companies that best leveraged social media during the power outage -- and, … Read more

Senators aim to extend ban on Internet access tax

A couple of senators in Washington want to make sure people in the U.S. never have to pay taxes for Internet access.

Passed in 1998, the Internet Tax Freedom Act prevents federal, state, and local governments from collecting sales taxes on the use of e-mail and other types of Internet access. The bill is due to expire November of next year.

New legislation introduced yesterday by Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Dean Heller (Nev.) is designed to extend the ban indefinitely. The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act would stop governments from imposing new taxes on Internet access.… Read more

Microsoft to developers: This is the 'modern.IE' world

In case you weren't sure, Microsoft wants you to really, really understand that Internet Explorer 10 isn't just any old update to the much-maligned browser. The latest example: "modern.IE," a set of tools to help Web developers that the company announced today.

"It's still too hard to test sites across the different OSes and browsers," Ryan Gavin, Internet Explorer's general manager, said in a phone interview with CNET yesterday. "On our part, we can encourage best practices. We know we can do better here, so we're providing the tools … Read more

The 404 1,196: Where we get locked up for unlocking (podcast)

Microsoft assumes you probably haven't used an Internet Explorer browser since the mid-1990s, and the company's latest commercial for IE10 takes us all back to those awkward times with a montage of '90s nostalgia that includes slap bracelets, Oregon Trail, LA Gear Lights, and Tamogotchis. We're not sure how any of those items are supposed to lure us away from Firefox or Chrome, but check it out anyway.

We knew it was only a matter of time before a 6-second clip of hardcore porn made its way to the Twitter Vine, but we never expected it to come from Twitter itself--a nasty clip was featured for a short time on Vine's "Editor's Choice" pick list. Granted, it's not the first instance of adult content on the new social video service.

With Vine's TOS giving users creative freedom to access its service, an unfiltered stream of dirty hashtags is already building out on VineRoulette. Then again, who the hell wants to watch porn for only six seconds?… Read more

Catalyst ready to change enterprise browsing

The enterprise browser management tool called Catalyst reached public availability yesterday. The program gives corporate IT departments the ability to force specific Web sites to open in different browsers.

As CNET reported in November, it's a useful workaround for businesses that still use Web apps that only work in legacy browsers but want their employees to spend the rest of their browsing time on more modern, more secure browsers.

Browsium noted in its blog announcing the stable version of Catalyst that it can also be used to minimize security issues, such as the recent Java and Internet Explorer zero-day … Read more

AT&T's U-verse blacks out for days in several U.S. states

Some AT&T U-verse customers are still without TV, Internet, or phone service after a days-long outage that knocked out access for hundreds of users throughout several Southern states.

"The issue impacting some U-verse subscribers has been tracked back to a software upgrade," the company wrote on its Facebook page earlier this afternoon. "We continue to work to determine when service will be completely restored. Our continued apologies for the inconvenience."

The outage began on Monday and was confirmed by AT&T on Tuesday. Hundreds of users have complained of no service on the … Read more