Looks like Amazon.com plus a number of other web sites such as Wal-Mart and Expedia is under continuous DDoS attack.

Neustar, the company that operates those web server under the brand name UltraDNS said that it managed to handle the attack. Read the rest of this entry »

US and South Korean government agencies, including the White House and the Pentagon, have been under sustained cyber-attack over the past five days.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said North Korea was behind the DDOS attacks, although US experts were not sure.

US officials and security professionals said the attacks on 27 web sites were unsophisticated and relatively small in scale and that their origins had not yet been determined, New York Times reported.

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A nasty infection that attempts to install a potent malware cocktail on the machines of end users has spread to about 30,000 websites run by businesses, government agencies and other organizations, researchers warned Friday.

The infection sneaks malicious javascript onto the front page of websites, most likely by exploiting a common application that leads to a SQL injection, said Stephan Chenette, manager for security research at security firm Websense. The injected code is designed to look like a Google Analytics script, and it uses obfuscated javascript, so it is hard to spot.

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Google blamed an outside company for a typing error which brought the search engine to a grinding halt, preventing millions of people from finding web pages on the internet.

Initially Google blamed a non-profit called StopBadware.org, for erroneously identifing all other websites as containing malicious software or ‘malware’.

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The Australian government plans to test a nationwide Web filter that would require Internet service providers to block access to thousands of sites containing illegal content, officials say.

The proposed filter is part of an $82 million cybersafety plan begun in May with the goals of protecting children and stopping adults from downloading content that is illegal to possess in Australia, like child pornography or terrorist materials.

But the plan has prompted opposition from online advocacy groups and industry experts who say it would slow browsing speeds and do little to block undesirable content. Read the rest of this entry »

When Kim Kardashian, famous for being famous, sliced her foot on a piece of glass in a New York hotel room in August, the gossip Web site TMZ.com alerted fans over their cellphones. Traffic to the site jumped 10 percent within minutes.

Ms. Kardashian (pict.) also outranked her friend-turned-rival, Paris Hilton, as the most-searched celebrity in August on Yahoo’s mobile service (traffic surged after she danced with the Pussycat Dolls in Las Vegas).

Best known for a sex tape made with her boyfriend, Ms. Kardashian has achieved something on the smallest screen that has eluded her in her television career: an adoring audience. Can other would-be celebrities be far behind?

Celebrity gossip has long been a profitable staple of print, radio and television. More recently, it has made Web sites like Popsugar.com and PerezHilton.com some of the more popular destinations. But in recent months, as consumers started snapping up Web-enabled smartphones like the iPhone, the cellphone has become the latest medium to feed the appetite for up-to-the-second celebrity gossip.

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