Security Expert: Time for Internet Passports

Firm is responsible for delivering people to more than half of all websites

(NEWSER) - Hackers managed to break into the servers of a crucial web company responsible for delivering users to more than half the websites in the world. VeriSign doesn't believe the attackers infiltrated its Domain Name System network—which is responsible for directing traffic to .com, .net, and .gov addresses on the Internet—but it can't rule it out. The attacks occurred in 2010, but only came to light today, when Reuters spotted them in an October SEC filing. More»

We're relying more on search engines now

(NEWSER) - Why remember something if you can Google it? Researchers exploring that question have concluded that computers and search engines are changing the way human memory works, reports the San Jose Mercury News . Essentially, people in the experiments were less likely to remember a piece of trivia if they knew they could look it up later. "Human memory is adapting to new communications technology," Columbia University's Betsy Sparrow tells the New York Times . She calls it the Google Effect. More»

Giants will test longer Internet Protocol address system

(NEWSER) - Scientific American posing a jarring question as headline today: "Will the Internet Stop on June 8?" And the answer is: Er, no. But the Internet will start to grow up a little. Tomorrow is World IPv6 Day, when Google, Facebook, YouTube, and other giants will conduct a 24-hour test of a new Internet Protocol address system. As SA explains, the current IP address system (IPv4) allows for 32-digit binary numbers. When it became the standard in 1977, the 4.3 billion addresses possible seemed way more than the world would ever need. Now they're just about gone. More»

NSA predicts 'ruthless' response if Assange dishes dirt on Kremlin

(NEWSER) - US intelligence officials think WikiLeaks has evidence of graft and corruption among Russia’s leaders, and predict that Moscow will stop at nothing to shut down the organization. “We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far,” one law enforcement official tells the Daily Beast , but “the Russians play by different rules.” The NSA has electronic evidence that the FSB has the group under close surveillance, and Russian spies have publicly hinted at a cyberwarfare campaign designed to “shut it down forever.” More»

Esquire : Sites that were before their time

(NEWSER) - Everything old is new again, especially on the Web. Some of today's tech darlings owe a lot to websites of years past. Here are some of Esquire's 15 favorite, and mostly kaput, Web 1.0 pioneers:

1. Dodgeball (2000) "A location-based social network for mobile devices, and the Internet's gift to stalkers," says Esquire. Today's Foursquare was co-created by one of its founders.