HP settles counterfeit ink spat

HP has settled cases with 11 companies it had accused of intellectual property (IP) theft, reports Computing.co.uk.

The company said the firms in question had been importing and selling counterfeit HP O2 inkjet printer cartridges. Formal complaints were filed in September last year, arguing that the companies had violated US trade laws.

"HP is pleased with the outcome on these matters, and remains committed to vigorously pursuing legal enforcement against practices that do not respect HP's IP rights," says Stephen Nigro, senior VP for the inkjet and Web services business in HP's imaging and printing group.

Three men suspected of orchestrating a $9 million cyber-raid on RBS WorldPay involving cloned payroll cards and hacking have been arrested by Russian's FSB internal security service, says The Register.

Viktor Pleshchuk, the alleged ringleader, and two accomplices, Sergei Tsurikov and Oleg Covelin, were arrested on suspicion of masterminding the $9 million hacking and subsequent looting of payment systems run by RBS WorldPay, in November 2008, the Financial Times reports.

The case involved the use of cloned payroll cards to withdraw money from an estimated 2 100 cash machines in 280 cities worldwide during an audacious 12-hour overnight cash-out operation.

Google has stopped censoring its search results in China, ignoring warnings by the country's authorities, writes the BBC.

The US company said its Chinese users would be redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong Web site.

In January, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China". China accused Google of violating a "written promise" it made when entering the market to abide by laws requiring it to filter its search service.

According to Avast, malware that exploits holes in popular applications is being delivered by big ad delivery platforms including those run by Yahoo, Fox and Google, states CNet.

Viruses and other malware were found to be lurking in ads last year on high-profile sites like The New York Times and conservative news aggregator Drudge Report.com, and this year on Drudge, TechCrunch and WhitePages.com. The practice has been dubbed "malvertising”.

Now, researchers at Avast are pointing fingers at some large ad delivery platforms, including Yahoo's Yield Manager and Fox Audience Network's Fimserve.com, which together cover more than 50% of online ads, and to a much smaller degree Google's DoubleClick.