Watchdog to monitor Web words

How companies talk about themselves on Twitter feeds or Facebook profiles is to be policed like advertising, reveals the BBC.

From today, the Advertising Standards Authority is getting the power to police the claims UK companies make on Web sites and social networks.

The rules cover statements on sites that can be interpreted as marketing, even if they are not in an advert.

According to leaked e-mails reviewed by Bloomberg News, Morgan Stanley was hit by a “very sensitive” breach to its network by the same attackers who penetrated computer systems maintained by Google and dozens of other companies, says The Register.

The e-mails came from security firm HBGary, which suffered a major compromise of its own at the hands of hackers from Anonymous.

After being hired by Morgan Stanley in 2010, HBGary members found that the world's top merger adviser fell prey to the so-called Aurora hacks, which siphoned source code and other sensitive data from the victim companies over a period of many months.

New Zealand telecoms companies have moved quickly to repair services following the earthquake in Christchurch last week, which left most of the city without power and water, writes Computing.co.uk.

TelstraClear has reported that nearly all of its private and business customers are now back on full services. Telecom New Zealand said its services improved on 25 February, after mains power was restored to much of the city.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, which prime minister John Key has stated could cost the country up to £9.3 billion, telephone and mobile services were extremely limited as providers switched to backup generators in the absence of mains power. Services were further worsened by the physical damage caused by the earthquake.

Despite congressional criticism, Facebook plans to resume the aborted rollout of a feature that allowed the optional sharing of addresses and mobile phone numbers, reports News.com.

Facebook said in a letter released yesterday that it is evaluating different ways to "enhance user control" over information sharing that would go into effect "once the feature is re-enabled".

The social networking site encountered some criticism in January after announcing the feature, which allowed applications to request permission to access user information. Only if the user clicked "Allow" was information shared.