Sony insurer sues to deny data breach coverage

One of Sony Corp's insurers has asked a court to declare that it does not have to pay to defend the media and electronics conglomerate from mounting legal claims related to a massive data breach earlier this year. The dispute comes as demand soars for "cyberinsurance," with companies seeking to protect themselves against customer claims and associated costs for data and identity theft. How to write such policies has become a huge subject of debate in the insurance industry. Zurich American Insurance Co asked a New York state court in documents filed late on Wednesday to rule it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims...

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AT&T spent $4.9 million to lobby in second quarter

AT&T Inc. spent $4.9 million in the second quarter to lobby the federal government on its proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG and other issues, according to a quarterly disclosure report. That compares with $3.1 million that it spent on lobbying in the second quarter of last year and the $6.8 million that it spent in the first quarter of this year. AT&T also lobbied in the latest quarter on government proposals to free up more wireless spectrum for mobile broadband services as ballooning demand for mobile apps, online video and other bandwidth-hungry services put enormous strain on the nation's...

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Pentagon's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' to be history Sept. 22

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be history Sept. 22. President Barack Obama certified to Congress on Friday that final repeal of the law banning open military service by gays and lesbians would not impact military readiness, good order and discipline. The legislation passed by Congress last December called for a 60-day period following certification before repeal could be implemented. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said repeal is consistent with military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, recruiting and retention. “This certification decision was carefully made after receiving input from the service chiefs, service secretaries...

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AP source: Apple considering Hulu bid

Apple Inc. is in talks to potentially bid for video-streaming service Hulu, according to a person close to the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the matter. An acquisition of Hulu could bolster Apple's iTunes store, which provides videos users can rent or buy, and help it compete with Netflix Inc. Hulu offers a subscription streaming service. It also brings in revenue from ads that accompany content it streams to users free-of-charge. Hulu, whose owners include The Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp., started presenting its financial information to interested bidders...

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Norway attack: Youth camp official plays dead to survive shooting

A man described Saturday how he played dead in order to survive the shooting spree of a gunman who pretended to be a police officer but then opened fired on youth at a camp on an island near Oslo. Adrian Pracon, 21, an official with the Worker's Youth League, told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that he was on his way to a kiosk on Utoya Island, where the annual camp was being held, to buy chocolate and potato chips when he heard the ruckus. "I did not realize that it was a shot at first, but then people started to run," Pracon, 21, told Aftenposten. Many of the youth fled in panic across a clearing trying to reach their tents, Pracon...

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Dell buying US datacenter networking firm

US computer maker Dell on Wednesday announced a deal to buy high-performance datacenter networking firm Force10 in a move aimed at broadening offerings for businesses. Dell is buying Force10 as a trend toward software being offered as services in the Internet "cloud" pushes demand for efficient, capable datacenters where the computing work is done. "We are excited to be working with Dell," Force10 chief executive Henry Wasik said in a release. "Combining Dell's global scale, reach and enterprise portfolio with our innovation in high-performance networking provides our customers the best end-to-end solution for today's and tomorrow's data centers,"...

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Fake Apple Stores popping up in China

Products get knocked off all the time -- designer bags, Oscar-night dresses, watches. But entire stores? That's something new. Which is why the Internet is going crazy over a blogger's report that three fake Apple stores have popped up in her neighborhood in Kunming, China. In a post dated Wednesday on the blog BirdAbroad, the citizen reporter (an employee of an international public health organization) said she was initially duped by the quality of the fake Apple store. It had the iconic clean wood interior, the Apple branded posters on the walls, the employees with those tell-tale blue polo shirts and chunky name tags hanging around their...

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Senator Slams AT&T/T-Mobile Deal, Asks Agencies to Block It

The Senate's top antitrust lawmaker on Wednesday slammed the pending merger of AT&T and T-Mobile and recommended that federal agencies block the deal. In a Wednesday letter to the Department of Justice and the FCC, Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy, and consumer rights, said the merger is "highly dangerous to competition and consumers." "I have concluded that this acquisition, if permitted to proceed, would likely cause substantial harm to competition and consumers, would be contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest, and therefore should be blocked by your agencies," Kohl...

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Anonymous at it again: Defense contractor hacked

Members of the online activist group Anonymous stole tens of thousands of encrypted military passwords from U.S. contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and posted them to the Web, the hackers said Monday. Although the passwords had all been encrypted and didn't appear to be geared toward email access, many examined by The Associated Press seemed easily breakable and might conceivably be used to hack into military inboxes. Chris Palmer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said those exposed by the leak "should probably be changing their passwords urgently." Apple targeted in hack attack "Anonymous" hackers declare war on Orlando, Fla. U.K. hacking...

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