In the wake of last week’s Megaupload shutdown, some of the biggest names in the market are taking drastic action. During the last 48 hours many sites have completely withdrawn their systems for paying uploaders when their files are shared with others, but one of the most

dramatic moves came first from Filesonic and today Fileserve. Both services now forbid people from downloading any files they didn’t upload themselves.

While the shutdown last week of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder and management team was certainly dramatic, a situation of perhaps even greater gravity is beginning to emerge.

Over the past 48 to 72 hours, the operators of many prominent cyberlocker services have been taking unprecedented actions that can not simply be explained away by mere coincidence. The details in the Megaupload indictment clearly have some players in the file-hosting world spooked.

One of the key allegations is that between 2005 and mid 2011, Megaupload ran a program that rewarded users for uploading infringing material. A cited internal email allegedly shows staff members discussing cash payments going to people uploading “full popular DVD rips” and “software with keygenerators (Warez)”.

Although Megaupload stopped paying out rewards in July 2011, that didn’t stop the site from getting raided. Other cyberlocker services are clearly hoping they will be more lucky.

Last evening Filesonic, a top 10 player in the file-sharing world with a billion pageviews a month, not only withdrew its affiliate rewards program, but also banned any third parties downloading files. Simply put, users can now only download files from the service that they uploaded themselves.

But according to reports, there’s no guarantee of that. Account owners report that their files are being mass deleted, that’s if their entire account has been banned already.

Fileserve, another leading player, also ended its affiliate program this weekend. Additionally, this morning TorrentFreak received news that Fileserve has now joined Filesonic in banning all 3rd party downloads.

“I just paid for a premium account and can now only download my own files an unlimited number of times,” said one angry user. “What use is that?”

Other users of Fileserve are experiencing an even further degraded level of service. Reports describe mass deletion of their uploads and the banning of accounts on apparent ‘Terms of Service’ violations.

But the changes at these two services appears to be just the tip of a very big and very complex iceberg. Developments at other file-hosting services are widespread.

As previously reported, Uploaded.to banned all US IP addresses in what appears to be an effort to distance itself from US jurisdiction. Its affiliate program is still listed as operational but the same cannot be said about those run by some of its competitors.

VideoBB and VideoZer have both reportedly closed their rewards program and according to reports have also been mass deleting accounts and huge numbers of files. Other sites closing their affiliate programs and/or deleting accounts/files include FileJungle, UploadStation and FilePost.

Another interesting development involves so-called ‘release blogs’, sites that report on leaked material but either provide links to the material on cyberlockers or allow their users to do the same. The number of overall releases hasn’t changed much but the links currently being posted on some of these sites show less variety and volume than they did this time last week.

Source: TorrentFreak

Google has received its first penalty for improperly gathering and storing data collected by its Street View cars and bicycles, and more sanctions could be on the way. A 100,000-euro fine, equivalent to about $141,300, was handed down to Google by the French government’s technology and privacy group CNIL on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The fine was levied against Google for acquiring personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks from 2007 to 2010. The private data — which included passwords, personal e-mails, online banking information and Web browsing histories — was siphoned by Google’s Street View cars and bicycles, which photograph 360-degree images of streets for Google’s online maps.

So far, the CNIL is the only agency to fine Google over the improper data collection, but more than 30 nations have criticized the search giant for it, and at least two other countries in Europe could also issue fines, the Associated Press said. Google has admitted to the wrongful data collection in the past and on Monday e-mailed the Technology blog a statement apologizing for the fiasco.

“As we have said before, we are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted WiFi networks,” said Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google. “As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all WiFi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities. Deleting the data has always been our priority, and we’re happy the CNIL has given permission for us to do so.” Google officials declined to comment further.

Source: LA Times

Mozilla’s Firefox browser has overtaken Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the leader in Europe, the first time Microsoft’s browser has lost its top spot in a major market, a web analytics firm StatCounter said. In December, the open-source Firefox took 38.1 percent of European market share, while Internet Explorer’s share slipped to 37.5 percent. Google Chrome saw its share rising to 14.6 percent from just 5.1 percent a year earlier. “This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share,” Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter chief executive, said in a statement. “We are probably seeing the impact of the agreement between European Commission competition authorities and Microsoft, to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers from March last year,” Cullen said.

In December 2009, European Union regulators accepted Microsoft’s pledge to give consumers better access to rival browsers, ending a long antitrust dispute. Since the beginning of March, Microsoft offered Europeans the option to choose from among 12 browsers on the more than 100 million old and new PCs that use its Windows software. Globally, Internet Explorer’s share slipped to 46.9 percent in December, while Firefox was at 30.8 percent and Google was at 14.9 percent, StatCounter said. According to our stats, Firefox is also most popular browser among RLSLOG.net readers with 51%, followed surprisingly by Chrome with 19% and finally Internet Explorer accounting only for 14% share.

Source: Reuters

WikiLeaks supporters struck back Wednesday at perceived enemies of the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange, launching hacker attacks against MasterCard, Swedish prosecutors, a Swedish lawyer and a Swiss group that froze Assange’s bank account. So-called “hacktivists” operating under the label “Operation Payback” claimed responsibility in a Twitter message for causing technological problems at MasterCard, which pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks on Tuesday.

MasterCard said it was “experiencing heavy traffic,” but spokesman James Issokson told The Associated Press the company would not confirm whether WikiLeaks was involved. Issokson said MasterCard was trying to restore service Wednesday but was not sure how long that would take. The website’s technical problems have no impact on consumers using credit cards, he added. MasterCard is the latest in a string of U.S.-based Internet companies – including Visa, Amazon.com, PayPal Inc. and EveryDNS – to cut ties to WikiLeaks in recent days amid intense U.S. government pressure. The online attacks are part of a wave of support for WikiLeaks that is sweeping the Internet. Twitter was choked with messages of solidarity for the group, while the site’s Facebook page hit 1 million fans.

Source: Huffington Post

Global mass mailing worm masquerades as business message but links to malware, McAfee Labs warns

A new Internet worm dubbed “Here You Have” is streaming into worldwide inboxes, offering a dangerous payload, according to McAfee Labs. The worm, which travels via spam email with the subject line of “Here you have,” or “Just for you,” masquerades as an email with a link to a video or an attached document file. However, the email actually contains a link to a malicious program that can disable security software and send itself to all the contacts in the recipient’s address book.

Corporations around the world were particularly affected by the worm on Thursday as it clogged up their email systems. Consumers could be affected as they go home and log onto their machines. For this reason, McAfee Labs has labeled the worm as a “medium” risk, and warns all computer users to delete any email with the “Here you have,” or “Just for you,” subject line.

Although the dangerous link has been taken down, neutralizing the threat, it can still spread through remote machines, mapped drives and removable media, Labs warns.

If you have an up-to-date and properly configured McAfee security software product then you are protected against this threat.

The Hook: You receive a spam email with the subject line “Here you have,” or “Just for you,” and a link or attachment that looks like it leads to a video or document file. It may appear that the email comes from someone you know.

The Methods: The email invites you to click on the link, and once you do it prompts you to download a file. This file is actually malware that disables the security software on your machine and sends itself to everyone listed as a contact in your address book.

The Dangers: Once you are infected, your computer has diminished security protection. Your machine is also being used to spam your friends and contacts. If you are on a corporate network, the network could be clogged as the worm works its way through address books.

Bottom Line: Do not click on the link in any email with the subject header “Here you have,” or “Just for you,” even if it appears to be from someone you know.

Many of you probably already heard, but on June 7 Apple presented their new iPhone for 2010. The major changes can be found both in hard and software. The new iPhone will have a new 5 megapixel camera, a Retina display, an improved battery all in a new glassy body! The new OS, now called iOS 4, will be released on June 21. The new iPhone itself launches on June 24 in the US. Pre-orders start on June 15! Later Apple also released a new version of Safari. We’re now at version 5. One of the new things is the Safari Reader, this will allow you to read articles whilst hiding all other images on a website(if the website supports it). The podcast of Steve Jobs presentation is now also available. All links can be found below! I also wrote the main new features of the phone below the picture. I’m buying one, are you?

iPhone 4:

- 16 or 32 gb
– 5 megapixel camera ( 720p HD video) + LED Flash; Front Face camera
– Retina Display
– GSM/EDGE/3G/Bluetooth/Wifi b/g/n
– Gyroscope
– Improved battery
– new iOS 4 ( June 21)
– Pre-order starts June 15; US launch June 24; Launched in 88 countries by September 2010.