Anyone wanting to download the SpongeBob Diner Dash game from Apple's iTunes app store today is out of luck.

Nickelodeon has removed the app from the store after an advocacy group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging the game violated children's online privacy rights by collecting their e-mail addresses without parents' permission.

According to the Center for Digital Democracy, which filed the complaint earlier today, cable network Nickelodeon and mobile game-maker PlayFirst are misleadingly marketing the game and are violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

SpongeBob Diner Dash is a free app … Read more

China has begun reinforcing its infamous firewall with new tech designed to prevent encrypted communication.

To prevent the more enterprising citizens of China from exploiting holes in the country's firewall through the use of virtual private networks and circumventors, the Chinese government is using new technology to block encryption, according to The Guardian.

The publication reports that both consumers and businesses are being hit by the new Internet barrier, which is able to "learn, discover and block" encrypted channels provided by VPN companies. According to one company that has a customer base in the Asian country, one … Read more

A suspected security hole affecting a handful of Samsung smartphones could give apps access to user data and leave the handset vulnerable to malicious apps and bricking, according to a developer.

The vulnerability, which was discovered and detailed by an XDA member with the handle "alephzain," lies in Exynos 4, the ARM-based system-on-chip typically found in Samsung smartphones and tablets. Alephzain developed an exploit he said bypasses the system permissions, allowing any app to extract data from the device's RAM or inject malicious code into the kernel.

Alephzain said that he stumbled upon the vulnerability while trying … Read more

A group attached to the online hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have hacked the Web site of the Westboro Baptist Church in response to plans by the controversial church to picket the funerals of those massacred Friday at a school in Newtown, Conn.

As part of a campaign dubbed #OpWestBoro, KY Anonymous said yesterday it posted the personal information belonging to members of the extremist organization, which is best known for conducting protests designed to disrupt the funerals of members of the military killed in action. The data dump included the names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and physical addresses of … Read more

NASA hacker Gary McKinnon will face no legal action in the U.K.

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided the appropriate jurisdiction for the McKinnon case is the U.S., after discussing the case with the U.S. Department of Justice and the police.

U.S. authorities started their bid to extradite McKinnon in 2005, accusing him of causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage by hacking into NASA and military systems. McKinnon admitted to the intrusion in 2002 but claimed he was looking for evidence of UFO activity.

But U.S. requests for his extradition were formally turned down … Read more

Bryan Wagner, a former private investigator, has been sentenced to serve three months for his role in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting scandal.

Wagner yesterday stood before U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen, who sentenced him for his role in the pretexting scheme. After that period is up, Wagner will be monitored for two years under supervisory release.

Wagner, who pleaded guilty to identity theft and conspiracy in 2007, could have faced up to two years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Kane asked the judge to reduce the sentence. Wagner is believed to have cooperated with prosecutors … Read more

Retailer point-of-sale systems may be at risk of malware that steals credit card data.

Israel-based security firm Seculert has identified a strain of malware, dubbed Dexter, which it asserts has infected hundreds of point-of-sale (POS) systems across 40 countries in the past two to three months. English-speaking countries appear to be a prime target, with 30 percent of infections in the U.S., 19 percent in the U.K., and 9 percent in Canada.

Rather than targeting thousands of individual machines through traditional Trojans or phishing emails, the custom-made malware targets specific POS systems. The malware injects itself into the … Read more

The wave of distributed denial of service attacks that hit U.S. banks in October was next-to-nothing compared to what could happen if cybercriminals actually carry through with their plans for next year.

According to a report (PDF) released today by McAfee Labs, an impending attack on U.S. financial institutions -- dubbed Project Blitzkrieg -- isn't only a possibility, it's a "credible threat."

"McAfee Labs believes that Project Blitzkrieg is a credible threat to the financial industry and appears to be moving forward as planned," the report reads. "Although Project Blitzkrieg hasn'… Read more

Microsoft is investigating a possible flaw in its Internet Explorer Web browser that allegedly enables attackers to track users' mouse cursor anywhere on the screen, even if the browser window isn't in use.

The alleged flaw, which security firm Spider.io says it discovered a few months ago, compromises the security of virtual keyboards and virtual keypads in all supported versions of the browser since IE6, the security firm reports.

"As long as the page with the exploitative advertiser's ad stays open -- even if you push the page to a background tab or, indeed, even if … Read more