Law and Order

Four former customers have sued the virtual currency exchange Bitcoinica, claiming that it owes them $460,457 (£293,080) in funds they previously deposited.

Bitcoinica was hacked twice in 2012, with attackers stealing over $177,000 worth of BitCoins. The website ceased operation in May, but continues to accept claims for repayments.

BitCoins are an unregulated, untaxed and untraceable Internet currency that allows direct peer to peer transactions. Sites exchanging bitcoins have proved vulnerable, prompting a fall in value for the currency.

In the third day of a judicial review of the legality of the search of Kim Dotcom's Coatesville mansion earlier this year, Auckland High Court has heard evidence from a member of the Police's Electronic Crime Laboratory (ECL) on Dotcom's ability to destroy digital evidence on his property.

This is crucial to determining the legality of the raid on Dotcom's house, as the Police earlier testified that Dotcom's ability to tamper with potentially incriminating data in part led to the use of helicopters, the Special Tactics Group and Armed Offenders Squad.

 Microsoft and the New York Police Department have jointly developed a data aggregation and analysis system that allows officers to tap into live video camera feeds, 911 calls, mapped crime statistics, and license plate readers to fight crime.

Based on Microsoft technologies, the Domain Awareness System will be available to law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, with the city of New York receiving 30 percent of the revenues, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced today.

With New Zealand authorities trying to overturn a ruling that a raid of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's mansion was illegal, new footage has surfaced showing police storming the home with helicopters, semiautomatic weapons, and attack dogs, despite the fact that police admitted Dotcom posed a "low risk."

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined Torbay Care Trust (TCT) £175,000 for a data breach it said was "entirely avoidable".

The Trust, based in Devon, had published "sensitive details" of over 1,000 employees on its website in April 2011, the ICO said.

After Senate Republicans last week blocked the passage of a cyber security bill, the White House is considering reviving the legislation through an executive order, according to a report this weekend.

President Obama may issue an executive order that could require critical infrastructure operators to meet certain standards around network protection, as specified by the federal agencies that regulate these industries, according to a Saturday report in The Hill.

The nightmare week for Demonoid has just reached a huge crescendo, with news coming out of Ukraine that following a massive DDoS attack the site has now been busted by local authorities. Those looking for a U.S. connection to the raid won’t be disappointed – a source in the country’s Interior Ministry says that the action was scheduled to coincide with Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky’s trip to the United States.

The French government is counting the cost of having copyright enforcement shifted from the corporate to the public sector – and it’s not pleased at what it sees.

Hadopi, the body charged with hunting down freetards under France’s three-strikes law, has sent a million warning e-mails and 99,000 registered letters. This seemingly-impressive pursuit of Internet evildoers has, however, resulted in a scant 134 cases being examined for prosecution – and so far, zero cases have been escalated to the point where an Internet user has been disconnected.

Don't let the Mickey Mouse shirt fool you. As far as the MPAA is concerned, the public needs a reminder of who Richard O'Dwyer really is.

“Being 24, posing for newspaper photo shoots in a cartoon sweatshirt, and having your mother and Jimmy Wales speak for you, does not mean you are incapable for breaking the law.”

Hong Kong police said Sunday they had arrested a 21-year-old man after he reportedly said on social networking site Facebook that he would hack several government websites.

Police said the man, who was later released on bail, was held on suspicion of "access to a computer with criminal or dishonest intent" after he allegedly threatened to hack seven government websites between June and August this year.