LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Veteran comic-book artist Ed Brubaker is spearheading an online live-action series.

Brubaker, whose credits include "The Death of Captain America" and "Criminal," has been enlisted by Sony Pictures Television to bring forth "Angel of Death."

Zoe Bell ("Death Proof") will star as an assassin who turns against the individuals who hire her later a head wound causes her to feel haunted by her victims.

The order will urgent application live attached Sony-owned video hub Crackle.com.

Sony is eyeing "Angel" as an experiment in introducing a franchise to the DVD place of traffic posterior giving some of the content an online run. The product budget for 10 short-form episodes of the series is $1 million, on the high end for online content.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

More than 75 percent of bank Web sites have at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cybercriminals after their money or even their identity, a University of Michigan cogitate says.

Atul Prakash, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said some banks may have taken steps to resolve these problems since the data was gathered, but overall he still sees a need for bettering.

"To our surprise, design flaws that could compromise security were widespread and included some of the largest banks in the country," Prakash said. "Our focus was on users who try to be careful, but unfortunately some bank sites make it hard for customers to make the right security decisions when doing online banking."

Pinpointing the Flaws

These proposal flaws aren't bugs that could be fixed with a patch. They stem from the flow and layout of these Web sites, according to the study. The flaws include placing log-in boxes and contact information on insecure Web pages and failing to keep users on the site they initially visited.

The flaws leave cracks in security that hackers could exploit to gain aggrandizement to private information and accounts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says computer intrusion, while relatively rare compared with financial crimes like mortgage fraud and upon fraud, is a growing problem for banks and their customers.

A latter FDIC Technology Incident Report, compiled from suspicious activity reports banks file quarterly, lists 536 cases of computer intrusion, with an average loss per incident of $30,000. That adds up to a nearly $16 million loss in the second quarter of 2007. Computer intrusions increased 150 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the second. In 80 percent of the cases, the source of the intrusion is unknown but it occurred during online banking, the report says.

Protection from Financial Phishing

It's no surprise to security researchers that many corporate computers are vulnerable to attacks. In June, Sophos released research that revealed 81 percent of corporate computers tried did not have the latest Microsoft security patches installed, had their firewall disabled, or were missing security software updates.

"It's significant to remember that there are risks with any kind of banking. Online banking isn't inherently unsafe, but the way in what one. you bank online (and the care which you take when you do so) will be instrumental in determining if you are likely to fall victim to a cybercriminal," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Banks would be wise to look at Prakash's study and determine if there is more they can do to make their Web sites more secure, Cluley said. More banks could also look at providing authentication tokens to users, which can help fight some of the phishing problem.

Phishing tokens are small hardware devices that produce a one-time six-digit number that be able to be entered at log-in alongside the user's regular username and password. plane if keyboard logging spyware has infected the PC and can grab the username and password, it won't find the random number very useful since it expires within a couple of minutes.

"It's not a complete solution — and there are ways for cybercriminals to still steal from your bank account — but it can help combat some of the more common attacks and make life for the hackers more tricky," Cluley said.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will announce an Internet search and advertising deal with Facebook at his company's annual shareholder meeting going on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal is reporting in its online edition.

The deal will augment an existing partnership between Microsoft and Facebook, the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources "accessible" by the situation. Searches by Facebook's U.S. users will go through Microsoft's plan, according to the Journal.

Microsoft owns a stake in Facebook and has an existing exclusive agreement with the seat for streamer advertisements.

The new search and ad feature that is part of the expanded deal will not launch until year's end, with integration details not clear, the Journal reported.

(More to come.)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp decree announce plans to expand its relationship with online social network Facebook to provide web search and search advertising, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The expanded deal follows Microsoft's decision not pursue a takeover of Yahoo Inc to bolster its online search and advertising business as it tries to enter the lists with Internet leader Google Inc.

Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in fast-growing Facebook for $240 the masses in October, beating out Google in the investment. At the time, it reached an exclusive deal to sell ads on Facebook outside of the United States.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google has launched its own version of communally constructed online encyclopedia Wikipedia, that consistently ranks mixed the most visited websites in the world.

The Internet search powerhouse went live late Wednesday with a free service dubbed "Knol," to indicate a unit of knowledge.

While Wikipedia lets in any degree visitors make changes to its online pages, trusting that people with accurate information disposition correct errors and misleading entries, Google lets folks author their own articles.

"Every knol will have an author, or group of authors, who put their name behind their content," Google product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Michael McNally said in a posting on the Google website.

"It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. An enormous amount of information resides in peoples' heads: millions of people be aware of useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge."

People get to post their pictures and pedigrees in knols and are able to designate who can contribute to their postings.

Most knols featured at knol.google.com on Thursday dealt with medical conditions but included insights regarding unclogging toilets and improving leadership skills.

Google is the world's most used Internet search engine and a proven master at mining revenue from online advertising targeted at those making queries and using its free Web-based services.

Luring Wikipedia users to its own community-created online encyclopedia promises to be another rich thread of ad income for the California firm.

Wikipedia is consistently ranked among the world's most prominent one ten most in vogue websites.

As of Wednesday, an exploit code allowing someone to have a fling at the domain name system (DNS) was available in various places on the Internet.

On July 8, IOActive researcher Dan Kaminsky not covenant the details until all the affected vendors had released patches and all the systems worldwide could be patched. He figured that it would take about 30 days for that to happen.

The 30-day symbol equitable happened to coincide by his speaking assurance at Black Hat in Las Vegas on August 6.

But on Monday, fellow Black Hat presenter Halvar Flake attacked Kaminsky's action that a security flaw such as this be kept a secret. Flake at another time proceeded to lay out what he thought the flaw was. Turns out, he was right and laid the foundation for others to create and publicize some exploit.

On Thursday, Kaminsky will be a guest on the second Black Hat Webinar. This is the second of what is hoped to be a monthly series produced by the conference. Kaminsky will be joined by Jerry Dixon, former director of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity division; Rich Mogull, founder of Securosis; and Joao Damas, a senior program manager at the Internet Systems Consortium. The Webinar begins at 1 p.m. PT.

To see if your intercourse to the Internet is vulnerable to DNS cache posioning, use this test on Kaminsky's site. As of Monday, researcher Neal Krawetz was reporting that servers at several high-profile ISPs remained vulnerable.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's biggest Internet providers have signed any agreement with the country's recording industry to clamp down on illegal downloading, in a move announced by the government Thursday.

Under the deal to get tough on the estimated 6.5 the masses Britons who be under the necessity downloaded music and video illegally, letters will be sent to the most prolific offenders warning them that they have been detected.

The British music industry could lose up to one billion pounds (two billion dollars, 1.27 billion euros) in lost revenue over the next five years from illegal downloading via file-sharing sites, according to estimates.

The government-brokered accord was signed by Britain's six biggest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) — BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse — and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), representing record companies.

In addition, ISPs and film and music companies are expected to draw up a new digest of practice on how to act with illegal downloaders, on the basis of which the government would consider new legislation.

"This is an intelligent approach to tackling unlawful file-sharing by industry and ISPs," said British Business Secretary John Hutton. "It tells consumers what they have power to do, rather than just what they can't.

"This light-touch approach keeps up with the pace set by technology and will house consumers, creative industries and the use of technology now and in the longer term," he added.

Feargal Sharkey, former singer with 1970s band the Undertones and now head of British Music Rights representing ordinary working musicians, welcomed the move.

"Will we ever 100 percent stop online piracy? I'm not sure we'd ever achieve that goal," said Sharkey.

"But it's worth trying to pursue and work through the 70-80 percent of young people that want to change and are prepared to work with the industry," he told BBC television.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Embarq Corp. has revealed more details about its exploration of a program that tracked Internet subscribers’ Web-surfing habits for advertising purposes, telling Congress that it performed the test on 26,000 customers in a Kansas town.

Building on an earlier response to Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Embarq CEO Thomas Gerke wrote in a letter late Wednesday that his Overland Park, Kan.-based company chose Gardner, Kan., for its test because it was Embarq’s smallest market and near qualified technicians.

Gerke’s letter also revealed that the company included a notice about potential uses of customer Internet history for advertising on an obscure part of its Web site, and that 15 people asked not to participate.

Internet service providers take pleasure in Embarq have attracted the scrutiny of Congress and privacy advocates notwithstanding technology that develops targeted ads based on what Web sites a particular subscriber visits. Those providers and the companies that make the programs, notably Silicon Valley-based NebuAd Inc., have defended the technology, saying it protects customer privacy and enhances the online continued by weeding out ads that don’t matter to people.

In his letter, Gerke repeated the company’s claims that the test didn’t generate or use any information that would personally identify a specific customer.

“The only premises during the test consisted of codes representing categories of interest that were derived anonymously via software,” he wrote. “Once the test was complete, all such data that had not otherwise expired was destroyed.”

Rep. Edward Markey, presiding officer of the Subcommittee without interruption Telecommunications and the Internet, wrote the original letter questioning Embarq over the test, asking how customers were told about the test and whether they could avoid participating.

Gerke said the company posted a two-paragraph notice about the potential use of anonymous surfing habits for advertising purposes on its Web site in a section describing its privacy policy. The policy is reached through a small link at the bottom of the company’s Web page.

To keep from having their Internet history analyzed, subscribers had to click a link in the solitude policy. Gerke said he thought that was sufficient remarks.

“Embarq followed the prevailing industry practices of the most similar business model, that of online advertising networks, which also heap up anonymous information across multiple unrelated Web sites and use it to serve personalized display advertisements, using this identical mechanism for providing notice and choice,” he wrote.

Gerke also said that the company didn’t plan to test the program again or expand its appliance throughout its markets in 18 states “until such time as privacy concerns have been addressed.”

Markey said in an e-mail that he was glad Embarq had if more information. However, he added, “I am still troubled by the company’s failure to directly inform their consumers of the consumer data gathering test and the notion that an `opt-out’ option is a full standard for in the same state sweeping data gathering.”

NebuAd has said several Internet service providers have explored its advertising technology. One large carrier, however, Charter Communications Inc., said in June it would drop plans to take part.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British businessman won a libel case and 22,000 pounds in damages at London's High Court on Thursday after false claims about him were posted on the hugely popular social networking Web site Facebook.

In a test case, Mathew Firsht sued a former schoolfriend over a false-hearted personal profile on the site that included private information about him and untrue allegations about his sexual orientation.

Firsht said freelance cameraman Grant Raphael had force up the information on Facebook, which has about 90 million members worldwide, under the heading "Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?."

The Facebook entry alleged that Firsht was signed up to other groups, including "Gay in the Wood…Borehamwood" and "Gay Jews in London."

The profiles remained on the site for 16 days until they were spotted by Firsht's brother and removed.

Raphael had claimed that the side face was created on a computer at his home without his knowledge by someone who had attended a private party there.

But that was dismissed by Deputy Judge Richard Parkes who awarded Firsht 15,000 pounds and his television company Applause Store Productions 5,000 pounds in libel damages.

Firsht was also awarded 2,000 pounds for breach of his privacy.

In a hearing earlier this month Firsht's lawyer Lorna Skinner said "Facebook enthusiast" Raphael had borne a grudge since the two men fell out in 2000.

She declared he had created the false entry to cause Mr Firsht anxiety and embarrassment.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Tim Castle and Paul Casciato)

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's music and film industries launched a fight back against online piracy on Thursday, persuading the six biggest Internet providers to send warning letters to those suspected of illegal file-sharing.

Some 6 million Britons are thought to engage in illegal file-sharing each year and the trend has cost the music and film industries millions in lost revenue.

ISPs had previously argued they were mere conduits and not responsible for content. But they agreed to the deal after the British government said it would impose legislation if they did not work to curb illegal file-sharing.

Analysts said the plan would likely scare off younger users of illegal sites, who download content often without their father's knowledge, but would need to be just the first step in an escalating combat.

"You could completely easily wipe off a million people from illegal file sharing sites in the UK, and if that is achieved, then that would be one of the largest single successes ever against file sharing," Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan told Reuters.

"But that will not be enough."

The plan follows moves by means of the agency of France to engage Internet service providers in tackling copyright infringement on their networks and as countries such as Australia, Denmark, Japan and New Zealand launch similar discussions.

SIGNIFICANT STEP

Under the deal drawn up by the government, Virgin Media, BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali have agreed to work towards a "significant reduction" in the illicit sharing of content.

They will send letters to prolific illegal downloaders each week under a three-month trial, warning them that they are being monitored.

The ISPs and rights holders will that time work together with the media regulator Ofcom to come up with a Code of Practice on how to act if this does not work.

Options could include a three-strikes-and-you're-out monitory, traffic shaping to slow access for those who are either illegally uploading or downloading, or filtering to prevent illegal tracks from being downloaded.

The content industries will moreover work to educate consumers about illegal downloading and further develop a range of lawful services in addition to their previous approach of suing those who engaged in illegally downloading files.

"The UK agreement is a big step towards reaching a solution to online piracy, and it shows that the process of engaging ISPs that was set in motion in France last year is gathering real momentum internationally," said John Kennedy, the head of the IFPI body which oversees the music industry.

The UK Film Council also welcomed the announcement as a significant first step.

Music companies possess been trying desperately to boost digital sales in recent years following the growth of Internet piracy which has cut into CD sales.

A host of downloading services have developed on the Internet in recent years, with the most successful being Apple's iTunes with over 70 percent of the digital music market. But the government has said it would tranquil like to see other option.

BSkyB announced a subscription music service just this week and other ISPs are also working on new downloading services.

(Editing by Louise Ireland/Elaine Hardcastle)