reporting

U.S. companies are being targeted by hackers at an alarming rate. And according to a new report, they're tired of doing nothing in retaliation.

Reuters is reporting today, citing sources, that some companies that have fallen victim to hacks are starting to target those that have initiated the battle. The hacked companies, Reuters' sources say, have done everything from slowing hackers down to hiring contractors to hack the attacker's own systems.

Over the last few years, companies and government organizations have become a hot target for hackers. From Sony to defense contractors, hackers have found a multitude … Read more

We'll wait until tomorrow to go over all the Apple announcements from WWDC, so today's show is all about Jeff's return to the East Coast and his E3 wrap-up. Jeff and Scott Stein agree that the show lacked the hardware announcements everyone expected, with Nintendo playing serious catch-up with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Jeff and I then envision a potential future without E3 or maybe even a move to New York, where my co-host wouldn't be forced to play next-gen hockey games as the LA Kings.

Moving on, we'll talk about Microsoft registering … Read more

Microsoft Excel is the business world's standard spreadsheet application for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the ability to expand its capabilities through add-ons. CellworXs by Softalis is a free Excel add-on that adds significant data analysis capabilities, including the ability to generate dynamic reports and offline report versions that can be shared with others. CellworXs has the potential to greatly reduce the time and expertise needed to create sophisticated analyses. Instead of requiring lots of "help calculations" and in-depth technical knowledge, CellworXs uses simple formulas to enable users to build database-specific analysis, consolidation, … Read more

As we anticipate the eventual unveiling of Apple's next iPhone, the rumor mill is churning out reports at a rapid clip. This time around, two Apple-tracking blogs have published pictures that they claim might be showing off the new iPhone.

The fun started this morning when 9to5Mac, along with repair company iFixYourI, published photos of a new part from a Chinese supplier. The part appears to be the back plate for an iPhone featuring an aluminum piece. In addition, the back plate features a smaller dock connector than the one found in Apple's other products.

9to5Mac's findings … Read more

Despite earlier reports saying that it might do so, Australia won't take aim at Google's Street View service over the collection of Wi-Fi data.

The country's news.com.au service reported today that Australia Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim was planning to evaluate a recently released U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report on Street View data collection to determine if his office should call on the Australian Federal Police to launch an investigation into the search giant's practices. However, in a subsequent media statement, the commissioner's office made it clear no such investigation would be … Read more

Google is removing URLs from its search function, but before anyone cries foul, it's letting people know about it.

The tech giant released a new edition of its Transparency Report today, which shows who is requesting URLs be taken down, the copyright owners, and all the targeted domains since July 2011. Everything that's being deleted is allegedly copyrighted or pirated material -- mostly from software and entertainment companies.

Google has been releasing the Transparency Report for the last two years, but before today the only available information was government requests to remove content and disruptions in the search … Read more

Microsoft aims to give parents more control over their children's computer use on Windows 8 with a new feature announced this week.

"With Windows 8, you can monitor what your kids are doing, no matter where they use their PC," Microsoft's senior program manager for Family Safety Phil Sohn wrote in a blog post. "All you have to do is create a Windows user account for each child, check the box to turn on Family Safety, and then review weekly reports that describe your children's PC use."

With these controls and weekly reports, … Read more

In today's show, Google search gets smarter, Verizon ends its unlimited data era, and E.T. tweet home?

Google search results will now look a bit different. Google has launched the Knowledge Graph, a database of 500 million people, places, and things, and it will show up in your search to give you more info on a topic and help you find related items. Google is rolling it out in the next few days to desktop, mobile and tablet users.

You can't always count on iPhone rumors being true, but here's one that's looking pretty solid: … Read more

Google Music is catching some heat over at the XDA-Developers forum for reportedly limiting the number of devices that can be deauthorized from the service.

According to several forum posters, Google Music now only allows users to deauthorize four devices per year. Previously, users could deauthorize as many devices as they'd liked without worrying about hitting a limit, according to the forum posters.

In order for Google Music to work with devices, users must authorize them to work with the platform. Google limits the number of devices that can be authorized to 10. So, when users want to swap … Read more