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Julian Assange tried to contact Hillary Clinton and the White House when he realized that unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables given to WikiLeaks were about to be dumped on the internet, his lawyer told his London extradition hearing on Tuesday. Assange is being sought by the United States on 18 counts of hacking U.S. government computers and an espionage offense, having allegedly conspired with Chelsea Manning, then a U.S. soldier known as Bradley Manning, to leak hundreds of thousands of secret documents by WikiLeaks almost a decade ago. On Monday, the lawyer representing the United States told the hearing that Assange,...

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The case of computer whiz Aaron Swartz -- who committed suicide after federal prosecutors charged him with 13 felony fraud counts -- has become, for some, emblematic of how overzealous prosecutors are going too far in pursuit of a win. The shocking suicide -- the 26-year-old co-creator of RSS and Reddit hanged himself last month -- has led to calls to rein in the practice of overcharging defendants. Swartz could have been punished with up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines -- a greater penalty than some murderers face. And it was all for downloading millions...

Summary: Late evening Friday, January 25, U.S. Sentencing Commission website was hacked and government files distributed by Anonymous in what the group calls "Operation Last Resort."Hacktivist group Anonymous took control of the U.S. Sentencing Commission website Friday, January 25 in a new campaign called "Operation Last Resort."The first attack on the website was early Friday morning. The second - successful - attack came around 9pm PST that evening. By 3am PST ussc.gov was down (it has since been dropped from the DNS), yet as of this writing the IP address (66.153.19.162) still returns the defaced site's contents.It appears that via the U.S. government...

At the time of his suicide, Aaron Swartz was preparing for a crucial hearing in his federal criminal case, likely his best chance to thwart federal prosecutors who had developed solid evidence against the Internet activist who was facing an April trial on a 13-count felony indictment. The 26-year-old Swartz, who killed himself Friday in his Brooklyn apartment, was scheduled for a January 25 evidentiary hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Lawyers for Swartz were seeking to suppress material gathered in connection with Swartz’s breach of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer network. The January 2011 incursion netted...

Aaron Swartz, 26-year-old genius, computer prodigy, co-creator of RSS and Reddit, is dead. Swartz committed suicide in the wake of relentless bullying and persecution/prosecution by Eric Holder's Department of Justice. Swartz was "driven to the edge" by the government's aggressive prosecution of a non-existent legal case. Swartz made public documents available to everyone -- this was his crime. “It’s like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.” Put this in context. Obama's DoJ, headed by Eric Holder, refused to prosecute thr Black Panthers who violently threatened voters with billy clubs and...

Computer activist Aaron H. Swartz committed suicide in New York City yesterday. The news was first reported by the MIT newspaper The Tech, citing both his uncle and his attorney. Swartz was 26.

Loral Space & Communications Ltd. , which filed for bankruptcy in July as part of an agreement to sell six satellites, said one of these satellites malfunctioned Friday morning, becoming, at least temporarily, inoperable. Loral, which agreed to sell the six satellites aimed at North America to Intelsat Ltd. for up to $1.1 billion in cash, said Telstar 4 suffered a short circuit of its primary power system. Loral and Lockheed Martin Corp. the craft's builder, are evaluating the problem to determine if the Telstar 4 can be repaired. Telstar 4 is insured for $141 million, Loral said. Most customers...

EXETER, N.H. (AP) - Tyco International Ltd. is seeking to force former chief financial officer Mark Swartz to return millions of dollars he allegedly misappropriated from the company. Tyco filed an arbitration demand with the American Arbitration Association on Monday, the company disclosed in a filing Tuesday with Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC filing says Swartz "breached his fiduciary duties" as chief financial officer and director and "misappropriated company funds and other assets." Swartz was indicted along with former chairman and CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski last month for allegedly stealing $600 million from Tyco. They have pleaded innocent. Tyco...

Mr. President, it gives me a warm feeling inside to know it's your birthday. Knowing what good friends you were with Shwartz, leading contributor in '96, a Loral executive who liked being on camera. Remember that kool company that contributed so much to you? The corporation that Bush Sr. had put on probation for getting fast and loose with US missile technology secrets? The corporation that benefitted most when you transferred State authority to Ron Brown's Commerce authority.... the authority to decide what technology we can give to rogue states like China? Oh it warms my heart. And you haven't...