Iranian hackers target Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citi

 Iranian hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co andCitigroup over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States, according to people familiar with the situation.

The attacks, which began in late 2011 and escalated this year, have primarily been "denial of service" campaigns that disrupted the banks' websites and corporate networks by overwhelming them with incoming web traffic, said the sources.

Microsoft, The biggest thing about India is the scale

 More than 3,000 developers gathered at the KTPO grounds in Whitefield, Bangalore, on Friday to write applications for Windows 8 as the company bid for entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most participants in a single app development event. 

"The work involved in getting the venue ready was substantial," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "The ground was uneven - it had to be levelled. Then the infrastructure - we have 63 generator trucks standing by. We had to put in place 4,000 power connections. I think there's around 60,000 feet of cabling that had to be laid. Then there was Internet access to be provided - 2 GB of bandwidth . We have something like 500 people working as crew." 

Iranian hackers target Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citi

 Iranian hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co andCitigroup over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States, according to people familiar with the situation.

The attacks, which began in late 2011 and escalated this year, have primarily been "denial of service" campaigns that disrupted the banks' websites and corporate networks by overwhelming them with incoming web traffic, said the sources.

Apple wants Samsung phones banned, eyes dollar 707m more

Apple has asked for a court order for a permanent US sales ban on Samsung Electronics products alleged to have violated its patents along with additional damages of $707 million on top of the billion-dollar verdict won by the iPhone maker last month.

Samsung has responded by asking for a new trial.

The world's top two smartphone makers are locked in patent battles in 10 countries as they vie for top spot in the lucrative, fast-growing market.

Facebook switches off facial recognition tool

Facebook said Friday it had switched off the facial-recognition tool that prompts users to "tag" photographs uploaded to its website following a privacy investigation. 

The feature was identified by regulators as one of the main privacy threats posed by the social networking site. 

Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Billy Hawkes, who launched the probe because Facebook's European operations are based in Ireland, said he was happy that the site had agreed to remove the tool in Europe by October 15.