According to a recent research group’s report, there are now more than 384 million Chinese individuals who are accessing the Internet with the largest growth being those who are using their mobile phones to do so. The growth rate in 2009 was 29% over 2008’s number of Chinese internet users despite the Chinese government’s efforts to limit access and use. The launch of 3G services spurred the growth of those going online via mobile phone to 233 million. (source: SiliconValley.com)

Recently, the Chinese government angrily denied accusations that it was involved with hacking.  Earlier this month, Google's chief legal officer explained in a blog that Google and other tech companies had been involved in a coordinated cyber-attack.  He reported that the ultimate goal of the attack was to access the Gmail accounts of certain Chinese human rights activists.  Although, the Google blog failed to officially name the Chinese government as the source of the attack, industry experts confirmed that state-sponsored parties were likely the culprits.  A statement by the company iDefense stated that "two independent, anonymous iDefense sources in the defense contracting and intelligence consulting community have confirmed that both the source IPs and drop server of the attack corresponded to a single foreign entity consisting of either agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof." (source: Yahoo! News)

ICANN recently announced that Egypt, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have been approved for International Domain Names (IDNs) in their native characters.  Up until this approval, domain names have been available only in the Latin alphabet forcing users familiar only with their native, non-Latin scripts to type using a complicated method of pressing the alt-key for each letter typed.  All four countries will keep their already existing and operating Latin country code top level domain registries. (source:  ICANN.org)

ICANN announced that it would continue with its plans to have its March meeting located in Nairobi, Kenya despite travel warnings issued by the United States State Department.  There had been recent speculation that ICANN would move the meeting from Kenya after recent violent demonstrations erupted in Kenya concerning deportation of a Muslim spiritual leader.  ICANN did announce that it would hold special security briefings for attendees to assist them with their travel precautions. (source: ICANN.org)

A Boston University student has been ordered by a Federal judge to pay four record labels a combined $675,000 in damages. The student was found to have been illegally downloading and sharing songs online; and, was ordered to refrain from future copyright violations. The massive fine was based on the student’s downloading and distributing just 30 songs to his friends. (source: SiliconValley.com)

A Canadian woman who had been diagnosed with major depression had been receiving monthly sick leave benefits for being unable to work. However, her benefits were revoked when her insurance agent found photos of the woman apparently having a great time on FaceBook. The insurance company said that the FaceBook photos showed she was no longer depressed and was able to work. The woman claimed that her doctor had recommended that she go on vacation including three separate 4-day trips to help with her depression. The woman has hired an attorney seeking to have her insurance benefits reinstated. (source: SiliconValley.com)

A Michigan man who was dubbed by Federal agents as the “Spam King” was sentenced to four years in prison for a stock fraud scheme that netted him $2.7 million. The man had pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and to violating the Federal CAN-SPAM Act which bans misleading subject lines in emails. The Spam King sent unsolicited emails in an effort to pump up the price of penny stock in Chinese companies. This resulted in the price of the stocks being artificially inflated and the man and his relatives then sold their stock at huge profits totaling several million dollars. (Source: Freep.com)

A 19 year old New York man was arrested for armed robbery and held for 12 days. The man insisted he was innocent and that he had been in Manhattan at the time of the crime. The man proved that he was in Manhattan by providing an update he made to his FaceBook page from a computer in his father’s Manhattan building at the time of the robbery. Prosecutors acknowledged that the evidence was clear and convincing and dropped all charges. (source: Washingtonpost.com)