Joseph Menn

Countries accused of harboring criminal computer hackers are victims themselves, the new US cybersecurity policy chief said on Thursday, suggesting that the US would not take a more confrontational tack against China and Russia.

Cisco Systems is developing an ultra-high-speed system for Internet access in partnership with a number of US service providers.

US analysts believe they have identified the Chinese author of the critical programming code used in the alleged state-sponsored hacking attacks on Google and other western companies, making it far harder for the Chinese government to deny involvement.

The US and its Nato allies have been urged to collaborate more intensely to fend off the threat of cyberattacks in the aftermath of the alleged Chinese assault on Google.

Apple is pressing US television networks to reduce their prices for TV shows offered on its iTunes digital store in order to cut the charge to consumers and to help spur demand.

Some say the shift to Internet-capable devices and the apps that run on them a once-a-decade leap in technology, on a par with the great personal computing boom of the 1980s and the debut of the World Wide Web in the 1990s.

The app phenomenon might prove to be the most important thing Apple has ever created.

Facebook has become entangled in a dispute over advertising practices after some of its users claimed they received un­authorised charges to their credit cards while playing games on the social networking site.

Cyber-criminals are increasingly targeting trusted websites to infect the computers of people viewing those sites.

When Apple insisted on making all its own computers and software a decade ago, it talked up its integrated products so thoroughly that it barely mentioned any allies. Now it can hardly shut up about them: it knows the most important thing about the iPhone is the online App Store, where 65,000 programs (and counting) are available for download.