law enforcement

While the Internet promotes free thought, free speech and the ability for the world to express itself, companies are attempting to find a balance between welcoming free expression and censoring inappropriate content.

YouTube is trying to find that balance. The popular online video-sharing Web site has 280 million visitors monthly, with members posting 13 hours of video every minute. With the volume of videos posted, shared and viewed on the site, the company says it is cracking down on what kinds of videos are posted.

A South Florida teen committed suicide last week as a Webcam audience watched in real time. The Pembroke Pines teen died of a lethal drug overdose 12 hours after he shared his intent to kill himself on a blog, according to investigators.

A toxic combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat insomnia and depression, killed Abraham Briggs. The 19-year-old man died Wednesday, the Broward County medical examiner's office confirmed. Briggs had a prescription for the antidepressant, but authorities are unsure how he obtained the others.

Under the watchful eye of law enforcement in 40 states, Craigslist pledged Thursday to crack down on ads for prostitution on its Web sites.

As part of Craigslist's agreement with attorneys general around the country, anyone who posts an "erotic services" ad will be required to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The Web site will provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.

President George Bush signed two bills into law on Monday that would protect children from online predators, but one group said the bills were rushed to the White House for signature without careful consideration.

While Congress considered the nation's financial bailout plan, other significant bills protecting children were being debated, including the Protect Our Children Act of 2008 (POCA) and Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act (KIDSPA).

The replacement for the Homeland Security Department's computerized network for nationwide information sharing could be headed down the same path as its cumbersome original, said a government report released Wednesday.

Two employees of a U.S. hospital have been fired for using their cell phone cameras to take photos of patients receiving treatment and then posting the images to a social networking Web site.

Sam Giammo, the director of public affairs at University of New Mexico Hospital, said Sunday the photos -- mainly close-ups of injuries being treated in the Albuquerque hospital's emergency room over the past few months -- were posted on an employee's private MySpace page.

Giammo said he's never heard of a similar incident at the University of New Mexico Hospital or any other hospital.

A criminal gang is using software tools normally reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government networks with programs that steal passwords and other information, a security researcher has found.

The new form of attack indicates that little progress has been made in defusing the threat of botnets, networks of infected computers that criminals use to send spam, steal passwords and do other forms of damage, according to computer security investigators.

New York's attorney general notified Comcast Corp. on Monday that the state will take legal action if the company -- the nation's second-largest Internet service provider -- doesn't agree to eliminate access to child pornography.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants major Internet access providers to agree on steps to remove certain newsgroups that contain child pornography and purge their servers of Web sites that contain child porn.

New York has already reached such agreements with AT&T Inc., AOL, Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.

There is no better way to get a blogger talking than by telling him what he cannot publish, although you might forgive a government prosecutor for thinking otherwise.

A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in New York this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8.

Mississippi State University (MSU) has established an impressive reputation in the field of cyber security as evidenced recently by MSU being named by the National Security Agency (NSA) as one of 23 Centers of Academic Excellence in Research in Information Assurance Education in the country.