The U.S. federal government’s terrorist database is severely hampered by technology issues and the estimated half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding to upgrade the system is on the brink of collapse, according to a congressional committee.

The "Railhead" program was created to improve the terrorist watch list and enhance the integration of U.S. terrorist intelligence from the nations 16 separate intelligence agencies. The majority of more than 800 private contractors from dozens of companies working on Railhead have been laid off.

The major intelligence agencies in the U.S. have turned to Google to help them better share and process information they have on security threats.

Spam emails threatening death by a hit man unless $20,000 is paid are a hoax the FBI said, restating earlier warnings given in January 2007 and December 2006.

"A new scam cropping up in e-mail boxes across the country is preying not on recipients’ greed or good intentions, but on their fears," the FBI said last year.

A Michigan woman has been charged with using classified advertising Web site Craigslist to hire a contract killer to murder a romantic rival.

The job title was listed as "freelance" and offered $5,000. Investigators say Ann Marie Linscott posted two ads on the site in November and had three responses from people who thought it was an ad for a freelance writer.

Action against eight people for various botnet-related criminal offenses capped off another round of investigations by federal law enforcement into over $20 million in losses and over a million compromised PCs.

A federal judge said no to part to the Democrat green-lighted new version of the Patriot Act yesterday. The Feds will have to get permission from the court before they can order ISPs to turn over customer records without telling the customer.

I invoked him yesterday, and I’m invoking him again today, Nelson Muntz joins all of us as we point at the DOJ and the FBI and give a collective "Ha ha!"

The FBI and the greeting card industry are warning people of fraudulent emails that claim to contain an electronic greeting card from an anonymous individual, such as a "friend" or "classmate."

Hugh D’Andrade of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that in order to keep funding as a nonprofit, they have to be able to show that their work is "important and relevant." I don’t think he has to worry about that. I’ve said it before, after watching more than one EFF-spanking, you don’t eff with the EFF.

Utah lawmakers are at it again, mulling a legislative crackdown on open wi-fi connections because they make it easier for children to access online pornography.

The state of Utah has been in the news a lot lately for its heavy-handed approach to Internet regulation. The most recent curfuffle was over a law banning the use of competitor keywords in search advertising.

On the heels of Congressional hearings and extensive media coverage of a Justice Department report documenting abuse of privacy measures, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking an emergency order that would require the FBI to surrender and make public all records regarding the misuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect private information from American citizens.

The e-vice squads are a-crackin’ down – you’re not even allowed to have virtual fun anymore. The FBI considers breaking up Second Life gambling rings; Craigslist is packed with perverts; and YouTube just wusses out, a sin in itself.

Microsoft has seen its share of legal proceedings throughout recent years, answering charges alleging antitrust violation, copyright infringement and just about everything in between.

This lawsuit, however, may take the proverbial cake.

A Massachusetts man has filed suit against the Redmond-based software company seeking compensatory and punitive damages stemming from, what the plaintiff asserts, breeches and data security and the failure of Internet Explorer to keep delete his browsing history and keep his Internet habits private.

Fictional super spies like James Bond may have to retire from all the action, sizzle and international intrigue of days past if the recent trend in stealing company secrets through computer hacking in Silicon Valley continues.

In New York, the 2,000 employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation won’t all have dot-gov email addresses until the end of 2006.

Information technology workers who manage to find employment at the Federal Bureau of Investigation may want to make their first task improving the security certificate used on FBIJobs.gov.

The ever-popular Sober worm is making the rounds again in a new and exciting format. The ugly little worm is circulating through email and it looks all nice and official because someone is receiving email from either the FBI or the CIA. Many may ask what they’ve done wrong to warrant attention from the FBI or CIA. Nothing much really you just happen to have an email account.

A 20 year-old was taken into federal custody and accused of compromising 400,000 computers with adware, and letting others use the zombie machines to send spam or launch denial of service attacks.

A US Justice Department report has concluded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation missed several opportunities to detect and address terrorist threats prior to the Sept. 11th hijackings.

There is no evidence of data stolen from the University’s Career Development Center at this time.

An investigation from the FBI is underway into auto supplier Delphi’s accounting practices.

A fake email claiming to be from the Federal Bureau of Investigations containing an attached virus is making the rounds through various email inboxes.