Source: TheRegister.co.uk

Romanian police have arrested a man suspected of breaking into the websites of NASA and the Pentagon in a series of high-profile hack attacks.

Razvan Manole Cernaianu, 20, from Timisoara, is accused of publishing details of the SQL injection vulnerabilities discovered on the targeted websites under the hacker handle TinKode. The Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) further alleges that Cernaianu, an IT student, sold hacking tools from his personal site.

Senator Lamar Smith, lead sponsor of the currently dead SOPA bill you’ve heard so much about, has another bill in the works that uses Child Pornography as a screen to push through an amendment that’ll have your internet service provider tracking all of your financial dealings online. Each time you use a credit card, each time you read your bank statement, all of your IP information and your search history will be required by your ISP to be stored for 18 months at all times. This bill is H.R. 1981 and will have more dire consequences than SOPA or PIPA ever had the potential to have.

Megaupload, the popular file-sharing site, was shuttered Thursday and its executives indicted by the Justice Department in what the authorities said was “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States.”

Seven individuals connected to the Hong Kong-based site were indicted on a variety of charges, including criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Four of the members of what the authorities called a “racketeering conspiracy” were arrested Thursday in Aucklund, New Zealand, the authorities said.

One of those arrested was Kim Schmitz, aka Kim Dotcom, Megaupload’s founder. His attorney, Ira Rothken of California, said neither he nor his 37-year-old client who resides in Hong Kong and New Zealand was given the opportunity to surrender. Schmitz was arrested without notice, he said.

The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18^th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, DC – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill.

SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.