Report says North Korean army hackers were ordered to attack South Korean networks

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has obtained intelligence that North Korea last month ordered a military institute of computer hackers — known as Lab 110 — to “destroy” South Korean communications networks, news reports said Saturday.

Report says NKorean army hackers were ordered to attack SKorean networks

SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean army lab of hackers was ordered to “destroy” South Korean communications networks — evidence the isolated regime was behind cyberattacks that paralyzed South Korean and American Web sites — news reports said Saturday, citing an intelligence briefing.

Seoul says attackers who downed Web sites in US, SKorea used IP addresses in Europe, US, South

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea is learning more about the mysterious cyber attacks that targeted the country and its ally the United States, but the ultimate question of who the instigators are remained elusive.

Google CEO glad he dropped his resistance to co-founders’ push for PC operating system

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Eric Schmidt spent his first six years as Google’s CEO resisting a push by the company’s co-founders to develop their own operating system for personal computers.

Experts work to untangle US, South Korea cyber attack, disagree over extent of Pyongyang ties

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities trying to unravel the widespread cyber attacks against government Web sites in the United States and South Korea this week are facing a lengthy, complex investigation that may never identify a culprit, at least not one they would be willing to reveal.

HEALTHBEAT: Paperless hospital points the way but digital health records by 2014 will be hard

PITTSBURGH — Baby Riley Matthews wheezed noisily on the exam table. “He’s belly-breathing,” the emergency-room doctor said worriedly — Riley’s little abdomen was markedly rising and falling with each breath, a sign of respiratory distress.

Obama would shorten aid form, put college within reach of more students

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to simplify the federal college aid form, which at 153 questions drives millions of families to give up before they finish it.

Report: China says Internet filtering software plan unchanged after US expresses concern

BEIJING — China is sticking to its planned launch of a controversial Internet censoring software in about one week, an official newspaper said Tuesday, despite Washington’s concerns over the move’s possible impact on trade and access to information.

EU says it prefers Microsoft to provide several browsers with Windows instead of none at all

BRUSSELS — European Union regulators on Friday said Microsoft Corp. was offering less choice, not more, by vowing to sell the next version of Windows without the Internet Explorer browser in Europe to soothe EU antitrust concerns.

FTC pulls plug on allegedly rogue Internet provider over “witches’ brew” of harmful content

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government has severed the Internet connection of a company accused of helping criminals serve up a “witches’ brew” of nasty content online, from computer viruses to child pornography.

Cuba blasts Microsoft for blocking Messenger chat program in nations under US sanctions

HAVANA — Cuba criticized Microsoft on Friday for blocking its Messenger instant messaging service on the island and in other countries under U.S. sanctions, calling it yet another example of Washington’s “harsh” treatment of Havana.

Google’s technical problems disrupt Internet’s top search engine, e-mail for some users

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google says it has fixed the technical problems that have prevented an unknown number of people from using its Internet search engine, e-mail and other services.

Ask.com CEO Jim Safka leaving for personal reasons, president Scott Garell to take over duties

NEW YORK — The chief executive of Internet search engine Ask.com, Jim Safka, is leaving for personal reasons a little more than a year after he took the post.

Going nonprofit is one proposal for helping struggling newspapers stay in business

WASHINGTON — One way to save some of the nation’s struggling newspapers would be to let them become nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, a senator said Wednesday as editors and other journalists painted a grim future for daily print journalism.