The defense secretary said the breach had endangered lives and damaged the ability of others to trust the U.S.

A UN panel adds the Florida Everglades and Madagascar's tropical rainforest to a list of world heritage sites at risk.

A controversial Army Experience Center in a Philadelphia shopping mall will soon close its doors after a two-year pilot program. With regard to its military outreach efforts, the multimillion-dollar facility has declared "mission accomplished," but critics question the Army's version of reality.

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Are Twitter posts an expression of who we are — or are they changing who we are?

As governments in Europe and the United States relax the rules on online gambling, the companies anticipate the opening up of new markets.

For decades, the oil industry, farming and lax oversight have contributed to a dead zone in the gulf.

A program admits students if they study humanities instead of the traditional pre-medical school curriculum.

At Black Hat, a trio of security representatives from Mozilla detailed how the company plans to push the browser to be more secure for users while nudging developers toward safer coding practices.

RIAA wants to make sure nothing happens to Lime Wire' assets before courts decide how much the file-sharing service must pay in damages. Judge says assets aren't going anywhere.

A preliminary ruling rejected a claim that Intel's pricing practices hurt consumers.

CEO Lothar Maier on why the company has never made a large acquisition.

CNET Car Tech gets to take the Nissan Leaf electric car for a preview drive.

Have the copyright enforcers been caught with their hands in the cookie jar? The blog TorrentFreak today published its claim that the US Copyright Group, which has filed more than 14,000 lawsuits against anonymous P2P movie sharers, ripped off another copyright settlement group in crafting its own settlement website.

The site was tipped off by a reader, who claimed that US Copyright Group had jacked code and visual elements from Copyright Settlements, which is in a similar business: sue P2P users, then send them letters demanding a settlement to avoid trial.

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An American oil spill consultant suggests the Chinese spill was larger than the government admits.

A gap in the fossil record preceding the Cambrian has ignited intense interest among geologists.

Jane Brox’s narrative is in many ways a social history, told through man’s relationship to light.

Dr. Sterling discusses the complex species interactions that could help explain the high predator to prey ratios, and describes the effort to capture, tag and recapture sea turtles as the expedition winds down.

"The operating system is called Windows," claimed Steve Ballmer when asked about Microsoft's plans for the tablet/slate/pad form factor at the company's annual Financial Analyst Meeting on Thursday. He expressed dismay at the iPad's strong sales figures, "[Apple has] sold certainly more than I'd like them to have sold," he said. Ballmer then promised that Windows-powered devices will be shipping "as soon as they are ready," going on to explain that they would get a boost from Intel's low-power Oak Trail platform next year.

The message was clear: Microsoft still doesn't understand why its Tablet PC concept has repeatedly bombed over the best part of a decade. Apple sold more iPads in its first three months of availability than PC vendors sold Tablet PCs in the whole of last year; in fact, the number of iPads sold in that period is likely to eclipse the number of Tablet PCs sold both last year and this. But still the company is persevering: stick a regular PC operating system on a laptop, give it a touchscreen, and then take away the keyboard and pixel-perfect pointing device. Ballmer even reiterated the company's position: slates are just another PC form factor.

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Corroborating a rumor from The Wall Street Journal earlier this summer, a new Bloomberg report cited "two people familiar with the company's plans" to build an iPad-like touchscreen device and release it this fall. Dubbed the "Blackpad," the device will ostensibly run the as-yet-unreleased BlackBerry OS 6, and help RIM deflect further encroachment from Apple into its declining mobile market share.

Bloomberg's sources note that the device will rely on BlackBerry's usual enterprise e-mail advantage, but it will also include features that Apple's iPad lacks. In particular, it will have both rear and front-facing cameras for video conferencing and image capture, as well as the ability to pair with a BlackBerry phone over Bluetooth to share its 3G connection.

But jumping into the current tablet market—already dominated by Apple's iPad and with Windows 7 and Android-based products expected soon—might be easier said than done. "With the success of the iPad, RIM faces an uphill battle," William Power, an analyst at Robert W Baird & Co, told Bloomberg. "RIM really has yet to demonstrate that it can roll out touchscreen technology to match the leaders in the space, most noticeably Apple."

The Blackpad is expected to be launched in November, not long after RIM launches a long-rumored BlackBerry Bold 9800. That device will be a touchscreen-only device and the first to be offered with the more consumer-oriented BlackBerry OS 6.

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Attackers exploiting a hole involving how Windows handles shortcut, or .lnk, files prompt Microsoft to rush out an emergency patch, well before its next scheduled Patch Tuesday.