Republicans want sweeping new data retention requirements

CnetNews.com reports that “Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.  The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.”

NetworkWorld reveals that “[t]he criminals behind the widespread Conficker worm have released a new version of the malware that could signal a major shift in the way the worm operates.  The new variant, dubbed Conficker B++, was spotted three days ago by SRI International researchers, who published details of the new code on Thursday. To the untrained eye, the new variant looks almost identical to the previous version of the worm, Conficker B. But the B++ variant uses new techniques to download software, giving its creators more flexibility in what they can do with infected machines.”

Eweek.com has an interesting article on how the social networks could help smart phone makers sell more of the devices, and how, vice versa, phone manufactures could help social networks sell more ad space. 

According to Internetnews.com, “Microsoft's Silverlight made another slam dunk this week in its heated rivalry against Adobe Flash, with CBS Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announcing plans to use the streaming media technology during the upcoming March Madness college basketball championship.  As a result, Silverlight will power high-definition online video from the tournament.”

The New York Times has a good article on the Stimulus Package’s benefits for small businesses.