Aaron Swartz, an Internet freedom activist, RSS co-creator and co-founder of Reddit, died Friday in Crown Height, Brooklyn, at the age of 26. The cause was reportedly suicide by hanging. Swartz was born in Chicago in 1986, showing an interest in computers and software at a young age. By 14, he was working with a group that coauthored RSS 1.0 Specification, the now-ubiquitous system for news and site feeds. Swartz’s advocacy in later life often found him embroiled in legal troubles. In 2009, he was …More

What is being heralded as the third major cyber weapon since 2010 was discovered Monday. The same programmers that developed Stuxnet and Duqu may have authored the so-called Flame virus, which is currently targeting hundreds of computers across the Middle East. Flame-infected computers can transmit data from disk drives, record conversations using the computer’s microphone, monitor keystrokes, reconstruct texts, disable printers, delete files, register outside devices, take screenshots, and log internet …More