The U.S. Department of Defense has approved a fivefold expansion of its cybersecurity force over the coming years in a bid to increase its ability to defend critical computer networks, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the Defense Department's Cyber Command, which currently has a staff of about 900, will expand to about 4,900 troops and civilians.

A new voluntary system aimed at rooting out online copyright piracy using a controversial "six strikes" system is set to be implemented by U.S. Internet providers soon, with the impact unclear.

The program was created with the music and film industry and the largest Internet firms, with some prodding by U.S. government.

A "privacy visor" that uses infra-red light to interfere with facial recognition technology has been developed in Japan for people worried about being spotted by computers.

The goggles are useful for anyone who wants to avoid their identity being detected by hidden cameras, the inventors say.

The inventor of the World Wide Web warned Friday that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum.

The comments by Tim Berners-Lee at the World Economic Forum plugged into a wider debate among the delegates on the future of the Internet, particularly how to balance openness with privacy and security.

Twitter suspended the account of Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents Friday, days after they posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.

A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress account read that it had "been suspended", without elaborating. The extremist's Arabic account confirmed the suspension, denouncing it as censorship.

Their name is synonymous with futile attempts to roll back technology — and with fuddy-duddies who can't figure out how to use the iPhone.

The Luddites were British textile artisans who 200 years ago smashed the mechanized looms they thought threatened their jobs.

Facebook on Thursday confirmed that co-founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg will make a foray into politics next month by hosting a fundraiser for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

The mid-February event at Zuckerberg's home in the California city of Palo Alto is to support the re-election bid of high-profile Republican Christie, who is seen as a possible future contender for U.S. president.

Google Books, the doomed project to build the world's biggest library online, provides a powerful lesson in the danger of "blind faith" in technology, according to British director Ben Lewis.

Presenting his new film "Google and the World Brain" in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, Lewis said the failure of the online giant's plan marks a victory over those who believe the Internet can encompass everything.

Internet retail colossus Amazon.com on Thursday announced the purchase of a text-to-speech technology company in a move evidently aimed at ramping up the capabilities of its Kindle Fire tablet computers.

Amazon did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Poland-based Ivona Software, which it said already powers text-to-speech, Voice Guide, and Explore by Touch features on Kindle Fire tablets.

A French court ruled Thursday that Twitter, which has steadfastly refused calls to police its millions of users, must hand over data to help identify the authors of racist or anti-Semitic tweets.

In a test case that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech, the court granted a request lodged in October by France's Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) which argued that many tweets had breached French law.