Hackers bent on derailing Anonymous clashed with members of the notorious group at a DefCon gathering in Las Vegas late Saturday.

"Hubris" and "Asherah" of startup Backtrace Security condemned Anonymous for "bully behavior" and argued that the group was trying to pass of reckless opportunism as Internet-age activism.

A hacker group on Saturday claimed it has "defaced and destroyed" websites at scores of U.S. police agencies in retaliation for the arrest of suspected peers accused of hacking into the CIA, British crime agency SOCA, and Sony.

The group called AntiSec -- in reference to "anti-security" -- said in an online post that it is backing its claim by releasing information it looted during cyber attacks on more than 70 local police agencies.

Tech heavyweights Microsoft and Google are acting like a couple of feuding starlets in a public online spat over — wait for it — patents.

It's not the first time Microsoft and Google have gone at each other's throats, nor is it likely the last.

A man accused of sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users faces federal fraud and computer tampering charges that could send him to prison for more than 40 years, according to a grand jury indictment.

Sanford Wallace, the self-proclaimed "Spam King," pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance Thursday after being indicted July 6 on six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt.

AOL, the one-time Internet star seeking to reinvent itself as a major media player, is joining the craze for personalized news readers for tablet computers.

The Internet and media firm, which purchased The Huffington Post in February for $315 million to serve as the flagship of its media fleet, launched a free daily news magazine for Apple's hot-selling iPad this week called Editions.

A Japanese defense researcher has invented a spherical observation drone that can fly down narrow alleys, hover on the spot, take off vertically and bounce along the ground.

About the size of a beach ball and jet black, the remote-controlled Spherical Air Vehicle resembles a tiny Death Star from the Star Wars movies but has a more benign purpose -- to transmit live images from a video camera.

Japanese entertainment titan Sony had the dubious honor of winning a "Most Epic Fail" award Thursday at a prestigious Black Hat gathering of computer security professions in Las Vegas.

Sony and hacked computer security powerhouse RSA were mockingly honored with Pwnies, annual awards named in a reference to geek slang for "owning" or totally dominating an opponent.

Reporting for the first time as a public company, career-oriented social network LinkedIn posted strong membership growth and better-than-expected quarterly revenue on Thursday.

Computer security star Dan Kaminsky revealed plans Wednesday to release software that will track whether Internet service providers are favoring some websites or content over others.

Kaminsky crafted his free "N00ter" software to expose whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are being honest with customers when it comes to the hot topic of "net neutrality."

U.S. online video site Hulu announced plans Wednesday to produce its first original long-form show, a documentary series by "Super-Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock.

"A Day in the Life" will consist of six half-hour episodes focusing on 24 hours in the lives of "fascinating people," Hulu said in a statement.