Wikipedia went dark, Google blotted out its logo and other popular websites planned protests on Wednesday to voice concern over legislation in the U.S. Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.

Wikipedia shut down the English version of its online encyclopedia for 24 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Online security researchers claimed Tuesday to have identified the members of a Russian gang of cyber criminals behind the Koobface computer virus which has attacked Facebook and other sites.

Facebook said meanwhile that its security team had helped knock out a computer server which controlled a Koobface "botnet" of malware-infected personal computers.

With a rise in entrepreneurialism across the Middle East in full swing, 2012 is expected to see unprecedented growth in start-ups in the region, according to Arabnet Founder Omar Christidis.

Following hard on the heels of the ‘Arab Spring’, many young people across the region have decided to take the leap and start their own ventures. The Arabnet Digital Summit 2012, to take place between 27-21 March, is the premier regional conference for the emerging Arab web/mobile industry.

A motorized, seat-less unicycle, a video game you control with your eyes, and a mind-reading headset that serves as a game controller were among the more bizarre gadgets being shown off at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show.

Some 3,100 exhibitors attended the show, and although there were plenty of mainstream technologies on display, the show attracted a fair share of off-beat gadgets. Here's a roundup of some of the weirdest devices:

Google is focusing on the importance of protecting personal information in an unusual marketing campaign for a company that has been blasted for its own online privacy lapses and practices.

The educational ads will start appearing Tuesday in dozens of U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and magazines, including Time and the New Yorker. Google Inc. also will splash its message across billboards within the subways of New York and Washington, as well as various websites.

Put your fingerprint scanners away. Stand aside iris measurers. Buttocks are the new way to prove who you are.

A team of Japanese scientists claim their pressure sensor sheet can accurately identify an individual's backside and when placed on a driver's seat could be used as a last line of defence to stop someone else driving away your motor.

Free online knowledge site Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours later this week in protest at draft anti-online piracy legislation before the U.S. Congress, founder Jimmy Wales said on Twitter.

"Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" Wales said on the microblogging site.

Hackers have disrupted the websites of Israel's stock exchange and national air carrier in a deepening cyber war allegedly launched this month by Saudi cyber attackers.

A person familiar with the situation at El Al Israel Airlines says the carrier took down its website Monday after the alleged Saudi hacker network behind previous attacks warned that both sites would be targeted.The person spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential information.

The number of Internet users in China rose last year by nearly 56 million to more than half a billion, nearly half of whom used weibos, or microblogs, according to latest official figures.

China's online population -- the world's largest -- hit 513 million in 2011, a 12.2 percent increase on the previous year, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a statement on Monday.

Hailed as the French Steve Jobs, entrepreneur Xavier Niel is shaking up the country's mobile phone market with a maverick style far removed from France's traditionally conservative business practices.

A rare business heavyweight not to emerge from the country's elite universities, Niel started his career in the 1980s operating adult chat services on a French forerunner to the Internet called Minitel.