Andrew Blake

Mihran Melkonyan, hacker, convicted in American Express scam

A Sacramento federal jury on Tuesday convicted 37-year-old Mihran Melkonyan on 26 counts of wire and mail fraud related to an international hacking operation that enabled cyber criminals to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from American Express cardholders.

February 15, 2017

Kid Rock floated as possible GOP Senate candidate

Republicans in Michigan are reportedly considering Kid Rock, a Grammy-nominated performing artist and President Trump supporter, to challenge the Democratic incumbent in next year's Senate race.

February 15, 2017

Eric Taylor, teenage hacker, sentenced after targeting Trump, Obama in 2013

A teenager hacker was sentenced in D.C. federal court Wednesday for a slew of cybercrimes committed against President Trump, Michelle Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan, among others.

February 15, 2017

Rat urine blamed for death, illnesses in Bronx neighborhood

Leptospirosis, a rare infection spread by rat urine, killed one person and severely sickened two others within the past couple of months, New York City health officials said Tuesday.

February 15, 2017

Twitter argues in federal court for right to disclose surveillance details

Twitter's attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday that the Justice Department is violating the company's right to free speech by barring it from stating the specific number of surveillance requests its received from the government.

February 15, 2017

Brad Smith, Microsoft president, touts ‘Digital Geneva Convention’ during cybersecurity keynote

Microsoft's president and chief legal officer called on the world's governments Tuesday to adopt a "Digital Geneva Convention" intended to safeguard civilians from state-sponsored cyberattacks.

February 14, 2017

Democratic senators demand answers from Pentagon on Donald Trump’s smartphone security

Security concerns spurred by President Trump's purported use of an unsecured, personal smartphone are raised in a recent letter from two Democratic senators to newly confirmed Defense Secretary James Mattis.

February 14, 2017

University violated campus group’s free speech by prohibiting pro-marijuana shirt: Appeals court

Iowa State University violated the free speech of a student group that advocates for marijuana legalization by barring it from using the school's logo, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Monday.

February 14, 2017

KKK leader Frank Ancona murdered by wife and stepson, prosecutors allege

The wife and stepson of Frank Ancona, the "imperial wizard" of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, were charged with his murder Monday, two days after his remains were discovered near a river in rural Missouri.

February 14, 2017

Frank Ancona, KKK leader, missing under suspicious circumstances: Police

The body of "imperial wizard" of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Frank Ancona, who disappeared this week under suspicious circumstances, was found on a river bank in a rural part of Missouri on Sunday, according to law enforcement.

February 11, 2017

Vince Li, perpetrator of grisly Greyhound beheading, granted absolute discharge

A Canadian man who killed, decapitated and partially consumed the flesh of a fellow Greyhound passenger during a 2008 bus ride was granted an absolute discharge Friday, effectively reestablishing his freedom following several years of treatment at a Manitoba mental heath facility.

February 11, 2017

Khaled Sharrouf, Islamic State terrorist, stripped of Australian citizenship

Islamic State combatant Khaled Sharrouf has become the first dual national to be stripped of his Australia citizenship under a 2015 anti-terrorism law, local media reported Saturday.

February 11, 2017

Arby’s, sandwich chain, acknowledges data breach impacting customers of corporate-owned restaurants

Hacked cash registers silently siphoned the credit card numbers of potentially hundreds of thousands of Arby's customers before the fast-food chain was alerted last month, the company acknowledged this week.

February 11, 2017

John Bercow, U.K. Commons Speaker, ‘orchestrated’ anti-Trump tirade: Report

The British parliamentarian who advocated this week against inviting President Trump to Westminster Hall may have done so to secure his position as Commons Speaker, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Friday.

February 11, 2017

‘Milo Bill’ sponsored by Tennessee Republicans would protect freedom of speech at states colleges

Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos and other controversial commentators would be welcomed to speak at colleges in Tennessee if the state legislature approves a bill proposed by Republican lawmakers this week.

February 11, 2017

Protesters read Coretta Scott King’s letter opposing Sessions outside Mitch McConnell’s home: Report

Protesters recited Coretta Scott King's decades-old letter opposing newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday evening outside the Louisville home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.

February 11, 2017

Republican senators demand answers from Yahoo exec on data breaches

Lawmakers looked to Yahoo's outgoing CEO for answers Friday after previous attempts to investigate the data breaches disclosed by the company last year came up empty-handed.

February 10, 2017

Marijuana sales in Colorado officially surpass $1B mark for the first time in state’s history

Colorado's legal marijuana dispensaries sold $1.3 billion worth of pot during 2016, according to tax data released Thursday, signaling the state's best year since legalizing recreational weed in 2013.

February 10, 2017

Office of Government Ethics website crashes; traffic surge blamed on ‘recent events’

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics was nearly unreachable Thursday after its internet and phone systems were inundated by an abrupt traffic surge in light of what the agency simply described as "recent events."

February 10, 2017

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9/11 mastermind, blasts Obama in newly released letter from Gitmo

The Al Qaeda militant accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks described the assault as a "natural reaction" to U.S. foreign policy in a scathing letter to President Obama published this week.

February 10, 2017