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The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans’ online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a “wake-up call.” Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a “collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners.”

But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA’s warrantless interception of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.

“The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?” said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry.

On Jan. 12, Google took the rare step of announcing publicly that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December.

The intrusions, industry experts said, targeted Google source code — the programming language underlying Google applications — and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. The Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were also compromised. So significant was the attack that Google threatened to shutter its business operation in China if the government did not agree to let the firm operate an uncensored search engine there. That issue is still unresolved.

Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program. Hard money training.

Nokia has pledged to strike back at Apple and produce mobile phones that will compete effectively with the U.S. technology company’s iPhone.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, said that it was aiming to be “even more competitive” following criticism that it had failed to come up with a handset to match the iPhone.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Kallasvuo also insisted that Nokia would succeed with its strategy of transforming itself from a mobile manufacturer into a supplier of services on handsets, such as maps and music.

Nokia is the world’s largest maker of smartphones — mobile phones that double up as mini computers — but it has been losing market share to rivals led by Apple and Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the BlackBerry.

This week, Nokia will try to inject fresh momentum into its smartphone strategy with the release of a device featuring a Linux operating system. Analysts say Nokia’s Symbian operating system and S60 software, used on most of its smartphones, need an overhaul.

Nokia is also expected to unveil plans to sell netbooks, or small, mobile computers. National Hard Money Association Conference

Microsoft and Nokia will on Wednesday announce an alliance aimed at challenging Research In Motion’s lead in the corporate mobile phone market.

The Finnish mobile phonemaker is planning to use Microsoft’s Office Mobile suite of software on its smartphones – handsets that double up as mini computers.

The partnership could help buttress Nokia’s lead in the smartphone market. The world’s largest mobile phone maker has been losing market share to rivals led by RIM.

For Microsoft, the alliance with Nokia will help defend its position against Google, the US search engine.

Google’s Android operating system for smartphones is gaining ground, and giving the US technology company the chance to put its web-based software on handsets.

RIM has carved out a strong position in supplying smartphones to business people, partly because the Canadian handset maker’s Blackberry devices have user-friendly e-mail.

The partnership between Microsoft and Nokia will seek to make up ground on RIM by including the US technology group’s Office Mobile suite of software – which includes word processing and spreadsheets as well as e-mail.

The first Nokia handsets featuring Microsoft’s Office Mobile suite are likely to be available next year, added one person familiar with the alliance. The handsets are expected to include Nokia’s E series, such as the popular E71. Hard Money Association

Google has announced a deal to buy On2 Technologies, which provides technology that should help improve video quality on the internet search engine.

The deal for $106.5m (£62.7) should be concluded later this year, subject to On2 shareholder approval.

On2’s technology helps shrink video files, allowing high definition images to be delivered over the internet.

“We believe high quality video should be part of the web platform,” said Sundar Pichai at Google.

“We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2’s team and technology will help us further that goal,” he added.

Current On2 customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia and Sony.

Google is the undisputed leader in internet search engines.

Last week, technology giant Microsoft and website Yahoo announced a tie-up designed to break Google’s stranglehold. Hard Money Association

A 127-character tweet about a moldy apartment in Chicago could end up costing @abonnen $50,000.

On May 12th Amanda Bonnen, who has since deleted her Twitter account, responded to a friend with the tweet, “@JessB123You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

@abonnen only had about 20 followers that directly received the message, but her profile was set to public, and Chicago-based Horizon Group Management discovered the tweet.

Chicago Now reports the company then filed a defamation lawsuit alleging Bonnen, “maliciously and wrongfully published the false and defamatory Tweet on Twitter, thereby allowing the Tweet to be distributed throughout the world.”

Horizon is seeking $50,000 in damages.

If @abonnen’s statement is determined to be false and tweets are considered a legitimate form of publishing, she could be held liable for damages to Horizon’s reputation. But it isn’t quite that simple.

Popular social networking site Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding on to users’ personal information indefinitely, a report has concluded.

An investigation by Canada’s privacy commission found the US-based website also gave “confusing or incomplete” information to subscribers.

Facebook says it is aiming to safeguard users’ privacy without compromising their experience of the site.

More than 200 million people actively use Facebook.

They include about 12 million in Canada, more than one in three of the population.

Twenty milligrams; that’s the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article.

Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released. And in the several minutes it will take you to get to the end of this story, the number of milligrams of greenhouse gas emitted could be several thousand, if not more.

This may not seem like a lot: “But in aggregate, if you consider all the people visiting a web site and then all the seconds that each of them spends on it, it turns out to be a large number,” says Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing.

Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.

As millions more go online each year some researchers say the need to create a green Internet ecosystem is not only imperative but also urgent.

“It is part of the whole sustainability picture,” Chris Large, head of research and development at UK-based Climate Action Group, told CNN.

U.S. government Web sites — including those of the White House and the State Department — have been under attack since the Fourth of July, along with financial and commercial sites like Yahoo Finance and the New York Stock Exchange, cybersecurity experts said Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is one of the targets, according to a security expert, confirmed that the attacks were taking place.

Web sites in South Korea, including the president’s, were targets of the same attack, said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Washington Post said it, too, had been attacked.

There is some indication that the attack comes from China, Nazario said, but he added that he could not be certain of the origin. Even if it is coming from China, it would be difficult to determine whether officials or individual hackers were responsible.

He said the attack was of moderate size, involving “a few tens of thousands” of infected computers “around the world.”

“We measured a peak of 25 megabits/second” in data transmission, he said, calling it “about the size of a big PowerPoint presentation, well in the garden variety of what we see.”

But other cybersecurity experts said that even if the current attack was not particularly worrisome, it was a window into potentially more serious problems.

Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said that the attack was simple and primitive but that the fact that it worked on some agencies shows the government is still “disorganized.”

Some parts of the government were able to “beat this off,” while others haven’t, he said.

Google is jumping into Microsoft Windows territory — and threatening to change the way personal computers work — with its own version of a computer operating system.

The company says the forthcoming Google Chrome OS will revolutionize how computers operate, putting more emphasis on Web functionality, making computers faster and opening them up to helpful tinkering by outside program developers.

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web,” Google said late Tuesday on its official blog. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

Chrome OS will be available this coming fall or winter, Google says.

But why should you care?

A trim and speedy Google operating system, which has been buzzed about online for some time, is interesting for several reasons — even if you think it could flop out of the gate. iReport: What do you think about Google’s Chrome OS?

The first is that Chrome OS will be available as “open-source” technology. That means software developers will be able to mess with the code behind the system, allowing them to develop new applications for it.

In essence, it puts the users in control.

After a string of real celebrity deaths last week, the Internet and online social networks killed a few more stars.

Despite what you may have read, Jeff Goldblum, Natalie Portman, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Harrison Ford and Rick Astley are alive.

Fake news of their deaths flew across the Internet — particularly on online social networks like Twitter and Facebook — after Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon were reported dead.

The situation is calling attention to the changing state of the news media: As information online moves faster and comes from more sources, it’s more difficult to verify what’s true and what may be shockingly false.

Some have downplayed the situation, saying the rumors are not harmful. Others find the situation offensive in light of the actual deaths last week.

Internet-savvy readers can tell the difference between fake news and real information that has been verified by a trusted blogger or mainstream news reporter, said Gabriel Snyder, managing editor at Gawker, a celebrity news and gossip blog not associated with the rumors.

Pop star Britney Spears was among those falsely claimed to be dead recently.