Annie Searle & Associates, LLC

"Technology companies want to talk with the government about protecting privacy on the Internet. They just want those talks to be private."

"The federal government is beginning a major research initiative in big data computing. The effort, which will be announced on Thursday, involves several government agencies and departments, and commitments for the programs total $200 million."

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation's top cyber cop offered a grim appraisal of the nation's efforts to keep computer hackers from plundering corporate data networks: "We're not winning," he said."

"The government’s chief consumer protection agency said on Monday that it intended to take direct aim at the vast industry that has grown up around the buying and selling of information about American consumers."

"The international financial system requires "drastic" reform if future crises are to be avoided, including more regional initiatives to tackle misaligned exchange rates and the wider use of capital controls, the head of a United Nations agency said."

"The Obama administration has approved guidelines that allow counterterrorism officials to lengthen the period of time they retain information about U.S. residents, even if they have no known connection to terrorism."

“Next stop Dow 57,757? Don’t count on it but Tuesday’s bullish session is in the books.”

"No one who has seen it forgets the "Twilight Zone" episode about a town in Ohio that lives in terror of a 6-year-old born with godlike powers."

"Mozy has released the results of a data protection survey which was produced by Mozy and independent market research firm Compass Partners. This found that an increasing number of professionals (80 percent) work remotely and rely on personal devices such as smartphones (63 percent), iPads (30 percent) and laptops (80 percent) to access company data."

"The Pentagon is accelerating efforts to develop a new generation of cyberweapons capable of disrupting enemy military networks even when those networks are not connected to the Internet, according to current and former U.S. officials."

"Regulators in the U.S. and European Union are investigating Google Inc. GOOG +0.83% for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.69% Safari Web browser, according to people familiar with the investigations. Google stopped the practice last month after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal."

"Until early Wednesday morning, Greg Smith was a largely anonymous 33-year-old midlevel executive at Goldman Sachs in London."

"During the five-month period between October and February, there were 86 reported attacks on computer systems in the United States that control critical infrastructure, factories and databases, according to the Department of Homeland Security, compared with 11 over the same period a year ago."

A searing indictment of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, especially in light of the failures in Japan a year ago. We all need to pay attention to whether or not anything changes going forward.

"Impact Forecasting, a division of Aon Benfield, has published its monthly summary of major disasters around the world."

"Since Sunday, the sun has launched a barrage of flares, particle radiation and blobs of plasma that have disrupted some radio communications and forced airlines to reroute northern flights."

"Last year’s earthquake, tsunami and subsequent partial meltdown of two reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant presented numerous challenges for U.S. organizations with employees, facilities or critical suppliers in Japan."

"FBI Director Robert S. Mueller believes public-private collaboration is crucial to protect America from cyberattacks — a threat he thinks could become bigger than terrorism itself."

"Although most programs and organizations use risk management when developing and operating software-reliant systems, preventable failures continue to occur at an alarming rate."

"Google started its unified privacy policy on Thursday.

The company has been telling users of its services — search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs, among others — that information it collects about users will be compiled in a single dossier for its use."