Internet sites offer information on Chile quake

In today's podcast: Internet sites offer information on Chile quake; Google hackers may have hit 100 companies; and PayPal's personal payment service offline in India.

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After Chile's massive earthquake and potential Pacific Rim tsunami damage, relief organizations, government agencies, corporations and throngs of people are on Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other services to seek and provide information and help. For example, Google has launched a Chile-specific version of its People Finder application where users can either search for or offer information about a person affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile early on Saturday, just like it did after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

The hackers who broke into Google two months ago have gone after more than 100 companies, according to an estimate by security vendor Isec Partners. Researchers have been closing in on the unidentified criminals responsible for the attack over the past month. In the process, they have uncovered another 68 so-called command-and-control servers, used to control the hacked machines. Investigators had already identified 34 hacked companies after examining the single command-and-control server used in the Google attack, and the discovery of another 68 servers could mean that many more companies were compromised than previously thought.

PayPal said that India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has allowed it to resume Indian bank withdrawals for Indian businesses who use PayPal to sell their goods or services abroad. Personal payments into India will however continue to be suspended, as the RBI has told the online payment company that it needs specific approvals to allow personal inward remittances to India. PayPal needs authorization to operate a cross-border money transfer service, under the India's Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

Sony's PlayStation Network has been hit by a glitch that has left users on all continents unable to connect to the online service, the company said Monday. The PlayStation Network is an Internet-based service that connects PlayStation 3 consoles to online stores, software downloads and is used as a platform for some multiplayer online games. It has about 38 million users worldwide. The problem appears to be affecting only the older PlayStation 3 consoles and not the newer so-called "slim" models that were recently launched

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.