Endpoint Security

Google has released Chrome 16, a new stable version of its Web browser that addresses 15 high- and medium-risk vulnerabilities.

In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. Patent wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government moved to block the giant merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology icon who redefined the computer, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 technology stories of the year:

Microsoft will tomorrow patch the zero-day kernel Word vulnerability exploited by the mysterious Duqu malware, more than a month after its existence was first made public.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has begun to mail refund checks to computer owners who purchased so-called scareware from vendors who allegedly used deceptive advertising to trick customers into buying the software to fix their supposedly infected computers.

Text-message spam is coming under close scrutiny from the U.K.'s data protection authority, which is trying to blunt an increasing wave of insurance industry and accident compensation-related spam.

BP has demanded that a court allow a huge forensic examination of Halliburton's IT systems, over accusations that the US cementing contractor is hiding evidence into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.