MANILA, Philippines -- It seems like those hackers have grown tired of attacking Sony’s networks, and are now looking for more meaningful targets. Last week, hackers launched a cyber attack on the networks of Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors.

The company, as well as its U.S. Defense Department partners, promptly confirmed the attack, but just as promptly declared that the hackers failed to get their hands on any critical data. Nevertheless, the attack highlighted the danger faced by the U.S. defense establishment from the Internet’s “dark side.”

China Piracy Hits MS

Soon, faster than you can say “intellectual property,” China will become the world’s largest PC market. So, it irks Microsoft boss, Steve Ballmer, so much that his company’s revenue from the numero uno dragon was only 5% of that in the United States.

Well, if it is of any consolation to Ballmer and company, Microsoft is not alone in facing this, ah, predicament. There is a long list of Western companies having a hard time in keeping their copyrights safe in China, which is generally acknowledged to be the “largest counterfeit and piracy market in the world,” according to an AFP story.

Adding injury to insult is the fact that Microsoft even earns more from its businesses in India and the Netherlands — the latter a country of 17 million people.

Google Wallet: Moneyless?

Some industry analysts doubt the viability of Google Wallet, the online search giant’s attempt at the mobile payment frontier. Without a doubt the most complete attempt so far at the mobile-payment market in the United States, Google Wallet requires consumers to buy a Sprint Samsung Nexus S 4G smartphone.

The Samsung smartphone comes equipped with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which comes with built-in support for near-field communications wireless technology. Nexus S 4G owners then download the Google Wallet application from the Android Market.

A few more calibration steps, and the smartphone owners can use the Nexus S 4G to pay for goods using NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals in thousands of retail stores.

It sounds good in theory. It remains to be seen whether consumers will bite, however.

Another FB Ownership  Claim

It is getting to be a bore. Along comes somebody with too much time on his hand, and the temerity to claim ownership of the world’s most popular social networking site.

Last week, Facebook dismissed a lawsuit filed by Paul Ceglia of New York as a “brazen and outrageous fraud.” Ceglia claims he had entered into a contract with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 to design a Web site called, “The Face Book.”

Ceglia claims the contract entitles him to at least 50% of the social networking site.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.