Arkansas man Mark Anthony Townsend plead guilty to one count of computer hacking in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1030 this week. "This case involves the repeated invasion of email accounts on a staggering scale," stated U. S. Attorney Conner Eldridge. "Law-abiding citizens should be protected against hackers who seek to steal their personal information. This defendant violated the privacy of thousands of individuals in order to enrich himself at the expense of others. He has now been held accountable, and we will continue to do all we can to investigate and prosecute those that seek to compromise the security of …

In light of the recent Internet bug Heartbleed in which hackers can gain access to secure sites without a trace, Forbes has compiled a list of sites that will let you check if your email has been hacked into. Haveibeenpwned.com lets you enter an email address to see if your account has been compromised. PwnedList and Shouldichangemypassword.com also offer similar services for free.

The Better Business Bureau has reported that a Netflix scam email is going around. The emails, which have been sent by hackers, include a link to a login page that instructs visitors to call a 1-800 number for support. The call is answered by a scammer pretending to be a Netflix technician who asks for access to the customer's computer. The scammers have used this ploy to steal private documents from victims' computers.

BlackBerry is planning on releasing a security update for its messaging apps on Android and iOS devices by Friday. The update will address vulnerabilities related to the Heartbleed security threat. Last week, researchers revealed the bug which goes after OpenSSL software, the kind often used to keep data secure. The threat potentially exposes websites to hacker intrusion without a trace.

Google has updated it terms of service and now users are informed that their incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by technology in order to serve targeted ads. The update comes in response to a number of lawsuits against Google which claimed that Google violated user privacy as part of this practice. The revisions make what Google does more clear to users.

Headlines reporting that France banned email for workers after 6pm were not exactly true. France's administrative court ruled that tech workers' right to health and rest was not being protected by any laws, since current laws allow tech employees to legally work up to 13 hours a day. French unions responded to the judge's comments by forming an agreement with France's tech business association which allows the right to disconnect. The rules impact about 250,000 workers. "The employer will take adequate measures such that the employee has the possibility of disconnecting his work communication tools," the agreement reads.

In a blog post about what is and isn't great about being a female CEO, Yunha Kim, CEO of Locket, shared one of the not so great things. The chief of the startup that lets you change your Android smartphone's home screen, revealed that when she emailed an engineer and asked him if he'd like to come in for a job interview, he responded by asking her out. "I'm pretty happy with my current job, but if you're single I'd like to date you. Perhaps there are some unconventional ways to lure me away from my company (besides stock options) …

A bill that would update the 1986 law which governs email privacy is gaining momentum in the House. The Email Privacy Act has 200 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, which would require government agencies to require a warrant to search citizen's emails that are older than 180 days old. Supporters include: American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Tax Reform, as well as a number of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. The SEC, on the other hand, is fighting against the Act.

A European court has ruled against an EU law that would force telecoms into storing the private phone and email data of users for up to two years. The judge ruled that the laws was too invasive even if it would be useful in combating terrorism. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that giving EU governments access to this data, "interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data."

Yahoo has released an update for its Android mail app which blocks images by default. Users can turn off the default option if they like, however, they have to go into app settings to turn images back on. The Yahoo Mail 3.1 update also brings about a tool for suggesting contacts once a user begins composing a message. In addition, the app will now automatically recover drafts whenever it can.