An online predator group targeting children as young as three years old utilizing Tor was recently busted by the US Department of Homeland Security. So far, 14 members accused of leading the child pornography website were arrested and face charges related to conspiracy to operate an organized child exploitation enterprise.

Operating from June 2012 to June 2013, the group had more than 27,000 members across the world, with access to at least 2,000 videos.

"These indictments represent a strong coordinated strike - by Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and several U.S. Attorney's Office around the country - against child pornography and those who allegedly seek to harm our most vulnerable citizens, our young children," said Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr., U.S. Attorney, in a press statement.

Back in December, the ISS had a significant problem with its cooling system. The issue required a couple spacewalks to repair. It appears that whatever the problem with the ISS coolant loop is, the issue has returned.

NASA has confirmed that a coolant loop problem has again reared its head aboard the orbiting space station. NASA says that on Wednesday one of the two coolant loops on the space station shut down. A NASA spokesperson said that at no time was the crew aboard the ISS in any danger.

As a result of the coolant issue, some non-essential equipment aboard ISS modules was shut down. Some of the equipment was also changed over to use the other coolant loop. NASA believes that the coolant issue is linked to a valve problem, which was the same sort of issue that caused the coolant problems late last year. Presumably, a space walk will be needed to fix the coolant system, but no announcement has been made at this time.

ABI Research is a research firm that keeps a close eye on various markets in the technology world. The company has released a new report looking at the tablet market around the world for 2014. ABI is estimating that 200 million tablets will ship this year.

If that proves to be true, it will represent a 20% gain compared to 2013. In 2013, there were 166 million tablets shipped. The research firm is also predicting that North America will account for less than 50% of all global tablet shipments in 2014 for the first time.

That change is because tablet makers have spent significant money expanding their shipments and marketing into other countries. Intel has a chance to become a big factor in the tablet realm in 2014 according to ABI. If Intel can pull off its goal of shipping 40 million tablets using its processor tech it will become a major force in the tablet market.

There are many people out there this winter who can attest that living in a climate that gets really cold and has lots of snow can be bad for your mood and productivity. Lot of folks have dealt with record setting winter storms and cold temperatures for months now. If you live in these cold areas and have an electric vehicle, the weather is doubly bad for you.

AAA has released the results of a study that looks at the driving range of an EV in winter temperatures compared to more moderate temperatures. According to the study, an EV that can drive 105 miles per charge in 75-degree weather will only be able to go 43 miles when it's below freezing.

AAA says that its study shows driving range with temperatures of around 20-degrees are 57% shorter than when its 75-degrees out. The study also found that hot weather affects driving range, but not as much as cold weather. With most EVs in the country sold in temperate Southern California, I guess many don't have to worry about this.

Following years of burying their heads in the sand, lawmakers in the United States are finally taking cybercrimes seriously. As noted in the "Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime" report released by California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The state of California led all states in organized attacks, with computer systems under threat from malware.

"With the rise of a global society connected by the Internet, criminal rings organized to commit hacking, fraud, pirating and other high-tech crimes across borders have rapidly profilerated," the report notes. "These rings operate frequently from Eastern Europe, but also from places as diverse as West Africa and China, and specifically target the citizens, computer networks, and companies of prosperous countries like the U.S."

The NSA wants to be engaged in the continued global discussion of security and secrecy in the digital age, forced to the table following countless complaints of violating user privacy, according to NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett.

The NSA continues to face pressure from Internet users, foreign citizens, political leaders and tech companies, forcing the intelligence agency to go on the defensive. To help try and appear more transparent, there is a current proposal for the NSA to release transparency reports helping give insight into NSA operations.

Ironically, Ledgett said the NSA wanted to share a public point of view during TED to help counter the "half-truths and distortions" made public by Snowden. Ledgett also said Snowden put lives at risk, showing "the bad guys" some of the NSA's cybersecurity and snooping methods.

GDC 2014 - Microsoft has announced DirectX 12 with some of its closest partners, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm, showing off the new DirectX gaming API at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today.

DirectX 12 will deliver some major improvements for developers to all of Microsoft's platforms: Xbox One, Windows Mobile, and of course, PC. The new gaming API will enhance graphics efficiency for modern games as it allows developers to spread tasks across multi-core CPUs, all the while reducing CPU bottlenecks that usually reduce performance, even sucking performance away from what a powerful GPU would usually deliver.

We will see "closer to the metal" access to developers, something that AMD's Mantle technology does, and to showcase this, the Redmond-based software giant teamed up with Forza Motorsport 5 developer Turn 10 Studios to show off a version of the game running on DirectX 12. The demo used a PC powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Black, running at 1080p and a silky smooth locked 60FPS.

The so-called "Internet of Things" will disrupt the technology world, with 26 billion units supported by 2020, shaking up the data center, according to the Gartner research group.

IT services will help monetize the market further, with IoT product and service suppliers queuing up to join a quickly growing market.

"The enormous number of devices, coupled with the sheer volume, velocity and structure of IoT data, creates challenges, particularly in the areas of security, data, storage management, servers and the data center network, as real-time business processes are at stake," said Joe Skorupa, VP at Gartner, in a press statement. "Data center managers will need to deploy more forward-looking capacity management in these areas to be able to proactively meet the business priorities associated with IoT."

Convicted teenage hacker Jared James Abrahams has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison following two years of compromising online accounts of women he later blackmailed. The 19 year old pleaded guilty last November to one count of unauthorized access of a computer and three counts of extortion, and reportedly broke into around 150 online accounts.

Abrahams grabbed headlines after he compromised Miss Teen USA 2013 winner Cassidy Wolf, in which he accessed her computer and used their webcams to photograph them.

"As digital devices, email accounts, and social media accounts now contain the most intimate details of the public's daily lives, the impact of this type of hacking and extortion becomes more pronounced, troubling, and far-reaching," the U.S. Department of Justice noted. "In some cases, this type of criminal behavior can be life-changing for the victims - especially for vulnerable victims who may feel it is impossible to rebuild their tarnished reputations."

If you have been around since the 80's you may recall Dolly Parton. She was a country and western singer most known for large breasts and appearing in the occasional movie. One of those films is a comedy classic called 9 to 5 that also features Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

Fonda and Tomlin are reuniting on a new comedy series for Netflix for the first time since 9 to 5. The new series is called Grace and Frankie. Netflix warns that this isn't a normal sitcom. The setting for the comedy is that Tomlin and Lily are rivals and their husbands tell them one day that they are in love and are getting married.

This leaves Grace, played by Fonda, and Frankie, played by Tomlin, thrown together to deal with the change in marital status. The comedy is going to be a 30-minute single camera series. Netflix has ordered 13 episodes of the show for the first season and they will be from Skydance Productions.