SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A computer security firm said it had freed tens of thousands of infected PCs from a "botnet" that forced enslaved machines to send out spam pharmaceutical ads during a cyber crime-fighting demonstration to top industry executives on Tuesday. Tillmann Werner, a senior research scientist with a startup known as CrowdStrike, attacked the Kelihos botnet on stage in a rare live demonstration of techniques used to attack cyber crime operations. ...

One of the few points of interest that emerged from a phablet-filled Mobile World Conference this year is the first round of phones powered by the new Firefox OS. Mozilla’s new HTML5-based mobile platform is open and available to vendors for free, and it could make a serious dent in emerging markets. But a stumbling block emerges as Samsung (005930), the world’s top cell phone maker by shipment volume, has reportedly stated that it has no interest in adopting the OS for its handsets, CNET reports. This makes sense since Samsung’s Android bet has already been hedged, but it could be a serious roadblock for Mozilla as Samsung continues to put its massive weight behind a push into emerging markets.