Security researchers say hackers infected tens of thousands of computers from the Taiwanese vendor ASUS with malicious software for months last year through the company’s online automatic update service. Kaspersky Labs said March 25 that the exploit likely affected more than 1 million computers from the world’s No. 5 computer company, though it was designed to surgically install a backdoor in a much smaller number of PCs.

A Ukrainian security researcher reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users — nearly all U.S.-based — on the open internet. That data was likely harvested by criminals, said researcher Bob Diachenko, an independent security consultant in Kyiv. The database, which Diachenko discovered with a search engine, was freely accessible online for at least 10 days beginning Dec. 4, he said.

Facebook's ambitions harken to how WeChat has become the centerpiece of digital life in China, where people use it to order movie tickets, subway passes, food delivery and rides. If Facebook succeeds in turning its own messaging services into a platform for everything, it could ultimately threaten established services such as Snapchat, Yelp, Venmo, eBay and even Apple and Amazon.

China exchanged data with NASA on its recent mission to land a Chinese spacecraft on the far side of the moon, in what was reportedly the first such collaboration since an American law banned joint space projects with China that do not have prior congressional approval.

The inventor of the World Wide Web knows his revolutionary innovation is coming of age, and doesn't always like what he sees: state-sponsored hacking, online harassment, hate speech and misinformation among the ills of its "digital adolescence." Tim Berners-Lee issued a cri-de-coeur letter and spoke to a few reporters Monday on the eve of the 30-year anniversary of his first paper with an outline of what would become the web — a first step toward transforming countless lives and the global economy.

South Korea's telecommunications carriers turned on super-fast 5G mobile internet networks abruptly ahead of schedule in an attempt to ensure the country becomes the first in the world to launch the services. The carriers say 5G-enabled smartphones are capable of downloading data 20 times faster than existing 4G devices, which in theory would enable users to download movie files almost instantly. The faster networks would also improve live broadcasts and streaming services for music and video while allowing for a broader range of virtual reality services, the companies say.

AT&T said Tuesday it will immediately ditch Venezuela's pay TV market as U.S. sanctions prohibit its DirecTV platform from broadcasting channels that it is required to carry by the socialist administration of Nicolás Maduro. The Dallas-based company's closing of its Venezuela unit is effective immediately.

Mars is about to be invaded by planet Earth — big time. Three countries — the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates — are sending unmanned spacecraft to the red planet in quick succession beginning this week, in the most sweeping effort yet to seek signs of ancient microscopic life while scouting out the place for future astronauts.

A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet Monday after a six-month, 300 million-mile (482 million-kilometer) journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their seats and erupted in screams, applause and laughter as the news came in.

India's space organization is examining the technical snag behind Monday's aborted launch of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon and expects to set a new launch date within days. The Chandrayaan-2 mission was called off less than an hour before liftoff by the Indian Space Research Organization when a "technical snag" was observed in the 640-ton, 14-story rocket launcher.