Facebook on Tuesday launched a search engine for shared content described as a way to find things liked by friends on the huge social network.

"We look at Facebook as a big social database," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in announcing the so-called "graph search" function. "Just like any database, you should be able to query it."

Kaspersky Lab said Monday it had identified a new computer virus it dubbed "Red October" targeting eastern European countries that appeared to be collecting classified files using NATO and EU encryption.

"The primary focus of this campaign targets countries in Eastern Europe, former USSR Republics, and countries in Central Asia, although victims can be found everywhere, including Western Europe and North America," said the maker of anti-virus software in a statement.

Oracle on Monday was distributing a patch for Java software flaws deemed so dangerous that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that people should stop using it.

"Oracle recommends that this Security Alert be applied as soon as possible because these issues may be exploited 'in the wild' and some exploits are available in various hacking tools," Oracle's Eric Maurice said in a blog post.

Google on Monday launched a competition that will let a U.S. student "doodle" his or her way to cash for college along with landing grant money to fund technology education at their grade school.

The California-based Internet titan announced its sixth annual "Doodle 4 Google" contest in which students from kindergarten to 12th grade vie to create a winning "doodle," a creative design playing off the search page logo.

Organizers unveiled the first-ever smartphone app for a U.S. presidential inauguration on Monday, allowing users to track Barack Obama's swearing in, sign up for events and check maps for the closest toilets.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee's debut application for iPhone and Android users provides a front-row seat for people not in Washington on January 21, while offering tips to attendees on how to navigate the vast security apparatus set up for the big day.

Apple shares fell in premarket trading Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company has cut its orders for iPhone 5 components due to weaker than expected demand.

The newspaper said two people it did not identify by name told it that Apple's first-quarter orders for iPhone 5 screens have dropped to about half of what the company had planned.

Luxury and sports cars will be in the spotlight when the Detroit auto show opens Monday amid booming sales and renewed optimism as the U.S. economy rebounds from a deep downturn.

"The mood is going to be pretty good," said Dave Sergeant, an analyst with JD Power. "The industry is coming off a reasonably good year and this year should be even better."

Samsung Electronics said Monday that global sales of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones had topped 100 million since the first model debuted in 2010, cementing its dominant position over U.S. rival Apple.

The original Galaxy S phone, launched in June 2010, sold 25 million units, the South Korean electronics giant said in a statement.

It can talk to your car, your refrigerator, water your plants and help you stay fit and healthy: the smartphone is become the consumer's remote control for life.

That was the message delivered by dozens of firms at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where terms like "appification" were tossed around freely.

The European Union and the U.S. agreed Friday to share more data on cross-border cyber criminals at the opening of a new hi-tech unit aimed at helping police catch up with increasingly imaginative criminals.

"This agreement will reinforce the cooperation, the exchange of information," Europol chief Rob Wainwright told Agence France Presse at the opening of the European Cybercrime Center (EC3) in The Hague.