WordPress Botnet Attack; Schmidt's Drone Regulation; Bitcoin FAQ

Topping tech headlines this weekend, thousands of WordPress and Joomla sites came under attack by a large botnet brute-forcing passwords.

The attack found common account names — admin, test, administrator, Admin, root — on the site and systematically tried common passwords to break in. The organized, large-scale attack signifies an attempt to find a way to take over the user's entire machine, using the server as a stepping stone. The top five passwords attempted in the hack are "admin," "123456," "111111," "666666," and "12345678." WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg urged users to immediately change their passwords to something less obvious.

Meanwhile, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said recently that civilian drones should be better regulated, keeping them out of the hands of, say, neighbors who may launch one from their backyard. "I would prefer to not spread and democratize the ability to fight war to every single human being," Schmidt said in an interview with The Guardian.

In other news, Bitcoin virtual currency had a rocky week, leaving bitcoin enthusiasts to wonder if the bubble had burst. Still unsure what it all means? Check out PCMag's Everything You Need to Know About Bitcoin.

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• Apple Settles iPhone, iPod Touch Warranty Case for $53 Million: Apple has reportedly reached a $53 million settlement over its failure to adequately honor iPhone and iPod touch warranties.
• T-Mobile Finally Selling iPhone 5 for $99 Down: Last week, T-Mobile began selling Apple's latest smartphone with no annual contract for $99 down.
• Obama Budget Outlines Federal CyberSecurity Spending: The Obama Administration's budget proposal outlined how various departments and agencies would focus their cyber-spending in 2014.
• Minecraft Creator Places Second in Time 100 Poll: Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson is the second most influential person in the world, according to Time magazine voters.
• Verizon Pushes Upgrade Eligibility to 24 Months: Verizon has changed its upgrade practices, most notably bumping the early-eligibility option from 20 months to a full two years.
• Facebook Home Now Available in Google Play Store: The social network's splashy new mobile offering has rolled out to select HTC and Samsung smartphones as privacy and security concerns over Home heat up.
• BlackBerry Wants Investigation Into 'False' Analyst Report on Z10: BlackBerry has asked U.S. and Canadian regulators to investigate what it considers to be a "false and misleading" analyst report about returns of its new Z10 smartphone.