| | |
| Exclusive: U.S. states probing security breach at Experian unit Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:58 PM PDT  By Jim Finkle and Karen Freifeld BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A number of U.S. states are jointly investigating a data breach involving a subsidiary of Experian Plc that exposed the social security numbers of some 200 million people to potential criminal activity. A Vietnamese man last month confessed in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire to orchestrating the breach, so the focus of the multistate investigation will likely be on whether Experian and other parties followed laws requiring companies to properly secure consumer data and comply with breach disclosure rules. "It's part of a multistate investigation." Jaclyn Falkowski, spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, said Connecticut is also looking into the matter. A spokesman for Experian, which is best known for providing consumer credit histories, declined comment on the probe, saying the company does not comment on such investigations as a matter of policy. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's NSA overhaul may require phone carriers to store more data Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:46 PM PDT  By Mark Hosenball and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program could force carriers to collect and store customer data that they are not now legally obliged to keep, according to U.S. officials. One complication arises from the popularity of flat-rate or unlimited calling plans, which are used by the vast majority of Americans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Micron posts second-quarter profit, says outlook favorable Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:39 PM PDT  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc posted better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results and said the outlook for the memory industry is favorable as it switches production lines to make NAND chips used in smartphones and tablets from making DRAM chips for personal computers. Prices for DRAM chips made by Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have bounced back from a deep memory chip price slump in 2012 that led some chipmakers to throttle back production. Micron's stock has surged over 160 percent in the past 12 months, helped by the recovery in memory chip prices as well as news in November that David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital had invested in the company. Full Story | Top |
| Google pays $1.4 million fine in Italy over StreetView concerns Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:38 PM PDT  Google has paid a 1 million euro ($1.4 million) fine imposed by Italy's data protection watchdog over complaints that cars it used to record images on Italian streets in 2010 were not clearly recognizable, the regulator said on Thursday. "Cars belonging to the giant of Mountain View roamed Italy's streets without being entirely recognizable as such, therefore not allowing the people present in those places to decide whether to be photographed or not," it said in a statement, referring to Google's base at Mountain View in California. Google has faced numerous privacy lawsuits in the United States and Europe, relating to services including Street View, which gives a panoramic perspective on streets around the world. We complied with everything the (regulator) required of us at the time," a Google spokeswoman said. Full Story | Top |
| Google's Nest halts home alarm system sales over possible defect Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:35 PM PDT  Nest Labs Inc, the maker of smart thermostats that Google Inc acquired for $3.2 billion, called a halt to all sales of its smoke alarms on Thursday after it discovered a possible defect that could cause users to turn it off unintentionally. Nest co-founder and Chief Executive Tony Faddell said that, under a unique set of circumstances the alarm's "Nest Wave" feature, which allows a user to switch off the device with a wave of the hand, could be inadvertently activated. Faddell, one of the creators of Apple Inc's iPod, apologized in the blogpost for a problem that was discovered during recent laboratory testing. "The fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately." He did not specify that set of circumstances. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. created Twitter-like service in Cuba, denies fomenting unrest Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 03:10 PM PDT The U.S. government created a service similar to Twitter in Cuba in a "discreet" operation intended to promote democracy on the communist-ruled island, officials said on Thursday, but denied that the $1.2 million effort was aimed at fomenting unrest. The program, whose existence was first reported by the Associated Press, was run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which normally delivers aid to the world's poor, and was discontinued in 2012, officials said. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the program was neither "secret" nor "covert" under the U.S. government's definitions of those terms. Harf said this "democracy promotion" program created a platform "similar to Twitter" and was carried out under a three-year grant totaling $1.2 million and was created using subcontractors and foreign banks. Full Story | Top |
| Mozilla CEO resigns, opposition to gay marriage drew fire Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 01:33 PM PDT  By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Mozilla Chief Executive Brendan Eich has stepped down, the company said on Thursday, after an online dating service urged a boycott of the company's web browser because of a donation Eich made to opponents of gay marriage. The software company came under fire for appointing Eich as CEO last month. In 2008, he gave money to oppose the legalization of gay marriage in California, a hot-button issue especially at a company that boasts about its policy of inclusiveness and diversity. "We didn't act like you'd expect Mozilla to act," wrote Mozilla Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker in a blog post. Full Story | Top |
| White House objects to Samsung's use of Obama photo Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 12:31 PM PDT  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was a fun moment: Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz snapped a "selfie" photo with President Barack Obama when the World Series champions visited the White House this week. But the smiles turned to scowls when mobile provider Samsung promoted the picture on Twitter to the company's 5.2 million followers and pointed out the image had been taken with a Samsung smartphone. White House spokesman Jay Carney, asked whether Samsung had been asked to stop tweeting the photo, made clear the controversy had been discussed with White House lawyers. Full Story | Top |
| Fearing cyberattack, Israel curbs government websites' foreign traffic Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 11:31 AM PDT  Israel will temporarily suspend some of its government websites' international traffic to fend off a potential mass-cyber attack by pro-Palestinian hackers, an Israeli security source said on Thursday, without elaborating on the threat. The precautionary measure would be in place from Friday through Monday, the source said, and include refusal of electronic payment from abroad for government services. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. built secret 'Cuban Twitter' to stir unrest: AP Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 11:14 AM PDT A U.S. agency created a "Cuban Twitter" to undermine Cuba's communist government and get around its strict Internet prohibitions, using secret shell companies financed through foreign banks, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. The two-year project drew 40,000 users who did not know the communications network was devised by a U.S. agency and designed to push them toward political dissent, according to the AP. The report identified the U.S. Agency for International Development, which delivers aid to the world's poor, as being behind the project. The communications network was called "ZunZuneo," Cuban slang for a hummingbird's tweet, and the AP said its goal was to build an audience of young users. Full Story | Top |
| Satellites and sensors to halt crumbling of Italy's Pompeii Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 10:02 AM PDT  By Antonella Cinelli ROME (Reuters) - The ruins of ancient Pompeii will be monitored by satellites and sensors under an agreement with Italian defense and technology group Finmeccanica to try to stop the UNESCO world heritage site from crumbling. Regular collapses of walls and houses in the treasured Roman town that was covered by ash in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD have caused an international outcry and increased pressure for an end to delays dogging a 105-million-euro restoration project part-funded by the European Union and launched last year. Finmeccanica will train staff to use high-tech monitoring tools that should flag shifts in terrain in the 1,500 buildings of Pompeii, so that archaeologists can quickly intervene to prevent collapses. Soil movements, a major risk to the ruins especially during bad weather, will be monitored through high resolution images captured by the COSMO-SkyMed group of satellites, controlled by the Italian Space Agency, Finmeccanica said. Full Story | Top |
| Head of Russian social network VK withdraws resignation Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 09:24 AM PDT  The founder of Russia's biggest social networking site VKontakte withdrew his resignation on Thursday, just two days after announcing he was giving up the chief executive post, saying his departure would have threatened the company's future. "I'm not going anywhere - and remain the CEO of VKontakte," Pavel Durov wrote on his VKontakte account. Durov said on April 1 he was stepping down because his freedom in running the company had been reduced by a shareholder change. It was not clear what change he was referring to, but the statement followed months of wrangling between VKontakte shareholders. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey's Kurdish peace process key to Erdogan's presidential hopes Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:40 AM PDT By Orhan Coskun and Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will be banking on Kurdish support if he bids for Turkey's presidency in an August election and is likely to use his party's strong showing in local polls as a mandate to advance peace talks with Kurdish militants. Erdogan's AK Party emerged well ahead of rivals in municipal elections on Sunday, increasing its share of the vote including in parts of the Kurdish-dominated southeast. The outcome has bolstered his hand in a peace process in which he has invested much political capital despite staunch nationalist opposition. Erdogan has made no secret of his desire to run for Turkey's first directly-elected presidency in four months' time. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey lifts Twitter ban after court ruling Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 08:40 AM PDT  By Ozge Ozbilgin and Orhan Coskun ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's telecoms authority lifted a two-week-old ban on Twitter on Thursday after the constitutional court ruled the block breached freedom of expression, an official in Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office said. Access to Twitter was blocked on March 21 in the run-up to local elections last Sunday to stem a stream of leaked wiretapped recordings of senior officials that had appeared on the site, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to say he would "root out" the network. Turkey's Official Gazette on Thursday morning published the Constitutional Court's ruling from Wednesday, further piling pressure on the telecoms authorities to lift the ban, which had faced widespread international condemnation. "The ban has been lifted" the official from Erdogan's office told Reuters by telephone minutes after TIB removed court orders blocking the site from its webpage. Full Story | Top |
| EU Parliament votes to end roaming, protect 'net neutrality' Thursday, Apr 03, 2014 06:59 AM PDT  By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Parliament voted to end mobile phone roaming fees by 2016 and barred telecoms operators from prioritizing some Internet traffic over others, moves that will cheer Europe's consumers and frustrate industry seeking new forms of revenue. In a session in Brussels, lawmakers backed telecom reform legislation that will phase out roaming fees across the 28-country European Union by December 2015, bolster consumer protections on mobile and broadband contracts and seek to make the sale of mobile licenses more uniform across Europe. "This vote is the EU delivering for citizens," said Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital affairs. Telecom operators are not likely to give up the fight, especially over the parliament's measures on maintaining "net neutrality", the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, regardless of the source or content. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment