Grant Gross
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Shared code in Snowden leaks and NSA breach support hackers’ claims
Documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden share a malware tracking code with several files released this week by hacking group Shadow Brokers, according to a news report.Shadow Brokers claimed they had hacked a cyberespionage team linked to the U.S. spy agency when they released a group of sample files earlier this week. Similarities between the Shadow Broker files and information in documents leaked by Snowden give credence to the claims by the anonymous hacking group.Fourteen files in the Shadow Brokers leak contain a 16-character string, "ace02468bdf13579," that NSA operatives used to track their use of one malware program, The Intercept reported Friday. That tracking string was described in an NSA manual for implanting malware originally leaked by Snowden, The Intercept reported.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Shared code in Snowden leaks and NSA breach support hackers’ claims
Documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden share a malware tracking code with several files released this week by hacking group Shadow Brokers, according to a news report.Shadow Brokers claimed they had hacked a cyberespionage team linked to the U.S. spy agency when they released a group of sample files earlier this week. Similarities between the Shadow Broker files and information in documents leaked by Snowden give credence to the claims by the anonymous hacking group.Fourteen files in the Shadow Brokers leak contain a 16-character string, "ace02468bdf13579," that NSA operatives used to track their use of one malware program, The Intercept reported Friday. That tracking string was described in an NSA manual for implanting malware originally leaked by Snowden, The Intercept reported.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Maker of web monitoring software can be sued, says court
The maker of so-called spyware program WebWatcher can be sued for violating state and federal wiretap laws, a U.S. appeals court has ruled, in a case that may have broader implications for online monitoring software and software as a service.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected WebWatcher vendor Awareness Technologies' motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the company. The appeals court overturned a lower court ruling granting the motion to dismiss.The appeals court, in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, rejected Awareness' claims that WebWatcher does not intercept communications in real time, in violation of the U.S. wiretap act, but instead allows users to review targets' communications. While plaintiff Javier Luis' lawsuit doesn't address real-time interception of communications, his allegations "give rise to a reasonable inference" of that happening, Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Maker of web monitoring software can be sued, says court
The maker of so-called spyware program WebWatcher can be sued for violating state and federal wiretap laws, a U.S. appeals court has ruled, in a case that may have broader implications for online monitoring software and software as a service.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected WebWatcher vendor Awareness Technologies' motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the company. The appeals court overturned a lower court ruling granting the motion to dismiss.The appeals court, in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, rejected Awareness' claims that WebWatcher does not intercept communications in real time, in violation of the U.S. wiretap act, but instead allows users to review targets' communications. While plaintiff Javier Luis' lawsuit doesn't address real-time interception of communications, his allegations "give rise to a reasonable inference" of that happening, Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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5 things to know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The U.S. presidential campaign has shined a spotlight on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal that's simmered on the back burner for years.Both major-party presidential candidates oppose the deal, negotiated in secret among 12 Pacific Region countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, Canada, and Singapore. China and Russia are notably absent from the negotiations.While negotiators approved the final language in October, the U.S. has not yet ratified the deal.Here are five important things to know about TPP:What's in the TPP? The goal of the trade deal, with negotiations that began in 2008, is to lower trade barriers, including tariffs, between the countries. The deal also allows companies to ask for legal arbitration against countries they believe to be discriminating against their products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Tech industry desperate for US action on the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a controversial trade deal supported by many U.S. tech companies, is on death row, with both major party presidential candidates opposed. It's a long shot, but some tech trade groups are hoping for last-minute clemency from Congress and outgoing President Barack Obama. The trade groups are pushing for Congress to vote to approve the deal after November's general election, in the lame-duck session before a new Congress and a new president takes office.The TPP, a free-trade deal negotiated among the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Region nations for seven years, has become a major presidential campaign issue in recent months. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Tech industry desperate for US action on the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a controversial trade deal supported by many U.S. tech companies, is on death row, with both major party presidential candidates opposed. It's a long shot, but some tech trade groups are hoping for last-minute clemency from Congress and outgoing President Barack Obama. The trade groups are pushing for Congress to vote to approve the deal after November's general election, in the lame-duck session before a new Congress and a new president takes office.The TPP, a free-trade deal negotiated among the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Region nations for seven years, has become a major presidential campaign issue in recent months. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AT&T fined after suspected drug traffickers slip charges into phone bills
AT&T will pay a $7.75 million fine for allowing suspected drug traffickers to add millions of dollars in bogus directory assistance charges to its customers' land-line bills.The extra charges of about $9 a month were discovered during an investigation of two Cleveland-area companies for drug-related crimes and money laundering, the Federal Communications Commission said Monday."A phone bill should not be a tool for drug traffickers, money launderers, and other unscrupulous third parties to fleece American consumers," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. The settlement will allow AT&T customers "charged for this sham service" to get their money back, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Verizon aims to pump up its IoT presence with fleet management deal
Verizon Communications plans to buy cloud-computing-focused fleet management firm Fleetmatics Group, in a deal that will pump up the telecom carrier's internet of things portfolio.The US$2.4 billion deal for the Dublin-based fleet management vendor will give Verizon a toehold in the GPS vehicle-tracking and connected cars markets. Fleetmatics, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, has about 37,000 customers and 737,000 subscribed vehicles worldwide.The deal, announced Monday, "underlines Verizon's commitment to the IoT space," Dan Bieler, a digital business analyst with Forrester Research, said by email. "In terms of IoT revenues, this deal helps to improve Verizon's positioning."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ISP groups appeal net neutrality court defeat
Trade groups representing many U.S. ISPs have filed an appeal challenging a court ruling that upheld the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules.Trade groups CTIA, USTelecom, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the American Cable Association on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear their challenge of the net neutrality rules after a three-judge panel upheld the rules in June. The challenge isn't to the FCC's rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic, but to the agency's reclassification of broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, the NCTA wrote in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ISP groups appeal net neutrality court defeat
Trade groups representing many U.S. ISPs have filed an appeal challenging a court ruling that upheld the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules.Trade groups CTIA, USTelecom, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the American Cable Association on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear their challenge of the net neutrality rules after a three-judge panel upheld the rules in June. The challenge isn't to the FCC's rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic, but to the agency's reclassification of broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, the NCTA wrote in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Oracle to buy cloud provider NetSuite for $9.3 billion
Oracle has entered into an agreement to buy NetSuite, which provides cloud-based accounting, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and other business software packages, for US$9.3 billion.The NetSuite package of products is complementary to Oracle's cloud products and the companies' cloud packages will "coexist in the marketplace forever," Mark Hurd, Oracle's CEO, said in a press release.The deal will allow Oracle to serve a broader range of customers, including smaller businesses, and expand to more industries and more countries, the company said. Asked what additional advantages the deal brings, and Oracle spokeswoman said, "We are declining additional comment today."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Oracle to buy cloud software provider NetSuite for $9.3 billion
Oracle has entered into an agreement to buy NetSuite, which provides cloud-based accounting, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and other business software packages, for US$9.3 billion. The NetSuite package of products is complementary to Oracle's cloud products and the companies' cloud packages will "coexist in the marketplace forever," Mark Hurd, Oracle's CEO, said in a press release. The deal will allow Oracle to serve a broader range of customers, including smaller businesses, and expand to more industries and more countries, the company said. Asked what additional advantages the deal brings, and Oracle spokeswoman said, "We are declining additional comment today."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Verizon’s Yahoo deal creates tracking powerhouse, privacy groups warn
Verizon's planned US$4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo is likely to create an international consumer tracking powerhouse, and that's raising serious privacy concerns.Combined with other recent acquisitions, the Yahoo deal will allow Verizon to track consumers not only on the web, but also at their physical locations, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group.Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core digital advertising business, "when combined with the capability to gather information from its wireless devices, broadband networks, and set-top boxes, gives it control over the key screens that Americans use today," Chester said by email. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Verizon’s Yahoo deal creates tracking powerhouse, privacy groups warn
Verizon's planned US$4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo is likely to create an international consumer tracking powerhouse, and that's raising serious privacy concerns.Combined with other recent acquisitions, the Yahoo deal will allow Verizon to track consumers not only on the web, but also at their physical locations, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group.Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core digital advertising business, "when combined with the capability to gather information from its wireless devices, broadband networks, and set-top boxes, gives it control over the key screens that Americans use today," Chester said by email. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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9 big moments in Yahoo’s troubled history
Yahoo is founded in 1994Image by JD Lasica/FlickrIn early 1994, Stanford University grad students Jerry Yang and David Filo launch the website, Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. Within months, they rename it Yahoo.Yahoo goes public with huge stock gainsImage by Yahoo/FlickrTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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A hackable election: 5 things you need to know about e-voting machines
As the U.S. heads toward an especially contentious national election in November, 15 states are still clinging to outdated electronic voting machines that don't support paper printouts used to audit their internal vote counts. E-voting machines without attached printers are still being used in a handful of presidential swing states, leading some voting security advocates to worry about the potential of a hacked election. Some makers of e-voting machines, often called direct-recording electronic machines or DREs, are now focusing on other sorts of voting technology, including optical scanners. They seem reluctant to talk about DREs; three major DRE vendors didn't respond to questions about security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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A hackable election: 5 things you need to know about e-voting machines
As the U.S. heads toward an especially contentious national election in November, 15 states are still clinging to outdated electronic voting machines that don't support paper printouts used to audit their internal vote counts. E-voting machines without attached printers are still being used in a handful of presidential swing states, leading some voting security advocates to worry about the potential of a hacked election. Some makers of e-voting machines, often called direct-recording electronic machines or DREs, are now focusing on other sorts of voting technology, including optical scanners. They seem reluctant to talk about DREs; three major DRE vendors didn't respond to questions about security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Tech groups want Trump to actually notice their industry
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for U.S. president, has antagonized much of the tech industry by opposing free trade and immigration but has otherwise nearly ignored this vital segment of the nation's economy.As Republicans meet in Cleveland this week to officially declare Trump as their presidential candidate, several tech groups have called on him to release a tech agenda. The huge Consumer Technology Association has issued three press releases in the past week calling on Trump to outline his tech priorities.The U.S. tech industry is "too critical to our country's future to be a policy afterthought," Gary Shapiro, the trade group's president and CEO, said in one release. Shapiro's veiled criticism of Republican Trump is notable after the trade group exec once accused Democrat Barack Obama of running "the most antibusiness administration" in his lifetime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US pumps $400 million into next-generation wireless research
The U.S. National Science Foundation will spend more than US$400 million over the next seven years to fund next-generation wireless research in an effort to bring super-fast mobile service to the country.U.S. officials hope the investments, announced Friday, will speed up the county's move to next-generation 5G mobile service, potentially offering speeds of 10Gbps, and allow for a rapid expansion of the internet of things. The next-generation mobile services will enable self-driving cars, an "always on" IoT, smart cities, new virtual reality offerings, and video to aid police, firefighters, and emergency medical responders, said John Holdren assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here