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US, China to Hold Regular Cybersecurity Chats
June 03, 2013

Increasingly testy rhetoric and increasingly legitimate concerns have prompted the United States and China to announce that they will hold regular high-level talks on standards of cyberbehavior. The announcement precedes a meeting between President Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping scheduled for Friday.

Google Goes All-American With Moto X
May 31, 2013

Google company Motorola has announced a new smartphone that will be designed, engineered and assembled in the United States -- the Moto X. It will be manufactured in a factory in Fort Worth, Texas. "There are more than 130 million smartphones in use in the U.S., but not one of them is made here. That changes with Moto X," said Motorola spokesperson Danielle McNally.

Apple to Give Pegatron a Slice of Its China Pie
May 31, 2013

Foxconn, a supplier that has occasionally embarrassed Apple, will no longer be the exclusive maker of the iPhone and iPad. More work reportedly will be funneled to another Chinese electronics firm, Pegatron. The shift of product to Pegatron began in 2011, when some iPhone business was awarded the company. Last year, Apple chose Pegatron to fill its retail channel with iPad minis.

SoftBank, US Forge National Security Deal
May 30, 2013

SoftBank has reached a national security agreement with U.S. authorities, perhaps clearing the way for the Japanese company to purchase Sprint Nextel. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about potential ties between SoftBank and Chinese telecommunications firms like Huawei. Chinese telecoms drew the ire of Congress in late 2012, and security rhetoric has recently ratcheted up.

Facebook Shovels Out Some of the Filth
May 30, 2013

Facebook is enmeshed in yet another brouhaha over its advertising policies, but this time it's not the users making a fuss -- it's the advertisers. Major clients such as Nissan and Nationwide recently pulled the plug on their Facebook campaigns after their ads showed up next to objectionable, sometimes downright hateful, content.

Angst and Anxiety Over Ubuntu's Chosen Path
May 30, 2013

After all the bold moves Canonical has made regarding Ubuntu in the past few years, it's not exactly any secret that a significant portion of the Linux community remains unconvinced as to the wisdom of its chosen path. Indeed, it was just a few weeks ago that the project decided to launch its very own package format and installer, resulting in more than a few raised eyebrows among FOSS fans.

Chinese Hackers May Have Pinched US Military Designs
May 29, 2013

Chinese hackers were accused of stealing the designs for more than two dozen U.S. military weapons systems in a press account appearing Monday. The system designs reportedly pinched by the hackers were for systems critical to the country's missile defenses and its combat aircraft and war ships. The revelations were based on confidential sections of a government report.

China to Conduct Digital War Games
May 29, 2013

President Obama will definitely have something to talk about. Beijing announced that China will conduct its first "digital war games," a proclamation that will likely do nothing to allay United States concerns about China's propensity for hacking and cyberespionage. The timing of the announcement is noteworthy: Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Obama next month to discuss cybersecurity.

European Commission Probes Apple's Tactics
May 28, 2013

The European Commission is taking a closer look at whether Apple is engaging in unfair sales practices. The EC, which is the executive branch of the European Union, sent a questionnaire last week to several European mobile network operators probing Apple's distribution terms -- specifically, whether those terms preclude rivals from offering a better sales deal.

Twitter Learns How to Do the 2-Step
May 23, 2013

Twitter has announced it is deploying a long-awaited security measure: two-factor verification. The move comes about a month after The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked. Twitter is late to the game with this security tactic. A number of companies already feature it. However, the company must have scrambled to get it in place after hackers sent the stock market reeling last month

SAP Seeks Autistic Employees
May 23, 2013

German software heavyweight SAP plans to recruit hundreds of people with autism in a quest to staff employees who "think differently." Autism affects people's ability to communicate and interact socially but has the knock-on effect of creating repetitive -- to the point of obsessive -- behavior. This makes autistic people particularly adept at analyzing data and picking up on details.

Amid Threats From Anonymous, Guantanamo WiFi Shut Down
May 22, 2013

Despite cries from the Left, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still up and running. The same, however, can't be said for Guantanamo's WiFi. The U.S. military turned off wireless Internet service at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base amid threats from the hacker collective Anonymous. Officials have also nixed access to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, a spokesperson for the prison said.

Congressional Investigation Scopes Apple's Web of Tax Havens
May 21, 2013

A series of subsidiaries spanning numerous countries have helped Apple avoid billions in United States taxes, congressional investigators reported Monday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is looking into Apple's suspected transgressions, said that Apple "sought the holy grail of tax avoidance."

Chinese Army Ends 3-Month Hacking Hiatus
May 20, 2013

After a three-month lull, China's People's Liberation Army has resumed hack attacks against United States companies and government agencies. Despite a ballyhooed February report from private security firm Mandiant, and despite public complaints from the Pentagon, Unit 61398, the PLA group made famous by the report, is again back to its hacking ways.

New Yorker Launches Strongbox Source-Protection Service
May 16, 2013

The New Yorker has launched Strongbox, an anonymous system for providing the publication with information, based on the open source DeadDrop program developed by the late Aaron Swartz and Kevin Poulsen. Strongbox can be thought of as an extension of the mailing address printed in small type on the magazine's inside cover, said The New Yorker.

Now It's the EU Harping on Huawei, ZTE
May 16, 2013

What next, Antarctica? Citing illegal subsidies, the European Commission is considering trade duties against Chinese telecommunications equipment makers Huawei and ZTE. This is but the latest headache for Huawei and ZTE. Between them, the U.S., Canada, Australia and India have all publicly voiced concerns about the duo.

Bloomberg Caught With Hands in the Customer Data Jar
May 16, 2013

Bloomberg has been embroiled in scandal since news broke last week that its reporters were using the company's corporate terminals to monitor its customers' activities. The story began to unravel when news surfaced that Goldman Sachs had confronted Bloomberg over the possibility that reporters were accessing its account data.

German Court Orders Google to Clean Up Autocomplete
May 15, 2013

A federal court in Germany has told Google that it must remove offensive or defamatory suggestions from its autocomplete function when it receives a complaint. The case that prompted the ruling started with a German businessman who, upon culling through Google.de, found that he was associated with scientology and fraud.

France Considers Tech Tax to Fund Arts
May 14, 2013

Francois Hollande, France's president, is mulling a potential tax on smartphones, laptops and tablets in order to fund the nation's cherished cultural exception. The revenue generated from such a tax would be earmarked for the cultural exception, which supports French music, film and visual art. France currently spends north of $130 million a year funding these endeavors.

Mobile App Privacy Bill Likely to Languish
May 13, 2013

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., last week introduced into the House of Representatives a new bill that could considerably change mobile application development. The bipartisan Application Privacy, Protection and Security Act would require application developers to gain explicit consent from consumers before collecting their data.