Google separates YouTube and Google Plus
Google looks say good bye to Google Plus, an awkwardly named social network that the American search engine had launched four years ago hoping it would become a serious rival to Facebook. Google has spent the last several months chopping up Google Plus’s most useful pieces and making them separate services as it moves away from […]
Dump truck behind Comcast outage in Denver
DENVER – Thousands of Comcast customers were without service after a dump truck damaged a fiber Tuesday. The outage was first reported around 8:30 a.m., affecting about 9,000 customers in the southern part of Denver, according to Comcast spokesperson Alexandra Ballas. Service was fully restored by 7 p.m. Repair crews determined the damage was caused […]
Hackers Hijacked A Jeep And 5 Other Scary Hacks
Jeepers creepers! It’s time to take security on the “Internet of things” seriously. Wired reporter Andy Greenberg recently asked two hackers to prove an exploit by taking over Greenberg’s Jeep Cherokee as he drove down a highway in St. Louis, which they did to great effect: As the two hackers remotely toyed with the […]
US government commits $30 million to rural Montana Internet
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has committed $30 million to improving high-speed Internet service in rural Montana. The loan to Triangle Telephone Cooperative was announced Monday. It is about 40 percent of a four-state telecommunications loan package to improve broadband service in rural areas. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says residents […]
United Nations fighting al-Qaida Propaganda
UNITED NATIONS -A U.N. panel is calling for Internet and social media companies to respond to the exploitation of their services by al-Qaida and other extremist groups who use the web to recruit fighters and spout “increasingly horrific propaganda.” The panel recommended in a report circulated Wednesday that these companies brief the Security Council committee […]
China to Regulate Internet Finance Activites
BEIJING—China’s government issued guidelines to regulate fast-growing Internet finance, aiming to address risks exposed by the recent stock market turmoil, while pledging to support the sector in directing financing to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The guidelines, posted on the central bank’s website Saturday, call for closer supervision of the sector. Chiefly, they clarify the division […]
Google Self-Driving Car Involved in First Injury Accident
Google Inc. revealed Thursday that one of its self-driving car prototypes was involved in an injury accident for the first time. In the collision, a Lexus SUV that the tech giant outfitted with sensors and cameras was rear-ended in Google’s home city of Mountain View, where more than 20 prototypes have been self-maneuvering through traffic. […]
Why Texans pay more for the Internet than others
On his Verizon wireless bill, Wald finds a jarring discrepancy. The sales tax he is charged for his two wireless phone lines does not make sense. He calls Verizon to ask about it. During a span of several weeks, he talks to six Verizon employees. Of course, being who he is, he keeps notes. […]
China makes internet shut-downs official with new security law
China is able to shut off internet access during major ‘social security incidents’ and has granted its Cyberspace Administration agency wider decision making powers under a draft law published this month. The draft also appears to require critical infrastructure organisations including foreign entities to store “important” data on Chinese soil without specific permission to host […]
How China’s media and risky trading fueled stock market crash
The Shanghai Composite had just gone above 4,000 points, and investors were pouring money into the market. Brokers were opening four million new trading accounts a week to meet demand. The newspaper proclaimed the bull market was “just beginning.” The prediction proved right — for all of a few weeks. The Shanghai Composite rose […]
Verizon can hear the mayor now
Life may soon be getting harder for New York City’s largest publicly traded company when it comes to dealing with one of its biggest customers—the city of New York. The de Blasio administration is putting Verizon Communications on notice that business it used to do with city agencies will now go through City Hall, which […]
Why China’s draft cybersecurity law has chilling implications for the internet and multinationals
China’s top legislature has published a draft cyber-security law that would cement government control over the internet and data, rules analysts said could further limit online debate and affect multinational companies doing business in China. The 68-article law was drafted to “safeguard cyberspace sovereignty and national security” from the threat of cyber-attack, cyber-crime and the […]
New Zealand makes internet ‘trolling’ illegal
Internet trolls face up to two years’ jail in New Zealand under a controversial new law which bans “harmful digital communications”. And under a parallel amendment to New Zealand’s Crimes Act, a person who tells another to kill themselves faces up to three years in prison. The law will help mitigate the harm caused […]
Hacker attacks gambling websites, demands Bitcoin ransom
A hacker shut down four New Jersey Internet gambling sites for half an hour last week and threatened more cyberattacks over the holiday weekend unless a ransom was paid using the online currency Bitcoin, authorities said Tuesday. David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Gaming Enforcement Division, said Thursday’s attack was a so-called distributed denial […]
TRADING HALTED ON NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
NEW YORK — A technical issue has triggered a system-wide halt to trading leaving investors unable to buy and sell securities. “We’re currently experiencing a technical issue that we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman for the NYSE said in a statement. “We will be providing further updates as soon as we […]
Internet, smartphones could cause ‘digital amnesia’
A new study says smartphones and the Internet could be destroying our memories and giving us so-called “digital amnesia.” The software security group, Kaspersky Lab, looked at 1,000 people and found many people don’t even attempt to memorize or recall information, they instead just turn to the Internet or their smartphone for the answers. […]
David Cameron’s proposed encryption ban would ‘destroy the internet’
A highly respected cryptographer and security expert is warning that David Cameron’s proposed ban on strong encryption threatens to “destroy the internet.” Last week, the British Prime Minister told Parliament that he wants to “ensure that terrorists do not have a safe space in which to communicate.” Strong encryption refers to the act of […]
Cuba Opens Wi-Fi Hotspots Across Country
Cuba has opened 35 Wi-Fi access points nationwide, offering unprecedented online access in a country that until now has restricted use of the Internet to an elite few. Before the Wi-Fi signals became available on Wednesday, broadband Internet access had been limited to largely to desktops at state Internet parlours and pricey hotels. “It […]
Russia Bans Internet Database Archive
WASHINGTON— Internet users in Russia will no longer be able to access a massive database of cached webpages, apparently due to one single website authorities in Moscow don’t like. Russia’s attorney general has ordered blockage of the site, known as “The Wayback Machine,” citing legislation that bans minors from accessing sites that contain pornography, sexual […]
U.S. Seeks to Grab $300 Million in Uzbek Telecom Bribe Probe
The Justice Department is seeking to seize $300 million claimed to be the proceeds of an international bribery conspiracy involving two Russian phone companies, as the U.S. joins a group of European nations in a telecom corruption probe. The U.S. claims VimpelCom Ltd., part-owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC used […]