ByteDance owns more than a dozen apps, including popular short video platform TikTok. Hong Kong (CNN Business) TikTok owner ByteDance wants more than just your viral short videos — it wants to help make the devices you watch them on. The Chinese tech firm said it is developing a smartphone after striking a deal with electronics company Smartisan. ByteDance isn’t trying to be the next big smartphone maker. A company spokeswoman said in a statement that the new device will be “a continuation of plans that were in place” before it began working with Smartisan. “The focus is on […] […]
Worried about the Capital One hack? Here’s what to do
Hong Kong (CNN Business)Millions of Capital One customers have been affected by a data breach that the bank says happened in March when a software engineer allegedly exploited a vulnerability to access its systems. Approximately 100 million people in the United States and 6 million more in Canada are affected, the company said, with about 140,000 Social Security numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers compromised. First off, “get ready to spend some time and energy,” to make sure everything’s in order, said Erica Sandberg, a consumer finance expert based in San Francisco. The […] […]
Capital One hack exposed thousands of Social Security numbers. Why are we still using them as ID?
Bad actors can use Social Security numbers to steal your identity, open bank accounts, apply for a loan or receive medical care under your name. Many of the biggest hacks in recent years, including those targeting Equifax , insurance company Anthem and the US Postal Service , have left Social Security numbers exposed. Because these numbers are so closely tied to our identities, it raises the question: Why are we still using Social Security numbers as ID? In 1936, the Social Security number was introduced to track a worker’s earnings history for benefits, according to the Social Security Administration. […] […]
Critical Flaws Found in VxWorks RTOS That Powers Over 2 Billion Devices
vxworks rtos vulnerability Security researchers have discovered almost a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in VxWorks, one of the most widely used real-time operating systems (RTOS) for embedded devices that powers over 2 billion devices across aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, automotive, consumer electronics, networking, and other critical industries. According to a new report Armis researchers shared with The Hacker News prior to its release, the vulnerabilities are collectively dubbed as URGENT/11 as they are 11 in total, 6 of which are critical in severity leading to ‘devastating’ cyberattacks. Armis Labs is the same IoT security company that previously discovered the BlueBorne […] […]
Facebook’s Libra could massively help the cryptocurrency industry — or hurt it badly
New York (CNN Business)Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency worries lawmakers. And increased government scrutiny for Libra could dent plans not only for Facebook but for other cryptos as well. Others in the field worry lawmakers’ distrust of Facebook might prompt harsh regulations that could stunt the nascent crypto industry’s growth. When Libra exploded onto the cryptocurrency scene last month, it brought attention to a sector that’s been growing quietly and operating without clear regulations for a decade. Suddenly, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were talking publicly about cryptocurrency and stressing the need to regulate it: Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters […] […]
The Terrible Anxiety of Location Sharing Apps
Elena Lacey; Getty Images It’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m pretty sure my girlfriend is dead. She went out with friends after work to celebrate somebody’s birthday. I opted to stay in and go to bed at a decent hour because I have work in the morning, and also because I am lame. But now I’m awake, staring at the little circular blip on my phone, waiting for it to move. The blip is in Google Maps, which offers the ability to share your location with others. My girlfriend and I had been living together for about a […] […]
Marty the grocery store robot is a glimpse into our hell-ish future
Attention shoppers: I’ve seen the future of grocery store technology, and let me tell you, we can do better. I’m no Marty McFly. I simply reside in a small Connecticut town, which means that in addition to doing Extremely New England things like commuting to the city on the Metro North, bragging about beaches, and the fact that the state inspired the picturesque fictional town in Gilmore Girls , I occasionally spend some time on the weekends shopping for groceries at a local Stop & Shop. Prior to 2019, the Stop & Shop shopping experience was similar to that […] […]
Facebook gets closer to letting you type with your mind
San Francisco (CNN Business)Elon Musk’s Neuralink isn’t the only company that wants to send your thoughts straight from your brain to a computer. More than two years ago, Facebook revealed it was working on a project for typing words onto a computer right from your brain, without requiring invasive surgery to make it work. The company has been working with several universities on the effort, including the University of California, San Francisco. Facebook helped pay for UCSF researchers to study whether electrodes placed in the brain could help us learn to “decode” speech from brainwaves in real time. As […] […]
Vijf indrukwekkende innovaties in de (online) casino wereld
Binnen twee jaar is het zover: de online kansspelmarkt wordt vrijgegeven en de Nederlandse markt maakt voor het eerst kennis met een groot aantal online casino’s. De continue ontwikkelingen in dit gebied hebben niet alleen een positief effect gehad op de regelgeving maar ook op de technologie achter de (online) casino’s. Gokken en specifiek op spellen als online roulette is populairder dan ooit en hier mag dan ook enige technologische vooruitgang van worden verwacht. Dat zien we online en offline. Grote casino’s met een wereldwijd bereik als Caesars Entertainment en Wynn investeren in een multi-platform technologie. Online spelers zoals […] […]
Geanonimiseerde gegevens blijken toch niet zo anoniem
Onderzoekers van Universiteit Leuven en het Imperial College Londen hebben ontdekt dat het de-anonimiseren van geanonimiseerde datasets makkelijker is dan tot voor kort werd aangenomen . Ze hebben dit aangetoond door middel van een model dat schat hoe makkelijk het is om een dataset te de-anonimiseren. Geanonimiseerde gegevens worden overal voor gebruikt: medisch onderzoek, gepersonaliseerde aanbevelingen en moderne AI-technieken. De veronderstelling is dat alle persoonlijke identificeerbare informatie verwijderd is terwijl een kern van de nuttige informatie voor onderzoekers behouden blijft. Zo heeft een ziekenhuis de mogelijkheid om de namen, adressen en geboortedata van patiënten te verwijderen uit een set […] […]
Here’s How Much Bots Drive Conversation During News Events
Casey Chin; Getty Images Last week, as thousands of Central American migrants made their way northward through Mexico, walking a treacherous route toward the US border, talk of ” the caravan ,” as it’s become known, took over Twitter. Conservatives, led by President Donald Trump, dominated the conversation, eager to turn the caravan into a voting issue before the midterms. As it turns out, they had some help—from propaganda bots on Twitter. Late last week, about 60 percent of the conversation was driven by likely bots. Over the weekend, even as the conversation about the caravan was overshadowed by […] […]
The CEO’s Social Media Challenge
Like it or not, most CEOs are fighting a losing battle when it comes to social media. They are overwhelmed and bewildered. Many have decided to essentially withdraw and leave it to others to figure out. First the good news: companies are opening their wallets when it comes to social media spending. Budgets are going up faster than almost any other corporate expenditure. In a 2018 survey, US-based chief marketing officers reported that digital marketing expenditures were growing at double-digit rates and predicted that spending on social media alone would capture nearly 25 percent of total marketing budgets by […] […]
The US pushes to build unhackable quantum networks
Researchers working on quantum teleportation A few years ago, Edward Snowden, a contractor working for the US National Security Agency, leaked documents that showed the ways in which intelligence agencies were spying on our data. One of the most striking revelations was that spies had tapped into fiber-optic cables to monitor the vast amounts of information flowing through them. Snowden’s revelations have spurred efforts to tap the almost mystical properties of quantum science to make such hacking impossible. Now there are signs of progress. A startup called Quantum Xchange says it has struck a deal giving it access to […] […]
Why Tech Companies Lie
Customers, investors, regulators, and yes, journalists rely on what companies officially tell us about their businesses, their products, and their future prospects. Sure, we all have our own sources and experiences to help us decide if we believe what we’ve been told. But those aren’t always enough to prevent people from planning on or even buying products that never ship, investing in companies that never deliver, or writing glowingly about some new technology that eventually dead-ends or is massively delayed. It’s tempting to lump those misstatements into the broad category of “lies.” From the outside, it’s easy to assume […] […]
A digital revolution is reshaping Democratic campaigns
Two weeks before the 2016 election, Bloomberg’s Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg published a story about Trump’s brash, self-aggrandizing digital team. Democrats treated the story as evidence of the Trump campaign’s utter cluelessness, until he won. For months after, coverage of the Trump’s tech and digital strategy dominated headlines. Those stories had consequences: Facebook locked down its user data; Cambridge Analytica folded; and a wave of startups, including my own, emerged to help progressives mobilize online. A change is coming to the Democratic Party, and for some campaigns, it’s already here. I’ve seen it firsthand. As part of my […] […]
Ransomware and the enterprise: A new white paper
Throughout 2018 criminals have continued to target large organizations with ransomware. Today we introduce a new white paper that explains why ransomware is still a serious threat to your organization – regardless of size – and what can be done to reduce exposure to, and damage from, ransomware attacks. The paper focuses on three particularly dangerous ransomware attack vectors: remote access, email, and supply chain. The paper is intended to help CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, and enterprise risk managers understand the current state of the ransomware threat as well several evolving areas of concern. The more technical aspects of ransomware […] […]
How to Get iOS 12.1 on Your iPhone
Apple Last month’s iOS 12 update gave us screen time tools , security updates , and a whole heap of new features that make your iPhone feel new again. Now, with iOS 12.1, you get even more ways to express yourself on your iPhone and iPad. With Group FaceTime, you can chat with up to 32 friends and family. You can also spice up your messaging life with 70 new emoji —including a freezing-cold smiley, a mooncake, and a long-awaited redhead . Most importantly, unlike the $1,199 MacBook Air announced today , this sweet software update is totally free. […] […]
IoT: A roomful of conundrums
As the drive to bring any and all imaginable physical objects online continues full steam ahead, internet-enabled devices are increasingly part of our day-to-day routines. In our quest for more productive and enjoyable – or simply easier – lives, we cannot avoid jumping on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) bandwagon. Up to 30 billion devices are predicted to be online by 2020 , according to the Mozilla Foundation. To be sure, IoT is not just about our personal efficiency or enjoyment, and the class of products such as smart watches or smart light bulbs. Spurred by innovations in hardware, networking, cloud […] […]
Google Discover begins to replace the iconic search box on mobile
It’s not broke, but Google is fixing it. As it announced last month , Google is rebranding Google Feed, its news landing page on Android and in the Google app, to be called Google Discover. Throwing minimalism out the window, Google Discover will replace the iconically spartan Google.com homepage on mobile. Discover is rolling out now on Google.com across both iOS and Android devices. For Android users, Discover is already baked into the interface, accessible by swiping right from the home screen. Anyone using the Google app on iOS or Android will also be met with the Discover homepage, […] […]
IBM’s $34 billion purchase of Red Hat is a mega-bet on a coding revolution
Today The world’s biggest-ever deal for a software company points towards a significant change in how code is being developed for the computing cloud. The news: Big Blue is swallowing Red Hat , a company that has made its reputation in open-source software development. The open-source movement makes core code freely available so that a community of developers can keep updating it. Companies like Red Hat create services to help companies deploy and use that code. Not just a business deal: IBM is interested in Red Hat because of its infrastructure for managing various kinds of cloud platforms. But […] […]