Month: August 2014

25 August 2014 – by Quentin Hardy – “New York Times Bits Blog”

Judge Rejects Settlement Proposal in HP’s Autonomy Suit. The long fight over HP’s $11.1 billion purchase of Autonomy got a new wrinkle on Monday, which might spell more legal pressure on Autonomy executives. A District Court Judge ruled that HP and the lawyers suing the company must file a revised proposed settlement agreement, which should steer clear of payments to the lawyers representing HP shareholders, who are suing HP, and focus on how the company can improve its behavior.

25 August 2014 – by Brian X. Chen – “New York Times Bits Blog”

California Governor Signs Law Requiring a ‘Kill Switch’ on Smartphones.Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Monday a measure that requires smartphones sold in California to include smarter antitheft technology. Lawmakers hope this feature will help to reduce phone theft.

25 August 2014 – by Saritha Rai – “New York Times”

In India, an App for Chats and for Keeping Secrets. An app called Hike is being used for “keeping secrets” and is now the most popular Indian-made instant messaging system with over 20 million users. It lets users filter the information in very sophisticated ways, allowing users, particularly young ones, to hide certain information from their parents.

25 August 2015 – by Sam Fleming – “Financial Times (USA)”

Watchdog warns of cyber threat to markets. A global watchdog has sounded the alarm on the growing danger of cyber attacks on financial market and the “uneven” response to the threat of online assaults.

9 March 2014- By Steve Kroft- “Sixty Minutes”

A segment on Sixty Minutes details the business of information brokers, who acquire and compile data on billions of consumers, and repackage that data for sale to other parties.

24 August 2014- by Sam Fleming- “Financial Times”

The Chairman of the Board of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has predicted that the next “Black Swan” event will take the form of a cyber attack on financial players and markets.

25 August 2014- By Saritha Rai- “The New York Times”

A new messaging app, called Hike, has become popular among Indian teens because of the fine grained control the app gives users  in regards to who can see what kinds of content.

25 August 2014- By Brian Chen- “The New York Times”

In an effort to reduce cell phone theft, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law requiring cell phone manufacturers to include a “kill switch” functionality on their devices, allowing them to be remotely disabled.

26 August 2014- By Gail Sullivan- “The Washington Post”

Facebook has announced efforts to reduce the amount of gratuitous click-bait that is seen in user feeds. This is in response to user discontent with the low quality of this genre of content.

25 August 2014- by Nancy Scola- “The Washington Post”

The nation’s current “Chief Technology Officer”, Todd Park, is resigning his position. Mr Park will remain associated with the Obama Administration, and is the second technologist to hold the role.