Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust regulator, is expected to change course with her predecessor and file charges that could hasten a settlement.
Month: April 2015
Cybersecurity v human rights in Africa
Cybersecurity versus human rights in Africa
Intel, Cray Picked for $200 Million Supercomputer Project
Intel and Cray will collaborate to supply what could be the world’s fastest supercomputer on a $200 million Energy Department project for Argonne National Laboratory.
Bits Blog: Measuring Social ‘Trust’ to Make Loans
Vouch Financial is putting a digital-age spin on the old banking concept of using social references to make lending decisions.
AT&T Settles Privacy-Breach Case
AT&T agreed to pay $25 million to resolve a probe by the FCC over consumer privacy violations at call centers, where workers leaked information so resellers could unlock used smartphones.
Wall St. Is Told to Tighten Digital Security of Partners
Only a third of banks were found to require companies they do business with to notify them of a breach. The outside companies include everything from data providers to cleaning crews.
France’s TV5Monde ‘hacked by IS’
France’s TV5Monde television network says a number of its sites have been hijacked by Islamic State hackers.
VIDEO: Digital bee brain pilots drone
Scientists are aiming to recreate a complete honey bee brain on a computer.
New lawsuit pits Human Rights Watch against DEA phone spying
Earlier this week, news reports came out revealing that it isn’t just the National Security Agency that engages in bulk surveillance. From 1992 until 2013, the US Drug Enforcement Administration kept records of “virtually all telephone calls” from the US to as many as 116 different countries.
News reports about DEA surveillance came out earlier this week and have now led to a new front in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s long-running but not yet fruitful legal battle against bulk surveillance. Today, the EFF filed a new lawsuit on behalf of Human Rights Watch, challenging the DEA program. The DEA says the program was “suspended” in 2013, but the EFF’s lawsuit seeks to ensure that the program doesn’t get restarted and that all records collected related to Human Rights Watch are purged from government databases.
“Human Rights Watch often works with people in dire circumstances around the world. Our sources are sometimes in life or death situations, and speaking out can make them a target,” said Human Rights Watch general counsel Dinah PoKempner. “Who we communicate with and when we communicate with them is often extraordinarily sensitive—and it’s information that we would never turn over to the government lightly.”
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They’re Using Drones to Herd Sheep
Some tech-savvy farmers are opting for copters over canines. “You don’t have to feed it,” says one farmer.