IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (Ars Technica) 1/1/2015

The unusual suspects: ex-employees, Lizard Squad may have aided Sony hack
Analysts point to at least six insiders; DDoSers say they sold passwords to GoP.

City lights viewed from space show cultural, tech differences
East-West divide persists in Berlin, US lighting similar to East Berlin's.

Dealmaster: Get an HP Pavilion 17z laptop for just $434.99
Save $95 on the 17-inch laptop, with tons of configuration options!

WikiLeaks claims employee’s Google mail, metadata seized by US government [Update]
Google alerted organization on Christmas Eve of served warrant.

Two-month long Xbox One sale ending, price will jump back to $400
The $50 discount for the holidays expires on January 3.

NSA has VPNs in Vulcan death grip—no, really, that’s what they call it
VPN traffic repositories used to find keys, crack encryption of target traffic.

West Virginia school board alters climate change education standards
Because “West Virginia coal... has been taking on unfair negativity.”

Report: Microsoft’s browser for Windows 10 won’t be Internet Explorer
Instead, new Chrome-like browser codenamed "Spartan" will ship alongside IE11.

Newly published NSA documents show agency could grab all Skype traffic
“Sustained Skype collection” of voice, video, and messages started in 2011.

Reminder: Enter Ars’ 2014 Charity Drive and help a good cause, too [Updated]
Join 250+ readers that have donated over $11,000 so far this year.

South Korean operator finds worm in its nuclear plant control systems
Apparently unrelated to ongoing attacks on its business systems.

If you got a new smartphone for Christmas, it was probably an iPhone
Worldwide device activation data shows that it was happy holidays for Cupertino.

E-mail matters, Twitter doesn’t, to American workers
And a plurality of firms now have rules about what employees can say online.

Politician’s fingerprint reproduced using photos of her hands
At a Chaos Computer Club convention, hacker Starbug suggests notable people wear gloves.

Apple offers EU customers 14-day money-back returns on e-purchases
“No questions asked” digital refunds for iTunes, iBooks, and apps (but not in US).

UK banks wary of Apple Pay data collection, but early 2015 launch possible
The Telegraph says expansion of the service is coming to Europe and beyond.

The Interview earns a stunning $15M from online sales
Sony got close to the $20 million weekend it was aiming for.

The Great Firewall keeps growing, as China blocks all Gmail access
Chinese web-blocking has grown significantly in 2014.

Researchers: We can detect life on other worlds through its vibrations
A sensitive instrument vibrates with the metabolic activity of life itself.

FBI claimed to be investigating Xbox Live, PlayStation Network DDoS perps
But FBI's reach may be limited, with Lizard Squad members based around the world.

Available Tags:Sony , hack , HP , WikiLeaks , Google , Xbox , Windows , Skype , smartphone , iPhone , Twitter , Apple , UK , Gmail , other ,

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

IT News Head Lines (Ars Technica) 1/1/2015

No comments: