Today’s Tech Sightings: Internet Trends Report: India Is Definitely World’s Next Major Tech Market Thanks to cheaper smartphones and data plans, India now has 355 million internet users. That’s about 27 percent of its population of 1.3 billion – up from 277 million in 2015. That means mobile internet use is also on the rise, […]
Uzbekistan Bans 34 Video Games; North Korea Reinvents the ‘iPad’
Posted May 31st, 2017 at 2:07 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Uzbekistan Bans 34 Games, Including The Sims 3 and 4, for ‘Distorting Values’ The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan has banned The Sims video simulation game, among a growing list of video games deemed bad for the country’s values. The list also includes Mass Effect and Call of Duty: Black Ops, among […]
Getting ‘Personal’ With Google Search; Germany Unveils Robot Priest
Posted May 30th, 2017 at 12:54 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google Search Just Got a Lot More Personal If you are using any of Google’s products, then everything you do is being tracked so advertisers can pay big money for your data. But the information also allows Google to personalize your search. A new “Personal” tab in the search menu shows you […]
‘WannaCry’ Clues Point to China as New Vulnerability Raises Red Flags
Posted May 25th, 2017 at 1:32 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: WannaCry Ransom Note Analysis Points to Chinese-speaking Perpetrator Cybersecurity experts continue to comb through evidence to identify the criminals who launched the global ‘WannaCry’ ransomware attack. While initial speculation linked the attackers to North Korea, researchers at cybersecurity firm Flashpoint now say Chinese speakers could be behind the English and Chinese versions […]
Social Media Access Urged After UK Attack; New Ransomware Detected
Posted May 24th, 2017 at 2:10 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: UK Takes on Social Media Giants After Manchester Terror Attack U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has urged social media services like Facebook and Twitter to tackle terrorism posts and give law enforcement access to encrypted messages. The appeal followed an Islamic State terrorist attack at a Manchester pop concert that left 22 […]
The Cost of Sharing WhatsApp’s Data; APT3 Hackers Linked to Beijing
Posted May 18th, 2017 at 1:02 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Facebook Fined $122M in Europe for Misleading WhatsApp Filing European Commission antitrust regulators slapped Facebook Thursday with $122 million in fines for providing “inaccurate or misleading” information for the vetting of its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. The Commission said Facebook claimed it could not automatically match WhatsApp user accounts on […]
Apple Starts Production in India; WannaCry Infects Medical Devices
Posted May 17th, 2017 at 11:12 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Apple Starts Assembling iPhones in India Apple has confirmed it is beginning initial production of its iPhone SE models in Bengaluru, India. The first batch will start shipping to local customers this month. Apple has been courting India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, for some time in an effort to retake a […]
WannaCry Blame Game Points to North Korea
Posted May 16th, 2017 at 1:55 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: The finger-pointing is underway in the massive WannaCry or WannaCrypt ransomware attack that affected nearly 150 countries, with security researchers suggesting North Korean hackers might be behind it and Microsoft blaming the U.S. government. The hackers allegedly used tools leaked by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to exploit a vulnerability in […]
Keylogger Found on HP Laptops; Is Facebook Out of Touch?
Posted May 11th, 2017 at 12:43 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: ‘Keylogger’ Found on Several HP Laptops A security researcher at Swiss firm Modzero has uncovered an audio driver on HP laptops with a keylogger feature that records every keystroke. Anyone with local access to the affected computer could comprise passwords and other data. The logging activity was discovered in the Conexant HD […]