Today’s Tech Sightings: Who the Russian Hackers Targeted When They Stole Yahoo Emails Russian spies and cybercriminals charged for allegedly hacking into more than 500 million Yahoo accounts in 2014 targeted diplomats, executives and an investigative reporter, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents. They also searched millions of accounts for credit cards, financial information […]
How Yahoo Was Hacked; Android 7.1.1 Nougat for Nexus 6 Downgraded
Asia Takes Brunt of 2016 Hacks; High-profile Twitter Accounts Hijacked
Today’s Tech Sightings: APAC Bore Brunt of Cyberattacks in 2016 The Asia-Pacific region took the lion’s share of cyberattacks in 2016, according to security firm Trend Micro. The region attracted three times more malware infections than North America and six times more than of Latin America. APAC experienced up to 500,000 unknown threats each day, […]
Millions of Twitter Accounts Are Bots; Looking to Musk to Fix the World
Today’s Tech Sightings Study: Up to 48 Million Twitter Accounts Are Bots Twitter, according to a joint study released by the University of Southern California and Indiana University, has more than 48 million bot accounts – and some of them could be among your followers. Twitter has about 319 million active monthly users. The study […]
More Ads Stray Into Windows 10; Backup Files Before Next iOS Update
Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft Ads Invade Windows 10’s File Explorer Microsoft is spamming Windows 10 systems with ads that are appearing in the file system. Some users report an ad about Office 365 hidden in an offer to expand cloud storage. Writer Ian Paul shares a tip to turn these ads off if you are […]
Getting More Women Into Tech; Millions of Android Devices at Risk
Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft, LinkedIn Encourage Girls to Pursue STEM on International Women’s Day The World Economic Forum notes that only 16 percent of female students graduate from STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curricula. In the U.S., only 26 percent of employees in computer and mathematics jobs are women, according to the Department of […]
Alleged CIA Hacking Kit Published; Danish Watchdog Calls Out Google
Today’s Tech Sightings: WikiLeaks Publishes CIA Trove Alleging Wide-scale Hacking Thousands of documents, allegedly from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, have been dumped on the internet, purportedly exposing the agency’s massive trove of hacking tools. The documents were published by WikiLeaks, though it is unclear how the group gained access to them. The dump includes […]
Jury Out on Online Suicide-prevention Tools; ‘TorrentLocker’ Is Back
Today’s Tech Sightings: Big Questions Surround Facebook’s Suicide-Prevention Tools Facebook has been ramping up its suicide-prevention tools to include ways to encourage users to report people whose Facebook streams contain signs of self-injury. The person with the perceived suicidal tendencies then sees a message that provides resources for help. Writer Rachel Metz says experts see […]
Uber’s Harassment Reality Check; Slack Bug Puts User Accounts at Risk
Today’s Tech Sightings: Uber Case Could Be Watershed for Women in Tech The recent allegations of Uber’s culture of sexism and sexual harassment have put the tech sector and its diversity problems in the spotlight – again. But writer Farhad Manjoo argues the Uber case feels like a watershed that could trigger innovation and new […]
Digital Assistants Explored to Aid the Elderly; Hacking for Dementia
Today’s Tech Sightings: Home Digital Assistants Could Be Boon for Assisted Living Voice-activated devices and digital assistants are quickly spreading and Elliptic Labs, which uses ultrasound technology to detect motion, wants to use the technology to help the elderly. The company is launching new software that can be added to digital assistants like Amazon’s Echo. […]
Inside Uber’s Workplace Culture; Google Renews Fight for Racial Justice
Today’s Tech Sightings: Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture Ride-hailing app Uber, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful ventures, is in full damage control after engineer Susan Fowler, who left Uber in December, recently described a long-standing culture of gender discrimination and harassment. In an in-depth look, the New York Times says that includes groping, […]