Recent months have brought a flood of stories about cyber attacks originating in China, many of them state-backed. But, according to the New York Times, it’s not just the military. While you get scary letters from lawyers if you so much as expose an existing security hole here in the U.S., hacking is apparently no big deal in China.
After several months of near-constant chatter about Chinese hackers, the U.S. government has finally come right out and said it: the Chinese military is probably, right this very minute, trying to hack into America’s computers to steal our precious bodily fluids state secrets.
That’s from the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress which, as the New York Times reports, was unusually direct in accusing China of hax0ring America’s shit. For example: Read More
Every spring during the Qingming Festival, people in China honor their ancestors by cleaning and repairing their tombstones. Offerings are also made to the dead, typically consisting of food and drink, but because Chinese culture dictates that deceased relatives will need money and other material goods in the after life, many will also burn fake money or paper replicas of homes and cars as offerings. Read More
China’s Hunan Province has a problem: renegades are using their skills for black hat trickery, Photoshopping pictures of Chinese government officials and company bosses into porn. They’ll then use the Photoshopped pictures to attempt to blackmail the officials, who have no way of proving it’s not actually them getting freaky in the pics (have they Read More
Was that a bellow of rage we just heard from the direction of Redmond? The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOJ and SEC are poking around Microsoft as part of an investigation into business partners (like resellers and consultants) who maaaybe secured software contracts by bribing foreign officials.
Well, that would be one way to keep Windows running on every desktop. Read More
Perhaps feeling jealous of China, North Korea is now accusing the U.S. of committing cyberattacks against it. [Tech in Asia]
We’ve reached the point where online programming could actually make a significant dent at the Emmy’s. House of Cards, anyone? [The Daily Dot]
Google Reader’s demise as a wake up call: what do we lose when we become so wholly reliant on a cloud-based app? [Slate]
More techies have stepped up to the plate to fight gun violence. Big name Silicon Valley investors have launched an “innovation and investment” campaign called Sandy Hook Promise. [TechCrunch]
Guns aren’t the only political issue techies are taking up. Zuck and others are working for high-skilled immigration reform. [Hillicon Valley]
Online privacy pundits might not want to venture over to China any time soon; the country just passed a law requiring citizens to identify themselves when signing up for internet and mobile access. [Bloomberg]
Another Snapchat scandal! Turns out both Snapchat and Facebook’s new Poke app store your videos sent over the services locally, meaning it’s possible to save videos sent to you without the sender ever knowing. [BuzzFeed]
It appears those ads at the top of Wikipedia are paying off: the Wikimedia Foundation has raised $25 million so far in its 2012 fundraiser. [The Next Web]
Someone wants to make a stage show in Las Vegas based on Portal. [The Daily Dot]
John McAfee is at it again. [Wired]
We all know that Apple is probably announcing an iPad Mini later this week. But how do we know that? Who snitched? That’s the subject of a long piece from Ars Technica. Turns out that it’s not so much disgruntled engineers as it’s a function of the long, winding road that is the Read More
Foxconn decided to close down one of its factories in central China this morning after a riot took place in the factory compound late Sunday night, according to the New York Times. The plant in the city of Taiyuan employs about 79,000 workers and the brawl involved 2,000 of those employees. Reuters spoke to a Taiyuan plant worker who said that the factory is one of the plants assembles and makes parts for Apple’s iPhone 5.
No workers died in the riots, but three were put in critical care. Read More
Way back in 2002, a Chinese political dissident named Wang Xiaoning was arrested for publishing pro-democracy materials using his Yahoo account. When the Chinese government went to build a case against Mr. Wang, Yahoo rolled over like a trained dog, coughing up Mr. Wang’s records, which China then used to convict him of “subversion.” It was all very Orwellian. But, finally some good news: Mr. Wang has finally been freed. Read More
