Techmeme: BlackBerry co-founder Lazardis cuts stake to under 5%, won't pursue bid for company (Ben Dummett/Wall Street Journal)

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December 25, 2013, 4:15 PM

Top News

Reuters:

Exclusive: Target hackers stole encrypted bank PINs - source — (Reuters) - The hackers who attacked Target Corp (TGT.N) and compromised up to 40 million credit cards and debit cards also managed to steal encrypted personal identification numbers (PINs), according to a senior payments executive familiar with the situation.

More: CBS New York, Reuters, TwinCities.com and TIME

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Rescator.la, a major marketplace for cards stolen in Target hack, linked to Ukrainian man — Who's Selling Credit Cards from Target? — The previous two posts on this blog have featured stories about banks buying back credit and debit card accounts stolen in the Target hack and that ended …

More: NYT Bits, Computerworld, Gigaom, The Verge, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch

Tweets: @briankrebs, @0xali and @mattbraga

Jenny W. Hsu / Wall Street Journal:

Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling — Island's fair-trade body says Apple told mobile-service providers how to charge for handsets — TAIPEI— Apple Inc. has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars (US$670,000) and ordered to stop interfering with mobile service providers …

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, The Verge, BGR, Engadget and Forbes

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution — Google Destroys Rap Genius' Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress — Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results.

More: Search Engine Land, jmarbach.com, The Verge, Valleywag, SEO Book, Valleywag, Business Insider, Rap Genius and VentureBeat

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @qthrul and @startupljackson

Violet Blue / ZDNet:

Researchers publish Snapchat code allowing phone number matching after exploit disclosures ignored — Summary: Snapchat's previously undocumented API and code for two exploits have been published, allowing mass name/phone number matching, and mass creation of bogus accounts. — Violet Blue

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @violetblue

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Google sues to protect Android device makers from Rockstar patent infringement suits — Google sues to protect Android device makers from Apple-backed patent hell — Google has filed a new lawsuit to challenge an Apple-backed consortium known as Rockstar that is using dubious patents …

More: Fortune, FOSS Patents, The Verge, Engadget, PhoneArena, Forbes, SlashGear, BGR, Mashable, VentureBeat, MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog and Bloomberg. Tweets: @paulg

Carmel Deamicis / PandoDaily:

Lyft ends donation payments, launches surge pricing and East Bay service — Tonight, Lyft sent out an email to its user base announcing big changes. The company is launching service in the East Bay, from Oakland to Castro Valley. It's expanding its Los Angeles coverage to Pasadena, Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley, and Malibu.

More: Business Insider

Steven Sinofsky / Learning by Shipping:

Designing for exponential trends of 2014 — Rather than predict anything that will suddenly appear at the end of 2014, this post offers some trends that are likely to double by some measure this next year. — This will turn out to be an exponential year in many technologies …

More: BGR. Tweets: @stevesi, @mattrosoff, @mdudas, @marypcbuk and @cdixon

Donna Tam / CNET:

Sony drops music streaming service Gracenote — Sony has sold its ownership of Gracenote, a service that matches and streams music across multiple devices, the electronics company announced Monday. The company sold all of its shares to the Tribune Co. for $170 million.

Ben Dummett / Wall Street Journal:

BlackBerry co-founder Lazardis cuts stake to under 5%, won't pursue bid for company — BlackBerry Co-Founder Lazardis Cut Stake to Under 5% — Lazardis Indicated He Doesn't Plan To Pursue Bid for Company — TORONTO— BlackBerry Ltd. co-founder Michael Lazaridis disclosed …

More: CNET, Tech Trader Daily, Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, DealBook, Associated Press and Reuters

iClarified:

Evad3rs Deny Taking Payment For iOS 7 Jailbreak, Denounce Cracked Version of Evasi0n — The Evad3rs have posted an update to the evasi0n7 privacy concerns, as well as denying any payment received from TaiG. — The evad3rs first address any concerns over user's privacy and data, specifically …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, Redmond Pie, iPhone Hacks and App Advice. Tweets: @pod2g

Jonathan Cheng / Wall Street Journal:

Samsung Phone Studied for Possible Security Gap — Israeli Researchers Point to Alleged Vulnerability in Galaxy S4 — SEOUL—The security platform for Samsung Electronics Co. 's best-selling Galaxy S4 smartphone suffers from a vulnerability that could allow malicious software to track emails …

More: SlashGear, Gizmodo, Business Insider, BerryReview, Los Angeles Times, TechHive, pocketnow.com, Yahoo! News, iClarified, BGR, 9to5Google and Android Community

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

SoftBank gets closer to buying T-Mobile: report — (Reuters) - Japan-based SoftBank Corp (TYO:9984) is in final stages of talks with T-Mobile (TMUS.N)parent company Deutsche Telekom (DTE.DE)about acquiring the U.S.-based wireless carrier, the Nikkei news service reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

More: Reuters, Nikkei Asian Review, PC World, Digital Trends, BGR, PhoneArena, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, The Verge and TmoNews. Tweets: @zpower

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