Techmeme: Critical vulnerabilities in SS7 telephony protocol found; tested techniques can decrypt cell phone calls and texts (Craig Timberg/Washington Post)

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December 19, 2014, 9:05 AM

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Rhiannon Williams / Telegraph:

Apple CEO Tim Cook is “deeply offended” by the BBC's labor abuse allegations — Apple goes to war with the BBC — Exclusive: Chief executive Tim Cook ‘deeply offended’ by allegations made by BBC's Panorama programme that Apple is failing to protect its Chinese factory workers

More: Business Insider, MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, Engadget, VentureBeat, The Verge, Computerworld, Gizmodo, Forbes, The Loop and Gizmodo UK. Tweets: @junkscience

Richard Bilton / BBC:

BBC investigation finds Apple repeatedly not meeting its supply chain standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers — Apple ‘failing to protect Chinese factory workers’ — The undercover reporter filmed workers falling asleep on 12-hour shifts

Reuters:

Google will build Android Auto software directly into cars with Android M, no smartphone needed — Exclusive: Google aiming to go straight into car with next Android - sources — (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOGL.O) is laying the groundwork for a version of Android that would be built directly into cars …

Kent Walker / Google Public Policy Blog:

Google concerned by reports that MPAA is secretly working with studios to resurrect SOPA — The MPAA's Attempt to Revive SOPA Through A State Attorney General — We are deeply concerned about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) led a secret …

More: Engadget, The Verge, Business Insider, CNET, The Huffington Post, Electronista, TechCrunch, The Technology Chronicles, VentureBeat, The Hill and Deadline

Tweets: @google, @violetblue, @nicholaspopp, @bluechoochoo and @dannysullivan

See also Mediagazer

Andy / TorrentFreak:

MPAA says Google positioning itself as a defender of free speech is shameful

More: Forbes, The Verge and 9to5Google. See also Mediagazer

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Samsung to shut down its ChatOn messaging service Feb. 1, 2015 in all markets except U.S. — Samsung's ChatOn service will shut down next year (update) — After denying reports that its ChatOn service was close to being disbanded on a region-by-region basis, Samsung has announced in Korea that it's going away.

More: english.yonhapnews.co.kr, Android Authority, Digital Trends, Tech in Asia, 9to5Google, CNET, Gigaom, The Verge, The Next Web, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista, SlashGear, Geeky Gadgets, Android Central, SamMobile and MediaNama

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Amazon's smartphone strategy could threaten its retail dominance as local delivery services, retail startups bring innovation to consumers — Amazon Not as Unstoppable as It Might Appear — Thanks to its ugly spat with book publishers, Amazon has lately been cast as the abominable boogeyman of American commerce.

More: Wired, Business Insider and Stowe Boyd

Tweets: @mims, @sequoia, @stevelohr and @iankar_

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Uber Strikes Deal With Portland to Suspend Service for Three Months — Uber reached an agreement with Portland to suspend operations in the city for three months while regulators work to revise rules around taxis that currently prohibit ridesharing apps. — The city agreed to let Uber …

More: Uber Blog, Fortune, New York Times, The Verge, Electronista, PC World, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, CNET, GeekWire, Gigaom and The Next Web

Robert McMillan / Wired:

Bots Now Outnumber Humans on the Web — Diogo Mónica once wrote a short computer script that gave him a secret weapon in the war for San Francisco dinner reservations. — This was early 2013. The script would periodically scan the popular online reservation service, OpenTable …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Few Winners In Anonymous Social Networking, And Secret's Not One Of Them — Is anonymous social networking a flash-in-the-pan trend? A winner-take-all category? Which of the anonymous social networking apps around today are still thriving, and which are practically dead?

More: Engadget. Tweets: @parmy

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Secret is relaunching as a faster anonymous social network with chat

More: Medium, Re/code, Wired, The Daily Dot, Business Insider, SlashGear, The Next Web, TechnoBuffalo, Android Central, 9to5Google, Gigaom and VentureBeat

Tweets: @joshconstine, @ario, @chrismessina, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @piercedavid, @rsarver, @elitereporter and @kessler

Junio C Hamano / Gmane:

Vulnerability in Git, Mercurial allows for arbitrary code execution on OSX, Windows; affects Visual Studio, Github client app, among others — Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git v2.2.1 (and updates to older maintenance tracks) — Newsgroups: gmane.linux.kernel, gmane.comp.version-control.git

More: GitHub, Help Net Security, InfoWorld, MSDN Blogs, Git Blame, The Register, InfoQ, SecurityWeek, VentureBeat, The New Stack, WordPress Tavern, Gamasutra and Ars Technica

Tweets: @wilkieii and @markmc_

Vindu Goel / New York Times:

Instagram purges spambots; popular accounts lose millions of followers, with the company losing the most at 18.9M — Millions of Fake Instagram Users Disappear in Purge — Social media services like Facebook and Twitter are always battling against spam or fake accounts that hijack hashtags …

More: The Verge, Washington Post, Business Insider, BBC, CNNMoney.com, Business Insider, Engadget, Fortune, Om Malik, SiliconANGLE, The Next Web, Digital Trends and Socialbakers.com

Danny Yadron / Wall Street Journal:

Poll: 45% of Americans have been notified that payment card details were stolen in a data breach — Poll Shows Broad Impact of Cyberattacks — Just fewer than half of Americans say that a retailer, bank or credit-card company has told them or a household member that their payment card details …

More: The Hill and PYMNTS.com

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Critical vulnerabilities in SS7 telephony protocol found; tested techniques can decrypt cell phone calls and texts — German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls. — German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers …

More: TIME, We Live Security, TweakTown News, iMore, Gizmodo and bit-tech.net

Tweets: @acarvin, @csoghoian and @bhpascal

Marc Rogers / Marc's Security Ramblings:

Why the Sony hack is unlikely to be the work of North Korea. — Everyone seems to be eager to pin the blame for the Sony hack on North Korea. However, I think it's unlikely. Here's why:1. The broken English looks deliberately bad and doesn't exhibit any of the classic comprehension mistakes …

More: Reuters, BGR, The Overspill, Washington Post, Business Insider, Krypt3ia, PandoDaily, New York Magazine, BBC, Help Net Security, Politico, Variety, Ars Technica and TechCrunch

Tweets: @violetblue, @kennethn, @mindbrix, @trey_menefee and @stevelussier

Sean Silcoff / Globe and Mail:

BlackBerry stock slips as revenue tumbles below expectations — BlackBerry Ltd. revenue plunged unexpectedly in the third quarter, but the company managed to eke out a slight profit on an adjusted basis. — The company earned $793-million (U.S.) in revenue in the quarter ended Nov. 29, down from $916-million in the previous quarter.

More: ABC News, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, BGR, Engadget, Reuters, Marketwire, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Toronto Star, CNNMoney.com and CrackBerry.com

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Longtime Internet Explorer leader Dean Hachamovitch is leaving Microsoft — Dean Hachamovitch is leaving Microsoft. And yes, of course, there is an IE shirt associated with this milestone, too. The longtime Internet Explorer leader, who led the efforts to modernize and revitalize Microsoft's web browser …

More: Learning, The Verge, Neowin and Re/code. Tweets: @maryjofoley. Thanks:@mnickelsburg

Bloomberg:

China is Planning to Purge Foreign Technology and Replace With Homegrown Suppliers — China is aiming to purge most foreign technology from banks, the military, state-owned enterprises and key government agencies by 2020, stepping up efforts to shift to Chinese suppliers, according to people familiar with the effort.

More: chinaeconomicreview.com, Taipei Times and MacDailyNews

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

GameAnalytics Scores $5.5M Series A, Hires Ex-Aol European MD As CEO — GameAnalytics, a free analytics platform for games developers, has leveled-up its funding. The Copenhagen-headquartered startup, which also has a sales office in London and a development hub in Berlin, has closed a $5.5 million Series A round.

More: VentureBeat, ArcticStartup, Gamasutra, Pocket Gamer.biz, Webrazzi, VentureBeat and Tech City News

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