Techmeme: Newly uncovered US cybersecurity report finds encryption vital to protect private data and is at odds with David Cameron's proposal (James Ball/Guardian)

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January 16, 2015, 4:25 PM

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South East Regional Organised Crime Unit:

UK cybercrime unit and FBI arrest 18-year-old man in UK for “swatting” offenses and DDoS attacks on Playstation Network and Xbox Live — Man arrested for ‘swatting’ and denial of service offences — SEROCU, has worked closely with the FBI on the operation which focused …

Matthew Goldstein / New York Times:

Hacker's List matches professional hackers with those needing their service for $100 - $5,000 — Need Some Espionage Done? Hackers Are for Hire Online — A man in Sweden says he will pay up to $2,000 to anyone who can break into his landlord's website.

More: Slate, TechSpot, Business Insider, PC Advisor, BGR, ZDNet, Gizmodo and The Loop

Tweets: @propublica and @mikeisaac

Marguerite Reardon / CNET:

Q&A with Tom Wheeler on net neutrality, legal challenges, Obama's role, and being the butt of late-night TV jokes — Net Fix: FCC chief on solving the Open Internet puzzle (Q&A) — With a vote looming on new rules for Internet access, Tom Wheeler talks candidly with CNET News about legal challenges …

More: PC World, TechCrunch, BGR, Ars Technica, Electronista, DSLreports, Consumerist, Gizmodo and Nextgov. Tweets: @karlbode. Thanks:@rogerwcheng

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

In letter to FCC, Sprint says “light touch application of Title II” regulation would not harm investment in data networks, delighting net neutrality supporters

More: Gigaom, CNET, Engadget, DSLreports and Broadcasting & Cable

Douglas Soltys / BetaKit:

Founding partners of Teehan+Lax, the design firm behind Medium, join Facebook — Teehan+Lax shutting down as partners join Facebook — A new era begins for the Toronto design community as the founding partners of Teehan+Lax announced this morning they are shutting down the company to join Facebook.

More: teehan+lax, Facebook Design, The Verge, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and MobileSyrup.com

Tweets: @teehanlax, @losowsky, @joshm, @jongold, @joulee and @joshm

Thanks:@tron

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo combines ad products into one unit, to be led by Prashant Fuloria, former executive at Google, Flurry, and Facebook — Yahoo Reorganizes Ad Product Team, Says Memo to Staff — Marissa Mayer is reorganizing management at Yahoo as part of her effort to jumpstart the company's stagnant advertising business.

More: Re/code, Marketing Land, AdExchanger, Wall Street Journal, bizjournals, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, Streetwise Report and Techcircle.in

Tweets: @dmac1 and @wsjd

See also Mediagazer

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

Sprint's Virgin Mobile launches new prepaid shared data plans at Walmart, with option for unlimited data in select apps for $5/month — Sprint dumps Virgin Mobile Custom brand, but keeps ItsOn technology and Walmart partnership — Sprint launches new shared data plans under Virgin Mobile banner

More: Engadget, Android Police, USA Today, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, CNET, The News Ledge, HotHardware.com News, Tom's Guide, SlashGear and PhoneNews.com

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google joins PricewaterhouseCoopers in $2B bid to update US DoD's electronic-health-records system — Google Is Bidding for a Pentagon Contract Worth More Than $2 Billion — Google is using a new partnership with consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and some of its $60 billion in cash …

More: Politico, EHRintelligence.com, cloudpro.co.uk and Federal Computer Week. Tweets: @alistairmbarr

Andrew Webster / The Verge:

As Xbox One leads December console sales in US, Microsoft drops price to $349 again — The Xbox One costs $349 again — Leading up to the holidays, Microsoft “temporarily” dropped the price of the Xbox One by $50 to $349 — a moved that proved successful, after the console managed to outsell the PS4 in November.

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

Facebook open sources deep learning tools; head of AI research pledges to “start building things in the open” — Facebook open sources tools for bigger, faster deep learning models — Facebook on Friday open sourced a handful of software libraries that it claims will help users build bigger …

More: Backchannel, Research at Facebook, VentureBeat, InfoWorld, Computerworld, New York Times, TechCrunch, Wired and Beyond Search

James Ball / Guardian:

Newly uncovered US cybersecurity report finds encryption vital to protect private data and is at odds with David Cameron's proposal — Secret US cybersecurity report: encryption vital to protect private data — Newly uncovered Snowden document contrasts with British PM's vow to crack down on encrypted messaging after Paris attacks

More: Gigaom, Help Net Security, Graham Cluley, Nextgov, Techdirt, Boing Boing, PandoDaily, Ars Technica and The Hill. Tweets: @dangoodin001

New York Times:

EU regulator says Amazon's deal with Luxembourg could amount to unfair subsidy, violate EU law — Amazon's Tax Deal With Luxembourg May Break Rules, E.U. Regulator Says — BRUSSELS — The European Union's antitrust office on Friday released a preliminary finding that a tax deal between Amazon …

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Reuters, Reuters, Washington Post, Geeky Gadgets, Forbes, Guardian, Bloomberg, BBC, RTÉ and Gigaom

Will Brunelle / Capital New York:

NY Gov. Cuomo proposes broadband expansion program offering up to $500M in public funds to ISPs willing to match the state's investment — Cuomo re-announces $500 million broadband initiative — ALBANY—Governor Andrew Cuomo formally announced his proposed $500 million broadband expansion plan Friday …

More: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, TechCrunch, Citizen, bizjournals, Associated Press, WIBX 950 and lohud.com

Joe Rossignol / 9to5Mac:

Apple planning 5 new Chinese retail store openings by Feb, hiring for 15 new locations — Apple is committed to its promise of expanding its retail presence in China from 15 to 40 stores within two years. Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts told Chinese website Xinhua that the iPhone maker …

More: Xinhua News Agency, GeekWire, CNET, I4U News, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechnoBuffalo and InvestorPlace

Jason Koebler / Motherboard:

Mt. Gox CEO Denies Silk Road Involvement: ‘I Am Not Dread Pirate Roberts’ — Mark Karpeles, the CEO of Mt. Gox—which was once the world's most popular Bitcoin exchange—has denied any involvement in Silk Road and has told Motherboard that he's not Dread Pirate Roberts, the man who allegedly ran the site.

More: PandoDaily, The Daily Dot, Gawker, TechSpot, Bloomberg View, Business Insider, SiliconANGLE, Electronista, The Verge and TechCrunch

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

DHS suspected Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles may have been Silk Road's mastermind, Dread Pirate Roberts

More: Motherboard, Forbes, Techdirt, Reuters, CoinTelegraph.Com News, The Register, Ars Technica, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, Inside Bitcoins, The Verge and Business Insider

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