Techmeme: Some Lenovo notebooks shipped with man-in-the-middle Superfish adware that breaks HTTPS connections, affects Chrome and Internet Explorer (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

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February 19, 2015, 6:50 PM

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The Intercept:

How US and UK spies hacked into world's largest maker of SIM cards and stole encryption keys — How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle — AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world …

More: The Verge, The Register, PC World, DSLreports, Reuters, Engadget, The Hill, Guardian, ABC News, Gigaom, iMore, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Techdirt, Business Insider, Pocketnow, Daring Fireball, Mashable and SlashGear

Tweets: @timkarr, @matthew_d_green, @jeremyscahill, @rj_gallagher, @noahshachtman, @jpbarlow, @csoghoian, @ggreenwald, @ow, @e3i5, @the_intercept and @koenrh

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Some Lenovo notebooks shipped with man-in-the-middle Superfish adware that breaks HTTPS connections, affects Chrome and Internet Explorer — Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS connections — Superfish may make it trivial for attackers to spoof any HTTPS website.

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

Lenovo CTO Peter Hortensius says company is working on a tool to remove Superfish from PCs, claims security community are dealing with “theoretical concerns” — Lenovo CTO: We're Working to Wipe Superfish App Off of PCs — Lenovo is working quickly to wipe all traces of an app …

More: Lenovo Newsroom, The Next Web, Wired, Ars Technica, InfoWorld, eWeek, ExtremeTech, Bloomberg Business, ZDNet, AppleInsider, Vox, Security Affairs, Digital Trends, Threatpost and Engadget

Tweets: @harrymccracken, @kansasalps, @nick_craver, @zackwhittaker, @nateog and @caseynewton

Thanks:@nateog

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Lenovo disabled Superfish in January, but the company says it has not found “evidence to substantiate security concerns”

More: PC World, ABC News, The Next Web, Techdirt, BGR, A Few Thoughts …, Wall Street Journal and Gigaom

Tweets: @mattblaze, @dan_rowinski, @sriramk, @swiftonsecurity, @matthew_d_green, @caseynewton, @jbrodkin, @sarahjeong and @benedictevans

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Revealed: The experts Apple hired to build an electric car — In the last few weeks we've heard about a poaching war between Apple and Tesla, a couple hires by Apple from the auto industry, and a whole lot of speculation followed by reports that Apple has a team of hundreds working on an electric vehicle.

More: TechCrunch, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, Macworld, MacRumors, Vox, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, BGR and Business Insider

Tweets: @markgurman and @tim

Mike Beasley / 9to5Mac:

Apple reportedly poached employees from A123 Systems to work on battery tech, now faces unfair competition lawsuit

More: Reuters, Law360, SiliconBeat, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, Associated Press, Wired, US News, TechCrunch, Gigaom, The Verge, USA Today, PandoDaily and The Next Web

Taylor Kourim / Gmail Blog:

Google Inbox comes to iPad and Android tablets, supports Firefox and Safari as well as Chrome — Inbox by Gmail: now in more places — It's always hard to know when it's time to share a new product, because there's always just a _few_ more things you want to do.

More: TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, CNET, The Next Web, Google Operating System, USA Today, iMore, MacRumors, Ink, Bits, & Pixels, Pocketables, Ubergizmo, The Verge, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, TechSpot, App Advice, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, Mashable, Droid Life and Engadget. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Pebble teases new model, sources say thinner watch with color screen in the works — Pebble updated its website this morning to tease a new model of its popular smartwatch. The announcement is scheduled for 10 AM on Tuesday next week, but Pebble has not specified what exactly is launching.

More: Connectedly, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, iMore, Redmond Pie, Phandroid, TechnoBuffalo, Droid Life, Pocketnow, MobileSyrup.com, Ubergizmo, App Advice, GSMArena Blog, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, Gigaom and The Next Web. Tweets: @markgurman

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Mobile Development Suite combines Flurry Analytics with ad and search tools for apps — New Yahoo Mobile Development Suite Seduces App Makers With Analytics, Search, Ads — Today at Yahoo's first mobile developer conference, the tech giant unveiled its new Yahoo Mobile Development Suite …

More: Yahoo, SiliconBeat, InfoWorld, The Technology Chronicles, ReadWrite, Wall Street Journal, CNET, iMore, 9to5Mac, New York Times, GeekWire, SocialTimes, BuzzFeed, Gamasutra, The Next Web, SlashGear, Mashable, VentureBeat, Marketing Land and Virtual-Strategy Magazine. Tweets: @joshconstine. Thanks:@joshconstine

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Digit, a free savings account that monitors spending habits to automatically save users money, exits closed beta and is now open for US accounts — Digit is the automated savings plan we've been waiting for — Until recently, my savings consisted mostly of unexpected windfalls.

More: Pocket-lint, Business Insider and TechCrunch. Tweets: @anildash

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

IFTTT Launches 3 “Do” Apps To Automate Photo Sharing, Tasks, Notes; Rebrands Main App “IF” — IFTTT made its name in the tech world with a platform for “Recipes” that people could use to automate online and mobile actions in and between different apps and services — developer mechanics, simplified.

Office Blogs:

Microsoft OneNote gets OCR support across all platforms and handwriting recognition on iPad — Handwriting in OneNote for iPad, and OCR Everywhere — People are more overwhelmed than ever by how much they need to remember on a daily basis. In fact, according to a 2013 survey commissioned …

More: 9to5Mac, The Verge, VentureBeat, PC World, MobileSyrup.com, PC Magazine, Cult of Mac, Geeky Gadgets, Neowin, iMore, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, FierceMobileIT News, SuperSite for Windows, The Next Web and Gigaom

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Now 25 years old, what's next for Photoshop? An interview with Adobe's Stephen Nielson — Obsessed with mobile growth? Join us February 23-24 when we reveal the best technologies and strategies to help your company grow on mobile. It all takes place at our 5th annual Mobile Summit …

More: New York Times, PHOTOSHOP.COM BLOG, AppleInsider, Macworld, The Verge, BetaNews, Adobe Conversations, The Next Web, Mashable, CBS News, 9to5Mac, The Independent, The Drum, Inquirer, Re/code, MacRumors, Pocket-lint and The Register

Eric Blattberg / Digiday:

YouTube prohibits sponsored overlays to keep creators from cutting Google out of ad revenues — YouTube makes a move against brand-sponsored videos — YouTube is putting down the clamps on video creators who work directly with brands, nudging them instead to rely on Google's sales team for deals.

More: http://patriciahandschiegel …, Marketing Land and The Overspill. Tweets: @joshelman. Thanks:@ericblattberg. See also Mediagazer

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Expands Marketing Platform With Off-Site Ads And New Lead Targeting Tools — LinkedIn is launching an expanded version of its Marketing Solutions platform today. There are new products, an expansion beyond Linkedin Itself, and a broader vision for helping advertisers reach potential customers throughout the sales cycle.

More: Marketing Solutions Blog, Marketing Land, AdExchanger, Re/code and TechFrag

Ben Popper / The Verge:

US treasury to accept some payments through PayPal and Dwolla in small pilot on Pay.gov — The US Treasury will now accept PayPal — Sorry, your bitcoins are still no good here — Last year US government agencies collected a whopping $3.37 trillion in revenue.

More: Bureau of the Fiscal Service, CNET, Digital Payments, Federal Computer Week, TIME and Ubergizmo. Thanks:@jslampe

Martin Beck / Marketing Land:

YouTube sees 50% annual growth in views for the last three years, despite Facebook's focus on video — YouTube Says Growth Is Still Strong Despite Push From Facebook — YouTube's head of content says the video giant has seen 50% annual growth in views for the last three years …

More: Tubefilter and PC World

Roger Cheng / CNET:

T-Mobile tops Q4 estimates with a profit of $101M, revenue rises 20% to $8.15B — T-Mobile swings to Q4 profit as customer growth zooms along — The wireless carrier expects the momentum to continue into 2015, with the estimated addition of 2.2 million to 3.2 million new customers who pay at the end of the month.

More: The Register, Android Authority, Engadget, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire and Gigaom. Thanks:@rogerwcheng

Christian Nutt / Gamasutra:

Epic Games offers up $5 million in Unreal Dev Grants — Today Epic Games has announced a new initiative — one that could see your game netting between $5,000 and $50,000 in no-strings-attached funding from the engine provider. — Unreal Dev Grants is a new $5 million fund aimed squarely …

More: UnrealEngine and Ars Technica

Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:

IT monitoring company ScienceLogic raises $43M Series D led by Goldman Sachs — Goldman Sachs Leads $43 Million Investment in ScienceLogic … Moving software to the cloud, which many companies are now doing, can make their operations simpler and more efficient, but the cloud brings new headaches, too.

More: VentureBeat, Gigaom, PE Hub Blog, TechCrunch and Forbes

Quentin Hardy / New York Times:

HP to sell line of Linux-based open-source networking switches manufactured by Taiwan's Accton Technology — HP Targets Cisco and Facebook With New Line of Open-Source Networking Gear — Hewlett-Packard said on Thursday that it would sell a new line of networking switches that are manufactured …

More: Wired, Data Center Knowledge, HP, Wall Street Journal, CIO.com, Re/code, The Register and TechWeekEurope UK

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

BuzzFeed Expands Mobile Team By Acquiring “Visual Conversation” Startup GoPop — BuzzFeed just announced that it's acquiring San Francisco startup GoPop. — The startup was originally known as Zeega, and it was part of the first class at Matter, the Knight Foundation- and KQED-backed incubator for media startups.

More: MarketWatch, GoPop and Medium. Thanks:@cdirusso. See also Mediagazer

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