Techmeme: Pentagon, NSA developed plans for sophisticated cyberattack on Syria, but Obama turned them down (David E. Sanger/New York Times)

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February 25, 2014, 8:25 AM

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The Coinbase Blog:

Joint Statement: Mt.Gox's violation of trust doesn't reflect the resilience of the greater Bitcoin industry — Joint Statement Regarding MtGox — The purpose of this document is to summarize a joint statement to the Bitcoin community regarding Mt.Gox. — This tragic violation of the trust …

Matt Vukas:

Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange goes offline, rumored to have lost 750,000 bitcoins worth $375M — Breaking - Mt. Gox is dead, long live Mt. Gox — I've been a proponent of Bitcoin for a while now - I think that the currency is still in its infancy and certainly has its risks, but long term will be hailed as a very important innovation.

More: New York Times, The Two-Bit Idiot, Telegraph, CNNMoney.com, MoneyBeat, Wall Street Journal, MediaNama, TheDomains.com, newsBTC and Reuters

Tweets: @levie, @chromosundrift, @nikcub, @nexttechblog and @seldo

Thanks:@mattvukas

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

“This could be the end of Bitcoin”: leak shows massive theft at Mt. Gox, price falls below $500 amid pleas for calm — The Bitcoin community is on edge as a leaked document (below) shows that the Mt. Gox exchange, a longtime pillar of the virtual currency, is missing hundreds of millions …

More: The Two-Bit Idiot, Wired, CoinDesk, Quartz, Guardian, Forbes, The Verge, The Register, On Bitcoin and CoinDesk

Tweets: @abrams, @bitcoinprice, @howardlindzon, @cdixon, @tomkrazit and @ncweaver

Wall Street Journal:

Japan's financial authorities not stepping in to help investors recover Bitcoins from Mt. Gox

More: The Switch, Gizmodo and Valleywag. Tweets: @wsjmarkets

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Samsung refines winning formula with Galaxy S5, maintains distinct Galaxy software, plans April 11 launch alongside new Gear models — Samsung's Galaxy S5 is here with more power, more pixels, and a refined design — This year's flagship doesn't mess with a winning formula

More: Samsung Mobile Press, ZDNet, TechCrunch, InfoWorld, TechHive, Guardian, TechEye, Engadget, AnandTech, Softpedia News, Gigaom, Pocketables, NEWS.com.au, Digits, I4U News, Electronista, Delimiter, Slate, IntoMobile, Bloomberg, BGR, NYT Bits, Business Insider and Android Central

Tweets: @joannastern, @vladsavov, @inafried, @zacharye and @inafried

Samsung Mobile Press:

Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 to focus on what matters most to consumers

More: BGR, Samsung Tomorrow, Engadget, The Verge, Geeky Gadgets, Phones Review, Ubergizmo, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, BBC, I4U News, It's a Gadget, Rogers RedBoard, SlashGear and AndroidPure

CNET:

Samsung Galaxy S5 has tepid design, but plenty of specs appeal (hands-on)

More: ZDNet, The Register, Inquirer, SlashGear, Ars Technica, I4U News, Android and Me, MacDailyNews and Pocketnow

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Samsung's Dust- And Water Resistant Galaxy S5 Gets Official With Heart Rate Monitor, Fingerprint Scanner

More: The Official PayPal, The Verge, Softpedia News and The Next Web

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Microsoft devices chief Julie Larson-Green takes on new role, will be replaced by Nokia's Stephen Elop — Julie Larson-Green, the former Windows executive who most recently led Microsoft hardware development as the top executive in the company's Devices and Studios Group …

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

New iOS flaw makes devices susceptible to covert keylogging, researchers say — Proof-of-concept app in Apple's App Store sent keystrokes to remote server. — Researchers said they have identified a flaw in Apple's iOS that makes it possible for attackers to surreptitiously log every touch a user makes …

More: FireEye Blog, ZDNet, Computerworld, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com …, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile and App Advice. Tweets: @e_kaspersky

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Disney Movies Anywhere debuts with tight integration with Apple's iTunes — Walt Disney Studios is launching a new movie app called Disney Movies Anywhere that will be tightly integrated with Apple's iTunes store. — You can get the app for free on iOS devices and then use …

More: Engadget, Digits, TechCrunch, Re/code, The Next Web, Reuters and Breaking Apple News …

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook retires its troubled @facebook.com email service — Facebook is retiring its email service, and has begun notifying users that all email sent to their @facebook.com address will soon be forwarded to their primary email address on file. Facebook users can turn off the forwarding feature, which is on by default.

More: Re/code, TechCrunch, VatorNews, Inside Facebook, PC Pro, BBC, The Next Web, memeburn, AllFacebook, TechSpot, ZDNet and Gigaom

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

The Unlikely Tale of How ARM Came to Rule the World — This is a story about ARM Holdings, the mobile technology company. But before it gets going, there are a few things you need to know. — 1. ARM is a company made up mostly of chip engineers. They design parts of chips …

Tweets: @thekanter, @johnheinleinarm, @valleyhack and @kevinmarks

Zach Miners / PC World:

Gmail adding prominent ‘Unsubscribe’ option to marketing emails — Gmail users who get frustrated trying to find the “unsubscribe” link that's often buried in small type at the bottom of promotional emails may instead start seeing it before they even open the message.

More: Marketing Pilgrim, Christopher S. Penn, TechnoBuffalo, 9to5Google and BGR

Glenn Greenwald / First Look Media:

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations — A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit — One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies …

Tweets: @billmon1, @a_greenberg, @robingood, @the_intercept, @sacca, @maradydd, @antderosa, @evanchill, @evacide, @colvinius, @onekade, @elilake, @cmuratori and @prisonplanet

Chris Duckett / ZDNet:

Proof of concept captures all SSL traffic via Apple's goto fail exploit — Summary: A New Zealand security consultant has used a man-in-the-middle proxy to mop up all SSL traffic related to the App store, updates, iCloud data, and traffic from apps that use certificate pining, such as Twitter.

More: cortesi, 9to5Mac and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @cortesi, @cortesi and @cortesi

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Pentagon, NSA developed plans for sophisticated cyberattack on Syria, but Obama turned them down — Syria War Stirs New U.S. Debate on Cyberattacks — WASHINGTON — Not long after the uprising in Syria turned bloody, late in the spring of 2011, the Pentagon and the National Security Agency developed …

Tweets: @glcarlstrom, @beatnikjourno, @nytimesworld, @mbaram, @maassp and @jmartnyt

Mat Honan / Wired:

How Facebook is working around poor networks and cheap phones in the developing world — Facebook's Plan to Conquer the World — With Crappy Phones and Bad Networks — Facebook's recon team hit the ground in Nigeria in the dead of night, and right away ran into trouble with the law.

More: Ericsson. Tweets: @tcarmody

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

Dropbox raises $350 million — Dropbox has another $350 million in the bank, and more may be on the way. — FORTUNE — Last month, reports surfaced that Dropbox had raised $250 million from Blackrock (BLK) in its final round of private funding before embarking on its highly-anticipated IPO.

More: VentureBeat, VatorNews, ZDNet, Re/code, Digits, TechCrunch and 24/7 Wall St.. Tweets: @danprimack

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Marc Andreessen says more net neutrality laws are not the answer — The concept of net neutrality — the idea that cable networks should not give preferential treatment to certain kinds of content — often seems somewhat theoretical, which is why many people latched onto the recent “peering” deal between Comcast and Netflix.

Tweets: @mathewi and @dangillmor. See also Mediagazer

Robin Emmott / Reuters:

Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying — (Reuters) - Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.

More: ZDNet and Softpedia News. Tweets: @netik

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

GoDaddy Will Take On Shopify With A Simpler E-Commerce Storefront Arriving This Spring — GoDaddy is launching a Shopify competitor aimed at small business customers, TechCrunch learned and the company has confirmed. The “GoDaddy Online Store,” as the new product is being called …

More: Marketing Pilgrim. Tweets: @spreecommerce

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Uber rolling out new push notification feature to tell you when surge pricing goes down — Uber CEO Travis Kalanick took the stage with Jason Calacanis at the 2014 LAUNCH Festival today to introduce a new feature for his company's app. Rolling out soon is the ability to receive push notifications …

More: GeekWire, Gigaom, The Verge, Engadget, 5by5 Master Audio Feed, PandoDaily and The Technology Chronicles. Thanks:@thekenyeung

Ruth Bender / Wall Street Journal:

Orange CEO Says in Partnership Talks With Microsoft for Dailymotion — Orange Will Maintain Majority Stake in Dailymotion — PARIS— Orange SA is in talks with U.S. giant Microsoft Corp. over a possible partnership for the French telecommunication company's online-video website Dailymotion …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gigaom and Reuters

John Cook / GeekWire:

Zulily takes aim at Fab.com, plans big expansion in home products category — Zulily plans to start selling more home decor products — Zulily just posted blow out numbers for its fourth quarter, reporting a 100 percent rise in fourth quarter sales to $257 million. — Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens

More: Digits

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

New attack completely bypasses Microsoft zero-day protection app — Whitehats' ability to sidestep EMET strongly suggest criminal hackers can, too. — Researchers have developed attack code that completely bypasses Microsoft's zero-day prevention software, an impressive feat …

More: Bromium Labs, Help Net Security, Threatpost, ZDNet and SecurityWeek

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Local newspapers and TV stations are building their own private ad exchange with Google — In 2006, 176 newspapers came together in a partnership with Yahoo to found The Newspaper Consortium. The idea, a simple one now, was an important step forward for the development and growth of ad networks.

More: DoubleClick Publisher Blog, Beyond Search and Local Media Consortium. See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

SoftBank Said to Seek Stake in Naver's Line Mobile-Message Unit — SoftBank Corp. (9984) is seeking to buy a stake in Line Corp., the mobile-messaging service controlled by South Korea's Naver Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said. — Line has received at least one other offer …

More: Tech in Asia and Business Insider. Tweets: @jonrussell. Thanks:@mattlynley

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