Techmeme: Obama Lets N.S.A. Exploit Some Internet Flaws, Officials Say (David E. Sanger/New York Times)

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April 13, 2014, 12:40 PM

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David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Obama Lets N.S.A. Exploit Some Internet Flaws, Officials Say — WASHINGTON — Stepping into a heated debate within the nation's intelligence agencies, President Obama has decided that when the National Security Agency discovers major flaws in Internet security, it should — in most circumstances …

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, SlashGear and Inbox

Tweets: @thegrugq, @csoghoian, @declanm, @csoghoian, @declanm, @csoghoian, @shaneharris and @dangillmor

Megan Geuss / Ars Technica:

Private crypto keys are accessible to Heartbleed hackers, new data shows — Contrary to previous suspicions, it is possible for hackers exploiting the catastrophic vulnerability dubbed Heartbleed to extract private encryption keys from vulnerable websites, Web services firm Cloudflare reported Saturday.

More: Labnotes, Engadget, Dan Kaminsky's Blog, The Verge, The Next Web, CloudFlare Blog, Engadget, ZDNet, Digital Trends, Re/code and Softpedia News

Tweets: @glynmoody, @eastdakota, @davidu, @matthewburton, @timbray, @mikko, @grittygrease and @eff

See also Mediagazer

Julian Sanchez / Guardian:

Even if the NSA first learned about Heartbleed this April, it could use the bug to decrypt data retained prior to that — The NSA's Heartbleed problem is the problem with the NSA — What the agency's denial isn't telling you: it didn't even need know about the bug to vacuum your privacy and store it indefinitely

More: Engadget, Ars Technica, Business Insider, IEEE Spectrum Recent …, Indiana University …, Neowin, BBC, Softpedia News, Electronista, Computerworld, Salon and The Daily Caller. Tweets: @normative

Kyle Russell / Business Insider:

A BI reporter whose Google Glass was stolen off his face in SF on Friday reflects on the city's tech protests — I Was Assaulted For Wearing Google Glass In The Wrong Part Of San Francisco — On Friday night, I was assaulted while walking down the sidewalk in the Mission District of San Francisco.

More: Ars Technica and Re/code. Tweets: @stevekovach, @hblodget, @ben_hr, @alexhern and @reformedbroker

Washington Post:

Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence — In May 2012, the law school at George Mason University hosted a forum billed as a “vibrant discussion” about Internet search competition. Many of the major players in the field were there — regulators …

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Jeff Bezos is making payments a top area of focus and investment at Amazon — Jeff Bezos to Amazon Payments Team: Move Faster — The payments industry has been waiting for years for Amazon, with its 215 million credit cards on file, to flex its muscles. Apparently, CEO Jeff Bezos has been, too.

Tweets: @pkafka

Fulya Ozerkan / Agence France-Presse:

Turkey PM threatens to ‘go after’ Twitter for tax evasion — Ankara (AFP) - Turkey's prime minister said Saturday he will “go after” Twitter, accusing the site of tax-evasion, after it was used to spread damaging leaks implicating his inner circle in corruption claims.

More: VentureBeat, presstv.ir, Reuters, MWC News, TurkishPress.com, International Business Times and DW.DE

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

“Brightest Flashlight” Android app disclosed location of 50 million people, but FTC imposes no fine — Even judging by the low standards of creepy data-mining apps, “Brightest Flashlight” did something pretty egregious. The free app, which was installed by at least 50 million Android users …

More: Mobile World Live. Tweets: @mims

Federico Viticci / MacStories:

Reeder 2 for Mac Public Beta Now Available — Nine months after being pulled from the Mac App Store following the Google Reader shutdown, Reeder for Mac, Silvio Rizzi's popular desktop RSS client, is back with a public beta that offers a glimpse at the app's new service integrations …

More: 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, FairerPlatform, Macgasm, MacNN, The Mac Observer, Lifehacker, App Advice, iMore and Cult of Mac

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

FRED WILSON Q&A: The Legendary Investor Talks Retirement, Tumblr's Exit, And Getting Over A Tough Year — It took Fred Wilson 10 years to become what he calls a “half-way decent” venture capitalist. It took him 20 to become a startup legend. — Lately, rumors have swirled that the Zynga …

Tweets: @hblodget, @delrey and @hunterwalk

Zenon Evans / Hit & Run:

Let Me Google That For You Act aims to close federal agency selling copies of freely downloadable documents — Sen. Coburn: Replace National Technology Information Service with Google and Save Millions — The National Technology Information Service (NTIS) will sell you a paper copy …

More: Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Mediaite, NBC News, Techdirt, The Verge, Engadget, Gawker and The Wire. Tweets: @reason

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