Techmeme: IRS misses XP deadline, pays Microsoft millions for patches (Gregg Keizer/Computerworld)

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April 13, 2014, 8:05 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: Digital Trends, PC Magazine, Mashable, Re/code, Ars Technica, The Verge, SlashGear and Inbox

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

Steve Marquess / Speeds and Feeds:

OpenSSL Software Foundation president: we need support from companies and governments for a team of 6+ full-time workers — Of Money, Responsibility, and Pride — Fate has made me the “money guy” for OpenSSL so I'm going to talk about that for a bit. — As has been well reported …

Tweets: @matthew_d_green 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: Graham Cluley, Labnotes, Engadget, Dan Kaminsky's Blog, ZDNet, Engadget, CloudFlare Blog, Digital Trends, The Verge, The Next Web, Re/code and Softpedia News

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

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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

More: Ars Technica, IEEE Spectrum Recent …, TechCrunch, Engadget, Business Insider, Indiana University …, Neowin, BBC, Softpedia News, Electronista, Computerworld, Salon, The Daily Caller, rc3.org and Digital Trends. Tweets: @normative

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 …

More: Re/code and VentureBeat. Tweets: @cdixon, @rsarver, @jeff, @hunterwalk, @delrey, @tuurdemeester, @fredwilson, @hblodget and @om

Nick Bilton / New York Times:

Graphene: the strong, thin, flexible conductor that could change the electronics industry — Bend It, Charge It, Dunk It: Graphene, the Material of Tomorrow — I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. — No, fans of “The Graduate,” the word isn't “plastics.” — It's “graphene.”

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 …

More: VentureBeat and The Verge. Tweets: @wadhwa, @rakeshlobster, @mattdpearce and @randfish

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: Daily Dot, Ars Technica, Re/code, Beyond Search and San Francisco Examiner …

Tweets: @ben_hr, @stevekovach, @alexhern, @reformedbroker and @hblodget

Zoran Basich / Wall Street Journal:

Andreessen warns companies of “abusive” renegotiation tactics by non-Silicon Valley PE firms — Andreessen: Beware Non-Silicon Valley Investors Bearing High Valuations — Marc Andreessen and his firm Andreessen Horowitz are advising their portfolio companies to be …

Tweets: @hkanji and @startupljackson

Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:

IRS misses XP deadline, pays Microsoft millions for patches — Tax collector has 58,000 PCs still running the aged XP; will spend $30M to upgrade to Windows 7 — The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) acknowledged this week that it missed the April 8 cut-off for Windows XP support …

More: Engadget, Re/code, WinBeta, Electronista, WinBeta, Windows Phone Central, WinBeta, The Switch, Softpedia News, Neowin and The Register

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

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

A look at Facebook's behind-the-scenes hardware operation, which helped draw Oculus — Facebook's Hardware Push Behind the Scenes Draws Oculus — Hidden away in Building 17 of Facebook Inc.'s headquarters is a 170-person team that's toiling away on products not usually associated with a social-networking company: hardware.

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