Techmeme: Congress passes intelligence bill incorporating key parts of Reagan-era executive order authorizing NSA spying on Americans (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

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December 14, 2014, 9:40 AM

Top News

Businessweek:

Iranian hackers in February remotely accessed and wiped thousands of servers to punish Sands Casino CEO for incendiary comments — Iranian Hackers Hit Sheldon Adelson's Sands Casino in Las Vegas — Most gamblers were still asleep, and the gondoliers had yet to pole their way down the ersatz canal …

Tweets: @razhael, @felixgillette, @abegreenwald, @kevinroose and @csis

Jim Finkle / Reuters:

Exclusive: Iran hackers may target U.S. energy, defense firms, FBI warns — (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned U.S. businesses to be on the alert for a sophisticated Iranian hacking operation whose targets include defense contractors, energy firms and educational institutions …

More: The Register, Digital Trends, Tech Times, Gizmodo, Electronista and Engadget

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Congress passes intelligence bill incorporating key parts of Reagan-era executive order authorizing NSA spying on Americans — How Congress Secretly Just Legitimized Questionable NSA Mass Surveillance Tool — We recently noted that, despite it passing overwhelmingly …

More: National Journal, The Daily Dot, and Newsmax

Adrienne Lafrance / The Atlantic Online:

The Story Behind AOL's Iconic Yellow Running Man — This is the first in an occasional series about abandoned Internet icons. — It was spring of 1997. “Mmmbop” was the pop song of the moment and unlimited access to AOL cost $19.95 a month. Dial-up Internet had finally tipped mainstream.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @adriennelaf

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Surface tablets on NFL sidelines used solely to replace printouts of plays from stadium cameras — How Surface tablets are changing the way NFL coaches work — Inside Microsoft's $400 million digital gridiron — NFL sidelines are almost always entertaining to watch, but this year …

David Pogue / Yahoo Tech:

Parrot Bebop drone review: $500 drone with exceptional stability, solid video stabilization, built-in acrobatics, simple phone app — Parrot's New Bebop Drone Flies Like an Angel — Once You Learn Its Secrets — I've become a crazyhead about flying drones this year.

Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:

How GCHQ used malware to penetrate Belgium's largest telecom and remain undetected for 2 years — The Inside Story of How British Spies Hacked Belgium's Largest Telco — When the incoming emails stopped arriving, it seemed innocuous at first. But it would eventually become clear that this was no routine technical problem.

More: Maps Mania. Tweets: @buchtan, @rj_gallagher, @shashj, @headhntr and @the_intercept

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

IsoHunt unofficially resurrects The Pirate Bay — Torrent site isoHunt appears to have unofficially resurrected The Pirate Bay at oldpiratebay.org. At first glance, The Old Pirate Bay seems to be just a commemorative site for The Pirate Bay, which went down this week after police raided its data center in Sweden.

More: Tech Times, Fast Company, The Inquisitr News, Neowin, IsoHunt Blog, TorrentFreak, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, GamePolitics blogs and SlashGear

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Tinder Competitor Hinge Scores $12M To Bring Its Friends-Of-Friends Dating App Abroad — If you want to hook up or judge people for fun, there's Tinder. But if you want to meet someone you could start a relationship with, Hinge is the app for you. Now in 28 cities across the States …

More: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Medium, Betabeat, BuzzFeed, VentureBeat, PE Hub Blog, Wired, TIME and The Register

Bloomberg:

Watershed event in cyberwar: how in 2008 hackers sabotaged a fortified oil pipeline in Turkey — Mysterious '08 Turkey Pipeline Blast Opened New Cyberwar Era — The pipeline was outfitted with sensors and cameras to monitor every step of its 1,099 miles from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Line partners with Sony Music and Avex Digital to build new streaming music service — Social app Line confirms its move into streaming music — Throughout 2014, we've been writing about the growth of Japanese social app Line, often through its use by artists like Paul McCartney …

More: LINE Corporation, TechCrunch, e27, VentureBeat, RAIN News and SiliconANGLE

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

AlwayOn's Tony Perkins to open a Menlo Park social club for “founders, CEOs, investors, and artists” called The Cuckoo's Nest in early 2015 — Will Silicon Valley go cuckoo for this new social club? — Silicon Valley's elite have a number of upscale places where they can mingle …

More: The Verge, bizjournals, SiliconBeat, Business Insider, Globe and Mail and IEEE Spectrum

Tweets: @arrington, @qhardy, @joelandren, @mactavishbest, @mhelft, @ryanchris and @abrams

Thanks:@jpmanga

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