Techmeme: State-sponsored or not, Sony Pictures malware “bomb” used slapdash code (Sean Gallagher/Ars Technica)

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December 18, 2014, 7:10 PM

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Richard Bilton / BBC:

BBC investigation finds Apple repeatedly not meeting its supply chain standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers — Apple ‘failing to protect Chinese factory workers’ — The undercover reporter filmed workers falling asleep on 12-hour shifts

More: AppleInsider, ZDNet, iMore, The Verge, MacRumors, MacDailyNews, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, Electronista, App Advice, iLounge, Bedfordshire News, MK News, iDownloadBlog.com and iPhone in Canada Blog

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Sony Pictures' internal systems still haven't fully recovered, forcing some employees to work with decades-old tech — Sony Pictures Employees Now Working In An Office “From Ten Years Ago” — It's been different for everyone," she said. She was upbeat, optimistic …

More: ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, TUAW, Associated Press, MacDailyNews, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, GeekWire, Deadline and New York Magazine

Tweets: @mikebutcher, @benedictevans and @chrismessina

See also Mediagazer

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

State-sponsored or not, Sony Pictures malware “bomb” used slapdash code — According to multiple reports, unnamed government officials have said that the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures was linked to the North Korean government. The Wall Street Journal reports that investigators suspect …

More: Slate, Wall Street Journal, AP News Archive, GeekWire, TechSpot, Cisco Blog, CNET, BuzzFeed and PC Magazine

Tweets: @rickhholland and @futureidentity

Dave McNary / Variety:

Sony Has ‘No Further Release Plans’ for ‘The Interview’

Kent Walker / Google Public Policy Blog:

Google concerned by reports that MPAA is secretly working with studios to resurrect SOPA — The MPAA's Attempt to Revive SOPA Through A State Attorney General — We are deeply concerned about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) led a secret …

More: 9to5Google, The Verge, The Huffington Post, Deadline, Techdirt, MacDailyNews and New York Times. Tweets: @dannysullivan. See also Mediagazer

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Uber Strikes Deal With Portland to Suspend Service for Three Months — Uber reached an agreement with Portland to suspend operations in the city for three months while regulators work to revise rules around taxis that currently prohibit ridesharing apps. — The city agreed to let Uber …

More: Uber Blog, The Verge, Gigaom and The Next Web

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Longtime Internet Explorer leader Dean Hachamovitch is leaving Microsoft — Dean Hachamovitch is leaving Microsoft. And yes, of course, there is an IE shirt associated with this milestone, too. The longtime Internet Explorer leader, who led the efforts to modernize and revitalize Microsoft's web browser …

More: Learning. Thanks:@mnickelsburg

Reuters:

Google's next operating system Android M will be integrated directly into cars, first vehicles expected 2015 — Exclusive: Google aiming to go straight into car with next Android - sources — (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOGL.O) is laying the groundwork for a version of Android …

More: 9to5Google, Engadget, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com and Android Central. Tweets: @engadget

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Secret is relaunching as a faster anonymous social network with chat — Talk to any of Secret's 15 million users in just two taps — When Secret launched in February, it quickly became the most talked-about new social network in Silicon Valley. Like other '"anonymish" social networks …

More: TechCrunch, The Daily Dot, Re/code, iMore, 9to5Google, Wired, The Next Web, Medium, TechnoBuffalo, Business Insider, SlashGear, VentureBeat and Gigaom

Tweets: @elitereporter, @kessler, @chrismessina, @ario, @caseynewton, @rsarver, @mikeisaac, @piercedavid and @joshconstine

Junio C Hamano / Gmane:

Vulnerability in Git, Mercurial allows for arbitrary code execution on OSX, Windows; affects Visual Studio, Github client app, among others — Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git v2.2.1 (and updates to older maintenance tracks) — Newsgroups: gmane.linux.kernel, gmane.comp.version-control.git

More: GitHub, VentureBeat, The New Stack, MSDN Blogs and WordPress Tavern

Lizette Chapman / Wall Street Journal:

Mobile analytics firm Mixpanel raises $65M Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz at an $865M valuation — Mixpanel Raises $65 Million to Build Predictive Data Tech — Suhail Doshi has big dreams for his mobile and Web analytics company Mixpanel Inc. and has just raised $65 million …

More: Mixpanel, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Tweets: @mims and @howardlindzon

Katie Benner / Bloomberg View:

Jawbone delays UP3 fitness band release until after holidays, offers discounts to preorderers — Jawbone's Missing Christmas — If you wonder how long the market can support richly valued startups, and what sorts of corporate stress might test investor enthusiasm, look no further than Jawbone …

More: Wareable, TechCrunch, App Advice, PC World, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Wearable Tech Insider, SlashGear, Wearable World News, Gigaom and ITProPortal

Tweets: @ldignan and @ktbenner

John Cook / GeekWire:

Redfin raises $70.9M to continue national real estate expansion … Redfin today announced $70.9 million in fresh funding, money that the Seattle real estate brokerage will use to continue its national expansion. Total funding in the 10-year-old company now stands at $166 million.

More: Wall Street Journal, Redfin, Business Wire, Inman News, PE Hub Blog, bizjournals, Bloomberg and TechCrunch

Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:

Google Launches “Store Visits” Metric In AdWords, To Help Prove Online-To-Offline Impact — It's been well known that Google has been working on a solution to tie clicks on search ads back to in-store traffic and sales as part of Estimated Total Conversions in AdWords.

More: Inside AdWords, ScreenwerkScreenwerk, Search Engine Watch, Marketing Land and WebProNews. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Michael Mimoso / Threatpost:

Vulnerability in embedded web server software from 2002 leaves about 12M home routers exposed — 12 Million Home Routers Vulnerable to Takeover — More than 12 million devices running an embedded webserver called RomPager are vulnerable to a simple attack that could give a hacker man …

More: Re/code, Ars Technica, The Register, Computerworld, Techworld.com, Marketwire and SC Magazine

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Sony leaks reveal how Hollywood aims to achieve SOPA-style DNS blocking under existing laws — Sony leaks reveal Hollywood is trying to break DNS, the backbone of the internet — Most anti-piracy tools take one of two paths: they either target the server that's sharing the files …

More: Techdirt, The Huffington Post and Neowin

Tweets: @tomwarren, @backlon, @dangillmor and @trevortimm

Amar Toor / The Verge:

Amazon launches Prime Now for Prime subscribers in New York City: one hour delivery of select items costs $7.99, two hour delivery is free — Amazon brings one-hour delivery to New York City with Prime Now — Service rolls out in select areas of Manhattan today, with other cities coming in 2015

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

US telcos can operate in Cuba as part of new reform, White House says — As part of a surprise move to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba, the White House announced that it would be “initiating new efforts” to help the island nation access the Internet.

More: New York Times, eWeek, The White House, Light Reading, Engadget, RCR Wireless News and Gigaom

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Critical vulnerabilities in SS7 telephony protocol found; tested techniques can decrypt cell phone calls and texts — German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls. — German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers …

More: Gizmodo. Tweets: @csoghoian

Kyle Russell / TechCrunch:

EyeEm Launches Open Edits, Letting You See How Pros Edit Their Photos — Photosharing startup EyeEm has launched version 5.0 of their mobile app on iOS and Android, bringing a slew of changes to their editing system that make it easier to get your photos looking like the shots curated from professionals.

More: Re/code, EyeEm Blog, VentureBeat, PetaPixel, The Next Web, connect.dpreview.com, Gigaom, VentureVillage and Engadget. Tweets: @slh. Thanks:@imatias

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Skytap Raises $35M For Its Cloud-Based Enterprise Development And Testing Service — Skytap is a service that aims to help dev and test teams in the enterprise work more efficiently (and test their code more often). The company today announced that it has raised a $35 million funding round led …

More: GeekWire, PR Newswire, SD Times, Brier Dudley's blog and PE Hub Blog

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Windows App Studio gets TouchDevelop programming language and web app templates, drops Windows Phone 8.0 — Microsoft today updated Windows App Studio, its free web-based tool designed to let anyone create an app, with support for TouchDevelop, a touch-friendly programming language that includes …

More: ZDNet, Building Apps for Windows, SuperSite for Windows, WinBeta, Windows Phone Central and WMPoweruser

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