Techmeme: FBI to name North Korea, and possibly China, responsible for Sony hack before 1:30pm ET today (Jacob Kastrenakes/The Verge)

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December 19, 2014, 11:50 AM

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Rhiannon Williams / Telegraph:

Apple CEO Tim Cook is “deeply offended” by the BBC's labor abuse allegations — Apple goes to war with the BBC — Exclusive: Chief executive Tim Cook ‘deeply offended’ by allegations made by BBC's Panorama programme that Apple is failing to protect its Chinese factory workers

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

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

In new email sent to Sony executives, hackers threaten further release of “sensitive data” pending any “additional trouble” — Source: Hackers send new message to Sony — NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The hackers behind a devastating cyberattack at Sony Pictures …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Hit & Run, The Next Web and Reuters. Tweets: @mikeisaac

CBS News:

How North Korea could have pulled off Sony Pictures hack — Sources tell CBS News the sophisticated and damaging cyberattack against Sony Pictures originated in North Korea and flowed through a vast array of computer servers in other countries in an attempt to hide its origin.

More: Ubergizmo. Tweets: @cbsnews

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

FBI to name North Korea, and possibly China, responsible for Sony hack before 1:30pm ET today — FBI to name North Korea as culprit in Sony hack today — The Federal Bureau of Investigation will say later today that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony, according to Reuters and CBS.

More: Reuters. Tweets: @reuters, @paulareidcbs and @andytriay. See also Mediagazer

Marc Rogers / Marc's Security Ramblings:

Why the Sony hack is unlikely to be the work of North Korea.

More: BGR, The Overspill, Business Insider, Washington Post, Krypt3ia, New York Magazine, BBC and PandoDaily

Tweets: @violetblue, @kennethn, @mindbrix, @trey_menefee and @stevelussier

Reuters:

Google will build Android Auto software directly into cars with Android M, no smartphone needed — 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 that would be built directly into cars …

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 …

Andy / TorrentFreak:

MPAA says Google positioning itself as a defender of free speech is shameful — Google & MPAA Publicly Slam Each Other Over Piracy — Even after running for weeks, the fallout from the Sony hacking fiasco is showing no signs of waning. In fact in some areas it appears that matters are only getting worse.

More: Inquirer, The Verge and Forbes. See also Mediagazer

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Citigroup raises valuation of Instagram, bought by Facebook for $1B, from $19B to $35B — Instagram Is Now Worth $35 Billion — Citigroup raised the valuation of Instagram this morning from $19 billion to $35 billion. — The photo-sharing network recently announced …

More: The Verge, Fortune and The Fly

Tweets: @thestalwart, @miriamgottfried and @jennydeluxe

Vindu Goel / New York Times:

Instagram purges spambots; popular accounts lose millions of followers, with the company losing the most at 18.9M — Millions of Fake Instagram Users Disappear in Purge — Social media services like Facebook and Twitter are always battling against spam or fake accounts that hijack hashtags …

More: The Verge, Business Insider, PandoDaily, ABC News, Business Insider, Inquirer, Washington Post, SlashGear, The Awl, Tech Times, CNNMoney.com, BBC, Fortune, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, The Next Web and Om Malik

Danny Yadron / Wall Street Journal:

Poll: 45% of Americans have been notified that payment card details were stolen in a data breach — Poll Shows Broad Impact of Cyberattacks — Just fewer than half of Americans say that a retailer, bank or credit-card company has told them or a household member that their payment card details …

More: 9to5Mac, The Hill and PYMNTS.com

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Amazon's smartphone strategy could threaten its retail dominance as local delivery services, retail startups bring innovation to consumers — Amazon Not as Unstoppable as It Might Appear — Thanks to its ugly spat with book publishers, Amazon has lately been cast as the abominable boogeyman of American commerce.

More: Wired, Business Insider and Stowe Boyd

Tweets: @mims, @sequoia, @stevelohr and @iankar_

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Samsung to shut down its ChatOn messaging service Feb. 1, 2015 in all markets except U.S. — Samsung's ChatOn service will shut down next year (update) — After denying reports that its ChatOn service was close to being disbanded on a region-by-region basis, Samsung has announced in Korea that it's going away.

More: english.yonhapnews.co.kr, Wall Street Journal, Tech in Asia, Digital Trends, Android Authority, MacDailyNews, 9to5Google, CNET, Gigaom, Geeky Gadgets, SamMobile, MediaNama, The Verge, Electronista, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice, The Next Web, SlashGear and Android Central

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Few Winners In Anonymous Social Networking, And Secret's Not One Of Them — Is anonymous social networking a flash-in-the-pan trend? A winner-take-all category? Which of the anonymous social networking apps around today are still thriving, and which are practically dead?

More: Medium, Engadget, The Next Web, Business Insider and Wired. Tweets: @parmy

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, New York Times, Fortune, The Verge, PC World, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, CNET, Electronista, GeekWire, Gigaom and The Next Web

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Xbox One To Get Pandora, Vevo, Popcornflix And More Apps This Week — Microsoft might have said that they're done shipping their big Xbox One software updates for the year — but that doesn't mean they can't release a few new toys in the form of apps. — The company has just announced five …

More: Gigaom, SlashGear, The Next Web, WinBeta, WinBeta and VentureBeat. See also Mediagazer

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, InfoWorld, MSDN Blogs, Help Net Security, Ars Technica, Git Blame, SD Times, InfoQ, SecurityWeek, The Register, VentureBeat, The New Stack, WordPress Tavern and Gamasutra

Tweets: @wilkieii and @markmc_

Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

Sales rise in McDonald's tests of beacons for wireless offers of promotions on iOS/Android — Hold the beacon: McDonald's tests wireless offers near stores — Credit: Flickr / Kenny Louie — Credit: Flickr / Kenny Louie — McDonald's was one of the first retail locations I used …

More: Business Wire, PYMNTS.com and MacDailyNews

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