Techmeme: FBI says report that Sony hack was perpetrated by a disgruntled Sony employee and piracy group hackers is “inaccurate” and based on “narrow view” (Tal Kopan/Politico)

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December 31, 2014, 7:15 PM

Top News

Jennifer Booton / MarketWatch:

New York City considers letting drivers pay for parking tickets with Bitcoin, Apple Pay, and PayPal — NYC weighs bitcoin, Apple Pay for parking tickets — The city of New York issues eight to ten million parking tickets annually. But great news: Drivers will soon be able to use …

Jana Winter / The Intercept:

FBI bulletin says hackers who attacked Sony have threatened an unnamed news organization — Sony Hackers Threaten U.S. News Media Organization — The cyberterrorists who hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer servers have threatened to attack an American news media organization …

More: The Desk, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Engadget, New York Post, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, Gawker, Ars Technica, PandoDaily, PC Magazine, SC Magazine, The Next Web and SiliconBeat. Tweets: @dgisserious. See also Mediagazer

Tal Kopan / Politico:

FBI says report that Sony hack was perpetrated by a disgruntled Sony employee and piracy group hackers is “inaccurate” and based on “narrow view” — U.S.: No alternate leads in Sony hack — A briefing for FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack by a security firm …

More: Norse, Schneier on Security, Re/code, The Daily Beast, SC Magazine, Bloomberg, Techdirt, SecurityWeek, SlashGear, Mashable, Forbes, darkREADING, Mashable, SlashGear, Hit & Run, eWeek, Guardian, PandoDaily, CircleID, GotNews, The Register, GamePolitics blogs, Lawfare, ValueWalk, Engadget and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @cyberwar, @kashhill, @declanm, @fmanjoo and @essobi

See also Mediagazer

William Turton / The Daily Dot:

U.K. police allegedly arrest Lizard Squad hacker … Lizard Squad took credit for the Dec. 25 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. DDoS attacks overwhelm a network with too much traffic, leaving targeted networks inaccessible for legitimate users.

More: Krebs on Security, Washington Post, Gizmodo, Polygon, Windows Phone Central, Kotaku, VentureBeat, TweakTown News and Digital Trends. Tweets: @talkopan

William Turton / The Daily Dot:

Hacker group Lizard Squad launches DDoS service with prices ranging from $6 to $500, says recent PSN and Xbox Live attacks were marketing scheme

More: Engadget, Guardian, VentureBeat, We Live Security, Digital Trends, BetaNews, Business Insider, SC Magazine, SlashGear, Gizmodo and ZDNet

Tweets: @lizardmafia, @joshconstine and @jwgoerlich

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:

Samsung squeezed past Apple in consumer satisfaction for smartphones — Apple may have owned Christmas, but Samsung won the year when it came to satisfying shoppers with its phones. The latest stats from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys 70,000 consumers every year …

More: Digital Trends, Techdirt, BGR, DailyTech, 9to5Google, GSMArena Blog, The Tech Report, ITProPortal, Phandroid, iPhone in Canada Blog, Neowin, Pocketnow and Business Insider

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones — It looks like Palm will rise from the dead as a Chinese smartphone brand. — Palm, the legendary smartphone and PDA company, might seem dead and gone, but it's now looking like the name “Palm” will rise again as a zombie brand.

Emily Steel / New York Times:

Snapchat's curated “Our Story” posts from worldwide New Year's Eve celebrations will be displayed on screens in Times Square — Snapchat Plans a Global View of New Year's Festivities — This New Year's Eve, there is a new 24-hour countdown. — Snapchat — the app …

More: The Next Web, The Daily Dot, Gizmodo, UPROXX, Tubefilter, TechCrunch, bizjournals, Taipei Times and App Advice

Julia Love / SiliconBeat:

Apple hit with class action over storage eaten up by iOS 8 — Apple has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it doesn't inform users just how much storage its new operating system will eat up - and then prods them to buy more space through its iCloud service.

More: iMore, Wall Street Journal, MacRumors, AppleInsider, The Verge, TUAW, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, TechnoBuffalo, bizjournals, MacDailyNews, Pocketnow, Business Insider, SlashGear, Mashable, Electronista and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @edbott. Thanks:@byjulialove

Circa News:

Snapchat raises $485 million from 23 investors — Snapchat wants to make sending money to other users “incredibly simple” with a feature called Snapcash. — Snapchat disclosed in a Dec. 31 filing with the SEC that it raised $485 million from 23 investors. — Snapchat

Tweets: @john_ryu. Thanks:@mg

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

FTC orders Snapchat to implement a privacy program but issues no fine for deceiving users about ephemeral nature of messages and scraping contact lists — Feds issue final order over Snapchat privacy breach, but no fine — What do regulators do when a popular app deceives users about photos that …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Ars Technica, The Verge, PandoDaily, The Hill, Re/code and WebProNews

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Huawei's smartphone sales rose by almost a third to $11.8B in 2014 with 75M shipped — China's Huawei 2014 smartphone sales rise by a third — (Reuters) - Huawei Technology Co Ltd's [HWT.UL] smartphone sales rose by almost a third to $11.8 billion in 2014, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters …

More: Wall Street Journal, CNET, PhoneDog.com, 9to5Google, Android Beat, Android Central and MobileSyrup.com

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