Techmeme: Survey of 6,100 US teens: 47% say Snapchat is their preferred social network, up from 39% this spring, 24% say Instagram, 9% Facebook, 7% Twitter (Rani Molla/Recode)

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October 16, 2017, 8:45 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

US CERT advisory: severe flaw in popular WiFi security protocol WPA2 leaves WiFi traffic open to eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and malicious injection — An air of unease set into the security circles on Sunday as they prepared for the disclosure of high-severe vulnerabilities …

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:

IBM rolls out blockchain network for cross-border payments, currently supporting 12 “currency corridors” including Australia, New Zealand, UK, Pacific islands — The promise of digital currency is finally coming to maturity, IBM says, with its unique international payments network.

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, IBM, International Business Times, SiliconANGLE, Fortune, CoinDesk, Silicon Republic, Computerworld, and IT ProPortal

New York Times:

How North Korea's cyber warfare unit grew from a joke in 2009 into a major and active threat today, backed by 6,000+ hackers — When North Korean hackers tried to steal $1 billion from the New York Federal Reserve last year, only a spelling error stopped them.

Tweets: @josephfcox, @hatr, @lexanderjmartin, @con_agius, @jessepesta, @chrisfralic, @cauchon, @breakersall, @mattocko, @mattwaxman1, and @dnvolz

Bloomberg:

How Google's meandering, secretive, non-committal robotics efforts since 2013 slowed progress in the field — Its scattered, ambiguous, frequently abandoned objectives for its string of big acquisitions have hurt the whole field. — In 1982, Blade Runner introduced the world to replicants …

More: Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check. Tweets: @business, @chrismaddern, and @manukumar

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Inside Alphabet's moonshot division, X, which wants to build the next Google by nurturing invention and innovation, finding radical but feasible solutions

More: ZDNet. Tweets: @suchisaria, @pacoid, @chris_ciaccia, and @theteamatx

Matt Rosoff / CNBC:

Despite the backlash from politicians and the press, most Americans view big tech favorably — - Despite a growing chorus of anti-tech sentiment from the press and Washington, people still view tech companies favorably. — That's because most people are choosing to use these products because they make their lives better.

More: New York Times. Tweets: @cnbc

Rani Molla / Recode:

Survey of 6,100 US teens: 47% say Snapchat is their preferred social network, up from 39% this spring, 24% say Instagram, 9% Facebook, 7% Twitter — Snaps > tweets. — Snapchat is more popular among U.S. teens than ever, according to new research from investment firm Piper Jaffray.

More: LJ infoDOCKET, Business Insider, eMarketer and Newsroom Posts, and International Business Times

Tweets: @bdsams and @sbyrnes

Regina R. Clewlow / Planetizen:

Survey: ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft have most likely reduced mass transit use and added to traffic in major US cities — Useable data of the effects of ride-hailing service on travel behavior is sorely lacking, but a new study sheds light on critical questions about what companies …

More: New York Times, The Verge, Axios, Curbed, San Francisco Chronicle, Fortune, and Wired

Tweets: @yoda, @theoverheadwire, @transbay, @cityobs, and @mrapptech

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

The difficulty of the three steps required to hack power grids explains why actual disruptions are so rare — IN 2017, IT can sometimes seem like power grids are practically crawling with digital intruders. Over just the last four months, news has emerged that Russian hackers penetrated …

Tweets: @robertmlee

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Surreptitious cryptocurrency miners hide on PolitiFact and hundreds of other sites — Politifact is the latest and perhaps most high-profile website to have hosted code that secretly hijacks visitors' CPUs to mine cryptocurrency. Driven by a boom in cryptocoin value and a lack of protections …

More: Adguard Blog, SiliconANGLE, TechSpot, Engadget, iAfrikan, The Register, Newsweek, ZDNet, Neowin, HackRead, Neowin, and Tom's Guide

Fitz Tepper / TechCrunch:

Coinbase has launched instant cryptocurrency purchases of up to $25K from US bank accounts, dropping the typical wait period of 3-5 days — Coinbase just announced that users can instantly purchase cryptocurrency and have it be funded from a U.S. bank account.

More: Investopedia, Engadget, and CNBC. Thanks:@fitztepper

Ewen MacAskill / The Guardian:

Sources: British intelligence has concluded that Iran was likely responsible for June attack on parliament e-mail systems — Evidence points to Iran, says unpublished report, after initial suspicion of Russia and North Korea dismissed — Iran is being blamed for a cyber-attack in June …

More: Inquirer, Engadget, The Times & The Sunday Times, The Independent, RT, eTeknix, BBC, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, Telegraph, The Verge, Daily Mail, International Business Times, Reuters, The Hill, City A.M., Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and Politico

Boyd Chan / Neowin:

After outcry over excessive data collection, OnePlus says it will add an opt-out of usage analytics to the OxygenOS setup process — OnePlus once again found itself in hot water earlier this week after an eagle-eyed developer, Chris Moore, discovered that his OnePlus smartphone was uploading a raft of information back to the company.

More: Business Insider, OnePlus Forums, The Verge, SlashGear, Gizchina.com, Engadget, EOTO Tech, and Android Police

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

The dream of USB-C being one port and cable to replace all others is mired in confusion because of Alternate Modes and inconsistent backwards compatibility — I love the idea of USB-C: one port and one cable that can replace all other ports and cables. It sounds so simple, straightforward, and unified.

More: Boing Boing, Boing Boing, and mjtsai.com

Tweets: @dhh, @dannysullivan, @patrickmoorhead, and @stroughtonsmith

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