Atlanta’s top officials holed up in their offices on Saturday as they worked to restore critical systems knocked out by a nine-day-old cyberattack that plunged the Southeastern U.S. metropolis into technological chaos and forced some city workers to revert to paper. On an Easter and Passover holiday weekend, city officials labored in preparation for …
your ad hereTesla Says Vehicle in Deadly Crash Was on Autopilot
A vehicle in a fatal crash last week in California was operating on Autopilot, making it the latest accident to involve a self-driving vehicle, Tesla has confirmed. The electric car maker said the driver, who was killed in the accident, did not have his hands on the steering wheel for …
your ad hereCould Enemies Target Undersea Cables That Link the World?
Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the U.S. and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths. Is Moscow interested in cutting or tapping the cables? Does it want the West to worry it might? Is there a more innocent explanation? …
your ad hereFacebook ‘Ugly Truth’ Memo Triggers New Firestorm Over Ethics
Was a leaked internal Facebook memo aimed at justifying the social network’s growth-at-any-cost strategy? Or simply a way to open debate on difficult questions over new technologies? The extraordinarily blunt memo by a high-ranking executive — leaked this week and quickly repudiated by the author and by Facebook — warned …
your ad hereRivers and Tides Can Provide Affordable Power
While wind turbines and solar cells generate power only when there is wind and sun, most rivers always flow and most ocean shores always experience tidal currents. At a recent energy summit organized by the U.S. Energy Department, a company from Maine displayed an innovative submersible generator that effectively harvests …
your ad hereDespite Setbacks, Automakers Move Forward with Electric and Self-Driving Cars
A recent fatality involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars may have created uncertainty and doubt regarding the future of autonomous vehicles, but it’s not stopping automakers who say autonomous and self-driving vehicles are here to stay. At the New York International Auto Show this week, autonomous vehicles and electric cars …
your ad hereTech Giants Tackle Online Wildlife Trafficking
A new coalition of tech giants and conservationists is looking to drastically reduce the amount of wild, and often endangered, animals that are trafficked via online services. As Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, they hope to cut 80 percent of the illegal trade by the end of the decade. …
your ad hereUnder Armour: 150 Million Fitness App Accounts Breached
Under Armour Inc. said Thursday that data from 150 million MyFitnessPal diet and fitness app accounts were compromised in February, in one of the biggest hacks in history, sending shares of the athletic apparel maker down 3 percent in after-hours trade. The stolen data include account user names, email addresses …
your ad hereFacebook’s Zuckerberg Disavows Memo Saying All User Growth Is Good
A Facebook Inc. executive said in an internal memo in 2016 that the social media company needed to pursue adding users above all else, BuzzFeed News reported Thursday, prompting disavowals from the executive and Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. The memo from Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook vice president, had not been previously …
your ad hereNew York Offers Free Cybersecurity Tools to Public to Deter Hackers
New York City will offer free cybersecurity tools to the public as part of a new effort to improve online safety, officials said Thursday, a week after Atlanta was hit with a ransomware attack that knocked some municipal systems offline. The program, dubbed NYC Secure, will launch a free smartphone …
your ad hereFacebook Says It’s Making Progress in Election Preparedness
Facebook says it is making progress weeding out fake accounts and fake news on its service. The moves are aimed at preventing election interference ahead of the U.S. midterms. Samidh Chakrabarti, a product manager, said in a conference call Thursday that Facebook is using machine learning to block fake accounts …
your ad hereUber Avoids Legal Battle With Family of Self-Driving Vehicle Victim
The family of a woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle. Cristina Perez Hesano, an attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in …
your ad hereEntrepreuneur: ‘Turning Plastic Waste into Usable Items in the Fight Against Pollution’
A Nigerian entrepreneur is turning plastic waste into rain coats, school bags, car covers and shoes. He says he is doing his part to fight pollution and encourage recycling while making a practical fashion statement. But not everyone is buying into it. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports. …
your ad hereEntrepreneur: ‘Anyone Can Play a Role’ in African Innovation
While working for a big consulting firm in Lagos, Nigeria, Afua Osei repeatedly encountered women who wanted to advance professionally but didn’t know how. They needed guidance and mentoring. So, Osei and her colleague Yasmin Belo-Osagie started She Leads Africa, a digital media company offering advice, information, training and networking …
your ad hereAdobe New Service Aims to Follow Users Across Multiple Devices
Visiting Subway’s website on a personal computer might not seem to have anything to do with checking the NFL’s app on a phone. But these discrete activities are the foundation for a new service to help marketers follow you around. Adobe, a company better known for Photoshop and PDF files, …
your ad here3 Facebook Messenger App Users File Lawsuit Over Privacy
Three Facebook Messenger app users have filed a lawsuit claiming the social network violated their privacy by collecting logs of their phone calls and text messages. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in northern California, comes as Facebook faces scrutiny over privacy concerns. Facebook acknowledged on Sunday that it …
your ad hereRobots Pose Big Threat to Jobs in Africa, Researchers Warn
It could soon be cheaper to operate a factory of robots in the United States than employing manual labor in Africa. That’s the stark conclusion of a report from a London-based research institute, which warns that automation could have a devastating effect on developing economies unless governments invest urgently in …
your ad hereIsraeli Company Converts Trash Into Household Items
There is a saying that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That is the idea behind a new concept by an Israeli company that is taking trash from landfills and converting it into a plastic-like composite. The material is being used to make household items and furniture, as we …
your ad hereTechno Teachers: Finnish School Tests Robot Educators
Elias, the new language teacher at a Finnish primary school, has endless patience for repetition, never makes a pupil feel embarrassed for asking a question, and can even do the “Gangnam Style” dance. Elias is also a robot. The language-teaching machine comprises a humanoid robot and mobile application, one of …
your ad hereWatchdog: FBI Could Have Tried Harder to Hack iPhone
FBI officials could have tried harder to unlock an iPhone as part of a terrorism investigation before launching an extraordinary court fight with Apple Inc. in an effort to force it to break open the device, the Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday. The department’s inspector general said it found no …
your ad hereExpert Says Brexit Campaign Used Data Mined From Facebook
The computer expert who sparked a global debate over electronic privacy said Tuesday that the official campaign backing Britain’s exit from the European Union had access to data that was inappropriately collected from millions of Facebook users. Christopher Wylie previously alleged that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from …
your ad hereAffordable Chip Pinpoints Methane Leaks
One of today’s most affordable sources of fossil-based energy is natural gas, which consists primarily of methane. Found in remote, deep underground reservoirs, the gas must be transported through long pipelines with thousands of connections, valves and pumping stations, which are inevitably prone to leaks. Scientists at IBM are testing …
your ad hereWhat Facebook’s Privacy Policy Allows May Surprise You
To get an idea of the data Facebook collects about you, just ask for it. You’ll get a file with every photo and comment you’ve posted, all the ads you’ve clicked on, stuff you’ve liked and searched for and everyone you’ve friended — and unfriended — over the years. …
your ad hereCisco Systems Gives $50M to Combat California Homelessness
Internet gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. announced Monday that it will donate $50 million over five years to address the growing problem of homelessness in California’s Santa Clara County and is encouraging other Silicon Valley companies to make similar efforts. In a blog post, Chief Executive Chuck Robbins said …
your ad hereWith New Plan, Macron Wants France to Win AI ‘Arms Race’
French President Emmanuel Macron has set his sights on artificial intelligence as the next technological frontier France cannot afford to miss, and will launch a major “offensive” this week, officials said Monday. Macron, the 40-year-old who swept to power last May promising to transform France into a “startup nation,” wants …
your ad here