Apple hack exposes flaws in building apps behind ‘Great Firewall’

By Paul Carsten BEIJING (Reuters) – China's “Great Firewall” may have been partly to blame for the first major attack on Apple Inc's App Store, but experts also point the finger at lax security procedures of some big-name Chinese tech firms and how Apple itself supports developers in its second biggest market. A malicious program, dubbed XcodeGhost, hit hundreds – possibly thousands – of Apple iOS apps, including products from some of China's most successful tech companies used by hundreds of millions of people. The hackers targeted the App Store via a counterfeit version of Apple's Xcode “toolkit” – the software used to build apps to run on its iOS operating system – which Chinese developers used because they could download it faster.

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Under fire from rivals, BT vows to improve broadband network

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) – Facing a sustained attack from rivals, Britain's BT pledged to improve the speed and quality of the country's broadband network on Tuesday in a bid to ward off calls for it to be broken up. Setting out plans to improve coverage in rural areas where services can be slow, Chief Executive Gavin Patterson said the firm would provide new minimum speeds of 5-10 megabits per second (Mbps) and expand its fiber coverage. The networks division Openreach is managed at arm's length, but critics say the structure allows BT to abuse its market position and has hampered investment

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China’s Xiaomi announces telecom carrier service, new flagship handset

Xiaomi Inc, China's leading smartphone maker, announced on Tuesday two prepaid wireless plans to mark its debut as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) competing against China's national carriers. MVNOs, which purchase network capacity from large carriers and resell mobile plans under their own branding, have failed to gain traction in China, where three state-owned giants dominate the telecoms industry.

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Music streaming service Deezer plans Paris listing

By Leila Abboud PARIS (Reuters) – Music streaming service Deezer plans a flotation on the Paris stock exchange by the end of the year as it tries to keep up with larger, deeper-pocketed rivals such as Apple Inc and Sweden’s Spotify. Deezer, which analysts expect to achieve a stock market valuation of about 1 billion euros ($1 billion), and its rivals represent a shift in the music industry, away from buying and downloading tracks to listening online to songs stored remotely

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Apple’s iOS App Store suffers first major attack

By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Sunday it is cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet. It is the first reported case of large numbers of malicious software programs making their way past Apple's stringent app review process. Prior to this attack, a total of just five malicious apps had ever been found in the App Store, according to cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks Inc

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Cheap robots may shift car making from China to U.S.: Magna CEO

The falling cost of intelligent robots may help repatriate some car manufacturing work away from low-cost locations like China back to factories in Germany and North America, Donald Walker, Chief Executive of auto supplier Magna told Reuters. Rising wages in China and the cost of importing heavy components like electric car batteries into Europe may lead established car makers to introduce more highly efficient automated manufacturing closer to home, Walker told Reuters in an interview at the Frankfurt auto show. “If you have a high labor, easy-to-ship part, it has already gone, for the most part, to a low-cost jurisdiction,” Walker said about the evolution of assembly work in the car manufacturing business

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Chinese computer hack attacks slow ahead of Obama summit: experts

By Joseph Menn and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major intrusions by Chinese hackers of U.S. companies' computer systems appear to have slowed in recent months, private-sector experts say, ahead of a meeting between China's president and President Barack Obama with cyber security on the agenda. “The pace of new breaches feels like it’s tempering,” said Kevin Mandia, founder of Mandiant, a prominent company that investigates sophisticated corporate breaches

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