The United States on Tuesday eased restrictions on the export of some personal telecommunications devices to Sudan such as smartphones and computers, to help give ordinary Sudanese greater access to social networking and the Internet. The licensing changes announced by the U.S. Treasury will cover personal devices such as computers, mobile phones, radios and digital cameras, and related software and services, U.S.
Read moreBy Pauline Askin SYDNEY (Reuters) – A racist flare-up in a beachside Sydney suburb hit the global spotlight nine years ago, besmirching Australia's reputation as a sun-drenched oasis wooing migrants from around the world. A TV documentary attempts to show the alcohol-fueled riots of December 2005 were not an aberration and that racial tension in Australia had simmered long before the Cronulla Beach incident pitted white surfers against ethnic Lebanese youths. “The Great Australian Race Riot” documents nine major riots since the mid-19th century, beginning with sectarian violence between Irish Catholics and British Protestants living in Melbourne that led to bloodshed on city streets in 1846.
Read moreBy Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
Read moreBy Victoria Bryan and Sarah Young BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s airlines are racing to add Wi-Fi to their planes, eager to attract Internet-hungry customers in a cut-throat short-haul market and potentially add millions of dollars of revenue through entertainment, services and advertising.
Read more(Reuters) – A multinational gang of cyber criminals has stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said on Saturday. The company said it was working with Interpol, Europol and authorities from different countries to try to uncover more details on what it being called an unprecedented robbery. It said the gang included cyber criminals from Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as China.
Read moreBy Edwin Chan and Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Friday it was asked by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for information about its dealings with a Chinese regulator, coming just five months after the company's stock market debut
Read moreDeniss Calovskis, 29, entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan a day after being extradited from Latvia to face charges that he wrote some of the computer code that made the so-called Gozi virus so effective. An indictment against Calovskis was unsealed in January 2013 when prosecutors announced separate charges against Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian whom they say created the virus, and Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a Romanian who allegedly ran a service that enabled its distribution. Prosecutors say Calovskis, who resided in Riga, Latvia, was hired to develop a computer code that altered how banks’ websites appeared in order to trick victims into divulging personal information.
Read moreBy Andrew Winterbottom LONDON (Reuters) – JustPark, a London-based start-up that launched the world's first in-car parking app, is nearly half way to achieving a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) equity fundraising target just 12 hours after its debut on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. JustPark's app connects car-park owners, often individuals with a private parking space at their home, to drivers looking for a place to park
Read moreAlibaba Group Holding Ltd Executive Chairman Jack Ma urged employees to relax about U.S. lawsuits against the firm over possible failure to disclose information to investors, in a letter to staff posted on his official microblog on Friday. A series of lawsuits have been filed in the United States after an unusually public fracas with a Chinese regulator last month over the issue of fakes being sold on Alibaba's websites.
Read moreA Chinese antitrust regulator said on Friday pricing tactics in the nation's e-commerce sector will be probed to ensure a “fair” market, likely putting new scrutiny on companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc. The comments come just two weeks after another government regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), accused Alibaba of failing to clean up what it called illegal business deals on the e-commerce titan's platforms. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website that it would “organize and develop special inspections into the online retail sector's pricing behavior”
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