Articles by David Vranicar

Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, defended a Twitter-esque social media site created by the agency, saying it was an attempt to nurture communication on the island -- not, as has been claimed, a way to collect data and incite a revolt Appearing before the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees, S...

Six Hollywood studios have banded together in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Megaupload, the wildly popular (although now shuttered) site that, in its heyday, was ground zero for file-sharing. The suit doesn't specify an amount of damages, but does say that the studios should be entitled to US$150,000 per copyright infringement, as well ...

Well, an A for creativity In Australia, someone penetrated a high school's IT system and penned text messages and emails to parents saying that the school had been badly damaged by a fire and was not fit for students.

Starting April 1, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency will send email alerts to residents' phones should North Korea start lobbing missiles The messages would be sent using the nation's already-functional J-Alert, a free system designed to notify people about earthquakes and tsunamis. The missile-warning service is aimed specifically at tho...

A Manhattan judge ruled that a Chinese search engine's practice of restricting free speech is, wouldn't you know it, protected by free speech Chinese Internet company Baidu won the dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit filed by activists who objected to its, shall we say, selective search results, which adhere to the government's notoriously limited view of ...

Microsoft is now offering general availability of its Azure cloud service in China, becoming the first multinational company to provide public cloud services in the Middle Kingdom Microsoft is partnering with 21Vianet, a Chinese data center services provider, a marriage that likely helped appease Beijing officials. (Until now, all major cloud provi...

NASA is asking people to vote on their favorite design for the outer shell of the new Z-2 spacesuit While the Z-2 models may descend from their Apollo 13-style ancestors, there are some decidedly 21st Century twists. The "Biomimicry" design, for example, has a reptilian flare; "Trends in Society" has a more everyday look -- at least, as far as spac...

China's government is asking the U.S. to explain itself -- and to knock it off with all the cyberespionage -- following reports that the National Security Agency has had its way with Chinese telecom giant Huawei The NSA reportedly penetrated Huawei servers to monitor communications among company executives, and to gain access to the dealings of Hua...

Oh, there have been some good National Security Agency revelations. Like the one about the NSA tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone. Or the one about the NSA planting agents inside fantasy worlds in World of Warcraft, or impersonating Facebook in a global quest to spread malware....

China's state media seems to have the ear of U.S. tech companies. Amazon's China unit closed down a third-party store after state media criticized Amazon for selling fake cosmetics. Amazon's China unit took the accusations seriously, it said, promising to "strengthen the process of scrutiny."

The National Security Agency reportedly possesses a system that enables it to record telephone calls -- all telephone calls -- in a foreign country, and review conversations for up to a month after they took place. The system is akin to a time machine, according to a source cited by The Washington Post, allowing for retroactive snooping on foreign...

Japan invited hackers -- nice ones, that is -- to go to town on the nation's government departments Tuesday The move is designed to expose weaknesses in cyberdefenses and bolster national security ahead of the 2020 Olympics, which will be held in Japan. Britain employed a similar strategy ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London....

Gargantuan Chinese e-commerce outfit Alibaba soon will begin the process of launching an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange Early forecasts suggest that the IPO could raise US$15 billion....

Google's years-long spat with Beijing just began a new chapter The company has begun encrypting searches made by people in China, where Google has long run afoul of regulations designed to keep a tight lid on searches deemed inappropriate....

Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco have accumulated enormous amounts of money via interest payments from the U.S. government, according to a report from the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism The companies together hold US$163 billion in U.S. government debt. Of that $163 billion, $124 billion is in U.S. Treasury securities, much of which is h...

A federal judge in Chicago froze the U.S. assets of Mark Karpeles, the chief of the now-defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, and allowed possible victims to demand evidence surrounding what some believe is massive fraud Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, last monthwent belly up because of what Karpeles has claimed was...

Chinese PC maker Lenovo is washing its hands of a wildcat strike at an IBM factory in Shenzhen, China. In January, Lenovo purchased one of IBM's server businesses, and the striking workers -- more than 1,000 of them -- are among those who will be absorbed by Lenovo.

Turkey's prime minister and president are spewing conflicting talking points on the nation's stance toward social media It turns out the one who is getting nailed on social media is the one who wants more restrictions....

China is taking its chemical war with smog to another level. Government agencies in China hope a newly designed drone can help mitigate air pollution. The airborne vehicle will spray chemicals that freeze pollutants, thereby knocking them to the ground.

Security forces in Ukraine, where tensions are running exceedingly high after weeks-worth of turmoil, have accused the Russian army of tampering with its mobile communications In addition, cyberattacks have been carried out against Ukrainian news websites and social media, which have been smeared with pro-Russia propaganda....