7.8.2014
GOOD TO KNOW: When your company is lesser known and often confused with militant groups, that’s probably not good for your bottom line. Note: ISIS (the company responsible for the ISIS mobile payment system) should not be confused with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The mobile payment company would likely thank you.NEW HOUSE TSA RULES.
HOW MUCH BATTERY LIFE DO YOU HAVE?
Can’t turn on your phone for airport security? Sorry, you won’t be getting on your flight. TSA is changing up its rules to require more than a dozen foreign airports in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to check passenger electronic devices for security purposes.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
This isn’t your parents’ underwear bomber anymore. Turns out some terrorists see aviation security as a challenge and are constantly looking for ways around it. Recent reports indicate that Al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen may be hatching up plans to transform mobile devices into explosives. Unresponsive phones may simply be shells with their innards replaced with explosive materials. Nope, not scary at all.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
GET RICH OR LOSE YOUR PRIVACY TRYING?
Some say money can’t buy you happiness, but it could at the very least buy you privacy. In today’s Wall Street Journal, cybersecurity expert Richard Clarke predicts that in the next 25 years, there will be so much data collected about every aspect of our daily lives from how we drive to how we keep our homes and take care of our health. He warns that all this data could be known by any governmental and corporate entity. Clarke opines that privacy will soon become a commodity only briefly available to the rich and in limited locations. For the record, the verdict is still out on the money and happiness thing … just saying …
HACKITY, HACK, HACKED …
A group of Chinese hackers (potentially affiliated with the Chinese government) may be targeting the computers of U.S. experts on Iraq. Security firm, Crowdstrike, Inc., believes that this group is just one of 30 in China that its following. The motivation for all of this could be China’s attempts to ward off any interference with its government’s investment in Iraq’s oil infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. governments will continue to push for China’s cooperation on combating cyber espionage.
THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’
‘Cause they’re fancy. Apple’s stock continues to rise, and it’s full steam ahead for the company as it prepares to offer its smartwatch or “iWatch” this fall. As it transitions to wearable tech, it’s recruiting executives from major fashion brands such as Burberry and LVMH.
Box, Inc., an online storage startup, just raised $150 million from private equity firm TPB – buying it more time before an initial public offering.
Israeli startup Playbuzz is now has more traffic than upworthy.com and aol.com in just two years. The company targets the U.S. market and provides users with quizzes and ‘listicles’ similar to Buzzfeed.
Coming to a market near you but sooner than you think … though Netflix isn’t officially available in New Zealand just yet, local ISP Slingshot is already offering Netflix services to its users via its “global mode” Internet plan. To avoid any trouble, ‘global mode’ is essentially a VPN that re-directs traffic through servers located in other countries.