Bill Gates’s 2020 resignation from Microsoft’s board of directors came after the board hired a law firm to investigate a romantic relationship he had with a Microsoft employee, according to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Journal reported Sunday that a Microsoft engineer had “alleged in a
Continue ReadingEddy Willems was working for an insurance company in Belgium back in December 1989 when he popped the floppy disc into his computer. The disc was one of 20,000 sent in the mail to attendees of the World Health Organization’s AIDS conference in Stockholm, and Willems’ boss had asked him to check what was on
Continue ReadingA relatively unsophisticated ransomware attack that caused a days-long shutdown of America’s largest fuel pipeline last week — resulting in gas shortages, spiking prices and consumer panic — is exactly the sort of situation that cybersecurity experts have warned about for years. And it could have been worse, said Nick Merrill, a researcher with the
Continue ReadingApple parted ways with a new employee this week after thousands of workers petitioned the company to investigate how it hired the man, who had previously published an autobiography they said contains misogynistic statements. Antonio García Martínez, formerly a product manager for ad targeting at Facebook as well as the author of the 2016 autobiography
Continue Reading“L O V E L Y Oakland!” the house description began. It went on to give a slew of details about the 1,484 square-foot home — light-filled, charming, Mediterranean-style, with a yard that “boasts lush front landscaping” — and finished by describing the “cozy fireplace” and “rustic-chic” pressed tin ceiling in the living room. It
Continue ReadingBird, the startup that pioneered shared electric scooters, plans to go public as soon as this summer. Bird will merge with a special purpose acquisition company, Switchback II Corporation, valuing the startup at $2.3 billion. After the merger, the company will have up to an additional $428 million in cash to fund operations and growth.
Continue ReadingRansomware attacks draw headlines when they take down major operations: hospitals, cities and most recently, a US fuel pipeline. Not only do cybercriminals scam businesses demanding large sums of money or they’ll wreak havoc on their computer systems, this week’s gas shortages showed how it can also have broader impacts. But ransomware against individuals —
Continue ReadingAlibaba has reported earnings for the first time since China imposed a record fine on the tech giant — and the numbers were not as awful as some feared. Alibaba posted a loss of about $1.2 billion in the first quarter, mainly due to the $2.8 billion fine imposed on it by Beijing earlier this
Continue ReadingThe price of bitcoin has nosedived after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company was suspending plans to accept the cryptocurrency as payment for electric vehicles. Bitcoin was down 12% as of 6:50 a.m. ET on Thursday — bringing the coin’s price down to about $49,300, according to cryptocurrency news website Coindesk. Other digital currencies
Continue ReadingAs the world grapples with a shortage of semiconductors, South Korea’s chipmakers are spending huge amounts of money to shore up their production in the decade ahead. Samsung and SK Hynix on Thursday announced plans to expand their investments in semiconductors through 2030 by allocating tens billions of dollars of new money to the sector.
Continue ReadingThe price of bitcoin has taken a nosedive after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company was suspending plans to accept the cryptocurrency as payment for electric vehicles. Bitcoin was down around 12% early Thursday morning ET — bringing the coin’s price down to about $50,900, according to cryptocurrency news website Coindesk. Musk cited the
Continue ReadingElon Musk says Tesla is abandoning plans to accept bitcoin as payment for the company’s electric vehicles, citing the cryptocurrency’s high environmental cost after months of being bullish on it. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,”
Continue ReadingA new reality TV show called “Unicorn Hunters” borrows the pitch-for-fame-and-fortune concept popularized by “Shark Tank” but adds an unusual twist: It’s not just the judges throwing money at the businesses. Viewers at home can invest, too. The new streaming series — which debuted Monday on its website, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook Video — features
Continue ReadingIt might seem a bit late to fill the job, but Colonial Pipeline had been looking for a cyber security manager weeks before the ransomware attack. Too bad it didn’t find one. The company last week suffered one of the highest profile ransomware attacks ever, which shut down a vital artery used to get gasoline
Continue ReadingThe US government will no longer blacklist Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, lifting a short and contentious ban on Americans investing in the company that was introduced by the Trump administration. The US Department of Defense and Xiaomi reached an agreement to set aside the ban on Tuesday, according to a US court filing. The “parties
Continue ReadingA thousand-year-old poem just cost Chinese delivery giant Meituan tens of billions of dollars in market value, further rattling a tech industry that is already on edge. The firestorm erupted after Meituan founder and CEO Wang Xing posted a poem from the Tang dynasty era on social media last Thursday. Wang’s original post on the
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A team from Oregon State University is the first college student group in Oregon to fire a liquid bipropellant rocket engine and one of eight finalists in a $1 million competition to send a rocket to outer space, 100 kilometers from the Earth.
Continue ReadingFacebook’s plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13 continues to get backlash. On Monday, 44 attorneys general signed a letter addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to scrap plans for an Instagram intended for younger users, citing mental health and privacy concerns. The letter comes less
Continue ReadingSpaceX is claiming it will accept dogecoin — the somewhat satirical but popular cryptocurrency — as payment for an upcoming mission. A Canadian company called the Geometric Energy Corporation confirmed that it will pay SpaceX solely in dogecoin in order to secure a spot for an 88-pound satellite on a mission, called Doge-1, slated to
Continue ReadingIs Fortnite a game? An app? An expansive virtual universe? All of the above? Is an iPhone just another gaming device, or a tightly controlled ecosystem? And is it really as secure as it is reputed to be? These are just some of the many questions that have come up so far and been debated
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