Connected cars will add to mobile traffic jams
Expect mobile networks to struggle as they are called on to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars. Traffic growth from M2M (machine to machine) connections, particularly from cars, will cause headaches for mobile operators, says Machina Research. Car connections are expected to surpass 500 million in 2019 and then 1 billion in 2023, when they will account for more than half of all M2M connections over cellular networks. And they’ll use lots of data, thanks to connected entertainment and navigation systems.
U.S. seeks to clamp down on exports of cybersecurity tools, zero-day exploits
The U.S. government is proposing to add some computer security tools to a list of sensitive technologies that are restricted by export controls to keep them out of the wrong hands. If the Commerce Department has its way, you’ll need a license in order to export some tools used for penetrating systems and analyzing network communications. But the proposed rules go even further, and also want to ban export of information about zero-day exploits. Some in the security community think the restrictions are too broad, and could actually damage global cybersecurity efforts and collaboration.
Google said to be prepping an OS for the IoT too
Just a day after Huawei made its pitch to provide the OS to underlie Internet of Things implementations—hardly the first company to toss its hat into that ring—come reports that Google is planning its move in the space as well. Google’s Android team is said to be building an OS code-named Brillo that will run on low-powered devices with just 32 MB of RAM. That’s still targeting far bulkier “things” than Huawei’s LiteOS, which can run in just 10KB.
HP’s sales and profits drop
With its split into two companies just a few months away, Hewlett-Packard saw its second quarter net income fall 21 percent to $1 billion. Revenue fell 7 percent to $25.5 billion, the 15th straight quarter of declining sales. While revenue declined across HP’s portfolio of businesses, enterprise services were particularly hard hit with a 16 percent drop, and software sales fell 8 percent.
Facebook, Twitter and Google face block in Russia
The Russian government has warned Google, Twitter and Facebook that their services could be blocked if they don’t follow rules that require them to provide information on bloggers and take down posts inciting protests, according to Reuters. Given the encryption used by the Internet companies, Russia can’t block specific content, and so would have to resort to blocking their entire services, a spokesman for the country’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor said.
Hookup site’s data breached, user files posted online
Dating site Adult Friend Finder was apparently the victim of a data breach two months ago, and records containing detailed information on about 4 million users remain online in an underground forum. The site’s owner FriendFinder Networks said that it’s working with a computer security firm and law-enforcement. The site claims about 40 million members.
Scott McNealy is back, running a startup
One of the titans of the last Silicon Valley tech boom is back. Scott McNealy, who ran Sun Microsystems back in the day and ushered in the Unix era, not to mention Java, is now CEO at Wayin, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Denver startup “helps firms turn posts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter into marketing messages,” the Journal says.
Google working on Maps search to fix ugly White House results
Google is tweaking its Maps search system after racist search terms brought up the White House among their top results. It’s updating its ranking system to address a majority of the searches in question, and the work already seemed to be reflected in results by late on Thursday.
Watch now
Take a video look back at this week in the The Wrap: a United plane is hacked by a security researcher, President Obama joins Twitter and Google shows two ambitious projects.
One last thing
Minecraft + YouTube = the path to Internet stardom—at least among tweens. Here are some of the secrets to success.
