Technology

On Wednesday, in a security hearing that called both Equifax and Yahoo's past and present executives to Washington D.C., we're learning a bit more about what Yahoo didn't know about the biggest hack in history. When pressed about how Yahoo failed to recognize that 3 billion accounts — and not 500 million as first reported — were compromised in what was later revealed to be a state sponsored attack by Russia, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer admitted that the specifics of the attack still remain unknown. "To this day we have not been able to identify the intrusion that led to this theft," Mayer told the Senate Commerce Committee. "We don't exactly understand how the act was perpetrated. That certainly led to some of the areas where we had gaps of information." Notably, while Mayer is no longer with the company, Verizon Chief Privacy Officer Karen Zacharia, also present on the panel, did not chime in to disagree with that assessment. Yahoo did not ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologized on Wednesday for a pair of massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks involving major U.S. companies. "As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users," she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc (EFX.N) and a senior Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) executive. "Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users' data." Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc's assets in June, the same month Mayer stepped down. Verizon disclosed last month that a 2013 Yahoo data breach affected all 3 b...

SpaceX suffered an explosion of one of its Falcon 9 rocket engines during qualification testing at its facility in McGregor, Texas, per The Verge. The failure resulting in the explosion occurred on Sunday, and the company is now underway with investigations designed to determine what went wrong that resulted in the incident. The Merlin engine explosion did not result in any injuries to personnel, but the component was intended to be used during a launch late last year. Even so, it shouldn't impact SpaceX's launch manifest or plans going forward, according to the company. For now, however, all testing at the McGregor facility is on hold while the investigation into the cause proceeds. Repairs might be completed before the investigation delivers its findings, however, and it will continue with its planned launches in the next few weeks while also running the investigation and sharing results publicly when appropriate. SpaceX has had a very good year so far, with 16 total suc...

Apple Inc., seeking a breakthrough product to succeed the iPhone, aims to have technology ready for an augmented-reality headset in 2019 and could ship a product as early as 2020. Unlike the current generation of virtual reality headsets that use a smartphone as the engine and screen, Apple's device will have its own display and run on a new chip and operating system, according to people familiar with the situation. The development timeline is very aggressive and could still change, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak freely about a private matter. While virtual reality immerses the user in a digital world, augmented reality overlays images and data on the real one. The applications for AR are endless, from a basketball fan getting stats while watching a game to a mechanic streaming instructions on how to fix a specific piece of equipment. Apple isn't the only company working on the technology. Google, which drew derision for $1,500 smart glasses a few years ag...

It's Alexa's birthday, and Amazon has announced a brief promotion that will see some sizable savings on devices powered by the virtual assistant. While it might be traditional to receive gifts on a birthday, Amazon has flipped that around and is offering a variety of deals on Alexa-powered devices. The promotion ranges from the cheapest Echo Dot, though to third-party hardware like the Alexa-powered Ecobee4 thermostat, along with Fire tablets and more. However, the latest Echo (2017) and Echo Plus are not part of the promotion. Amazon's newest models – including the Echo Plus with its Zigbee-based smart home hub functionality – are still full-price, having only just started shipping. Still, there's some decent cuts all the same. The Amazon Tap, the Alexa-powered Bluetooth speaker, is $50 off, while if you buy three Echo Dots you'll save $33. Since Alexa is smart enough to not only figure out who is talking from the registered users, but to recognize which Echo uni...

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider Veterans to Dreamforce, the annual user conference for Salesforce, swear by the Partyforce app for finding the best free nightlife during the conference. The app tracks sponsored parties throughout the city and lets users create an agenda of events they want to go to. This year, the team behind the app will even give an update when parties get sold out or over capacity. Dreamforce attendees on the hunt for free concerts and drinks at sponsored events around the city should look no further than Partyforce, an app designed specifically for tracking parties during Salesforce's annual user conference, coming up in San Francisco from November 6 to 9. Screenshot/Partyforce The app, a free download by the digital event marketing company DoubleDutch, lets users view which parties are happening when during ...

Enlarge / T-Mobile and Sprint stores in Herald Square in New York City in 2011. Getty Images | Richard Levine reader comments 56 Share this story T-Mobile USA and Sprint today finally gave a definitive answer about whether they will merge. The telecom giants said that they have stopped negotiating and will remain independent entities. The wireless carriers "were unable to find mutually agreeable terms" and want to "put an end to the extensive speculation around a transaction," they said in a joint announcement. Over the past few weeks, numerous merger updates have bubbled up from anonymous sources. Initially, the merger seemed to be a done deal. Merger talks then seemed to break down, only to be revived again a couple days ago. But none of those rumors were confirmed by the companies' chief executives. That changed today when T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure both said that there won't be a...

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham asks people in line at a Los Angeles Apple Store the first thing they want to do with their new iPhone X's. USA TODAY LOS ANGELES â€" Consumers turned out in droves over the weekend to buy Apple's most expensive iPhone ever, the iPhone X, and by Sunday it was as good as sold out.  Apple's website reported that the new phone, which starts at $999, was unavailable for pickup in the top cities: New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Washington, DC, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.  A handful of units were available for pickup in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Scottsdale, Tucson, El Paso, Santa Monica and Northridge, California.  Delivery times for online orders is 3-4 weeks, according to Apple. An Apple representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment...

(Reuters) — Communications chipmaker Broadcom Ltd is planning to unveil a bid for smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc by Monday, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, an attempt to create a roughly $200-billion company through the biggest technology acquisition ever. A tie-up would combine two of the largest makers of wireless communications chips for mobile phones and raises the stakes for Intel Corp (INTC.O), which has been diversifying into smartphone technology from its stronghold in computers. The value of Broadcom's bid has not been decided, though an offer in the range of around $70 to $80 per share is being contemplated, one of the sources said. At $70 a share, an offer would value Qualcomm at $103 billion. Qualcomm is not aware of the details of Broadcom's bid, and it is far from certain whether it will entertain this deal, the sources said. "It's a smart move that would make Broadcom into a tech juggernaut," said GBH Insights analy...

SHARON â€" Isis Chapman couldn’t wait to compete in her first-ever robotics tournament. The sixth-grader and the members of the C.M. Musser Elementary Tiger Techs team were among more than 100 students who participated in the FIRST LEGO Robotics Tournament held at Case Avenue Elementary School on Saturday. This is also Isis’s first year as a member of Musser’s team. “What made me want to be on the team is because it’s about coding and math, and I really like math,” she said. “After Mr. (Rick) Samoros (Musser’s advisor) gave me the signup sheet, I was really happy.” Having fun while learning is what Dave Tomko strives for as the coordinator of the Robotics Program for the Sharon City School District. “This incorporates STEM education and promotes robotics to the students,” Tomko said. “Hopefully will promote it to the surrounding community to spark an interest in students who might not have had this experience before.” Twelve teams from as far away a...

Authorities say 45% of Americans may have seen fake ads and posts from a propaganda agency tied to the Kremlin on Facebook and Instagram. USA TODAY Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., left, with Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., right, questions Facebook's General Counsel Colin Stretch on the role the company's lack of diversity played in the spread of racist messages by fake Russian accounts.(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP) SAN FRANCISCO â€" In a heated moment during this week's hearings on Russian social media ads, Rep. Terri Sewell questioned whether the dearth of African Americans in Facebook's workforce contributed to the company's failure to catch Russian operatives using fake accounts to stoke racial tensions ahead of last year's presidential election. Displayed behind Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, was one of the Russian-backed ads sharing a famous black-and-white photograph of the Black Panthers from 1968. The message: “Black Panthers were disman...

More Charts   A lot of Apple investors are betting the new iPhone X will trigger a massive consumer buying spree and boost the company's revenues. But even before the iPhone X hit store shelves on Friday, Apple's smartphone business was on the upswing. As we can see in this chart from Statista, shipments of Apple's iPhones increased in the company's recently ended 2017 fiscal year. That's important because in the company's prior fiscal year, the iPhone business experienced its first-ever drop in shipments. At the time, many observers were quick to declare the end of the iPhone phenomenon, citing increasing competition and falling prices. Apple proved the naysayers wrong. Now the company hopes to keep the streak alive with the iPhone X.   BI Graphics Visit Markets Insider for constantly updated market quotes for individual stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies traded ar...

Networking chip design company Aquantia went public on Friday and raised $61 million in its initial public offering. The stock is trading up for the San Jose, California-based maker of network interface cards (NICs) that can transfer data on home and enterprise networks at multiple gigabits per second. The company looks to remove bottlenecks for hyperscale data centers that help companies deal with the tsunami of data generated by computers, smartphones, and the Internet of Things. The IPO is a big milestone for the company, which was founded in 2004. Aquantia issued 6.82 million shares of common stock at $9 a share, and the stock closed trading at $9.54 a share, up 6 percent on its first day. Faraj Aalaei, CEO of Aquantia, rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. "The cost of doing semiconductors has skyrocketed over the last several years, and venture capital funding has gone down in the last nine years for chips," he said in an interview with VentureBeat. ...

Despite what you may have read, Twitter has not rolled out new rules banning porn or pictures of lingerie across its platform. "These Are Twitter's New Rules For Preventing Abuse And Harassment," BuzzFeed News reported Friday morning, spurring a shitstorm as its readers perused the fine print. The "adult or sexual products and services" section caused perhaps the biggest commotion; the ban on "lingerie" seeming especially outrageous. But there are no "new" Twitter rules and the ones outlined by BuzzFeed have existed since at least 2013; basically ab aeterno in internet years. Word that Twitter had banned porn—particularly amid more exigent concerns about literal Nazis with Twitter accounts, as well as the company's role in spreading Russian-bought election propaganda—caused an immediate visceral reaction: "To clarify, none of these rules are new," a Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo (emphasis theirs). "These are our exi...