Duncan Riley

Duncan Riley is a senior writer at SiliconANGLE covering Startups, Bitcoin, and the Internet of Things. Duncan is a co-founder of VC funded media company B5Media and founder of news site The Inquisitr, and was a senior writer at TechCrunch in its earlier days. Tips? Press releases? Intersting startup? email: duncan@nichenet.com.au or contact Duncan on Twitter @duncanriley

Latest from Duncan Riley

White House proposes law to let law enforcement shoot down drones

The Trump administration wants to shoot down drones. While that statement may sound extreme in an era of “fake news,” it actually has a factual basis. The White House is said to be floating proposed legislation that would allow federal law enforcement officials to track, commandeer, disable, hack or destroy drones flying in the United States. ...

Russian group delivers the first unhackable quantum-safe blockchain

Quantum computing and the blockchain both get plenty of attention in 2017, and now researchers in Russia have combined the two to create what they claim is an unhackable distributed-ledger platform. The new technology, described as the “first quantum-safe blockchain,” promises to make it secure for organizations to transfer data without the fear of hacking from ...

Social-justice kumbaya version of Reddit closes after burning through $11M in funding

Imzy, a site founded by former Reddit Inc. Vice President Dan McComas and pitched as a safe-space alternative to Reddit itself, is folding up shop. McComas posted Wednesday that despite having raised $11 million in venture capital funding, the site was shutting down. Announced in April 2016, Imzy, created by Saurus Inc., attempted to take on the ...

Harvesting kinetic energy from walking may be the future of authentication

Newly published research has found that it may be possible to use kinetic energy — that is, the unique signature created by energy created by the body when a person is walking — for authentication instead. The research, published by The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, found that it is possible to use ...

Bank-backed blockchain development consortium R3 raises $107M

Blockchain development consortium R3 CEV LLC has raised $107 million as part of an initial two tranches of a Series A funding. The investors are a veritable Who’s Who of financial institutions, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, plus 30 others with Intel Corp. participating as well. The round was initially ...

This company has released a browser to deliver a decentralized Internet

While it’s said that art usually imitates life, sometimes life can imitate art. Fans of HBO’s hilarious “Silicon Valley” television series would know that this season has seen character Richard Hendrix attempting to build a decentralized Internet that doesn’t rely on centralized control, and now a company has announced that it is building just that with blockchain ...

Samsung Galaxy S8 iris scanner hacked using basic, everyday items

Hackers have published details of a method to break the iris-based authentication in Samsung’s Galaxy S8 that involves the use of a number of basic, everyday items. Published by German whitehat hacking group Chaos Computer Club, the hack involves the use of a digital camera, a laser printer (with Samsung models apparently working best) and a contact ...

Hackers use WannaCry ransomware news to trick users into installing malware

Hackers are using news coverage of the spread of the WannaCry ransomware to trick people into installing malware pretending to offer a patch to prevent infection. First detected in the United Kingdom, the phishing campaign pretends to be from BT Group plc. That’s the company formerly known as British Telecom, which is still the country’s ...

Supreme Court rules patent trolls can no longer ‘shop’ for favorable venues

The United States Supreme Court has just dealt a big blow to “patent trolls” that buy up patents to license them or sue companies for infringing on them. The high court ruled on Monday that cases related to patents can only be filed in the jurisdiction where the company targeted is incorporated, appearing to deal ...

DJI announces it will cripple its popular drones unless users register them

In a controversial move, Chinese drone maker DJI (Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology Co. Ltd.) has announced that customers who purchase their drones will be required to register the drone online with them otherwise the drones will not work as advertised. Coming only days after a court found that the Federal Aviation Administration’s drone registration ...