Mike Wheatley
Latest from Mike Wheatley
Google crushes Authors Guild in long-running book scanning dispute
For almost a decade, the Authors Guild has waged a bitter war against Google and its massive book search engine project, accusing it of violating copyrights on an industrial scale by scanning the pages of millions of books and uploading these to the web. Google fought back hard, arguing that it’s Books project is actually ...
AWS unveils new security service + games, apps and desktops streamed from the cloud
Amazon Web Services rolled out a series of important, but admittedly not groundbreaking, services yesterday during day two of its AWS Re:Invent conference. The services were introduced by Andrew Jassy, senior vice president of Web Services at Amazon.com, during his keynote yesterday. AWS’ new products continue a regular trend that has seen the company roll ...
“No Thanks” – Snapchat snubbed Facebook’s $3B buyout offer
Did Facebook really offer $3 billion to buy the popular messaging service Snapchat? The Wall Street Journal says that it did, citing “unnamed people briefed on the matter” in its report. The WSJ says that Facebook’s seemingly ludicrous offer reflects the growing interest around new online messaging services and other social media formats. But more ...
CEOs porn habits are biggest threat to IT security
It’s a dirty little secret but its one that needs to be let out of the bag. IT professionals spend a lot of time worrying about security threats to their organizations from hackers and corrupt employees, but according to a new study from ThreatTrack, the bigger risk lies at the top of the tree. The ...
Microsoft just became a much nicer place to work
Microsoft employees woke up to some good news this morning, when bosses sent out a company-wide email announcing the end of its despised “stack ranking” review system for workers’ performance. The email, which was obtained by the ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, came from Lisa Brummel, executive VP of Redmond’s human resources department, and explained that ...
Hong Kong Bitcoin site GBL goes missing along with $4.1M in investors’ cash
Bitcoin’s popularity in China has exploded in recent months, but its not just investors who’ve been tempted by the profit potential of digital currency trading – now it seems that scammers and fraudsters are every bit as keen to get in on the act, having recently made off with millions of dollars worth of Chinese ...
Apple Maps is back on track, fast catching up with Google Maps on iOS
Apple Maps has been subject to all kinds of jeering and finger pointing over the last year or so, and for good reason too – its made numerous high profile mishaps since it was first released. For example, the app was said to be potentially “life threatening” by police in Australia after a number of ...
How GCHQ faked LinkedIn and Slashdot to hack Belgacom, OPEC & others
Last September, Belgacom, one of the leading telecommunications providers in Belgium, reported that its systems had been infiltrated by a western intelligence agency. This was big news for a couple of reasons – one, because Belgacom provides internet access to dozens of key EU institutions based in its capital city Brussels; and two, because of ...
Microsoft shouldn’t ditch Bing or the Xbox: It’s not just about the money
There’s been lots of talk over the future direction of Microsoft over the last week, with shortlists of CEO candidates being drawn up and rumors that whoever takes over might decide to drop some of its less-profitable business, including the Xbox console and its search engine Bing. Last Friday, the big story was a report ...
China’s military hacks ongoing, driven deeper underground
And now, thanks to the NSA, we can’t even take the moral high ground… The public exposure of Chinese military hacking group PLA Unit 61398, also known as APT1 or Comment Crew, has done nothing to stop its activities, merely driving its members further underground, warns a new US congressional report. It was almost ...