The Switch: The time a major financial institution was hacked in under 15 minutes

Today's technology and tech policy news  •  Wed., Jan. 14, 2015 View in your Web browser

The time a major financial institution was hacked in under 15 minutes Online attacks against such prominent targets as Sony, Target and Home Depot have brought cybersecurity and digital privacy to the forefront of the national consciousness. But as the technologies we use grow more sophisticated, so will criminals' attempts to defeat them, according to Chris Doggett, North American managing director of Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based international information security firm. In an interview this month in Washington, Doggett said financial fraud and identity theft pose far more danger to Americans than shadowy hacking groups such as Lizard Squad, which has taken partial credit for breaching Sony's systems. He added that no network is ever completely secure — as one major Wall Street client found out when Doggett was working as a private security consultant. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.  Read full article »

Bitcoin falls below $200 — the lowest price since 2013

Bitcoin, the digital currency and anonymous online payment system, got a rough start in 2015 when a major exchange announced a breach. Things were looking even more dire Wednesday, when another price plummet pushed Bitcoin below $200 for the first time since the fall of 2013.  Read full article »

Alleged online drug kingpin’s defense: There was a ‘Princess Bride’ style switch-up at the Silk Road

The Silk Road trial has just begun, but bombshells are already being dropped. The first came from the defense of Ross Ulbricht, the man the government alleges was the pseudonymous "Dread Pirate Roberts" behind a sprawling online black market that notoriously dealt in drugs.  Read full article »

Innovations: Carmakers keep investing in apps that tell you not to drive. Here’s why that’s a shrewd move.

How city-dwellers get from point A to point B keeps getting more attention, and car ownership is getting left in the rear-view mirror.Moovit, a public transportation app that uses crowdsourcing to help commuters pick the fastest route, announced Wednesday that it has raised $50 million from a handful of investors, including BMW iVentures.  Read full article »

The Switchboard: Obama urges end of state laws limiting municipal broadband

Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of handpicked stories from the Switch team.Obama wants to help make your Internet faster and cheaper. This is his plan. The White House announced a new proposal to expand broadband access in the U.S. with a focus on municipal broadband networks. "He'll write to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to help neutralize laws, erected by states, that effectively protect large established Internet providers against the threat represented by cities that want to build and offer their own, municipal Internet service," the Switch's Brian Fung reports -- and the president will "direct federal agencies to expand grants and loans for these projects and for smaller, rural Internet providers."  Read full article »

Obama wants to help make your Internet faster and cheaper. This is his plan.

Frustrated over the number of Internet providers that are available to you? If so, you're like many who are limited to just a handful of broadband companies. But now President Obama wants to change that, arguing that choice and competition are lacking in the U.S. broadband market. On Wednesday, Obama will unveil a series of measures aimed at making high-speed Web connections cheaper and more widely available to millions of Americans. The announcement will focus chiefly on efforts by cities to build their own alternatives to major Internet providers such as Comcast, Verizon or AT&T — a public option for Internet access, you could say.  Read full article »

FEATURED COMICS
	Read Dilbert
	Read The Post's Comic Riffs blog