Articles by Richard Adhikari

Wireless carriers pose a threat to mobile phone security, researchers have disclosed Mathew Solnik and Marc Blanchou of Accuvant this week told an audience at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that Android, BlackBerry and some iOS devices are vulnerable....

Some Barnes & Noble customers in Manhattan, West Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area will be able to get same-day delivery of their purchases through Google Shopping Express, according to media reports that surfaced Thursday Barnes & Noble CEO Michael Huseby described the teamup as a test and a way to increase book sales both online and fro...

Some Barnes & Noble customers in Manhattan, West Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area will be able to get same-day delivery of their purchases through Google Shopping Express, according to media reports that surfaced Thursday Barnes & Noble CEO Michael Huseby described the teamup as a test and a way to increase book sales both online and fro...

A Russian cybercriminal gang so far has stolen 4.5 billion credentials, of which 1.2 billion appear to be unique, Hold Security announced Tuesday The credentials belong to more than 500 million email addresses....

Can a hacker take over a passenger jet by sneaking in through its WiFi or in-flight entertainment system? The possibility of that occurring, as suggested by cybersecurity firm IOActive, has security experts hot under the collar....

Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son on Tuesday announced sweeping changes for subsidiary Sprint Effective Aug. 11, President and CEO Dan Hesse is being replaced by Marcelo Claure, founder and CEO of Softbank subsidiary Brightstar. Also, Sprint has dropped plans to purchase T-Mobile....

Researchers from MIT, Microsoft and Adobe have developed an algorithm to extract audio information from video footage They recovered intelligible speech from a video of a potato chip bag that was shot at a distance of 15 feet behind soundproof glass. The team also obtained useful audio signals from videos of aluminum foil, the surface of a glass o...

Navdy has announced an aftermarket car heads-up display (HUD) console that lets drivers access their iOS or Android smartphone's apps without taking their eyes off the road Navdy's concept, Google Glass for cars, may be cool -- but the execution leaves something to be desired. If it were as unobtrusive as the above product image suggests, it might...

Apple reportedly is gearing up to do what it does best -- introduce a new gadget or two. Word is the company will hold a spellbinding iPhone event come Sept. 9 With the dust not quite settled over Apple's recently announced liaison with IBM, it will be interesting to see whether there are any new corporate nuances in the upcoming presentation. Will...

Tesla and Panasonic last week signed what is effectively a memorandum of understanding regarding their collaboration on Tesla's Gigafactory -- a large-scale battery manufacturing facility The agreement sets out the responsibilities of both partners, but there will be further discussions over the details....

The "free Windows 9" rumor once again is making the rounds. The buzz over Microsoft's supposed plan to offer users of Windows XP, Win 7, Win Vista and Win 8 a free upgrade to Windows 9 began in June, sparked by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, who just amplified it with more hints from her sources The second Windows 8.1 update will be delivered Aug. 12, whi...

Microsoft's objections to a court order requiring it to turn over a customer's emails held on a server in Ireland have been rejected Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week issued an oral ruling in the case, reportedly saying the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1996 (ECPA) authorizes ...

News that two Carnegie-Mellon CERT researchers have developed an inexpensive way to breach the Tor network has the project, privacy advocates, and probably criminals who use the network equally concerned The Tor Project posted has advised relays to upgrade to Tor 0.2.r.23e or 0.2.5.6-alpha to close the protocol vulnerability used by the researchers...

Oracle is taking flak over the in-memory database (IMDB) option in Oracle Database 12c, released publicly on Wednesday The trouble began when Kevin Closson, formerly the performance architect in Oracle's Exadata development group, pointed out that the option is turned on by default....

Russia reportedly wants Apple and SAP to turn over their source code in yet another instance of fallout resulting from leaks about NSA surveillance activities The suggestion came last week, Reuters reported, when Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met with executives of the two companies: Peter Nielsen, Apple's general manager in Russia; and...

LittleBits, the maker of what might best be thought of as electronic Lego kits, last week launched cloudBit, a module that provides users with access to the Internet The company also announced RadioShack as its first retail partner....

Samsung has delayed the launch of its Samsung Z smartphone running the Tizen OS, which was scheduled for Q3 release in Russia The move, just short of two months after the Samsung Z's launch at the Tizen Developers Conference, sparked a death watch for the device....

An Android vulnerability that exists in every version from v2.1 Eclair to v. 4.3 Jelly Bean could expose millions of users, Bluebox Security has warned The flaw lets attackers fake the certificates of specially privileged parties, such as Adobe and Google Wallet, and serve them up with malware that bypasses detection by Android....

China's State Administration for Industry & Commerce on Tuesday announced it has launched an investigation into Microsoft under the country's antimonopoly laws, according to press reports The announcement comes days after SAIC officials reportedly raided Microsoft offices in four cities, seizing documents, emails and other data from servers and com...

China is ramping up its campaign against Microsoft, following its ban in May on the installation of Windows 8 on government computers Officials of China's State Administration for Industry & Commerce reportedly have made unannounced visits to Microsoft offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. They apparently questioned staff in at leas...