Skyway Recommended to October 29th
New Reading!: Facebook Curating your News; FCC takes stand against Data Security; Netflix’s bet on UltraHD; FBI to hit back at encrypted cellphones?; Canadians spending more than ever on communications; Almost half of time online on mobile; SSLv3 Support Disabled due to Poodle Vulnerability
NY Times | How Facebook Is Changing the Way Its Users Consume Journalism
Many of the people who read this article will do so because Greg Marra, 26, a Facebook engineer, calculated that it was the kind of thing they might enjoy. Marra’s team designs the code that drives Facebook’s News Feed — the stream of updates, photographs, videos and stories that users see. He is also fast becoming one of the most influential people in the news business. Read More…
Washington Post Blogs | With a $10 million fine, the FCC is leaping into data security for the first time
The Federal Communications Commission leapt into data security litigation recently, levying a $10 million fine against two telecom companies that allegedly stored personally identifiable customer data online without firewalls, encryption or password protection. Read More…
Reviewed.com | Netflix Says 4K Streaming Will Change Web Video Forever
At the annual MIPCOM conference in Cannes, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos revealed that the streaming giant will shoot all of its original content in 4K from here on out. That includes original series like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, as well as movies like the recently announced Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend. Read More…
NY Times | F.B.I. Director Hints at Action as Cellphone Data Is Locked
The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said in a speech to the Brookings Institution that the “post-Snowden pendulum” that has driven Apple and Google to offer fully encrypted cellphones had “gone too far.” He hinted that as a result, the administration might seek regulations and laws forcing companies to create a way for the government to unlock the photos, emails and contacts stored on the phones. Read More…
Toronto Star | Canadians families spent $191 per month in 2013 for communication services: CRTC
Canadian families spent more on communications services in 2013, suggests a report by the CRTC. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says, on average, Canadian families spent $191 per month for cable, cellphone, Internet and home telephone plans. This is up 3.2 per cent from $185 per month in 2012. Read More…
CBC | 49% of time online now spent on mobile devices, comScore says
Canadians are on the verge of passing a major mobile milestone, according to measurement firm comScore. Of all the time Canadians spend online — and it’s a lot, ranking second in the world at 33 hours per month — 49 per cent of it is now tied to mobile devices. Read More…
Cloudflare | SSLv3 Support Disabled By Default Due to POODLE Vulnerability
We’ve recently been tracking rumors about a new vulnerability in SSL. This specific vulnerability, which was just announced, targets SSLv3. The vulnerability allows an attacker to add padding to a request in order to then calculate the plaintext of encryption using the SSLv3 protocol. Effectively, this allows an attacker to compromise the encryption when using the SSLv3 protocol. Full details have been published by Google in a paper which dubs the bug POODLE (PDF). Read More…