2012: Siri Is a Stunner, Amazon Is Amazin’ and Security Gets Spendy

Tech prognosticator Mark Anderson is back in New York with his annual predictions for the world of tech in 2012.
2012

One More Reason Not to Sell Fake Chips: Prison

A Florida woman is sentenced to three years in prison and fined $166,000 for selling counterfeit chips to more than 1,000 buyers, among them companies selling equipment to the U.S. Navy.
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Terror-Fighting Start-Up Palantir Technologies Just Raised $68 Million — But From Whom?

An SEC filing shows the secretive data analytics firm has been busy raising money. Again.
alexkarp

Cyberwar: It’s Not Just Fiction Anymore

After surviving numerous devastating wars throughout history, humanity is well acquainted with war in the physical realm. But we’re still unfamiliar with the concept of cyberwar, except perhaps in movie thrillers. That’s all about to change.
Warroom

Voices

Cyberwar Plan Has New Focus on Deterrence

The military must move from defending against major cyberattacks to deterring assaults by letting enemies know the U.S. is willing to retaliate with its own virtual weapons or military force, a top general said Thursday.

Defense Contractor Booz Allen Is Latest Target of Hacker Group Anonymous

The hackers formerly known as LulzSec has a new target in its sights: Defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The company confirmed an attack yesterday, though so far it’s not clear that it means anything.
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Seven Questions for Iridium CEO Matthew Desch — Yes, That Iridium

If you remember Iridium as the Motorola-backed satellite phone network that demonstrated the height of 1990s telecom hubris, it’s time to take a second look. The new Iridium has been publicly held for two years, is turning a profit, growing like crazy, and is drawing up plans for new satellites.
Telecommunications. Satellite : IRIDIUM NEXT constellation

Voices

Egypt.com: Is It Time to Invest in Egyptian Start-ups?

The current upheaval in Egypt reflects pent-up frustration with the regime across a wide swath of society. Among the discontent is a growing class of educated, tech-savvy entrepreneurs hoping for greater stability to attract and reassure foreign investors.

Full Metal iPhone

Air strike? There’s an app for that….The U.S. military may soon add another item to the standard-issue field and garrison furnishings it issues to every soldier: The smartphone. Come 2011, the Army Capabilities Integration Center will begin field-testing phones, network equipment and applications as part of a combat team modernization program called Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications. The first smartphones to be reviewed will be Apple’s iPhone and an Android device.

News Byte

China Telecom Denies U.S. Government Report That It Hijacked Web Traffic

China Telecom issued a statement today denying that it hijacked Internet traffic, in response to a report issued yesterday by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which claims that on April 8, 15 percent of global Web traffic was diverted through Chinese Web servers. The rerouted data reportedly included traffic from U.S. government and military sites, as well as corporate sites like Microsoft and Yahoo.