An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals have granted Microsoft, IBM and Amazon the ability to access identifiable patient information under deals to crunch millions of health records, the latest examples of hospitals’ growing influence in the data economy. This breadth of access wasn’t always spelled out by hospitals and tech giants when the deals were…
Tag: Protected
Microsoft Patches Major Windows 10 Vulnerability After NSA Warning
Microsoft on Tuesday patched an extraordinarily serious security vulnerability in a core cryptographic component present in all versions of Windows. The vulnerability was spotted and reported by the NSA. CNBC reports: The flaw affected encryption of digital signatures used to authenticate content, including software or files. If exploited, the flaw could allow criminals to send malicious content with fake signatures that…
How Facebook Tried To Defend Its Privacy Policies at CES
Slashdot reader Tekla Perry found some interesting quotes in IEEE Spectrum’s “View From the Valley” blog: Apple, Facebook, and Proctor & Gamble executives faced some tough questions about privacy during a CES panel, and pushback from U.S. FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. In one exchanged, Facebook’s representative argued that Apple’s model of adding noise to data to keep it anonymous and avoiding…
Researchers Develop Universal Flu Vaccine With Nanoparticles That Protect Against Six Different Viruses
clm1970 shares a report from Georgia State University: A novel nanoparticle vaccine that combines two major influenza proteins is effective in providing broad, long-lasting protection against influenza virus in mice, showing promise as a universal flu vaccine, according to a study by the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. The double-layered nanoparticle vaccine contains the influenza virus proteins matrix…
January’s birthstone is the garnet
Happy birthday January babies! Your birthstone is the garnet. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/january-birthstone-garnet…
Scientists Store Data in Synthetic DNA Embedded in a Plastic Bunny
A new method for preserving genetically encoded data into common manufacturing materials is reported. From a report: The future of digital memory may be inside a small plastic bunny that contains 3-D printing instructions for replicating itself stored in artificial DNA, said scientists Monday, who announced a method for mixing genetically encoded data into common manufacturing materials. The scientists sealed the…
New names for 112 exoplanets and their stars
Hundreds of thousands of people from 112 countries helped select names for distant exoplanets and their stars. So, for example, the exoplanet formerly known as HAT-P-36b – about 1,000 light-years away – now also carries the name Bran, from an Irish legend. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-exoplanet-names-dec2019…
Engineer Says Google Fired Her For Browser Pop-Up About Worker Rights
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Another former employee has accused Google of violating federal labor law by firing her for activities related to labor organizing. In a Tuesday blog post, Kathryn Spiers says Google terminated her after she created a browser tool to notify employees of their organizing rights. Spiers says she worked on a Google security…
Will Tesla’s Rooftop Solar Panels Revolutionize the Power Industry?
Long-time Slashdot reader 140Mandak262Jamuna brings news of a triumph for a Tesla power project in South Australia: about 900 residential rooftop solar panels, coupled with storage batteries, “all linked up to central control, to form what they are calling a ‘Virtual Power Plant.'” Nothing virtual about it, distributed power plant would have been a better name. That project, designed to link…
Jury Sides With Elon Musk, Rejects $190M Defamation Claim Over Tweet
Aighearach (Slashdot reader #97,333) shared this story from Reuters: Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk emerged victorious on Friday from a closely watched defamation trial as a federal court jury swiftly rejected the $190 million claim brought against him by a British cave explorer who Musk had branded a “pedo guy” on Twitter. The unanimous verdict by a panel of five women…