Inside the Russian hack of Yahoo: How they did it

One mistaken click. That’s all it took for hackers aligned with the Russian state security service to gain access to Yahoo’s network and potentially the email messages and private information of as many as 500 million people. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the intrusion for two years, but it was only in late…

Crime ring used Amazon, eBay to sell stolen printer ink

Apparently, big bucks can be made selling stolen printer ink cartridges online. A dozen suspects are accused of pulling in more than US$12 million by selling the stolen cartridges and retail electronics on Amazon and eBay, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Wednesday. Sixty-four-year-old Richard Rimbaugh allegedly led the operation for more than 20…

Startup works on safer carbon-ion batteries

New non-flammable, quick-charging batteries being demonstrated by private startup ZapGo Ltd. could begin showing up in popular smartphones in the next two years. ZapGo’s carbon-ion batteries promise to be a safe replacement for the billions of lithium-ion batteries already used in smartphones, electric scooters, vehicles and industrial devices. Lithium-ion batteries in several products, including the…

Chrome makes power move, suppresses background tabs

Google’s latest upgrade to the Chrome browser began what will be a series of moves over the next several years to reduce the browser’s power consumption by limiting activity in background tabs. “Starting in version 57, Chrome will throttle individual background tabs by limiting the timer fire rate for background tabs using excessive power,” Alexander…