Andrew Blake

Benjamin Netanyahu stresses cybersecurity in Davos during talks with Silicon Valley leaders

Cybersecurity dominated discussions led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Davos this week as the Israeli leader attended the World Economic Forum to talk with tech titans in-between meetings with the likes of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.

January 21, 2016

Volvo stands by promise of producing ‘death-proof’ cars by 2020

Volvo has doubled-down on its promise of putting "death-proof" cars on the road by 2020. Already several years into researching ways to reduce automobile fatalities, the car maker is now claiming to be closer than ever.

January 21, 2016

Bernie Sanders uses Simon and Garfunkel classic in push before Iowa, N.H.

Sen. Bernard Sanders' attempt at securing the Democratic nomination for president has turned to folk duo Simon and Garfunkel.

January 21, 2016

Obama motorcade delayed due to one inch of snow during Wednesday storm

What would have normally been a 25-minute trip for President Obama's motorcade Wednesday night lasted nearly an hour longer than usual after barely an inch of snow dusted the D.C. region.

January 21, 2016

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook exec, touts taking down Islamic State with online ‘like attack’

As governments struggle to sack the Islamic State terror group from social media, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday that netizens can assist with those efforts by acting overly nice.

January 21, 2016

Drone crashes doubled for the Air Force between 2014 and 2015

Drones operated by the U.S. Air Force crashed in record numbers last year, with 20 unmanned aerial vehicles having been either completely destroyed or heavily damaged -- each one costing at least $2 million, a new investigation revealed.

January 21, 2016

Attorney: FBI created case against Woodbridge man accused of helping friend’s failed ISIS bid

The terror case against an area man accused of facilitating another's attempt at joining the Islamic State group was fabricated by the FBI, his attorney told reporters outside a federal court house in Alexandria on Tuesday.

January 20, 2016

Scam artists go after D.C. residents with government grants while fake IRS agents reign nationwide

Fraudsters fronting as tax agents were responsible for the bulk of the scams brought to the attention of the Better Business Bureau in 2015, but residents of the Washington, D.C. area were more likely to be the targeted with false promises of free government money those than most anywhere else in America, an investigation has revealed.

January 20, 2016

Iranian pardoned in prisoner swap pleaded guilty to computer hacking six weeks earlier

Nima Golestaneh, one of the seven Iranians pardoned by the Obama administration this week as part of an agreement between Washington and Tehran, pleaded guilty to computer hacking in early December and was previously on an Interpol watch list.

January 20, 2016

Lawmakers float new commission to solve government’s ‘going dark’ encryption dilemma

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they want privacy advocates, law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley stakeholders to work together toward solving the so-called "going dark" problem caused by criminals and terrorists who secretly communicate with strong end-to-end encryption.

January 20, 2016

Military bases ratchet up REAL ID restrictions, refuse non-compliant driver’s licenses

Driver's licenses issued out of Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington state will no longer be accepted at American military bases as proof of identity, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, because those states have failed to implement security measures mandated by a federal law enacted more than a decade ago.

January 20, 2016

San Bernardino sees major spike in requests for concealed gun permits in weeks since terror attack

Requests for concealed gun permits increased by nine-fold in San Bernardino County in the weeks after a husband and wife went on a shooting rampage there that claimed 14 victims, newly released data revealed.

January 20, 2016

KKK fliers distributed in at least four cities on Martin Luther King Day

Monday's holiday in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was marred in no fewer than four cities from coast to coast where residents received fliers advertising a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

January 19, 2016

YouTube returns to Pakistan after 3-year ban imposed in response to anti-Muslim video

Pakistan has ended its 3-year ban on YouTube after the video-sharing site agreed to create a country-specific portal that allows government regulators to easily flag offensive content for removal.

January 19, 2016

Pro-Palestine hackers strike again with attack against John Holdren, senior White House adviser

John Holdren, President Obama's senior adviser on science and technology, is one of the latest government officials to be targeted by hackers, the White House has confirmed.

January 19, 2016

Russian censors say emojis don’t violate ‘gay propaganda’ ban

The Russian government has concluded that emojis that come pre-installed on Apple iPhones don't violate the federal law against promoting homosexuality to minors, sparing the Silicon Valley company from being fined for infringing on the Kremlin's so-called "gay propaganda" ban.

January 19, 2016

Matthew Bissonnette, Navy SEAL involved in Bin Laden raid, kept photo of the corpse: report

Matthew Bissonnette, a former Navy SEAL involved in the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, kept a photo of the slain Al Qaeda leader's corpse on a hard-drive that he has since surrendered to federal investigators, multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Intercept.

January 19, 2016

Maria Gonzalez, New York woman, faces jail time for violating protection order with Facebook posts

A judge in upstate New York has upheld second-degree criminal contempt charges against a local woman who violated a protection order by tagging her former sister-in-law on Facebook.

January 18, 2016

Cyberattacks against critical manufacturers nearly doubled in 2015: government report

Cyberattacks waged against the nation's critical manufacturing sector nearly doubled in fiscal year 2015, government experts said in a new report.

January 18, 2016

Penthouse announces end to print magazine after 50 years

Penthouse will no longer put out print editions of its monthly adult magazine, shifting its focus instead toward the digital realm after more than 50 years, its publisher announced Friday.

January 18, 2016