FBI reveals 1991 probe of Steve Jobs
The FBI today made public a background investigation of Steve Jobs in 1991, when he was being considered by the George H. W. Bush administration for a spot on the President's Export Council.
The council is a group that advises the President on international trade. Current members include the CEOs of such U.S. firms as Boeing, UPS, Verizon, Walt Disney and Xerox.
In 1991, Jobs was the CEO of NeXT, the computer company he founded after being forced out of Apple. Subsequently, Jobs returned to Apple, which he co-founded in 1976, where he remained until his death last October at age 56. Read more...
Court rules that HP’s Hurd investigation document can remain secret
A document tied to an internal Hewlett-Packard sexual harassment investigation of former CEO Mark Hurd will remain sealed, according to a ruling handed down this week by the Delaware Supreme Court.
HP shareholder Ernesto Espinoza had filed a lawsuit seeking to inspect the document, which was prepared by the law firm Covington and Burling on HP's behalf.
The Delaware Chancery Court had already ruled against Espinoza on grounds his need to see the document wasn't sufficient enough to override "attorney-client privilege and work product immunity protections," the state supreme court said in its ruling, which was handed down Monday. "We affirm, but on the alternative ground that Espinoza has not shown that the Covington Report is essential to his stated purpose, which is to investigate possible corporate wrongdoing." Read more...
House committee to investigate China’s Huawei, ZTE
A U.S. House Intelligence Committee is launching an investigation into Chinese telecommunication equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE to determine whether the companies pose a security threat to the U.S.
The investigation will examine if Huawei's and ZTE's expansion into the U.S. market gives the Chinese government an opportunity to hijack the nation's infrastructure to conduct espionage. U.S. lawmakers worry that the networking equipment sold could secretly contain Chinese military technology to spy on U.S. telecommunications.
"The fact that our critical infrastructure could be used against us is of serious concern," said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who along with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger announced the investigation in a statement Thursday.
The investigation is the latest obstacle Huawei has faced in its U.S. business activities. In September, the U.S. Department of Commerce said it had informed Huawei that the company was barred from participating in a project to build a national wireless network. The Department of Commerce has declined to explain why, citing security reasons. Read more...
Nokia developer forum hacked, still unavailable
The community section of Nokia's developer site was hacked, and some member's email addresses have been accessed, the mobile phone maker said.
The part of the site has been taken down, and instead delivers a statement from the company about the hack.
Nokia said that during its ongoing investigation of the incident, it discovered that a database table containing email addresses of developer forum members was accessed, by exploiting a vulnerability in the bulletin board software that allowed an SQL injection attack. Read more...