Business social media network LinkedIn was agreed to buy by microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it is acquiring LinkedIn, the social network for professionals with some 433 million users, for $26.2 billion, or $196 per share, in cash. The transaction has already been approved by both boards, but it must still get regulatory and other approvals.
If for some reason the deal does not go through, LinkedIn will have to pay Microsoft a $725 million termination fee, according to Microsoft’s SEC filing detailing the merger.

How does this work: 

This is  a big deal of course for Microsoft, it’s bringing a key, missing piece into the company’s strategy to build out more services for enterprises, and give it a key way to compete better against the likes of Salesforce (which it also reportedly tried to buy).

Microsoft's core focus was into software and some hardware by way of its very downsized phones business. But LinkedIn will give Microsoft a far bigger reach in terms of social networking services and professional content — developing the early signs of enterprise social networking that it kicked off with its acquisition of Yammer for $1.2 billion in 2012. LinkedIn’s wider social network, pegged as it is to groups of employees and employers, will give Microsoft a sales channel to sell more of its products, and will serve as a complement to those that it already offers for collaboration and communication.

Microsoft has never been a massively successful company when it comes to social networking — although it smartly invested in Facebook before it went public, and as it has been reported before it was apparently interested at one point in trying to make a bid to buy Slack for $8 billion. LinkedIn’s social network will give it a significant foothold in this area.

Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion, inclusive of LinkedIn’s net cash. LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year.

Google Spaces app is referred to as a tool for small group sharing

Google can’t seem to stop making social networks and messaging apps. In fairness, the just announced Spaces app is referred to as a tool for small group sharing. While similar to the Communities feature that Google+ is now built around, the new app seems like a much more focused version of group messaging that better highlights content.

After making or being invited to a topic, users can quickly share articles, videos, and images without leaving the Spaces app. Google Search, YouTube, and Chrome are all built-in. A big focus of the app is to make sharing more seamless by cutting down on manually copying and pasting links.
The browser in Spaces has a big send button to automatically add content to Spaces. The app features a group messaging thread that will notify you of what members in the group are submitting and talking about. Spaces features a search engine to find previously submitted content and has a view to sort by links, photos, and videos.

Users can make a space and invite users through a simple link. Google is announcing Spaces today and the company will be experimenting with it at Google I/O later this week. Each I/O session will have its own space so that developers can connect with each other plus Googlers.
Spaces is rolling out today on iOS, Android, desktop, and mobile web for all Gmail accounts.

One-Time payment To Crack San Bernardino iPhone

There's another new wrinkle in the never-ending FBI vs Apple saga. The Washington Post is claiming that FBI did not require Cellebrite's assistance in hacking San Bernardino iPhone. Instead, the report claims, the government intelligence organization bought a previously unknown security bug from a group of professional hackers. According to the report, the hacker group provided FBI with at least one zero-day flaw in the iPhone 5c's security, which enabled FBI to circumvent the lockscreen and other security features. The bug hasn't been disclosed. FBI has previously noted that the technique it utilized in breaking into the iPhone 5c does not work with any new iPhone models (iPhone 5s or newer).

When you Reboot your PC all your files are gone - Jigsaw Ransomware

Researchers found a new ransomware yesterday called Jigsaw which will first lock your files and ask for a 0.4 Bitcoin ($150 USD) payment. If users don't pay, every hour the ransomware deletes your files. If the user restarts their PC, the ransomware also deletes 1,000 more files. The good news is there's a free Decrypter available to unlock the ransomware. The Decrypter was built by Michael Gillespie, who announced yesterday on Softpedia the ID Ransomware service, which tells infected victims what kind of ransomware infection they have by allowing them to upload an encrypted file and the ransom note.

65-Story Data Center

Two Italian architects have designed a data center that challenges how the structures are built. Instead of constructing a flat, sprawling complex, they are proposing a 65-story data center. From a visual perspective, the circular, futuristic-looking 'Data Tower,' as Marco Merletti and Valeria Mercuri call it, almost seems like something out of Star Trek. But it incorporates sustainable technology for efficiently cooling hundreds of thousands of servers while increasing reliance on automation. The building has a modular, cylindrical design that uses a series of pods to house servers, which are available for service in much the same way automated parking garage move cars. The data tower, as with a radiator, is designed to have the maximum contact surface with the outside. The pods are hooked on to the circular structure of the tower to form a series of vertical blades.

End to End Key Management

CONIKS is an new easy-to-use transparent key-management system:

CONIKS is a key management system for end users capable of integration in end-to-end secure communication services. The main idea is that users should not have to worry about managing encryption keys when they want to communicate securely, but they also should not have to trust their secure communication service providers to act in their interest.

Here's the academic paper. And here's a good discussion of the protocol and how it works. This is the problem they're trying to solve:

One of the main challenges to building usable end-to-end encrypted communication tools is key management. Services such as Apple's iMessage have made encrypted communication available to the masses with an excellent user experience because Apple manages a directory of public keys in a centralized server on behalf of their users. But this also means users have to trust that Apple's key server won't be compromised or compelled by hackers or nation-state actors to insert spurious keys to intercept and manipulate users' encrypted messages. The alternative, and more secure, approach is to have the service provider delegate key management to the users so they aren't vulnerable to a compromised centralized key server. This is how Google's End-To-End works right now. But decentralized key management means users must "manually" verify each other's keys to be sure that the keys they see for one another are valid, a process that several studies have shown to be cumbersome and error-prone for the vast majority of users. So users must make the choice between strong security and great usability.

And here is CONIKS:

In CONIKS, communication service providers (e.g. Google, Apple) run centralized key servers so that users don't have to worry about encryption keys, but the main difference is CONIKS key servers store the public keys in a tamper-evident directory that is publicly auditable yet privacy-preserving. On a regular basis, CONIKS key servers publish directory summaries, which allow users in the system to verify they are seeing consistent information. To achieve this transparent key management, CONIKS uses various cryptographic mechanisms that leave undeniable evidence if any malicious outsider or insider were to tamper with any key in the directory and present different parties different views of the directory. These consistency checks can be automated and built into the communication apps to minimize user involvement.

WhatsApp took charge after apple's fbi case

WhatsApp is now end-to-end encrypted.
Here's the WhatsApp security page, and here's the technical whitepaper.