A survey of 500 information technology decision-makers in Britain has found that a significant number of companies are stockpiling bitcoin in anticipation of a ransomware attack. The survey, from the United Kingdom office of Citrix Systems Inc., found that 42 percent of those surveyed said their companies were hoarding bitcoin they could use to mitigate a future ...

Irish financial technology startup Plynk Ltd. has raised $28 million in a Series A round that was led by Swiss Privée International Ltd. Founded in 2015, Plynk offers a “money messaging app” that facilitates peer-to-peer payments between its users in a way that removes the complexities of money transfers among family and friends. The app allows users to ...

Project Wing, the drone program from Google Inc. parent Alphabet Inc., just hit a new milestone by demonstrating that its air traffic management platform for unmanned aircraft systems works. The successful test revealed Wednesday was part of a set of nationwide tests being undertaken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration. ...

In a play reminiscent of George Orwell’s “1984,” Facebook Inc. has filed a patent that proposes a method by which it would spy on users through their webcams or smartphone cameras so the social network can better tailor content and advertising. The patent, Techniques For Emotion Detection And Content Delivery, describes a method by which Facebook ...

A 14-year-old child in Osaka, Japan, has been arrested for creating and distributing ransomware, the first known arrest in the country for the crime and also potentially the youngest ransomware maker arrested anywhere in the world to date. The unnamed child, who is said to be a third-grade junior high school student, was arrested June 5 ...

If you’re looking for a tech job that will be in abundance in the years ahead, the cybersecurity marketplace will be the ideal place to find one, according to a newly published report on the employment prospects in the sector. The report, from Cybersecurity Ventures Inc., found that the skills shortage will get a lot ...

In a complaint reminiscent of the battle over the default installation of Internet Explorer nearly 20 years ago, Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft Corp. alleging that the bundling of Windows Defender with Windows constitutes unfair competition. In the complaint, lodged with the European Commission and the German federal cartel office, Kaspersky claims ...

The long-running case against two bogus bitcoin mining companies has come to an end. The Securities and Exchange Commission finally won a default judgment of $11.38 million in a case that goes back 18 months. GAW Miners and ZenMiner were first alleged by the SEC to be operating a Ponzi scheme in December 2015 following an investigation that ...

Ride-hailing startup Lyft Inc. has once again boosted its efforts to deploy self-driving vehicles with the announcement of a new partnership with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based self-driving vehicle software maker nuTonomy. The deal, described as a strategic research and development partnership “focused on understanding and optimizing the end-to-end experience of autonomous vehicle passengers,” will see both companies aligning ...

Mobile authentication startup KryptCo Inc. has raised $1.2 million in seed funding to help software developers protect their encryption keys. The brand-new company founded this year by two former Massachusetts Institute of Technology students, Alex Grinman and Kevin King, in conjunction with their professor, David Gifford. KryptCo offers Kryptonite, a smartphone app that is designed to allow ...