Daily Tech Briefing: July 21, 2014

Independent security consultant Jesus Molina will expose the risks of hotel automation systems at the upcoming Black Hat security conference that starts Aug. 5. One hotel he visited was the St. Regis Shen Zhen hotel in China.

While there, he noticed that there is an Apple iPad that hotel guests can use to control various functions in the room. He dug deeper and discovered there was a way he could gain control of all room attributes in nearly any room in the hotel that he wanted, because the network used for the room automation technology was not secure.

When IBM announced in January that it was selling its x86 server business to Lenovo, a $4 billion market opportunity opened up. Soon after, Hewlett-Packard made a move to cash in on this opportunity by launching a program called Project Smart Choice, complete with a Website, designed to attract IBM server customers who may be looking for alternatives to Lenovo.

Now, HP is expanding its marketing campaign, with a full-page ad in The New York Times asking businesses whether their “server vendor is planning its exit strategy” and then inviting them to “join us to plan your forward strategy.”

An internal FBI report has revealed that the agency is concerned about the role that driverless cars being developed by Google and other companies could play in high-speed pursuits of criminals and even terrorist bomb attacks on civilian targets. According to The Guardian, the FBI believes these cars could be “game-changers” that have the opportunity to revolutionize high-speed car chases within a matter of years.

The New York State Department of Financial Services released its proposed framework for Bitcoin regulation on July 17. Part of this framework is a proposed BitLicense, which will regulate Bitcoin and other virtual currency services in New York State. Many requirements in the BitLicense aim to protect consumers and help prevent fraud.