Shooting in building where AirBnB is based leaves two dead

The offices of Zynga, Pinterest, AirBnB and other companies in San Francisco's South of Market District were under lockdown Friday after a shooting at a nearby store located in the same building as AirBnB's headquarters.

Two people were killed and one was injured in the incident at a jewelry store at 888 Brannan St. at about 2 p.m. local time Friday, according to local news reports.

The suspect emerged from the store "covered in blood" and fired at police before he apparently ran out of ammunition and surrendered, the San Jose Mercury News reported. No police were injured and no motive had been determined, the paper said.

The jewelry store, near the corner of 8th and Brannan streets, is in the basement of a large building that's also the site of AirBnB's new headquarters a few floors up.

That part of SOMA is also home to a cluster of tech firms that have sprung up over the past few years, including Zynga, which is a block away on 8th and Townsend, Pinterest and Yammer, which is a few blocks up the street.

Several employees at the companies said on Twitter they were told not to leave their building for their own safety. Traffic was backed up for several blocks on adjacent streets and a police helicopter circled for most of the afternoon, but police reportedly think the suspect acted alone.

"For Zyngites safety, Security has a lock down on our building. Until Security receives clearance from SFPD the building will remain on lockdown and exiting will be restricted," Zynga employees were told via email on Friday, according to a screenshot posted to Twitter by an employee.

Researchers warn of “huge” Android security flaw

Security researchers say they have discovered a vulnerability in Android’s security model that could allow attackers to take full control of smartphones running Google's mobile operating system (OS).

The vulnerability allows hackers to modify an app without breaking its cryptographic signature, according to Jeff Forristal, chief technology officer (CTO) at mobile security firm Bluebox.

Android uses cryptographic signatures to determine if the app is legitimate and to verify that the app has not been tampered with or modified.

The ability to bypass this means that hackers could turn any legitimate application into a malicious Trojan, unnoticed by the app store, the phone, or the end user, Forristal wrote in a blog post.

Researchers at Bluebox Labs, who discovered the vulnerability, believe the flaw was introduced with the release of Android 1.6 and could affect up to 900 million devices.

Depending on the type of application, they say a hacker could exploit the vulnerability for anything from data theft to creation of a mobile botnet.

The risk to the enterprise is great, said Forristal, and this risk is compounded by applications developed by the device manufacturers because they are granted special elevated privileges in Android.

“Installation of a Trojan application from the device manufacturer can grant the application full access to Android system and all applications (and their data) currently installed,” he wrote.

This means the application has the ability to read application data on the device such as email, SMS messages and documents, and retrieve all stored account and service passwords.

“It can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function thereof,” said Forristal.

The most unsettling concern, he said, is the potential for a hacker to take advantage of the always-on, always-connected, and always-moving nature of these “zombie” mobile devices to create a botnet.

Bluebox disclosed the Android flaw to Google in February, but said it is up to device manufacturers to release firmware updates for mobile devices and up to users to install them.

Bluebox recommends that:

¦ Device owners use extra caution identifying the publisher of the app they want to download.

¦ Enterprises with BYOD implementations should prompt all users to update their devices and highlight the importance of keeping their devices updated.

¦ IT should see this vulnerability as another driver to move beyond just device management to focus on deep device integrity checking and securing corporate data.

Microsoft's 'enterprise feature pack' for Windows Phone adds auto VPN

Microsoft said Wednesday that it planned to release an “enterprise feature pack” for corporations who wish to adopt Windows Phone, while extending the support lifecycle for Windows Phone 8 to 36 months, through 2016.

The new feature pack includes VPN functionality that will automatically trigger when protected resources are accessed, Microsoft said, plus S/MIME to sign and encrypt email and EAP-TLS enterprise Wi-Fi support. The pack will be released in the first half of 2014, Microsoft said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Microsoft
The real question, however, is whether Microsoft’s carrier partners will allow the feature pack to be pushed to their customer’s phones—or, at least, that was what virtually every commenter on Microsoft’s post had in mind. Carriers typically review, test, and deploy new OS upgrades over a matter of months, with no guarantee that updates will actually be pushed to consumers.



And while Microsoft also extended the support lifecycle of Windows Phone 8, it did not extend that same courtesy to those who own Windows Phone 7 devices, making Microsoft’s older platform less attractive. Microsoft will make updates, including security updates, available on WP7 phones for a total of 18 months, or until Sept. 9, 2014. At that point, they’ll be forced to shift over to WP8 phones, which will be supported, including security updates, through Jan. 12, 2016. (TechHive has rounded up eight other reasons for upgrading to Windows Phone and WP8, and written a Windows Phone SuperGuide, to boot.)

In all, however, Microsoft hopes that businesses sign on to the Windows Phone platform with the same enthusiasm they've shown for Windows 8. (Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, told attendees at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference that 73 percent of enterprises are “current” on Windows.)

MicrosoftYou could be seeing this screen in a corporate environment if Microsoft has its way.
”By lengthening the Windows Phone support lifecycle policy and announcing the enterprise feature pack, we show Microsoft’s commitment to the Windows Phone platform,” Tony Mestres, vice president of Windows Phone partner and channel marketing, wrote. “This gives business customers the confidence to invest in Windows Phone today, with the knowledge that their investments are secure, and the platform is evolving to be an even better choice for business.”

The full list of the enterprise feature pack includes:
S/MIME to sign and encrypt emailAccess to corporate resources behind the firewall with app aware, auto-triggered VPNEnterprise Wi-Fi support with EAP-TLSEnhanced MDM policies to lock down functionality on the phone for more enterprise control, in addition to richer application management such as allowing or denying installation of certain appsCertificate management to enroll, update, and revoke certificates for user authentication
Nevertheless, some users were doubtful that they’d ever see what Microsoft promised. “This is all excellent news, and I can’t wait for this to be available... but how will this feature pack be released?” a commenter named “GoodThings2Life” wrote. “Will we continue to be at the mercy of carriers and OEMs to publish this in a timely manner, or will it be available as a store app or customer-installable or enterprise-pushable update?

”I vividly remember Joe Belfiore saying at 2012 Build and again at the WP8 launch event how we would be able to participate in an Early Adopter style program, and that has yet to materialize for customers,” the commenter added. “I would hate to see another situation where we’re stuck waiting on OEMs and carriers.”

Bits Blog: Coursera, an Online Education Company, Raises Another $43 Million

Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times Daphne Koller, a co-founder of Coursera, at the company’s offices in Mountain View, Calif. Over the next few months, Coursera plans to double its employees to about 100.
Coursera, a year-old company offering free online courses, has raised another $43 million in venture capital from investors active in both domestic and international education.

The new investors include the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank, and Laureate Education, an international higher education company with dozens of profit-making universities around the world, as well as GSV Capital, Learn Capital and Yuri Milner, an individual entrepreneur.

“We hope it’s enough money to get us to profitability,’’ said Daphne Koller, a co-founder of Coursera. “We haven’t really focused yet on when that might be.’’

Coursera, based in Mountain View, Calif., previously raised $22 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; New Enterprise Associates; and the University of Pennsylvania and California Institute of Technology, two of its university partners.

Over the next few months, Coursera plans to double its employees to about 100, and expand in several areas, including mobile apps and its Signature Track offerings, which charge a fee to students who want an identity-verified certificate upon successful completion of Coursera’s free courses. Since January, when the Signature Track option was first offered in five courses, Signature Track fees have produced more than $800,000, Ms. Koller said — and in the long run, she said, such revenue may be enough to make the company sustainable.

The company also plans to invest in international expansion, through localization, translation and distribution partnerships, and techniques for blended learning, in which Coursera’s online materials are used alongside classroom sessions with a professor.

“We see great potential for using some of the Coursera materials in our universities, so there is a strategic element to this investment,’’ said Douglas L. Becker, chairman and chief executive officer of Laureate. “The I.F.C. made the largest education investment they ever made in Laureate, and they’re joining us in this investment. Coursera allows us to invest in something we see as a rising technology impacting higher education, and gives us access to their content and curriculum.”

Coursera has grown with stunning speed since it began in April 2012, with four university partners. Now, the company works with 83 educational institutions on four continents, offering about 400 free college-level courses to more than four million students from every country in the world.

But after the initial burst of enthusiasm last year about massive open online courses, or MOOCs, and their potential for democratizing higher education worldwide, this year has brought some pushback. Faculty members at several institutions have expressed concern about how the courses may change higher education, how quickly university administrators signed on to work with MOOC providers, and whether the aim is more to save money than improve the quality of education.

So far, most of the students who have completed Coursera MOOCs have been college graduates, and it is still unclear how well the format will work to help students without degrees earn college credit for their online work. Coursera has recently started to market its materials for use by public universities in blended on-campus classes. Universities that use the materials will pay licensing fees, which Coursera will share with the universities that produce the courses.

Panasonic Plasma and More

Since this is the last Gadget of the Week column before Christmas, I decided to lend a hand to any panicked last-minute shopper-or any lucky electronics store gift-card recipient. We covered a lot of great potential gifts in November's tech buyer's guide, but here are a few more essentials: Best Flat Panel TV Deal
Panasonic's 42-in. plasma is the best buy in high-definition flat panels right now. The most popular model is the TH-42PX60U, which Wal-Mart and Amazon.com sell for under $1,400 (if you can find it). There's another Panasonic plasma with an even better price tag, the $1,300 TH-42PX6U. It delivers the exact same picture quality as the pricier one, but just so you know, it doesn't have front A/V inputs, which gamers like, and it doesn't have an SD card slot for reviewing photos you took with your digital camera. Most Packed Digital Camera
Speaking of digital cameras, the Nikon CoolPix S7c is really my favorite compact model of the season. It is as reliable as the Canons, and for $350, carries more bells than Santa's sleigh. Its selling feature is Wi-Fi for online photo management, but some even cooler features are deeply buried: the time-lapse shooting feature lets you take pictures say, every five seconds, or every hour. Each shot is added as a frame to a little movie, so you can duplicate, at home, those memorable videos depicting flowers opening, or a building job getting completed at high speed. The stop-motion animation feature lets you make crazy Claymation movies or animate He-Man and GI Joe figures, like they do on Seth Green's hilarious "Robot Chicken" show. Top iPod Docks
There are more docks than anyone knows what to do with, but when I tested speaker docks over the summer, the Klipsch balanced great sound quality with nice features, like a remote control. If you have a video iPod, you may want to look into a video dock, which has a larger screen. In the buyer's guide we mentioned the 8-in. Memorex iFlip ($200). If you have trouble finding that one, check out the highly rated one from Sonic Impact, which is carried in the Apple Stores. (iPod Video Tip: A fast, convenient way for PC users to make non-copyprotected digital movies ready for an iPod or PSP is with InterVideo's iVideoToGo software; it's $30 at intervideo.com.) Nicest Digital Picture Frame As I mentioned in the magazine this week, I looked at a bunch of digital picture frames, and the one with the best picture quality was Philips' 9-in. 9FF2M4. What I didn't mention in the story is that when you set up a slideshow of pictures, you can select from a variety of transitions, including puzzle pieces that break apart, a George Lucas-style screen slide, or a modern-art style grid pattern. Also, it has a battery so you can display your photos, at least for a few hours, without a power cord.
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