Obama turns focus to Internet security, privacy

By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will highlight plans next week to protect American consumers and businesses from cyber threats, a month after the most high-profile hacking attack on a U.S. company. Internet security became a national focus after a cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blamed on North Korea

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MI5 chief warns al Qaeda in Syria planning mass attacks on West

By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or “iconic targets”, the head of MI5 Security Service said on Thursday. Speaking after gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on a French satirical newspaper, MI5 boss Andrew Parker warned a strike on the United Kingdom was highly likely. “A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,” Director General Parker said in a rare public speech at MI5 headquarters in London

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Sony trying to find alternatives to release ‘The Interview’

By Mary Milliken LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sony Pictures said on Friday it is looking for alternatives to release “The Interview” after it scrapped the Christmas Day theatrical opening of the screwball comedy at the center of a cyber attack on the studio blamed on North Korea. After a rare public shaming of a corporation by President Barack Obama, who said Sony Pictures made a mistake in pulling the film and bowing to intimidation, chief executive Michael Lynton told CNN he hoped that the public would see the film but no other platform had shown interest.

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