The Indian connection: MurdochGate, IE user's IQ, S&P
There's an Indian connection to the phone hacking scandal leading to the end of a 168 year-old publication, a report claiming IE users are dumb and the more recent economic crisis courtesy S&P downgrading the United States' credit rating.
MurdochGate #NotW:
Rupert Murdoch owned English publication News of the World was shut down in light of a phone hacking scandal. The scandal involved the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, phones of 9/11 victims and others being hacked. The fallout led to the UK Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson resigning. As investigations into the scandal continue, Indian IT Services company - HCL is now in midst of the controversy. The IT administration for News International was handled by HCL and as part of the inquiry, the Home Affairs Committee questioned HCL about emails that were deleted. In response, HCL clarified that while News International asked HCL to delete emails, these requests were in line with standard IT practices for data management. HCL explained they deleted emails stuck in outbox, pruned email archives and cleaned the public folder of a user no longer in need of the emails.
HCL stated they did not store any emails on behalf of News International. In a statement the company said, "In light of some regrettable comments made over the last few days, we categorically confirm that HCL Technologies does not and has not stored any data either in the UK or anywhere else in the world."
Dumb IE Users:
Two weeks back, reports about a study claiming users browsing the web on Microsoft's Internet Explorer were dumber than Chrome or Opera users surfaced. The study backed their assertions on results to an online IQ test. BBC did some digging and found the study to be a fake. As it turns out the research organization behind the study, AptiQuant, does not exist. As later explained by Tarandeep Gill, the whole incident was an attempt at getting users to dump older IE versions.
My credit score as bad as the US government's:
The global markets saw a bloodbath today morning with close to $2.5 Trillion being lost. This was a result of the US debt-ceiling crisis and S&P's decision to downgrade the United States' credit rating. While the Indian connection to the story isn't related to technology per-say, however, S&P is currently being led by Deven Sharma. Currently an American, Sharma hails from Jharkhand. S&P has however stated that they will not be downgrading the 4 AAA-rated US companies. Microsoft and Automated Data Processing are the two tech companies that will retain their credit ratings. As my colleague Zack Whittaker wrote, Microsoft has a higher credit rating than the US government.