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10 tech things we didn't know a week ago

Behind on the news and hungry for more? Here's what we learned this week — including iOS 7.1, Android malware, Google Glass in hospitals, and Congressional hypocrisy.
By Zack Whittaker, Contributor
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1 of 10 TechRepublic/CBS Interactive

1. How Box became a $2bn business without its founders' killing each other

Aaron Levie founded and leads Box, an enterprise storage firm, which remains one of the most hotly-anticipated technology public flotations of the year. Yet unlike many bosses of major Silicon Valley firms, he managed to appease investors, staff, customers, and new clients all without throwing his childhood friends — many of which came to work for him — under the bus. A tale of success from school to the stock market, Box may still be small but remains probably one of the best companies to work for, according to TechRepublic's inside track. 

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2 of 10 CNET/CBS Interactive

2. Android malware almost doubled in the fourth-quarter

Android malware has rocketed during the fourth-quarter of 2013, according to McAfee — which isn't surprising considering it's the most popular mobile platform in the world by a long shot, taking in about three-quarters of all market share. During 2013, the antivirus firm collected 2.47 million new mobile samples, with 744,000 alone during the three-month period at the end of the year. Unique samples grew by 197 percent from the end of 2012, the company said.

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3 of 10 CNET, ZDNet/CBS Interactive

3. Upgrading to iOS 7.1 may actually speed up your iPhone 4

iOS 7 was arguably designed with the latest iPhones in mind, both of which are more powerful and capable than their predecessors. It wasn't therefore a surprise when iPhone 4 users who received the upgrade complained their smartphone would slow down and crash even more than before. But with the latest iterative version, iOS 7.1, Apple reckons it has fixed this, making older phones running the new software even faster than ever, making the opportunity for users to upgrade almost impossible to turn down.

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4 of 10 Netflix

4. Netflix actually got faster after it opened its wallet

Popular television streaming service Netflix agreed earlier in late February week to pay Comcast to ensure its video content streams as fast as it should, even though Netflix will not receive any extra bandwidth for the privilege of coughing up the dough. After the video streaming firm opened its wallet (though it declined Verizon's kind offer for the same treatment) Netflix actually got faster, according to its latest speed rankings. For now, Comcast customers may see a little relief for the rights to access certain exclusive content on the Internet streaming service.

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5 of 10 Dianne Feinstein/U.S. Senate

5. Senators don't mind government surveillance, so long as they're exempt

Oh, the hypocrisy — which many were to point out, including whistleblower Edward Snowden — that chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) supported the NSA spying on Americans, but loses her mind when the CIA searched congressional computers. The accusations were that the CIA secretly removed documents from committee members' computers in response to an investigation into activities by the intelligence agency. CIA director John Brennan denied the agency snooped on lawmaker's computers, however. 

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6 of 10 The Intercept/NSA

6. NSA 'hijacked' malware, botnets to grab passwords, crack VPN encryption

Another day, yet another story about the National Security Agency's mass surveillance machine. The latest documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, published by The Intercept, cite 2009-dated slides that suggest the NSA was able to piggyback off malware and botnets and infiltrate a huge number of computers. So-called 'implants' were able to crack virtual-private networking (VPN) encryption, and others were able to siphon off Web browsing history and passwords. The NSA rebuffed the report as "inaccurate," denying it used its tools to "impersonate U.S. company websites."

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7 of 10 World Wide Web Consortium

7. World Wide Web inventor says it 'still needs work,' even 25 years later

Nobody's perfect, and even the technologies that have been around for more than one-quarter of a century aren't either. Maybe if the NSA hadn't blown it in the last few years with its encryption cracking, cable tapping, mass surveillance spying endeavors, Sir Tim Berners-Lee would be a little more upbeat. In speaking to sister-site CNET, the Web's inventor admitted that the Web had gone a long way but there was more work to be done, and that there needed to be more ways to "bridge cultural divides." 

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8 of 10 John D. Halamka MD/Blogspot

8. ER doctors are now using Google Glass to identify patients

Don't even think about calling this doctor a "glasshole." One tech-savvy Boston hospital developed an app for the wearable Google Glass gadget that uses scannable QR codes on patient rooms to dig up data that's viewable on the tiny prism display. That helps the doctor see vital signs, lab results, and other data. And the best bit is that because it's a custom medical app for Glass, it keeps private medical data off Google's servers.

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9 of 10 CNET

9. Samsung phones have a backdoor that can read storage, modem data

Controversy stirred this week as the developers behind Android-based CyanogenMod claimed to have discovered a backdoor in Samsung's Galaxy devices, which could allow remote viewable access to files and data stored on the popular smartphone and tablet range. It would be an NSA analyst's dream to gain access to these devices, because according to the CyanogenMod's chief developer Paul Kocialkowski said such access would turn the phone into an advanced spying tool.

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10 of 10 Target

10. Target could've stopped a massive 40 million card data breach, but didn't

Target's credit card data breach that was uncovered earlier this year may have been the biggest data breach in U.S. history. But, according to a new report, the massive hack could have been prevented. An alert system that was meant to send alarm bells ringing if data was stolen or a hack was detected were not responded to, which led more than 40 million card details and 70 million addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information pouring out of the company's databases.

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