Tech News

Yahoo Lays Off 15% of Its Workforce

Troubles continue for the legendary Internet giant Yahoo with the announcement that the company is laying off 15% of its staff. Write-offs on previous investments led to Yahoo posting a $4.4 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2015, causing the need for decisive action to put the house in order and stave off an investor revolt.

The company will close several offices, including offices in Milan, Madrid, Dubai, and Mexico City. The layoffs are expected to save around $400 million per year in expenses. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been under fire in recent months from investors who are impatient for the company to recover its footing. In many ways, it is remarkable that Yahoo still exists, considering it has given up much of its original market position in the search business to Google and Microsoft. The company has continued to operate a broad range of services and media while retaining enough stake in the search biz to keep a stream of ad revenue. The Yahoo board of directors is apparently considering all options, including a sale of the company, to maximize shareholder value.

Bad Trojan Threatens Two Thirds of All Android Devices

A malicious Android ransomware attack, which was first discovered in 2014, has returned with some new tactics that are succeeding in infecting Android devices around the world. According to a recent post at the Symantec site, the Android.Lockdroid.E attack affects all Android versions before Android 5 "Lollipop," which means it threatens around 67% of all Android phones.

The new version of Android.Lockdroid.E offers to install a package for the user to obtain admin privileges for the device. Once it has admin privileges, it can do anything to the device, including locking or deleting the data or even changing the device PIN.

Most versions of the attack eventually lead to the trojan encrypting the user data and insisting that the user pay a "penalty" for accessing forbidden materials online.