international

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By Joseph Menn and Yeganeh Torbati SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iranian hackers have compromised more than a dozen accounts on the Telegram instant messaging service and identified the phone numbers of 15 million Iranian users, the largest known breach of the encrypted communications system, cyber researchers told Reuters. The attacks, which took place this year and have not been previously reported, jeopardized the communications of activists, journalists and other people in sensitive positions in Iran, where Telegram is used by some 20 million people, said independent cyber researcher Collin Anderson and Amnesty International technologist Claudio Guarnieri, who have been studying Iranian hacking groups for three years. Telegram promotes itself as an ultra secure instant messaging system because all data is encrypted from start to finish, known in the industry as end-to-end encryption.

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By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google has no plans to expand its partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to create a self-driving car, the program chief at the Alphabet Inc unit said on Thursday, affirming that the technology company was still in talks with other potential partners. Earlier this month, Google and Fiat Chrysler agreed to work together to build a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans in the most advanced collaboration to date between Silicon Valley and a traditional carmaker. Google said it was not sharing proprietary self-driving vehicle technology with Fiat Chrysler, and that the vehicles would not be offered for sale.

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Apple Inc's mobile wallet Apple Pay is winning over more U.S. households a year after its launch, but growth has slowed, research released on Monday showed. Fourteen percent of U.S. households with credit cards had signed up for the payment option by the end of September, up from 11 percent in February, Phoenix Marketing International said at a payments conference in Las Vegas. “A very rapid initial threshold was achieved by Apple Pay and it is still growing but the growth rate has slowed down,” said Greg Weed, director of card performance research at Phoenix.

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The announcement by FCA US LLC, formerly Chrysler Group LLC, comes more than a month after the company recalled about 1.4 million vehicles in the United States for the software update. FCA said on Friday that it was unaware of any injuries related to software exploitation. The recalled vehicles include 2015 Jeep Renegade SUVs equipped with 6.5-inch touchscreens.

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(Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp reported a 12 percent fall in first-quarter revenue as the technology company continues to shed unprofitable businesses to focus on cloud-computing initiatives. It was the 12th straight quarter that the Armonk, New York-based company reported a drop in quarterly revenue, including the effects of currency. IBM's revenue has been shrinking for three years now as the company sheds low-profit businesses such as cash registers, low-end servers and semiconductors and focuses on emerging areas such as security software and cloud services, but the new businesses have so far failed to make up for revenue lost to divestitures. Some top shareholders have sought help from activist investors to shake up the company, Reuters reported earlier this month IBM did say that it has generated $7.7 billion in total cloud revenue over the past 12 months, up sharply from the year before.

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd rose more than 3 percent early on Monday ahead of the release of its guidance on first-quarter earnings scheduled for Tuesday. Samsung Electronics was up 3.2 percent and trading at 1,480,000 won as of 0109 GMT. (Reporting by Yeawon Choi; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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(Reuters) – Seeking to extend its range of secure mobile devices, BlackBerry Ltd said on Saturday it was launching a high-security tablet, developed with International Business Machines Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. The SecuTABLET, based on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and being presented by BlackBerry unit Secusmart at tech fair CeBIT 2015 in Germany, reflects the Canadian company's stress on secure connections for governments and businesses as it seeks to preserve a niche market after a drubbing in recent years at the hands of emerging smartphone makers such as Apple Inc. “Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry’s portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions,” said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, chief executive officer of Secusmart GmbH, in a statement on the new device. The device was undergoing certification by the German Federal Office for Information Security for secure rating, the statement said, adding that the new tablet used the same security technology as the Secusmart Security Card.

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Verizon Communications Inc's quarterly revenue rose 6.8 percent due to an increase in subscribers who pay for services after use, and a rise in average revenue per account as users added more devices to shared data plans. Shares in Verizon dipped slightly to $47.95 in premarket trading after closing at $48.25 on Wednesday. Excluding items, Verizon earned 71 cents per share, matching Wall street estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to $33.19 billion from $31.07 billion, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $32.69 billion. Verizon's retail postpaid average revenue per account rose to $158.82 from $157.21, but was below $161.64 estimated by analysts polled by research firm StreetAccount.

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By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp Chief Executive Brian Krzanich showed off a computer built into a jacket button and a wristband that transforms into a selfie-snapping flying camera, as the chipmaker extends its push into smart wearable gadgets. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Krzanich also announced a five-year, $300 million investment in math-related education and other programs to help employ more women and minorities in the technology and the video game industries. …

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By Ritsuko Ando LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Sony Corp Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai on Tuesday said he does not expect the November cyber attack on the company's film studio to have a significant financial impact, two weeks after the studio rolled out the movie at the heart of the attack. The studio, Sony Pictures Entertainment, said separately that the film, “The Interview,” has generated revenue of $36 million. Hirai told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that he had signed off on all major decisions by the company in response to the attack, which the U.S. …