WhatsApp, the messaging platform that is perhaps the most widely used in the world, certainly carries a lot of business data. That data has become a bit more secure: WhatsApp is now using end-to end-encryption, according to ITWeb.
Of course, the U.S. government and Apple have had a showdown over the rights of authorities to get access to messages. WhatsApp’s move seems to be a response to that. It was not a spur of the moment move, however:
WhatsApp began working on developing full end-to-end encryption on its messages about two years ago with the help of software provided by Open Whisper Systems, a security non-profit.
The service began encrypting text messages between two users in 2014. At that time, group messages and those containing rich media were not fully encrypted as they are now, the story says.
Brocade Buys Ruckus
Hardware vendor Brocade wants to be a bigger player in enterprise wireless networking. It is making a move by acquiring Ruckus Wireless, according to Network World.
Ruckus will be a division of Brocade and operate under Selina Lo, who is currently the company’s CEO. The interpretation in the story is that things will continue about as they did before, with Lo reporting to Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney.
Autonomous Vehicles: Vi Fick Oss en Konvoj, Bra Kompis
People think of autonomous vehicles in terms of cars. The trend will have a big influence on trucking, as well. In a step toward autonomous trucking, about a dozen trucks linked in a semi-autonomous manner this week completed The European Truck Platooning Challenge, a trek across Europe.
PCMag says that truck platoons are comprised of two or three trucks working together. If the leader applied its brakes, the rest all would as well. The trucks executed other steps in a similar synchronous manner.
Six groups of such smaller bands of trucks, from DAF, Daimler, Iveco, MAN, Scania and Volvo, travelled from Sweden to the Netherlands. During the 1,200 mile trek, the trucks uncoupled if conditions were poor and recoupled when they improved.
The headline above, by the way, translates from the Swedish into “We’ve Got Ourselves a Convoy, Good Buddy.”
VW Using Mirantis OpenStack
The Volkswagen Group will use the Mirantis distribution of OpenStack to create a private cloud for its suppliers, dealers and various brands in the VW Group. The company said that Mirantis is “the fastest and most stable variant” it looked at, according to ComputerWeekly, which says that it may be the first of several announcements from Volkswagen:
Computer Weekly understands the project is part of a wider push by Volkswagen to ramp up its use of both private and public cloud technologies. This is so its application development teams can benefit from faster access to compute resources, rather than having to rely on lengthier, on-premise procurement cycles.
Nokia Planning Cuts After Alcatel-Lucent Deal Closes
A report in The Wall Street Journal said that Nokia will cut thousands of jobs worldwide in the wake of its merger with Alcatel-Lucent.
The report said that 1,300 employees will be cut from three offices in Finland. About 400 positions will be eliminated in France, and 1,400 in Germany. The cuts will occur between now and 2018 and are aimed at helping created a promised $1 billion in synergies due to the combination of the two companies.
One bit of good news: The WirelessWeek story on the report said that 500 research and development jobs will be added in France.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
