San Francisco officials have been quietly scrambling since early February to patch a security vulnerability in the city’s outdoor alert system that, if left unaddressed, could have allowed hackers to seize control of the city’s network of 114 emergency sirens. Now, the Department of Technology says the problem has been fixed.
Two major U.S. cities were crippled this week by ransomware, but even in the heart of Silicon Valley, Bay Area government officials tasked with safeguarding a growing trove of sensitive data feel vulnerable to what they see as a constant and ever-evolving threat.
Three years after installing millions of dollars worth of "smart" parking meters, the city of Sacramento is about to remove 175 of them on four streets, including one entire side of J Street in midtown, in an area populated by many state government offices. The reason: The meter sensors cannot handle a new task being asked of them.
California officials say they plan to review the cause of an Arizona pedestrian fatality Sunday night involving an autonomous Uber vehicle, but indicated they have no plans as of now to delay next month's planned testing of robot cars in the state.
State Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced legislation that looks to maintain net neutrality rules recently scuttled by the Federal Communications Commission, setting up a likely showdown with influential Internet companies and, if his bill passes, with the Trump administration in court.
There's a new robot taxi service in San Francisco — but it's only for people working on Uber's self-driving-car project. The purpose is twofold: to give engineers a visceral sense of the technology they're developing, and to gain real-life feedback on operating a robot-taxi service.
A Tesla Semi, still technically a prototype vehicle, was recently seen driving on Interstate 80 in the Sacramento area, as documented by a YouTube video uploaded by another driver. The "wild" Semi spotting already has tech blogs and self-driving car enthusiasts bubbling. And there's speculation that the I-80 route, passing through Sacramento, may be used regularly.
A group of sprawling, expensive state technology projects stands to gain another $100 million in spending under budget proposals advocated by Gov. Jerry Brown’s office. His administration is requesting the money to complete a $909 million accounting project, a $386 million project for prison inmate health records, a $281 million tax collection program and a $96 million professional licensing program.
In our search for tech news, we come across stories that don’t make the cut to appear in Techwire but that are worth mentioning. Herewith, some recent finds that may have escaped your radar.
Silicon Valley remains the nation's leader in tech job creation, but its innovation economy is imperiled by inadequate levels of housing construction, skyrocketing home prices and a migration of residents to other states, a new study has found.
Assemblyman Ed Chau wants Facebook and other social media sites to obtain clear permission from parents before allowing children and teens to use their services, and he's proposing legislation to that end.
Californians trust the tech industry more than any other — yet they think it needs to be regulated, and they blame social media for fake news, a new survey says.
As Silicon Valley companies collect an ever-growing amount of data about their users, a Bay Area-based state legislator wants to create a California regulatory agency to protect personal information.
Two Sacramento Bee databases on a third-party computer server were seized last month by an anonymous hacker who demanded The Bee pay a ransom in bitcoin to get the data back.
San Francisco's attempt to bring affordable, high-speed Internet service to every home and business in the city was set to take a major step forward today as city officials began choosing private-sector partners to build the network at the lowest possible cost.
A member of the California Energy Commission, along with many in the solar industry and environmental movements, is warning that the Trump administration's planned tariffs on imported solar technology could cost jobs and raise prices for homeowners.
A California congressman wants to meet with the top three microchip makers to better understand the implications of two security flaws that affect almost all computing devices in the world.
A national survey has determined that Sacramento is among the top 20 U.S. cities for STEM professionals. Other California cities on the list include San Jose (20th), Los Angeles (35th), Bakersfield (62nd), Riverside (83rd), Fresno (87th), Stockton (91st) and Oxnard (92nd).
The complexity of mapping high-risk fire areas has caused new delays in California's regulatory efforts, and the Public Utilities Commission is set to vote on whether to grant another deadline extension.
State lawmakers have introduced a bill to bolster the ability of emergency officials to contact residents who may be in harm's way — a topic that has been scrutinized since last year's devastating Napa and Sonoma County wildfires. The legislation would create uniform statewide emergency notification protocols and would require all counties to develop and adopt guidelines for using Wireless Emergency Alerts.
State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco introduced a bill this week that would require telecommunications companies doing business in the state to guarantee equal Internet access. The bill is a reaction to last month’s Federal Communications Commission decision to revoke nationwide net neutrality regulations.
California lawmakers focused this last legislative session on keeping personal data collected by state and local agencies away from the federal government. In the coming year, their attention is likely to turn to private companies and how they protect consumers' information.
Caltrain, the Altamont Corridor Express and Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor have all installed some or all of the equipment required for positive train control and expect to be testing the systems in 2018. Officials of all three rail lines said they expect to meet the deadlines.
Sac State, city and regional transit officials plan to make a pitch early in 2018 to tech firms for help in figuring out how to put a shuttle system together.
