The cybersecurity startup ecosystem has an unlikely benefactor: Edward Snowden. When Snowden famously exposed post-9/11 National Security Agency mass-surveillance practices in 2013, the whistleblower changed the face of the cybersecurity threat and ignited record levels of venture capital into security. In 2014, cybersecurity startups raised a record $2.4 billion in venture funding worldwide, says CB Insights, a venture investment database. CB
Sixteen months after Google bought Nest Labs, the home-automation firm has the industry wondering where it’s going next. With $3.2 billion of acquisition money in the bank, it could try to rule the home Internet of Things, but will it? The company denies any plans to turn its devices into smart hubs that manage other smart-home products and says that it won’t sell data gathered in owners’ homes. What Nest does matters. Among the scores of
Late last month, the Obama administration rolled out a five-point plan to combat drug-resistant bacteria, which it said causes 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths in the U.S. alone every year. A report describing the plan, issued in response to President Obama’s executive order last September, noted along the way that antibiotics haven’t been getting much love from private businesses. “Despite the urgent need for new antibiotics, the number of