What I'm Reading 2/3/2020

Yahoo - Germany Is Afraid of America's 'Big Tech' -

(M)any German business and political leaders don’t see things that way. Not at all. But how could they, really? As a great new piece in the Financial Times notes, not only is Apple alone worth more than 20 times German industrial giant Siemens, but “at $1.35tn the iPhone maker is worth more than the entire Dax index of Germany’s 30 leading companies.” That disparity, FT reporters Patrick McGee and Guy Chazin continue, “is a striking example of how Europe’s largest economy risks being left behind by the 21st century tech boom.”

BBC- Coronavirus: China accuses US of causing panic and 'spreading fear' -

The Chinese government has accused the US of causing "panic" in its response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

It follows the US decision to declare a public health emergency and deny entry to foreign nationals who had visited China in the past two weeks.

There are more than 17,000 confirmed cases of the virus in China. Some 361 people have died there.

 NBC - American universities are a soft target for China's spies, say U.S. intelligence officials -

It was a brazen scheme to steal another company's product, according to a federal criminal complaint.

University of Texas professor Bo Mao, prosecutors say, took proprietary technology from an American Silicon Valley start-up and handed it over to a subsidiary of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications conglomerate.

But what makes the case against Mao particularly noteworthy is how he was accused of carrying out the theft: By using his status as a university researcher to obtain the circuit board under the guise of academic testing.

Endgadget - Iran says it will launch an observation satellite 'in the coming days' -

Iran is set to become the latest country to launch an observation satellite, according to the country's national space agency. The satellite, named Zafar (which means victory in Farsi), began development three years ago. It will be launched by a Simorgh rocket 329 miles above the Earth, and will make 15 orbits daily, collecting imagery to help with the study of natural disasters and agriculture.

The Register - Cover for 'cyber' attacks is risky, complex and people don't trust us, moan insurers -

He said: "There is an operational risk from the insurer's perspective. From the security side, itself, an insurer is one of the most vulnerable companies, maybe, in the market when it comes to cybersecurity."

Speaking alongside Samsom was Frederic Rousseau of the French arm of insurance firm Hiscox, who, through a translator, bemoaned his industry's early "lack of consistency" revealing that "five or six years ago" potential customers "were faced with a market which didn't speak with one same voice". Potential customers, he argued, were less likely to pay for insurance products unless the EU market was able to explain precisely what it would and wouldn't pay out on.