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Microsoft is buying ten million strands of DNA from biology startup Twist Bioscience to investigate the use of genetic material to store data.

The data density of DNA is orders of magnitude higher than conventional storage systems, with 1 gram of DNA able to represent close to 1 billion terabytes (1 zettabyte) of data. DNA is also remarkably robust; DNA fragments thousands of years old have been successfully sequenced.

These properties make it an intriguing option for long-term data archival. Binary data has already been successfully stored as DNA base pairs, with estimates in 2013 suggesting that it would be economically viable for storage of 500 years or more.

The number of reported breaches of organizations' data has been growing hyperbolically over the past few years, based on data in Verizon's 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). And a major reason for that is that many organizations are still doing security like they were decades ago. The leading cause of reported data breaches, as documented by Verizon, is "miscellaneous errors"—mistakes made by employees—that open the door to attackers.

For those who've followed the recent chain of crypto-ransomware attacks at hospitals around the country, this finding will come as no surprise. Issues such as system misconfiguration, end users sending sensitive data out of the network by mistake, or users clicking on stuff they shouldn't be clicking on were among the errors made by organizations that led to about 18 percent of the data breaches documented in 2015—and were likely the leading contributor to the many incidents that went unreported.

In 63 percent of "confirmed" breaches, attackers took advantage of weak password credentials, default passwords left in place, or passwords that were stolen through phishing attacks or other means. In other words, if organizations were using something other than just usernames and passwords as credentials to gain access to systems, more than half of the data breaches that happened in 2015 would not have occurred.

The US House unanimously approved legislation Wednesday requiring the authorities to obtain a court warrant to acquire e-mail and stored cloud data.

The Email Privacy Act unwinds a President Ronald Reagan-era law that allows the authorities to access e-mail and data from service providers without a warrant if the message or data is at least 180 days old. The 1986 e-mail privacy law, adopted when CompuServe was king, considered cloud-stored e-mail and other documents older than six months to be abandoned and ripe for the taking.

The measure now goes to the Senate, where its passage is unknown. The Senate Judiciary Committee for years has debated, and even passed similar legislation, which has gone nowhere. President Obama must also sign the bill, and it's unlikely yet hopeful it would reach his desk before his term expires in January.

When the drama around NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was unfolding, it felt like watching an incredible spy movie. So it's no surprise that Oliver Stone, a master of political thrillers, is turning the real-life version of Snowden's experiences into a movie that feels—at least in the trailer—as tense and exciting as the latest Mission Impossible installment. Which is good but also means that you'll need to forgive this movie for its unrealistic tech tropes.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, Looper) does a pitch-perfect impression of Snowden as a patriotic geek with smartass tendencies. Injured during military training, he sets his sights on intelligence work, where he scores off the charts on every task the government throws at him. And then one night, one of his fellow intelligence geeks shows him a tool that they can use to spy on everyone in the country. As Snowden has a crisis of conscience, we're treated to one of those classic "hacking scene" moments where a nonexistent piece of software behaves in ways that make no sense, swirling around and showing us random pieces of private data from all the social networks ever. I know, I know. This is not how it happened. Just go with it.

Probably the best part of the trailer, which captures both the serious and mischievous sides of Snowden, is when we see him sneaking data out of the NSA contractor where he works by hiding it on an SD card inside a Rubik's Cube. Then we see a rapid-fire series of scenes where the stakes get higher, Snowen meets with Glenn Greenwald (played by Zachary Quinto, AKA Spock), and the tension mounts as blinky lights illuminate everybody's faces. It's satisfying to see events that aroused so much passion around the world translated into an emotionally gripping story. But "story" is the operative term here. Stone, who co-wrote the film, has taken a lot of liberties to turn this tale of people typing and talking into a suspenseful drama.

Comcast today announced that it will boost its data cap from 300GB per month to 1TB beginning June 1, but will also charge more to customers who want unlimited data.

Comcast has been trialling different caps in various cities in preparation for a potential nationwide rollout. Typically, customers would get 300GB per month and have to pay another $10 for each additional 50GB when they go over. Comcast also allowed customers to pay an extra $30 to $35 a month for unlimited data, depending on the city.

After the June 1 change, fewer customers will need to buy unlimited data—but it will cost them $50 a month to do so instead of $30 or $35. Overage fees will stay the same, $10 for each additional 50GB. Thus far, Comcast has allowed customers to exceed the cap in three "courtesy months" before charging them overage fees.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops have been one of the most successful applications of genetic engineering in agriculture. The crops carry a gene that encodes a bacterial protein that kills insects that ingest it. While it's possible to spray crops with the Bt toxin instead, farms that rely on Bt GMO crops are more profitable, have higher productivity, and use less pesticides.

Unfortunately, evolution isn't sitting still, and Bt-resistant insects are beginning to become a problem. While scientists are developing new crops with other Bt genes and farmers can adopt agricultural practices that limit the risk of resistance, some researchers decided to short-circuit the whole process. In a new paper, they figured out how to evolve a completely new Bt toxin in a virus that infects bacteria and showed that it was effective in killing insects.

The basics of Bt

The researchers' work highlights the importance of basic, fundamental research—while a handful of the research team worked at Monsanto, two-thirds came from various academic institutions. And the work relies on some basic information that's not essential to using Bt in GMOs.

SAN FRANCISCO—Lawyers for Google and Oracle fought over the final details of their upcoming copyright trial today, debating issues of courtroom technology, time limits, and what type of evidence jurors will see.

Oracle sued Google in 2010 for violating its copyright because the search giant used parts of 37 Java APIs in creating its Android operating system. Oracle acquired Java when it purchased Sun.

Oracle lawyer Peter Bicks pleaded for more time, saying that US District Judge William Alsup's original time limit of 12 hours of evidence per side for a "liability phase" and seven hours each for a possible "damages phase" isn't long enough for the company to make its case.