AM Prep-Cyber Corner

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has indicated he will order major changes in Google’s Android app store. It’s to punish the company for engineering a system that a jury declared an illegal monopoly that has hurt millions of consumers and app developers. Over the course of a three-hour hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge James Donato made it clear that the forthcoming shake-up will probably include a mandate requiring that Google’s Play Store for Android phones offer consumers a choice to download alternative app stores. The judge said he hopes to issue an order within the next few weeks, possibly before Labor Day weekend.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is wrestling over how and when to bring two astronauts back from the International Space Station after running into trouble with their new Boeing capsule. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been up there since early June, two months longer than planned. Their stay could now stretch into next year, if NASA decides the thrusters on Boeing’s Starliner cannot be trusted to safely bring them home. Plan B is SpaceX. If necessary, NASA says it will remove two of the four astronauts due to launch to the space station next month. The empty seats would be for Wilmore and Williams, but they wouldn’t come back until February.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social media influencers have gotten the royal treatment as President Joe Biden gave a nod to their ability to hold sway with millions of loyal followers. The White House on Wednesday played host to a group of more than 100 influencers, also known as content creators, ranging from chefs and makeup artists to fitness gurus and medical students. They were there to talk about issues including mental health, pay equity and the abuse of artificial intelligence. Biden stopped by to tell the influencers that they are “the future.” He told the creator they’re “the new breakthrough in how we communicate.”

Cisco Systems says it is planning to lay off 7% of its employees. That’s its second round of job cuts this year as the company shifts its focus to more rapidly growing areas in technology, such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The company based in San Jose, California, did not specify the number of jobs it is cutting. It had 84,900 employees as of July 2023. Based on that figure, the number of jobs cut would be about 5,900. The networking equipment maker said in June that it would invest $1 billion in tech startups like Cohere, Mistral and Scale to develop reliable AI products.