Technology

Several of President Obama’s political appointees are using secret government email accounts, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Apple CEO Tim Cook broke the news at the D11 Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes, Calif.

Ben Bernanke touted innovation and information technology as drivers of economic change in a Saturday commencement speech at Bard College.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) praised Mark Zuckerberg for a pro-pipeline ad aired by the social media pioneer's political advocacy group.

Legislation that would empower states to tax online purchases cleared a key hurdle in the Senate Monday.

Google is launching an effort aimed at getting electric utilities and states to change how they charge consumers for electricity.

The energy sector was the target of more than 40 percent of all reported cyberattacks on critical infrastructure networks last year, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Malicious attacks on oil-and-gas pipelines and electric utilities occurred at an “alarming rate,” DHS’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team warns in a recent report.

The report, which is likely to heighten concerns about the security of the nation’s infrastructure, comes as President Obama is set to roll out an executive order on cybersecurity. That directive could be released as soon as this month.

The former head of an Energy Department research and development program is heading to Google to lead its energy strategy.

Arun Majumdar will join Google after leaving his most recent post as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in June.

“One of the world’s biggest challenges is bringing reliable, sustainable and affordable energy to everyone. We need a new energy blueprint for the future — the latest advances in technology have the potential to bring us closer to that goal than ever before,” Matthew Stepka, vice president of Google.org, said Monday of Majumdar’s hiring on the Internet giant’s “green blog.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) established a division to mitigate cyber threats on the electric grid Thursday, but noted it still lacks many of the enforcement capabilities it needs from Congress.

Silicon Valley’s Democratic representative said Republicans would handcuff U.S. competitiveness in clean technology if the GOP succeeds in ending a federal loan guarantee program.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) said in a Thursday column in The Huffington Post that the “No More Solyndras” bill pushed by Republicans would stifle innovation.