Researchers showcased unpatched security flaws in software used to control critical industrial systems by oil, gas, water and electrical distribution plants at the 2012 SCADA Security Scientific Symposium (S4) on Thursday.

Microsoft and General Electric's healthcare IT business are setting up a 50:50 joint venture to develop and market an open, interoperable technology platform and clinical applications for enabling better population health management, the companies said Thursday.

To make it simpler for businesses to comply with the multiplicity of data protection regimes across Europe, Viviane Reding envisages letting European Union companies set their own privacy rules -- as long as they agree with one national data protection authority (DPA) to make them legally binding on all business units within the same group, wherever they may be.

To those who know their IT outsourcing history, GE and offshoring are practically synonymous.

The U.S. Senate has passed an overhaul of the U.S. patent system, but has removed some controversial provisions limiting damage awards in infringement lawsuits.

About US$4.5 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce and private companies will create a program to link small manufacturers in the U.S. Midwest with supercomputing resources, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Google is the "world's most attractive employer" based on a survey of 130,000 career seekers with an education in business or engineering, according to Universum, a consulting firm that focuses on employer branding.

General Electric will spend US$6 billion over the next six years in an effort to improve health-care quality and drive down costs to consumers, the company announced Thursday.