In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • Several tech giants file a legal brief supporting Apple in its fight with the FBI
  • Verizon tops southeast in wireless study
  • Bank accounts at risk from cybercriminals
  • Google joins the Zika fight

The details:

  • Tech industry groups, security experts back Apple

A slew of tech industry groups and civil liberties advocates are filing court documents backing Apple in its fight with the FBI.

Several police groups, meanwhile, filed briefs in support of federal authorities who are seeking Apple’s help in hacking an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. The so-called “friends of the court” briefs come in advance of a March 22 hearing in which Apple is asking U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym to reverse an order requiring Apple help authorities hack into the phone.

Among those backing Apple in the dispute are some of its biggest competitors, including Google, Microsoft and Facebook, as well as AT&T.

  • Verizon tops southeast wireless survey

Verizon is the top wireless provider across the southeast in terms of performance, according to a new study from J.D. Power.

The report is based on information from wireless customers about recent calls. Data was gathered in the last six months of 2015.

Independent research firm RootMetrics recently reported Verizon as the top provider nationally.

The southeast region in the J.D. Power survey included: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

  • Business bank accounts vulnerable to cybercriminals

​Cybercriminals took an average $32,000 from small business accounts, according to a December survey of owners by the advocacy group National Small Business Association. And businesses don’t have the same legal protection from bank account fraud consumers have.

Any business is vulnerable, but small companies are less likely to have security departments and procedures to guard against online theft than big corporations do. They also don’t have big revenue streams that are better able to absorb losses from a theft. And even if they get the money back, they still have to spend time and money dealing with the hassles of closing accounts and opening new ones.

  • Google engineers working with UNICEF in Zika virus fight

Google says a half dozen of its engineers are working to help Brazil track the Zika virus and the mosquito that spreads it by doing one of the things the search engine giant does best: write algorithms.

Volunteer Google engineers in San Francisco and New York are working with UNICEF counterparts to create a system that combines several types of data to help predict where the Aedes aegypti mosquito might next be particularly active, helping in eradication efforts.

Zika has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. The virus is mainly spread through mosquito bites and has been linked to birth defects.