In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and life science news:

  • RTI International’s top exec wins Triangle “Health Champion” award
  • Nevada lands world’s biggest data center
  • News organization Twitter feeds hacked
  • A hacker arrest in U.K.

 

The details:

  • Holden Wins “Health Champion” honor 

RTI International CEO Wayne Holden is the winner of the first “Triangle Global Health Champion” award winner as selected by the Triangle Global Health Consortium, which is based in the Triangle.

Holden will be honored at an event on Feb. 12. 

According to the group, the award recognizes Holden’s dedication to improving the human condition through his work, which has significantly impacted public health both in North Carolina and globally. In addition, the award honors Holden for being a key player in planning and launching the Triangle Global Health Consortium by seeing the opportunity to harness the global health capability in the region.

“It is hard to imagine a more worthy recipient of our inaugural Triangle Global Health Champion Award,” said Claire Neal, executive director of the Triangle Global Health Consortium. “Dr. Holden’s leadership has been critical to advancing global health, both here in North Carolina and around the world, and the Triangle Global Health Consortium is proud to honor him for his many contributions to improving the health of the world’s communities.”

The Triangle Global Health Consortium, a non-profit, represents institutions and individuals from the international health development community, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and academia.

  • $1B Switch data center near Reno will be world’s biggest

The largest lithium battery factory in the world is getting a new neighbor at an industrial park east of Reno — the world’s biggest data center.

Las Vegas-based Switch plans to invest $1 billion in the 3 million square foot “supernap” center. It will be built on 1,000 acres at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, where Tesla Motors currently is building its $5 billion gigafactory to make batteries to power its electric cars.

Gov. Brian Sandoval announced the plan in his State of the State address Thursday night along with a $1 billion expansion of Switch data space in Las Vegas.

“This will make Nevada the most digitally connected state in the nation,” Sandoval said in his speech to lawmakers in the Assembly chambers, where Switch CEO and founder Rob Roy was on hand.

The company operates two data center facilities in Las Vegas, providing security, power and cooling for stacks of thousands of servers owned by more than 1,000 clients that include eBay, Xerox, Zappos, Amazon, DreamWorks, Shutterfly and the U.S. government.

Switch’s “supernap” project includes the development of a 500-mile fiber optic network it calls a “superloop” that will connect Reno, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco and dramatically increase the speed of information traveling between the cities.

The company said it will place 50 million people within 14 milliseconds of data, with information moving between Reno and Las Vegas in only 7 milliseconds.

  • Twitter accounts of New York Post and news agency UPI hacked

Some Twitter accounts of the New York Post and UPI, as well as the news agency’s website, were briefly hacked Friday.

Tweets with false economic and military news were posted and then deleted.

One tweet on United Press International’s feed said that the Pope said World War III had begun. Another on the New York Post’s business section Twitter feed said that Bank of America’s CEO was calling for calm after a Federal Reserve decision.

The hack is being investigated, said Jenny Tartikoff, a spokeswoman for the Post. The New York newspaper is owned by News Corp.

In a statement posted to its website, UPI, based in Washington, said its Twitter account and website were hacked. Six fake headlines were posted to its Twitter account, and a “breaking news” banner with a fake story about the Federal Reserve was posted to its homepage until UPI’s technology support team shut down access.

It’s the latest hack of a high-profile social media account. The Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. military’s Central Command were compromised earlier this week by hackers claiming to support the Islamic State militant group, and Crayola apologized for a hack of its Facebook page that filled it with sex jokes and other off-color content. During a 2013 hack, Burger King’s Twitter feed posted obscenities and put up McDonald’s logo as its profile picture.

More dangerous intrusions of companies and organizations are also on the rise. Just since fall 2013, hackers at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Target, Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase compromised those companies’ computer networks and gained access to confidential information about customers or employees. The hacks have exposed the lack of uniform practices for dealing with breaches.

  • UK arrests man in Sony Playstation and Xbox attack

Authorities in Britain have arrested an 18-year-old man accused of computer hacking offenses related to days of disruption on Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live services last year.

Police said Friday he was also arrested in connection with false threats in the United States — a practice known as “swatting,” or providing false information suggesting that a threat exists so that police respond with SWAT teams. Authorities declined to say where in the United States the alleged offense occurred.

Craig Jones, head of the police cybercrime unit that handled the arrest, the “swatting” allegation involves “law enforcement forces in the United States receiving hoax calls via Skype for a major incident in which SWAT teams were dispatched.”

The man, who was not identified, was arrested on suspicion of unauthorized access to computer material and threats to kill. Police seized a variety of electronic and digital devices at the suspect’s home for further investigation by specialty units.