The daily business briefing: October 3, 2017

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1. GM plans new electric vehicles in push for 'all-electric' future
2. Tesla says 'bottlenecks' kept it from meeting Model 3 production goal
3. U.S. stock futures edge higher after Tuesday's records
4. Ex-Equifax chief remarks to Congress include apology for massive data breach
5. Report: Hewlett Packard Enterprise let Russia review cyber defense software

published 3 October 2017

1. GM plans new electric vehicles in push for 'all-electric' future

General Motors announced Monday that it was working toward an "all-electric" vehicle lineup. "Although that future won't happen overnight, GM is committed to driving increased usage and acceptance of electric vehicles through no-compromise solutions that meet our customers' needs," said Mark Reuss, General Motors executive vice president of product development, purchasing, and supply chain, at a media event at the company's Warren, Michigan, technical campus. The automaker said it was immediately accelerating development of electric vehicles on the way to introducing two new all-electric vehicles in the next months, and at least 20 by 2023.

Tesla said Monday that "production bottlenecks" had prevented it from meeting goals for its ramp-up on its new Model 3 mass-market sedan. The luxury electric car maker said, however, that its deliveries rose by 4.5 percent to 26,150 in the third quarter over the same period last year. The California-based company produced just 260 Model 3 sedans and delivered 220 of them in the quarter. Tesla said it expected to meet its target of 5,000 of the Model 3 sedans, which start at $35,000, per week by the end of the year, and to increase that to 10,000 per week at some point in 2018.

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Asian shares rose Tuesday, tracking Monday's gains in the U.S. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose by 0.4 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped by 0.7 percent, with both closing at record highs as data boosted optimism about a manufacturing recovery. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.3 percent, also hitting a record. U.S. stock futures edged higher early Tuesday, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rising by 0.2 percent, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures gained about 0.1 percent. The S&P 500 has gained in five straight days, its longest winning streak in a month.

Former Equifax chief Richard Smith will tell members of a congressional committee Tuesday that he is "deeply sorry" for a massive data breach earlier this year, and that the company's response should have been better, according to prepared remarks released Monday. Smith was ousted last week as the credit bureau faced widespread criticism over a huge breach, one of the biggest corporate hacks in history. Equifax has revised its estimate of the number of people whose personal and financial information was exposed from mid-May to July, saying the breach affected 145.5 million people, 2.5 million more than initially reported.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise let a Russian defense agency look at cyber defense software used by the Pentagon as part of HPE's effort to win certification to sell the product to Russian agencies, according to regulatory records reviewed by Reuters. The HPE software, ArcSight, is used by the U.S. military to detect cyberattacks against its computer systems. It also is widely used by private businesses. Six former U.S. intelligence officials, along with other experts, told Reuters that Russia's source-code review could have helped it spot weaknesses in the software. "It's a huge security vulnerability," said Greg Martin, a former security architect for ArcSight. Despite the risk, no hacks have been traced to the review.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.