London-based Koru Kids, a platform for finding and managing childcare, raises £10M Series A led by Atomico, bringing its total raised to £14.1M — Koru Kids, the London-based startup that helps you find and manage childcare, has raised £10 million in new funding to scale its platform.
Swiss banking software company Temenos says it will acquire Kony, an Austin-based mobile app development business, for $559M and an earn-out of $21M — The Switzerland-based banking software company is aiming to step up its presence in the US, where addressable market for digital front office banking software is $9 billion.
How China came close to the US in the 1960s in building a strong semiconductor industry but lost its way due to politics and a misguided industrial strategy — This is the first in a series of in-depth articles examining China's efforts to build a stronger, domestic semiconductor industry …
In a rare feat, French police have hijacked and neutralized a massive cryptocurrency mining botnet controlling close to a million infected computers.
The notorious Retadup malware infects computers and starts mining cryptocurrency by sapping power from a computer’s processor. Although the malware was used to generate money, the malware operators easily could have run other malicious code, like spyware or ransomware. The malware also has wormable properties, allowing it to spread from computer to computer.
Since its first appearance, the cryptocurrency mining malware has spread across the world, including the U.S., Russia, and Central and South America.
According to a blog post announcing the bust, security firm Avast confirmed the operation was successful.
The security firm got involved after it discovered a design flaw in the malware’s command and control server. That flaw, if properly exploited, would have “allowed us to remove the malware from its victims’ computers” without pushing any code to victims’ computers, the researchers said.
The exploit would have dismantled the operation, but the researchers lacked the legal authority to push ahead. Because most of the malware’s infrastructure was located in France, Avast contacted French police. After receiving the go-ahead from prosecutors in July, the police went ahead with the operation to take control of the server and disinfect affected computers.
The French police called the botnet “one of the largest networks” of hijacked computers in the world.
The operation worked by secretly obtaining a snapshot of the malware’s command and control server with cooperation from its web host. The researchers said they had to work carefully as to not be noticed by the malware operators, fearing the malware operators could retaliate.
“The malware authors were mostly distributing cryptocurrency miners, making for a very good passive income,” the security company said. “But if they realized that we were about to take down Retadup in its entirety, they might’ve pushed ransomware to hundreds of thousands of computers while trying to milk their malware for some last profits.”
With a copy of the malicious command and control server in hand, the researchers built their own replica, which disinfected victim computers instead of causing infections.
“[The police] replaced the malicious [command and control] server with a prepared disinfection server that made connected instances of Retadup self-destruct,” said Avast in a blog post. “In the very first second of its activity, several thousand bots connected to it in order to fetch commands from the server. The disinfection server responded to them and disinfected them, abusing the protocol design flaw.”
In doing so, the company was able to stop the malware from operating and remove the malicious code to over 850,000 infected computers.
Jean-Dominique Nollet, head of the French police’s cyber unit, said the malware operators generated several million euros worth of cryptocurrency.
Remotely shutting down a malware botnet is a rare achievement — but difficult to carry out.
Several years ago the U.S. government revoked Rule 41, which now allows judges to issue search and seizure warrants outside of their jurisdiction. Many saw the move as an effort by the FBI to conduct remote hacking operations without being hindered by the locality of a judge’s jurisdiction. Critics argued it would set a dangerous precedent to hack into countless number of computers on a single warrant from a friendly judge.
Since then the amended rule has been used to dismantle at least one major malware operation, the so-called Joanap botnet, linked to hackers working for the North Korean regime.
Hey. This is Week-in-Review, where I give a heavy amount of analysis and/or rambling thoughts on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that emerged on TechCrunch this week to surface my favorites for your reading pleasure.
Last week, I talked about Google’s Android naming switch-up.
Like clockwork, sources have been revealing to publications that Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Facebook M aren’t just digital assistants, they are portals into the AI workflows of Silicon Valley. Oh, and “AI workflows” means lots of contractors putting in quite a bit of manual work to understand what we want when we ask them questions.
This week, Apple announced that it’s completely changing how it handles reviewing audio from user Siri requests to ensure that users know exactly what they’re getting into privacy-wise.
The big change is that third-party contractors won’t have access to any of the clips for a process called “grading” and there is an explicit opt-in process for users. The company also gave a pretty explicit apology, which is pretty rare for an entity that seems to think its MacBook keyboards are still completely fine.
This whole situation is important for a couple reasons. One, Apple really sets the tone for consumer privacy among the tech giants so making notable changes here is positive and might push others to make similar updates. Two, Apple has the worst consumer-facing digital assistant. Like, Siri is just unquestionably worse than Alexa and Google Assistant so they arguably have the most to lose here and this is a decision that means less data for the company to hone its tech on.
Together, all of these gaffes really weren’t egregious, they were dealing with data that wasn’t nominally connected to users, but audio files should definitely be treated with a little more respect than anonymous crash reports. The journalism from publications like The Guardian pushing on “common” industry practices seemed to surface some positive change here.
On to the rest of the week’s news.
Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context:
How did the top tech companies screw up this week? This clearly needs its own section, in order of badness:
Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Our premium subscription service had another week of interesting deep dives. We published a roadmap for entrepreneurs looking to leverage Amazon and other ad platforms to create a direct-to-consumer startup.
How to use Amazon and advertising to build your D2C startup
“…This article focuses on customer acquisition, particularly Amazon and online advertising, for the direct-to-consumer (D2C) CPG venture. Selling on Amazon, specifically third-party (3P), has become an increasingly important component of the D2C playbook. About 46% of product searches start on Amazon, which makes it a compelling source of sales even for early-stage ventures….” (Extra Crunch membership required.)
Here are some of our other top reads this week for premium subscribers. This week, we published some analysis on the latest VMware deal and also looked at how startups should integrate customer success solutions early-on.
Sign up for more newsletters in your inbox (including this one) here.
If you own an Apple Watch 2 or 3, then you might want to be a little careful with its screen. In a statement by the San Cupertino giant, they said, “Under very rare circumstances, a crack may form along the rounded edge of the screen in aluminium models of an Apple Watch Series 2 or Series 3”. The company admitted the fault in the Apple Watch models and offered free fixes for the issue.
If you’re in India, then we assume that an Apple authorized service provider will replace the screen on units that are cracked. These screens will be replaced free of charge, provided they exhibit these specific types of cracks. If you’re not sure if your Apple Watch is eligible to have its screen replaced, head on over to Apple’s official website where they’ve listed out all the models that have been affected by this problem.
Apple says that the watch will be repaired and returned in approximately five business days. Apple also has a handy guide on what steps you should follow before you send your watch in for repair, right here.
One of the company’s most sought-after products, the Apple Watch was not always viewed as a successful wearable. After a few stumbles in 2015, the Apple Watch is now one of Apple’s most popular devices.
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Video shot and edited by Christopher Schodt. (video link)
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—As guards were going so far as to check inside NFL fans' wallets as part of routine security measures before a recent preseason game at Levi's Stadium, a different form of surveillance was taking place on the inside of the San Francisco 49ers' one-year-old, $1.3 billion home here in Silicon Valley.
We're not talking about facial recognition devices, police body cams, or other security measures likely zeroing in on fans. Instead, employees from San Jose-based Zebra Technologies had recently finished scanning the NFL uniforms of the 49ers and of their opponents—the Dallas Cowboys. All of a sudden, an on-the-field de facto surveillance society was instantly created when Zebra techies activated nickel-sized Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) chips that were fastened inside players' shoulder pads. Every movement of every player now could be monitored within an accuracy level of all but a few inches.
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Amazon is hosting a OnePlus Flagship Phenomenon Sale where it is offering a few choice offers and deals on the OnePlus 7 series of handsets. Axis bank debit and credit card users can purchase the OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 7 Pro, and avail an instant discount of up to Rs 2,000. The offer is also valid on both EMI and non-EMI purchases but the last day to avail the offer is September 6. Those who buy the OnePlus 7 Pro will get an instant discount of Rs 2,000 while OnePlus 7 buyers are eligible for Instant discount of Rs 1,500.
Currently, the OnePlus 7 Pro is priced starting at Rs 48,999 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant and it goes up to Rs 52,999 for the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage version. The handset’s 12GB RAM + 256GB storage version is priced at Rs 57,999. As for the OnePlus 7, it is priced starting at Rs 32,999 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant and goes up to Rs 37,999 for the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage version. In addition to Amazon, the deal on OnePlus 7 series is available via OnePlus.in and select offline retail stores. You can read the complete terms and agreements of the sale on Amazon.
The new sale is taking place just before the OnePlus 7T series launch, which is rumoured to occur on September 26. The OnePlus 7T series is reported to feature the OnePlus 7T and the OnePlus 7T Pro. There are multiple reports about both the handsets online and you can read more about the devices here. The company has also confirmed that it will launch an Android-powered OnePlus TV next this month in India. You can read all there is to know about the upcoming OnePlus TV here.
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Samsung is reportedly working on a new mid-range handset called the Samsung Galaxy M30s. While the company’s ‘s’ updates for its existing lineup are expected to feature incremental updates, the Samsung Galaxy M30s is shaping up to be a successor to the Samsung Galaxy M30. The upcoming smartphone is now listed on Android Enterprise by Google for Enterprise Recommended devices. The listing hints at some of the key specs of the upcoming device, such as it could come with 4GB RAM and with options to select between 64GB and 128GB of internal storage.
While the listing doesn’t have an image of the Samsung Galaxy M30s, it also suggests that the handset could sport a 6.4-inch display that has fingerprint support. The smartphone won’t get NFC support, which is not too surprising. The handset is expected to launch this month and we previously came across the device’s renders as well. It was shown off with a triple camera setup on the rear, along with a fingerprint reader and a blue-green gradient colour design. Previously, a teaser of the handset was leaked, which suggested that the Galaxy M30s could be backed by a large 6000mAh battery. However, the source of the leak is a mystery and one should take it with a pinch of salt.
The Samsung Galaxy M30s is also rumoured to come equipped with a 48MP main camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture lens. This won’t be surprising since Xiaomi, Realme, Motorola and other phone makers are also embedding a 48MP sensor on their mid-range handsets. The other two cameras on the Galaxy M30s could be an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor, and a 5MP f/2.2 depth sensor, while a 16MP might be on the front. The handset is speculated to be priced in the Rs 15,000 - 20,000 price range.
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Financial Times : Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid weste...
