Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

SBA says data breach may have affected almost 8,000 loan applicants

Enlarge / Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza is flanked by Donald Trump and Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin on April 2, 2020. (credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Almost 8,000 business owners who applied for a loan from the Small Business Administration may have had their personal information exposed to other applicants, the SBA admitted on Tuesday.

The breach relates to a long-standing SBA program called Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). It has traditionally been used to aid owners whose businesses are disrupted by hurricanes, tornadoes, or other disasters. It was recently expanded by Congress in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. In addition to loans, the law authorized grants of up to $10,000 that don't need to be paid back.

The EIDL program is separate from the larger Paycheck Protection Program that was also part of the CARES Act. The SBA says that PPP applicants were not affected by the breach.

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Facebook says it's investing $5.7B into Reliance Jio, as part of its commitment to India, making it the largest minority shareholder of Reliance Industries (Facebook)

Facebook:
Facebook says it's investing $5.7B into Reliance Jio, as part of its commitment to India, making it the largest minority shareholder of Reliance Industries — The Kabir family's textile factory in Delhi has operated since 1969. Now they use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to reach new customers.

Sources: Vietnamese state-telcos took Facebook's local servers offline, slowing traffic, until the company agreed to increase censorship of "anti-state" posts (James Pearson/Reuters)

James Pearson / Reuters:
Sources: Vietnamese state-telcos took Facebook's local servers offline, slowing traffic, until the company agreed to increase censorship of “anti-state” posts — HANOI (Reuters) - Facebook's local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic …

Kitchen utensils listed for sale on Amazon India

Amazon said it was a glitch after the government rolled back its decision to allow e-commerce players to sell non-essential items starting April 20 https://ift.tt/2VGzaja https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Facebook invests $5.7B in India’s Reliance Jio

Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade. But as China’s fast-growing ByteDance emerges as a formidable competitor in what has become the world’s second largest internet market, the American giant has found the horse it wants to bet on.

Facebook announced today it has invested $5.7 billion in India’s Reliance Jio telecom operator with more than 350 million subscribers. As part of the deal, Facebook will now become the largest minority shareholder in Jio, which is a subsidiary of India’s largest industrial house Reliance Industries.

The social giant said it will focus on collaborating with Jio to create “new ways for people and businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy.”

David Fischer, Chief Revenue Officer, and Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director, India said one example of such collaboration could be bringing together JioMart, Jio’s small business initiative, with the power of WhatsApp. “We can enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience,” they said.

More to follow…

Porsche to produce a cheaper version of its all-electric Taycan

Porsche is producing three variants of its all-electric Taycan sports sedan with base prices that range from a skosh over $105,000 to $185,000.

Now, it seems the automaker is preparing to introduce a cheaper rear-wheel-drive version, according to an interview in Car Magazine with Porsche R&D chief Michael Steiner. This newer version, which will join the Taycan Turbo S, Taycan Turbo and 4S, will have a smaller battery and be sold in markets like China that don’t need all-wheel drive, Steiner said.

Porsche wouldn’t provide any specific details to TechCrunch about this mystery fourth variant of the Taycan. The German automaker said it doesn’t talk about future products, before adding that its “electrification initiative will not stop with just three Taycan variants.”

After years and more than $1 billion in initial investment, Porsche introduced in September two variants of its first all-electric vehicle — the Taycan Turbo S and Taycan Turbo, with base prices of $185,000 and $150,900, respectively.

The company revealed just seven weeks later the Taycan 4S, a third version of its all-electric vehicle.

All the Taycans, including the 4S, have the same chassis and suspension, permanent magnet synchronous motors and other bits. The 4S is lighter, cheaper and slightly slower than the high-end versions.

The standard 4S is, so far, the cheapest Taycan available, with a base price of at $105,250, including a delivery fee. The standard 4S comes with a 79.2 kWh battery pack and a pair of electric motors that produce 482 horsepower (360 kW). With the launch control engaged, the horsepower jumps to 562.

There’s also a performance-battery-plus version of the 4S that adds $6,580 to the base price and comes with a 93.4 kWh battery and dual electric motors that can produce up to 563 hp (420 kW). Both of the 4S models have a top speed of 155 miles per hour and can travel from 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds.

Sources: Expedia is in advanced talks to sell a stake to Silver Lake and Apollo Global Management in a deal likely to total about $1B (Cara Lombardo/Wall Street Journal)

Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Expedia is in advanced talks to sell a stake to Silver Lake and Apollo Global Management in a deal likely to total about $1B — Deal expected to hand private-equity firms board representation, sources say — Expedia Group Inc. is in advanced talks to sell a stake …

Senate passes new $484 billion relief bill to replenish small business loans, fund hospitals and testing

A new federal aid package designed to provide economic businesses still immobilized by the coronavirus just passed in the Senate.

The $484 billion in total aid passed after two weeks of negotiations between Republicans, who wanted to press additional small business funding forward without much reevaluation, and Democrats, who were eventually able to secure additional relief measures beyond the small business funding at the heart of the bill.

The focal point of the new legislation is the $310 billion it will allocate to the Paycheck Protection Program, a key feature of the first relief package. That program was beset by problems from the outset, with a huge portion of small business owners failing to secure the forgivable loans through banks even with prompt applications in the program’s earliest moments.

Within a few days of going live, it became clear the application process was plagued by issues and its massive $349 billion pool of funds had already dried up. Some small business owners also reported that they couldn’t find a bank to accept their application, as some banks prioritized existing customers.

Silicon Valley Bank only started processing stimulus loan applications today

Among those issue: Some of the money was sucked dry by entities that a program for small businesses probably shouldn’t be helping out to begin with. Remarkably, even hedge funds, major restaurant chains and Harvard University cashed in on the loans under the existing terms, while most owners of actually small businesses were left high and dry.

Companies with fewer than 500 employees were eligible for the loans, which become forgivable if the money is put toward payroll by hiring back or retaining employees. The maximum loan under the PPP is 2.5 times a company’s average monthly payroll, up to $10 million.

Out of the new $321 billion, $60 billion will go to smaller lenders who can provide loans to small businesses that might not qualify at major banks. Other measures Democrats secured in the new legislation include an additional $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for a national COVID-10 testing strategy.

The bill does not include any funding for a vote by mail system—federal funds that some Democratic lawmakers and a bipartisan group of state election officials views as essential for conducting safe voting this fall.

The latest relief bill, which President Trump has signaled he will sign, will now move to the House where it is expected to pass on Thursday.

Vote-by-mail should be having its moment. Will it?

New Jane Goodall documentary fills in some blanks left by an earlier biopic

Dr. Jane Goodall walking with local villagers and staff members of TACARE, one of the many programs of the Jane Goodall Institute.

A few years ago, National Geographic released a beautifully filmed biopic called Jane on famed primatologist Jane Goodall. The film helped explain how someone with no scientific experience ended up in Africa studying chimpanzees in the hope it would shed light on the origins of human behavior. But, despite a compelling story and restored archival footage, Jane seemed incomplete. While it told the story of how Goodall ended up both a scientist and a public figure, the scenes of her in the present day (to the extent pre-2017 resembles the present day) show that she's left her research behind to become an advocate for conservation.

How she went from the researcher shown in Jane to the head of an international non-profit was left as an exercise to the viewer to figure out. So, I was excited to see that National Geographic had a follow-up documentary, Jane Goodall: The Hope, in the works. What follows is part review and part interview with Goodall.

For me, the hope was that The Hope would trace how Goodall managed the transition from researcher to international environmental advocate. Instead, the film simply gives a picture of what her life is like today, moving among her projects and following her hectic travel schedule. In that sense, the two documentaries act more like bookends on her career.

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Monday, April 20, 2020

Paytm cuts losses 20% as digital payments fall

Consumers have not been spending on several use-cases online, apart from getting essential services, as the economy takes a hit due to the Covid-19 lockdown. https://ift.tt/3cAEOdO https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

IT directors plan to protect cloud budgets and consolidate vendors during downturn

A new survey shows technology leaders are relying more than ever on agile and DevOps practices to deliver faster software releases.

Nvidia's GeForce Now loses more titles from developers including Xbox Game Studios and Warner Bros. even as it works to bring in more games ahead of June launch (Nick Statt/The Verge)

Nick Statt / The Verge:
Nvidia's GeForce Now loses more titles from developers including Xbox Game Studios and Warner Bros. even as it works to bring in more games ahead of June launch — But it's gaining more Ubisoft titles — Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service is losing access to more titles later this month, the company announced on Monday.