Thursday, July 16, 2020
Extraction, Money Heist Drove Netflix's Lockdown-Hit Quarter
Twitter Stepped Up Search to Fill Top Security Job Ahead of Hack
eBay Said to Near $10 Billion Sale of Classified Ads Unit
Netflix Adds More Than 10 Million New Subscribers
Federal court rules WhatsApp and Facebook’s malware exploit case against NSO Group can proceed
A U.S. federal court judge ruled on Thursday that WhatsApp and parent company Facebook’s lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance software company NSO Group can go forward. Phyllis Hamilton, Chief Judge of the United Stated District Court of the Northern District of California, denied most of the arguments NSO Group made when it filed a motion to dismiss the suit in April (a copy of her decision is embedded below).
Last October, WhatsApp and Facebook filed a complaint alleging that NSO Group exploited an audio-calling vulnerability in the messaging app to send malware to about 1,400 mobile devices, including ones that belonged to journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats and senior government officials.
WhatsApp and Facebook also claim that NSO Group developed a data program called Pegasus that extracted data, including messages, browser history and contacts, from phones, and sold support services to customers including the Kingdom of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Mexico.
In its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, one of NSO Group’s arguments was that its business dealings with foreign governments, which it said use its technology to fight terrorism and other serious crimes, granted it immunity from lawsuits filed in U.S. courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA). In her decision, Judge Hamilton wrote that NSO Group failed to qualify because it was not incorporated or formed in the U.S.
In an email to TechCrunch, a WhatsApp spokesperson said “We are pleased with the Court’s decision permitting us to move ahead with our claims that NSO engaged in unlawful conduct. The decision also confirms that WhatsApp will be able to obtain relevant documents and other information about NSO’s practices.”
TechCrunch has also contacted NSO Group for comment. When the lawsuit was filed in October, the company stated, “In the strong possible terms, we dispute today’s allegations and will vigorously fight them.”
WhatsApp vs NSO Group, cour… by TechCrunch on Scribd
NPCI raises scope and limit of debit transactions on NACH platform
Public records show the US Internal Revenue Service signed a deal, on July 15th, with Coinbase to use its blockchain tracing software for one year, for $124,950 (Michael McSweeney/The Block)
Public records show the US Internal Revenue Service signed a deal, on July 15th, with Coinbase to use its blockchain tracing software for one year, for $124,950 — Public records show that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has inked a deal with crypto exchange company Coinbase to use its Coinbase Analytics blockchain tracing software.
iPhone-maker Pegatron registers India subsidiary as Apple pushes to diversify supply
Credit card fraud: Government's cyber security reveals names of 7 'hacked' websites
Realme Narzo 10A to Go on Sale in India Today at 12 Noon
Hulu is launching Ad Manager, a self-service tool targeted at SMBs with an ad budget of $500 or more, to make it easy to buy ads on its service (Megan Graham/CNBC)
Hulu is launching Ad Manager, a self-service tool targeted at SMBs with an ad budget of $500 or more, to make it easy to buy ads on its service — - Hulu is launching a “self-service” tool to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to buy ads on its service.
Ready-to-eat-food sales rise as India stays back home
Beyond antibodies, the immune response to coronavirus is complicated
Enlarge / T-cells attacking a cell recognized as foreign. (credit: NIH)
Ultimately, the only way for societies to return to some semblance of normal in the wake of the current pandemic is to reach a state called herd immunity. This is where a large-enough percentage of the population has acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2—either through infection or a vaccine—that most people exposed to the virus are already immune to it. This will mean that the infection rate will slow and eventually fizzle out, protecting society as a whole.
Given that this is our ultimate goal, we need to understand how the immune system responds to this virus. Most of what we know is based on a combination of what we know about other coronavirus that infect humans and the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2. But now, data is coming in on the response of T-cells, and it indicates that their response is more complex: longer-lasting, broadly based, and including an overlap with the response to prior coronavirus infections. What this means for the prospect of long-lasting protection remains unclear.
What we know now
SARS-CoV-2 is one of seven coronaviruses known to infect humans. Some of these, like SARS and MERS, have only made the jump to humans recently. While more lethal than SARS-CoV-2, we are fortunate that they spread among humans less efficiently. These viruses seem to provoke a long-lasting immune response following infections. That's a sharp contrast to the four coronaviruses that circulate widely with humans, causing cold-like symptoms. These viruses induce an immunity that seems to last less than a year.
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Following the Twitter attack, Google appears to have dropped Twitter carousel boxes from displaying in Search results (Barry Schwartz/Search Engine Land)
Following the Twitter attack, Google appears to have dropped Twitter carousel boxes from displaying in Search results — Twitter had a serious and concerning security event Wednesday. Google has since removed tweets from its search results. — Google has removed the prominent Twitter carousel …
Apple updates its Style Guide with more inclusive language, such as replacing blacklist/whitelist with deny list/allow list and master branch with main branch (Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Apple updates its Style Guide with more inclusive language, such as replacing blacklist/whitelist with deny list/allow list and master branch with main branch — Microsoft and Twitter also are replacing technical language that has racial overtones, an effort triggered by a new push in the US for racial injustice.
Chinese video game giant NetEase reports Q4 revenue up 3% YoY to ~$4B and net profit down 29% to ~$903M, below ~$1.2B est., as it pushes self-developed games (Sherry Qin/Wall Street Journal)
Sherry Qin / Wall Street Journal : Chinese video game giant NetEase reports Q4 revenue up 3% YoY to ~$4B and net profit down 29% to ~$903...
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Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal : An interview with White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios, a Peter Thiel protégé confirmed by ...
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