Thursday, August 27, 2020
Review: Made-in-India Raji Is a Feminist Fable and a Strong Debut
ProteanTecs, which provides an AI-based service to monitor chip reliability, raises $45M led by Koch Disruptive, bringing the total amount raised to $100M (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)
ProteanTecs, which provides an AI-based service to monitor chip reliability, raises $45M led by Koch Disruptive, bringing the total amount raised to $100M — ProteanTecs, which provides an AI platform to monitor chip reliability, today closed a $45 million funding round.
Mobile data speeds back to pre-lockdown levels
Facebook says Apple rejected its attempt to tell users about App Store fees
TikTok's American makeover just took a bruising
Russian tourist offered employee $1 million to cripple Tesla with malware
Enlarge (credit: Tesla)
Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory was the target of a concerted plot to cripple the company’s network with malware, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Thursday afternoon.
The plan's outline was divulged on Tuesday in a criminal complaint that accused a Russian man of offering $1 million to the employee of a Nevada company, identified only as “Company A,” in exchange for the employee infecting the company’s network. The employee reported the offer to Tesla and later worked with the FBI in a sting that involved him covertly recording face-to-face meetings discussing the proposal.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to recruit an employee of a company to surreptitiously transmit malware provided by the coconspirators into the company’s computer system, exfiltrate data from the company’s network, and threaten to disclose the data online unless the company paid the coconspirators’ ransom demand,” prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
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Facebook says that to add the new paid events feature to its app on iOS, Apple had it remove a message telling users that Apple takes a 30% cut of sales (Reuters)
Facebook says that to add the new paid events feature to its app on iOS, Apple had it remove a message telling users that Apple takes a 30% cut of sales — (Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Thursday told Reuters that Apple Inc rejected its attempt to tell users the iPhone maker would take a 30% cut …
Facebook allows advertisers to target users in mainland China, despite national ban; Facebook says this is intentional, as a "small fraction" can circumvent ban (Sarah Frier/Bloomberg)
Facebook allows advertisers to target users in mainland China, despite national ban; Facebook says this is intentional, as a “small fraction” can circumvent ban — - Social network has been blocked in mainland China since 2009 — Ad archive shows messages targeting Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan
GOQii to launch medical-grade wearables in 6-12 months: CEO
Realme Narzo 10A on Sale in India Today via Flipkart, Realme.com
Presenting TechCrunch Disrupt’s Asia sessions
As you know by now, Disrupt is going completely virtual for its 10th anniversary. TechCrunch’s Asia team (me, Rita Liao and Manish Singh) will miss seeing everyone in Moscone Center, but this will be the most accessible Disrupt ever, and we are excited to bring a full roster of Asia-focused sessions to its agenda for the first time. The sessions, with people from some of Asia’s most influential tech companies, startups and investment firms, will be broadcast during the day in this part of the world, followed by live Q&A sessions. And of course, all Disrupt attendees will get full access to everything TechCrunch’s team has spent months working to bring online: the Disrupt and Extra Crunch stages, virtual networking at CrunchMatch and Digital Startup Alley.
Many of the most important recent startup trends and tech stories have come from Asia, or were driven by Asian companies. The continent is home to several of the world’s most complex and dynamic markets: China, India and Indonesia, to name just some of the biggest ones.
Available at a time that works best for you, catch these sessions Sept 15-18th from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM HKT. Immediately after each interview, join the speakers for a live Q&A. So come with your questions!
India is Facebook’s biggest market by number of users, and our speakers will include its head of India, Ajit Mohan.
We also have Russell Cohen, regional head of operations at Grab, the ride-hailing company that acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations two years ago and is now also one of the region’s largest on-demand delivery platforms.
Byju Raveendran, founder of BYJU’s, India’s most highly-valued edtech startup, will talk about online learning, one of this year’s most important topics.
As another example of how tech innovations in Asia influence other parts of the world, we will speak to Kaisei Hamamoto, co-founder and chief operating officer of SmartNews, which runs versions of its news aggregator app in two very different markets, Japan and the United States.
Our lineup of founders include Sonny Vu, whose last startup, Misfit, was acquired by Apple, and is currently the chief executive officer of continuous carbon-fiber 3D printing company Arevo.
We’ll also talk to Steven Yang of Anker about how he built his company into one of the most popular and well-regarded smartphone charger and power bank brands.
Gillian Tee, founder of Singapore-based caregiving and telehealth startup Homage, will share insights about how tech can serve the world’s most vulnerable people.
On the investment side, we will hear from Edith Yeung, general partner at Race Capital, about emerging technology trends in China and Silicon Valley.
East Ventures, one of the most prolific and influential investment firms in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest market, will be represented by Melisa Irene, the firm’s first female partner.
And Karthik Reddy, co-founder of Blume Ventures, will be on hand to talk about the challenges and opportunities of helping build India’s startup ecosystem.
Each session will be followed by a live Q&A, so attendees will get a chance to ask each speaker questions. Stay tuned for the final schedule. In the meantime, make sure to get your pass to attend these sessions and a whole bunch more! If you move quickly, you can take advantage of savings on your pro pass if you buy before Friday, September 11 at 11:59pm PT.
Nutanix reported FY 2020 revenue of $1.31B, up 6% YoY, and announced a $750M investment from Bain Capital, as CEO and co-founder Dheeraj Pandey to retire (Natalie Gagliordi/ZDNet)
Nutanix reported FY 2020 revenue of $1.31B, up 6% YoY, and announced a $750M investment from Bain Capital, as CEO and co-founder Dheeraj Pandey to retire — Nutanix also announced that Bain Capital will purchase $750 million in Convertible Senior Notes to become a leading shareholder in the company.
Elon Musk confirms Tesla was target of foiled ransomware attack
Elon Musk called an attempted cyberattack against Tesla “serious,” a comment that confirms the company was the target of a foiled ransomware attempt at its massive factory near Reno, Nevada.
The Justice Department released a complaint Thursday that described a thwarted malware attack against an unnamed company in Sparks, Nevada. Tesla has a factory in Sparks that makes battery cells, packs and electric motors; while Tesla was not named in the complaint several blogs, including Electrek and Teslarati, reported that the company was the target.
The Justice Department alleged that Russian national Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, attempted to recruit and bribe a Tesla employee to introduce malware in the company’s network.
The malware was designed to install ransomware, a kind of malware that encrypts a victim’s files in exchange for a ransom. Prosecutors said the ransomware used an increasingly popular new tactic that not only encrypt a victim’s files but also exfiltrates the data to the hacker’s servers. The hackers typically threaten to publish the victim’s files if the ransom isn’t paid.
An unnamed employee at the Tesla factory, known as the Gigafactory, met with Kriuchkov, who allegedly offered to pay him $1 million to introduce malware into the computer network. The employee informed Tesla, which then notified the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The FBI used the employee in a sting operation.
Kriuchkov was arrested August 22.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Samsung Electronics trials work-from-home as South Korea battles virus resurgence: Official
New York City-based Current, which manages a consumer fintech platform, raised an $80M Series E at a $1.5B valuation led by Springcoast Partners (FinSMEs)
FinSMEs : New York City-based Current, which manages a consumer fintech platform, raised an $80M Series E at a $1.5B valuation led by Spr...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
