Monday, October 19, 2020
Intel to Sell NAND Flash Memory Business to SK Hynix for $9 Billion
Verizon Signs Up Microsoft, Nokia to Help Clients Build Private 5G Networks
Facebook Unveils Machine Learning Translator for 100 Languages
Technology companies now account for nearly 40% of the S&P 500 and are set to end the year eclipsing a record of 37% from 1999 (Amrith Ramkumar/Wall Street Journal)
Technology companies now account for nearly 40% of the S&P 500 and are set to end the year eclipsing a record of 37% from 1999 — Companies that do everything from manufacturing phones to operating social-media platforms now account for nearly 40% of the S&P 500
Trump says ‘nobody gets hacked’ but forgot his hotel chain was hacked — twice
According to President Trump speaking at a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday, “nobody gets hacked.” You don’t need someone who covers security day in and day out to call bullshit on this one.
“Nobody gets hacked. To get hacked you need somebody with 197 IQ and he needs about 15 percent of your password,” Trump said, referencing the recent suspension of C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully, who admitted falsely claiming his Twitter account was hacked this week after sending a tweet to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
There’s a lot to unpack in those two-dozen words. But aside from the fact that not all hackers are male (and it’s sexist to assume that), and glossing over the two entirely contrasting sentences, Trump also neglected to mention that his hotel chain was hacked twice — once over a year-long period between 2014 and 2015 and again between 2016 and 2017.
We know this because the Trump business was legally required to file notice with state regulators after each breach, which they did.
In both incidents, customers of Trump’s hotels had their credit card data stolen. The second breach was blamed on a third-party booking system, called Sabre, which also exposed guest names, emails, phone numbers and more.
The disclosures didn’t say how many people were affected. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t “nobody.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not return a request for comment.
It’s easy to ignore what could be considered a throwaway line: To say that “nobody gets hacked” might seem harmless on the face of it, but to claim so is dangerous. It’s as bad as saying something is “unhackable” or “hack-proof.” Ask anyone who works in cybersecurity and they’ll tell you that no person or company can ever make such assurances.
Absolute security doesn’t exist. But for those who don’t know any different, it’s an excuse not to think about their own security. Yes, you should use a password manager. Absolutely turn on two-factor authentication whenever you can. Do the basics, because hackers don’t need an IQ score of 197 to break into your accounts. All they need is for you to lower your guard.
If “nobody gets hacked” as Trump claims, it makes you wonder whatever happened to the 400-pound hacker the president mentioned during his first White House run.
Billtrust, which makes cloud-based software for processing B2B payments, is going public on Nasdaq though a SPAC merger in a deal valued at $1.3B (Mary Ann Azevedo/FinLedger)
Billtrust, which makes cloud-based software for processing B2B payments, is going public on Nasdaq though a SPAC merger in a deal valued at $1.3B — The company will launch with a cash balance of about $200 million — Billtrust announced on Monday it will go public through …
EU enables cross-border interoperability between contact tracing apps from Germany, Ireland, and Italy, with plans to add at least 18 others in the coming weeks (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
EU enables cross-border interoperability between contact tracing apps from Germany, Ireland, and Italy, with plans to add at least 18 others in the coming weeks — The European Union has switched on cross-border interoperability for a first batch of COVID-19 contacts tracing apps …
Intel agrees to sell its NAND memory unit to SK Hynix for about $9B; the acquisition includes Intel's solid-state drive, NAND flash, and wafer businesses (Bloomberg)
Intel agrees to sell its NAND memory unit to SK Hynix for about $9B; the acquisition includes Intel's solid-state drive, NAND flash, and wafer businesses — - U.S. chipmaker has fallen behind in a chip manufacturing race — Intel Corp. agreed to sell its Nand memory unit …
Dhaka-headquartered ShopUp, which aims to digitize neighborhood stores in Bangladesh, raises $22.5M Series A led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)
Dhaka-headquartered ShopUp, which aims to digitize neighborhood stores in Bangladesh, raises $22.5M Series A led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures — A startup that is aiming to digitize millions of neighborhood stores in Bangladesh just raised the country's largest Series A financing round.
ShopUp raises $22.5 million to digitize millions of mom-and-pop shops in Bangladesh
A startup that is aiming to digitize millions of neighborhood stores in Bangladesh just raised the country’s largest Series A financing round.
Dhaka-headquartered ShopUp said on Tuesday it has raised $22.5 million in a round co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures. For both the venture firms, this is the first time they are backing a Bangladeshi startup. Veon Ventures, Speedinvest, and Lonsdale Capital also participated in the four-year-old ShopUp’s Series A financing round. ShopUp has raised about $28 million to date.
Like its neighboring nation, India, more than 95% of all retail in Bangladesh goes through neighborhood stores in the country. There are about 4.5 million such mom-and-pop stores in the country and the vast majority of them have no digital presence.
ShopUp is attempting to change that. It has built what it calls a full-stack business-to-business commerce platform. It provides three core services to neighborhood stores: a wholesale marketplace to secure inventory, logistics (including last mile delivery to customers), and working capital, explained Afeef Zaman, co-founder and chief executive of ShopUp, in an interview with TechCrunch.
Image Credits: ShopUp
These small shops are facing a number of challenges. They are not getting inventory on time or enough inventory and they are paying more than what they should, said Zaman. And for these businesses, more than 73% (PDF) of all their sales rely on credit instead of cash or digital payments, creating a massive liquidity crunch. So most of these businesses are in dire need of working capital.
Zaman declined to reveal how many mom-and-pop shops today use ShopUp, but claimed that the platform assumes a clear lead in its category in the country. That lead has widened amid the global pandemic as more physical shops explore digital offerings to stay afloat, he said.
The number of neighborhood shops transacting weekly on the ShopUp platform grew by 8.5 times between April and August this year, he said. The pandemic also helped ShopUp engage with e-commerce players to deliver items for them.
“Sequoia India has been a strong supporter of the company since it was part of the first Surge cohort in early 2019 and it’s been exciting to see the company become a trailblazer facilitating digital transformation in Bangladesh,” said Klaus Wang, VP, Sequoia Capital, in a statement.
The startup has no intention to become an e-commerce platform like Amazon that directly engages with consumers, Zaman said. E-commerce is still in its nascent stage in Bangladesh. Amazon has yet to enter the country and increasingly Facebook is filling that role.
ShopUp sees immense opportunity in serving neighborhood stores, he said. The startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to deepen its partnerships with manufacturers and expand its tech infrastructure.
It opened an office in Bengaluru earlier this year to hire local tech talent in the nation. Indian e-commerce platform Voonik merged with ShopUp this year and both of its co-founders have joined the Bangladeshi startup. Zaman said the startup will hire more engineering talent in India.
Senate Judiciary Committee postpones its plans to vote to subpoena Twitter and Facebook CEOs after some Republicans expressed reservation about the move (Cristiano Lima/Politico)
Senate Judiciary Committee postpones its plans to vote to subpoena Twitter and Facebook CEOs after some Republicans expressed reservation about the move — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday postponed plans to vote on subpoenas to compel the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook to testify …
How intelligent workload management tools can help IT admins cut through cloud complexity
Microsoft Forcibly Installing Office Web Apps on Windows 10 Units: Reports
AP Ward Volunteer Recruitment 2020 – Apply Online for 3255 Vacancy
Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
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Jake Offenhartz / Gothamist : Since October, the NYPD has deployed a quadruped robot called Spot to a handful of crime scenes and hostage...
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