Sunday, December 13, 2020

Sources: state-backed Russian hacking group APT29, or Cozy Bear, is behind the hacks of US Treasury, NTIA, and FireEye (Ellen Nakashima/Washington Post)

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Sources: state-backed Russian hacking group APT29, or Cozy Bear, is behind the hacks of US Treasury, NTIA, and FireEye  —  The Russian government hackers who breached a top cybersecurity firm are behind a global espionage campaign that also compromised the Treasury and Commerce departments …



Sources: state sponsored hackers stole information from the US Treasury and Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (Christopher Bing/Reuters)

Christopher Bing / Reuters:
Sources: state sponsored hackers stole information from the US Treasury and Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A sophisticated hacking group backed by a foreign government stole information from the U.S. Treasury Department …



Tech key to exploring new frontiers of economic recovery: Satya Nadella

Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella on Saturday said that despite the constraint caused by the pandemic, digital technology is being adopted to scale core resilience, not only for future transformation but for business continuity. https://ift.tt/37dqmbv

Sources: Facebook considers physical retaliation from Hindu extremist groups as a danger in India, which it ranks as a "Tier One" country for societal violence (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook considers physical retaliation from Hindu extremist groups as a danger in India, which it ranks as a “Tier One” country for societal violence  —  Social media giant's security team cites possible attacks if extremist Hindu groups are kicked off platform



EU funded security research has distributed €1.15B and funded 714 projects but scrutiny and criticism appears to be sidelined in the quest for new tech (The Guardian)

The Guardian:
EU funded security research has distributed €1.15B and funded 714 projects but scrutiny and criticism appears to be sidelined in the quest for new tech  —  EU science funding is being spent on developing new tools for policing and security.  But who decides how far we need to submit to artificial intelligence?



Saturday, December 12, 2020

How US FinCEN became a honeypot for sensitive personal data, a situation made worse by the banking industry's defensive filing of suspicious activity reports (Benjamin Powers/CoinDesk)

Benjamin Powers / CoinDesk:
How US FinCEN became a honeypot for sensitive personal data, a situation made worse by the banking industry's defensive filing of suspicious activity reports  —  If a despotic government's bank transactions can be leaked, so can yours.  —  That's perhaps the most overlooked yet unsettling implication …



Apple's new most expensive headphones, most searched smartphones in India, Reliance 'promises' 5G revolution and more

https://ift.tt/3gHgWbo

Norman Abramson, pioneer of wireless computer networks, passes away

Norman Abramson, one of the pioneers behind wireless computer networks for communication, has died at age 88. https://ift.tt/2K2iaCn

Arthur.ai, which develops a monitoring tool to ensure the accuracy of machine learning models doesn't slip over time, raises $15M Series A led by Index Ventures (Ron Miller/TechCrunch)

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Arthur.ai, which develops a monitoring tool to ensure the accuracy of machine learning models doesn't slip over time, raises $15M Series A led by Index Ventures  —  At a time when more companies are building machine learning models, Arthur.ai wants to help by ensuring the model accuracy …



Pico, a provider of tech services from infrastructure to analytics for global financial markets, closes $135M Series C from investors including Intel Capital (Seeking Alpha)

Seeking Alpha:
Pico, a provider of tech services from infrastructure to analytics for global financial markets, closes $135M Series C from investors including Intel Capital  —  Includes: BDNCE, INTC, NVS, PYPL, SFTBF, SFTBY … Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Capital became a strategic investor in Pico …



Cisco is acquiring Slovakia-based Slido, which lets people moderate Q&A sessions and set up polls in virtual conferences and live events; Slido has 7M users (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Cisco is acquiring Slovakia-based Slido, which lets people moderate Q&A sessions and set up polls in virtual conferences and live events; Slido has 7M users  —  While Zoom continues to hold a lot of mindshare (and market share) in the world of videoconferencing, Cisco's WebEx division today announced …



Baltimore-based digital lending software company eOriginal to be acquired by Dutch information services company Wolters Kluwer for $280M in cash (Stephen Babcock/Technical.ly Baltimore)

Stephen Babcock / Technical.ly Baltimore:
Baltimore-based digital lending software company eOriginal to be acquired by Dutch information services company Wolters Kluwer for $280M in cash  —  eOriginal agreed to be acquired by a division of Dutch information services company Wolters Kluwer.  The 24-year-old company's employees and local presence are staying in place.



Thoma Bravo says it is acquiring a majority stake in Venafi, a provider of machine identity management software, at a $1.15B valuation (Steven Burke/crn.com)

Steven Burke / crn.com:
Thoma Bravo says it is acquiring a majority stake in Venafi, a provider of machine identity management software, at a $1.15B valuation  —  “Thoma Bravo invests in category creators and leaders,” said Venafi CEO Jeff Hudson.  “That ($1.15 billion) valuation is a good valuation.



​20 popular smartphones that received price cuts this year

https://ift.tt/3gFDFEO

Indie game developers say Twitch's light touch with nudity in big games like Cyberpunk 2077, despite Twitch's rules against explicit content, is hypocritical (Matthew Gault/VICE)

Matthew Gault / VICE:
Indie game developers say Twitch's light touch with nudity in big games like Cyberpunk 2077, despite Twitch's rules against explicit content, is hypocritical  —  You can't show dicks or nipples on Twitch unless you're playing ‘Cyberpunk 2077.’  —  Cyberpunk 2077 is full of dicks.



MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's, as the mobile chip designer bets on AI demand for growth (Cheng Ting-Fang/Nikkei Asia)

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia : MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's...