Thursday, January 19, 2023

Analysis: ransomware attackers received at least ~$457M in 2022, a low estimate, down from ~$766M in 2020 and 2021, as victims increasingly refuse to pay (Chainalysis)

Chainalysis:
Analysis: ransomware attackers received at least ~$457M in 2022, a low estimate, down from ~$766M in 2020 and 2021, as victims increasingly refuse to pay  —  2022 was an impactful year in the fight against ransomware.  Ransomware attackers extorted at least $456.8 million from victims in 2022, down from $765.6 million the year before.



India's Supreme Court declines Google's request to block the Competition Commission of India's antitrust order on Android, leaving in place a $116M fine (Reuters)

Reuters:
India's Supreme Court declines Google's request to block the Competition Commission of India's antitrust order on Android, leaving in place a $116M fine  —  India's competition regulator on Thursday denied allegations by Google that investigators had “copy-pasted” parts of a European ruling …



Twitter launches Blue on Android for $11 per month, the same as iOS and $3 more than the web, after launching an annual subscription (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter launches Blue on Android for $11 per month, the same as iOS and $3 more than the web, after launching an annual subscription  —  A day after launching an annual Twitter Blue subscription, the social media company made the paid plan available for purchase for Android users today.



National Australia Bank creates the AUDN stablecoin, the second major Australian bank after ANZ's A$DC, letting customers settle transactions on the blockchain (James Eyers/Australian Financial Review)

James Eyers / Australian Financial Review:
National Australia Bank creates the AUDN stablecoin, the second major Australian bank after ANZ's A$DC, letting customers settle transactions on the blockchain  —  National Australia Bank has become the second of the major banks to create a stablecoin, called the AUDN, to allow its business customers …



CoinDesk retains investment bankers at Lazard to help the outlet explore options including a partial or full sale after "numerous" indications of interest (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
CoinDesk retains investment bankers at Lazard to help the outlet explore options including a partial or full sale after “numerous” indications of interest  —  Company has ‘received numerous inbound indications of interest,’ CEO Kevin Worth says  —  CoinDesk Inc. …



Wednesday, January 18, 2023

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Circle and other crypto companies are hoping to rehabilitate the industry's image after FTX and find new investors (Abha Bhattarai/Washington Post)

Abha Bhattarai / Washington Post:
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Circle and other crypto companies are hoping to rehabilitate the industry's image after FTX and find new investors  —  The World Economic Forum's annual gathering has become an unlikely destination for the crypto industry as it tries to raise its profile — and new funds



Twitter begins offering an annual Blue plan for $84 on the web, saving around 12% for a monthly web subscription and 36% for an iOS subscription (Richard Lawler/The Verge)

Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Twitter begins offering an annual Blue plan for $84 on the web, saving around 12% for a monthly web subscription and 36% for an iOS subscription  —  Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of his aims has been to build up its subscription business, launching a revamped Twitter Blue package …



After criticism from users, Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky denies using customer projects to train the company's generative AI services (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
After criticism from users, Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky denies using customer projects to train the company's generative AI services  —  Adobe Inc. Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky said the company has never trained its generative artificial-intelligence services on customer projects …



As Apple shifts from China, experts worry India will struggle with iPhone production due to supply chain issues, labor woes, a lack of automation, and more (Patrick McGee/Financial Times)

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
As Apple shifts from China, experts worry India will struggle with iPhone production due to supply chain issues, labor woes, a lack of automation, and more  —  The tech giant increasingly finds itself beholden to America's biggest geopolitical rival.  But is diversification even possible?



A look at LockBit, a Russia-linked hacking group that claimed responsibility for compromising 40 organizations in the past month, including the UK's Royal Mail (Mehul Srivastava/Financial Times)

Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:
A look at LockBit, a Russia-linked hacking group that claimed responsibility for compromising 40 organizations in the past month, including the UK's Royal Mail  —  LockBit claims it has compromised 40 organisations around the world in just the past month  —  As the UK's Royal Mail grappled …



Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Interviews with 24+ people detail Elon Musk's destructive Twitter leadership: brutal layoffs, relaunching Blue, losing money, and breaking the company's culture (The Verge)

The Verge:
Interviews with 24+ people detail Elon Musk's destructive Twitter leadership: brutal layoffs, relaunching Blue, losing money, and breaking the company's culture  —  Twitter's staff spent years trying to protect the social media site against impulsive billionaires who wanted to use the reach …



A draft House memo detailed failures by Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms to address extremism before January 6, much of which were not in the final report (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
A draft House memo detailed failures by Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms to address extremism before January 6, much of which were not in the final report  —  The House committee investigating the riot avoided detailed discussion in its report for fear of offending Republicans and tech companies, sources say



Google's Nest appears to be working on AirTag-like location trackers, codenamed "Grogu", with support for Bluetooth LE and UWB, possibly for launch at I/O (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google's Nest appears to be working on AirTag-like location trackers, codenamed “Grogu”, with support for Bluetooth LE and UWB, possibly for launch at I/O  —  Google is reportedly working on a location tracking tag to compete with the likes of Apple's AirTags and Tile trackers …



Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice caused panic and pushback from investors (Yazhou Sun/Bloomberg)

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg : Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice cau...