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December 21, 2020, 4:45 AM
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| The Citizen Lab: |
Citizen Lab: NSO's zero-day, zero-click exploit chain, active in at least iOS 13.5.1, was used to hack ~36 Al Jazeera reporters via iMessage in summer of 2020 — Summary & Key Findings — In July and August 2020, government operatives used NSO Group's Pegasus spyware …
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The Guardian, TechCrunch, Forbes, Associated Press, Engadget, The Hacker News, Neowin, AppleInsider, iPhone Hacks, SlashGear, and ZDNet
Tweets: @jsrailton, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @film_girl, @dr_ulrichsen, @wokyleeks, @donie, @jsrailton, @farshadnayeri, @jsrailton, @citizenlab, @pwnallthethings, @matthew_d_green, @robertjdenault, @evacide, @laurahuu, @matthew_d_green, @aaschapiro, @jsrailton, @jeffstone500, @pwnallthethings, @aaschapiro, @matthew_d_green, @osxreverser, @kenklippenstein, @dangillmor, and @shashj
| Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times: |
Profile of Dina Srinivasan, who is helping Texas AG's antitrust investigation of Google after her treatises on Facebook and Google reframed antitrust thinking — Regulators are relying on insiders like Dina Srinivasan, who left her digital ad job after concluding that “Facebook and Google … | Andrés Arrieta / Electronic Frontier Foundation: |
Facebook is attacking privacy with its anti-Apple campaign and has locked SMBs into a surveillance-powered advertising model that's invasive of customers — Facebook has recently launched a campaign touting itself as the protector of small businesses. This is a laughable attempt from Facebook …
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Business Insider, 9to5Mac, Daring Fireball, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, ZDNet, HotHardware.com News, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, MacRumors, Daring Fireball, and iPhone in Canada Blog
Tweets: @eff, @charlesarthur, @thisisarp, @eric_seufert, @tapbot_paul, @eff, @aidazzles, @counternotions, @moonalice, @hollyvalero, @eric_seufert, @counternotions, @jheydasch, @eff, @hypervisible, @jason_kint, @johnpaczkowski, @jpwp, @random_walker, @moonalice, @alexhern, @willoremus, @hillbrad, @pt, @hillbrad, @hillbrad, @pt, @seldo, @dakami, @benedictevans, @ampyourgrowth, @karaswisher, @jason_kint, @benedictevans, @ronwyden, and @can
| Matt Stoller / BIG: |
Google and Facebook may continue predatory behavior for years as antitrust cases play out, which can be deterred by filing criminal charges against their execs — Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai need to be indicted. — 1 hr ago — Welcome to BIG, a newsletter about the politics of monopoly and finance.| Dan Primack / Axios: |
Sources: SoftBank will file on Monday to raise between $500M and $600M via an IPO of its first SPAC and is preparing at least two additional SPACs — SoftBank on Monday will file to raise between $500 million and $600 million via an IPO of its first SPAC, Axios has learned from multiple sources.
More:
Bloomberg, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, equalocean.com, Tech in Asia, and Reuters. Tweets: @danprimack
| Owen Thomas / San Francisco Chronicle: |
Profile of Bret Taylor, Salesforce's new COO and the architect of its $27.7B acquisition of Slack, who might one day succeed Marc Benioff as CEO of the company — Everyone in Silicon Valley seems to know Bret Taylor. — Few outside do. — That's going to change, as the software engineer …
Tweets: @owenthomas, @sfchronicle, @louisgray, @martinsfp, @hbrucejohnson, @cherylszee, @jeffjarvis, @demianbulwa, @kfury, and @zlurie
| Katie Bo Williams / Defense One: |
WH officials propose ending the “dual-hat” leadership arrangement of NSA and Cyber Command, renewing debate over splitting up the agencies amid recent attacks — An end to the “dual hat” arrangement has been debated for years — but the timing raises questions.| Lingling Wei / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: in an early November meeting, Jack Ma offered concessions to Chinese regulators, including handing over parts of Ant Group if “the country needs it” — Trying to salvage his relationship with regulators in a Nov. 2 meeting, the Chinese billionaire said he was ready to do what the country needed
More:
PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @kate_okeeffe, @stevelevine, @ajitpaifcc, @chadbown, @bobdavis187, @anuraag_saxena, @chorzempamartin, @carlminzner, @ruima, @jchengwsj, and @jmulvenon
| Michael Steeber / 9to5Mac: |
Apple has closed nearly 100 stores globally since December 14, including in London, California, and Tennessee, as COVID-19 cases surge — New COVID-19 restrictions and worsening outbreaks have compelled Apple to temporarily close nearly one fifth of its retail stores during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the holiday season.
More:
Engadget, USA Today, The Verge, New York Times, Bloomberg, International Business Times, MacRumors, Gizmodo, Newser, Pocketnow, Reuters, Apple Terminal, Los Angeles Times, and BBC
Tweets: @gartenberg, @xeni, @jeffmacke, @rickydlaw, and @markgurman
| The Economic Times: |
Pine Labs, which makes POS software and provides last-mile retail transaction tech for merchants, raises $75M-$100M at a $2B valuation — Pine Labs is currently India's third largest fintech startup after Paytm and PhonePe. It counts Lone Pine Capital, Sequoia India, Temasek, Mastercard, Paypal and Actis LLP as among its investors.| Wall Street Journal: |
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has agreed to buy property management software provider RealPage for $9.6B, a 31% premium to its closing price on Friday — Private-equity firm reaches deal with provider of technology platform used by owners and managers of rental properties| Ilya Khrennikov / Bloomberg: |
JetBrains, maker of the language Kotlin, which never raised any VC funding is now valued at an estimated $7B, and says it will have $200M in revenue this year — - Google picked JetBrains for key coding language for Android — Founders shunned VCs, bootstrapped to billion-dollar fortunes
Tweets: @tksaville, @kaushikgopal, @tsmith, and @yslnacas
| Jacob Knutson / Axios: |
Trump downplayed the massive cyberattack on the US government, claiming that China may be responsible and the “Fake News Media” is exaggerating its extent — President Trump downplayed a massive cyberattack on U.S. government departments and agencies and private companies on Twitter Saturday …
More:
Bloomberg, New York Times, NPR, CNN, Federal Computer Week, Gizmodo, Politico, Newser, The Verge, Associated Press, CRN, CNBC, Business Insider, Engadget, The Guardian, U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner, and The Hill
Tweets: @realdonaldtrump, @realdonaldtrump, @kyledcheney, @john_sipher, @httech, @ellenychang, @richardgrenell, @caseyjohnellis, @normative, @c_c_krebs, @jimsciutto, @carlquintanilla, @debramessing, @nicoleperlroth, @nytpolitics, @brianstelter, @jimsciutto, @levie, @jonathanvswan, @andrewsolender, @peterbakernyt, @briankrebs, @jonathanvswan, @homelanddems, @repadamschiff, @tedlieu, @wesball, @jonathanvswan, @alivelshi, @asemota, @rubengallego, @margbrennan, @gregpmiller, @oliverdarcy, @pwnallthethings, @jimsciutto, @atrupar, @kaitlancollins, @laurenwern, @aghamilton29, @b_fung, @nicoleperlroth, and @acosta
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