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December 21, 2020, 8:35 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, BBC, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, The Verge, The Hacker News, Forbes, Patently Apple, TechRadar, Associated Press, Engadget, ZDNet, AppleInsider, iPhone Hacks, SlashGear, Neowin, and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt
Tweets: @jsrailton, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @dr_ulrichsen, @wokyleeks, @donie, @jsrailton, @farshadnayeri, @jsrailton, @zackwhittaker, @citizenlab, @pwnallthethings, @matthew_d_green, @robertjdenault, @evacide, @laurahuu, @matthew_d_green, @aaschapiro, @jsrailton, @jeffstone500, @pwnallthethings, @aaschapiro, @matthew_d_green, @osxreverser, @kenklippenstein, @dangillmor, @film_girl, 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 …
More:
Slate. Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @ashkan, @lutherlowe, @annmlipton, @fboversight, @daiwaka, and @seemay
| 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, BGR, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iLounge, Daring Fireball, 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, @jheydasch, @hypervisible, @jason_kint, @jpwp, @eff, @johnpaczkowski, @counternotions, @random_walker, @moonalice, @alexhern, @hillbrad, @pt, @hillbrad, @hillbrad, @pt, @seldo, @dakami, @willoremus, @benedictevans, @karaswisher, @jason_kint, @benedictevans, @ronwyden, and @can
| Matt Stoller / BIG: |
| 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.
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Bloomberg, TechCrunch, The Economic Times, coinspeaker.com, 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
| 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 and New York Times
Tweets: @kate_okeeffe, @stevelevine, @ajitpaifcc, @chadbown, @bobdavis187, @anuraag_saxena, @chorzempamartin, @carlminzner, @ruima, @jchengwsj, and @jmulvenon
| Aislinn Keely / The Block: |
Personal information of 270K+ customers of hardware wallet Ledger has been leaked online, including emails, home addresses, and phone numbers — A database containing the personal information of over 270,000 Ledger customers has been published on RaidForums, a marketplace for buying, selling, and sharing hacked information.
More:
Decrypt, Cointelegraph, Ledger Support, Crypto Briefing, Cryptonews, blockchain.news, and CoinDesk
Tweets: @ledger, @yellowblock_io, @ourielohayon, @isafepal, and @doncryptodraper
| 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.
More:
Livemint, Medianama, YourStory.com, and Inc42 Media
Tweets: @amrishrau, @strictlyvc, and @ettech
| 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, Bloomberg, Cult of Mac, New York Times, The Verge, Gizmodo, International Business Times, MacRumors, Newser, Pocketnow, Reuters, Apple Terminal, Los Angeles Times, and BBC
Tweets: @xeni, @jeffmacke, @gartenberg, @rickydlaw, and @markgurman
| Rene Ebersole / National Geographic: |
Black-market wildlife ads have increased on Facebook despite the company's steps to combat them, as experts say ad takedowns prematurely alert criminals — llegal wildlife ads have increased on Facebook despite its steps to combat animal trafficking. Crime watch groups are calling for broad legal reforms.| Nico Grant / Bloomberg: |
Zoom says it is under investigation by the SEC and two US attorney offices over security and privacy issues and interactions with China and other governments — - Company says data security, privacy actions under review — Videoconferencing firm's contacts with China spur scrutiny
More:
Washington Examiner, infosecurity-magazine.com, and ZDNet
Tweets: @pingroma, @sophiehrw, @jchengwsj, @mollylambert, @dhh, and @film_girl
| 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 propertiesSponsor Posts
Google:
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Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
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Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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