Techmeme
January 12, 2021, 4:50 PM

Top News

Gizmodo:
GPS metadata from videos posted to Parler on Jan. 6 shows several users deep inside the Capitol; source: FBI has expressed interest in examining the data  —  At least several users of the far-right social network Parler appear to be among the hoard of rioters that managed to penetrate deep inside …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
After reports of all of Parler's data being downloaded by third parties, analysis shows Parler lacked basic security measures to prevent such a data breach  —  The “free speech” social network also allowed unlimited access to every public post, image, and video.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
WhatsApp clarifies its new data sharing policy, which relates mostly to businesses, following a backlash and recent surge of Telegram and Signal  —  The company is trying to contain fallout over a privacy policy update  —  WhatsApp has published a new FAQ page to its website outlining …
Alex Heath / The Information:
Memo: following its Trump ban, Facebook has told employees to avoid wearing company-branded apparel in public as it might put staff at risk  —  Facebook on Monday told employees to avoid wearing or carrying company-branded clothing and other items in public following the company's suspension …
Twitter:
Twitter says it has suspended over 70K accounts involved in spreading harmful QAnon-associated content since Friday  —  Following the horrific events in Washington, DC, last week, here are some of the steps we've taken to protect the conversation on our service from attempts to incite violence …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
CrowdStrike details Sunspot, a newly discovered malware strain that was the first to be used in the SolarWinds supply chain attack, beginning in September 2019  —  CrowdStrike, one of the two security firms formally investigating the hack, sheds some light on how hackers compromised the SolarWinds Orion app build process.
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
A look at those unlucky enough to forget the password to access their bitcoin; Chainalysis says 20% of all bitcoin, or ~$140B, appears to be lost or stranded  —  Bitcoin owners are getting rich because the cryptocurrency has soared.  But what happens when you can't tap that wealth …
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:
Nvidia unveils RTX 3060, 3070, and 3080 GPUs, suited for mobile gaming, and says laptops with the RTX 3070 and 3080 will start rolling out this month  —  Nvidia's Ampere architecture is going mobile.  The company revealed its plans and partnerships to bring GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs to more than 70 laptops throughout 2021.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
AMD unveils its Ryzen 5000 Series, 8-core x86 chips for gaming laptops and thin-and-light notebooks coming in February, alongside third-gen Epyc server chips  —  Advanced Micro Devices showed off some impressive Ryzen 5000 mobile processors today and teased the performance of its 3rd Gen Epyc server chips.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Google details a sophisticated hacking operation first detected in early 2020 that used several novel Chrome exploits to compromise users on Android and Windows  —  The attackers used a combination of Android, Chrome, and Windows vulnerabilities, including both zero-days and n-days exploits.
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
Gig workers and unions sue in CA Supreme Court to have Prop 22 overturned, alleging it violates the state constitution and limits the power of legislators  —  The lawsuit alleges Prop 22 violated the state constitution, and limited the powers of legislators to provide labor protections they are authorized to grant.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
House Democrats plan to investigate the role of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media in the Capitol riot as part of broad inquiry into disinformation  —  House Democrats are planning to look into social media's role in Capitol riot as part of a broad disinformation inquiry.
Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:
Intel previews 14nm Rocket Lake Core i9-11900K, its next consumer flagship processor, coming in Q1, promising up to 50% better integrated graphics performance  —  Spending five generations on the same base microarchitecture is a long time.  The excitement can be sustained through optimizing a process node …

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Earlier Picks

Emily Czachor / Newsweek: