Techmeme: Cisco acquires Kenna Security, which uses real world exploit data and predictive modeling to asses the risk level of vulnerabilities in company networks (Maria Deutscher/SiliconANGLE)

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May 14, 2021, 2:45 PM

Top News

BBC:

The Irish health service shuts down its IT system after a “significant” ransomware attack that is having a severe impact on health and social care services — Ireland's health service has temporarily shut down its IT system after what it described as a “significant ransomware attack”.

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

DarkSide, the gang behind Colonial attack, claims it lost control of web servers and funds, as researchers wonder if it is due to US takedown or an exit scam — A day after US President Joe Biden said the US plans to disrupt the hackers behind the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack …

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:

Chemical distributor Brenntag paid a $4.4M ransom in bitcoin to the DarkSide ransomware gang, who claimed to have stolen more than 150 GB of sensitive data

More: Elliptic Blog and Neowin

Tweets: @lawrenceabrams and @dangoodin001

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Biden signs EO to strengthen US cyber defenses, including the development of cybersecurity standards for software companies that sell to the government

More: Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NIST, CSO, The Daily Dot, govtech.com, Dark Reading, FedScoop, GCN, and TechRepublic

Tweets: @senwhitehouse, @c_c_krebs, @thenovalabs, @kennaninstitute, @nprpolitics, @nprpolitics, @decryptlyfe, @whitehouse, @senatorbennet, @gossithedog, @markwarner, and @edokeefe

Bloomberg:

Sources: Colonial paid ~$5M ransom in cryptocurrency within hours of the attack, but the hackers' decrypting tool was so slow that it had to use its own backups

More: Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Protocol, CoinDesk, Threatpost, Wired, The White House, CyberScoop, New York Times, Pylos, Digital & Media, CNBC, Bitcoin Magazine, BitcoinExchangeGuide, Mashable, ComputerWeekly.com, Softpedia News, Engadget, The Hacker News, CNN, New York Post, The Overspill, infosecurity-magazine.com, SiliconANGLE, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Daily Dot, SC Media, The Register, BleepingComputer, New York Times, Washington Post, and Click2Houston.com

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Starlink review: nice hardware yielding a moderately fast, very inconsistent connection, but has line-of-sight issues with even a tree able to block the signal — The problem with reality is that it is very irritating. — In our imaginations, we might dream of a satellite internet system …

More: Pixel Envy. Tweets: @reckless, @loudmouthjulia, @djsnm, @jakeonorbit, @lucian_lutrae, @astrokatie, @waldojaquith, @saschasegan, @martinsfp, @russellbrandom, @reckless, @gigastacey, @jsnell, @dcseifert, @dcseifert, @ow, @jaycuthrell, and @kellymakena

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Google is leading an effort, supported by many tech giants, to maintain work authorization for tens of thousands of people whose spouses hold H-1B visas — - Google is leading an effort to maintain work authorization for tens of thousands of people whose spouses hold H-1B visas …

More: The Keyword, The Verge, Mercury News, Silicon Republic, Silicon Valley Business …, Engadget, Reuters, and Bloomberg

Tweets: @zoeschiffer and @kent_walker

BBC:

A peer-reviewed study finds UK's NHS contact-tracing app reduced the second wave by roughly 25%, averting ~594,000 out of 1.89M cases from October-December 2020 — The NHS contact-tracing app had a significant impact on lowering the spread of the coronavirus in the UK, a peer-reviewed paper has found.

Reuters:

Ireland's High Court rejects Facebook's bid to block Data Protection Commissioner's decision that may force the company to stop sending EU user data to the US — Ireland's High Court on Friday rejected a Facebook bid to block an inquiry by the Irish data regulator that could halt Facebook's data flows …

More: Wall Street Journal, noyb.eu, Bloomberg, ZDNet, TechCrunch, and Financial Times

Tweets: @maxschrems, @noybeu, @anthony, @henryfarrell, and @wbm312

Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:

Cisco acquires Kenna Security, which uses real world exploit data and predictive modeling to asses the risk level of vulnerabilities in company networks — Announcing its third startup acquisition in a week, Cisco Systems Inc. today revealed plans to buy Kenna Security Inc. …

More: TechCrunch, Cisco Blogs, Kenna Security, Cisco, CRN, Silicon Valley Business …, ZDNet, Dark Reading, and WRAL TechWire

Tweets: @cisco, @ciscosecure, @meredithcorley, and @chuckrobbins

Debby Wu / Bloomberg:

Foxconn reports Q2 net profit of $1B on revenue of $48B, up 45% YoY, and says global supply crunch will worsen this quarter — - Supply shortages will be more severe in 2Q than 1Q: Liu — Hon Hai shares are down 20% from March high as crunch worsens

More: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iMore, and RTÉ

Hamish McKenzie / blog.substack.com:

Substack acquires People & Company, which focuses on community building, to expand its support infrastructure for writers, including workshops and legal support — Writers love pie — In 2014, journalist Anna Codrea-Rado, publisher of Lance, pitched a story to editors at a major news outlet …

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @niemanlab, @lennysan, @substackinc, and @hamishmckenzie. Thanks:@chrismessina

See also Mediagazer

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Sources: Apple hired former HTC design head Scott Croyle last year to oversee Beats product design — There was a wild rumor making the rounds last year that Apple planned to phase out its successful Beats hardware brand and go all in with Apple-branded audio hardware. 9to5Mac reported …

More: Engadget, AppleInsider, and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @raywongy and @bzamayo

Queenie Wong / CNET:

Facebook details Expire-Span, a new method to teach AI how to retain important information while forgetting irrelevant info, for more efficient data processing — Facebook is teaching its artificial intelligence systems to forget irrelevant information so that computers can complete tasks …

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, Facebook AI, ZDNet, Facebook AI, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, and Digital Trends

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: CloutHub and FreeSpace are among the apps vying to be next platform of Trump, who “wants cash money up front” in exchange for followers he would bring — CloutHub and Skylab Apps are among companies vying to work with the former president, who was sidelined by Facebook and Twitter

Tweets: @benpershing, @keachhagey, @benmullin, and @asharma

Christian Shepherd / Financial Times:

Chinese regulators expand scrutiny to ride-hailing sector, warning execs from Didi Chuxing and nine other companies against price fixing and monopolizing data — Groups warned against price fixing and monopolising data ahead of expected IPO by Didi Chuxing

More: Bloomberg

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg:

Amazon says it will hire 10,000 more people in the UK, taking its total headcount in the country to 55K by the end of 2021 — - Company said Thursday it would hire 75,000 logistics workers — U.K. jobs to be in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cambridge

More: CNBC, BBC, and ComputerWeekly.com

Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon says it is hiring 75,000 workers, representing 8% of its US workforce, and offering an average of $17/hour, above its typical $15/hour starting wage

More: Amazon.com, Inc. and Bloomberg

Tweets: @_msw_ and @w7voa

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”; earlier CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump

Zachary Leeman / Mediaite:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calls for CBS staff who “revolted” over Bari Weiss' decision to postpone 60 Minutes' CECOT segment to be fired

Lorcan Lovett / Nieman Reports:

A look at the state of independent media in Myanmar, which lost US and Swedish funding this year and where subscriptions aren't a dependable source of revenue

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More News

CNBC:

MasterClass, which offers celebrity-taught online classes, raises $225M Series F led by Fidelity Management, sources say at a $2.75B valuation

More: PR Newswire and FinSMEs. Tweets: @dee_bosa

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Actor claiming to be voice behind TikTok's text-to-speech feature sues TikTok for “irreparable harm”; says recordings she made were never authorized for TikTok

More: Input

Variety:

Disney+ misses on Q1 subscriber estimates, reaching 103.6M subscribers vs. 109.3M expected; ESPN+ subscribers rose 75% YoY to 13.8M, Hulu grew 30% YoY to 41.6M

More: Business Wire, MUO, TechSpot, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @chriskeall and @iansherr

See also Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Jeff Blackburn, an S-team Amazon exec who had departed in February, is returning as SVP of Global Media and Entertainment, overseeing Prime Video, Twitch, more

More: GeekWire. Tweets: @danprimack, @quinnypig, @quinnypig, @johnhcook, @aviel, and @pkafka

See also Mediagazer

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:

Coinbase reports Q1 revenue of $1.8B, up 207% QoQ, monthly transacting users of 6.1M, up from 2.8M last quarter, says it plans to list dogecoin in 6-8 weeks

More: CNBC, Decrypt, Decrypt, ZDNet, Coinspeaker, CNBC, Cryptonews, BitcoinExchangeGuide, CryptoGlobe, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, Cointelegraph, PYMNTS.com, and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @paulg and @kenziesigalos

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

Collective, a subscription-based service that handles back office tasks like accounting for the self-employed, raises $20M Series A led by General Catalyst

Tweets: @ugurkaner and @ditzikow

Amelia Lucas / CNBC:

DoorDash reports Q1 revenue of $1.08B, up 198% YoY, and a net loss of $110M, blaming a shortage of drivers, but raises forecasts; stock up 23%+

More: PYMNTS.com, DoorDash, TheStreet, FreightWaves, Bloomberg, Barron's Online, and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @yahoofinance and @ghaff

Earlier Picks

Yogita Khatri / The Block:

Tether, which claimed at launch that each tether was backed 1:1 with USD, releases a breakdown of its reserves, revealing that only 3.87% are in actual cash

More: Financial Times, Attack of the 50 Foot …, Protocol, SiliconANGLE, and Forbes

Tweets: @silvermanjacob, @jessefelder, @b_eichengreen, @ahcastor, @mark_dow, @fxflow, @patio11, @charlesarthur, and @carnage4life

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Pinterest says it will test livestreaming events this month through a three-day virtual event featuring sessions with around 21 top creators

More: Social Media Today and Engadget

Tweets: @glenngabe and @stevemoser

See also Mediagazer

The Block:

Vitalik Buterin sells large amounts of SHIB, AKITA, and ELON tokens, sent to him by coin creators, for ~$60M worth of ETH, and donates the proceeds to charities

More: MediaNama, Fortune, TheStreet, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @hudsonjameson, @cryptorelief_, @zakawaqar, @andre_spicer, @mattzeitlin, @jgarzik, @atossaaraxia, @timmaughan, @hingeloss, @jonrosenberg, @joemccann, @ajith_tweets, @andymukherjee70, @lioryaffe, and @teddyschleifer

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:

Discord announces Stage Discovery, a tool to help people find communities through live audio events, and says it will soon test paid, ticketed audio events

More: The Information, Fast Company, MUO, VG247, and The Verge

Tweets: @discord, @pufuulive, @bracht, @roka371, @chrismessina, and @caseynewton

See also Mediagazer

Joey Roulette / The Verge:

SpaceX signs a satellite connectivity deal with Google Cloud, as part of which SpaceX will install Starlink terminals at Google's data centers around the world

More: Engadget, CNBC, Gizmodo, Google Cloud, Total Telecom, iTnews, and Neowin

Tweets: @googlecloud, @horserumba, @virtuecapital_, @theprodigalag, @shane_calfee, @pawanrising, @stevemcghee, @thomasortk, @aparanjape, @joroulette, @joroulette, and @thesheetztweetz

Ina Fried / Axios:

Apple says it parted ways with recent hire Antonio García Martínez, an ex-Facebook staffer and author, after employee petition citing “misogynistic statements”