| Project Zero: |
A deep dive into an NSO zero-click iMessage exploit, captured in the wild by Citizen Lab and one of the most sophisticated Google's Project Zero has seen — We want to thank Citizen Lab for sharing a sample of the FORCEDENTRY exploit with us, and Apple's Security Engineering and Architecture … | Reuters: |
Eighteen Democratic lawmakers ask the Treasury and State Departments for Magnitsky rights abuse sanctions on four spyware firms, including NSO and DarkMatter — A group of U.S. lawmakers is asking the Treasury Department and State Department to sanction Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and three … | Dan Primack / Axios: |
Katie Haun is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to start a new firm focusing on crypto and Web3 startups; Haun's deals at a16z included OpenSea and Coinbase — Katie Haun, one of the world's most influential crypto venture capitalists, is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to form her own firm.| Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: |
Apple quietly removes all mentions of CSAM scanning on its Child Safety webpage, but says its plans have not changed since September when it delayed the feature — Apple has quietly nixed all mentions of CSAM from its Child Safety webpage, suggesting its controversial plan … | Wall Street Journal: |
Microsoft and cybersecurity company Mandiant say state-backed hacking groups linked to China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkey are exploiting the Log4j flaw — Researchers call it one of the most dire cybersecurity threats to emerge in years and could enable devastating attacks| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Memo: Apple delays its return to corporate offices to a “date yet to be determined”, after previously setting a February 1 return date — - Company had planned to bring corporate workers back by Feb. 1 — Delay comes in response to rising Covid-19 cases, new variant| Jennifer Elias / CNBC: |
Leaked memo: Google tells employees they must comply with vaccine policies by January 18 or lose pay and eventually be fired — - In a memo circulated by leadership, Google told employees that they must comply with vaccine policies or they face losing pay and then losing their job.| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Google launches Qaya, its latest project from in-house incubator Area 120, which helps US creators set up online storefronts to sell directly to customers — A team at Google is today launching a new service called Qaya, which will allow creators to easily set up new web storefronts … | Rest of World: |
A look at Chinese fast fashion online retailer Shein, as 2020 sales reportedly hit $10B thanks to knockoff items, a nimble supply chain, and social media — By connecting China's garment factories with Western Gen-Z customers, Shein ushered in a new era of “ultra-fast” shopping.| Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: |
Meta updates its bug bounty program to pay researchers who find anti-scraping loopholes and reward those who find scraped Facebook data with charity donations — The Meta (formerly Facebook) security team has added scraping attacks to the list of incidents covered by the company's bug bounty program.| Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: |
IBM and Samsung say Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors, an alternative to FinFET chip designs, can offer 2x performance, amid similar claims from Intel — The next big advance in chips is looking up — IBM and Samsung have announced their latest advance in semiconductor design … | Financial Times: |
Sources: the US will ban investment in eight Chinese companies, including DJI and Megvii, for their alleged involvement in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslims — American investors will be banned from groups accused of involvement in Xinjiang abuses — The Biden administration … | Mitchell Clark / The Verge: |
Meta adds Messenger support to Ray-Ban Stories via a software update, letting users send and receive messages, make calls, and have messages read aloud — Letting you send and hear messages makes them significantly more useful — The Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are getting the ability … | Emily Birnbaum / Politico: |
The Internet Association will close at year's end; sources describe tension between large members like Meta, Google, and smaller companies, and financial woes — The Internet Association, once branded as Silicon Valley's most important trade group in Washington, announced Wednesday that it is shutting down.| Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: |
Swimply, a marketplace for renting private swimming pools, raises $40M led by Mayfield, seven months after raising $10M — The concept of creating a marketplace for underutilized assets that can turn into a meaningful business for hosts is not a new one. And there is no higher profile of how successful that model can be than Airbnb.| Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: |
The EU Parliament passes the Digital Markets Act, after Vestager's suggestion last month; EU countries and the Commission will consider the law next year — EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday to beef up draft rules to rein in U.S. tech giants, including extending the scope to their retailing activities … | Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters: |
Anchorage Digital, which offers institutions digital asset services for secure crypto custody, trading, and more, raises $350M led by KKR at a $3B valuation — Anchorage Digital, a digital asset financial platform, said on Wednesday it raised $350 million in its latest funding round led by private equity firm KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N).| Bloomberg: |
Samsara, which offers tools to manage IoT sensors in vehicle fleets, closes up 7.4% in its NYSE debut for a $12B+ valuation, after raising $805M in its IPO — Samsara Inc., adding to a record year for software listings, rose 7.4% in its trading debut after raising $805 million … | Kenrick Cai / Forbes: |
Sources: dbt Labs, which develops an open source data analytics tool, is in talks to raise a Series D at a $6B valuation, following a $1.5B valuation in June — In June, data startup Fishtown Analytics became a unicorn and rebranded itself Dbt Labs, after its popular data analytics product of the same name.| Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE: |
API security startup Cequence raises a $60M Series C led by Menlo Ventures, bringing its total funding to $89.5M — Application programming interface security startup Cequence Security Inc. announced today that it has raised $60 million in new funding to support enhancements to its solutions expand its product offerings.| Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat: |
Noname Security, which automatically discovers and remediates API vulnerabilities, raises a $135M Series C at a $1B valuation led by Georgian and Lightspeed — API protection startup Noname Security, which today disclosed a $135 million series C funding round at a post-money valuation of $1 billion … | New York Times: |
How China helps foreign influencers in the country who spread pro-China messages, funding their travel and generating lucrative, likely inauthentic, traffic — We are on the outskirts of Shanghai today at the most incredible hotel we've ever stayed at. — It's the first in the world built inside a quarry.| Crystal Kim / Bloomberg: |
Report: Sotheby's new Web3-enabled NFT unit made $100M in 2021; 78% of NFT bidders were new to Sotheby's, and over half were under 40 — - Auction house reveals CryptoPunk, Bored Ape NFT sales — Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs set new single-lot record online| Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: |
A look at the industry-backed smart home standard Matter, slated for mid-2022, and whether it can achieve its promises to fix smart home interoperability — The smart home should be a natural evolution of our homes, bringing better appliances, better systems, better experiences.| Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: |
TikTok is testing TikTok Live Studio, a Windows app that lets users stream directly to TikTok Live from their computer — What if instead of watching your favorite TikTok star stream on Twitch, you could watch them play video games live on TikTok? For the last few days, according to the platform … | Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
The UK's CMA issues an interim report voicing concerns over Apple and Google's “vice-like grip” on the mobile ecosystem, hinting at future antitrust action — The UK's antitrust watchdog has given the clearest signal yet that interventions under an upcoming reform …
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle — Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify. Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Top shortcuts to work your way through Zoho Cliq — The debate between mouse and keyboard users has been around for years. Whether it's about efficiency, speed, or productivity, there's always this question …
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.
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, December 15, 2021.
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.
| Sam Byford / The Verge: |
| Martin Matishak / The Record: |
| Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: |