Techmeme: Sources: US Cyber Command is deploying offensive malware in Russia's power grid, using powers granted in 2018 by Congress and a secret presidential directive (New York Times)

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Sources: US Cyber Command is deploying offensive malware in Russia's power grid, using powers granted in 2018 by Congress and a secret presidential directive — WASHINGTON — The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia's electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin …

More: Dragos, CNET, KTLA, Politico, Tehrani.com, Slate, Engadget, Gizmodo, NullTX, The Verge, Newser, and Bloomberg

Tweets: @realdonaldtrump, @yashar, @nytimespr, @yashar, @realdonaldtrump, @nicoleperlroth, @olivia_gazis, @cnetnews, @vessonsecurity, and @maxboot

Eric Berger / Ars Technica:

NIST study: a widespread GPS outage would have an estimated $1B/day impact on the US economy; 90% of GPS' financial impact has come since 2010 — 90 percent of the technology's financial impact has come since just 2010. — Since becoming fully operational in 1995, Global Positioning System technology …

More: RTI International, TechSpot, and BGR

Tweets: @justinckasper and @johnwilson

Matthew Hughes / The Next Web:

Jack Dorsey on plans to hire a team of five engineers and one designer, reporting directly to him at Square, to work on contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem — NO JERKS ALLOWED. — Square is a company best known for its disruptive card payment technology.

More: Quartz, NewsBTC, Cointelegraph, BitcoinExchangeGuide, Messari Crypto, Anycoin.news, Bitcoinist.com, CoinDesk, ETHNews, and The Block

Tweets: @jtseo9 and @lightcoin. Thanks:@matthewhughes

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Farming-as-a-service startup Infarm raises $100M Series B for its remotely operated modular farms placed in grocery stores, restaurants, other urban locations — Infarm, the Berlin-based startup that has developed vertical farming tech for grocery stores and restaurants, is disclosing $100 million in in Series B investment.

Tweets: @tomfgoodwin and @balderton. Thanks:@sohear

Parmy Olson / Wall Street Journal:

The holding company that owns the dating apps Bumble, Lumen, and Chappy has been renamed as Magic Lab, says it will spend $100M on an array of new dating apps — 'We're looking for the big, big monsters who can partner with me,' billionaire behind Bumble says in an interview

More: Reuters. Tweets: @venkatananth and @wsj

Sarah Dai / South China Morning Post:

Alibaba partners with Audi, Renault, and Honda to offer a range of in-car voice services like finding restaurants using its AI platform Tmall Genie Auto — Tie-up will offer car owners a range of voice-controlled services, including identification of nearby attractions and restaurants …

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Scoutbee, which develops and sells access to an AI-driven supplier discovery platform, raises $12M Series A, says its marketplace has more than 9.5M suppliers — Procuring parts and settling on suppliers are two of the most challenging undertakings in supply chain management, it's safe to say.

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Lemonade, the digital insurance company that has raised $480M, is expanding into Europe, with its first launch in Germany — Lemonade, the insurance company that's raised $480 million, is today expanding into Europe with the launch of Lemonade in Germany. — As part of the launch …

Sarah Dai / South China Morning Post:

Waterdrop, a Tencent-backed Chinese online health care platform, raises more than 1B yuan, ~$145M, Series C led by private equity company Boyu Capital — Funding will go toward building a professional team in health care insurance and adopting AI in its products China is home …

Tweets: @rahul_j_mathur

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

20 years since children's online protection law COPPA was passed, it has been weakened by court rulings, uneven enforcement, and relentless technological change — Two decades after Congress tried to wall off the worst of the Internet in hopes of protecting the privacy and innocence of children, the ramparts lie in ruins.

Tweets: @byheatherlong and @geoffreyfowler

Gregory Barber / Wired:

Wyoming's laws exempting some digital tokens from state securities rules, and cryptocurrency from state property taxes, spawned dozens of crypto LLCs there — IF YOU BELIEVE you may have stumbled into a cryptocurrency conference (godspeed, my friend), there are a few telltale signs.

More: CoinDesk and ETHNews

Tweets: @wired, @wired, and @nxthompson

Barclay Bram / Nautilus:

WeChat's data centralization has inextricably linked it to all aspects of daily life in China and made it a cornerstone of the government's social-credit system — Living in China with the app that knows everything about me. — It's 9 a.m. on a typical morning in Chengdu and I'm awakened by the sound of my phone alarm.

Tweets: @narratively, @nautilusmag, and @hardmaru

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