Techmeme: Hackers breached SyTech, a contractor for Russia's FSB, and stole 7.5TB of data about its projects for the agency, including one for deanonymizing Tor traffic (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Top News

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Hackers breached SyTech, a contractor for Russia's FSB, and stole 7.5TB of data about its projects for the agency, including one for deanonymizing Tor traffic — SyTech, the hacked company, was working on research projects for the FSB, Russia's intelligence service.

More: Forbes, The Merkle Hash, BleepingComputer, and Slashdot

Tweets: @b52malmet, @troyhunt, and @lrvick

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

Profile of Calibra's head of strategy Morgan Beller, previously a partner at a16z, and the original driving force behind Facebook's push into cryptocurrency — KEY POINTS — Morgan Beller is one of three people — all Facebook employees — listed as a co-creator of the proposed Libra digital currency …

More: Wired and Mashable

Tweets: @rrhoover, @joshelman, @peterpham, @zmanian, @chrismaddern, @iam_anandv, @msquinn, @adamnash, @mdudas, @stevesi, @sm, and @random_walker

Andrew Liptak / The Verge:

A new set of Pixel 4 leaked images and a series of renders show it will have a large forehead bezel for a variety of sensors and front-facing cameras — A lot of space to cover up — A new set of leaked images of Google's forthcoming Pixel 4 smartphone have surfaced on the web …

More: iGeeksBlog, 9to5Google, Android Police, MSPoweruser, Android Police, Gizmodo, and XDA Developers

Tweets: @universeice, @onleaks, @patrickmoorhead, and @benbajarin

Eugene Kim / CNBC:

Amazon updates ToS for 3rd party sellers, will now give a 30-day notice and provide reasons for account suspensions, but sellers say changes don't go far enough — KEY POINTS — Amazon updated its terms of service for third-party sellers this week, committing to give a 30-day notice and provide reasons for account suspensions.

David Z. Morris / Fortune:

Dust Identity, which covers objects with a diamond dust coating with a unique pattern to track them across complex supply chains, raises $10M Series A — Startup Dust Identity has raised $10 million in a series A funding round, led by Kleiner Perkins and including strategic investments …

More: TechCrunch

Jon Emont / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Amazon offers Marketplace merchants perks like prominent placements, more if they agree to sell their successful brands to Amazon, often at $10K/brand — Program offers merchants prominent display and marketing support—at the cost of giving Amazon the right to buy their brand at a fixed price

More: PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @mdudas

Lucy Tobin / London Evening Standard:

UK-based AppyParking, which uses sensors in parking bays to help drivers find empty parking spots, raises £7.6M Series A, at a valuation of £50M — Car giant's investment boosts value of London start-up — A London tech firm that aims to end drivers' hunt for parking spots …

More: FinSMEs, Tech.eu, and UKTN

Jörn Krieger / Broadband TV News:

German court rules that Deutsche Telekom's zero-rating mobile streaming plan StreamOn violates EU's net neutrality rules, can not be offered in its current form — About Jörn Krieger — Jörn reports on the latest developments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

More: Reuters

Song Jingli Mon / KrASIA:

CloudMinds, a cloud-based robotics company, files for a US IPO seeking to raise $500M, says it had revenues of $121M, up 529% YoY, and a $156.8M loss in 2018 — Beijing-headquartered robot producer CloudMinds has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering to raise up to USD 500 million.

More: The Robot Report

FinSMEs:

BriteCore, a cloud-based insurance platform used by 50+ property and casualty insurers, raises $47.5M led by Warburg Pincus, bringing its total raised to $70M — BriteCore, a Springfield, MO-based provider of next-generation core software solutions for insurers, received $47.5m in growth funding.

More: blog.britecore.com

Andrew Liptak / The Verge:

Some publishers are demanding Audible to exclude their audiobooks from Captions, Audible's upcoming AI-powered transcriptions feature, citing copyright claims — Some are asking for their books to be withheld from the feature — Earlier this week, Audible revealed that it was working …

More: The Authors Guild

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