Techmeme
July 19, 2021, 11:40 AM

Top News

Dana Priest / Washington Post:
Investigation: Israel-based NSO Group's malware infected 23 phones belonging to government officials, reporters, execs, and activists, out of 67 checked  —  Dana Priest, a reporter at The Washington Post for 30 years, covers national security issues.  Recently, she has investigated Russian …
More: VICE, The Guardian, The Guardian, Forbidden Stories, The Guardian, Amnesty International, The Guardian, AppleInsider, CNN, CNET, BBC, Insider, Washington Post, Washington Post, PCMag, Reuters, The Hacker News, Washington Post, Silicon Republic, Haaretz, New York Times, Washington Post, TechCircle, ZDNet, The Register, MediaNama, MacRumors, GitHub, Engadget, Associated Press, Bloomberg, New York Post, The Week, Access Now, The Overspill, Telecoms.com, HackRead, TNW, phonearena.com, iThinkDifferent, ComputerWeekly.com, SiliconANGLE, Slashdot, Gizmodo, and news.com.au
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak:
[Thread] Amnesty International and Citizen Lab found zero-click iMessage exploits being deployed against iPhones, even with iOS 14.6, to install malware  —  THREAD with a couple of interesting bits from @AmnestyTech's new report on what they learned from looking for NSO Group's spyware on phones https://www.amnesty.org/...
Washington Post:
Of the 67 phones Amnesty's Security Lab probed, 34 were iPhones, of which 23 showed signs of a successful Pegasus infection and 11 showed attempts at infection  —  The text delivered last month to the iPhone 11 of Claude Mangin, the French wife of a political activist jailed in Morocco, made no sound.
Ina Fried / Axios:
US, NATO, and other allies collectively blame China for malicious cyberattacks, including a March attack that exploited a flaw in Microsoft's Exchange Server  —  The U.S., NATO and other allies are collectively calling out China for malicious cyberattacks, including a March attack that exploited a flaw in Microsoft's Exchange Server.
GlobeNewswire News Room:
Zoom says it will acquire Five9, which makes cloud-based call center software for sales, marketing, and support, in an all-stock deal valued at ~$14.7B  —  The combination of Zoom's robust communications platform with Five9's intelligent cloud contact center will enable organizations …
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Filing: Robinhood is looking to raise as much as $2.3B in its IPO and sets a range of $38-$42 per share at a valuation as high as $35B  —  (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) … Robinhood is seeking a market valuation of as much as $35 billion …
Muvija M / Reuters:
Tencent to buy British video game developer Sumo Games for $1.27B, a 43% premium on Sumo's Friday closing price  —  Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) will buy video game company Sumo Group (SUMO.L) in a deal that values the British firm at 919 million pounds ($1.27 billion), the companies said on Monday.
Reuters:
Filing: Duolingo plans to raise $485M+ in its IPO, sets a range of $85 to $95 per share at a valuation of up to $3.4B; Duolingo was last valued at $2.4B in Nov.  —  Language-learning app Duolingo Inc said on Monday it was aiming to be valued at up to $3.4 billion in its initial public offering in the United States.
Gian M. Volpicelli / Wired UK:
Critics say NetBlocks, which monitors internet shutdowns, needs to be more transparent about its methods as some cast doubt on the reliability of its reports  —  NetBlocks has become a crucial source of truth in the era of internet shutdowns.  But many are now questioning its methods
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Brisbane, Australia-based Go1, which provides curated online learning materials and tools to businesses, raises $200M Series D, at a valuation of $1B+  —  Online learning continues to see a huge boost of attention and use in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and today a startup building tools specifically …
More: Reuters
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: LiveU, an Israel-based developer of live broadcasting and streaming tech used by 3K+ media organizations, to be acquired by PE firm Carlyle for $400M  —  Streaming is the name of the content game these days, and now one of the companies that builds tech to do this from anywhere in the world is getting acquired.
Guy Rosen / About Facebook:
Facebook says their data shows a 50% decline in vaccine hesitancy among US users, refuting Biden's claim that it's “killing people” by allowing COVID-19 misinfo  —  At a time when COVID-19 cases are rising in America, the Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies.
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom:

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