Techmeme
December 15, 2021, 11:45 PM

Top News

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.
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
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple closes three retail stores in Miami, Annapolis, and Ottawa, Canada after a rise in employee COVID-19 cases and exposures  —  - Company is closing locations in Miami, Maryland and Ottawa  — Cases and exposure among Apple's employees spurred the move
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
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 …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon says it will reduce its Alexa skills commission from 30% to 20% for developers who earn less than $1M per year, starting in Q2 2022  —  Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon's smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices.
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.
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 …
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Google's Manifest V3 rules for Chrome extensions won't stop malware, but will hurt innovation, reduce capabilities, and harm performance  —  It's been over two years since our initial response to Google's Manifest V3 proposal.  Manifest V3 is the latest set of changes to the Chrome browser's rules for browser extensions.
More: Neowin
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.
Tweets: @pkedrosky.  Thanks:@bayareawriter
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 …
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.
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.

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Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
David George from a16z
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
New York Times:
Financial Times:
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: