Techmeme: DeFi service Qubit Finance says a hacker stole ~$80M in Binance coins on January 27 and offers them a bug bounty in exchange for returning the cryptocurrency (Catalin Cimpanu/The Record)

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January 28, 2022, 7:20 PM

Top News

New York Times:

An investigation into the rise of NSO's Pegasus shows its widespread use by the CIA, UAE, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and others; the FBI bought but didn't use it — A Times investigation reveals how Israel reaped diplomatic gains around the world from NSO's Pegasus spyware — a tool America itself purchased but is now trying to ban.

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

DeFi service Qubit Finance says a hacker stole ~$80M in Binance coins on January 27 and offers them a bug bounty in exchange for returning the cryptocurrency — A threat actor has used an exploit to steal approximately $80 million from Qubit Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) …

More: CertiK, Qubit Finance, The Verge, Decrypt, CryptoSlate, Crypto Briefing, CoinQuora, Bloomberg, Bitcoin News, Cointelegraph, and ZDNet

Tweets: @qubitfin, @qubitfin, @qubitfin, @mintroyale, @campuscodi, @counternotions, @campuscodi, @adam_k_levin, @timmaughan, @timmaughan, @fbajak, @campuscodi, @sinistarr_313, @rdrv3, and @peckshield

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

After a customer backlash, Google says legacy free G Suite accounts will be able to migrate their data to free, consumer accounts before the July 2022 shutdown — Last week, Google essentially told free G Suite users “pay up or lose your account.” — There is hope for users of Google's “legacy” free G Suite accounts.

More: TechCrunch, MobileSyrup, ZDNet, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Phandroid

Tweets: @leggett, @ronamadeo, @laurenweinstein, and @ow

Corinne Reichert / CNET:

Counterpoint and IDC: smartphone shipments grew about 5% to 1.35B+ units in 2021; Samsung took the top spot with 270M+ units, followed by Apple with 235M+ — Companies shipped 1.35 billion smartphones in 2021, a 5.7% increase over the previous year, market researcher IDC said Thursday.

More: Counterpoint Research, IDC, TechCrunch, NDTV Gadgets 360, TechCircle, Cult of Mac, Droid Life, Android Central, The Indian Express, SamMobile, and Slashdot

Tweets: @hsinghwalia, @neiltwitz, @neiltwitz, @idc, @neiltwitz, @chawlaarushi, @neiltwitz, @ryanreith, @neiltwitz, and @nabilapopal

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Will Cathcart says WhatsApp has no plans to support RCS, as Meta launches its first marketing push for WhatsApp in the US, touting its privacy compared to SMS — The Meta-owned messaging app wants to be as popular in the US as it is everywhere else — will a big marketing push work?

More: The Verge, YouTube, Bloomberg, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, Fast Company, Adweek, iPhone in Canada Blog, Adweek, and Protocol

Tweets: @saranbyte, @alexeheath, @kurtwagner8, @pranavdixit, @gartenberg, and @shiraovide

Niraj Chokshi / New York Times:

The FAA says it has reached a deal to let Verizon and AT&T expand their 5G cellular service near airports while allowing more aircraft to land safely — The federal agency said an agreement with Verizon and AT&T would enable the wireless providers to expand their networks while allowing aircraft to land safely.

More: The Verge, CNN, CNET, CRN, Engadget, AppleInsider, XDA Developers, Associated Press, PhoneArena, TechRadar, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, Tech Xplore, and New York Post. Tweets: @b_fung

Jordan Pearson / VICE:

OpenSea says 80%+ of NFTs minted for free on its service are plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam, but reverses its decision to limit free NFT creation — After reversing course on a limit to the amount of free NFTs a user can create, OpenSea said the decision was due to the amount of fraud and spam.

More: Engadget, PetaPixel, and banklesstimes.com

Tweets: @carnage4life, @counternotions, and @chrismessina

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:

Apple deprecates Python 2.7 in macOS 12.3 and points developers to alternative languages like Python 3; Python ended support for version 2 on January 1, 2020 — Apple will no longer bundle Python 2.7 with macOS 12.3, according to developer release notes for the upcoming software update.

More: Apple, iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @mikeymikey, @film_girl, @thomasareed, @film_girl, @dabeaz, @obra, @eevee, @dnsmichi, @drdrang, and @fuzzychef

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Apple adds unlisted app distribution to the App Store, letting developers publish an app that can only be installed via a direct link and not found via search — Apple has deployed an interesting new App Store feature called ‘unlisted app distribution’. This means a developer can now publish …

More: Ars Technica, AppleInsider, MacRumors, and iMore. Tweets: @markgurman

Alexandra S. Levine / Politico:

AI-driven suicide chat service Crisis Text Line shares anonymized data with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai, which uses it to market its customer service software — Crisis Text Line is one of the world's most prominent mental health support lines, a tech-driven nonprofit that uses big data …

More: Protocol. Tweets: @ali_lev, @andy_sellars, @feraljokes, @profcarroll, @extantcmw, @pt, @hypervisible, @ericgeller, @hypervisible, @danielleiat, @jason_kint, @bkingdc, @abhinemani, @aahaworth, @amp6, @kensweet, @kimzetter, and @jjvincent

Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch loses $5B court battle with HP over false accounting; the UK government will now decide whether to extradite him to the US — Mike Lynch, the Autonomy Corp. founder lost his acrimonious court battle with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. over false accounting.

More: The Register, The Register, Sky News, datacenterknowledge.com, Financial Times, and Telegraph

Tweets: @fletcherr, @bloomberguk, @counternotions, @jamestitcomb, @byrobdavies, @jamestitcomb, and @jamestitcomb

Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:

The UK approves the extradition of Mike Lynch to the US to face criminal fraud charges, hours after he lost a court battle with HP; Lynch can appeal

More: The Irish Times

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Microsoft, the DOJ, and 35 US states led by Utah support Epic Games against Apple through amicus briefs filed with the Ninth Circuit appeals court — [Update] The Biden Administration is also supporting Epic. [/Update] — Apple just reported record numbers.

More: Bloomberg, Reuters, Ars Technica, CNET, 9to5Mac, FOSS Patents, Financial Times, MobileSyrup, iThinkDifferent, AppleInsider, Input, KnowTechie, Cult of Mac, PhoneArena, The Mac Observer, MacRumors, PYMNTS.com, iMore, and GamesIndustry.biz

Tweets: @elkmovie, @markrein, @carnage4life, @keleftheriou, and @keleftheriou. Thanks:@fosspatents

Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times:

Waymo sues the California DMV to hide its safety details, such as descriptions of driverless car crashes, and says the data should be designated a trade secret — Waymo, the driverless car company operating an autonomous taxi fleet in San Francisco, is suing the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

More: Gizmodo, Engadget, and The Verge

Tweets: @greentheonly, @lexnfx, @ultranurd, @blakersdozen, @cloudsomethings, @lizardhospital, @jgfromoc, @canterrain, @philkoopman, @eileenguo, @caseynewton, @patrickmcgee_, and @russ1mitchell

Chris Stead / Finder:

Interview with two Ubisoft executives, who say NFTs are a paradigm shift in gaming and gamers “don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them” — We talk to Nicolas Pouard, VP at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, about the launch of Ubisoft Quartz and the Digits NFTs.

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Internal messages detail Spotify's lax health content policy, as staff are told multiple Joe Rogan podcast episodes “didn't meet the threshold for removal” — Leaked messages reveal the company has reviewed every Rogan episode and none ‘meet the threshold for removal’

Tweets: @reckless, @mmasnick, @reckless, @mattdpearce, and @kimzetter

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From Mediagazer

Axios:

Sources: WH officials believe NYT's Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings for their upcoming book Regime Change

Gary Baum / The Hollywood Reporter:

A look at the first “case” brought before Objection, which aims to use AI to evaluate news stories, and a Q&A with Objection's founder; the site is now dark

Marah Eakin / Current:

Fred Rogers Productions launches a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood YouTube channel, curating content based on monthly themes and focusing on reach over monetization

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More News

Gaspard Sebag / Bloomberg:

France's top administrative court sides with privacy watchdog against Google, in an appeal over a €100M fine for placing cookies before getting user's consent

More: Reuters

David Shepardson / Reuters:

A US appeals court upholds California's net neutrality law, saying a 2017 decision by the FCC to reverse federal internet protections could not bar state action

More: ABC News, The Register, CNBC, Cyberlaw, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Verge, and ZDNet

Tweets: @senmarkey, @usrepmikedoyle, and @vanschewick

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

CausaLens, which is developing a no-code tool for data scientists to introduce causal inference into AI models, raises $45M, sources say at a ~$250M valuation

More: FinSMEs. Tweets: @ingridlunden

Ryan Browne / CNBC:

CB Insights: tech startups raised a record $621B in VC funding globally in 2021, more than double 2020's figure, and the number of unicorns rose 69% to 959

Tweets: @ryan_browne_ and @davemcclure. Thanks:@ryan_browne_

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

London-based grocery delivery startup Zapp raises a $200M Series B led by Lightspeed, 468 Capital, and BroadLight Capital, bringing its total funding to $300M

More: Forbes, SiliconANGLE, and PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @alex. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Indian industrial B2B marketplace Moglix raises a $250M Series F at a $2.6B valuation led by Alpha Wave and Tiger, bringing its total funding to ~$470M

More: Moneycontrol, Entrackr, PYMNTS.com, and The Economic Times. Tweets: @aparanjape

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Three things Web3 should fix in 2022: make crypto transactions safe and reliable, make blockchains efficient, and build tech for mitigating harassment and abuse

Tweets: @caseynewton, @platformer, and @laurengoode

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Ascend, which automates insurance payments and offers a buy now, pay later service, raises a $30M Series A led by Index Ventures and $250M in debt

Tweets: @rsanghvi and @southpkcommons

Earlier Picks

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

Vesta, which provides mortgage loan origination software to automate and simplify the lending process, raises a $30M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz

Tweets: @saraduit and @dhaber

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Alphabet's Google Cloud division forms a group to win blockchain business, hire a slew of blockchain experts, and possibly accept payments in cryptocurrencies

More: CoinDesk, SiliconANGLE, Cointelegraph, Zash's Newsletter, and Coinspeaker

Tweets: @googlecloud, @richjwidmann, @jordannovet, @joemccann, and @barhbarian. Thanks:@mattrosoff

P R Sanjai / Bloomberg:

Google will invest $700M in Bharti Airtel, India's second largest telecom operator, for a 1.28% stake, and an additional $300M over five years for specific tech

More: Bharti Airtel, PYMNTS.com, The Economic Times, The Economic Times, Android Central, All India Investors, Reuters, Engadget, The Economic Times, and Neowin

Tweets: @rameshsrivats, @kiranjeet_ks, @samidhas, @shob2811, and @sub8u

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Center for Countering Digital Hate: Substack makes at least $2.5M/year via anti-vaccine posts; Substack defends hosting “writers with whom we strongly disagree”

Tweets: @lulumeservey, @alexhern, @neontaster, @chelseaclinton, and @wellslucassanto