Techmeme: French prosecutors: Pavel Durov's arrest is part of a probe “against person unnamed” on potential charges of CSAM, drug sales, money laundering, and more (New York Times)

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August 27, 2024, 7:55 PM

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Joseph Menn / Washington Post:

Sources: China-linked hackers penetrated deep into two big US ISPs and several smaller ones in recent months, using a zero-day flaw in Versa Networks software — Beijing's hacking effort has “dramatically stepped up from where it used to be,” says former top U.S cybersecurity official.

More: Lumen, Krebs on Security, Versa, Ars Technica, SC Media, SiliconANGLE, CSO, How-To Geek, Security Affairs, Cybersecurity …, iTnews, Bloomberg, The Record, CRN, Dark Reading, The Register, The Hacker News, BleepingComputer, TechCrunch, PCMag, and freebeacon.com

Mastodon: @howelloneill@infosec.exchange. X: @lorenzofb, @lawrenceabrams, @hackingbutlegal, @rekdt, @lumentechco, @jfslowik, @homelandgop, @uuallan, @ryanaraine, @ericgeller, @ryanaraine, @dakotaindc, @ryanaraine, and @k_sec

LinkedIn: Alex Stamos and Brian Krebs

Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, r/cybersecurity, and r/technology

New York Times:

A profile of Pavel Durov, a devout techno-optimist who trolled authorities online, started social network VKontakte in 2006, and left Russia in 2014 for Dubai — Pavel Durov's anti-establishment streak helped him create one of the world's biggest online platforms, which emphasizes free speech.

More: 404 Media, The Verge, The Hacker's Choice, TIME, Forbes, DL News, Cybernews.com, UnHerd, Fortune, The Guardian, Protos, The Merkle News, Politico, and Bloomberg

Threads: @jasonkoebler. X: @nordbergj, @foxcahn, @paulmozur, @christogrozev, and @matthew_d_green. LinkedIn: Paul Mozur

Politico:

Telegram is avidly used within political and media circles in France, including by President Emmanuel Macron, who has used the messaging app for nearly a decade — PARIS — Open the Telegram chat of anyone in the French political orbit and you'll notice lawmakers, cabinet members and presidential advisers online or recently connected.

More: Reuters, New York Post, Middle East Monitor, Must Read Alaska, Tangle, Fortune, and BBC

Mastodon: @kevincollier@mastodon.social. Bluesky: @blowdart.me. X: @gave_vincent, @bartongellman, @rnaudbertrand, @josephmenn, @shaunmmaguire, @gazthejourno, @jamesrbuk, @kevincollier, @balajis, @moxie, @moxie, @tarunchitra, @msolletty, @lorenzofb, @ghaffal, and @ebothorel

Forums: r/worldnews and r/Threema

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:

The crypto industry, heavily reliant on Telegram, has been Pavel Durov's loudest defender after his arrest; the Telegram-linked TON coin has a $13.7B market cap

More: CoinDesk, Coinpedia Fintech News, The Crypto Basic, Nairametrics, and CryptoPotato

New York Times:

French prosecutors: Pavel Durov's arrest is part of a probe “against person unnamed” on potential charges of CSAM, drug sales, money laundering, and more

More: Politico, Platformer, Tribunal de Paris, The Guardian, Financial Times, TechCrunch, KEYE, mofa.gov.ae, Spyglass, Bitcoin Insider, Techdirt, Techdirt, DNyuz, CSO, Reclaim The Net, Le Monde.fr, TNW, CNBC, Engadget, CoinGape, Human Events, Politico, Silicon Republic, Washington Post, The Guardian, Cryptonews, Reuters, Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera, Business Today, The Verge, Benzinga, Moneycontrol, Le Monde.fr, Associated Press, Business Insider, PCMag, Al Jazeera, MediaPost, Fortune, Bloomberg, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Quartz, Politico, The Hill, The Cyber Express, Business Today, and Proactive

Threads: @bobbyallyn, @bobbyallyn, @brian.fishman.5, @brian.fishman.5, @brian.fishman.5, @renee.diresta, @brian.fishman.5, @benedictevans, @anneapplebaum2000, @edward.dowling, @reckless1280, and @sriramk

Forums: Blind and r/anime_titties

Victor Goury-Laffont / Politico:

French President Emmanuel Macron says the government was not involved in the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and “this is in no way a political decision”

More: TechCrunch, PhoneArena, CCN.com, CoinGape, Breitbart, American Banker, Cryptonews, The Crypto Times, Financial Express, London Evening Standard, Fast Company, Watcher Guru, Nairametrics, Business Insider, Financial Times, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Raw Story

Threads: @katienotopoulos, @digiphile, and @brian.fishman.5. Mastodon: @kevincollier@mastodon.social

X: @emmanuelmacron, @elonmusk, @jsrailton, @chrispavlovski, and @kaepora. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski. Forums: r/worldnews

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:

Source: OpenAI demoed a breakthrough called Strawberry to US natsec officials; one of its top uses is to make training data for a flagship LLM codenamed Orion — In case you were wondering why Sam Altman cryptically posted a picture of strawberries earlier this month, the answer almost certainly …

More: The Information, PYMNTS.com, Cryptopolitan, Android Authority, Maginative, The Decoder, and Pivot to AI

Bluesky: @fack.bsky.social, @tedunderwood.me, and @tylerking.bsky.social

X: @gergelyorosz and @ldrogen

Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, r/OpenAI, r/OpenAI, and r/technology

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:

Cerebras launches the “world's fastest” AI inference service with “GPU-impossible performance”, costing 10+ cents per million tokens, to rival Nvidia — Ambitious artificial intelligence computing startup Cerebras Systems Inc. is raising the stakes in its battle against Nvidia Corp. …

More: Cerebras, Cerebras, PCMag, Reuters, Cryptopolitan, Neowin, Constellation Research, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Unite.AI, Financial Times, Forbes, insideHPC, and The Register

X: @artificialanlys, @cerebrassystems, @cerebrassystems, @cerebrassystems, and @cerebrassystems

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Jim Jordan gave Republicans just enough to claim a political win, without getting Meta in more trouble amid its FTC antitrust suit — - Mark Zuckerberg runs Meta, one of the world's most valuable tech companies. — Why did he just send Congress a letter admitting that Meta has screwed up?

Bloomberg:

Former staff of video games payments company Xsolla say in lawsuits that CEO Aleksandr Agapitov leans heavily on company revenue for his new, flashier lifestyle — Aleksandr “Shurick” Agapitov spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure his company's name - Xsolla …

More: Game Developer. X: @cecianasta and @stephentotilo

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Meta says it will shut down Meta Spark, its third-party AR tools and content platform that launched in 2017, effective January 14, 2025, angering some creators — Creators are unhappy with Meta's decision on Tuesday to shut down its Spark platform, which allowed third parties to build augmented reality (AR) effects.

More: Meta, PYMNTS.com, BNN Bloomberg, Business Insider, Cryptopolitan, Tubefilter, Facebook, PhoneArena, Neowin, The Information, The Indian Express, Invezz, Reuters, and The Verge

Threads: @0oyukao0 and @robertogeek. Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social

X: @arian_ghashghai, @sharqureshi1, @rengle820, @arian_ghashghai, @niclasj, @arian_ghashghai, @lyerionclash, @arian_ghashghai, @ottisots, @sadlyitsbradley, @oscarfalmer, @v21, @ciechuje, @sableraph, @martijncales, @the_gonchar, and @zadextroyer

LinkedIn: Martin Pagh Ludvigsen, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, and Will Gee

Joanna Nelius / The Verge:

Google rolls out a Google Meet AI feature that automatically takes notes during meetings conducted in spoken English, available to select Workspace customers — Google Meet's newest AI-powered feature, “take notes for me,” has started rolling out today to Google Workspace customers …

More: Google Workspace Updates, Engadget, Thurrott, PhoneArena, 9to5Google, and Tech.co. Bluesky: @palcu.net

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Instagram now lets users add text to photos right from its post editor, rather than needing a separate app, and add more photos as stickers on top of a photo — Instagram will now let you add text to your photos right from the post editor, meaning you won't need to edit your photos in a separate app just to add some text.

More: Instagram for Creators, MacRumors, Phandroid, GSMArena.com, WinBuzzer, Android Headlines, and Engadget

Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:

MakerDAO rebrands as Sky and debuts a new USDS stablecoin, but the token draws backlash after users noticed it allows the issuer to remotely freeze the asset — MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen said the feature won't be live when the USDS token goes live and the old DAI token will remain in circulation unchanged.

More: Bloomberg, Milk Road, CryptoGlobe, Cryptopolitan, Protos, CryptoPotato, CoinJournal, Crypto Briefing, CryptoSlate, crypto.news, Decrypt, The Crypto Times, Cointelegraph, and Crowdfund Insider

X: @skyecosystem, @llamaonthebrink, @lumbergdoteth, and @skyecosystem

Max A. Cherney / Reuters:

Sources: ex-Intel board member Lip-Bu Tan, an industry veteran, left over what he considered a bloated workforce, risk-averse culture, and lagging AI strategy — The sudden resignation of a high-profile Intel (INTC.O) board member came after differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other directors …

More: Wccftech and Silicon UK

Forums: r/nvidia, r/hardware, and Slashdot

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From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Financial Times:

OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

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Kali Hays / Fortune:

Source: last year, Meta abandoned plans to build its own custom chips for its AR glasses, instead opting to rely on third-party chipmakers like Qualcomm

Threads: @jsiechert, @kalihays1, and @kalihays1

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Self-driving truck company TuSimple, which delisted from Nasdaq in January, reaches a $189M settlement of a suit alleging fraud by overstating safety and more

Rachel Kaser / VentureBeat:

Web3 esports startup Gameplay Galaxy, focused on developing upcoming game Trial Xtreme Freedom, raised a $24M seed co-led by Blockchain Capital and Merit Circle

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Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Seattle-based startup Supio, which uses AI to help lawyers analyze documents, raised a $25M Series A led by Sapphire Ventures

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Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:

Snap rolls out a native Snapchat app for iPadOS, 13 years after launching on iOS; the app can only run in portrait mode

More: MacRumors, iThinkDifferent, Social Media Today, How-To Geek, iPhone in Canada Blog, MakeUseOf, iDownloadBlog.com, The Verge, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, PCMag, Pocket-lint, iMore, Thurrott, iClarified, Cult of Mac, and PhoneArena. Forums: r/technology

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

nOps, which helps companies optimize AWS spend, raised a $30M Series A led by Headlight Partners and says its customer base grew 450% over the past 18 months

Katie Roof / Bloomberg:

Data infrastructure startup Cribl raised $200M led by GV, alongside a $119M secondary offering, at a $3.5B valuation, taking its total funding to $600M

More: CRN, Cribl, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Channel Futures, Cribl, HealthcareInfoSecurity.com, Tech Startups, VC News Daily, AsiaOne, SecurityWeek, and Crunchbase News

Aisha S Gani / Bloomberg:

Klarna reports H1 2024 revenue up 27% YoY to ~$1.3B, a ~$66M adjusted profit, up from a ~$44M adjusted loss in H1 2023, and says AI does the work of 700 staff

More: Financial Times, PYMNTS.com, The Daily Upside, Klarna, Sifted, CNBC, and London Evening Standard

Earlier Picks

Olivia Fletcher / Bloomberg:

South Dublin County Council rejects Google's plan to build a 72,400 square meter data center just outside Dublin for failing to meet sustainability requirements

More: The Daily Upside, Telegraph, The Irish Times, RTÉ, The Register, Luxembourg Times, DatacenterDynamics, TNW, Verdict, and Silicon Republic

Kim Eun-jin / Businesskorea:

Samsung plans to offer seven years of free Tizen OS updates for its AI TVs, including March 2024 and some 2023 models, to extend its lead over Chinese rivals

More: ZDNET, The Verge, PCMag, TrendForce, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, PhoneArena, TechRadar, Android Authority, and TechSpot

Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social. Forums: r/technews and Ars OpenForum

Andy Chalk / PC Gamer:

Steam hit 37M+ concurrent users on August 25 for the first time, up from the previous record of nearly 33.7M in January 2024, after Black Myth: Wukong's release

More: Inverse, Gameranx, IGN, and GamesIndustry.biz. Forums: r/gamingnews

Financial Times:

China's curbs on shipments of germanium and gallium, which are used to make chips, have led to an almost 2x increase in prices in Europe over the past year

More: Tom's Hardware, Fortune, Proactive, Benzinga, and Forbes. X: @danielagabor

Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:

Sony raises the PlayStation 5's price in Japan by 19% to ~$550, citing “the severe external environment, including recent global economic fluctuations”

More: CNBC, Engadget, Video Games Chronicle, Wccftech, Android Headlines, Game Rant, Stevivor, TweakTown, TheGamer, GameSpot, IGN, Game Developer, TechRadar, Push Square, MSPoweruser, PlayStation LifeStyle, and GamingBolt. Threads: @tomwarrenuk

Jeff Stone / Bloomberg:

A look at “Terrorgram”, a network of far-right Telegram channels posting info on power grid attacks, which the North American Reliability Corp. says have spiked

More: Security Boulevard. X: @jeffstone500. Forums: r/technology, r/law, r/politics, and r/conservativeterrorism

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:

Android 14 downgrade OTA release notes confirm Google has delayed the Android 15 roll out to Pixel devices from September to October; a source says mid-October

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple announces a September 9 event at Apple Park with the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watch models, and AirPods 4 expected; the invitation says “It's Glowtime”