Techmeme
July 19, 2021, 1:52 PM

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: The Guardian, VICE, The Verge, BBC, The Guardian, Forbidden Stories, Amnesty International, Washington Post, CRN, Softpedia News, Computerworld, CNET, The Guardian, Threatpost, BBC, CyberScoop, CNN, The Hacker News, AppleInsider, Insider, Washington Post, New York Post, Associated Press, Fast Company, Techdirt, New York Times, Reuters, Cryptonews, The Register, MacRumors, TechCircle, Silicon Republic, Engadget, Haaretz, MediaNama, The Week, Access Now, Telecoms.com, ZDNet, HackRead, TNW, iThinkDifferent, ComputerWeekly.com, phonearena.com, The Overspill, GitHub, Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, and Financial Times
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.
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:
Phones of 22 Indian people, who were on a list of hundreds, were checked and 7 had been infected with NSO malware; the list included top opposition politicians  —  NEW DELHI — A powerful surveillance tool licensed only to governments was used to infiltrate mobile phones belonging …
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.
Andrew Restuccia / Wall Street Journal:
Biden clarifies his Facebook criticism, says he meant top users spreading vaccine misinfo were “killing people”, and urges Facebook to reduce misinformation  —  President says company isn't to blame for deaths, but adds it needs to do more to stop social-media users from spreading falsities
Guy Rosen / About Facebook:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Rappi, a Colombian on-demand delivery startup, says it has raised $500M+ Series F led by T. Rowe Price at a $5.25B valuation, bringing its total raised to $2B+  —  Rappi, a Colombian on-demand delivery startup, has raised “over” $500 million at a $5.25 billion valuation in a Series G round led …
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.
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: FinLedger and Reuters

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Gian M. Volpicelli / Wired UK:

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