Techmeme
July 19, 2021, 8:55 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: The Guardian, The Guardian, Amnesty International, The Guardian, The Guardian, The Citizen Lab, Forbidden Stories, Washington Post, Washington Post, CNET, BBC, Silicon Republic, Haaretz, Insider, The Guardian, ZDNet, The Hacker News, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Verge, New York Times, iThinkDifferent, Engadget, Telecoms.com, ComputerWeekly.com, The Register, Bloomberg, Reuters, Access Now, MediaNama, HackRead, The Week, SiliconANGLE, Gizmodo, New York Post, news.com.au, The Overspill, TNW, phonearena.com, Slashdot, Financial Times, and CyberNews
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 …
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.
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom:
[Thread] The response to Biden from Facebook's VP of Integrity is a textbook example of bluster and obfuscation  —  After Biden's criticism of @Facebook for their inaction on antivax propaganda, @fbnewsroom is going on the offensive. They issued a press release that is a textbook example of bluster, obfuscation, and agnatogenesis. Here's the link. Let's take a look. https://about.fb.com/...
Guy Rosen / About Facebook:
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.
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
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Overview of short-form audio apps like Racket, Beams, and Quest that let users record and share voice clips, as Facebook aims to enter the space with Soundbites  —  “So I've identified a few metrics and KPIs that I'm going to start tracking in order to better my overall life experience,” …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Supercharge Your CRM with an AI Agent  —  This is a guest blog by Chatsimple.Your CRM helps you manage leads and identify sales opportunities.  But sometimes you may find yourself dealing with a dry sales pipeline …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
JK, JK, JK
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
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.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Keith Rabois and Zach Weinberg Debate: Are Tariffs a Smart Economic Weapon?
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel (Part 3)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:55 AM ET, July 19, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Helen Rosner / New Yorker:

Earlier Picks

Flavia Rotondi / Bloomberg:
Wall Street Journal: