Techmeme
November 3, 2021, 2:35 PM

Top News

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
US sanctions four companies, including NSO Group, that sell spyware or hacking tools, adding them to a list of entities engaging in “malicious cyber activities”  —  The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta announces new creator tools for Facebook, including custom web links for subscriptions that use its native payments system to bypass Apple's 30% IAP cut  —  The change is specifically about circumventing Apple's 30 percent tax, according to Zuckerberg  —  Facebook has found …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
A look at the booming market for bots that steal 2FA codes, often using SMS services like Twilio, to break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts  —  The bots convincingly and effortlessly help hackers break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts.  —  Joseph Cox
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Coinbase confirms it is testing Coinbase One, a subscription service that internal docs show could feature zero trading fees and prioritized phone support  —  Quick Take  — Coinbase is testing out a new subscription service, dubbed Coinbase One  — The service would give users access to more features such as zero-fee trading
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
CISA creates a catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, including from Apple and Google, and orders federal agencies to apply patches within timeframes  —  The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has established today a public catalog of vulnerabilities known to be exploited …
Paulina Duran / Reuters:
Australia's largest bank Commonwealth Bank to become the country's first to offer customers crypto services, including cryptocurrency trading via its app  —  Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become the country's first to offer retail clients crypto services, Australia's largest bank said on Wednesday …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down on November 15; Thomas Dohmke, who became chief product officer in August, will take over as CEO  —  GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service.
Mike Minotti / VentureBeat:
Activision Blizzard says Blizzard co-leader Jen Oneal is stepping down, leaving Mike Ybarra as sole leader; Oneal says she'll focus on diversity in the industry  —  Activision Blizzard announced today that Jen Oneal is stepping down from her role as Blizzard co-leader, which she started in August along with Mike Ybarra.
Campbell Kwan / ZDNet:
A joint probe by Australia and UK's Information Commissioners finds Clearview AI collected data on 3B+ people by indiscriminately scraping info from the web  —  Despite uncovering Clearview AI's intrusive practices, Australia's Information Commissioner conceded that the number of Australians …
New York Times:
Meta plans to shut down Facebook's decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of 1B+ users following legal and regulatory woes  —  Saying it wants “to find the right balance” with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.
Michael Bellusci / CoinDesk:
CB Insights: global VC funding of crypto and blockchain hit a record $6.5B in Q3 across 286 deals; US startups raised $2.97B, followed by Asia with $1.4B  —  Coinbase Ventures was the most active investor in the quarter by far, with 24 deals.  —  Global venture capital funding into cryptocurrency …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Zillow says it is shutting down its home buying business, laying off ~2,000 employees, and taking a write down of $500M+; stock drops 10%+  —  Zillow Group's ambitious tech-fueled bid to shake up how people buy and sell homes is coming to a surprising end.  —  The Seattle online real estate giant …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Source: ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming, who stepped down as CEO in May, has left the board after stepping down as chairman; CEO Liang Rubo to become chairman  —  - Zhang announced in May he was giving up his CEO title  — Chinese tech giant this week announced a restructuring
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will bring its mixed reality platform Mesh with 3D avatars and VR support to Teams in the first half of 2022  —  Microsoft and Meta are on a collision course for metaverse competition  —  Microsoft is entering the race to build a metaverse inside Teams, just days after Facebook rebranded …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
The criminal group behind BlackMatter ransomware announces plans to shut down the operation, citing “pressure from the authorities”  —  The criminal group behind the BlackMatter ransomware have announced plans today to shut down their operation, citing pressure from local authorities.

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