Techmeme
December 31, 2024, 9:35 AM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Letter: the US Treasury says China-backed hackers gained access to some Treasury workstations and unclassified docs; a vendor notified it of the hack on Dec. 8  —  The U.S. Treasury told lawmakers in a letter Monday that it was hit by a cyberattack earlier in December, which the department has attributed to Chinese government hackers.
Thanos Pappas / Carscoops:
Sensitive data of over 800K VW Group EV customers, including GPS coordinates, was exposed on an unprotected AWS database for months before being reported  —  The sensitive information of VW, Audi, Seat, and Skoda EV owners was left exposed on an unprotected and misconfigured cloud storage system for months
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Reuters:
Samsung invests $181M in South Korean robot maker Rainbow Robotics, boosting its stake to 35%, and launches a Future Robotics Office reporting to the CEO  —  Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) became the largest shareholder of South Korea's Rainbow Robotics (277810.KQ), the robotics company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF surpassed $50B in assets in 11 months, marking the fastest-growing ETF debut ever, and helping BTC exceed $100K in mid-December  —  - IBIT has grown to more than $50 billion in assets in 11 months  — US ETFs played a key role in Bitcoin's rally over $100,000
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
The US arrests a US Army soldier on suspicion of being Kiberphant0m, who sold sensitive customer call records stolen from AT&T and Verizon in the Snowflake hack  —  Federal authorities have arrested and indicted a 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier on suspicion of being Kiberphant0m …
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Ant Group's payment app Alipay adds an AI-powered image search feature as it tries to become a super app like rival Tencent's WeChat  —  Alipay's move shows how mobile payment platforms are striving to grow their customer base and engender user loyalty in the AI era
Bloomberg:
Sources: Mobvista explores selling mobile ad platform Mintegral after getting interest from buyers like Bain Capital; Mobvista stock in HK surged ~190% in 2024  —  - Company is working with financial adviser on Mintegral sale  — Mobvista's HK-listed shares have climbed almost 190% this year
The Information:
Source: ByteDance keeps using a loophole for US chip sanctions and told suppliers it planned to spend up to $7B to access Nvidia chips outside China in 2025  —  ByteDance continues to use Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence chips despite U.S. efforts to block Chinese companies from using them.
Cagan Koc / Bloomberg:
Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, signs a deal with Starlink to roll out text messaging in Q4 2025, and plans to add voice and data in later stages  —  - Kyivstar to offer text messages via Starlink by late 2025  — Starlink terminals are critical to Ukraine's war effort

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Codegen:
Ship with AI: The Future of Coding is Here  —  Use natural language in Slack to trigger real PRs, docs, dashboards, infra & more.  Codegen connects GitHub, Linear, Notion, and beyond.
Zoho:
How much will a CRM actually cost you?  Use this free calculator to find out  —  You've finally decided to invest in a CRM.  You've done the research, shortlisted a few tools, and maybe even bookmarked a pricing page or two.
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:
Wed. 06/11 - o3-pro
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Scott Frank on Netflix, the future of Hollywood, and Dept. Q
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Marc Andreessen from a16z
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Spotlight On:
CrowdStrike's George Kurtz on the security arms race
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
OpenAI's CPO on what's coming next: Hardware, GPT-5, Jony Ive, agents, more
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Invest Like the Best:
Bill Gurley - The Gift and The Curse of Staying Private
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:35 AM ET, December 31, 2024.

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

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: