Techmeme
December 18, 2020, 4:05 AM

Top News

Brad Smith / Microsoft On the Issues:
Microsoft identified 40+ customers targeted in the SolarWinds hack, 80% in the US, says the attack is “ongoing” and calls for a global cybersecurity response  —  The final weeks of a challenging year have proven even more difficult with the recent exposure of the world's latest serious nation-state cyberattack.
Politico:
Sources: Energy Dept. and NNSA, which maintains the US nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that their networks were accessed as part of the SolarWinds hack  —  The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile …
Washington Post:
CISA issues an alert that says evidence suggests attackers used malware to access US systems, beyond SolarWinds vulnerabilities, but offers no other details  —  Federal investigators reported Thursday on evidence of previously unknown tactics for penetrating government computer networks …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Microsoft says compromised SolarWinds apps were on its networks but that no customer data was stolen; it denies report hackers used its systems to attack others  —  Microsoft denies that hackers pivoted to production systems and abused its software to attack customers.
The Intercept:
Microsoft Threat Intel docs suggest state-sponsored hackers, likely from Russia, breached Austin, TX's city network in Oct. and used it to stage other attacks  —  State-sponsored hackers believed to be from Russia have breached the city network of Austin, Texas, The Intercept has learned.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter launches Spaces, its Clubhouse-like service, in private beta on iOS, limited to select individuals, largely from under-represented backgrounds  —  Last month, Twitter announced it would soon begin testing a new social experience on its platforms involving audio-only chat rooms …
Twitter:
Twitter says it will start its new verification policy on January 21 and is developing profile labels to designate bots and memorial accounts  —  A couple of weeks ago, we announced that we're planning to bring back our public verification program in 2021, shared a draft of our new policy …
Jack Morse / Mashable:
Twitter is testing “humanization prompts” which will show users' shared interest and mutual followers when replying to another user's tweet  —  Twitter wants you to remember that there are actual people on the other side of your replies.  —  The company began testing a new feature …
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Jack Morse / Mashable:
New York Times:
A bipartisan group of 38 AGs sues Google for alleged antitrust violations in search, its third antitrust suit, including exclusionary contracts with Apple  —  More than 30 states said that the company downplayed websites that let users search for information in specialized areas.
Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony is removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice, and offering full refunds to people who bought it, amid reports of it being buggy  —  You can request a refund now  —  Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds for anyone …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Coinbase says it has confidentially filed for an IPO  —  Cryptocurrency giant Coinbase announced on Thursday that is has confidentially filed for a public offering, becoming the latest in a parade of high-profile startups to pursue an IPO in 2020.  —  Founded in 2012 as a simple way for consumers …
Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:
An investigation into who owns MindGeek, the secretive company behind Pornhub, which had $460M in revenue in 2018 and has 115M+ daily visitors to its sites  —  Mario Salieri was shooting a pornographic movie in a lavish Prague villa two decades ago when he first caught sight of the computer geeks who were about to upend his industry.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub says it is doing away with all non-essential cookies and will no longer feature “irritating” cookie banners on GitHub.com and its subdomains  —  Microsoft -owned GitHub today announced that it is doing away with all non-essential cookies on its platform.
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
LinkedIn data from April to October shows Madison, Cleveland, and Sacramento had biggest gains in tech worker migration, while SF and NYC had steepest declines  —  The Austin surge that wasn't.  Plus booming Seattle, miraculous Madison, and sluggish San Francisco.  —  5 hr ago
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Rubrik, a data management startup last valued at $3.3B in 2019, acquires tech and IP assets from Igneous, which provides unstructured data management services  —  Rubrik, a Palo Alto, Calif-based cloud data management startup valued at more than $3 billion, has acquired technology and IP assets from Igneous …
Russ Frushtick / Polygon:
Q&A with Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser on COVID-19's impact, Animal Crossing, plans for 2021, Switch Online, and more  —  The president of Nintendo of America on the last year and looking ahead to 2021  —  It's hard to imagine a company weathering 2020 much better than Nintendo.
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood agrees to pay $65M to settle SEC charges that the company deceived customers between 2015 and late 2018 about its source of revenue  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Robinhood with the deceiving customers about how the stock trading app makes money and failing to deliver best execution of trades.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:05 AM ET, December 18, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge: