Techmeme
December 16, 2021, 12:25 AM

Top News

Project Zero:
A deep dive into an NSO zero-click iMessage exploit, captured in the wild by Citizen Lab and one of the most sophisticated Google's Project Zero has seen  —  We want to thank Citizen Lab for sharing a sample of the FORCEDENTRY exploit with us, and Apple's Security Engineering and Architecture …
Reuters:
Eighteen Democratic lawmakers ask the Treasury and State Departments for Magnitsky rights abuse sanctions on four spyware firms, including NSO and DarkMatter  —  A group of U.S. lawmakers is asking the Treasury Department and State Department to sanction Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and three …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Memo: Apple delays its return to corporate offices to a “date yet to be determined”, after previously setting a February 1 return date  —  - Company had planned to bring corporate workers back by Feb. 1  — Delay comes in response to rising Covid-19 cases, new variant
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple closes three retail stores in Miami, Annapolis, and Ottawa, Canada after a rise in employee COVID-19 cases and exposures  —  - Company is closing locations in Miami, Maryland and Ottawa  — Cases and exposure among Apple's employees spurred the move
Dan Primack / Axios:
Katie Haun is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to start a new firm focusing on crypto and Web3 startups; Haun's deals at a16z included OpenSea and Coinbase  —  Katie Haun, one of the world's most influential crypto venture capitalists, is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to form her own firm.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple quietly removes all mentions of CSAM scanning on its Child Safety webpage, but says its plans have not changed since September when it delayed the feature  —  Apple has quietly nixed all mentions of CSAM from its Child Safety webpage, suggesting its controversial plan …
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft and cybersecurity company Mandiant say state-backed hacking groups linked to China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkey are exploiting the Log4j flaw  —  Researchers call it one of the most dire cybersecurity threats to emerge in years and could enable devastating attacks
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
IBM and Samsung say Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors, an alternative to FinFET chip designs, can offer 2x performance, amid similar claims from Intel  —  The next big advance in chips is looking up  —  IBM and Samsung have announced their latest advance in semiconductor design …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon says it will reduce its Alexa skills commission from 30% to 20% for developers who earn less than $1M per year, starting in Q2 2022  —  Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon's smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Meta updates its bug bounty program to pay researchers who find anti-scraping loopholes and reward those who find scraped Facebook data with charity donations  —  The Meta (formerly Facebook) security team has added scraping attacks to the list of incidents covered by the company's bug bounty program.
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU Parliament passes the Digital Markets Act, after Vestager's suggestion last month; EU countries and the Commission will consider the law next year  —  EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday to beef up draft rules to rein in U.S. tech giants, including extending the scope to their retailing activities …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Swimply, a marketplace for renting private swimming pools, raises $40M led by Mayfield, seven months after raising $10M  —  The concept of creating a marketplace for underutilized assets that can turn into a meaningful business for hosts is not a new one.  And there is no higher profile of how successful that model can be than Airbnb.
Tweets: @pkedroskyThanks:@bayareawriter
Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat:
Noname Security, which automatically discovers and remediates API vulnerabilities, raises a $135M Series C at a $1B valuation led by Georgian and Lightspeed  —  API protection startup Noname Security, which today disclosed a $135 million series C funding round at a post-money valuation of $1 billion …
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters:
Anchorage Digital, which offers institutions digital asset services for secure crypto custody, trading, and more, raises $350M led by KKR at a $3B valuation  —  Anchorage Digital, a digital asset financial platform, said on Wednesday it raised $350 million in its latest funding round led by private equity firm KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N).

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:
How remote support can make your Christmas stress-free  —  As Christmas approaches, the air fills with the anticipation of joy, family gatherings, and gift-giving.  While the season brings immense happiness …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Rest of World:
New York Times:
Emily Birnbaum / Politico:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: