Most hackers know how to cover their tracks. But Russia’s elite groups are working at a whole other level.
Source: Wired
One image will be shown across all apps in Google’s suite of tools for business.
Source: CNET
Following the refreshed 2020 Titan half-ton pickup, the XD arrives with a basket of upgrades.
Source: CNET
WeWork, once valued at $47 billion, will be worth as little as $7.5 billion on paper as SoftBank takes control of the struggling co-working business, CNBC reports.
SoftBank, a long-time WeWork investor, plans to invest between $4 billion and $5 billion in exchange for new and existing shares, according to CNBC . The deal, expected to be announced as soon as tomorrow, represents a lifeline for WeWork, which is said to be mere weeks from running out of cash and has been shopping several of its assets as it attempts to lessen its cash burn.
WeWork declined to comment.
To be clear, it is reportedly the Vision Fund’s parent company, SoftBank Group Corp. that is taking control, with SoftBank International chief executive officer Marcelo Claure stepping in to support company management, per reports.
The Japanese telecom giant’s move comes precisely four weeks after co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann relinquished control of the company and transitioned into a non-executive chairman role, and about three weeks after WeWork decided to delay its highly anticipated initial public offering. WeWork’s vice chairman Sebastian Gunningham and the company’s president and chief operating officer Artie Minson are currently serving as WeWork’s co-CEOs.
In addition to those personnel shake-ups, WeWork has lost its communications chief, Jimmy Asci, its chief marketing officer, Robin Daniels and several others. Meanwhile, the company has slashed hundreds of jobs, and opted to shut down its school, WeGrow, in 2020.
Now expected to go public in 2020, WeWork was also said to be in negotiations with JPMorgan for a last-minute cash infusion. The company, now a cautionary tale, will surely continue to reduce the sky-high costs of its money-losing operation in the upcoming months.
WeWork revealed an unusual IPO prospectus in August after raising more than $8 billion in equity and debt funding. Despite financials that showed losses of nearly $1 billion in the six months ending June 30, the company still managed to accumulate a valuation as high as $47 billion, largely as a result of Neumann’s fundraising abilities.
“As co-founder of WeWork, I am so proud of this team and the incredible company that we have built over the last decade,� Neumann said in a statement confirming his resignation last month. “Our global platform now spans 111 cities in 29 countries, serving more than 527,000 members each day. While our business has never been stronger, in recent weeks, the scrutiny directed toward me has become a significant distraction, and I have decided that it is in the best interest of the company to step down as chief executive. Thank you to my colleagues, our members, our landlord partners, and our investors for continuing to believe in this great business.�
Source: TechCrunch
If you’ve read anything of mine in the past year, you know just how complicated security can be.
Every day it seems there’s a new security lapse, a breach, a hack, or an inadvertent exposure, such as leaving a cloud storage server unprotected without a password. These things happen, but they don’t have to; aecurity isn’t as difficult as it sounds, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
We sat down with three experts on the Extra Crunch stage at TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF earlier this month to help startups and founders understand what they need to do, when, and why.
We asked Google’s Heather Adkins, Duo’s Dug Song, and IOActive’s Jennifer Sunshine Steffens for their best advice. Here’s what they had to say.
Quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity.
The one resounding message from the panel: don’t put security off.
“There are basically three areas that folks should start considering how to bucket those risks,” said Duo’s Song. “The first is corporate risk in defending your users and applications they access. The second is application security and product risk. A third area is is around production, security and making sure that the operation of your security program is something that keeps up with that risk. And then a fourth — a new and emerging space — is trust, and not just privacy, but also safety.”
It’s better to be proactive about security than to be reactive to a data breach; not only will it help your company bolster its security posture, but it also serves as an important factor in future fundraising negotiations.
Song said founders have a “very direct obligation” to think about security as soon as they take someone else’s money, but especially when a company starts gathering user or customer data. “You have to put yourself in the shoes of those folks whose data you have to protect,” he said. “It’s not just your existential threats to your business, but you do have a responsibility, right to figure out how to do this well.”
IOActive’s Steffens said startups are already a target — simply because it’s assumed many won’t have thought much about security.
“A lot of attackers will go after startups who have high value data, because they know security is not a priority and it’s going to be a lot easier to get ahold of,” she said. “Data these days is extraordinarily valuable.”
Google’s Adkins, who runs the search giant’s internal information security team, joined the company almost two decades ago when it was just the size of a large startup. Her job is to keep the company’s network, assets, and employees safe.
“When I got there, they were so fanatical about security already, that half of the job was already done,” she said. “From the moment [Google] took its first search query, it was thinking about where those logs are stored, who has access to them, and what is its responsibility to its users,” she said.
“Startups who are successful with security are those where the chief executive and the founders are fanatical from day one and understand what threats exist to the business and what they need to do to protect it,” she said.
Song said many popular products and technologies these days come with strong security by default, such as iPhones, Chromebooks, security keys and Windows 10.
“You’re better off than the 90% of large companies out there,” he said. “That’s one of those few strategic advantages you have as a smaller, nimbler organization that doesn’t have a lot of legacy,” he added. “You can do things better from the start.”
“A lot of the basics are still key,” said Steffens. “Even as we come out with the new shiny technology, having things like firewalls and antivirus, and multi-factor authentication.”
“Security doesn’t always have to be a money thing,” she said. “There’s a lot of open source technology that’s really great.”
“The sooner you start thinking about security, the less expensive it is in the end,” said Steffens.
That’s because, the experts said, proactive security gives companies an edge over competitors who tack on security solutions after a breach. It’s easier and more cost-effective to get it right the first time without having to fill in gaps years later.
It might be a hard sell to funnel money into something where you won’t actively see financial returns, which is why founders should think of security as investments for the future. The idea is that if you spend a little money at the start, it can save you down the line from the inevitable — a security incident that will cost you in bad headlines, lost customer trust, and potentially fines or other sanctions.
Source: TechCrunch
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine took part in a joint presentation by the chiefs of a number of international space agencies at the annual International Astronautical Conference on Monday. At the end of the event, a question was put to the entire group — when do we get to Mars?
After a joke answer of “Tuesday” by ESA Director General Jan Wörner, Bridenstine followed with a serious answer that he believes — provided everyone can get their governments to actually back them and provide the support needed — it’s possible that astronauts could land on Mars by as early as 2035.
“If we accelerate the Moon landing, we’re accelerating the Mars landing — that’s what we’re doing,” Bridenstine said, referring to the agency’s aggressive, accelerated timeline of aiming to land the first American woman and next American man on the Moon by 2024 with the Artemis program.
“If our budgets were sufficient,” Bridenstine said, turning to his colleagues from NASA’s international equivalents, “I would suggest that we could do it by 2035.”
“The goal is to land on the Moon within five years and be sustainable by 2028,” Bridenstine said during a press conference following the agency leadership panel, clarifying that sustainability means “people living and working on another world for long periods of time.”
The caveat Bridenstine offered, that budgets match ambition, is not an insignificant one. NASA just faced a congressional subcommittee budgetary hearing about its plan to get to the Moon by 2024, and faced some heavy skepticism. From NASA’s scientific and technical assessment of Mars mission feasibility for a 2035 target, however, the agency previously discussed this date as early as 2015.
Source: TechCrunch
Microsoft has a new Secured Core initiative, giving devices with that sticker extra protection against hackers. Devices with Intel, AMD, and ARM chips have been given the go-ahead, from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Panasonic.
Source: Digital trends
If you’ve encountered issues installing Apple’s Catalina operating system on your Mac, you’re not alone. We’ve identified some common issues along with some helpful remedies to get you started on the latest version of MacOS.
Source: Digital trends
The “secured-core PC� feature for Windows looks to head off firmware hacks.
Source: Wired
A less error-prone DNA editing method could correct many more harmful mutations than was previously possible.
Source: Wired