Comcast Xfinity customers suffer data breach

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Kyle Wiggers Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Hackers are truly dominating the news cycle. In today’s top story, Carly writes about how malicious actors stole the data of close to 36 million Comcast Xfinity customers. The hackers exploited a bug in the Citrix networking devices often used by big corporations — a bug known as “Citrix Bleed.” Read the full story. But not to worry — other hacker groups are getting their comeuppance. Carly writes about how an international group of law enforcement agencies has seized the dark web leak site of the notorious ransomware gang known as ALPHV, or BlackCat. ALPHV compromised the networks of more than 1,000 victims globally to earn hundreds of millions of dollars, including U.S. emergency services, critical manufacturing, healthcare and public facilities, and schools and defense industrial base companies. Learn more. And in even more uplifting news (at least for consumers), Google said it would pay $700 million — $630 million to U.S.-based users and $70 million to a fund shared among U.S. states — as a part of a Play Store dispute settlement. The complaint had to do with Google's monopoly over app distribution on Android through the Play Store. Ivan has more. Image Credits: Comcast

More top reads Salesforce snatches up Spiff: Salesforce has announced plans to acquire Spiff, a platform that automates commission management for sales teams. Paul has more. Okta buys Spera: In other acquisition news, Okta, the identity and access management company, has acquired security firm Spera — reportedly for over $100 million contingent on milestones. Read more. Changes coming to Google Play: As part of the aforementioned $700 million settlement, Google will be required to make several changes to Google Play. Ivan has the full list of what to expect, including updates to billing, sideloading and how sideloaded apps are updated. AI in 2024: Devin makes a few predictions about the next big things in AI next year, including how AI might impact the U.S. primary elections, Apple’s moves and what’s next for OpenAI. Read more. Gogoro in India: Taiwanese two-wheeler startup Gogoro aims to spend billions of dollars expanding into India. Why India? Jagmeet explains the nuances of the situation. New Maps features for India: On the subject of India, Google introduced a range of new features and updates (e.g., Lens in Maps, Live View) for its mapping service in the country as it wraps up for the year and sets the base for the coming year. Jagmeet has the rundown. Activision Blizzard settles: California's Civil Rights Department reached a $54 million settlement with Activision Blizzard late last week, Taylor writes — two years after the state regulator brought a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, pay inequities and a culture of sexual harassment at the video game company. Read more. A new Zenly-like app: Amo, the buzzy Paris-based startup that keeps releasing consumer social apps, has dropped its third app today: Location. It's a location-sharing app that allows you to see what your friends are up to, get to know them a bit better and spend more time with them — in real life. Romain has more. EVs lost in 2023: Harri writes about the affordable EVs we lost in 2023, like the ElectraMeccanica Solo, Honda e and Sono Sion. See the rest here. Copilot gets music creation: Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot, can now compose songs thanks to an integration with GenAI music app Suno. Learn more. Even more for your Tuesday:  SoftBank sells Open Opportunity Fund to Black and Latino executives SimSpace raises $45M to simulate tech stacks for cyber training Anti-ransomware startup Halcyon lands fresh $40M tranche WazirX volume falls off a cliff amid India's crypto scrutiny 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users Clearlake and Insight reach $4.4B deal to take software maker Alteryx private Y Combinator-backed Guac trains algorithms to predict grocery demand Why videos of $500 beauty advent calendars are flooding TikTok Black British founders are down but not out Space tech forecast for 2024: Rising investments, lunar exploration, and pivotal SpaceX moments Image Credits: Ron Miller/TechCrunch

On the pods This week's episode of Found featured Charlie Hernández, who built My Pocket Lawyer, an online platform that’s meant to democratize access to legal advice and guidance for those who might not be able to afford a lawyer. Hernández talked about why he decided to put his law degree to use to tackle this problem. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Systems Administrator I or II at City of Newport (Newport, OR, USA) QA Engineer, Data Validation at Murmuration (New York, NY, USA) Michigan Online, Software Engineer at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Director of Sales at Opus (New York, NY, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Hackers steal Mr. Cooper customer info

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Kyle Wiggers Monday, December 18, 2023

Hackers don’t take holiday vacations. In today’s top story, Zack writes about how criminals stole the sensitive personal information of over 14.6 million customers of Mr. Cooper, the mortgage and loan giant. In a filing with Maine's attorney general's office, Mr. Cooper said the hackers stole customer names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers, as well as customer Social Security numbers and bank account numbers. Yikes. In equally dramatic news during what this writer foolishly assumed would be a relatively quiet morning leading up to the holidays, Apple preemptively halted sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 owing to a patent dispute with California-based med tech firm Masimo. Masimo alleges that Apple violated its IP around blood sensor monitors; Brian has the full story. And on TechCrunch+, Rebecca covers the Adobe-Figma breakup (Adobe, if you hadn’t heard, earlier today called off its deal to acquire Figma for $20 billion) and explores how it might impact startup exits elsewhere. Read more. Image Credits: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

More top reads Adobe and Figma part ways: Adobe has ended its plan to acquire Figma in light of intensifying regulatory headwinds in Europe. The tech giant will be on the hook for a $1 billion termination fee. Read more. IBM makes two big buys: IBM is doling out €2.13 billion ($2.3 billion) to acquire two data integration assets from Germany-based enterprise software company Software AG: StreamSets and webMethods. Learn more. New SEC disclosure rules: Starting today, publicly owned companies operating in the U.S. must comply with a new set of rules requiring them to disclose “material” cyber incidents within 96 hours. See the details here. EV founder found guilty: Trevor Milton, the disgraced founder and former CEO of electric truck startup Nikola, was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for securities fraud. Learn more. Lawmakers eye iMessage: Apple's move to cut off Beeper, the app that brought iMessage to Android users, has caught the attention of a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, who are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate. Read more. X faces probe: X, formerly known as Twitter, is now the subject of an investigation under the European Union’s Digital Services Act over illegal content risks, moderation, transparency and deceptive UX design. Read more. Flipboard embraces ActivityPub: Social magazine app Flipboard is announcing that it’s integrated with the open networking protocol ActivityPub, following on the heels of Instagram Threads. Read about what that means. Apple pilots new subscription pricing: Apple has started experimenting with a feature on the App Store that allows developers to bundle subscriptions for two apps at a discounted price. Learn more. BNPL star: Tamara, a buy now, pay later platform for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council region, has raised $340 million in a financing round that values the fintech at $1 billion. Read more. MongoDB security incident: In other hack-related news, database management giant MongoDB says it's investigating a security incident that’s resulted in the exposure of some information about customers. Learn more. Vans, Supreme, North Face orders impacted: VF Corporation, the U.S.-based owner of apparel brands, including Vans, Supreme and The North Face, has confirmed that a cyberattack impacted the company's ability to fulfill orders ahead of Christmas — one of the biggest retail events of the year. Read more. Six more stories you should read:  Jumia quit food delivery because of deep-pocketed 'aggressive' rivals, CEO says Meltwater, the media monitoring startup, gets a $65M investment from Verdane May Mobility's driverless microtransit service might beat robotaxis to profitability Snowflake goes all in on data clean rooms with Samooha acquisition OpenAI buffs safety team and gives board veto power on risky AI Why extortion is the new ransomware threat Image Credits: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images

On the pods Today on Equity, the crew covered the past year in tech, startups and VC. They dove into VC numbers, fintech's hot start and then cooldown on the M&A front, the creator economy in 2023, and more. Also on the agenda was OpenAI’s upheaval — and the return of key-person syndrome, broadly speaking. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard QA Engineer, Data Validation at Murmuration (New York, NY, USA) Michigan Online, Software Engineer at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Director of Sales at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103