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Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
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In today's Techpresso: |
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⚠️ Largest supply chain attack in history targets crypto users through NPM
👁️ US tech giants built China's surveillance state
💥 Whistleblower sues Meta over claims of WhatsApp security flaws
📉 Google concedes the open web is in "rapid decline"
🙏 Snap breaks into 'startup squads' as ad revenue stalls
🤑 Microsoft signs up to $19.4B AI deal with Nebius
🎁 + 16 other news you might like
🔮 + 6 handpicked research papers and tools
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| ⚠️ Largest supply chain attack in history targets crypto users through NPM LINK
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- A software maintainer's NPM account was compromised through a phishing scheme, leading to malicious code being added to 18 packages with billions of weekly downloads.
- The attack targeted blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin by tricking the developer with a fake email about a 2FA reset that appeared to be from the NPM organization.
- While this infection is being called the largest supply chain attack in history, NPM has started deleting the malicious versions of the software to prevent widespread damage.
| 👁️ US tech giants built China's surveillance state LINK
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- US tech companies like IBM worked directly with Chinese police and defense contractors to design the country's surveillance apparatus, even pitching their technology as a tool for controlling citizens.
- Evidence from thousands of leaked emails shows former IBM partner Landasoft copied its i2 police surveillance analysis software to track and detain people during the brutal crackdown in Xinjiang.
- The American firms brought "predictive policing" to China, a system that allows authorities to preemptively arrest individuals by mining vast data like texts, video, DNA swabs, and power use.
| 💥 Whistleblower sues Meta over claims of WhatsApp security flaws LINK
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- Attaullah Baig, WhatsApp's former security chief, is suing Meta, alleging he found "systemic cybersecurity failures" where 1,500 engineers could review sensitive personal information without any audit trail.
- The lawsuit states these security flaws violate a 2020 privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and that WhatsApp lacked a comprehensive inventory or systems for monitoring data.
- Baig claims Meta retaliated for his "cybersecurity disclosure," giving him negative feedback before firing him for "poor performance" after he filed complaints with the SEC and OSHA.
| 📉 Google concedes the open web is in "rapid decline" LINK
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- In a new legal filing for its adtech antitrust case, Google claimed the open web is in "rapid decline," an argument made to prevent a court-ordered breakup.
- The company says that being forced to divest its AdX marketplace would hasten the demise of wide swaths of the web that are dependent on advertising revenue.
- This argument conflicts with Google's usual position that AI Overviews does not reduce web traffic and that search clicks from its platform are remaining "relatively stable."
| 🙏 Snap breaks into 'startup squads' as ad revenue stalls LINK
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- In response to mounting pressure, Snap's CEO announced a company-wide restructuring into small "startup squads" of 10 to 15 people designed to better compete against its larger rivals.
- This reorganization comes as Snap's advertising revenue growth flatlined at 4 percent and its North American daily active users declined by 2 percent, a troubling sign for the company.
- While ads slow, Snapchat+ subscriptions now generate over $700 million in annual recurring revenue from more than 15 million paying subscribers, becoming one of Snap's fastest-growing opportunities.
| 🤑 Microsoft signs up to $19.4B AI deal with Nebius LINK
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- Microsoft signed a $17.4 billion, five-year cloud deal with Nebius for long-term access to high-speed GPUs, with a potential expansion that could increase its total value to $19.4 billion.
- The agreement provides a secure source of GPUs outside traditional channels, helping Microsoft avoid hardware bottlenecks and diversify its infrastructure away from a handful of manufacturing partners like Nvidia.
- Nebius will grant access to dedicated GPU clusters from a new data center, gaining a steady revenue stream to fund growth and expand its global AI footprint.
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Other news & articles you might like
- Apple planning a multi-year launch for AirPods Pro 3, says leaker LINK
- Tesla market share in US drops to lowest since 2017 as Elon Musk pivots to robotaxis LINK
- Sam Altman says that bots are making social media feel 'fake' LINK
- Anthropic's $1.5B AI Copyright Settlement in Jeopardy as Judge Blasts Deal as 'Nowhere Close to Complete' LINK
- Anthropic endorses California's AI safety bill, SB 53 LINK
- OpenAI leaders have discussed leaving California, according to the Wall Street Journal LINK
- Nvidia Frames US Chip Restrictions as 'Doomer' Paranoia to Protect China Sales LINK
- Scientists create solar cells that generate energy from indoor light at record efficiency LINK
- 'Near Telepathic' Wearable Lets You Communicate Silently With Devices LINK
- China's Unitree plans $7 billion IPO valuation, Reuters reports, as humanoid robot race heats up LINK
- Rabbit R1 wants a second chance with the new RabbitOS 2 update LINK
- Travel Platforms Embrace AI to Avoid Being Replaced by AI LINK
- Lessons learned from staring at thousands of retention curves LINK
- You can now shake your phone to summarize pages in Firefox LINK
- All 54 lost clickwheel iPod games have now been preserved for posterity LINK
- Nova Launcher's founder and sole developer has left LINK
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Trending research and tools
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DuckDB NPM packages: specific versions of this database tool were compromised with malware, creating a security risk for developers. LINK
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LavaMoat: a security tool that prevents malicious code in software dependencies from causing harm by restricting their permissions and access to sensitive functions. LINK
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Hallucination Risk Calculator: a toolkit that measures an AI's risk of making up false information, helping it decide whether to answer or refuse a prompt without being retrained. LINK
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Attempt: a command-line tool that automatically retries commands that might fail, with an optional delay between attempts. LINK
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ZeroFS: a filesystem that presents S3 cloud storage as a local disk, enabling file-level and block-level access for applications, databases, and even other filesystems. LINK
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Cyborgtest: a Playwright extension that combines automated checks with human input in the same test, pausing for a person to mark a step as passed or failed. LINK
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