Author : zebethcontrol

Twitter’s lead EU watchdog for data protection has fresh questions for Musk • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in DPC, Elon Musk, GDPR, Government & Policy, Privacy, Social, TwitterNo Comments

In parallel with the FTC’s ominous warning to Elon Musk’s Twitter yesterday — that ‘no CEO or company is above the law‘ — the microblogging platform’s lead regulator in the European Union is on its case in the wake of senior staffers in charge of security and privacy compliance walking out the door. Graham Doyle, a deputy commissioner at Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which currently leads oversight of Twitter under the EU’s General data Protection Regulation (GDPR), told ZebethMedia it’s in contact with the company following media reports yesterday that its data protection officer (DPO) had resigned. A meeting between the DPC and Twitter will take place early next week, according to Doyle. He also confirmed to us that Twitter had not informed the regulator of the DPO’s departure prior to the media reports. Getting clarity over the DPO situation will be top of the meeting agenda, per Doyle. But he said the regulator now has another concern it wants to discuss with Twitter — regarding whether Twitter’s main establishment, for GDPR purposes, is still located in Ireland… Next stop: One-stop-shop stopped? “One of the issues that we want to discuss is the issue around main establishment,” Doyle told ZebethMedia. “They’re obliged to have a data protection officer in place and provide us with the details but equally, under the [GDPR] one-stop-shop (OSS) mechanism in order to get a main establishment to engage with one regulator, the decision making processes — in terms of the processing of EU data — needs to take place in that country. That’s one of the principles of main establishment. And what we want to establish is that that is continuing to be the case for Twitter.” Ireland being Twitter’s lead regulator for the GDPR under the OSS is important because it puts the Irish watchdog in the driving seat when it comes to opening inquiries (or not), or otherwise acting on concerns over Twitter’s compliance (such as following up on the un-notified resignation of its DPO now). From Twitter’s point of view, the arrangement is advantageous because it streamlines compliance since it only needs to liaise with one (lead) regulator over any issues, rather than handling inbound from multiple data protection agencies (potentially in different languages). Ireland has a lead supervisor role for Twitter because the company was able to notify its Dublin office as its “main establishment” in the EU — what the regulation refers to as either the place of “central administration in the Union” or “where the main processing activities take place in the Union”. However were Twitter to be deemed to no longer have this processing base in Ireland there would be an immediate regulatory reconfiguration and data protection authorities across the bloc, from any of the EU’s 27 Member States, could instigate inquiries or act on local complaints themselves — cranking up the regulatory complexity, velocity and risk for Twitter’s European business. With Musk slashing 50% of Twitter’s headcount globally just last week — and a reported “carnage” in the Irish office, per an Irish Times report which said more than 50% of local staff were affected — questions have arisen in Dublin over the stability of its main establishment status for the GDPR. “We’ve made contact with Twitter.. And for us one of the issues we want to discuss with them is the issue of main establishment — is there any change? With the announcement of the departures — including the DPO — is there any plans to change the decision making process that’s in place that allows them to avail of the main establishment,” Doyle reiterated. Reports that all was not well up at the senior echelons of Twitter’s security and privacy function spilled out onto Twitter yesterday afternoon. Platformer journalists, Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer, reported that Twitter’s CISO, chief privacy officer and chief compliance officer has all resigned — citing messages shared in Twitter Slack which they had obtained. Soon afterwards, the Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski tweeted that the Irish DPC was “seeking more information” from Twitter. According to messages shared in Twitter Slack, Twitter’s CISO, chief privacy office, and chief compliance officer all resigned last night. An employee says it will be up to engineers to “self-certify compliance with FTC requirements and other laws.” — Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 10, 2022 NEW: A senior member of Twitter’s legal team just posted this message in Slack:“Everyone should know that our CISO, Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Compliance Officer ALL resigned last night. This news will be buried in the return-to-office drama. I believe that is intentional.” — Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 10, 2022 Twitter CISO Lea Kissner later confirmed her departure in a tweet — as did Damien Kieran, Twitter’s now ex chief privacy officer. While Marianne Fogarty, Twitter’s (reportedly ex) chief compliance officer, tweeted what may be an indirect confirmation too late yesterday — writing: “Therapy Thursdays have taken on new meaning of late. #LoveTwitter”. Enquiries to Twitter’s press line have gone unanswered since Musk took over so it’s not been possible to obtain an official line on what’s going on. The company’s communications department appears to have been a major casualty of the 50% headcount reduction Musk swiftly applied on taking over — with press staffers either entirely or almost entirely laid off. It also not clear how many of Twitter’s staff in Ireland were laid off last week. There is no obligation on the company to report overall layoffs numbers to the DPC. Nor is the criteria a regulator should use for assessing main establishment clear as it is not stipulated in the GDPR itself — but rather left up to regulators to determine. (On determining main establishment, the regulation states: “The main establishment of a controller in the Union should be determined according to objective criteria and should imply the effective and real exercise of management activities determining the main decisions as to the purposes and means of processing through stable arrangements” — further stipulating that “criterion should not

It’s not a rug pull if it’s an accident • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Equity podcast, ftx binance, meta, Sam Bankman-Fried, Startups, tech layoffsNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. We thought that last week was a lot. It was, but this week was somehow more. More chaotic, rapid-fire change at a number of massive tech companies kept us on our toes. So, while our beloved co-host Natasha was out, we couldn’t do the recording down a set of hands, so we brought Becca aboard with Mary Ann and Alex. The list of news was so long that we were cutting entire sections up until we hit record, and even still we went over time. If you like longer episodes, this one is for you. Deals of the Week: What’s going on with the former Peloton CEO’s new rug startup? And how is Tellus going to offer much better consumer savings rates? And, finally, how wrong can Alex get the Harmonic business model until he figures it out live on the show? Mega-layoffs: From there, we had to sit down and discuss the massive Meta layoffs. Our read is that the company is doing right by the folks it is cutting, which is not as much as we can say about some other companies in the world also undergoing massive staffing cuts. Naturally, this brought up Twitter to a degree, the smaller social network being the Main Character in tech news up until, well: WTF FTX? Ah, FTX. Last week it was worth $32 billion and its founder was arguably the face of crypto around the world. And now Sequoia has pulled its on-site hagiography, SBF is a pariah, and FTX may be going to zero. There’s going to be a mini-series about this, isn’t there? We are back Monday! Have a lovely weekend! Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. ZebethMedia also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together, and more!

Thomson Reuters to acquire tax automation company SurePrep for $500M • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Enterprise, Fintech, Robotics & AI, SurePrep, thomson reutersNo Comments

Thomson Reuters has announced plans to acquire SurePrep, a tax automation software company based in Irvine, California. The transaction, which Thomson Reuters said it expects to close in Q1 2023, values SurePrep at $500 million, which will be paid entirely in cash. Founded in 2002, SurePrep is one of numerous software providers that help tax professionals and accountants gather and file 1040 tax returns on behalf of their clients. Integrating with existing tax software systems, SurePrep offers various products that support uploading documents at regular intervals through the year via automated document requests, with support for mobile scanning, esignatures, and more. Built-in AI smarts also automatically extracts and repopulates data in companies’ tax compliance software of choice, removing many of the manual paperwork steps involved. SurePrep’s TaxCaddy product SurePrep is the latest in a long recent line of tax management software companies to be acquired. In August, Vista Equity Partners announced plans to acquire automated tax compliance company Avalara for $8.4 billion, while earlier this month private equity firm Cinven revealed it was buying online tax preparation software provider TaxAct for $720 million. Last year, Stripe bought TaxJar for an undisclosed amount. Thomson Reuters, though perhaps best known for its news agency, has a number of business units including legal, government, and tax and accounting. Indeed, it has been partnering with SurePrep for the past six months, according to Thomson Reuters, “providing complementary solutions” for tax and accounting workers — this has effectively meant Thomson Reuters serving as a reseller for SurePrep’s software. For SurePrep, the deal will give it extensive reach into Thomson Reuters’ existing customer base, while for Thomson Reuters it gets an arsenal of automated tools to bolster its existing tax products.

DeviantArt provides a way for artists to opt out of AI art generators • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in AI, Apps, deviantART, Media & Entertainment, Robotics & AI, text-to-imageNo Comments

DeviantArt, the Wix-owned artist community, today announced a new protection for creators to disallow art-generating AI systems from being developed using their artwork. An option on the site will allow artists to preclude third parties from scraping their content for AI development purposes, aiming to prevent work from being swept up without artists’ knowledge or permission. “AI technology for creation is a powerful force we can’t ignore. . . . It would be impossible for DeviantArt to try to block or censor this art technology,” CEO Moti Levy told ZebethMedia in an email interview. “We see so many instances where AI tools help artists’ creativity, allowing them to express themselves in ways they could not in the past. That said, we believe we have a responsibility to all creators. To support AI art, we must also implement fair tools and add protections in this domain.” As AI-generated artwork began to proliferate on the web earlier this year, fueled by the release of text-to-image tools like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2, art-housing platforms were forced to take a policy stance. Some, including Newgrounds, PurplePort and Getty Images, banned AI-generated art altogether, concerned both about the impact to artists and the legal ramifications of art created by tools that were developed on copyrighted works. Today’s bleeding-edge AI art tools “learn” to generate new images from text prompts by “training” on billions of existing images, which often come from data sets that were scraped together by trawling public image hosting websites like Flickr and ArtStation. Some legal experts suggest that training AI models by scraping public images — even copyrighted ones — will likely be covered by fair use doctrine in the U.S. But it’s a matter that’s unlikely to be settled anytime soon — particularly in light of contrasting laws being proposed overseas. OpenAI, the company behind DALL-E 2, took the proactive step of licensing a portion of the images in DALL-E 2’s training data set. But the license was limited in scope, and rivals so far haven’t followed suit. “Many creators are rightfully critical of AI-generation models and tools. For one, they do not give creators control over how their art may be used to train models, nor do they let creators decide if they authorize their style to be used as inspiration in generating images,” Levy continued. “As a result, many creators have seen AI models being trained with their art or worse: AI art being generated in their style without the ability to opt out or receive proper credit.” Art created with DeviantArt’s DreamUp tool. Image Credits: Digitonaut / DeviantArt DeviantArt’s new protection will rely on an HTML tag to prohibit the software robots that crawl pages for images from downloading those images for training sets. Artists who specify that their content can’t be used for AI system development will have “noai” and “noimageai” directives appended to the HTML page associated with their art. In order to remain in compliance with DeviantArt’s updated terms of service, third parties using DeviantArt-sourced content for AI training will have to ensure that their data sets exclude content that has the tags present, Levy says. “DeviantArt expects all users accessing our service or the DeviantArt site to respect creators’ choices about the acceptable use of their content, including for AI purposes,” Levy added. “When a DeviantArt user doesn’t consent to third party use of their content for AI purposes, other users of the service and third parties accessing the DeviantArt site are prohibited from using such content to train an AI system, as input into any previously trained AI system or to make available any derivative copy unless usage of that copy is subject to conditions at least as restrictive as those set out in the DeviantArt terms of service.” It’s an attempt to give power back to artists like Greg Rutkowski, whose classical painting styles and fantasy landscapes have become one of the most commonly used prompts in the AI art generator Stable Diffusion — much to his chagrin. Rutkowski and others have expressed concern that AI-generated art imitating their styles will crowd out their original works, harming their income as people start using AI-generated images for commercial purposes. The tools have set off firestorms of controversy in recent months. A system trained to imitate the style of acclaimed South Korean illustrator Kim Jung Gi, who passed away suddenly in early October, was condemned by many in the art community as a tasteless stunt. After winning a prize at the Colorado State Fair’s art competition, artwork made by AI set off a fierce backlash. Elsewhere, character designers like Hollie Mengert have decried what they see as poor AI imitations of their style that are nevertheless inexorably tied to their names. For DeviantArt’s part, it’s encouraging creator platforms to adopt artist protections and says it’s already in discussions about implementation with “several players.” But it’s unclear whether it’ll be able to rally the broader industry behind its approach; less scrupulous actors could theoretically ignore DeviantArt’s terms of service to scrape images regardless of HTML tag. Technologists Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon are spearheading a separate effort called Source+ to let people disallow their work or likeness to be used for AI training purposes. Meanwhile, Shutterstock is banning all AI art not created with DALL-E 2 to mitigate copyright issues (and likely to preserve its partnership with OpenAI). Image Credits: Digitonaut / DeviantArt Unlike Shutterstock, DeviantArt has allowed — and will continue to allow — art generated with third-party AI tools on its platform, Levy says, though it encourages users uploading AI-generated art to tag it as such. He claims that tens of thousands of images tagged as “AI-art” are being submitted to DeviantArt each month, growing over 1,000% in the last four months. “Since DeviantArt’s inception, we’ve never believed in blocking any art genres or categories. We have always made room for and supported all types of creators and their works,” Levy said. Beyond simply allowing AI art, DeviantArt is committing to

Polestar doubles Q3 revenue, narrows losses • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in EV, Polestar, Polestar 3, Transportation, volvoNo Comments

Polestar said it’s still on track to deliver 50,000 cars worldwide this year, even as other electric vehicle makers falter amid higher costs, supply chain crunches and production challenges. The Volvo spinoff, which went public in a SPAC deal in June, delivered more than 30,424 globally for the first nine months of the year, including 9,249 in the third quarter. CEO Thomas Ingenlath said he expects the fourth quarter to be the automaker’s strongest, with higher vehicle prices offsetting rising material costs. The company is one of a handful of startup brands that managed to mass produce an EV on a global scale. It benefits from shared resources with Volvo and its parent company, Geely, as well as a $3 billion agreement to sell 65,000 EVs to Hertz over the next five years. “Unlike most of our peers, our global targets are a reality, not an aspiration,” Ingenlath said Friday on a call with analysts. He said Polestar, which forecasts full-year revenue of $2.4 billion, would have exceeded its production goal if not for a wave of pandemic-related lockdowns in Shanghai that stymied global automakers in the spring. The company reported a third-quarter operating loss of $196.4 million, down from $292.9 million for the year-ago period. Revenue more than doubled to $435.4 million, from $212.9 million. The arrival of the Polestar 3 SUV, a new entrant in a profitable, fast-growing segment, could be a game-changer. The five-passenger crossover is designed to compete with a forthcoming crop of battery-electric luxury SUVs from Mercedes-Benz, Maserati and the like. Priced from $83,900, the 489-horsepower SUV will achieve an estimated 300-mile range and share some equipment and features with Volvo’s upcoming EX90 battery-electric SUV, including bidirectional charging, which allows the car’s battery to feed power back to the grid when not in use. The company will begin building the Polestar 3 at Volvo Cars’ plant in Chengdu, China, next summer and its Ridgeville, South Carolina, facility in mid-2024. The SUV is expected to arrive in showrooms in the U.S., Europe and China late next year, followed by the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Polestar plans to sway SUV customers to the new brand with a cutting-edge technology palette, which includes hardware from lidar supplier Luminar and software from Zenseact, Volvo’s division for advanced driver assistance systems. Analysts note that certain new Volvo safety features may debut in Polestar models first. Polestar plans to continue launching new models at a steady clip, starting with the 2024 arrival of the Polestar 4 SUV coupe. The Polestar 5 4-door GT and Polestar 6, an 884-horsepower hard-top convertible, are slated to follow.

Why digital sourcing platform Fictiv stays in China when others are leaving • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in HardwareNo Comments

As many businesses shift supply chains out of China in response to the uncertainties of geopolitical tensions and Beijing’s “zero COVID” policy, Fictiv is solidifying its outpost in the country. San Francisco-based Fictiv runs a platform that aims to simplify the hardware sourcing process and connects hardware firms to suppliers around the world. When it comes to procuring high-end parts for products like medical equipment, surgical devices, and even rockets, there probably isn’t a better place than China. That’s why Fictiv set up an office there to be closer to its network of suppliers. Within five years, it has grown the team to 60 people in the southern industrial hub of Guangzhou. Despite challenges around COVID restrictions and geopolitics, “the China manufacturing base is not going away,” said Fictiv’s founder and CEO Dave Evans in an interview with ZebethMedia. “Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a fishing village, and now it’s the center of the world for manufacturing. It’s going to take a while for other third ecosystems to really catch up,” he said, adding that Apple and its contract manufacturer Foxconn have offered a strong playbook for a generation of factory owners in the country. Digital sourcing proves especially useful in COVID times. The conventional way, according to Evans, is a manual process that relies on face-to-face encounters: In China, you will need to find a shifu — a skilled craftsman in Chinese — who will sit back, sip some tea, and then slowly tell you from his 30 years of experience in molding to change this and that on your 3D drawing. Fictiv is using AI to replace that arbitrary human interaction by letting product developers run simulations on 3D designs and get a quote and estimated time on manufacturing. Despite its focus on digitization, Fictiv stresses the importance of on-the-ground teams in its sourcing destinations. Evans used to travel to China every quarter or so but hasn’t been since the COVID outbreak, which has ushered in strict inbound travel restrictions. Huaqiangbei, the world’s largest electronic trading market located in the heart of Shenzhen, used to attract floods of foreign hardware makers. Now foreigners are a rare sight. “Because it’s so hard to access China in the last years, the value we have in combining software, technology and all the AI that we built with boots on the ground right next to our manufacturing partners has built a really compelling offering for all customers because they can’t fly to China,” said the CEO. While China remains an integral part to Fictiv, the company is also diversifying. “When the next big major thing happens, how is your business going to shift? And that’s what I would tell all the founders who are thinking about this — are you building a truly resilient supply chain?” Evans asked. That’s in part why Fictiv recently opened an office in India, which “is very strong and getting stronger by the month” thanks to “a large population, relatively low costs, and the increasing talent there.” The firm has built a global network of 250 vetted manufacturing partners, a third of which are in China, where production capacity is often larger. The rest of its suppliers are from India and the U.S. To date, Fictiv has produced some 20 million parts for thousands of customers. It runs a team of just over 300 employees around the world. An OS for product developers Nine years after its launch, Fictiv is carving out a new business line. The company’s selling point has been to enable early-stage product development, that is, the long-tail volume that Foxconn would find too small. Rather than contracting factories to make tens of thousands of units, it works with companies trying to get from 10 to 1,000. The company’s new service is a work collaboration platform for everyone involved in the lifecycle of product development. Unlike its sourcing platform, which has its profit margin built into the manufacturing model, the service charges an annual membership fee. Using the software, the engineer can upload a product design with specifications on the material used and etc. Then the supply chain specialist may come in to estimate the lead time and target price, followed by the quality control person who makes further comments. Finally, the manager will approve the pricing before the buyer goes ahead to purchase it. The idea is to capture the conversation and quality control process of product development in an integrated platform rather than having them scattered across emails and spreadsheets, which is how communication used to happen. “For engineers who have a team, it’s almost like a 3x improvement [on productivity] because of all the tasks that you’re eliminating. For design firms or people that are managing many clients, [the software] helps them organize a lot of their workflows, and that gives them an easier way of filling and tracking all the different projects that are going on,” Evans noted.

SoftBank, NEC, Sony, Toyota + more team up for Rapidus, Japan’s bid for next-gen chip domination • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Enterprise, Government & Policy, Japan, semiconductors, VentureNo Comments

As the tech war between the U.S. and China intensifies, Japan has spotted an opening to build a viable alternative for semiconductors — not least so that its own consumer electronics firms do not run out of memory chips. Now, eight major Japanese tech firms and car makers, including Kioxia, NEC, NTT, SoftBank, Sony and Toyota, are teaming up in a consortium to launch an advanced chip maker. Rapidus, as it will be called, aims to develop and mass-produce the next generation of logic semiconductors by 2027. The Japanese government said Friday it will back Rapidus with 70 billion yen (~$500 million), joining the eight tech corporations to reduce its dependency on chip production in other countries like Taiwan. According to Japan’s industry ministry, each participating company will invest approximately 1 billion yen (~$ 7 million) in Rapidus, with MUFG Bank injecting 300 million yen. “Semiconductors are going to be a critical component for developing new leading-edge technologies such as AI, digital industries and health-tech,” Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a news conference today. “Semiconductors are becoming even more important from an economic security perspective” due to the rising geopolitical risks. Last week, Japan unveiled its plan to allocate 350 billion yen ($2.38 billion) to build a joint research center with the U.S. with the goal of developing 2-nanometer advanced chips. A number of research institutions and semiconductor companies in the U.S, Japan and Europe will participate in the research hub to collaborate. In addition to the new joint research hub investment, the Japanese government plans to invest 450 billion yen in advanced production and 370 billion yen in securing materials required for manufacturing. IBM is reportedly partnering with Rapidus, which will have to get a license from IBM to manufacture sub-2 nanometer chip technology in Japan. Rapidus aims to develop 2-nanometers chips, which can be used for 5G, quantum computing, data centers, self-driving vehicles and digital smart cities. Japan has previously subsidized global semiconductor allies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Micron, and Western Digital, to expand their chip production in Japan. The idea here is to strengthen its competitiveness in the semiconductor sector with R&D and production of its own advanced chips, primarily for Japanese car makers and tech companies’ use, but potentially for others, too. While global competitors have outperformed in the industry, Japan’s latest logic semiconductor production lines are for 40-nm chips, per media outlet. Samsung has started mass production of 3 nm this year, and TSMC plans to begin its 3 nm mass production late this year.

‘We know who you are’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Australia, data breach, hackers, medibank breach, ransomware, SecurityNo Comments

The Australian Federal Police claims to have identified the cybercriminals behind the Medibank ransomware attack, which compromised the personal data of 9.7 million customers. AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said on Friday that the agency knows the identity of the individuals responsible for the attack on Australia’s largest private health insurer. He declined to name the individuals but said the AFP believes that those responsible for the breach are in Russia, though some affiliates may be in other countries. In a tweet, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose own Medibank data was stolen, said the AFP knows where the hackers are and are working to bring them to justice. The Australian Federal Police have identified the hackers, revealing they’re located in Russia. We know where they are. And we are working hard to bring them to justice. — Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 11, 2022 Kershaw said that police intelligence points to a “group of loosely affiliated cyber criminals” who are likely responsible for previous significant data breaches around the world, but did not name victims. “These cyber criminals are operating like a business with affiliates and associates who are supporting the business,” he added, pointing to ransomware as a service operation such as LockBit. On Thursday, a dual Russian-Canadian national linked to the LockBit operation was arrested in Canada. The hackers behind the Medibank breach have previously been linked to the high-profile Russian cybercrime gang REvil, also known as Sodinokibi. REvil’s once-defunct dark web leak site now redirects traffic to a new site that hosts the stolen Medibank data, and the hackers behind the breach have also been observed using a variant of REvil’s file-encrypting malware. The Russian Embassy in Canberra was quick to rebuff allegations that the Medibank hackers are based in Russia. “For some reason, this announcement was made before the AFP even contacted the Russian side through the existing professional channels of communication,” the embassy said in a statement on Friday. “We encourage the AFP to duly get in touch with the respective Russian law enforcement agencies.” Russia’s federal security services FSB (formerly the KGB) said in January that REvil “ceased to exist” after several arrests were made at the request of the U.S. government. In March, Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi, an alleged key member of the REvil group linked to an attack on U.S. software vendor Kaseya, was extradited from Poland to the U.S. to face charges. “Even after a series of law enforcement operations against REvil, the gang and its affiliates still seem to keep returning, based on the analysis of the latest REvil ransomware sample,” Roman Rezvukhin, head of malware analysis and threat hunting team at Group-IB, tells ZebethMedia. Kershaw said on Friday that the AFP, along with international partners such as Interpol, will “be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals.” “It is important to note that Russia benefits from the intelligence-sharing and data shared through Interpol, and with that comes responsibilities and accountability,” Kershaw said. “To the criminals: We know who you are, and moreover, the AFP has some significant runs on the scoreboard when it comes to bringing overseas offenders back to Australia to face the justice system.” While the AFP has successfully extradited people from Poland, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates in recent years to face criminal charges in Australia, extraditing Russian hackers is likely to be challenging. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that “Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone.” Despite action by the AFP, the Medibank breach continues to worsen following its decision to refuse to pay the cybercriminals’ ransom demand. On Thursday, the attackers’ dark web blog posted more stolen data, including sensitive files related to abortions and alcohol-related illnesses. The cybercriminals claimed that they initially sought $10 million in ransom from Medibank before reducing the sum to $9.7 million, or $1 per affected customer, the blog said. “Unfortunately, we expect the criminal to continue to release stolen customer data each day,” Medibank CEO David Koczkar said on Friday. “These are real people behind this data and the misuse of their data is deplorable and may discourage them from seeking medical care.”

A new playbook for startup fundraising • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Column, EC Column, fundraising tactics, revenue-based financing, startup financing, Startups, VentureNo Comments

Miguel Fernandez Contributor Miguel Fernandez is CEO and co-founder of Capchase, which provides non-dilutive financing to SaaS and comparable recurring-revenue companies. More posts by this contributor Use alternative financing to fuel VC-level growth without diluting ownership A few years ago, founders only had two options when starting a company — bootstrap yourself or turn to VC money, and they would use that money primarily to pursue growth. Later on, venture debt started to gain prominence. While non-dilutive, its problems are similar to that of VC equity: It takes time to secure, involves warrants, isn’t very flexible and not every startup can get it. But in recent years, more options have become available to founders. Most startups can now avail non-dilutive capital, and purpose-specific financing has entered the fray. While venture capital remains the most popular avenue for startups, founders should take advantage of all the financing options available to them. Using an optimal combination of capital sources means using cost-effective, short-term funding for imminent goals, and more expensive long-term money for activities with uncertain returns on the horizon. What is revenue-based financing? Let’s define it as capital provided based on future revenue. While venture capital remains the most popular avenue for startups, founders should take advantage of all the financing options available to them. So what is unique about revenue-based financing? Firstly, it is quick to raise. Compared with the months-long process usually involved with other forms of equity or debt financing, revenue-based financing can be set up in days or even hours. It is also flexible, meaning you don’t have to withdraw all the capital up front and choose to take it in chunks and deploy it over time. Revenue-based financing also scales as your credit availability increases. Usually, there’s only one simple fee with fixed monthly repayments. How should startups evolve their financing playbook? To optimize fundraising using different sources of capital, startups should think about aligning short- and long-term activities with short- and long-term sources of funds. Revenue-based financing is shorter term in nature, and a typical term ranges between 12 and 24 months. Venture capital and venture debt are longer-term capital sources, with a typical term of two to four years. A startup’s short-term activities may include marketing, sales, implementation and associated costs. If a startup knows its economics, CAC and LTV, it can predict how much revenue it will generate if it invests a certain amount in growth. Because the return on these activities may be higher than the cost of revenue-based financing, startups should use revenue-based financing to fund initiatives that will bear fruit soon.

Have you tried turning it off and on again, Elon? • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon, elon buys twitter, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

A few days ago, new Twitter owner Elon Musk said that the company will try a lot of dumb things in the coming days. And that seems to be the product strategy of the company — even if it causes utter chaos all around. It’s a tough time for anyone keeping tabs on changes at the social network because anything can flip anytime without warning. Blinked a few times? Something has changed. Went to make coffee? A lot has changed. Went to sleep? Welcome to a new world. Earlier this week, Twitter launched its grey-colored official checkmark for notable accounts like companies and politicians. This was meant to be a second layer of identification after Musk declared that everyone paying $8 a month will get the original blue check mark. But within hours of the launch, he “killed it.” On the other hand, the company’s product manager Esther Crawford clarified that the grey “Official” labels are “still going out” as a part of the new Twitter Blue product. As of this morning on Friday, The official check mark is back (kinda) — but to a limited number of accounts. There is no clarity on how this is being rolled out. Beat this plot, Christopher Nolan. Then there is the new $8 Twitter Blue plan, which Musk thinks is the savior of Twitter (and possibly humanity). It began rolling out to iOS users in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. The only feature it currently has is the blue checkmark, and yes, new users can’t sign up for it. After this was rolled out, a bunch of accounts started to troll brands, athletes, and officials making it look like they are tweeting from official accounts. Despite several bans and blocks, many accounts are still spreading misinformation. A lot of these tweets are getting thousands of likes and retweets. Until now, we don’t know of any grave consequences but this can cause a lot of damage. Only if Twitter had strong leaders in security, legal, comms, and trust and safety teams. Twitter has changed its policy about parody accounts saying that they should specify this in both their names and bio to avoid impersonation. Notably, the language used in these policy changes is crude and vague. At the time of writing, Twitter seems to have turned off Twitter Blue subscriptions across the globe. As app researcher Jane Manchun Wong noted, the company is not letting users subscribe to this new plan. This could be a result of a premature rollout in countries like India, and it could also be another “killed it.” Maybe by the time you’re reading this, it might be available again who knows? There is a lot happening on Twitter at breakneck speed. New policy pages are popping up without corresponding features being available on the app. The company is probably rolling out changes to production directly from the development environment. Timelines are breaking. There are tons of bugs on the platform. Spam has increased. Musk has called off remote work and said the company could go bankrupt. Hoards of executives have left. But everything is fine, and Twitter is the most interesting place on earth.