Visa will no longer be buying fintech upstart Plaid, as the companies on Tuesday announced the “mutual termination” of the $5.3 billion agreement that was signed one year ago and opposed by U.S. antitrust regulators. From a report: This is more about the rising value of fintech companies than it is about the U.S. Justice Department. It also turns Plaid into…
Tag: Holidays
GoDaddy Employees Were Told They Were Getting a Holiday Bonus. It Was Actually a Phishing Test.
An anonymous reader shares a report (alternative source): “2020 has been a record year for GoDaddy, thanks to you!” the email read. Sent by Happyholiday@Godaddy.com, tucked underneath a glittering banner of a snowflake and stamped with the words “GoDaddy Holiday Party,” the Dec. 14 email to hundreds of GoDaddy employees promised some welcome financial relief during an otherwise stressful year. “Though…
Authorities Don’t Need To Break Phone Encryption in Most Cases, Because Modern Phone Encryption Sort of Sucks.
Matthew Green, a cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University, shares in a series of tweets: My students Max and Tushar Jois spent most of the summer going through every piece of public documentation, forensics report, and legal document we could find to figure out how police were “breaking phone encryption.” This was prompted by a claim from someone knowledgeable, who…
5G Auction Shatters Record as Bidding Tops $66 Billion
The Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing sale of wireless licenses has fetched more than $66.4 billion after three weeks of bidding, a record sum that could alter cellphone carriers’ prospects for the next decade. From a report: The auction proceeds have already topped the $44.9 billion raised in 2015 by an earlier sale of midrange cellular licenses, which U.S. cellphone carriers used…
Can’t Get a PlayStation 5? Meet the Grinch Bots Snapping Up the Holidays’ Hottest Gift.
Computer programs that automate online tasks, called bots, have aligned with the coronavirus pandemic and low inventories of hot products to create a perfect storm of holiday disappointment — or opportunity, depending on your perspective. From a report: On Black Friday, when it launched a deal on the console, Walmart.com says it blocked more than 20 million bot attempts in the…
Young moon, Jupiter, Saturn glorious December 15 to 18!
The 2 bright shining objects near the moon – December 15 to 18, 2020 – will be Jupiter and Saturn. These 2 giant planets are now nearing their great conjunction on December 21. Don’t miss this! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/young-moon-to-swing-by-jupiter-saturn…
Covid-19 Christmas: How is Europe planning to tackle the holidays?
Italy is banning travel, the UK has household bubbles, Germans are isolating and Austria is mass testing. Which approach to coronavirus at Christmas is likely to work best? Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833125-000-covid-19-christmas-how-is-europe-planning-to-tackle-the-holidays/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Americans celebrated Thanksgiving during a pandemic before. Here’s what happened.
How did Americans celebrate the holidays during the influenza pandemic of 1918? With a lot of partying, turns out. Source: https://www.livescience.com/thanksgiving-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic.html
Epidemiologist explains CDC guidance on 15 minutes of exposure
New guidance from the CDC says that 15 minutes of exposure – regardless of whether that occurs at one time – can result in transmission of the coronavirus. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/epidemiologist-explains-cdc-guidance-15-minutes-covid19-exposure…
Apple Suspends Supplier For Using Illegal Student Labor In China
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple has reprimanded one of its largest manufacturers after a Financial Times investigation found that thousands of student interns had worked overtime to assemble iPhones, in breach of Chinese law. After being contacted by the FT, Apple said it had stopped giving “new business” to Pegatron, its second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn….