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    What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?

    After months of speculation, Apple Intelligence took center stage at WWDC 2024 in June. The platform was announced in the wake of a torrent of generative AI news from companies like Google and Open AI, causing concern that the famously tight-lipped tech giant had missed the boat on the latest tech craze. Contrary to such speculation, however, Apple had a team in place, working on what proved to be a very Apple approach to artificial intelligence. There was still pizzazz amid the demos — Apple always loves to put on a show — but Apple Intelligence is ultimately a very…

    Hackers could create traffic jams thanks to flaw in traffic light controller, researcher says

    A security researcher says he found a flaw in a traffic light controller that would potentially allow malicious hackers to change the lights and create traffic jams.  Andrew Lemon, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Red Threat, published two blog posts on Thursday detailing his findings of a wider research project investigating the security of traffic controllers.  One of the devices Lemon looked at is the Intelight X-1, where he said he found a bug that allows anyone to take full control of the traffic lights. According to Lemon, the bug is very simple and basic: There is no authentication on…

    What the AT&T phone records data breach means for you

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    Watch the Apple Intelligence reveal, and the rest of WWDC 2024 right here

    AI

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    SECURE

    • SecurityThe Bumble app on a smartphone arranged in New York, US, on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.
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      Bumble and Hinge allowed stalkers to pinpoint users’ locations down to 2 meters, researchers say

      A group of researchers said they found that vulnerabilities in the design of some dating apps, including the popular Bumble and Hinge, allowed malicious users or stalkers to pinpoint the location of their victims down to 2 meters.  In a new academic paper, researchers from the Belgian university KU Leuven detailed their findings when they analyzed 15 popular dating apps. Of those, Badoo, Bumble, Grindr, happn, Hinge and Hily all had the same vulnerability that could have helped a malicious user identify the near-exact location of another user, according to the researchers. While neither of those apps share exact locations…

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    • SecurityPaper Craft of a Cracked Yellow Padlock in a Group of Secure Ones on Purple Background Front View, Data Security Concept.
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      Lineaje raises $20M to help organizations combat software supply chain threats

      The software supply chain faces threats from all sides. A 2024 report by the Ponemon Institute found that over half of organizations have experienced a software supply chain attack, with 54% having experienced one within the past year. Supply chain attacks typically target services from third-party vendors or open source software that make up a company’s tech stack, and they can financially devastate an organization. According to a Juniper Research study, supply chain cyberattacks could cost the global economy almost $81 billion in lost revenue and damages by 2026. The White House has indicated a commitment to addressing the broader…

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      It took some serious nerve for Wiz to walk away from Google’s $23B offer

      Google had good news and bad news last week. The good news was that the cloud division — including Google Workplace software as a service and Google Cloud infrastructure services — generated $10 billion for the quarter for the first time. That had to take the sting out of losing out on its second potential $20+ billion acquisition in less than a month. The first failed acquisition was the long-rumored deal to buy Boston-based CRM and marketing software company HubSpot. We never got a price on that, but the company’s market cap is in the $30 billion range, so you…

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      HealthEquity data breach affects 4.3M people

      HealthEquity is notifying 4.3 million people following a March data breach that affects their personal and protected health information. In its data breach notice, filed with Maine’s attorney general, the Utah-based healthcare benefits administrator said that although the compromised data varies by person, it largely consists of sign-up information for accounts and information about benefits that the company administers. HealthEquity said the data may include customer names, addresses, phone numbers, their Social Security number, information about the person’s employer and the person’s dependent (if any), and some payment card information.  HealthEquity provides employees at companies across the United States access…

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    Apple

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    Apps

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      Alternative app store AltStore PAL adds third-party iOS apps in wake of EU Apple ruling

      AltStore, an alternative app store, has launched its first batch of third-party iOS apps in the European Union. The rollout comes a few months after the company launched an updated version of its app marketplace in the EU. AltStore PAL arrived as a response to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is forcing Apple to open up to new rivals. The initial batch includes torrenting app iTorrent, which allows users to download P2P (peer-to-peer) files, along with a qBittorrent remote client for iOS devices called qBitControl. The list also includes social discovery platform PeopleDrop, which is designed to help people…

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      Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware

      A little-known spyware maker based in Minnesota has been hacked, TechCrunch has learned, revealing thousands of devices around the world under its stealthy remote surveillance. A person with knowledge of the breach provided TechCrunch with a cache of files taken from the company’s servers containing detailed device activity logs from the phones, tablets, and computers that Spytech monitors, with some of the files dated as recently as early June.  TechCrunch verified the data as authentic in part by analyzing some of the exfiltrated device activity logs that pertain to the company’s chief executive, who installed the spyware on one of…

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      Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

      Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by The Weeknd, new series, films, concerts and more. The headset launched in February with more than 150 3D movies and immersive titles. Apple is adding new content, starting with “Boundless,” which premieres tonight. The series allows viewers to experience adventures around the world, such as taking a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia, Turkey, and seeing how surfers ride waves in the Arctic Circle.  Apple teased other upcoming content in…

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      Hacker claims theft of Piramal Group’s employee data

      A hacker claims to be selling data relating to thousands of current and former employees of the Indian conglomerate Piramal Group, a multinational company that operates across pharma, financial services and real estate. Piramal rebuffed claims that its systems were breached and said the information came from a third party. In a listing on a known cybercrime forum last week seen by TechCrunch, the pseudonymous threat actor published a small portion of the allegedly stolen Piramal data for an undisclosed amount. The data sample included full names and email addresses. The allegedly stolen data could be a boon for cybercriminals…

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      Google releases new ‘open’ AI models with a focus on safety

      Google has released a trio of new, “open” generative AI models that it’s calling “safer,” “smaller” and “more transparent” than most — a bold claim, to be sure. They’re additions to Google’s Gemma 2 family of generative models, which debuted back in May. The new models, Gemma 2 2B, ShieldGemma and Gemma Scope, are designed for slightly different applications and use cases, but share in common a safety bent. Google’s Gemma series of models are different from its Gemini models in that Google doesn’t make the source code available for Gemini, which is used by Google’s own products as well…

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      CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage

      CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one. On Tuesday, a source told TechCrunch that they received an email from CrowdStrike offering them the gift card because the company recognizes “the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused.”  “And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” the email read,…

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      AI startups ramp up federal lobbying efforts

      AI lobbying at the U.S. federal level is intensifying in the midst of a continued generative AI boom and an election year that could influence future AI regulation. New data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks and publishes metrics on campaign financing and lobbying, shows that the number of groups lobbying the federal government on issues related to AI grew from 459 in 2023 to 556 in the first half of 2024 (from January to July). At the same time, top AI startups have ramped up their lobbying initiatives, OpenSecrets data reveals. ChatGPT maker OpenAI has dramatically increased its…

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      Kandji raises another $100M for Apple device management as valuation rises to $850M

      At a time when many startups have struggled to raise money and keep their heads above water, Kandji, an Apple device management platform, has been an exception. Founded in 2019, it has raced through its funding rounds like a precocious child, raising over $188 million along the way. Today it added to that total with another $100 million from General Catalyst, half of which is additional equity and half is a debt instrument. Today’s raise brings the company’s total funding to over $288 million, including the debt. It also raised its valuation from its last round in 2021 from $800…

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      Dazz snaps up $50M for AI-based, automated cloud security remediation

      Cybersecurity has become a white-hot topic in the world of technology. Not only are data breaches continuing unabated, but also security companies themselves are very much in the spotlight as a result. One of the fastest-growing, Wiz, was the object of a now-abandoned $23 billion acquisition offer from Google. Now another cybersecurity startup, coincidentally closely associated with Wiz, has raised a significant round of funding. Dazz, which focuses on vulnerability remediation for enterprises that use cloud services, has raised $50 million in equity funding. The startup is not disclosing its valuation, but sources close to the company say the figure…

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      Copyright Office tells Congress: ‘Urgent need’ to outlaw AI-powered impersonation

      The U.S. Copyright Office has issued the first part of a report on how AI may affect its domain, and its first recommendation out of the gate is: we need a new law right away to define and combat AI-powered impersonation. “It has become clear that the distribution of unauthorized digital replicas poses a serious threat not only in the entertainment and political arenas but also for private citizens,” said the agency’s director Shira Perlmutter in a statement accompanying the report. “We believe there is an urgent need for effective nationwide protection against the harms that can be caused to…

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      With the latest iOS 18 developer beta, Apple makes flashlight UI more fun

      Apple initially added a new flashlight UI in iOS 18’s third developer beta, and with iOS 18 now available in public beta, you can try one of the most underrated additions to your iPhone right now. The company had already introduced a new way to control True Tone Flashlights on iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro models. Unlike the previous controls of on/off and four levels of brightness, the new controls include variable brightness and a way to adjust the width of the beam. The controls in the first beta just had vertical and horizontal lines to represent them, and…

    • SecurityA tram in Katedralna Square at night, Lviv, western Ukraine.
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      Hackers shut down heating in Ukrainian city with malware, researchers say

      For two days in mid-January, some Ukrainians in the city of Lviv had to live without central heating and suffer freezing temperatures because of a cyberattack against a municipal energy company, security researchers and Ukrainian authorities have since concluded.  On Tuesday, the cybersecurity company Dragos published a report with details about a new malware dubbed FrostyGoop, which the company says is designed to target industrial control systems — in this particular case, specifically against a type of heating system controller.  Dragos researchers wrote in their report that they first detected the malware in April. At that point, Dragos did not…

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      iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue

      Apple’s practice of leveraging ideas from its third-party developer community to become new iOS and Mac features and apps has a hefty price tag, a new report indicates. Ahead of its fall release, you can download the public beta for iOS 18 right now to get a firsthand look at Apple’s changes, which may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year, according to an analysis by app intelligence firm Appfigures. Every June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the iPhone maker teases the upcoming releases…

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      Wiz walks away from Google’s $23B acquisition offer: Read the CEO’s note to employees

      Cybersecurity startup Wiz has turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet, Google’s parent company, according to a source familiar with discussions. Despite the offer representing a substantial premium over its last private valuation of $12 billion, Wiz’s management team with the support of investors has opted to remain independent, the person said. Wiz’s CEO, Assaf Rappaport, sent an email to Wiz’s 1,200 employees around the world, writing that, “Saying no to such humbling offers is tough, but with our exceptional team, I feel confident in making that choice.” New York-based Wiz was founded in 2020 by four former…

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      At last, Apple’s Messages app will support RCS and scheduling texts

      The biggest updates coming to Apple’s iMessage and its Messages app in iOS 18 aren’t its AI emoji, Genmoji, or even the ability to send texts via satellite. It’s the ability to finally, finally schedule messages to send at a later date and time, as well as support for RCS, the next-gen messaging standard and replacement for SMS that will make texting with Android folks much less painful. These updates are now available in iOS 18’s public beta, which just opened up this week. Though buried amid a slate of AI announcements and other user interface tweaks at WWDC 2024,…

    • SecurityDigital security padlock with encrypted binary code on abstract circuit board.
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      Linx emerges from stealth with $33M to lock down the new security perimeter: Identity

      Identity management is one of the most common fulcrums around which security breaches have pivoted in the last several years. One of the main reasons it has become the gift that keeps on giving to malicious hackers is that it’s a nightmare for organizations to track. A security startup founded in Tel Aviv called Linx has been quietly building technology using AI and analytics to address this, and today, on the back of picking up customers in stealth mode, it’s coming out into the open with $33 million in funding to take on the challenge of identity management more aggressively.…

    • AIBig Data concept picture with ones and zeros going off into infinity.
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      This Week in AI: Companies are growing skeptical of AI’s ROI

      Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, Gartner released a report suggesting that around a third of generative AI projects in the enterprise will be abandoned after the proof-of-concept phase by year-end 2025. The reasons are many — poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating infrastructure costs and so on. But one of the biggest barriers to generative AI adoption is the unclear business value, per the report. Embracing generative AI organization-wide comes with significant costs, ranging from $5 million to a whopping $20 million, estimates Gartner. A simple coding assistant has an upfront cost…

    • Apple
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      Here are all the devices compatible with iOS 18

      Apple’s WWDC 2024 was packed with announcements about iOS 18, its upcoming version of the iPhone operating system, which introduces a host of new features. Among the highlights are a set of customization options, such as being able to arrange apps and widgets on the Home Screen and customize buttons. Other features include new text effects, the ability to lock and hide apps, new ways to manage your Mail inbox, the introduction of iMessages over satellite, a significant redesign of the Photos app and more. You can get a test of many of these updates right now through the iOS 18…

    • Security
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      CIA AI director Lakshmi Raman claims the agency is taking a ‘thoughtful approach’ to AI

      As a part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Lakshmi Raman, the director of AI at the CIA. We talked about her path to director as well as the CIA’s use of AI, and the balance that needs to be struck between embracing new tech while deploying it responsibly. Raman has been in intelligence for a long time. She joined the CIA in 2002 as a software developer after earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and…

    • Appleapple, wwdc24, ios 18
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      Without Apple Intelligence, iOS 18 beta feels like a TV show that’s waiting for the finale

      At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple divided the keynote into two parts: regular OS updates and an introduction to the company’s AI features. Apple is drawing a line between these two sections because Apple Intelligence features will become available this fall. It means that those features likely won’t be there with the 18.0 release; major iOS updates are usually timed with new iPhone releases in September. Apple Intelligence features are also not available in the developer beta, which is available now. It might be a while until we get a taste of them. That’s why the current iOS 18…

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