News Headline: Comcast Xfinity customers suffer data breach

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.