News Headline: The largest theft of crypto in 2024 . . . so far

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome back to TechCrunch PM. If you thought this morning was busy, wait until you see what I have in store for you. Today we bring you everything from hacking cryptocurrency to more layoffs to things Mark Zuckerberg said in front of Congress and our usual list of stories you don't want to miss. Time to dig in. — Christine

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

TechCrunch PM Top 3

Hackers steal millions in crypto: Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said hackers stole around $112 million of the Ripple-focused cryptocurrency XRP from his crypto wallet. Larsen tweeted that Ripple wasn't affected by this; however, it is not yet known if the wallet in question was a Ripple wallet.

Put an Oura ring on it: Finally, the Oura ring feature you've been looking for — a way to measure your resilience against stress.

Proofpoint cuts jobs: Security giant Proofpoint is laying off about 6% of its global workforce, or 280 employees. The company told us the job cuts were to, among other things, "streamline our organization with fewer management layers."

Image Credits: Oura

Security!

Lots of news in the security sector today — in case you couldn't tell from the section above.

Oasis Security leaves stealth: Armed with $40 million, the Israel-based startup is taking on the Wild West of non-human identity management.

Ivanti patches two zero-days under attack, but finds another: Ivanti's disclosure of the new zero-day comes on the same day the company released a patch to protect against the previously disclosed — and subsequently widely exploited — ConnectSecure vulnerabilities.

US disrupts China-backed hacking operation: Don't celebrate just yet. The FBI director says China’s hackers are preparing to "wreak havoc" on critical U.S. systems.

Image Credits: DKosig / Getty Images

Mr. Zuckerberg goes to Washington

Meanwhile, our consumer tech team was all over today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on kids' online safety. Just before the hearing, companies like Microsoft and X pledged their support to protect children from the dangers of social media.

Other takeaways:

While being questioned about child privacy settings, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that teenagers should be able to be content creators and have the ability to share it widely.

Zuckerberg also pushed back against the notion that Meta should manage parental consent for apps. Instead, it should be the job of the app store providers, namely Apple and Google.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel shared that 20 million teenagers use Snapchat in the United States, but only around 200,000 parents use its Family Center supervision controls.

Meanwhile, X CEO Linda Yaccarino basically said, "No teenagers here."

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

More top reads

SpaceX will launch the Starlab private space station using Starship: However, it won't be right away. Still, it's progress and comes as Voyager and Airbus finalized their Starlab joint venture earlier this month.

Down in Africa: First, most African neobanks remain in the red despite some showing a profit. Learn what TymeBank, Carbon and FairMoney's numbers say about neobank profitability in Africa.

Also Google's first Africa cloud region is now operational. The Johannesburg region will play an important role in providing the resources that businesses "need to scale, innovate and compete in the global marketplace," according to Google.

Order up: The pandemic showed restaurants just how important it was to have an online presence. Owner.com's co-founders want to help with that and improve online guest experiences for mom-and-pop restaurants.

Neurelo builds connections: The young company helps developers build links between their database and their programs.

Score one for usage-based billing: Yesterday, we brought you the battle between consumption and usage-based billing. That one was a draw. Today, learn what happened when Metronome shifted to a usage-based business model.

eBay gets a $59M fine: The marketplace giant was sued by the U.S. Justice Department on claims people could buy obviously illegal pill-counterfeiting gear. Now it’s hit with a $59 million fine.

All about Apple Vision Pro: In this set of stories, we tell you how to preorder one and what the Apple Vision Pro's secret weapon is.

Oh, and that Apple already had to release its first security patch to fix a vulnerability that "may have been exploited" by hackers.

Going gaga over Ethereum: Over on TechCrunch+, read about the Ethereum developer interest that has hit new all-time highs in 2023, despite a bear market.

Image Credits: Starlab Space LLC

Before you go

Having made my fair share of Whoppers while working at Burger King, I have an appreciation for startups building technology for frontline workers. Investors say there still isn't enough. Head over to TechCrunch+ and take a gander at SaaS investor Julien Codorniou's column about how the SaaS revolution is coming for the 99%.

Image Credits: djvstock / Getty Images

On the pods

In today's startup-focused Equity episode, Alex Wilhelm digs into venture capital rounds, new VC funds and startup news. Among the stories are Plex raising $40 million, Aurora Solar's layoffs and a "Giant" set of funds. Listen here.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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