Author: TechBrunch
At the annual Slush conference held in Helsinki last month, it was impossible to ignore the excitement in Europe's startup market. However, actual data on the current state of the region's venture market shows a different reality. Result: European markets have yet to recover from the global venture capital reset that occurred in 2022 and 2023. However, there is evidence that the European market is on the mend, including the recent exit of Klarna and the region's homegrown AI startups that are attracting attention from local investors and beyond. Investors poured 43.7 billion euros ($52.3 billion) into European startups in…
Enterprise software company ServiceNow has agreed to acquire nine-year-old cybersecurity startup Armis for $7.75 billion in cash. This transaction represents a significant valuation boost for the company. Just last month, Almis raised $435 million in a pre-IPO funding round, valuing the company at $6.1 billion. Armis co-founder and CEO Evgeny Dibrov told TechCrunch last month that the company aims to go public in late 2026 or 2027, adding that an IPO is his “personal dream.” Given the unpredictability of the IPO market and how few cybersecurity companies actually go public, it's no surprise that Armis ultimately opted to exit M&A.…
Cybercriminals stole $2.7 billion in cryptocurrencies this year, a new record for crypto theft hacks, according to a blockchain monitoring firm. 2025 once again saw dozens of crypto heists hitting several crypto exchanges and other Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. The biggest hack to date was the breach at Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, where hackers stole about $1.4 billion in cryptocurrencies. A blockchain analysis firm and the FBI blamed North Korean government hackers, the most prolific crypto-targeting group in years, for the massive heist. This was the largest known looting of cryptocurrencies in history, and one of the largest…
On this week's StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos speaks with iRobot founder and former CEO Colin Angle. Mr. Angle spent 30 years building iRobot from his living room to a household name and one of the most pioneering companies in the robotics industry, stepping down as CEO following the failed Amazon acquisition. In this conversation, he reveals why he considers iRobot's bankruptcy “an avoidable tragedy,” why regulators made a fatal mistake in blocking a $1.7 billion Amazon deal, and why the FTC's office walls are covered in “blocked deals” as trophies, revealing a deeply flawed approach to protecting innovation. Angle also…
In June, U.S. insurance giant Aflac disclosed a data breach in which hackers stole customers' personal information, including social security numbers and health information, but did not say how many victims had been affected. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it had begun notifying approximately 22.65 million people whose data was stolen in the cyberattack. Aflac said in a filing with the Texas attorney general that the stolen data included customers' names, dates of birth and home addresses. Government-issued identification numbers (such as passports or state ID cards), driver's license numbers, and social security numbers. Also information on medical care…
In June, U.S. insurance giant Aflac disclosed a data breach in which hackers stole customers' personal information, including social security numbers and health information, but did not say how many victims had been affected. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it had begun notifying approximately 22.65 million people whose data was stolen in the cyberattack. Aflac said in a filing with the Texas attorney general that the stolen data included customer names, dates of birth, home addresses, government-issued identification numbers (such as passports and state ID cards), driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, and medical and health insurance information. And…
Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer refuses to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution. After running his photo-sharing and contact management startup Sunshine for the past six years with little success, the celebrated technology leader has shut down the company and launched Dazzle, a new startup focused on building the next generation of AI personal assistants. Mayer hasn't yet shared details about Dazzle's capabilities, but he did reveal that the company has raised an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation. The round was led by Forerunner's Kirsten Green with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline…
France's state-run postal and bakery service company La Poste was taken offline on Monday due to a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, the company said. The Postal Service called the attack a “major network incident” that disrupted “all information systems.” La Poste's online email and banking services, website and mobile app are among the services that will be temporarily unavailable, but customers can continue to make direct banking and postal transactions, according to a machine translation of the announcement. The La Banque Postale bank branch also issued an announcement regarding the cyberattack, saying that “customers were temporarily unable…
Across Uzbekistan, a network of about 100 high-definition roadside cameras continuously scan vehicle license plates and occupants, sometimes thousands a day, looking for potential traffic violations. A car running a red light. Drivers not wearing seat belts. Some examples include unauthorized vehicles driving at night. The driver of one of the most monitored vehicles in the system was tracked for six months, traveling from the eastern city of Chirchik through the capital Tashkent and between the nearby settlements of Eshhonguzal, often multiple times a week. We know this because the country's sprawling license plate tracking and surveillance system remains exposed…
OpenAI is working to harden its Atlas AI browser against cyberattacks and acknowledges that prompt injection is a type of attack that manipulates an AI agent to follow malicious instructions hidden in web pages or emails. This is a risk that isn't going away anytime soon, raising questions about how securely AI agents can operate on the open web. “As with fraud and social engineering on the web, instant attacks are unlikely to be fully 'solved',” OpenAI said in a blog post on Monday, detailing how the company is hardening Atlas' defenses to counter the constant attacks. The company acknowledged…