Author: TechBrunch
North Korean-backed hackers stole at least $659 million in multiple cryptocurrency heists in 2024, while simultaneously stealing internal It is said that IT personnel were also dispatched to infiltrate blockchain companies as a threat. . The announcement marks the first official confirmation that North Korea was behind the $235 million hack of WazirX, India's largest cryptocurrency exchange, in July. Due to a data breach in July 2024, WazirX was forced to cease trading and subsequently reorganized the company. Other large-scale attacks included $308 million stolen from Japan's DMM Bitcoin, $50 million each from Upbit and Radiant Capital, and $16.13 million…
UK public sector and critical infrastructure organizations could be banned from paying ransoms under new proposals from the UK government. The UK Home Office on Tuesday launched a consultation proposing a “targeted ban” on ransomware payments. Under the proposals, public sector bodies including local councils, schools and NHS trusts would be banned from making payments to ransomware hackers, which the government said would “strike at the heart of the cybercrime business model”. There is. The government proposals come in the wake of a wave of cyberattacks targeting the UK public sector. Last year, the NHS declared a “major” incident following…
Alex Dewez, partner at 20VC, has released the much-anticipated State of the French Technology Ecosystem report. This is a great follow-up to Atomico's European State of Technology report, and includes a more in-depth look at French startups in particular. As a reminder, the gist of Atomico's report is that European startups raised $45 billion in 2024 compared to $47 billion in 2023. Although this figure is only a decrease of $2 billion, it represents a decrease of more than 50% when compared to the 2022 figure. In France, the overall theme is more or less similar. According to Dewez, venture…
Britain's antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, is wasting no time in filing its first formal inquiry in 2025 under new rules that came into force this month. The company will discuss new initiatives it is taking on in AI search and its huge search advertising business, as well as what remedies it may impose to improve competition in the space. We are investigating Google's market power. Those interested in filling out the survey have until February 3rd to comment. This is the first of two investigations the CMA is promising Big Tech this month under the new rules,…
A new French AI startup has raised $41 million to develop fundamental AI models in biology. Just as OpenAI's ChatGPT took the world by storm as a super-smart generative AI tool capable of textual natural language conversations, Bioptimus takes that concept but transforms its models into downstream biological We provide application-specific training. It comes with its own set. There are many challenges given that the required clinical training data is sensitive and may not be publicly available. Jean-Philippe Vert, co-founder and CEO of Bioptimus, said the company seeks to deepen our understanding of biology by learning how biology works from…
Towards the end of 2023, an Israeli security researcher living in Tel Aviv said on LinkedIn that he was approached with the opportunity to work abroad for a “good salary.” He said he was told by the company's human resources department that the company was a “legitimate” offensive security company that started from scratch in Barcelona, Spain. But throughout the hiring process, things felt a little off, researchers told TechCrunch. “The whole secrecy thing was very strange. Some of the employees who interviewed me didn't give their full names, and it took them a very long time to reveal their…
TikTok has warned that it could be shut down in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently considering legislation to ban the app. So we thought it was time to consider other platforms like TikTok that might be able to fill the hole in our lives. The law gives TikTok's parent company ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban on operating in the country. TikTok wants the law to be suspended, but if that doesn't happen, the app will effectively be banned in the country. 1:1 While there is no replacement for…
TikTok has warned that it could be shut down in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently considering legislation to ban the app. So we thought it was time to consider other platforms like TikTok that might be able to fill the hole in our lives. The law gives TikTok's parent company ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban on operating in the country. TikTok wants the law to be suspended, but if that doesn't happen, the app will effectively be banned in the country. 1:1 While there is no replacement for…
Microsoft has created a new engineering organization aimed at accelerating internal AI infrastructure and software development. Jay Parikh, previously Meta's vice president and head of global engineering, will lead the new division, according to Bloomberg. He will report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and will oversee groups such as the company's AI platform and developer team. Parikh worked on technology infrastructure and data center projects at Meta. Before joining Microsoft in October, he was named CEO of cloud security startup Lacework. The new organization, called CoreAI — Platform and Tools, is actually a combination of Microsoft's existing Dev Div…
OpenAI on Monday released what it calls an “economic blueprint” for AI, a living document outlining the policies it believes it can build in partnership with the U.S. government and its allies. The blueprint also includes remarks from Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of international affairs, who says the U.S. will spend billions of dollars on chips, data, energy and talent needed to “win with AI.” They argue that action must be taken to attract funding for the future. “Today, while some countries are ignoring AI and its economic potential, the U.S. government can protect national security while paving the…