Author: TechBrunch
Paragon, an Israeli spyware company that claims to operate as an “ethical” surveillance vendor, faced scrutiny earlier this year when Italy was arrested using Paragon's tools to spy on the phones of two journalists. Paragon responded by separating Italy from its surveillance products, becoming the first spyware company to reveal one of its customers following product misuse. Now, Paragon may face a new ethical dilemma. That's whether the ice agent can use that spyware. The $2 million one-year contract Paragon signed with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September 2024 is still under review and has not yet been…
Sarah Smith, founder and managing partner of the Sarah Smith Fund of the same name, announced the final closing of Fund I of $16 million on Thursday. Smith launched the fund of the same name in 2022 and is a solo Grand Prix. She said she was “unstood” that AI can unlock it for companies like her, solo, and the next generation. “I can't imagine ventures any other way right now,” she said. “I think it still requires team effort to build a company, but I think early stage investments are most common solo.” She appreciates how quick decisions can…
Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine announced Friday that the publishing platform has remained profitable since August last year, when it first achieved the milestone. In the post, Stubblebine detailed what it takes to achieve this goal. This includes a combination of product changes, investor restructuring, renegotiation loans, office space removal, layoffs and other difficult cost-saving measures. His posts delve deep into what a startup needs to achieve a transformation and the tough choices it has to make. According to Stubblebine, the company lost $2.6 million a month when it joined in 2022. They also lost subscribers, lost investors' funds, and lacked…
The US cybersecurity agency CISA says it is actively leveraging the security flaws of the widely used Citrix products, which hackers are only giving other federal departments a day to patch their systems. Security researchers have called the bug “Citrix Bleed 2” for similarities to the 2023 security flaw in Citrix Netscaler, a networking product that large companies and governments rely on to enable staff to remotely access apps and other resources on their internal networks. Like previous bugs, Citrix Bleed 2 is remotely exploited to extract sensitive credentials from affected Netscaler devices, allowing hackers to access a wider network.…
Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $118,900 on Friday after surpassing its previous record of $113,822 on Thursday. At the time of writing, Bitcoin costs around $117,400. This is an important milestone for Bitcoin. This highlights its revival, higher than the roughly $76,000 low in early April. It fell nearly $49,000 in August last year. Some analysts believe that if they reach $150,000 it will cause a purchase frenzy. It is important to note that Bitcoin, like most cryptocurrencies, can be unpredictable. No one is sure what will happen next. Several factors that have contributed to the surge in…
Security researchers have found access to the personal information of 64 million people who applied for jobs at McDonald's. This is largely by logging in to AI jobs, hiring chatbots with username and password “123456”. Ian Carroll and Sam Curry wrote in a blog post that they discovered a password issue “in a rough security review for hours” and another simple security vulnerability in the internal API. Personal data viewed by the researchers included the applicant's name, email address, home address and telephone number. In a blog post, Paradox.ai solved the issue “within a few hours” after the researcher's report,…
Time runs out. In just four days, TechCrunch All Stage 2025 will land on July 15th at the Sova Power Plant in Boston. This one-day summit has not been built for spectators. It is designed for founders, builders, backers and other performers who shape the following: Whether you're going to raise your first round, prepare for a growth leap or scale your team, the event is packed with insights to take action right now. The founder's pass is only $100 and the investor's pass is $200, but not for a long time. Prices will jump on the door, so sign…
TechCrunch returned to Moscone West in San Francisco on October 27-29, 2025, and has brought together over 10,000 startups and VC leaders to see where innovation is improving. Among the must-see sessions is a candid panel of Builders Stage, one of the most high-stakes moments of the founder's journey. Raise the first round. From pitch to partnerships: a real roadmap to fundraising This dynamic panel brings together three veteran investors: Maria Palma (Freestyle Capital), Gabby Cazo (Harlem Capital) and Marlon Nichols (MAC Venture Capital) to unlock the reality of early stage fundraising. From creating a compelling pitch to choosing the…
Another day, another smart device bites the dust – or, in this case, the full lineup of smart home devices. On Thursday, consumer electronics company Belkin said it had ended technical support for older WEMO products as of January 31, 2026, and that the apps used to control devices are no longer supported. This decision will affect a variety of devices, including smart plugs, light switches, smart bulbs, baby monitors, kitchen appliances, heaters, air purifiers, motion sensors, and more. In an email to the customer, the costume said that it should explain the decision and shift focus elsewhere. “This decision…
Developer Maurice Kleine shipped the web app on Thursday. This has been shipped depending on how you view it either by the mememaking bounty or the troubles of your existence. Mockly can generate trusted images of fake conversations with apps like Imessage, Discord, Instagram, X, Tinder, WhatsApp and more. Tools like Mockly have been around since the dawn of instant messaging, but are generally not the most user-friendly apps. If you google “fake Imessage generator” you will need to guess what it is a website with three download buttons and an ad that may contain malware. Mockly makes yourself stand…