Hello and welcome to Monday. We’ve got some tech news to share with you this morning.
1. Data on 130,000 Telstra customers exposed
The details of more than 130,000 Telstra customers have been published online, with reports indicating the breach was due to an internal error. Per 9News, Telstra confirmed that some names, addresses and phone numbers have been listed incorrectly on the White Pages and Directory Assistance Services websites. The company said no cyber hack was involved and called it “a result of the misalignment of databases”. Telstra just recently came under fire for its IT systems not talking to each other.
2. NASA successfully completes Artemis I mission
The uncrewed Orion spacecraft performed a flawless splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, in what is a very promising and exciting start to the Artemis era of lunar missions. The capsule reached speeds of about 24,500mph as it returned to Earth, while its heat shield sustained scorching temperatures of around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Bored Ape class action
There’s a class action lawsuit against the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Named in the class action are artists, athletes, and celebrities such as Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Madonna, Post Malone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Serena Williams, Diplo – and they’re just some of the names. Per The Rolling Stone, the suit alleges that Yuga Labs, the creators of the BAYC non-fungible tokens, enlisted the celebrities to help “artificially” increase the value of the NFTs, inevitably resulting in “staggering losses” for the buyers.
4. Twitter subscription, larger Tweets and an auction
Twitter is relaunching its Blue pay-for-verification subscription a month after Elon Musk’s first attempt was met with anger. Adding to this, the blue bird platform is again talking about increasing character limit from 280 to a casual 4,000. Literally no one wants to read ramblings that go that long. For context, Gizmodo Australia’s Friday edition of ‘5 Things’ had 4,130 characters with spaces. And another thing from Elon Musk dot com, it seems the company’s San Francisco HQ is having a liquidation sale and is auctioning everything. Per Mashable, items up for auction include office chairs, industry-grade espresso machines, and lots and lots of kitchenware.
5. Aussie Spotify boss just bought a $9.5m home
Now for something we wouldn’t usually cover and Spotify Australia boss, Mikaela Lancaster and her partner (the founder of iflix, Mark Britt) have just casually bought a holiday home in Byron Bay. Not only does the McMansion cost a cool $9.5 million, it’s also the 10-hectare getaway in Federal that starred as the backdrop to last year’s reality TV show Love Island Australia. Thanks to Domain for helping us with that one, not sure what that show is but it sounds grim. Anyway, the property was listed for $11.5 million to $12.5 million, so the Spotify AU boss walked away with a bargain.
BONUS ITEM: Up to 3000 people who elected to contest their COVID fines in court have missed out on last month’s mass cancellation of more than 33,000 invalid fines.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is seeking advice on the status of thousands of COVID-19 fines amid calls for the state government to scrap the remaining penalties | @Rabe9 https://t.co/whxQ3magl6
— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) December 11, 2022
Have a great week.