Good morning, folks, hope you had a nice and relaxing weekend. Here’s what happened in tech news over the last 72 hours.
1. 23andMe data stolen and listed for sale
News broke on Saturday that DNA testing platform 23andMe had suffered a data breach. BleepingComputer was told by the company it was aware of user data from its platform circulating on hacker forums and that it had attributed the leak to a credential-stuffing attack. The initial data leak included 1 million lines of data for Ashkenazi people. Then, the threat actor offered to sell data profiles in bulk for $US1-$US10 per 23andMe account, depending on how many were purchased. Per Forbes, the data doesn’t appear to include the raw genetic data the company analyses and instead includes information like sex, birth year, genetic ancestry results, and geographic ancestry information. It has been widely reported as an attack targeting Ashkenazi Jews.
2. MGM didn’t pay ransom
Staying on data breach news for a second and U.S. Gizmodo reported that MGM Resorts refused to pay a ransom to the group that hacked its systems last month which shut down its online hotel booking system, locked guests out of their hotel rooms by de-activating their key cards, and disrupted the technology in its slot machines. MGM reported that it resumed full operations on Thursday, but the cyberattack has cost the company $US100 million in lost revenue.
3. Even assistants get it wrong sometimes
Over to the Washington Post now and all the concerns we have with AI systems like Bard and ChatGPT have come to life with assistants, it seems, with the report revealing Amazon’s Alexa answered some 2020 U.S. presidential election questions by claiming it was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud” while citing sources like Rumble, Substack, and Alexa Answers, which is Amazon’s crowd-sourced answers program. Per The Verge, this is a reminder you shouldn’t trust everything your smart speaker says. Btw, the initial report says Siri and Google seemed to be A-OK.
4. Fines for Apple and Google in South Korea
TechCrunch is reporting that South Korea’s telecommunication regulator, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), said it plans to levy fines on Google and Apple, which could total up to $US50.5 million, for violating the country’s in-app payment law. Per a statement from the KCC, the two Big Tech giants abused market dominance to force local app developers to use their in-app payment methods rather than competitors’ payment systems and unfairly delayed app reviews to enforce the specific billing system.
5. Success for Amazon in space
Ending with space news today and Amazon’s first pair of prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network were launched into space on Friday from Florida, which, per Reuters, is the company’s first step before it deploys thousands more into orbit to beam internet service globally and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. The mission aims to test Amazon’s first pieces of technology in space as it looks to deploy 3,236 more satellites in the next few years and offer broadband internet globally. Musk has nearly 5,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
BONUS ITEM: Sure, go ahead and draw in Microsoft Excel, why not.
See you tomorrow, friends.