Shakeeb Ahmed, a cybersecurity engineer convicted of stealing around $12 million in crypto, was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison.
In a press release, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the sentence.
Ahmed was accused of hacking into two cryptocurrency exchanges, and stealing around $12 million in crypto, according to prosecutors.
While the name of one of his victims was never disclosed, Ahmed reportedly hacked into Crema Finance, a Solana-based crypto exchange, in early July 2022.
In the case of Nirvana Finance, the stolen funds “represented approximately all the funds possessed by Nirvana,” which led Nirvana Finance to shut down, according to the press release.
Less than a week after The Wall St. Journal reported on how a Snapchat feature dubbed “solar system” was adding to teens’ anxiety, the company has responded by adjusting how the feature works.
The ranking system for paid subscribers today shows you how close you are to your Snapchat friends by displaying your position in their solar system.
However, instead of removing the feature, as it did with the dangerous and controversial speed filter, which it was sued over for “negligent design,” Snap is simply turning the Solar System feature off by default.
A more relevant stat would be how many Snapchat+ users have used Solar System or viewed the feature.
The Solar System feature was only one of Snapchat’s friend ranking systems.
Yahoo is acquiring Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the company announced on Tuesday.
Artifact will no longer operate as a standalone app, and its proprietary AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated across Yahoo, including the Yahoo News app in the coming months.
Although Artifact started off as a simple news app, the end result seemed more like a Twitter replacement.
Artifact’s technology surfaces content users want to see and becomes more attuned to their interests over time.
As a result, users receive a personalized feed of news stories that they want to read.
Tinder-owner Match Group has appointed two new members to its board of directors and signed an agreement with Elliott Management, the company announced on Monday.
Chief marketing officer at Instacart, Laura Jones, and Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff, will be joining the board, effective immediately.
Match said in a press release that the appointments followed a “a constructive dialogue” with the activist investor, as the two companies have entered in an “information-sharing” agreement.
“We appreciate the collaboration with management and the Board over the past several months, and we are confident that Laura Jones and Spencer Rascoff are strong additions to the Board.
The activist investor’s push for change at the dating firm follows board shakeups at Crown Castle and Etsy.
In India, a government-run agency will now monitor and undertake fact-checking for government related matters on social media even as tech giants expressed grave concerns about it last year.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT on Wednesday wrote in a gazette notification that it is cementing into law its proposal from last year about making the fact checking unit of Press Information Bureau the dedicated arbiter of truth for New Delhi matters.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcast established the fact checking unit of Press Information Bureau in 2019 with the aim to dispel misinformation about government matters.
The unit, however, has been criticized for falsely labelling information critical to the government as misleading.
Relying on a government agency such as the Press Information Bureau as the sole source to fact-check government business without giving it a clear definition or providing clear checks and balances “may lead to misuse during implementation of the law, which will profoundly infringe on press freedom,” Asia Internet Coalition, an industry group that represents Meta, Amazon, Google and Apple cautioned last year.
In a press release written with help from ChatGPT, Match Group announced an enterprise agreement with the AI chatbot’s maker, OpenAI.
The AI tech will be used to help Match Group employees with work-related tasks, the company says, and come as part of Match’s $20 million-plus bet on AI in 2024.
It even offered a quote from ChatGPT itself: “I’m thrilled that Match Group matched with me.
To keep its corporate data protected, only trained and licensed Match Group employees will have access to OpenAI’s tools, it noted.
Before being able to use these tools, Match Group employees will also have to undergo mandatory training that focuses on responsible use, the technology’s capabilities, as well as its limitations.
eBay has agreed to pay a $3 million fine in connection with a corporate cyberstalking campaign targeting a Massachusetts couple in 2019.
The cyberstalking campaign was conducted by several eBay employees, some of whom were executives, who targeted the couple after they posted a newsletter that was critical of the e-commerce giant.
The cyberstalking campaign involved the employees sending the couple a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, live insects and a book on surviving the death of a spouse.
“eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in a press release.
“The company’s conduct in 2019 was wrong and reprehensible,” said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in the press release.
The Space Development Agency is the mystery customer behind Rocket Lab’s up-to $515 million, 18-satellite order announced in late December, the two firms announced today.
In a regulatory filing from December 21, Rocket Lab said it would “design, manufacture, deliver and operate 18 space vehicles” for an unnamed U.S. government customer.
Under the contract, Rocket Lab will deliver and operate a prototype constellation in two orbital planes of nine satellites each.
Rocket Lab will not be providing the communications payload, and company executives declined to name that provider during a press release Monday.
“We welcome Rocket Lab as the newest member of Team SDA and our third performer on the T2TL- Beta program,” said Derek Tournear, SDA director.
Remember Ballie, Samsung’s spherical home robot from CES 2020?
I sure didn’t — until Samsung brought it back at this year’s keynote with a few on-trend AI upgrades.
The new and improved Ballie, which Samsung previewed during its press conference at CES 2024 in Las Vegas today, is around the size of a bowling ball, packing a battery that’s designed to last two to three hours.
In the latter case, Ballie will respond with the aid of a chatbot to confirm requests before taking action.
“With its built-in front [and] rear camera, [Ballie] can detect and analyze its surroundings and learn recurring user patterns,” Samsung continues in the press release.
