Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined...
Macmillan, one of the largest book publishers in the U.S, said it has been hit by a cyberattack that forced it to shut down its IT systems.
Macmillan spokesperson Erin Coffey told TechCrunch that the company recently experienced a “security incident” that “involved the encryption of certain...
A period-tracking company proclaimed last week that it was dedicated to protecting women’s data rather than sharing it with cops in a post-Roe v Wade world. Stardust, a woman-owned period-tracking app, announced that it would be the first company of its kind to roll out end-to-end encryption. E2E...
Opaque Systems, a startup developing what it describes as “AI for confidential computing,” today announced that it closed a $22 million Series A funding round led by Walden Catalyst Partners with participation from Storm Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Intel Capital, Race Capital, The House Fund,...
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that Democrats are considering the introduction of legislation that could protect the abortion rights of citizens. Notably, her letter addressed to Democrats pointed out that the legislation would also work on securing user data of...
Period tracking app Stardust surged to the top of the U.S. Apple App Store in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after the app promised it will encrypt its users’ private data to keep it out of the hands of the government.
But TechCrunch found on Monday that the...
Consumers are ditching their current period tracking apps in favor of what they perceive to be safer options in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that allows individual U.S. states to criminalize abortion. The app switching trend is impacting all manner of period tracking apps,...
Chainguard, a startup that focuses on securing software supply chains, announced today that it has raised a $50 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Amplify, the Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC, LiveOak Venture Partners, Banana Capital, K5/JPMC and CISOs from Google and Square, among...
It’s been a rough start for the newly-elected Costa Rica president Rodrigo Chaves, who less than a week into office declared his country “at war” with the Conti ransomware gang.
“We’re at war and this is not an exaggeration,” Chaves told local media. “The war is against an...
Security researchers have demonstrated a new Bluetooth relay attack that can remotely unlock and operate some Tesla vehicles.
The vulnerability lies in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the technology used by Tesla’s entry system that allows drivers with the app or key fob to unlock and operate their...
CipherMode Labs CEO and co-founder Sadegh Riazi has been working with encryption his entire career. He studied it as part of his PhD. He was part of the Microsoft SEAL team that worked on improving homomorphic encryption and making it more efficient.
What he found was that while homomorphic...
The U.S. has been working on new encryption standards meant to withstand the powers of quantum computing, an emergent technology that will supposedly involve machines capable of high-octane mathematical calculations that can crack current-day encryption algorithms without breaking a sweat.
Read...
The U.S. has been working on new encryption standards meant to withstand the powers of quantum computing, an emergent technology that will supposedly involve machines capable of high-octane mathematical calculations that can crack current-day encryption algorithms without breaking a sweat.
Read...
The U.S. has been working on new encryption standards meant to withstand the powers of quantum computing, an emergent technology that will supposedly involve machines capable of high-octane mathematical calculations that can crack current-day encryption algorithms without breaking a sweat.
Read...
The U.S. has been working on new encryption standards meant to withstand the powers of quantum computing, an emergent technology that will supposedly involve machines capable of high-octane mathematical calculations that can crack current-day encryption algorithms without breaking a sweat.
Read...
Tel Aviv-based Classiq, a startup that wants to make it easier for developers to build quantum algorithms and applications, today announced that it has raised additional funding for its service by adding HSBC, NTT Finance, and Intesa Sanpaolo as new investors to its $33 million Series B round,...
Google has announced a package of additional controls for users of its productivity suite, Google Workspace (neé G Suite), in Europe — which it’s rolling out by the end of this year and next.
It says these extra control will enable organizations — both public and private sector — to...
Elon Musk has put an end to weeks of speculation with the announcement that Twitter has accepted his offer to buy the platform for $54.20 per share share, valuing the social media platform at about $44 billion.
While Musk’s drawn-out pursuit of Twitter has come to an end, for him at least, the...
Cryptography and encryption offer many advantages, but adoption still isn’t widespread -- largely due to many lingering misconceptions.Read...
The BlackByte ransomware gang appears to have made a comeback after targeting at least three U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, according to an advisory from the FBI and the Secret Service.
BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that leases out its ransomware infrastructure to...
In a fresh addition to incoming UK legislation that will set sweeping Internet content rules for platforms, the government has revived a long-standing ambition to put porn websites behind age gates — saying today that it will mandate the use of “age verification technologies” on adult sites...
A decision by Austria’s data protection watchdog upholding a complaint against a website related to its use of Google Analytics does not bode well for use of US cloud services in Europe.
The decision raises a big red flag over routine use of tools that require transferring Europeans’ personal...
Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review!
I’ve taken the last few weeks to unwind and ensure that my 2022 hot takes are as scorching as possible, or at least as prescient as possible. This week, we’re talking about what I’m sure could be one of Apple’s biggest scandals of the...
Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review!
I’ve taken the last few weeks to unwind and ensure that my 2022 hot takes are as scorching as possible, or at least as prescient as possible. This week, we’re talking about what I’m sure could be one of Apple’s biggest scandals of the...
79% of surveyed firms have recently experienced a cloud data breach. In this article, we examined various recommended practices that can help you stay safe.Read the full...
Meta (formerly Facebook) recently announced its plans to delay the rollout of end-to-end encryption across its messaging service until sometime in 2023, citing concerns from child safety advocates who warned the change would shield abusers from detection. Today, the company offered more details...
End-to-end encryption is getting traction for secure communications. But how is it different from all other types of encryption? Here is a basic guide to it.Read the full...
Switzerland-based privacy tech startup, Nym Technologies, which is trying to commercialize an old idea for privacy-centric infrastructure (mixnets) by combining it with buzzy crypto incentives, has closed $13 million in Series A investment from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto-focused fund,...
Minds, a crypto social network, has raised $10 million from the tech freedom group Futo for its decentralized communications.Read...
Valencia-based startup Internxt has been quietly working on an ambitious plan to make decentralized cloud storage massively accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
It’s just bagged $1M in seed funding led by Angels Capital, a European VC fund owned by Juan Roig (aka Spain’s richest...