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☆ Publisher tech firm OpenWeb is making a $100 million acquisition to help publishers better target ads and emails
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The acquisition is the third company OpenWeb has bought in about a year. The Jeeng acquisition will help OpenWeb's publisher clients collect data for subscriptions and ads. OpenWeb, a tech company that helps publishers engage with readers and sell ads, has acquired Jeeng for $100 million, the companies said Thursday. OpenWeb is acquiring Jeeng to provide publishers with tools to take that data and personalize emails, push notifications, and SMS messages. In January 2022, OpenWeb acquired Hive Media for $60 million to build tools for publishers to better recommend content, and the company acquired Adyoulike in April for $100 million to expand into social advertising.

☆ Hive: FBI, DOJ seize notorious ransomware group's website
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHive: FBI, DOJ seize notorious ransomware group's websiteCNBC's Eamon Javers reports on the shutting down of the Hive ransomware operation.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The Hive ransomware gang has been disrupted by international law enforcement action, according to a person familiar with the matter and an announcement posted to the group's website. A flashing message posted to Hive's page said: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized this site as part of coordinated law enforcement action taken against Hive Ransomware." The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the European law enforcement organization Europol did not immediately return messages seeking comment but the person familiar with the matter said a Department of Justice announcement was coming imminently. Hive is one of a wide range of cybercriminal groups that extort international businesses by encrypting their data and demanding massive cryptocurrency payments in return. "Hive is one of the most active groups around, if not the most active," he said in an email.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The FBI revealed on Thursday it had secretly hacked and disrupted a prolific ransomware gang called Hive, a maneuver that allowed the bureau to thwart the group from collecting more than $130 million in ransomware demands from more than 300 victims. They were then able to alert victims in advance so they could take steps to protect their systems before Hive demanded the payments. In that case, the Justice Department seized some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom after the company had already paid the hackers. The Justice Department said that over the years, Hive has targeted more than 1,500 victims in 80 different countries, and has collected more than $100 million in ransomware payments. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the FBI's operation helped a wide range of victims, including a Texas school district.

☆ The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You DownWe’ve been given no shortage of digital tools that should, in theory, help us work better, with more focus and efficiency, and connect us more easily with our colleagues. Your brain can’t have your inbox open next to the memo you’re writing while you’re also on the phone. The only way to get out of that suboptimal equilibrium is to completely change the way the organization collaborates. You can’t have a small number of executives figure out the right way to do the work and then dispense it. But zoom out to John McPhee’s career, and you’re like, you’re one of the most productive and impactful writers of all time.

☆ Davos 2023: Riyadh city developing fast with eye on Expo 2030 bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, which has bid to host the Expo 2030 world fair, is pushing ahead with plans to turn its capital Riyadh into a major global metropolis, a government official said on Thursday. Should Riyadh win Expo hosting rights it would be ready, but the build-up, which includes an additional 120,000 hotel rooms by 2030, was needed regardless to meet tourism goals, he said. The host country for the 2030 Expo is expected to be selected in November. Asked if alcohol would be allowed in Riyadh by 2030, Al Rasheed said: "No, but I think you can ... consider it a wellness detox." If Saudi Arabia wins its bid it would be the second Arab country to host Expo after the United Arab Emirates.

☆ A Carnival cruise to the Bahamas became a 'cruise to nowhere' after inclement weather kept passengers stuck onboard the entire trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Windy weather forced a Carnival cruise ship to cancel its only planned port stop earlier this month. Passengers onboard received partial refunds and compensation for the unexpected cancellation. Passenger Kat O'Donnell told Insider the decision was disappointing. "It was the first time either one of us have ever gone out of the country," she told Insider. The Carnival Sunshine cruise ship docked in South Carolina in March 2020.

☆ Twitter alternatives like Mastadon see downloads plunge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Downloads of the iOS app have grown 290,000% to 1.5 million since Oct. 24, with daily users up 660,000% to 321,000, according to Apptopia data.

☆ 2 teachers missed their $4,000 honeymoon cruise after their flight was cancelled and they were met with 'radio silence' from Southwest
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The teachers from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, were among thousands to have Southwest flights canceled. Marcus and Andrea Grasenick said they missed their honeymoon cruise after a canceled flight. Southwest canceled more flights than any other airline after storms hit the US over Christmas. Marcus and Andrea Grasenick of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, told local outlet TMJ4 that they flew to Nashville on Monday where they waited for word on their connecting Southwest flight. Southwest canceled more than 2,900 flights on Monday, accounting for around half of all canceled flights throughout the world that day.

☆ Big Tech predictions for 2023: A rival for Twitter, Amazon deceleration, Google's AI wake-up call, Microsoft's serious game, cloud bills, and DTC decline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Hugh Langley | Kali Hays | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The painful adjustments will ripple across the industry in 2023.Insider's Big Tech reporters share what to watch this coming year. At $44 billion, the debt-fueled deal was completed quickly at valuations from the frothy tech bull market of 2021. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe slow breakdown of Twitter under Musk appears to be upon us. Mastodon has experienced a major influx of users, hitting more than 5 million accounts after Musk took over Twitter. With intense tech antitrust scrutiny, these new services are unlikely to be gobbled up by Big Tech.

☆ Which Twitter alternatives have staying power — and which is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

For the rest of the week, in addition to the day's top stories, I'll be highlighting some of the year's biggest investigations, features, and more from Insider's tech reporters. Today, we're taking a look back on everything from employee angst at Amazon to Thomas Kurian's three-year reign at Google Cloud. Which Twitter alternatives have staying power — and which is the next Clubhouse? See which Twitter alternatives could make it out alive. We gave readers an inside look at Kurian's Google Cloud.

☆ Twitter alternatives that got traction after Elon Musk takeover are suddenly seeing downloads plunge. Which has staying power and who is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Yet, it has maintained more than 500,000 daily users.

The email went out to students at Knox College, a small liberal arts school in Illinois, on the evening of Dec. 12. But this group had a new wrinkle for Knox students. “We have compromised your collage networks,” the email said, written in the kind of broken English common among international ransomware hackers. For you, its a sad day where everyone will see your personal and private info.”The incident at Knox College marks the first known case in which hackers used their access to contact students directly in order to intimidate them. The hackers’ website lists an entry to download data for Knox College but doesn’t actually lead to any student data.

☆ Meta considered building a Twitter competitor to capitalize on Elon Musk's 'crisis' at company, report says: 'LET'S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta brainstormed how to build a Twitter competitor as Elon Musk took over the platform, NYT reports. Since, Elon Musk took over Twitter the company has lost advertisers and around half its staff. "Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back," one Meta employee wrote in a post, per The Times. Since the richest man in the world took Twitter private in October there's been a large amount of uncertainty regarding the company's future. Without major advertisers, Twitter could flounder as ads accounted for about 90% of Twitter's revenue last year.

☆ In Chile, amateur beekeeper rescues hives from coastal tourist city
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Rodrigo Garrido | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Amateur beekeeper Angel Nieto, known as "the Bee Rescuer", prepares to remove a swarm of bees from a tree on a private property, in Vina del Mar, Chile December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Rodrigo GarridoVINA DEL MAR, Chile, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A goldsmith by trade, Angel Nieto carefully pries away a beehive from an inner-city tree in Chile's coastal Vina del Mar. Chilean scientists have warned of declining bee populations, threatened by agricultural pesticides and the impacts of climate change. "In this space we prepare for them, they can be free, live peacefully, without any aggressive interventions," he added. Reporting by Rodrigo Garrido; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Is the worst over for bitcoin and the rest of crypto?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

This is not the first crypto winter, as long-term fans of bitcoin can attest. “It is very clear that we as an industry need to build better products,” said Hany Rashwan, CEO of 21.co, a crypto investment firm. That’s about triple where prices were during the depths of the crypto bear market in the early pandemic days of 2020. Others point out that the underlying blockchain technology behind bitcoin and crypto remains solid. Pride and Reynolds added that it’s erroneous to think that bitcoin can hold up well during stock market volatility.

☆ Factbox: Aircraft lessors sue insurers for $8 billion over trapped Russian planes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Aircraft leasing firms are suing dozens of insurers for around $8 billion in a string of lawsuits over the loss of hundreds of aircraft stuck in Russia since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Lessors argue the aircraft are covered by policies against war or theft, but insurers point out the planes are undamaged and might yet be returned. Here is a list of claims filed against insurers in London, Dublin and the United States, with the most recent filing listed first. SMBC AVIATION CAPITAL VS LLOYD'S OF LONDONSMBC filed a claim against Lloyd's of London (SOLYD.UL) in the Irish High Court on Nov 28. BOC AVIATION VS 16 INSURERSBOC Aviation has begun legal action against 16 insurers, according to an Irish High Court filing on Nov 3.

☆ Thousands of users mistakenly signed up to a management firm called Hive instead of buzzy Twitter alternative, Hive Social
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Many of those signing up had mistaken the management platform for social-media site, Hive Social. Many of the people who registered had mistaken the site for Hive Social, which is quickly becoming a favored alternative to Twitter. Hive Social is a mobile-only platform that is similar to Twitter but doesn't use any of the algorithms that control what users see. "The majority of these posts are words of gratitude for a Twitter alternative," Wilson said. Hive Social has exploded in popularity as some social-media users look for an alternative to Twitter.

☆ What is Hive? I tried the latest Twitter alternative to gain steam
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

This week, Hive Social garnered the top spot in the social networking category on the US App Store. As I tried to download the Hive app on my Apple device, however, I was greeted with a series of errors. Hive Social, which lists just two employees on LinkedIn, did not respond to CNN Business’ requests for an interview or further comment. On its website, Hive Social also outlines goals for keeping the community respectful. To be fair, Hive started in 2019 and never sought to be a Twitter clone or to welcome a sudden influx of disgruntled Twitter users.

☆ Google has a secretive project that could reduce the need for human engineers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we've got the details on Elon Musk walking back perks at Twitter, and news on a secretive project at Google. Google has a secretive new project that teaches code to write itself. In this case, the goal is to reduce the need for humans to write and update code, while maintaining code quality. It later moved into Google Labs — a transition that signaled its increased importance to leaders, with Google Labs pursuing long-term bets. Elon Musk put an end to some Twitter perks.

☆ Analysis: Mexican companies could resort to more spinoffs to enhance market value
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Valentine Hilaire | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil (AMXL.MX) kicked off the trend late last year when its shareholders approved the spinoff of its cell tower business. Some analysts said both Alfa and Televisa may consider further spinoffs as they look to boost their depressed valuations. Other companies, like Coke bottler and retailer Femsa (FEMSAUBD.MX), whose shares are down 3.3% year-to-date, after gaining 6% in 2021, may follow suit. Alfa lost 2.69% the day after its shareholders approved the Axtel spinoff, while Televisa's shares advanced 0.86% the day after it revealed plans for a similar move. Televisa, meanwhile, could follow its sports spinoff with either its editorial or magazine businesses, two analysts said.

☆ Hive Social's 24-year old founder said it was 'unsurprising' that Elon Musk acknowledged the existence of her small but growing social media app vying to lure Twitter users
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Hive is the latest social media app to climb to the top of the App Store as Twitter users look for alternatives. Hive's 24-year-old founder told Insider she wasn't surprised Musk acknowledged the app, given its surge in popularity. Mastodon and Tumblr have seen a recent explosion of growth, but Hive Social is the latest buzzy social media app to climb the ranks of Apple's App Store, and even Elon Musk took notice. In a conversation with Insider, Hive Social's 24-year-old founder, Raluca Pop, said it was "unsurprising" that Musk noticed the platform. "There's not really the toxicity on there," Pop said of Hive Social.

☆ Hive Social has grown to 2 million users and shot to the top of the App Store since people started fleeing Twitter. It's run by a 24-year-old founder and 2 other employees.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Some users searching for alternatives to Twitter have flocked to Hive Social. Elon Musk's frenzied management style and outlook on content moderation have some Twitter users hunting for alternatives to the social media giant. It's currently the top social app on Apple's App Store, surpassing even TikTok. She is a self-taught coder and had run the social media app with only one other employee until Friday, when a third developer joined the team. On Thursday, many new Hive Social users reported on Twitter that they were having trouble setting up their accounts.

As I drive through a gate high above Los Angeles’s Nichols Canyon, a tall man with unmistakably bushy eyebrows waves me into a precarious parking spot and says, “That’s $20. Leave the keys in the car.” My valet is Will Ferrell, clad in basketball shorts, slides and a T-shirt bearing the crest of the Los Angeles Football Club, of which he is a minority owner. Ferrell waves to his wife, Viveca Paulin-Ferrell, an art auctioneer and board member at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as she sits idling in a blue Tesla , waiting to pull out. “It’s gonna be a tennis court,” Ferrell explains. “I don’t play, but you need one if you want to sip a gin and tonic.”

Leave the keys in the car.” My valet is Will Ferrell, clad in basketball shorts, slides and a T-shirt bearing the crest of the Los Angeles Football Club, of which he is a minority owner. On this October morning, Ferrell is playing a parking attendant for reasons beyond comic value: Although his three sons are already at school (one in college), his home is a hive of domestic activity. Ferrell waves to his wife, Viveca Paulin-Ferrell, an art auctioneer and board member at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as she sits idling in a blue Tesla , waiting to pull out. “It’s gonna be a tennis court,” Ferrell explains. “I don’t play, but you need one if you want to sip a gin and tonic.”

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