August 31, 2022

Photoillustration: Washington Post via Getty Images; Getty Images; Protocol
Good morning! Elon Musk is still trying to get out of his Twitter takeover bid. Can Mudge help him out?
Elon Musk has taken a keen interest in Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s allegations against Twitter. The former Twitter security chief is less interested in whether his revelations help Musk, but they well might.
Here’s what’s working in Musk’s favor: His bot argument has always been weak. He said he wanted to take over Twitter to “defeat the bots,” then claimed Twitter understated the problem.
And here’s what’s working against Musk: Zatko himself. The former security lead said he’ll comply with Musk’s subpoena, but he made it clear that he didn’t come forward with his allegations to help Musk back out of his acquisition.
It’s unclear whether Zatko’s deposition will help Musk very much. But pay attention to what happens next, both in filings that emerge from a deposition on Sept. 9, and in Zatko’s upcoming Senate testimony, during which Musk may pay attention to more than just bots and spam.
— Sarah Roach
Cybersecurity insurance, which provides financial protection against damages caused by cyberattacks, seemed like a great idea until 2021 happened and prices soared. But the sharing of data may yet improve things for customers and cloud providers alike.
Cyber insurance has been thrown off-kilter by ransomware attacks that have led insurers to rapidly raise prices and pare back coverage, particularly since last year's massive wave of ransomware attacks.
Some insurers are working directly with cloud providers and are finding it may be a better way to provide coverage and set rates.
This benefits the cloud providers, too: the cyber insurance programs each act as an incentive for customers to rely more heavily on their respective cloud-based services.
If you’re hiring candidates using automation, having fair and unbiased AI is vital. Dave Walters, CTO of hiring automation company Hired, knew that picking the right auditor to scrutinize its tech was key — not just to check the AI fairness box, but to offer technical services for a long-term partnership. Walters talked with Protocol’s Kate Kaye about Hired’s decision to let London-based Holistic AI take a deep dive into the machine learning models it uses to match job seekers with the right roles.
Read more about how Hired decided to partner with Holistic AI.
Modernizing payments
NACHA and other industry groups and regulators are pushing for big changes to the way payments can be made. In this virtual event, we'll speak with a panel of payment experts and regulators to discuss how banks can stay ahead of the curve and ensure the U.S. can catch up with innovation overseas. RSVP here.
DataRobot's AI Cloud for Financial Services Unlocks the Art of the Possible: DataRobot continues to attract clients in financial services who want to de-risk their AI investments and rapidly scale AI to almost every part of their operations, resulting in improved productivity and higher customer satisfaction.
BlocPower founder and CEO Donnel Baird said recent legislation is a catalyst for upcoming climate action in the U.S.:
Facebook's Tom Alison said he
recognizes the "weighty" responsibility
of recommending content to users:
Robert Hoblit joined payment platform NMI as CRO . Hoblit most recently served in the same role at DigiCert.
Madrona, Seattle’s biggest VC, signed a lease in Palo Alto for its first Silicon Valley office.
Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor are Netflix's first ad strategy executives . Gorman and Naylor previously led advertising for Snap.Jane Horvath is leaving Apple for a law firm, sources told Bloomberg. Horvath was the company's chief privacy officer and worked at Apple for over a decade.
Lloyd Adams is SAP's new president of the North America division.
Adams has been with SAP for over two decades and most recently led the East division of the U.S.
Susan Wojcicki was almost Elon Musk's right hand in command. She considered leaving Google for Tesla in 2014, according to a new book about YouTube.
Snap plans to lay off 20% of its staff, or nearly 1,300 people, The Verge reported.
Gopuff wants to borrow $300 million as a cash cushion. The beleaguered startup is nearing an agreement with banks to establish a revolver loan, according to WSJ.
FTX, Coinbase, Binance and others received inquiries from a congressional committee for information about their operations to safeguard consumers from crypto-related fraud. The FTC, SEC, CFTC and Treasury Department were also sent inquiries.
An advocacy group wants the FTC to limit Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta from entering the auto market, based on their track record of handling and collecting data.
The FTC and six states are suing
Roomster
for allegedly paying for reviews and charging for access to fake listings.
First Solar is building a
new domestic factory
following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Looking for a fun way to waste some time? Watch people update Wikipedia in real time. This map tells you when, where and what people are updating on Wikipedia in dozens of languages. Though new edits flood in every second, the map only picks up changes from unregistered users whose edits are identified by their IP information, so this represents just a small fraction of total edit activity.
DataRobot's AI Cloud for Financial Services Unlocks the Art of the Possible: Banks need to secure a competitive advantage in an increasingly tight race to harness best-in-breed technology. Decision makers need to not just plan a future-ready strategy, but also recognize the value of AI that could boost not just their performance in-house but also their reputation among their global customers.
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