Technology
Hacker claims to have 30 million customer records of Australian ticketing giant TEG
A hacker is promoting on a widely known hacker forum customer data allegedly stolen from Australian live events and ticketing company TEG.
On Thursday, the hacker put allegedly stolen TEG data up on the market, claiming to have details about 30 million users, including name, gender, date of birth, username, encrypted passwords and email addresses.
At the top of May, Ticketek, an organization owned by TEG, starts selling tickets disclosed an information breach affecting Australian customer data “which is stored on a cloud-based platform hosted by a reputable, global third-party provider”.
The company stated that “no Ticketek customer accounts were compromised” thanks to the encryption methods used to store their passwords. However, TEG admitted that “customer names, dates of birth and email addresses may have been affected” – data that overlapped with that advertised on the hacker forum.
The hacker included a sample of allegedly stolen data in his post. TechCrunch confirmed that at the least some of the information posted on the forum appears to be legitimate by attempting to arrange recent accounts using the e-mail addresses posted. In many cases, the Ticketek website displayed an error, suggesting that email addresses were already taken.
A TEG spokesperson reached by email didn’t comment by press time.
On its official website, Ticketek states that the corporate “sells over 23 million tickets to over 20,000 events each year.”
While Ticketek didn’t name its “cloud-based platform hosted by a reputable, global third-party provider,” there’s evidence to suggest it would be the snowflake behind a recent spate of data thefts affecting several of its clients, including Ticketmaster, Santander Bank and others.
Now deleted post on the Snowflake website as of January 2023, it was titled: “TEG Personalizes Live Entertainment Experiences with Snowflake.” In 2022, Altis consulting company published a case study detailing how the corporate partnered with TEG “built a modern data platform to accept streaming data into Snowflake.”
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Do you have more details about this incident or other Snowflake-related breaches? From a tool that will not be working, you’ll be able to contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely via Signal on +1 917 257 1382, via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb or email. You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
When asked to comment on the Ticketek breach, Snowflake spokeswoman Danica Stańczak didn’t respond to our specific questions and as an alternative referred to the corporate’s public statement. Brad Jones, Snowflake’s chief information security officer, said in a press release that the corporate “has not identified evidence to suggest that this action was caused by a security vulnerability, misconfiguration or breach of the Snowflake platform.”
A Snowflake spokesman declined to confirm or deny whether TEG or Ticketek are Snowflake customers.
Snowflake provides corporations around the globe with services that help their customers store data within the cloud. Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported earlier this month that cybercriminals had stolen a “significant amount of data” from several Snowflake customers. Mandiant is working with Snowflake to investigate the information breach and in a blog post revealed that the 2 corporations have notified roughly 165 Snowflake customers.
Snowflake blames the hacking campaign on its customers for not using multi-factor authentication, which allowed hackers to use passwords “previously purchased or obtained through stolen information.”
Technology
Anthropic partners with Palantir and AWS to sell artificial intelligence to defense customers
Anthropic on Thursday announced that it’s working with Palantir, a knowledge mining company, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies with access to Anthropic’s Claude family of artificial intelligence models.
The news comes as an increasing variety of AI vendors seek to sign contracts with U.S. defense customers for strategic and fiscal reasons. Meta recently revealed that it’s sharing its llama models with defense industry partners, while OpenAI does searching establishing closer relations with the Department of Defense.
Anthropic’s head of sales, Kate Earle Jensen, says the corporate’s partnership with Palantir and AWS will “operationalize the use of Claude” on the Palantir platform, leveraging AWS hosting. Claude, which became available on the Palantir platform earlier this month, can now be utilized in Palantir’s defense-accredited Impact Level 6 (IL6) environment, hosted on AWS infrastructure.
The Department of Defense’s IL6 is reserved for systems containing data considered critical to national security and requiring “maximum protection” against unauthorized access and manipulation. Information in IL6 systems can reach the “secret” level – one step less top secret.
“We are proud to be a leader in bringing responsible AI solutions to classified environments in the U.S., increasing analytical capabilities and operational efficiency in key government operations,” Jensen said. “Access to Claude on Palantir on AWS will equip U.S. defense and intelligence organizations with powerful artificial intelligence tools that can quickly process and analyze massive amounts of complex data. This will dramatically improve intelligence analysis and decision-making for officials, streamline resource-intensive tasks and increase operational efficiency across all departments.”
This summer, Anthropic introduced select Claude models to AWS’s GovCloud service, signaling its ambition to expand its public sector customer base. (GovCloud is an AWS service designed for US government cloud workloads). Anthropic positions itself as a more security-conscious provider than OpenAI. However, the corporate’s terms of service allow it to use AI for tasks reminiscent of “legally authorized foreign intelligence analysis,” “identifying covert influence or sabotage campaigns,” and “providing advance warning of potential military activities.”
There is actually interest in artificial intelligence amongst government agencies. March 2024 Brookings Institute evaluation found 1,200% increase in government procurement related to artificial intelligence. But some branches, reminiscent of the US military, do slow implementation of this technology — and skeptical concerning the return on investment.
Anthropic, which has recently expanded into Europe, is he said conduct talks on obtaining a brand new round of financing value up to USD 40 billion. To date, the corporate has raised about $7.6 billion, including forward commitments. Amazon is by far the most important investor.
Technology
Truecaller founders step down as spam blocker gains momentum
The co-founders of Swedish caller ID app Truecaller are stepping back from day-to-day operations, ending an era for considered one of Sweden’s most successful consumer technology corporations as it pursues a goal of 1 billion users.
Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam, who co-founded Truecaller in 2009 and are pictured above, will hand over their responsibilities to Rishit Jhunjhunwale, the corporate’s chief product officer and head of its key India division, in January. Both founders will remain strategic advisors and board members.
The succession comes as Truecaller, which operates the eponymous call and spam blocking app, finds its feet after a difficult period, with third-quarter revenue rising 15% to SKr457.3 million ($42.3 million). More importantly, promoting revenues – which had been a cause for concern – rose 8% after several quarters of decline.
“We are approaching half a billion users and I am confident that we can reach one billion users within a few years,” Mamedi said in his last quarterly statement as CEO. “We are one of the few companies in the world whose product has managed to attract hundreds of millions of people. This is how we put Sweden on the world map. This achievement is something that my co-founder Nami and I are incredibly proud of.”
Jhunjhunwala, who joined the corporate in 2015 and holds Swedish citizenship despite his Indian roots, inherits an organization that’s finding its feet after a difficult post-IPO period. Truecaller, which went public in October 2021, dominates caller identification in emerging markets but in addition faces recent challenges in developed economies, particularly on Apple’s iPhone platform.
The group plans to launch what executives call the “biggest product improvement ever” for iOS this quarter, which can match some Android features. Although iPhone users make up just 7% of Truecaller’s base, they generate 40% of subscription revenue – a difference that highlights each future challenges and opportunities.
“I have been working closely with Alan and Nami since 2015 and I know this is a big challenge,” said Jhunjhunwala, who oversaw product development and the corporate’s two largest revenue streams.
The move comes as Truecaller shares have rallied greater than 70% from March lows, with JPMorgan analysts noting that recent market entries and emerging revenue streams could further boost growth.
However, challenges remain. The company is undergoing regulatory scrutiny in India, where it generates greater than 70% of its revenues. Recent reports suggest that Airtel’s recent spam blocking tool could threaten its dominance, although early reviews favor Truecaller’s offering.
The founders’ departure was announced alongside accelerated third-quarter results, which showed promising growth in strategic markets such as Colombia and Nigeria, where user numbers increased by 40% year-over-year. Subscription revenue within the U.S. grew greater than 60% as the corporate focused on converting users into paying customers.
“We have a fantastic management team in whom we have the utmost confidence,” Mamedi and Zarringhalam said in a joint statement. “With these elements, we are confident that the company is well-positioned for future success.”
Technology
SpaceX will launch Starship for the sixth time this month
SpaceX will conduct its sixth flight test of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, on November 18, following the successful success of its previous mission lower than a month ago.
The high flight cadence is due partially to this success, which included the first-ever return of the super-heavy booster to the launch site – where massive baton-shaped arms extending from the launch tower caught it in mid-air – and a controlled goal splashdown after the suborbital flight of the spacecraft’s upper stage on Indian Ocean. This sixth test covers a lot of the same objectives; this fact prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to approve each Flight 5 and 6 at the same time last month. Up until this point, SpaceX had to attend (sometimes months) for regulatory approval before each Starship launch.
In post in your websiteSpaceX says it will attempt to copy the same successes on November 18, including catching the booster at the launch site and accurately splashing down the spacecraft. The company will also proceed to check the heat shield and re-entry maneuvers “to expand the capabilities of the ship and boosters and move closer to enabling the entire system to be brought back online.” The engineer also made plenty of system improvements, including greater redundancy in the boosters, propulsion system, updated software controls and other changes.
SpaceX will also try and re-ignite considered one of the six Raptor engines in orbit, which will be a key opportunity to reuse Starship’s upper stage. Engineers will also test this stage in one other way: the company will test recent secondary thermal protection materials. Additionally, as the company put it, “the craft will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, intentionally emphasizing flap control limitations to obtain data on future landing profiles.”
All of this testing will culminate in “significant improvements” to the craft starting with Flight 7, comparable to redesigned flaps, larger fuel tanks and state-of-the-art thermal protection.
The live test webcast will begin roughly half-hour prior to the 30-minute launch window at 2:00 PM Pacific Time and might be viewed on the X or SpaceX website. SpaceX says this late afternoon launch window (which opens at 4 p.m. local time in Texas) will provide higher viewing conditions once it re-enters orbit.
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