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Truecaller founders step down as spam blocker gains momentum

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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.”


This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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How the digital “you” can withstand your torturous online conference calls

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Now you can appear like you are on a Zoom call in your office, even whilst you’re sipping a margarita in a hammock far, far-off. Courtesy of a several-month-old startup called Marinadethe premise is easy: upload a five-minute training video of you creating an avatar, and 24 hours later you may seemingly be able to go. Do you ought to call from your automotive? This can be your secret. Too lazy to get away from bed? No problem. At the beach club? You’re probably pushing it, although judging by the demo video, that is not the only problem that should be solved. (The service is currently available in Basic, Standard and Professional versions, with prices starting from $300 to $1,150 per yr.)

The technology, backed by Los Angeles-based Krew Capital, currently only works with macOS, Pickle says, but a Windows version is anticipated next month. As for the conferencing apps that customers can pick from, they include Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, in keeping with Pickle. However, you should have to attend to make use of them. According to the website, “due to high demand, clone generation is currently delayed.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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‘Wolves’ sequel canceled because director ‘no longer trusted’ Apple

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It could also be hard to recollect, but George Clooney and Brad Pitt starred together within the movie “Wolves,” which Apple released just two months ago.

On Friday, the film’s author and director Jon Watts said Friday that the sequel is not any longer happening; IN one other interview for Deadlinehe explained that he “no longer trusts (Apple) as a creative partner.”

According to reports, the corporate limiting your film strategy. For example, “Wolfs” was imagined to have a giant theatrical release, but as an alternative it played in a limited variety of theaters for just per week before it landed on Apple TV+.

Watts, who also created the brand new Star Wars series “Skeleton Crew,” said Apple’s change “came as a complete surprise and was made without any explanation or discussion.”

“I was completely shocked and asked them not to tell me I was writing a sequel,” Watts said. “They ignored my request and announced it in their press release anyway, apparently to put a positive spin on their streaming axis.”

As a result, Watts said he “quietly refunded the money they gave me to continue” and canceled the project.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The Rise and Fall of the “Scattered Spider” Hackers.

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A statue of CrowdStrike’s action figure that represents the Scattered Spider cybercriminal group, seen at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in August 2024.

After greater than two years of evading capture following a hacking spree that targeted some of the world’s largest technology firms, U.S. authorities say they’ve finally caught a minimum of some of the hackers responsible.

In August 2022 security researchers made their information public with a warning that a bunch of hackers targeted greater than 130 organizations in a complicated phishing campaign that stole the credentials of nearly 10,000 employees. The hackers specifically targeted firms that use Okta, a single sign-on service provider that hundreds of firms around the world use to permit their employees to log in from home.

Due to its give attention to Okta, the hacker group was dubbed “0ktapus”. By now the group has been hacked Caesar’s entertainmentCoinbase, DoorDash, Mailchimp, Riot Games, Twilio (twice) and dozens more.

The most notable and severe cyber attack by hackers in terms of downtime and impact was the September 2023 breach of MGM Resorts, which reportedly cost the casino and hotel giant a minimum of $100 million. In this case, the hackers collaborated with the Russian-speaking ransomware gang ALPHV and demanded a ransom from MGM for the company to get better its files. The break-in was such a nuisance that MGM-owned casinos had problems with service delivery for several days.

Over the past two years, as law enforcement has closed in on hackers, people in the cybersecurity industry have been attempting to work out exactly tips on how to classify hackers and whether to place them in a single group or one other.

Techniques utilized by hackers similar to social engineering, email and SMS phishing, and SIM swapping are common and widespread. Some of the individual hackers were part of several groups chargeable for various data breaches. These circumstances make it obscure exactly who belongs to which group. Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has dubbed this hacker group “Scattered Spider,” and researchers imagine it has some overlap with 0ktapus.

The group was so energetic and successful that the US cybersecurity agency CISA and the FBI issued a advice in late 2023 with detailed details about the group’s activities and techniques in an try and help organizations prepare for and defend against anticipated attacks.

Scattered Spider is a “cybercriminal group targeting large companies and their IT helpdesks,” CISA said in its advisory. The agency warned that the group “typically engaged in data theft for extortion purposes” and noted its known ties to ransomware gangs.

One thing that is comparatively certain is that hackers mostly speak English and are generally believed to be teenagers or early 20s, and are sometimes called “advanced, persistent teenagers.”

“A disproportionate number of minors are involved and this is because the group deliberately recruits minors due to the lenient legal environment in which these minors live, and they know that nothing will happen to them if the police catch the child” – Allison Nixon , director of research for Unit 221B, told TechCrunch at the time.

Over the past two years, some members of 0ktapus and Scattered Spider have been linked to a similarly nebulous group of cybercriminals generally known as “Com” People inside this broader cybercriminal community committed crimes that leaked into the real world. Some of them are chargeable for acts of violence similar to robberies, burglaries and bricklaying – hiring thugs to throw bricks at someone’s house or apartment; and swatting – when someone tricks authorities into believing that a violent crime has occurred, prompting the intervention of an armed police unit. Although born as a joke, the swat has fatal consequences.

After two years of hacking, authorities are finally starting to discover and prosecute Scattered Spider members.

in July This was confirmed by the British police arrest of a 17-year-old in reference to the MGM burglary.

In November, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had indicted five hackers: Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, 23, of College Station, Texas; Noah Michael Urban, 20, from Palm Coast, Florida, arrested in January; Evans Onyeaka Osiebo, 20, of Dallas, Texas; Joel Martin Evans, 25, of Jacksonville, North Carolina; and Tyler Robert Buchanan, 22, from the UK, who was arrested in June in Spain.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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