The head of the National Security Agency made his case Thursday for lawmakers to keep a key NSA surveillance power intact ahead of a tough reauthorization battle this year.
The big picture: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire at the end of the year, jeopardizing a surveillance authority that allows intelligence agencies to collect warrantless online communications from foreign persons.
Illicit cryptocurrency activity hit an all-time high of $20.3 billion in 2022, according to initial estimates from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.
By the numbers: The new record high is mostly due to the growing number of crypto-related entities that the U.S. government sanctioned in 2022, per the report.
Criminal gangs are using a new method to guarantee a ransomware payout: They're ditching the part where they lock up a target firm's systems by encrypting them and are skipping straight to holding the company's precious data for ransom.
The big picture: As law enforcement attention on ransomware grows, gangs are constantly looking for less-flashy, but still efficient ways to keep their ransomware attacks going.
Android co-founder Rich Miner credits "Star Trek" for helping lead him to a career in tech and inspiring several products he created.
What's happening: As a way to pay tribute, Miner is now helping fund a sculpture honoring the show and Leonard Nimoy, the late actor who portrayed Spock.
A new era of short-form video is sweeping the internet, forcing every kind of creator — from podcasters to photographers and publishers — to adjust their media strategies.
Why it matters: There have never been so many opportunities to create content online, but business incentives are driving all kinds of creative individuals and enterprises to chase the same viral trends.
ChatGPT, the new artificial intelligence tool that can write remarkably cogent essays on any topic based on simple prompts, is sparking intense debates among educators about the nature and purpose of modern teaching methods — and how to sniff out plagiarists.
Why it matters: Some teachers foresee "a flood of cheating," while others envision a big opportunity to improve — and modernize — how writing is taught.
The effort to unionize workers at Boston-based Activision Blizzard studio Proletariat is becoming tense, with one worker at the studio telling Axios they feel “disillusioned” by the way their colleagues have sought to organize the team.
Why it matters: Disputes between workers and management have been an expected and recurring aspect of the game industry’s nascent unionization efforts — not so much disputes among the workers themselves.
Google filed a key defense brief Thursday in a Supreme Court case that could reshape the legal landscape for online publishers and services.
Driving the news: Google told the court that tampering with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects firms from liability for content their users post, would "undercut a central building block of the internet."
Social Capital, the VC firm led by Chamath Palihapitiya, has narrowed the scope of its new fundraise, according to a letter sent to prospective investors and obtained by Axios.
Details: The new plan is to size Fund V at around $1 billion with a focus on early-stage deals, versus prior plans to raise significantly more and to also back growth-stage companies and special opportunities.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was expected to arrive in Kyiv Thursday to visit employees, drivers, and government and relief agency partners.
The big picture: During the war, the company doubled its service footprint from nine cities to 18. Uber has 25,000 drivers currently working in Ukraine.
Amazon is turning into a logistics as a service provider, allowing merchants to use its Prime logistics without actually needing to sell on Amazon.
Why it matters: Its future growth, especially in terms of profits, could ride on its ability to manage inventory, warehouse, deliver and even process returns for other businesses.
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