There were several privacy/security events disclosed over the last week that continues the conversation about how our data is secured…
Google stored passwords in plain text for over a decade, Snapchat employees spied on users, and a real estate company leaked 885 million real estate documents to the web.
Huawei is a good example of what happens to a company that the US government does not trust. Could this be the first draft of a playbook, or is Huawei unique in their punishment?
Acquisitions/Investments
- As Amex scoops up Resy, a look at its history of acquisitions
In addition to Resy, AmEx has been on a buying spree as of late. In March, we reported on its purchase of LoungeBuddy, a former partner that helped travelers with reviews of various airport lounge areas. Also this year, AmEx picked up Pocket Concierge, a firm that we wrote “helps book in-demand restaurants and is similar to OpenTable.”
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/19/as-amex-scoops-up-resy-a-look-at-its-history-of-acquisitions/
Cloud
- As Oracle’s growth stagnates, insiders say that its all-important cloud business has suffered layoffs, infighting, and confusion
But the interesting thing isn’t just how many people Oracle is cutting. It’s also the business units being targeted.
Specifically: 300 people were cut from Oracle’s Seattle offices in the early rounds of layoffs, including 25% of of the all-important group known internally as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, one employees told us and another, who was laid off in Seattle, confirmed. Corporations do not have to report layoffs in the state of Washington unless 500 people are impacted in a single location at one time, and Oracle has not publicly reported layoffs in the state.
This Seattle team is Oracle’s second cloud engineering and development group, but arguably its most important one. Its mission is to build what Oracle calls its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Generation 2 cloud, which is also known internally as OCI. The new cloud has become the centerpiece of Oracle’s whole technology strategy. Gen 2 was announced in the fall.
https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-insiders-describe-slow-growth-chaotic-cloud-unit-2019-5
- An Amazon employee explains why thousands of workers want the company to stop selling cloud services to oil companies, just like it won’t sell guns
Amazon employees submitted a shareholder proposal and held a press conference calling for the company to become a leader in sustainability by vowing to quickly reduce its carbon footprint in line with recommendations by climate scientists.
They also want their company to ditch the unit that sells cloud computing services to oil and gas companies.
Their efforts seem to be having an impact, as Amazon has finally promised to share its carbon-footprint data and to reduce the impact of its massive shipping operations.But one leader of the employee protest explains that thousands of employees don’t think Amazon is doing all it can, and haven’t given up the fight.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employee-explains-climate-change-protest-2019-5
Security/Privacy
- Snapchat employees reportedly snooped on users with ‘SnapLion’ tool
In total, Motherboard spoke to four former employees and a current employee that verified the existence of the SnapLion tool. Two former employees said that the abuse of the SnapLion tool occurred “several years” ago, but it’s unknown whether it’s still happening today. Emails obtained by Motherboard revealed an employee using the tool to look-up a user email address in a non-law enforcement related context. Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request from Engadget for comment.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/23/snapchat-employees-spied-snaplion-tool/
- Amazon under greater shareholder pressure to limit sale of facial recognition tech to the government
Months earlier, shareholders tabled a resolution to limit the sale to law enforcement and government agencies Amazon’s facial recognition tech, called Rekognition. It followed accusations of bias and inaccuracies with the technology, which they say can be used to racially discriminate against minorities. Rekognition, which runs image and video analysis of faces, has been sold to two states so far, and Amazon has pitched Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A second resolution will require an independent human and civil rights review of the technology.
Now the ACLU is backing the measures and calling on shareholders to pass the resolutions.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/amazon-shareholder-pressure-face-recognition/
- Google says some G Suite user passwords were stored in plaintext since 2005
The search giant disclosed the exposure Tuesday but declined to say exactly how many enterprise customers were affected. “We recently notified a subset of our enterprise G Suite customers that some passwords were stored in our encrypted internal systems unhashed,” said Google vice president of engineering Suzanne Frey.
Passwords are typically scrambled using a hashing algorithm to prevent them from being read by humans. G Suite administrators are able to manually upload, set and recover new user passwords for company users, which helps in situations where new employees are on-boarded. But Google said it discovered in April that the way it implemented password setting and recovery for its enterprise offering in 2005 was faulty and improperly stored a copy of the password in plaintext.
Google has since removed the feature.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/google-g-suite-passwords-plaintext/
- First American security flaw leaked 885 million real estate documents
First American Financial Corporation left as many as 885 million real estate documents dating as far back as 2003 exposed, according to Krebs on Security. The company, one of the largest real estate title insurance firms in the US, has already fixed the vulnerability as of Friday afternoon after the security researcher notified it of the flaw. Before the patch rolled out, however, anybody armed with a link to one of the documents hosted on its website could simply change a single digit in the URL to access somebody else’s files. The documents didn’t require a password or any kind of authentication.
Software/SaaS
- Google suspends Huawei’s Android support
Reuters sources claim Google has suspended transactions with Huawei that require transferring proprietary hardware and software, hobbling much of its smartphone business outside of China. It “immediately” loses access to future OS updates beyond the Android Open Source Project, according to the insider, and upcoming phones would have to go without official apps like the Google Play Store and Gmail.
The company is still “internally” discussing which services are going away, the source said. Google would cut off all tech support and collaboration for Android and services, however.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/19/google-pulls-android-support-from-huawei/
- Microsoft, once considered a stodgy software maker, has outperformed tech unicorns since 2015
For example, ride-hailing company Uber was valued at $55 billion at the time, and is now only at $68 billion following its IPO this month. Investors valued Snap at $16 billion in late 2015, and the company’s inability to find a profitable business model since its 2017 IPO has left it worth $15 billion on the public market. Pinterest went public in April and has a market cap of $12.9 billion, up just a bit from its $11 billion valuation in 2015. Dropbox has slipped from $10 billion then to a market value of $9.4 billion now.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is cranking out earnings from its dominant Windows products and its ability to push legacy clients to emerging cloud products like Azure and Office 365. Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has recorded eight straight quarters of year-over-year double-digit sales growth. In April, it became the third public company to reach a $1 trillion market cap, though it’s fallen some since then.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/25/microsoft-has-grown-more-than-a-basket-of-unicorns-since-2015.html
Infrastructure/Hardware
- Microsoft and Sony strike partnership for gaming and AI services
“The two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Sony’s existing game and content-streaming service will also set to be powered by Microsoft Azure in the future. The companies also hope to build better development platforms for the content creator community.
On top of this, the Microsoft and Sony will work together on AI, semiconductor and image sensing technology.
https://www.gigabitmagazine.com/ai/microsoft-and-sony-strike-partnership-gaming-and-ai-services
- China’s largest chipmaker is delisting from the Nasdaq
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) announced in a filing published Friday that it plans to delist next month ending a 15-year spell as a public company in the U.S. The firm will file a Form 25 to delist on June 3, which is likely to see it leave the NYSE around ten days later. SMIC, which is backed by the Chinese government and state-owned shareholders, will focus on its existing Hong Kong listing going forward but there will be trading options for those holding U.S-based ADRs.
In its announcement, SMIC said it plans to delist for reasons that include limited trading volumes and “significant administrative burden and costs” around the listing and compliance with reporting.
Other
- With Barry Padgett leaving SAP, what’s next for new Intelligent Spend Group?
Barry Padgett has left SAP only weeks after being named president of the newly created SAP Intelligent Spend Group (ISG), a combination of SAP Ariba, SAP Concur and SAP Fieldglass.
Padgett had previously served as president of SAP Ariba, before being promoted to the new role as leader of the combined group. Spend Matters sources suggest he has accepted a new role as chief revenue officer for Stripe, a payments company, although this is unconfirmed at this time.
https://spendmatters.com/2019/05/21/barry-padgett-leaving-sap-and-new-intelligent-spend-group/
- Ford will slash 7,000 salaried jobs by August
This cuts will result in annual savings of about $600 million, Hackett said in the email. “We also made significant progress in eliminating bureaucracy, speeding up decision making and driving empowerment as part of this redesign,” he wrote.
The layoffs were anticipated by employees. Ford informed employees last October that it would be restructuring the company, a move that would likely result in layoffs and voluntary buyouts.
The reorganization is part of a broader strategy to prepare for a future with autonomous vehicle technology, electrification and unconventional ownership models.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/ford-will-slash-7000-salaried-jobs-by-august/
- Hertz-Accenture lawsuit highlights billing issues inside agencies
“This disagreement is less an indictment of the consultant model and more of a wake-up call to slow down and do a better job scoping a project,” wrote Mark Bachmann, partner and chief client officer at independent agency Marcus Thomas in an email.
Clients have been looking more closely at agency billings, which has resulted in the further splintering of agency-client relationships. Some of that has been a direct result of the issue at play in this suit: that the rise of digital means the old model of scoping a project and therefore deciding the payment plan simply doesn’t work anymore. As Digiday previously wrote, making 10 YouTube videos isn’t the same as making one TV spot.
This suit and the disagreement between Accenture and Hertz are likely part of that trend, a sign that the change clients were looking for in the move from agencies to consultancies may not be as great as they had anticipated.
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash