Tips and tricks for all

In March, the virus gripping the world — COVID-19 — started to spread in Africa. In short order, actors across the continent’s tech ecosystem began to step up to stem the spread. Early in March Africa’s coronavirus cases by country were in the single digits, but by mid-month those numbers had spiked leading the World Health Organization to sound an alarm. “About 10 days ago we had 5 countries affected, now we’ve got 30,” WHO Regional Director  Dr Matshidiso Moeti said at a press conference on March 19. “It’s has been an extremely rapid…evolution.”  By the  World Health Organization’s stats Tuesday there were 3671 COVID-19 cases in Sub-Saharan Africa and 87 confirmed deaths related to the virus — up from 463 cases and 8 deaths on March 18. As the COVID-19 began to grow in major economies, governments and startups in Africa started measures to shift a greater volume of transactions toward digital payments and away from cash — which the World Health Organization flagged as a condui

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer : Zoom Windows client vulnerability could allow attackers to steal Windows login credentials of users who click on malicious links in chat messages   —  The Zoom Windows client is vulnerable to UNC path injection in the client's chat feature that could allow attackers to steal the Windows credentials of users who click on the link. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3azun9x

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet : Marriott discloses data breach from mid-January affecting 5.2M hotel guests, exposing personal contact information including mailing addresses and phone numbers   —  Marriott says a hacker gained access to the accounts of two employees.  —  Hotel chain Marriott disclosed today a security breach … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3dJW9SP

Just three months after capping what was the best year for Indian startups, having raised a record $14.5 billion in 2019 , they are beginning to struggle to raise new capital as prominent investors urge them to “prepare for the worst”, cut spending and warn that it could be challenging to secure additional money for the next few months. In an open letter to startup founders in India, ten global and local private equity and venture capitalist firms including Accel, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, and Matrix Partners cautioned that the current changes to the macro environment could make it difficult for a startup to close their next fundraising deal. The firms, which included Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners — some of the prominent names in India to back early-stage startups — asked founders to be prepared to not see their startups’ jump in the coming rounds and have a 12-18 month runway with what they raise. “Assumptions from bull market financings or even

Felix / @c1truz_ : [Thread] Security researcher finds Zoom uses a “shady” technique to install its Mac app without user interaction, applying tricks used by macOS malware   —  Ever wondered how the @zoom_us macOS installer does it's job without you ever clicking install? Turns out they (ab)use preinstallation scripts, manually unpack the app using a bundled 7zip and install it to /Applications if the current user is in the admin group (no root needed). https://twitter.com/... from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2QVz1qL

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica : Comcast's waiving of data caps has had little effect on internet speeds even as peak traffic increased 32%, giving lie to their stance that caps are needed   —  Pandemic shows Comcast could kill data caps forever without ruining its network.  —  Back in the before times … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/39vpcpJ

Wall Street Journal : Amazon's retail business has struggled to find its footing during the pandemic, as surging order volume has resulted in shortages, delays, and worker unrest   —  Tech giant faces overwhelming demand, mass absences and a restive workforce  —  On a mid-March midnight shift … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2yhFjua

Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire : Microsoft President Brad Smith calls Washington state's facial recognition law that regulates how public agencies use the tech a “significant breakthrough”   —  Microsoft President Brad Smith took a break from responding to the COVID-19 outbreak Tuesday to praise Washington state's landmark facial recognition regulations. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3dJgIP7

Steven Bertoni / Forbes : General Catalyst says it's raised $2.3B for a $600M early-stage fund, a $1B growth fund for companies with $10M+ in annual revenue, and a $700M “endurance fund”   —  Despite rollercoaster markets, historic unemployment claims, and an expanding national shutdown … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2QXQTkz

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet : Sources: Microsoft plans to make most public and some internal events digital-only through first half of 2021, including Ignite, Build, and Inspire conferences   —  Microsoft is moving to make most of its external (and some internal) events digital-only for its FY'21 in light of impacts of the coronavirus. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2UQ9yjJ

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Facebook expands its Community Help hub globally to allow people to request or offer help during the pandemic, first in US, Canada, UK, France, and Australia   —  Facebook first launched its Community Help feature in 2017, to give users a way to offer assistance, search for and receive help in the wake of a crisis. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2UvRGeY

Financial Times : A teardown reveals that Huawei's P40 phone contains several critical US parts, primarily RF chips; the US parts were made by Qualcomm, Skyworks and Qorvo   —  FT teardown of new smartphone identified US parts makers including Qualcomm and Skyworks  —  Huawei is still using components … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/340K3jH

Thomas Brewster / Forbes : Sources: Palantir is providing a tool for the CDC to check the readiness of hospitals and healthcare agencies amid the pandemic; the tool uses anonymized data   —  In the last week, staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started logging into a new web app. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2wV9Hds

Vericool , a Livermore, Calif.-based startup that’s replacing plastic coolers and packaging with plant-based products, has raised $19.1 million in a new round of financing. The company’s stated goal is to replace traditional packaging materials like polystyrene with plant-based insulating packaging materials. Its technology uses 100% recycled paper fibers and other plant-based materials, according to the company, and are curbside recyclable and compostable. Investors in the round include Radicle Impact Partners ,  The Ecosystem Integrity Fund ,  ID8 Investments  and  AiiM Partners , according to a statement. “We’re pleased to support Vericool because of the company’s track record of innovation, high-performance products, well-established patent portfolio and focus on environmental resilience. We are inspired by the company’s social justice commitment to address recidivism and provide workplace opportunity to formerly incarcerated individuals,” said Dan Skaff, managing partner of

Data science platform cnvrg.io today announced the launch of the free community version of its data science platform. Dubbed ‘CORE,’ this version includes most — but not all — of the standard feature in cnvrg’s main commercial offering. It’s an end-to-end solution for building, managing and automating basic ML models with limitations in the free version that mostly center around the production capabilities of the paid premium version and working with larger teams of data scientists. As the company’s CEO Yochay Ettun told me, CORE users will be able to use the platform either on-premise or in the cloud, using Nvidia-optimized containers that run on a Kubernetes cluster. Because of this, it natively handles hybrid- and multi-cloud deployments that can automatically scale up and down as needed — and adding new AI frameworks is simply a matter of spinning up new containers, all of which are managed from the platform’s web-based dashboard. Ettun describes CORE as a ‘lightweight versi