Tag Archive for: Elon

After praising Moxie Marlinspike for Signal, Elon Musk and Twitter to partner with Signal for encrypted DMs- Technology News, Firstpost

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Mehul Reuben DasNov 23, 2022 12:44:04 IST

Elon Musk, when he took over Twitter, had envisioned that Twitter’s DM or Direct Messaging system would be one of the best in the world. In fact Musk had planned to revamp the way DMs function on Twitter and place it behind a paywall so that users can subscribe to a set of features.

In a recent all-hands meeting with the employees of Twitter, Musk reiterated the importance of encrypting DMs on Twitter, and how a former employee, Moxie Marlinspike wanted to work on the feature, but wasn’t really allowed to. He also said that “it should be the case that I can’t look at anyone’s DMs if somebody has put a gun to my head.”

Musk also praised Moxie Marlinspike and said that Twitter would not only start with encryption but eventually, become a better DMing platform than Signal. Musk also announced that Twitter will be partnering up with Moxie Marlinspike and a few people from Signal to work on their encrypted DMs.

Moxie Marlinspike, for those who are unaware, is one of the most prominent cryptographers and computer security researchers in the United States. After his exit from Twitter, he went on to co-found Signal, an end-to-end messaging platform that makes it impossible for snooping eyes to read or view messages or photos that are exchanged between a sender and a receiver.

Over the years, Twitter has kickstarted and then paused building encrypted DMs several times. But now Musk is set on rolling out encryption as a top priority for the vision he is calling Twitter 2.0. 

The first time around, it was Moxie Marlinspike himself who wanted to set up encryption for DMs on the platform. However, in 2013, he had to leave Twitter when the platform didn’t let him build the feature set. 

In 2018, Twitter again set out to set up encryption for DMs and had even bought a license to use Signal’s tech, but by 2019, Twitter reportedly had scrapped the idea again. 

American whistleblower Edward Snowden has reiterated his faith in the Signal app multiple times and says that he uses it every day. Snowden has been in favour of the Signal app since its inception and tweeted that he used…

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Hacker George Hotz, long a frenemy of Elon Musk, signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter • TechCrunch

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A lot has been made of Twitter’s shrinking workforce, which is reportedly at 2,300 people, down from the 7,500 employed by the company when new owner Elon Musk took control.

While we posited that the newest wave of departures was part of Musk’s master plan to shrink down the company, many worry about the haphazard ways it has been downsized. Insider reported on Friday, for example, that Twitter’s payroll department was decimated last week when employees who were given a stark ultimatum by Musk opted to bounce.

Still, Musk has plenty of supporters who want to help him improve Twitter, and he apparently just brought one into the fold on a short-term basis: George Hotz, the security hacker known for developing iOS jailbreaks and reverse engineering the PlayStation 3 before later founding Comma.ai, whose driver assistance system startup aims to bring Tesla Autopilot–like functionality to other cars.

Hotz definitely falls into the category of people-who-wouldn’t-be-on-your-remake-of-Twitter bingo board. Hotz founded Comma.ai after getting into a fight with Musk after Musk allegedly tried to hire him at Tesla but “kept changing the terms,” as Hotz told Bloomberg in 2015. At the time, Tesla said Hotz’s bold claims that his tech could beat that of Autopilot was “extremely unlikely.” Hotz promptly set out to prove Musk and the rest of Tesla wrong.

So why team up now? For one thing, Hotz has a little extra time on his hands. As TechCrunch reported early this month, Hotz considers that some of his own work at Comma.ai is done for the moment. It currently sells a $1,999 driver assistance system developer kit that is compatible on more than 200 vehicles; the company is also on solid ground as it looks to turn its devkit into a productized consumer product, he told TechCrunch.

The momentum gives him a little space to explore. “I’m good at things when it’s wartime,” Hotz told TechCrunch for that story. “I’m not so good at hands-on, ok, let’s patiently scale this up. ‘Do you want to deal with a supply chain that’s capable of making 100,000 devices a year?’ Like, not really.”

Hotz, now 33, may also want to again prove his mettle to Musk. Indeed, last…

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Bails on Starlink Funding for Ukraine

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Users of the cryptocurrency exchange Celsius are in danger. Last week, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, the company submitted a 14,500-page document that appears to contain the full names and recent transactions of its users. Typically private, this sensitive information ties people’s real-world identities to their once-anonymous cryptocurrency transactions, making them ripe targets for scammers and other criminals—and crypto-tracing investigators.

If you’re considering upgrading to the new Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, rest assured that Google put the phone’s security hardware through the wringer to make hacking the device as costly as possible. Not only that, the tech giant plans to roll out a built-in VPN for Android later this year.

For Windows 11 users, we walked through how to take advantage of Microsoft’s automatic phishing protection features. And for students and their parents, we explained exactly what to do to protect against school surveillance technology.

Finally, a Connecticut jury decided this week that Infowars host Alex Jones must pay nearly $1 billion in damages for defaming the families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the horrific scene. The historic jury award doesn’t change what “free speech” means in the United States, but it might make social media platforms rethink their disinformation strategies.

But that’s not all! Each week, we round up the news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.

SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink satellite internet service in war-torn Ukraine, according to documents obtained by CNN. More than 20,000 Starlink terminals have been donated to the country since Russia invaded in February, and the service has been a lifeline for Ukrainian military efforts. But the $120 million it will take to fund the service through the end of the year is too much for SpaceX, and the company has reportedly asked the Pentagon to pick up the bill going forward.

The move to pull funding comes at an inauspicious time for Elon Musk, SpaceX’s outspoken CEO. The leaked letter asking the Pentagon to…

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Twitter shareholders on verge of approving Elon Musk takeover

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All eyes on courts: Twitter shareholders on verge of approving Elon Musk takeover

Twitter shareholders are on the verge of approving Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover of the social media firm, putting all eyes on the ongoing court battle.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal that early shareholder votes suggest investors are keen to green light the deal, and votes are scheduled to take place at 1pm Eastern time today.

Musk is the company’s largest shareholder, with a roughly 10 per cent stake, and could, in theory, vote on the matter.

However, insiders told the publication that this was unlikely considering the legal battle taking place in court.

The billionaire’s legal team recently called for the trial, which is scheduled for October, to delayed, citing recent whistleblower claims about the company’s practices.

Twitter’s former head of security Peiter Zatko said in a complaint to US regulators in June that Twitter had falsely represented its data security plans.

In his complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he accuses Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating the agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold security standards.

Musk’s lawyers are using the whistleblower’s claims to suggest that Twitter had made a number of violations to its buyout agreement with the Tesla founder.

Speaking at a hearing in Delaware, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said: “Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?”

Meanwhile, Twitter said Zatko’s allegations were a “false narrative”.

As reported by Bloomberg, Twitter noted that the bots issue, which has been a major point of contention for Musk, wasn’t a part of Zatko’s “portfolio” of work, stating that he oversaw computer-security issues instead.

Musk has suggested that as many as a third of Twitter’s users could be bots, misleading his team when the deal was first agreed earlier this year.

Zatko is due to speak at a US Senate hearing later today over supposed security concerns.

These factors are key driver for the world’s richest man’s countersuit against…

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