Techlife News #536

The FBI has confirmed purchasing NSO Group’s powerful spyware tool Pegasus, whose chronic abuse to surveil journalists, dissidents and human rights activists has long been established. It suggested its motivation was to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft.” The agency added in a statement that it obtained a limited license from the Israeli firm “for product testing and evaluation only,” never using it operationally or to support any investigation. But critics wondered why the premier U.S. law enforcement agency would need to pay for access to a notorious surveillance tool that has been extensively researched by public interest cyber sleuths if its interest was so limited. “Spending millions of dollars to line the pockets of a company that is widely known to serially facilitate widespread human rights abuses, possible criminal acts,…

Newly renamed Meta is investing heavily in its futuristic “metaverse” project, but for now, relies on advertising revenue for nearly all its income. So when it posted sharply higher costs but gave a weak revenue forecast late Wednesday, investors got spooked — and knocked almost $200 billion off the valuation of the company formerly known as Facebook. Meta’s shares fell 22.9% to $249.05 in after-hours trading. If the drop holds until the market opens Thursday, the company’s overall value, known as its market capitalization, is on track to drop by a figure greater than the size of the entire Greek economy, based on data from the World Bank. The metaverse is sort of the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described it as…

Nintendo’s profit for the nine months through December slipped 2.5%, as shortages of computer chips hurt production, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Thursday. Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. recorded a 367 billion yen ($3.2 billion) profit for the period, down from 377 billion yen the previous year. Its sales in the same period fell 6% to 1.3 trillion yen ($11 billion). Game makers have reaped windfall profits from more people staying home during the pandemic. But sales of Nintendo Switch consoles had more momentum in the previous fiscal year, driven by its hit“Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Console sales are often driven by hit games, although the devices tend to sell better early on and then slowly decline in popularity. Nintendo cut its forecast for Switch console sales for…

Technology to hide a ship’s location previously available only to the world’s militaries is spreading fast through the global maritime industry as governments from Iran to Venezuela — and the rogue shipping companies they depend on to move their petroleum products — look for stealthier ways to circumvent U.S. sanctions. Windward, a maritime intelligence company whose data is used by the U.S. government to investigate sanctions violations, said that since January 2020 it has detected more than 200 vessels involved in over 350 incidents in which they appear to have electronically manipulated their GPS location. “This is out of hand right now,” Matan Peled, co-founder of Windward and a former Israeli naval officer, said in an interview. “It’s not driven by countries or superpowers. It’s ordinary companies using this technique. The…

Drivers, beware: Speed cameras could be on their way to a location near you thanks to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law. Under new federal guidance issued this week, states can now tap billions of federal highway dollars for roadway safety programs such as automated traffic enforcement. They are being told that cameras that photograph speeding vehicles are an established way to help bring down rising traffic deaths. It’s all part of the Transportation Department’s new national strategy to stem record increases in road fatalities with a broad-based “safe system” approach that promotes better road design, lower speed limits and more car safety regulations. The guidance by the Federal Highway Administration cites speed cameras in particular as a proven enforcement tool against hazardous driving. The Federal Highway Administration’s goal “is to help state and…

Last month, U.S. employers might have shed jobs for the first time in about a year, potentially raising alarms about the economy’s trajectory. Yet even if the January employment report coming Friday were to show a deep loss of jobs, there would be little mystery about the likely culprit: A wave of omicron infections last month that led millions of workers to stay home sick, discouraged consumers from venturing out to spend and likely froze hiring at many companies — even those that want to fill jobs. Reported omicron infections peaked at above 800,000 a day during the second week of January — precisely the period when the government measured employment for the month. A dismal jobs report would be a stark reminder that nearly two years after it began, the pandemic…