Major partners in Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency group including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are considering withdrawing their support, according to an unconfirmed report published today. The Wall Street Journal reported that the two main credit card providers along with “other financial partners” were reconsidering their involvement because of the backlash against the proposed cryptocurrency by ...

A former Yahoo Inc. employee has pleaded guilty to hacking into more than 6,000 Yahoo personal accounts as well as gaining access to Google LLC, Facebook Inc. and iCloud accounts in search of sexual images and video. Reyes Daniel Ruiz, 34, from Tracy, California, worked as a reliability engineer at Yahoo for more than 10 ...

Passwordless security startup HYPR Corp. today said it has raised $18.3 million in new funding to help fuel growth, accelerate product delivery and expand its customer operations. The Series B round was led by Comcast Ventures and included .406 Ventures, RRE Ventures, Allen & Co, Triphammer Ventures, Mastercard and Samsung NEXT. As part of the deal, Dave Zilberman, ...

The details of 218 million users of “Words with Friends,” a popular social game made by Zynga Inc., have allegedly been stolen by a Pakistani hacker. Gnosticplayers, the same hacker behind the theft of 139 million user records from Canva Pty. Ltd. in May and 93 million user records for a variety of sites in March, ...

Risk-based vulnerability cybersecurity startup Kenna Security Inc. today said it has raised $48 million in new funding to accelerate its international expansion and drive product development. The Series D round included Sorenson Capital and Citi Ventures as new investors, with previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Costanoa Ventures, Hyde Park Angels and OurCrowd also participating. As part ...

Block.one, the blockchain firm that raised a record-breaking $4 billion in an initial coin offering last year, today agreed to pay a $24 million fine in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over having run two ICOs without registration. According to the SEC, Block.one’s two ICOs, the first in July 2017 that raised ...

Microsoft Corp. made its Azure-based Windows Virtual Desktop service generally available globally today, delivering on a promise it first made in December. WVD allows enterprises to give their employees access to virtualized applications and remote desktops anywhere, anytime. The service is designed to support Windows 10 with optimizations for Office 365. In addition, the service ...

Venezuela’s central bank is looking into ways to hold bitcoin and Ethereum and use them for financial transactions, according to sources quoted by Bloomberg late last week. The push is said to be coming from state-run oil company Petroloeos de Venezuela SA, which wants support for cryptocurrencies to pay the company’s suppliers. Socialist Venezuela is subject to numerous ...

German police have arrested seven people following a raid on an illegal data center in a former NATO military bunker that was hosting “dark web” sites promoting illegal content. The raid, which took place in the town of Traben-Trarbachsaw, saw the arrest of the owner of the bunker, an unnamed 59-year-old Dutchman and six others with ...

Commercial real estate-focused artificial intelligence startup Okapi today said it has raised $5.5 million in funding to expand its headcount and marketing. The Series A round was led by Marius Nacht, the co-founder and chairman of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Founded in 2017, Palo Alto, California-based Okapi uses AI and machine learning to “help major ...