A look at the Islamic world’s debate over cryptocurrencies, seen as gambling by some, as millions of people in Indonesia and the Middle East invest in crypto (Gerrit De Vynck/Washington Post)

Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post: A look at the Islamic world’s debate over cryptocurrencies, seen as gambling by some, as millions of people in Indonesia and the Middle East invest in crypto  —  Mu’aawiyah Tucker is a religious man.  Because the Koran forbids the practice of earning interest on loans, Tucker has for years […]

London-based Lendable, which connects global institutional investors with borrowers, raises £210M led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan at a £3.5B valuation (Harriet Agnew/Financial Times)

Harriet Agnew / Financial Times: London-based Lendable, which connects global institutional investors with borrowers, raises £210M led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan at a £3.5B valuation  —  Ontario Teachers’ investment in fintech group part of broader shift into private assets

Display analyst Ross Young expects Apple will release a 27-inch mini-LED display in June; Kuo says Apple “may not launch” mini-LED products in 2022 due to cost (Sami Fathi/MacRumors)

Sami Fathi / MacRumors: Display analyst Ross Young expects Apple will release a 27-inch mini-LED display in June; Kuo says Apple “may not launch” mini-LED products in 2022 due to cost  —  Apple plans to launch a “Pro” version of its new Studio Display in June of this year that measures 27-inches …

Study: Ice flow is more sensitive to stress than previously thought

The rate of glacier ice flow is more sensitive to stress than previously calculated, according to a new study by MIT researchers that upends a decades-old equation used to describe ice flow. Stress in this case refers to the forces acting on Antarctic glaciers, which are primarily influenced by gravity that drags the ice down […]

Eight more current and former PlayStation employees add their accounts of sexist treatment to a class action lawsuit filed against the company in November 2021 (Stephen Totilo/Axios)

Stephen Totilo / Axios: Eight more current and former PlayStation employees add their accounts of sexist treatment to a class action lawsuit filed against the company in November 2021  —  Eight more women, former and current employees at Sony PlayStation, have added their accounts of sexist treatment …

SoftBank’s Z Holdings plans to launch an NFT marketplace in 180 countries and double its fintech unit PayPay’s users to 90M, tapping a five-year ~$4.3B budget (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: SoftBank’s Z Holdings plans to launch an NFT marketplace in 180 countries and double its fintech unit PayPay’s users to 90M, tapping a five-year ~$4.3B budget  —  SoftBank Group Corp.’s Z Holdings Corp. unit is betting on non-fungible tokens and its PayPay service to drive growth …

Twitter tests labeling images with alt text with an “alt” badge, which will show an image’s description by clicking on it, rolling out globally in April (Mitchell Clark/The Verge)

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Twitter tests labeling images with alt text with an “alt” badge, which will show an image’s description by clicking on it, rolling out globally in April  —  A long-awaited accessibility upgrade  —  Twitter has announced that it’s testing new accessibility features …

Bengaluru-based Jiffy.ai, a B2B automation service, raises a $53M Series B led by Eight Roads Ventures, after raising an $18M Series A in June 2020 (Shashank Pathak/Entrackr)

Shashank Pathak / Entrackr: Bengaluru-based Jiffy.ai, a B2B automation service, raises a $53M Series B led by Eight Roads Ventures, after raising an $18M Series A in June 2020  —  B2B automation platform Jiffy.ai has raised $53 million in its Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures.

Biden will sign an EO instructing federal agencies to study the risks posted by digital assets, such as undermining sanctions, and investigate a digital dollar (Andrew Duehren/Wall Street Journal)

Andrew Duehren / Wall Street Journal: Biden will sign an EO instructing federal agencies to study the risks posted by digital assets, such as undermining sanctions, and investigate a digital dollar  —  Federal agencies to explore financial and environmental concerns and inform regulatory action

An in-depth look at Apple’s M1 Ultra: combines two M1 Max chips using UltraFusion, 800GB/second memory bandwidth, 64 GPU cores to exceed the RTX 3090, and more (Ryan Smith/AnandTech)

Ryan Smith / AnandTech: An in-depth look at Apple’s M1 Ultra: combines two M1 Max chips using UltraFusion, 800GB/second memory bandwidth, 64 GPU cores to exceed the RTX 3090, and more  —  As part of Apple’s spring “Peek Performance” product event this morning, Apple unveiled the fourth and final member of the M1 family of […]

Employment data startup Argyle launches a SaaS tool that lets companies access user-permissioned employment records and raises a $55M Series B led by SignalFire (Chris J. Preimesberger/VentureBeat)

Chris J. Preimesberger / VentureBeat: Employment data startup Argyle launches a SaaS tool that lets companies access user-permissioned employment records and raises a $55M Series B led by SignalFire  —  Having your updated and accurate personal and financial information under your control and ready to use at a moment’s notice …

SEC charges two siblings with defrauding investors out of $124M+ through their Ormeus Coin offering, alleging they acted as “modern-day snake-oil salesmen” (Mathew Di Salvo/Decrypt)

Mathew Di Salvo / Decrypt: SEC charges two siblings with defrauding investors out of $124M+ through their Ormeus Coin offering, alleging they acted as “modern-day snake-oil salesmen”  —  The “ground-breaking digital money system” Ormeus Coin was actually a scam, the SEC alleges.  —  In brief

AWS has stopped letting new customers in Russia and Belarus open accounts; AWS says its biggest customers in Russia are multinational firms with local dev teams (Karen Weise/New York Times)

Karen Weise / New York Times: AWS has stopped letting new customers in Russia and Belarus open accounts; AWS says its biggest customers in Russia are multinational firms with local dev teams  —  The policy change for Amazon Web Services started over the weekend but was not publicly announced until Tuesday.

Understanding the war in Ukraine

MIT’s Security Studies Program (SSP) presented a special seminar on March 2 entitled, “Understanding the War in Ukraine.” Over 100 alumni and affiliates in far-flung locations tuned in to hear the seminar during a livestream presentation, which featured commentary by four experts in this realm. Participants in the discussion included two MIT professors of political […]

Google plans to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant for around $5.4B, or $23 per share, with the deal closing later in 2022; Mandiant will join Google Cloud (Mandiant)

Mandiant: Google plans to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant for around $5.4B, or $23 per share, with the deal closing later in 2022; Mandiant will join Google Cloud  —  Acquisition to bring Google speed and scale to Mandiant’s unparalleled intelligence and expertise – at a time when security has never been more important

Linux developers fix Dirty Pipe, a high-severity vulnerability in the kernel that let hackers carry out a host of malicious actions, like installing backdoors (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Linux developers fix Dirty Pipe, a high-severity vulnerability in the kernel that let hackers carry out a host of malicious actions, like installing backdoors  —  Dirty Pipe has the potential to smudge people using Linux and Linux derivitives.  —  Linux has yet another high-severity vulnerability …

Axonius, which provides a cybersecurity asset management service that helps companies analyze IT resources, raises $200M at a $2.6B valuation led by Accel (Krystal Hu/Reuters)

Krystal Hu / Reuters: Axonius, which provides a cybersecurity asset management service that helps companies analyze IT resources, raises $200M at a $2.6B valuation led by Accel  —  Axonius has raised $200 million from investors led by venture capital firm Accel at a valuation of $2.6 billion …

Toward batteries that pack twice as much energy per pound

In the endless quest to pack more energy into batteries without increasing their weight or volume, one especially promising technology is the solid-state battery. In these batteries, the usual liquid electrolyte that carries charges back and forth between the electrodes is replaced with a solid electrolyte layer. Such batteries could potentially not only deliver twice […]

Apple suspends Search Ads in Russia, putting current and future App Store advertising campaigns on hold in the country “until further notice” (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Apple suspends Search Ads in Russia, putting current and future App Store advertising campaigns on hold in the country “until further notice”  —  Apple Inc. has suspended advertising on its App Store in Russia, a move that bars developers from placing ads in search results …

Cybersecurity firm Resecurity says hackers accessed 100+ computers of current and former staff at 21 major natural gas suppliers and exporters in mid-February (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Cybersecurity firm Resecurity says hackers accessed 100+ computers of current and former staff at 21 major natural gas suppliers and exporters in mid-February  —  In mid-February, hackers gained access to computers belonging to current and former employees at nearly two dozen major natural gas suppliers …

Instagram removes Boomerang and Hyperlapse from the App Store and Google Play, a week after Meta announced the company would shut down its IGTV app (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Instagram removes Boomerang and Hyperlapse from the App Store and Google Play, a week after Meta announced the company would shut down its IGTV app  —  A week after Instagram confirmed its plan to shut down its standalone IGTV app in order to better focus on initiatives, like Reels …

MIT community stands with Ukraine at candlelight rally

People from across MIT gathered outside the Student Center on March 3 for a candlelight rally to support MIT’s Ukrainian community and condemn attacks on Ukraine by Russian forces. “It was great to see so many people that I’ve never met before come together,” said Ukrainian third-year student Mariia Smyk. “It was such a powerful […]

Objection: No one can understand what you’re saying

Legal documents, such as contracts or deeds, are notoriously difficult for nonlawyers to understand. A new study from MIT cognitive scientists has determined just why these documents are often so impenetrable. After analyzing thousands of legal contracts and comparing them to other types of texts, the researchers found that lawyers have a habit of frequently […]

DDoS attacks are using TCP Middlebox Reflection, an amplification technique utilizing a fleet of 100K+ misconfigured servers to deliver large-scale attacks (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: DDoS attacks are using TCP Middlebox Reflection, an amplification technique utilizing a fleet of 100K+ misconfigured servers to deliver large-scale attacks  —  100,000 misconfigured servers are creating a new way to knock sites offline.  —  Last August, academic researchers discovered …

Current and former esports players and agents say many contracts are predatory, have time-based gimmicks, allow trading players without their consent, and more (Noah Smith/Washington Post)

Noah Smith / Washington Post: Current and former esports players and agents say many contracts are predatory, have time-based gimmicks, allow trading players without their consent, and more  —  Even as esports blossoms into a billion dollar industry, player contract negotiations are a veritable Wild West