U.S. jobless claims fall / Nike reports 22% drop in net income / Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia joins Tesla’s board

Plus, Senate approves stopgap bill to fund government.

Inside.com Part of   Network September 29, 2022

U.S. jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 193,000 last week from 209,000, a 16,000 drop, its lowest level since late April. Claims on a four-week moving average fell by 8,750 to 207,000, and continuing claims, the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment benefits, fell to 1.35 million in the week ended Sept. 17, down from 1.38 million. More: The U.S. economy appears to remain strong despite fears of a recession. Revised data from the prior week show jobless applications were 4,000 fewer than previously reported. Economists had forecast jobless claims of 215,000 for the week ended Sept. 24. At the end of July, there were 11.2 million job openings in the U.S., averaging about two jobs for every unemployed person. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in August from 3.5% reported in July. Last week the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.75% to a range of 3% to 3.25%. The Fed has signaled more rate hikes this year as it tries to bring down inflation to its 2% target.

Russia's foreign ministry said the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines occurred in a territory entirely under U.S. intelligence agencies' control. The leak was detected days ago off the coasts of Denmark and Sweden. The pipelines connect Russia to Europe and run across the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany.   More: Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said damage to the pipelines occurred in Denmark's and Sweden's trade and economic zones, which are NATO-affiliated countries. Denmark is a member of the NATO military alliance. Sweden applied to join NATO in May, and its membership is pending. Russia said the leaks appeared to be the result of state-sponsored terrorism and said the U.S. stands to benefit from the damage to the pipelines. Zakharova added that the U.S. would be able to increase its liquefied natural gas sales if the pipelines were out of commission. The EU is investigating the cause of the leaks and has pointed to sabotage as the culprit. On Thursday, NATO formally blamed the leaks on sabotage and noted that attacks on its members' infrastructure would be met with a collective response from the military alliance.

Nike released its Q1 FY 2023 earnings on Thursday, slightly beating expectations. The sports shoes and apparel maker reported $12.7B in revenue, up 4% YoY. Net income came in at $1.5B, or 93 cents a share, down 22% YoY. Nike said its inventory increased 44% to $9.7B compared to the same period last year. More: Nike pointed to ongoing supply chain volatility for the increase in inventory but noted it was offset by strong consumer demand. North America sales rose 13% in the quarter to $5.51B. North America is Nike’s largest market. EMEA sales were $3.33B, up 1% YoY. Great China sales fell 16% to 1.66B; Nike pointed to China’s COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. Asia Pacific & Latin America rose 5% to $1.54B. Nike shares fell more than 10% in extended trading on Thursday. It closed at $95.33. Nike shares are down over 40% YTD.

Germany unveiled a €200B (~$196.4B) package to support businesses and consumers battling rising energy costs. It is the largest aid package adopted by a European government since the start of the energy crisis. The aid is financed by new borrowing and directed through the reactivated Economic Stabilization Fund. More: Germany set up the Economic Stabilization Fund in 2020 to support businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic-imposed lockdowns and shutdowns. The new €200B package is meant to offset record-high energy costs as Europe prepares for the winter months. The surge in energy prices is fueled by the shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Russia cut off gas flows through the pipeline on Sept. 1, citing needed maintenance. Germany has accused Russia of weaponizing its energy exports following the war in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which connect Russia to Europe, means that gas would not be delivered from Russia for the foreseeable future.

Several business groups have sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) over a recent policy by the agency to dissuade potential discrimination in banking services. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Bankers Association, and several other trade groups filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Texas to prevent the CFPB from looking for discriminatory behavior when conducting routine examinations of financial firms. More: The groups claim the CFPB is overstepping its authority by noting that discrimination in offering financial services could trigger liability under a law that prohibits “unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices” in consumer finance. The groups claim that the agency implemented the new policy through changes to its examination manual rather than by proposing a rule and seeking public comment. The group claims that was the process the CFPB should have followed. CFPB spokeswoman Allison Preiss said the agency’s exam manuals allow banks to ensure they are following the law and help ensure that consumers receive the fair and equitable treatment they deserve. CFPB voluntarily publishes its examination manuals for the sake of transparency. Federal statutes prohibit discrimination in lending based on race, religion, sex, or other factors. However, in the case of other financial products, such as bank accounts, the law isn’t clear if it applies.

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has joined Tesla’s board of directors. According to Tesla, Gebbia waived any entitlement to cash compensation and joined the remainder of the board in waiving immediate equity compensation until July 2023. More: Gebbia co-founded Airbnb in 2008 with Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk. In July, he stepped down from his full-time role at Airbnb and transitioned to an advisory role at the company. The addition of Gebbia to Tesla’s board brings the company’s board seats back to eight after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison didn’t stand for re-election. Ellison’s term expired at the company’s annual meeting in August.

Quick Hits Build a real estate investment portfolio you won't lose sleep over when you use Doorvest.* Russia plans to annex four regions in south-eastern Ukraine. Last weekend Russia held a vote in parts of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are under its control, and claims locals voted 99% in favor of joining Russia. The Senate voted 72 to 25 to pass a funding bill to prevent a partial government shutdown. The government's current fiscal year is set to expire Friday night. The approved legislation also included new aid for Ukraine. LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter have joined a group of investors, which includes NBA players Draymond Green and Kevin Love, investment firm SC Holdings, and Relevent Sports Group co-owner and CEO Daniel Sillman, to purchase a Major League Pickleball team. MacKenzie Scott, a renowned philanthropist and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has filed for a divorce from her second husband, Dan Jewett. Scott and Jewett got married last year in California. Scott and Bezos have four children. *This is a sponsored post.

Upcoming Events October 04 - Webinar: Shrink the Attack Surface (Register Here) * October 05 - AMA with Ram Bartov (Chief Accounting Officer at TripActions)* (Register Here) October 11 - AMA with Mike Malone (Smallstep)* (Register Here) October 19 - AMA with Zecca Lehn (Responsibly VC) (Register Here) October 25 - Meet Our Fund 4, an Inside.com Summit (Register Here) November 02 - AMA with Bill Glenn (Executive Chairman at Crenshaw Associates) (Register Here) December 07 - Live AMA with Deividi Silva ( Head of Developer Relations at Gun.io) (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

Vanessa Omeokachie is a Freelance Writer for Inside.com. She writes the Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, exploring cities, and traveling.  Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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New hacker group named Royal Operation tracked / Swachh City platform hacked, 16M affected / Brave Browser to block cookie notifications

Plus: Report claims crypto hackers make $1 for every $53 they cost their victims

Inside.com Part of   Network September 29, 2022

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A new ransomware group named Royal Operation has been tracked by security researchers. The group is believed to have ties with numerous hacker groups that are now defunct. More: The group is believed to have been formed in January 2022. Researchers claim that the group uses phishing and social hacking as threat vectors. The group has created fake landing pages that lead users to believe they are renewing subscriptions for popular apps. The victims are advised to call a number, after which false help desk agents convince the victims to download a remote access software. Once the hackers gain access, they use tools such as Cobalt Strike to breach security walls, gain admin privilege credentials, and steal data.  Royal Operation reportedly asks for $250,000-$2M as ransom and uses TOR to communicate with the victims. While many details and even the legitimacy of these claims are not known yet, researchers advised enterprise admins to raise their awareness regarding this hacking campaign.

The Swachh City platform has been hacked by a threat actor tracked as LeakBase. The cyberattack has led to 16 million users having their data stolen. More: Swachh City is a platform where citizens in India send their complaints regarding issues that affect their daily local life. Information stolen from hackers includes: usernames, email addresses, password hashes, mobile numbers, last logged-in times, and IP addresses. Researchers believe that 101,718 unique email addresses and 15,835,111 unique mobile numbers have been breached. The platform is currently shut down, while authorities in India have not given a lot of details regarding the incident. Security researchers stated that the news regarding this cyberattack is likely authentic and that the campaign has been active since March 2022. Leakbase is also known as Chucky, Chuckies, Sqlrip, etc.

A message from SECURITY COMPASS Current approaches to software threat modeling simply don’t work. They are manual, inconsistent, take too long, don’t scale, and don’t give developers what they need. When software security and compliance are considered more as an afterthought, rather than a vital step in the development process, organizations end up trying to remediate security and compliance issues after software has been written, rather than preventing issues in the first place. Here you can find a series of posts breaking down how you can anticipate threats earlier in the software development life cycle to create more secure and compliant software. Empower DevSecOps teams to make software secure and compliant by design through automating threat modeling, generating application security requirements, and providing secure development and compliance best practices. The SD Elements platform is the best solution for organizations who need to scalably model software threats, identify countermeasures, and deliver secure, compliant code quickly. Get the whitepapers

Brave Browser has announced that it will soon offer the ability to block cookie agreement notifications from popping up on users' screens, aiming to protect their privacy. The browser will deny agreeing with the cookie requirements rather than use auto-consent. More: The company stated that this feature will be optional and that users will be asked permission to activate it. Brave Browser's latest feature will be available in version 1.45, which is expected to be released in October. Those who use Brave Nightly, a version of the browser that automatically is updated with all of the latest changes from the company, already have this feature. Once released, the browser will block cookies for desktop and Android, while iOS cookies will be blocked later on.

According to a new report, crypto-hackers make $1 for every $53 they cost their victims in extra expenses. The statistics are published as cryptojacking has become more prevalent than ever. More: The report is based on a deep-dive analysis made about TeamTNT, a threat actor involved in numerous hacking campaigns. This threat actor had $8,210 in several crypto wallets. The hacking campaigns conducted by the group to steal these funds cost its victims over $400,000 in extra cloud expenses. Besides software spending, these hacking campaigns can become a burden for hardware devices that have to process large amounts of data, causing them to break down. Once all these expenses are factored in, the researchers calculated hackers make $1 for every $53 they cost the victims they breach. Cloud and containers are two of the most targeted segments by hackers.

A message from QUANTUM Avoid Paying a Ransom - Get the Ultimate Backup Guide Before You Need It Paying a ransom may sound like the best case scenario: get your data back, make your customers feel worth it. But actually, it can affect your business in other ways and may, in some cases, be illegal. Make sure your systems are protected across the entire data lifecycle - and never pay a ransom again. You’re able to balance cost while maximizing efficiency. No one can stop ransomware or fully prevent it from taking place - but you can make sure you’re protecting your customers and your data by ensuring that there is a fully air-gapped solution. Request A Demo

Cybersecurity startup Onyxia has raised a $5M Seed round. The company is based in New York City. More: World Trade Ventures led the round, with participation from Silvertech Ventures. The company offers a platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to provide real-time data about different security KPIs. Companies can customize the platform so that it measures the KPIs the company believes are the most important. The company was founded by a former Israeli Defense Force member and is based in Israel.

Quick Hits: Build a real estate investment portfolio you won't lose sleep over when you use Doorvest.* A new malware that targets military contractors has been tracked. The malware targets, among others, F-35 fighter aircraft suppliers. A hacker group known for breaching ATMs and stealing credit card information has resurfaced. The Brazil-based threat actor has been inactive for over a year. Hackers continue to use the GO programming language as their first language of choice for creating malware, as the newly tracked Chaos malware is written in GO. The malware, which attacks Windows and Linux, has quadrupled in size in a short time. Cisco Talos, a cybersecurity company, has announced a new finding. The company has detected a hacking campaign that uses Cobalt Strike attacks to penetrate security protocols and hibernate. The malware could then be activated and deployed at a later period. *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming events at Inside: October 04 - Webinar: Shrink the Attack Surface (Register Here) * October 05 - AMA with Ram Bartov (Chief Accounting Officer at TripActions)* (Register Here) October 11 - AMA with Mike Malone (Smallstep)* (Register Here) October 19 - AMA with Zecca Lehn (Responsibly VC) (Register Here) October 25 - Meet Our Fund 4, an Inside.com Summit (Register Here) November 02 - AMA with Bill Glenn (Executive Chairman at Crenshaw Associates) (Register Here) December 07 - Live AMA with Deividi Silva ( Head of Developer Relations at Gun.io) (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

Security Compass is on a mission to accelerate software time-to-market while managing risk.

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