Capital One Hack Exposes Data on 100M Credit Applicants
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| Capital One Hack Exposes Data on 100M Credit Applicants | |
| Number | 903 |
| Broadcast Date | JULY 30, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 4:42 |
| Hosts | Sarah Lane |
Huawei reports strong revenue despite political uncertainty, Sony and LG smartphone sales disappoint, Uber lays off 400 employees.
Headlines
- Capital One announced that a hacker had accessed about 100 million credit card applications some of which included Social Security and bank account numbers. Court records show the FBI arrested Paige Thompson, who previously worked at Amazon, and charged her with computer fraud and abuse. Capital One said the hack will cost the company between $100 million and $150 million in the near term, but the company says no credit card numbers or log-in credentials were compromised, and most Social Security numbers weren't affected.
- Google posted details of its upcoming Pixel 4 phone's top bezel. The bezel includes Soli which it says powers Motion Sense, allowing for gesture controls without touch. Google's Advanced Technology and Projects team developed Soli which works with radar. Motion Sense will be available in select countries, likely because it works in the 57-64 GHz frequency band, which Ars Technica points out, in the US required a special dispensation to lift power limitations on those bands. Along with Soli and a selfie cam are two face unlock cameras using Infrared and dot projection, similar to Apple's Face ID. Google says Soli lets the phone unlock as you're picking it up. Facial data never leaves the phone and isn't shared with other Google services. Same goes for Soli.
- And now, some earnings news. Huawei reported a 23.2% year-over-year increase in revenue for the first half of 2019, and said it shipped 118 million smartphone units for the period, a 24% jump compared to the same period last year. Total revenue hit 401.3 billion yuan ($58.26 billion) and in a press release, Huawei said its operations are “smooth” and that the “organization is as sound as ever.” In China specifically, Huawei held a 38.2% market share in the quarter ending in June, and 64% of smartphones that Huawei shipped for the quarter were in China according to a report from research firm Canalys.
- In Sony's latest earnings report, the company says it has sold 100 million PlayStation 4 units, making it the fastest-selling console to hit that number. Sony says it sold 3.2 million PS4s between March 31st and June 30th, after announcing that 96.8 million units had sold in the previous quarter, so it got to the 100 million figure two months quicker than Nintendo's Wii. Sony's smartphone revenue dropped by 15 percent over last quarter, which is also less than half the number of smartphones it sold during the same period last year, just 900,000 in total.
- It's a similar story with LG, which saw record second-quarter and first-half revenues and operating profit of $559.4 million thanks to strong home appliance sales, but its Mobile Communications division saw sales of $1.38 billion, a 21.3% drop compared with the same period last year, although an increase of 6.8% over the previous quarter. LG pointed to lagging demand across the whole sector and "continued aggressive pricing by Chinese brands."
- Nintendo announced that as of the end of June 2019, it's sold 36.87 million Switch units worldwide, with Super Mario Maker 2 selling 2.42 million units in just three days. Nintendo Switch sold 2.13 million units this past quarter, which is a 13.2% increase over the same period last year. Operating profit for this period dropped 10.2% year-over-year at 27.4 billion yen (~$252 million USD), although net sales were up 2.14% at 172.1 billion yen.
- The New York Times reports Uber laid off about one third of its marketing department across 75 global offices, which amounts to about 400 people, in order to cut costs and streamline operations following its May IPO which saw first quarter losses of $1 billion. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in an email to employees that was shared with TechCrunch that many of Uber's departments are “too big, which creates overlapping work, makes for unclear decision owners, and can lead to mediocre results.”
- The Fortnite World Cup Finals has a $3 million champ - 16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf (screen name: “Bugha”). The event drew 2 million concurrent live streams on Twitch and YouTube, and thousands of fans came to the event live at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. In the pairs competition, European duo Emil Bergquist Pedersen (“Nyhrox”) and David Wang (“aqua”) clinched the $3 million grand prize.
Links
| Preceded by: "Apple Reportedly to Release Three 5G iPhones in 2020" |
Capital One Hack Exposes Data on 100M Credit Applicants |
Followed by: "Apple Services Make Up iPhone Losses" |