The past twelve months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken — it’s just a matter of finding it — and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially towards the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did before. Here we look back at the year that’s been, and what we learned along the way.
1. Ransomware costs businesses because of downtime, not ransom payments
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Wednesday that “blanket” vaccine booster shot programs could “prolong” the pandemic, as the United States urged citizens to get their third shots and Israel introduced a fourth dose.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said booster shot programs could extend the pandemic by “diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage,” allowing the coronavirus to spread and possibly mutate in countries where few citizens are vaccinated, according to CNBC.
The Streamlining EIDL Act is a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate to improve the application process of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) as well as combat fraud in the program. The goal is to simplify the process so small businesses can quickly and effectively get answers to their applications.
New Legislation Would Streamline EIDL Small Business Loan Application Process
The need to come up with such a bill speaks to the level of bureaucracy that exists when small business owners fill out their EDIL applications. According to Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), small businesses in his state are struggling to get the answers they need on their EIDL applications from the SBA.
Apple’s AirTags‘ potential as stalker tools have been taken full advantage of, based on stories that emerged over the past week. The reports come shortly after the company rolled out an Android app that allows users to detect unknown AirTags on their person.
Two such stories involve a man and a woman, both of whom reported AirTag trackers being detected on their cars. In the case of the former, it was likely done by car thieves in an attempt to steal the man’s Dodge Charger. According to the report from Fox 2 Detroit, this was just one of many cases in the past few months. The other report comes from a woman who discovered AirTags attached to the front wheel of her car after a night spent in a bar.
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. App Annie said global spending across iOS and Google Play is up to $135 billion in 2021, and that figure will likely be higher when its annual report, including third-party app stores in China, is released next year. Consumers also downloaded 10 billion more apps this year than in 2020, reaching nearly 140 billion in new installs, it found.
Kraft is using its cream cheese shortage as a marketing opportunity.
For just a few days this holiday season, a limited number of people will be able to spend $20 on dessert and charge it to Kraft, owner of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The premise: People who can’t bake cheesecakes because they can’t find cream cheese can get another baked good on Kraft’s dime.
For a brief moment, their worlds had changed.
On Tuesday afternoon a Coinbase “display issue” changed the balances of an untold number of customers’ accounts — making many of them billionaires in the process. Billionaires on paper, that is, because as Coinbase hastily pointed out in a statement on Twitter, no real trading was affected by the glitch.
“We’re aware some customers are seeing inflated values for non-tradable crypto assets on Coinbase.com and Coinbase Wallet,” read the Coinbase statement acknowledging the error. “This is a display issue only and does not impact trading.”
Americans will likely soon find it easier to do things like file taxes, renew their passport, manage student loans, change their address and more, as President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday that will improve customer service infrastructure across 17 federal agencies.
The order will direct government officials to “account for the experiences of the public in seeking government services” by making 36 customer service improvements across the federal government, according to a fact sheet released Monday.
The Biden administration won’t extend student loan relief and confirmed student loan payments restart February 1, 2022.
Here’s what you need to know.
With less than three weeks remaining in 2021, you still have the opportunity to get a piece of the $100 billion left in Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and grants. December 31 is the last day applications will be accepted for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Targeted EIDL Advance. And the Supplemental Targeted Advance applications must be turned in no later than December 10, 2021.
$100 Billion in SBA Loans and Grants STILL Available for Small Business
One of the benefits of applying for government loans is the great rates. As a small business with less than 500 employees, you can apply for an EIDL loan of up to $2 million. The loan comes with a 3.75% interest rate if you are a for-profit company. And if you are a not-for-profit organization, the rate goes down to 2.75%. What makes it even more attractive is, these are 30-year loans.
Dispatches From The Front 