In a blog post on November 30, Coinbase sought to clarify its bug bounty program policies in response to the recent Uber data breach verdict. The company stated that it still welcomes “responsible” disclosure of security issues, but users who abuse this process will not be awarded bug bounties: “The key word in all of this is ‘responsible’. In the wake of the recent Uber verdict, there is a lot of concern in the industry about bug bounty submissions becoming extortion attempts. At Coinbase, [...] we’ve put a lot of thought into how we operate our bug bounty program to …

Uber is a staple of the gig economy, for better or worse, and a disruptor that once sent shockwaves throughout the mobility space. Now, however, Uber is being taken for a ride. The company is handling a reportedly far-reaching cybersecurity breach. According to the ride-hailing giant, the attacker has not been able to access sensitive user data, or at least, there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. Whether or not sensitive user data was exposed, this case points to a persistent issue with today’s apps. Can we continue to sacrifice our data — and thereby our privacy and security — …

Anybody who uses Airbnb knows that the company is resting on its laurels as the first mover in the home-sharing economy 1.0, but its dominance rests atop exploitation of the hosts and guests that are actually doing the sharing and creating the value. The guests pay too much and the hosts are paid too little. The resulting situation is akin to feudalism, rendering hosts as serfs who rent out their homes, keep things clean, deal with guests, and do the actual work. Yet the value derived from Airbnb’s peer-to-peer exchange goes directly to shareholders who are multiple steps removed from …

Chief executive officers at e-commerce firm Adyen and ridesharing and delivery app Uber are not following in Tesla’s Bitcoin footsteps just yet, but for different reasons. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said conversations about Bitcoin (BTC) as an investment for the tech firm have been “quickly dismissed.” Khosrowshahi was responding to a question as to whether the company would copy Tesla's example by setting aside a percentage of its investment portfolio into Bitcoin. “We’re going to keep our cash safe,” he said. “We’re not in the speculation business. The upside in our company …

A spokesperson claims “there is no merit” to allegations against former Uber Chief Security Officer Joseph Sullivan, who is now facing charges of obstruction of justice and misprision of a felony. The Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges Sullivan tried to conceal the theft of private information for roughly 57 million users in a hack of Uber. It accused Sullivan of taking “deliberate steps to conceal, deflect, and mislead” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by funneling a hush money payment of $100,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) through a bug bounty program. But in a statement to Cointelegraph, communications strategist Bradford Williams claimed …

Joseph Sullivan, a former Chief Security Officer at Uber, allegedly tried to cover up a 2016 hack of sensitive data by funneling a hush money payment of $100,000 in Bitcoin through a bug bounty program. The hackers had obtained the drivers’ license numbers of roughly 600,000 Uber drivers as well as private information for roughly 57 million users. According to an Aug. 20 announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Sullivan has been charged with obstruction of justice and misprision of a felony in connection with the 2016 hack. The former CSO is accused of taking “deliberate steps to …

Twitter vows to add more security training and measures as the fallout from Wednesday’s wide-scale hack on the social platform continues. Twitter said in a statement that it is continuing its investigation into the hack while it looks to provide more company-wide security training against social engineering tactics. This will be in addition to cybersecurity coaching they get during onboarding and ongoing phishing exercises. About 130 accounts were compromised on Wednesday when hackers took over prominent Twitter accounts in a Bitcoin hoax. Those compromised included Elon Musk, Kanye West, Bill Gates, former vice president and current presidential candidate Joe Biden, …

July 15 will go down as an infamous day for Twitter, as an unknown attacker managed to take control of a number of accounts on the social media platform before duping unwary users into a Bitcoin giveaway hoax. The event grabbed media attention, as some of the world’s most notable companies, politicians and business leaders had their accounts compromised before sharing similar messages touting a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway that required users to send coins to an address before receiving double that amount back. The likes of Tesla founder Elon Musk, former United States president Barack Obama, 2020 U.S. presidential candidate …

The sharing economy’s potential is massive, but firms in this burgeoning space often struggle to survive unless they have a sizeable war chest like Airbnb and Uber. Now, a new blockchain-based protocol says it is aiming to tear down unsustainably high barriers to entry that are stopping startups from flourishing. The TimeCoinProtocol provides a platform so that fledgling projects can build a sharing economy service. The team behind this new concept also believes it can solve some of the biggest challenges in the gig economy. Through the platform, users can sell “time tickets” — effectively tokenizing their business hours. These …

Today’s most successful entrepreneurs tapped into their wealth through startup technology companies such as Amazon, Oracle, Facebook and Microsoft. Just ask Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who continue to serve as the world’s tech leaders. Yet, the stage is still open for additional leaders to join this round table of sorts, and the invitation is floating throughout the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. With leaders such as Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, many cryptocurrency companies today are still hoping to capture the Silicon Valley promise: aiming to shift away from centralized businesses and transform existing …

United States-based payments startup Fold has made Lightning Network (LN) payments possible at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber and other big name retailers. The news was revealed in an official blog post published on July 10. As previously reported, the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network is a second-layer solution to bitcoin’s scalability limitations, opening payment channels between users that keep the majority of transactions off-chain, turning to the underlying blockchain only to record the net results. In its announcement, Fold reveals that participating selected retailers will settle users’ LN payments — denominated in satoshis, or one hundred millionth of one Bitcoin — via …

Facebook has allegedly sealed backing from over a dozen firms that include Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber for its soon-to-be-unveiled cryptocurrency project. The news was reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on June 13. Source ostensibly familiar with the matter told the WSJ that the firms — extending across the finance, e-commerce, venture capital and telecoms industries — have each invested around $10 million in a consortium that will govern Facebook’s forthcoming digital token, dubbed Libra. The WSJ’s sources reiterated details that had previously surfaced in regard to the highly secretive project, notably that the social media giant’s forthcoming …