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Twitter Lays Off at Least 50 in Relentless Cost Cuts
Twitter has laid off dozens of employees in at least the eighth round of job cuts since he took over the social network in late October. The cuts aim to offset a decline in revenue following Musk's takeover and reduce the staff to around 2,000. The latest cuts impacted multiple engineering teams supporting advertising technology, the main Twitter app, and technical infrastructure. Musk's attempt to generate revenue from subscriptions has slowed, with only 180,000 people in the US paying for Twitter Blue. Musk has also been cutting costs by reducing vendor contracts and not paying bills, such as rent and the Slack bill, since the takeover. Twitter also hasn't paid vendors that help send SMS messages to users outside of the US, which may lead to the shutoff of those services.
Since Musk took over the company last October, at least 200 people, or around 10% of Twitter's workforce, have been laid off. One of those let go was product director Esther Crawford, who was responsible for Twitter's relaunched subscription product. Twitter's keystone product, Twitter Blue, has not performed as well as hoped, with the number of paying US subscribers reaching less than 0.2% of monthly active users two months after launch.
Microsoft Defender Will Soon Be A Lot Better At Stopping Corporate Cyberattacks
Microsoft 365 Defender has announced the public preview of "automatic disruption" features designed to stop ransomware and business email compromise (BEC) attacks. The features use "high-confidence Extended Detection and Response (XDR) signals" to automatically disable or restrict compromised devices and user accounts. The automatic response operates in three stages, and Microsoft claims that using XDR signals will ease concerns about automation. The aim is to contain active security attacks quickly and effectively, limiting the impact of ransomware and BEC attacks on target organizations. To combat cybercrime, businesses should train their employees on phishing dangers, set up a robust backup solution, and use antivirus, firewall, and multi-factor authentication best practices.
Americans Lost $8.8 Billion To Cyber Scams In 2022
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported $8.8 billion in fraud losses in 2022, a 30% increase from the previous year. Imposter fraud was the most commonly reported type, followed by online shopping, investment, and business and job opportunity scams. Investment scams had the largest financial losses, totalling $3.8 billion. The FTC advises consumers to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The Consumer Sentinel Network received over 5.1 million reports last year, suggesting that the US-wide figure could be even higher.
We Could Get Two More Apple AR/VR Headsets In 2025
According to well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a cheaper, 2nd-gen version of the AR/VR headset that Apple is rumoured to produce could be released in 2025. This comes after reports that the first-gen headset, expected to arrive this year or next, could cost around $3,000 or more. Kuo also suggests that the first-gen headset may be released alongside the iPhone 15 in September rather than earlier in the year, as previously thought. The headset is expected to mix AR and VR technology, with Kuo calling it an "AR/MR headset," with MR standing for mixed reality.