Daily Crunch: More details emerge in Twitter hack

Fallout continues from this week’s big Twitter hack, podcaster Harry Stebbings launches a small VC fund and robots help with sorting the mail. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 17, 2020.

The big story: More details emerge in Twitter hack

As we recapped in yesterday’s newsletter, a number of high-profile Twitter accounts were hacked earlier this week as part of what appeared to be a cryptocurrency scam. So how bad was it?

“We have no evidence that attackers accessed passwords,” the company said. “Currently, we don’t believe resetting your password is necessary.”

However, Twitter did not comment on whether hackers were able to access users’ direct messages. Senator Ron Wyden criticized the company for failing to end-to-end encrypt DMs: “While it still isn’t clear if the hackers behind yesterday’s incident gained access to Twitter direct messages, this is a vulnerability that has lasted for far too long, and one that is not present in other, competing platforms.”

The tech giants

Apple opens another megastore in China amid William Barr criticism — Apple opened a new store in Beijing’s upscale shopping district Sanlitun, doubling the size of the previous store in that location.

Federal court rules WhatsApp and Facebook’s malware exploit case against NSO Group can proceed — Last October, WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook filed a complaint alleging that NSO Group exploited an audio-calling vulnerability in the messaging app to send malware to about 1,400 mobile devices.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Give us your seed round and we will send back double — The latest episode of Equity discusses funding rounds for Macro, The Browser Company and LiteBoxer.

From Twenty Minute VC to 20VC, Harry Stebbings launches a micro VC off the back of his popular podcast — The plan for Stebbings’ new $8 million fund is to invest in U.S. startups across various stages alongside “tier 1” co-investors.

Marketing, PR and brand building, oh my! TechCrunch Early Stage goes down July 21 and 22 — At next week’s virtual event, we’ll hear from some of the world’s top minds in the fields of marketing and brand building.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Extension rounds help some startups play offense during COVID-19 — A recent flurry of extension rounds for hot startups like Stripe and Robinhood suggests that this investment type has suddenly become cool.

Former Spotify marketing exec-turned-VC Sophia Bendz on her love of early-stage investing — Bendz recently joined Berlin’s Cherry Ventures to focus on startups in the Nordic region.

Assessing the potential for a gig economy in education — Entrepreneur and investor Rish Joshi looks at platforms that could help teachers deliver more personalized learning.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

SpaceX and NASA targeting August 1 for Crew Dragon return trip with astronauts on board — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has been docked at the International Space Station since its first crewed launch in May. Now it’s getting ready to make its return trip.

FedEx is utilizing robotic arms to sort packages at a Memphis facility — In March, FedEx installed a quartet of robotic arms from Yaskawa America and Plus One, with the goal of helping to sort the massive numbers of parcels that pass through its Memphis facility.

Play the prologue of ‘Linda & Joan,’ a video game about the worst year of its creator’s life — The full game isn’t due until 2022, but you can get a peek at what a video game about grief might look like.

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