🕵️♂️ Chinese Hackers, Telegram's Crypto Allies & Xpeng's $22K EV
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 28. Today we are covering:
Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy
Telegram's Loudest Defender: The Global Crypto Industry
Chinese EV maker Xpeng unveils $22,000 car with self-driving features
What Mark Zuckerberg really said - and didn't say - in that letter to Congress
Meta nixed custom chip efforts for upcoming AR glasses
Let’s dive in
Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy
By Joseph Menn via Washington Post
Chinese government-backed hackers have infiltrated major U.S. internet service providers to spy on users, targeting government and military personnel.
The attacks exploited zero-day vulnerabilities and included DNS manipulation, indicating a high level of sophistication and strategic intent.
The Chinese Embassy denies state involvement, claiming that U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity firms are fabricating evidence.
𝕏: Security researchers say they found evidence that Chinese government-linked hacking group Volt Typhoon used a zero-day to target ISPs in the U.S. and India. The goal was to steal the credentials of the ISPs downstream customers. - Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb)
Telegram's Loudest Defender: The Global Crypto Industry
By David Yaffe-Bellany via The New York Times
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested in France, sparking strong support from the crypto industry which heavily relies on the app for communication and deal-making.
Telegram is a critical tool for crypto entrepreneurs, hosting large group chats for marketing, crisis management, and high-stakes financial negotiations, including during the collapse of firms like Three Arrows Capital and FTX.
The app’s ties to cryptocurrency run deep, with a significant investment in Toncoin by Pantera Capital, though the coin’s value has dropped since Durov's arrest.
𝕏: As I said the other day, nothing about this development has even a whiff of bad news to it. - Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss)
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Chinese EV maker Xpeng unveils $22,000 car with self-driving features
By Gloria Li via Financial Times
Xpeng has launched the Mona M03, a $22,000 electric vehicle with advanced self-driving features, marking a shift into the affordable EV market.
The M03's technology comes from Didi’s abandoned car project, allowing Xpeng to offer a price half that of Tesla's Model 3, positioning it against BYD in China’s competitive market.
Despite achieving over 10,000 orders within an hour, the low pricing strategy is expected to squeeze Xpeng’s profitability amid a prolonged price war in the world’s largest car market.
𝕏: The Mona M03 features a Tesla-like button-free dashboard, AI-powered driving and a lower price than comparable models by Elon Musk's company - Financial Times (@FT)
What Mark Zuckerberg really said - and didn't say - in that letter to Congress
By Peter Kafka via Business Insider Nederland
Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to Congress, admitting some missteps by Meta during the pandemic and 2020 election, giving Republicans a political talking point.
Zuckerberg acknowledged Biden’s White House pressured Facebook to moderate Covid content and admitted that demoting the Hunter Biden laptop story was a mistake.
The letter carefully offers concessions without exposing Meta to further risk, particularly amid ongoing federal antitrust scrutiny.
𝕏: While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform. - Andy Stone (@andymstone)
Meta nixed custom chip efforts for upcoming AR glasses
By Kali Hays via Fortune
Meta has abandoned efforts to develop custom chips for its upcoming AR glasses, opting instead to use off-the-shelf chips from Qualcomm due to cost-cutting measures.
The decision ends an ambitious project that began in 2019, which was intended to support the Orion and Apollo AR glasses, as well as a potential custom chip for the Quest VR headset.
The move reflects a broader strategy within Meta to reduce expenses, with significant layoffs in the Silicon team and a shift in focus away from custom hardware development.
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