Good morning. It’s Monday, May 05. Today we are covering:
The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked
How Technology Innovation Is Reshaping The Global Payments Landscape
DeepSeek. Temu. TikTok. China Tech Is Starting to Pull Ahead
Security Researchers Warn a Widely Used Open Source Tool Poses a 'Persistent' Risk to the US
Brazil is going after social media sites to keep its kids safe
Let’s dive in
The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked
By Joseph Cox via 404 Media
A hacker breached TeleMessage, an Israeli firm that provides U.S. government agencies with modified versions of Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat, stealing user data including direct and group chat contents.
The hack exposed that archived messages—used by officials like Rep. Mike Waltz, with recipients including Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and JD Vance—were not end-to-end encrypted, revealing serious security flaws.
Leaked materials include data linked to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Coinbase, and other financial institutions, raising concerns about the tool’s broader use in sensitive environments.
𝕏: Very very important follow up on the Signal story . The clone version of Signal White House officials are using is so insecure it’s already been hacked. - Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
How Technology Innovation Is Reshaping The Global Payments Landscape
By Daniel Muller via Forbes
Global payment innovation is accelerating through digital wallets, real-time transfers, and blockchain, as governments and fintechs prioritize speed, transparency, and consumer-centric design.
The U.S. payments landscape, built on credit card infrastructure, faces challenges evolving due to entrenched incentives and high merchant fees, but needs to embrace modern, interoperable alternatives like account-based payments.
A quiet competition is unfolding between traditional networks and emerging technologies, with the future hinging not on replacement but on choice and integration, ensuring flexibility for both merchants and consumers.
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DeepSeek. Temu. TikTok. China Tech Is Starting to Pull Ahead.
By Eric Schmidt via The New York Times
China is rapidly closing the A.I. gap with the U.S., with models like DeepSeek V3 rivaling American counterparts and a strategic edge in tech diffusion, commercialization, and open access.
Chinese platforms such as TikTok, Temu, Shein, and open-source A.I. tools are gaining global dominance, signaling a future where China's digital ecosystem could outpace America's in influence and integration.
Despite U.S. export controls, China’s innovation is accelerating, driven by fierce domestic competition, mass robot deployment, and government resolve—pushing the U.S. to rethink assumptions and act decisively to maintain technological leadership.
Security Researchers Warn a Widely Used Open Source Tool Poses a 'Persistent' Risk to the US
By Matt Burgess via WIRED
Cybersecurity firm Hunted Labs warns that easyjson, a widely used open source tool maintained by developers in Moscow and linked to VK Group—whose CEO is sanctioned Russian executive Vladimir Kiriyenko—may pose a “persistent” national security risk to the U.S. despite no current evidence of malicious code.
Easyjson, integral to the Go programming ecosystem and embedded in software used by the U.S. Department of Defense and across finance, healthcare, and tech, is hosted on GitHub by an account controlled by MailRu, now owned by VK, a company seen as closely aligned with the Kremlin.
Experts highlight that while no vulnerabilities have been detected in easyjson, the geopolitical ties and Russia’s history of cyber operations heighten concerns of potential supply chain attacks, echoing broader scrutiny of foreign open source dependencies following incidents like the XZ Utils backdoor.
Brazil is going after social media sites to keep its kids safe
By Pedro Nakamura via Rest of World
Brazilian child influencers like 14-year-old Guilherme are racking up millions of followers and lucrative earnings on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Kwai, despite national laws that restrict under-16s from working without judicial approval.
Social media companies have come under legal and regulatory scrutiny for enabling underage monetization, with TikTok fined 100,000 reais and platforms like Kwai and Cakto suspending or banning child accounts after media inquiries.
Amid growing concerns over child exploitation and unsafe labor, families, talent agencies, and even the minors themselves treat content creation as a pathway out of poverty—turning Brazil into one of the world’s biggest hubs for youth digital labor.
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