Have U Been Pwned?

If you're a Twitter user, we've got bad news for you. Not that this is how one should start off their new year, buuuuut, Elon Musk's vanity project social media company has suffered a data breach. The result? Nearly 200 million email addresses are now up for grabs by criminals and would-be hackers who can use that information to target individuals for nefarious reasons.

200 million may seem like a lot (and it is!), but it's not quite as large as some of the largest breaches in internet history. That honor goes to the so-called Collection #1 leaks that left 773 million unique emails and passwords up for grabs on the deep web, according to data collected by Have I Been Pwned.

It's not yet clear when the data breach at Twitter took place, but media reports place it in the "as early as 2021" range, meaning before Musk came and shook things up. As a side note, Have I Been Pwned offers a free service which you can use to check whether your email address, phone number, or password has been leaked as a result of a data breach. That password bit especially is useful and can help you change your credentials ahead of an unforeseen event.

Also, please turn on two-factor authentication (2FA).

However, not enough people are talking about this data breach, leaving Twitter to rank #40 in this week's Tech Company Rankings.

Texting in the Age of Repressive Governments 👺

Believe it or not, there are actual countries out there that operate in an 1984-esque fashion, controlling what internet service the masses can have access to. Presumably, this is done to deter mass mobilization against said governments and make it difficult for people to coordinate and communicate with each other in instances of say.. protests.

One such service seems to be Meta's WhatsApp, which is usually shut off during large-scale demonstrations, such as the ones that took place in Iran following the wrongful death of a 22-year old woman called Mahsa Amini.

Taking this issue head on, WhatsApp has introduced a proxy service that people can set up during internet lockdowns to continue communicating with each other. That's +1 for WhatsApp.

Meta ranked #17 this week.

More Tough Times Ahead for Employees at Big Tech⛈️

2022 was a bad time to be an employee in the tech industry. Virtually every major company, including Meta and Twitter, showed the door to employees, blaming their optimism for over hiring during COVID-19 and using the layoffs as an excuse to course correct.

But if anyone thought that was the end, Amazon announced that it would be laying off even more people than previously anticipated. Initial estimates of the layoffs late last year were pegged at around 10,000, but now Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has clarified that this number will be in the 18,000 range — almost double the previous media estimates.

Meanwhile, Salesforce, the company responsible for selling your data so marketers can schedule eerily accurate advertisements on the internet, is also letting go of about 10% of its employees — nearly 8,000 people considering the company's headcount of 79,000. "I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment. As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that," co-CEO Marc Benioff said in a letter to employees.

Amazon ranked #46 this week.

In Other News.. 📰

• In a further sign of what's to come, crypto lender Genesis and crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital Corp both announced massive layoffs. Media reports tie these decisions to the collapse of FTX, which has investors spooked.
• Nvidia had a bad week. Tech reviewers unanimously dunked on the company's rebranded 4070 Ti, taking exception to both its price and performance when compared to the 30-series cards.
• High adrenaline car racing video game Gran Turismo is being adapted into a film. Yay, I guess?

And that's a wrap! There's still time for you to tell us about your 2022 and gain some internet cred, and if you're one of the thousands impacted by the layoff decisions in the tech industry, you may want to share your story.

See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️

— Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon