The money, around $260 million of digital currency, represents just under half of the $600 million originally stolen. The hacker claims in a self published Q&A that the move is an altruistic one, though some suggest that the robust nature of the cryptocurrency’s blockchain make the funds hard to launder, and that the suspect may have gotten cold feet. The Heist on Poly Network The crypto hack originally took place on Tuesday, with the hacker attacking Poly Network, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users to transfer funds across different blockchains using peer to peer networking....

To kick-start the week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement to Fox News, claiming that the Trump administration is considering banning TikTok over privacy and national security concerns. The next few days saw more political speeches, company-wide bans, and angry TikTok fans. As tensions rise, it’s getting increasingly difficult to stay up-to-date with what is going on with TikTok. So, to keep you in the loop, we’ve compiled a quick roundup of the need-to-know points from TikTok’s hellish week, so far....

The first thing to know is that whatever type of fitness person you are – marathoner, yogini, dancer or muscle man – there’s probably a tech-aided service out there that can make your life easier. So here’s a roundup of the best fitness gizmos, websites and apps galore to keep you hale and hearty throughout the New Year. RunningIf running is your thing, look no further than RunKeeper, a mobile app to track your runs, available on the Android and iPhone....

With RelayCars, potential customers get a few perks that would be impossible at a physical dealer: They can change a car’s color at will and test-drive a BMW convertible along a coastal road. While the technology definitely has no current plans to replace dealerships, it’s easy to see how it could, should the VR experience catch on. Detroit News has further information on the VR showrooms’ abilities and constraints: The app makes sense: Dealership are useful due to their immediate, physical examples of cars....

But when once you’re in a position of authority, it doesn’t get better. You’ll still need to communicate, and in situations that no college course will have prepared you for. That’s right, as a manager, you’ll eventually wind up in a position that not even a communications course can prepare you for: You’ll need to fire someone. The Firing Rule The most common firing problem is that the manager or CEO will avoid firing someone because they don’t want to think about it, or they don’t want to acknowledge that they made a mistake in hiring that individual in the first place....

That’s the well-supported belief of Jodie Nel, event organizer with the Cyber Security Event Series. She provided the statistics in the above paragraph, as well as the interview below. There, she explained more about the thought process behind this move and the best practices that could help to reorient the industry in order to address its gender gap. These tactics can be applied in any other sector that suffers from a gender gap, and since it’s an industry-wide problem, these tips have a broad application....

Initially, I called my Internet provider and they remotely rebooted my system, which initially worked. The next day, we tried it again and they told me to manually reboot the modem, and to do that anytime it was having problems. But, after a month or so of doing this daily, I hit my limit and requested a new modem. When the technician came out to swap it the next day, I learned something really interesting: it wasn’t a modem issue....

– Steve Jobs At Apple and Pixar, Steve Jobs was renowned for building terrific teams. He recognized that when you add B-level talent to a team of A players, the whole team slows down as morale drops. He insisted on keeping small teams of A-only players. Just as elusive as those A grades were in school, assembling your own team of top-quality talent can be difficult. These “unicorns” don’t grow on trees, and without Uber money or Apple prestige, it can be difficult to recruit and keep them....

Today, Testlio’s customers include Microsoft, Lyft, Salesforce, CBS Interactive, Flipboard, Strava, and GoDaddy. Last year, they announced a $6.25M Series A for their freelance network of over 150 testers from 33 different countries who work across 36 different languages. Clearly, the company is doing well as it takes on the $3.5 trillion IT services market. The company currently has an engineering office in Estonia and headquarters in San Francisco. Here’s Kristel Kruustük on how Testlio works, the challenges of growing a business, and what the future holds....

It’s this last aspect that has marketers and search-engine specialists all a buzz. For years, companies found landing on the first page of the Google search results (SERP) critical to maintaining website traffic and profits. They invested a great deal of effort into finding the short- and long-tail keywords consumers were typing into the search bar. Recently, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that 20 percent of all Google searches are voice searches....

The Rule Change In August, Apple updated their guidelines to include this rule: While the explanation doesn’t go into more detail, it appears to ban apps using sections of code copy-and-pasted from earlier apps. The end goal is likely to reduce spammers and scammers, but with an obvious downside: App developers who haven’t coded their entire app from scratch will see their work removed and banned from one of the biggest mobile app stores available....

How Women-Led Occupations Translate for Tech With the research conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, it’s found that librarians and other women-led occupations hold similar skill sets to tech industry jobs like IT and web designers. The introduction to the report reads: Understanding this gap will help to solve the gender wage gaps in tech as women in these industries make for smooth transitions into tech. By recruiting women in these fields – from librarians to compensation specialists and clinical lab technicians – tech could be diversifying its worker pool while not having to sacrifice quality candidates....

Reddit, which has been a prominent name in user-generated chat rooms and content for a few years now, is looking to push forward with a new way to advertise on the site and generate more revenue. On August 4th, Reddit will launch their new ad program, pushed forward by cofounders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in an effort to rebrand the site to keep up with industry competitors. By increasing advertising with their other user-generated posts, the hope is that Reddit can grow their popularity to match others in the industry, like Facebook....

Seba and Arbib predict that car ownership will fall 80 percent by 2030, reducing the number of passenger vehicles in the U.S. from 247 million in 2020 to 44 million in 2030. This mass extinction will occur, in part, because new ride-sharing firms and companies like Uber and Lyft will make it cheaper, more convenient and less of a hassle to share cars and hail rides than to own a car....

Fears of incorrect news items, creating by bad actors hoping to profit off of their viral posts shared on the strength of tribal prejudices, haunt many people in 2017. Even the experts are split on whether it’s even possible to squash the phenomenon. Now Snapchat has stepped into the fray with its own solution. The New Snapchat Evan Spiegel, cofounder and CEO of Snap Inc., turned to an Axios op-ed this morning rather than the typical Medium post....

The Beginning The company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning in July of 2003, and it was strapped for cash for the first few years. Then, Elon Musk took over the reins as Chairman of the Board, and things began to change. He led a round of financing that saw the company gain $13 million for development of the Tesla Roadster, and in 2007, the company raised an additional $40 million, an initiative also led by Musk....

Enter social media and you make it even more complex. Social media site hosting can no longer be done on shared servers because shared hosting is just not the right thing that can scale a web app. Today you may have 100 users using the app, but within a few months, you have no idea on how many zeros will be added behind that number. And it will happen very quickly, which might bring down the entire thing like a house of cards (if you are not prepared for the scale)....

The problem is your online engagement with audiences is steadily growing, albeit slowly, and your company has never made a video before. So naturally, when you run the idea by your bosses they shoot it down, and they’ll do this for many reasons: fear of the unknown, inability to understand how it would blend with the existing marketing strategy or inability to see a strong ROI. But you know that if your bosses knew the real facts about video, they’d jump at the opportunity to implement it....

Instagram offers businesses and entrepreneurs a higher level of engagement than you might expect. A recent study by Forrester found that well-curated Instagram posts by recognized brands had a rate of engagement that was 58 times higher than Facebook and 120 times higher than Twitter. But before you can start communicating with customers on Instagram, you need to understand more about growing your following. Follow these three tips to help you not only increase your followers but grow a fanatical following on Instagram for your business....

Traditionally, business owners have turned to agencies to help with online marketing. However, as a blog owner, the DIY approach might be a bit more cost effective – especially if you’re just started. If you’re currently in the process of developing SEO or SEM skills to build your blog’s online presence, it doesn’t need to be as costly as you may think. In fact, there are many simple steps you can take to build your blog’s SEO value without breaking the bank....