It’s Thursday, y’all. It’s time for the Top Tech News of the Week! I’m on with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. It’s another week, without Elon dominating the headlines. This week’s top tech stories: a shirtless Canadian hacker pleads guilty in Florida, a new Atari collection is released in time for its 50th anniversary, and AirBnb bans party houses forever. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.
SHIRTLESS CANADIAN NABBED IN RUSSIAN CYBER TAKEDOWN
Yesterday, Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins plead guilty in Florida court for being an affiliate hacker with the Russian cyber gang, NetWalker. Desjardins is an ex-IT employee who was a hacker for the group from April to December, 2020. NetWalker had extorted $40 million from Canadian, US, and other global companies during 2020 including $1.14 million from a US university working on a COVID-19 vaccine. Desjardins was arrested in Canada and extradited to the United States after US cyber authorities broke up the gang and lifted details of affiliates from the gang’s files. Desjardins was found holding $27 million in BitCoin across various accounts. There have been high profile hacks made in the last 3 years, but there have also been some high profile arrests and takedowns made by the US government. For bad guys seeking to hide cash in BTC or the blockchain anonymously that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. Yes, Desjardins is pretty fit, and…cut.
GAME CONSOLES GET ATARI CLASSICS ON 50TH ANNIVERARY
How old am I? My first video game console was an Atari something that played Pong and a three other titles using a switch. No cartridges. Atari is working with retro game archivists, Digital Eclipse, to release Atari 50, a 90 title gaming collection for the Switch, PlayStation, XBOX, PC, and Atari VCS. The collection will span games from the 2600, Jaguar, and Lynx. The Atari 7200 was noticeably absent from the list. You can expect Atari 50 this November just in time for Christmas.
AIRBNB BANS PARTY HOUSES PERMANENTLY
AirBnb announced it will be banning so-called party houses permanently. The company prevented AirBnb guests from renting a house to host a disruptive event or party in 2020 to halt COVID-19’s spread. AirBnb hosts have applauded the move saying party houses were an issue with their neighbors and maintenance. AirBnb suspended 6,600 users last year after violating the party ban. No more open-invites or event styled gatherings are allowed in AirBnbs anymore, even though mega mansion home owners can list properties that can sleep move than 16 people.
Tomorrow’s episode of The Cloud features AI and its impact on communities. We chat with Morgan State University’s founding member of the Center for Equitable AI and Machine Learning, Dr. Kofi Nyarko and Progressive Heuristics CEO, Gabriella Waters. You can subscribe to The Cloud on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and El Goog’s Podcasts. iHeartRadio will be coming soon.
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