WIRED: Billionaires Are A Security Threat. “In the field of information security, there’s a kind of vulnerability known as the evil maid attack whereby an untrusted party gains physical access to important hardware, such as the housekeeping staff coming into your hotel room when you’ve left your laptop unattended, thereby compromising it. We have here a new analog, just as capable of wrecking systems and leaking data. Call it the ‘evil billionaire attack’ if you’d like.”
Tag Archives: billionaires
Business Insider: A 17-year-old Seattle high schooler is tracking more than 150 private jets’ emissions
Business Insider: A 17-year-old Seattle high schooler is tracking more than 150 private jets’ emissions. “Using [Jack] Sweeney’s Ground Control Registration Database — which was developed to famously track Elon Musk’s private jet — [Akash] Shendure identifies and compiles carbon emissions from the private jets of more than 150 wealthy Americans and their families.”
GeekWire: MacKenzie Scott launches new website that details her giving process and lists recipients of $14B
GeekWire: MacKenzie Scott launches new website that details her giving process and lists recipients of $14B. “Since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, Scott has given away more than $14 billion to more than 1,600 nonprofit organizations, which are all listed on the new site, along with the amount of money received. She has stayed out of the limelight during that time, only penning a handful of essays to describe her donations.”
The Hill: The true tragedy behind Musk’s Twitter buyout is the power of billionaires
The Hill: The true tragedy behind Musk’s Twitter buyout is the power of billionaires. “The fact that one single person, Elon Musk, could access enough money to buy out an entire social media platform is incredible. It would take the median American worker, working full time at $55,640 a year, no fewer than 790,797 years to make the $44 billion needed to buy Twitter. This is longer than human beings have been on the planet.”
Crypto Crash Widens a Divide: ‘Those With Money Will End Up Being Fine’ (New York Times)
New York Times: Crypto Crash Widens a Divide: ‘Those With Money Will End Up Being Fine’. “Enthusiasts promote the digital coins — which are exchanged using networks of computers that verify transactions, rather than through a centralized entity like a bank — as a means for people of all backgrounds to achieve transformational wealth outside the traditional finance system. But for all those supposedly egalitarian principles, crypto’s collapse has revealed a yawning divide: As employees of crypto companies lose their jobs and ordinary investors suffer huge losses, top executives have emerged relatively unscathed.”
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Sign up for a guided email tour of the Pandora Papers
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Sign up for a guided email tour of the Pandora Papers. “The Pandora Papers also explore how this shadow economy takes a global toll beyond lost tax revenue, harming everyday people and the public interest in often unexpected ways. To help readers navigate the vast scope of this investigation, this six-part guided tour will walk you through the most explosive stories and break down key findings, email-by-email over the next two weeks, right in your inbox.”
The Guardian: Russian palaces, villas and yachts linked to Putin by email leak – in pictures, maps and video
The Guardian: Russian palaces, villas and yachts linked to Putin by email leak – in pictures, maps and video. “An investigation by the the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the news website Meduza has identified a group of 86 apparently unconnected companies or not for profit organisations that appear to hold over $4.5bn (£3.7bn) of assets where a common private email address, LLCInvest.ru, appears to be in use.”
The Verge: Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company
The Verge: Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company. “Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion, the company announced in a press release today. Musk purchased the company at $54.20 a share, the same price named in his initial offer earlier this month.”
Bloomberg: Social-Media Scandal Costs Top Chinese Scientist $2 Billion
Bloomberg Quint: Social-Media Scandal Costs Top Chinese Scientist $2 Billion. ” Wu Yiling is one of China’s highest ranked scientists. With a fortune that neared $6 billion, he was also part of the world’s 500 richest people. That was until last week, when the son of another Chinese billionaire sparked debate online with a post doubting the efficacy of Wu’s drug used to treat Covid-19. The herbal remedy, Lianhua Qingwen, is one of three traditional treatments the central government has recommended and was sent to households in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the latest omicron wave.”
Associated Press: Elon Musk no longer joining Twitter’s board of directors
Associated Press: Elon Musk no longer joining Twitter’s board of directors. “Tesla CEO Elon Musk won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors as previously announced. The tempestuous billionaire remains Twitter’s largest shareholder. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the news, which followed a weekend of Musk tweets suggesting possible changes to Twitter, including making the site ad-free. Nearly 90% of Twitter’s 2021 revenue came from ads.”
New York Times: Michael Steinhardt, Billionaire, Surrenders $70 Million in Stolen Relics
New York Times: Michael Steinhardt, Billionaire, Surrenders $70 Million in Stolen Relics. “Michael H. Steinhardt, the billionaire hedge fund pioneer and one of New York’s most prolific antiquities collectors, has surrendered 180 stolen objects valued at $70 million and been barred for life from acquiring any other relics, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a statement Monday.”
Exclusive: Billionaires back new media firm to combat disinformation (Axios)
Axios: Exclusive: Billionaires back new media firm to combat disinformation. Oh boy, more billionaires. What could possibly go wrong? “A new public benefit corporation backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, George Soros, and others is launching Tuesday to fund new media companies and efforts that tackle disinformation. Why it matters: Good Information Inc. aims to fund and scale businesses that cut through echo chambers with fact-based information. As part of its mission, it plans to invest in local news companies.”
Bloomberg: Facebook on blockchain? A real estate mogul is pouring US$100 million into decentralising social media
Bloomberg: Facebook on blockchain? A real estate mogul is pouring US$100 million into decentralising social media. “Frank McCourt, the billionaire real estate mogul and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is pouring US$100 million into an attempt to rebuild the foundations of social media. The effort, which he has loftily named Project Liberty, centers on the construction of a publicly accessible database of people’s social connections, allowing users to move records of their relationships between social media services instead of being locked into a few dominant apps.”
Gulf News: The men who made billions during COVID-19
Gulf News: The men who made billions during COVID-19. “The pandemic has been a boom time for America’s richest billionaires. The wealth of nine of the country’s top titans has increased by more than $360 billion in the past year. And they are all tech barons, underscoring the power of the industry in the US economy. Tesla’s Elon Musk more than quadrupled his fortune and jockeyed with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos for the title of world’s wealthiest person. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg topped $100 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin gained a combined $65 billion.”
Calling all billionaires: here’s how to keep your superyacht Covid-free (The Guardian)
The Guardian: Calling all billionaires: here’s how to keep your superyacht Covid-free. “It is a problem not many us have to consider: how to ensure your multimillion dollar superyacht remains a coronavirus-free zone despite taking on board crew from around the world. But for the billionaire owners of floating luxury homes there is now a solution – a very expensive one, naturally. An Australian naval architecture firm is launching a new double-hulled support vessel, in which new crew and guests can isolate while they await coronavirus test results from onboard medical staff.”