Hashtag trend Lastpass hacked. BlackBerry Patent Sales Stopped

Qualcomm escaped a $1 billion fine, Lastpass was hacked again, and BlackBerry’s patent sale fell through.

Welcome to hashtag trending. Wednesday, August 31st, this is your host, Samira Bulsara.

It turns out Qualcomm doesn’t have to pay the EU a $1 billion fine. In court, the company succeeded, arguing that the fine and trial had been applied illegally.The fine initially culminated in smartphone electronics supplier Qualcomm using antitrust tactics to secure an exclusive deal with Apple, The decision was made because the European Commission determined that it had eliminated smaller competitors. In its appeal, Qualcomm argued that it was not clear that Apple was harmed by the transaction. The European General Court agreed that there were procedural irregularities in the original trial that affected Qualcomm’s defense.

There have been several security incidents with Lastpass, and it scares me every time. Recently, our password manager was compromised again. According to his CEO of Lastpass, hackers managed to steal the source code via compromised developer accounts. He also got his own LastPass tech information of his own. ZDNet reports that LastPass has about 20 million customers. Thankfully, the breach didn’t seem to affect users’ password vaults.

BlackBerry’s patent sale has been rocky. The Globe and Mail reported that the deal was crumbling after its main investor abandoned the deal. The investor, Third Eye Capital, was part of the investors who launched Catapult IP Innovations, which was to acquire the BlackBerry patent. The deal was first announced in January 2022, but in June, BlackBerry got tired of waiting and ended its exclusive deal with Catapult, putting it up for auction again.

A 17-year-old student created an AI solution that tracks elephants and poachers in real time. The solution, called ElSa, uses machine learning software that analyzes motion patterns in thermal infrared videos of humans and elephants. Anika Puri, the system’s young creator, says she’s four times more accurate than the best systems currently available. It’s also relatively cheap. ElSa’s prototype uses a $250 thermal camera and her iPhone 6 to make real-time, motion-based inferences to distinguish between humans and elephants. For her invention, Puri received her $10,000 Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication.

That’s all the tech news trending right now. Hashtag Trending is part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or Google Home Daily Briefing.Be sure to sign up Daily IT Wire Receive our newsletter to receive all the important news directly in your inbox every day. Also, check out the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which airs every Thursday morning. If you have any suggestions or tips, let us know in the comments or email us. Thanks for listening, I’m Samira Bulsara.