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BLACKROCK EXECUTIVE

CFTC WEIGHS ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST FORMER VOYAGER DIGITAL CEO

OSTIUM LABS BRINGING DEX PERPETUAL SWAPS TO OIL AND GOLD

BACKED LAUNCHES TOKENIZED BLACKROCK ETF ON BASE NETWORK

AND REDUCE CONSENSUS OVERHEAD

OVERVIEW OF ON-CHAIN RWAS AND THE FORCES PROPELLING THEIR GROWTH

THE FTX JURY SUFFERED THROUGH A CODE REVIEW

DOUBLE HAPPINESS: ANOTHER ARTHUR HAYES ESSAY

COINBASE ADOPTING 'INTERNATIONAL-FIRST MENTALITY', SAYS POLICY LEAD

AVALANCHE SOCIAL APP STARS ARENA DRAINED OF $3M IN AVAX AFTER HACK

MAJOR LAYOFFS AT YUGA LABS, LEDGER, AND CHAINALYSIS LAST WEEK

MEET THE NEW WEBFLOW

Webflow is rolling out a new logo and a revamped brand identity. The new logo was inspired by the core building blocks of the web — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The branding update follows a series of product enhancements announced at the company's annual event, Webflow Conf 2023.

HOW TO USE THE NEW MESSAGES FEATURES IN IOS 17

iOS 17 brings several new features to Messages, including automatic transcription of audio messages, the Check-In feature for sharing ETA with contacts, improved search with multiple filters, and better organization of apps within Messages. It also introduces a convenient arrow to resume conversations where you left off, simplified location sharing with real-time updates, and the ability to automatically delete verification codes for added security.

ITS PRODUCTS

Project Stardust is the codename for a new object-aware editing engine that automatically identifies individual objects in regular images, allowing them to be easily moved around and changed. A video included in the post demonstrates how the tool identifies objects as if they had been separated using Photoshop’s lasso tool, giving users the option of manipulating them as if they were stored on a separate layer.

EMBRACE THEM

A leaked internal memo from Shopify's CEO shows the company is tightening its employee side projects policy. According to the document, the behavior prevents employees from thinking and acting like founders. However, side projects can be one of the most effective ways of developing precisely that mindset.

DESIGN AS CRAFT IS OVER

UI kits, ready-made design systems, and recent leaps forward in AI have been pushing design work toward curation and direction rather than creation. Design has become efficient and faster, and market expectations have followed. We need to adapt accordingly.

FROM TEMPLATE TO ATOMS

People might interpret the five stages of atomic design as a sequence, but that's a mistake. Atomic design is a mental model that provides a structure to navigate between the parts and the whole of our UIs. That's precisely why it can not be a linear process.

ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS

Check out this fantastic collection of looping 4K video backgrounds. The backgrounds are free to download and use under the Creative Commons license.

A GOOGLE FONT DESIGNED FOR AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENTS

AR One Sans is a new font on Google Fonts designed for AR environments. The type family has low contrast, generous spacing, and robust shapes, making it work well in busy backgrounds and keeping high readability.

MINIMAL GALLERY

A curation of beautiful, minimal, and functional websites.

THE ELIZA EFFECT: WHY WE LOVE AI

The ELIZA effect is when users quickly attribute human-like characteristics to artificial systems that reflect their personality. Such an effect might lead users to develop feelings towards AI agents. However, the semblance of humanity may keep users from realizing how to get the most use out of a product.

SPECULATIVE DESIGN: POWERING PRODUCT DIRECTION WITH IMAGINATION

Speculative design emphasizes narratives and exploring the potential or consequences of ideas. To come up with breakthrough concepts, speculative design proposes moving away from conventional assumptions and safe thinking.

HERE’S SOME FEEDBACK ON YOUR FEEDBACK

“The feedback framework” asks three questions to help get more meaningful feedback: What’s working? What’s not working? What’s on your wishlist? The first question prevents people from giving only negative feedback, the second question should be used for prioritizing the most pressing things, and the third question should focus on the ideal outcome. They can be used for getting feedback on work or people.

FURTHER

X has launched a new preview format for posted links in the past week that removes headlines and subheaders and displays only an article's header image framed by a watermark. The change introduced many accessibility issues, especially for those who use assistive technologies like screen readers and VoiceOver.

ARTISTS

A new AI tool by Getty Images uses only licensed data and will gradually reward creators as the platform grows. Getty Images CEO Craig Peters believes in building generative AI models in ways that respect the intellectual property rights of artists and creators.

INTRODUCING THE WEB SUSTAINABILITY GUIDELINES

The Sustainable Web Design Community Group has just launched a draft set of guidelines for designing and developing sustainable web applications. Covering design, UX, front and back-end development, and business strategies, these guidelines have been months in the making, with contributions from experts and breakout groups from across the industry.

PETER THIEL’S COMMENTS ON EUROPE

Of the seventeen $100bn corporations founded since 1990, eleven were in the U.S. and six in China. Is Europe priming itself for future success? It has the highest density of AI talent, the highest share of cited research publications, and a large student demographic studying computer science and engineering.

HOW TO LOSE AT GENERATIVE AI

Great read on the tricky parts of creating value around generative AI for startups. While the incumbents are favored, finding your path and creating real value early is where startups can have a fighting chance.

3D AS THE NEW MODALITY

The realm of 3D computing is emerging, with advancements in capturing, rendering, and displaying 3D content on various devices. While companies like Apple and Meta are pioneering this shift, the transition from 2D to 3D presents both opportunities for new immersive experiences and challenges in ensuring consumer adoption.

8 WAYS SAAS COMPANIES CAN USE AI TO GET AHEAD

From task automation to writing code, AI is adding leverage to how we analyze customer data and build products. The key takeaway here is that AI is enabling people to do a lot more, and if you’re not using it, you’re likely going to get outpaced by the competition.

MY APP STACK: FRANK DALE, SVP OF PRODUCT AT SALESLOFT

Frank Dale leads the Product Management team at SalesLoft. In this article, Dale breaks down the apps he can’t live without, including ProductBoard, Figma, Jira, Mixpanel, Pendo, and Looker.

STOCK BASED COMP, FOR DUMMIES

We all think we know how stock based comp (SBC) works, but it never hurts to get a refresher on its impact on the bottom line. A quick read about the impact of SBC using Expensify as an example.

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO THINK ABOUT GROWTH

Up and to the right, right? Hear me out, down and to the left is the way. Say you want to grow 10x in three years, instead of thinking about the present day and how you’ll get to that goal, start with the goal and work backwards. This acts as a forcing function to shift your mindset away from the incremental and to the expansive.

THE VALUE OF CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Startups seem to be introducing Customer Success teams earlier in their journey. What used to be a post-Series A thing is now being introduced alongside your early paying customers. There’s often confusion across the organization as to what they really do. Are they a cost or profit center? Here’s how you can help ensure every department knows the value of Customer Success.

NICE TEAMS FINISH LAST

The bigger the mistake, the more clear you need to be with someone that they made it. Trying to be nice often involves sugar coating failure and this means you’re being unclear on the cause of the problem. Failure to tell people about their mistakes means you’re robbing them of learning.

AI ISN’T A DRILL, AND YOUR USERS DON’T WANT HOLES

AI is often misunderstood as a one-size-fits-all solution, but businesses need to recognize that it's merely a tool, and not every business requires it. Identifying genuine problems and needs should precede technology adoption, rather than trying to retrofit AI solutions where they may not be needed or beneficial.

ON GOOD MICROMANAGEMENT

We’re repeatedly taught that micromanagement is the root of all evil, but sometimes having a hand on the wheel isn’t all that bad if you know the problem space really well. It’s about knowing when you’re starting to annoy your reports.

SONY CONFIRMS SERVER SECURITY BREACHES THAT EXPOSED EMPLOYEE DATA

Sony Interactive Entertainment has contacted 6,800 current and former employees to warn that their data may have been collected by hackers. Sony launched an investigation last month into a second breach in which hackers acquired 3.14GB of data.

CYBERATTACK

MGM Resorts has confirmed hackers stole an unspecified amount of customers’ personal information during a September cyberattack that will cost the hotel and casino giant an estimated $100 million. MGM has seen no evidence that the data obtained by the criminal actors has been used for identity theft or account fraud yet.

LATERAL MOVEMENT

Microsoft security researchers recently identified a campaign where attackers attempted to move laterally to a cloud environment through a SQL Server instance. In this blog post, Microsoft elaborates on the attack flow and focuses on the main technique that was observed: SQL Server to cloud lateral movement. It also shows how to detect this type of threat and help mitigate such attacks.

FROM BAD TO WORSE: HOW DUAL RANSOMWARE AMPLIFIES CYBER THREATS

Dual Ransomware, a sinister dance of encryption and exfiltration, doesn’t just lock you out: it takes your secrets and threatens to spill them into the boundless abyss of the dark web. Your data, once merely shackled, is now a pawn in a high-stakes game of cyber blackmail and espionage. This blog post goes through the history of dual ransomware, how it works, and real life examples.

MULTI CLOUD WORKLOADS

A tutorial from AWS on how to utilize Secrets Manager in on-prem and multi-cloud workloads utilizing IAM Roles Anywhere. It includes example use cases and works through a sample application.

OPENPUBKEY

OpenPubkey adds user generated cryptographic signatures to OpenID Connect (OIDC) to enable users to sign messages or artifacts under their OpenID identity. Verifiers can check that these signatures are valid and associated with the signing OpenID identity.

CRAWLECTOR

Crawlector (the name is a combination of Crawler & Detector) is a threat-hunting framework designed for scanning websites for malicious objects.

GITHUB IMPROVES SECRETS SCANNING WITH EXPANDED TOKEN VALIDITY

GitHub introduced secrets scanning in early 2023 and since then added validity checks to the secrets scanning feature. It just announced that validity checks have been expanded to include AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Slack tokens.

RANSOMWARE GANG QAKBOT RESURFACES AFTER FEDS’ BOTNET TAKEDOWN

The Qakbot malware gang has been staging cyberattacks with Ransom Knight ransomware and the Remcos backdoor via phishing emails, according to Cisco Talos. Despite authorities seizing the gang's infrastructure and financial assets, key members of the group have likely regrouped and continued committing cybercrimes.

MISCONFIGURATIONS

The ten most common network misconfigurations, the two agencies say, include default software configurations, improper separation of privileges, lack of network segmentation, insufficient network monitoring, poor patch management, bypass of access controls, poor credential hygiene, improper multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods, insufficient access control lists (ACLs) on network shares, and unrestricted code execution.

THE GREAT ZELLE POOL SCAM

An investigation into how scammers utilize Zelle to trick unsuspecting customers into scams. The investigation is told as a story wherein the protagonist was scammed by a Business Email Compromise into sending $31,500 via Zelle.

90S VULNS IN 90S SOFTWARE (EXIM) - IS THE SKY FALLING?

ZDI has gone public with no less than six 0days in the popular mail server Exim. Ranging from ‘potentially world-ending' through to ‘a bit of a damp squib’, these bugs were apparently discovered way back in June 2022 (!) - but they were published last week.

AWS WILL REQUIRE MFA FOR ROOT USER CONSOLE ACCESS

AWS announced that as of mid 2024, users signing into the AWS management console with root user accounts will be required to use MFA. AWS will communicate this to affected customers through multiple channels. There are plans to expand the MFA requirements but no concrete timelines.