MacKeeper actually stopped a spammer.
The Hustle
Tues, Mar 7
A major Vickery against spam
When Chris Vickery stumbled on an unprotected backup server over the weekend, he had no idea it would lead to the downfall of a criminal enterprise — but then again, some people are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
Turns out the server Vickery uncovered didn’t just contain someone’s family vacation photos, it contained 1.4B email records belonging to email spam kingpin, River City Media.
RCM, at its peak, sent out a billion emails a day, using a “Slow Loris” attack. But more on that later.
First things first, who is this guy? CIA? FBI? Black Ops?
Nope. Vickery is a security researcher for MacKeeper, the anti-virus company whose ads pop up every time you try to illegally download something and have permanently burned the cheery phrase, “on this page you can download MacKeeper!” into your cerebellum.
Oh, the irony… an employee at a company known for its spammy ads takes down one of the spammiest companies on the planet.
Apparently, Vickery is a serial whistleblower. In 2015, he reported MacKeeper, itself, for a poorly protected database that put 13m of its customers’ passwords at risk. Because the only allegiance Vickery has is to the law of the LAN (internet pun).
But back to River City Media and the Slow Loris…
What does a “spam kingpin” look like? Well, from the outside, completely legitimate company, with a few servers for sending marketing emails.
But, in reality, RCM was using over 2,199 IP addresses, custom software, and “backroom dealings” with friends and affiliates to hide the billion emails it was blasting people’s inboxes with daily.
As for the Slow Loris — it’s a spamming technique, whereby you send requests slowly at first to gain mail servers’ trust before, as RCM puts it, cramming “as much data down their throats as possible until they disconnect.”
Well my goodness. They do sound like pretty bad guys…
Luckily we’ve got Vickery on our side
And when it comes to email spam, as he puts it, this “is a major [Vickery] in an ongoing war.”
(Alright, he said “victory,” not “Vickery,” but damn, how cool would it be if he had his own Independence Day-style catchphrase? So cool.)
Since the breach, some of the partnerships RCM has with advertisers to send out their spam are already dissolving (ad partner Amobee has blackballed the company).
And, Vickery has forwarded some of the most “abusive [spamming] techniques” Apple, Microsoft, and law enforcement, so he believes it will end up putting RCM out of business for good.
Because, in his words, “If you’re sitting behind bars, it’s hard to spam.”
Right on, Chris
CNNgo is CNN’s answer to Netflix
Back in 2014, CNN did what every other network did and launched a streaming platform called CNNgo to give viewers access to live and on-demand shows.
But, since a cable subscription was required to watch, cord cutters have been fully ignored. Which doesn’t really make sense, does it?
You build a streaming platform so people can consume your content outside the living room, but the young people most likely to do that can’t actually access it because they don’t have cable. Hmm.
Might explain CNN’s sudden shift in strategy…
According to Variety, the company is “shifting gears to expand CNNgo’s reach to ‘cord-nevers’ with longer-form original productions that are free to anyone, whether or not they have a cable or satellite TV subscription.”
In other words, CNN is going full Netflix — offering a standalone app full of exclusive content. Heck, they even have their own version of “Black Mirror” called “Mostly Human.”
The goal: Secure a better position in today’s ultra-competitive streaming landscape, where people watch what they want, when they want and — most importantly in CNN’s case — get much of their news from social networks.
Casey Neistat’s potential landing spot?
In November, CNN paid $25m to acquire the YouTube star’s app, Beme. But make no mistake — the company was mainly interested in Casey himself.
Why? Because millennials think he’s cool. No seriously, CNN’s president Jeff Zucker learned about Neistat through his 16-year-old son who called him “the only person who matters in media.”
Since the acquisition, all we’ve heard is that Casey will host a live daily news show on YouTube starting in March. Perhaps CNN will decide to have it live on CNNgo?
If the show’s a hit, you’d have viewers visiting the app on a consistent, daily basis (the show goes live at 5pm), giving CNN a unique advantage over the likes of Netflix and Amazon.
Cords 4never
GM pulls a Brexit
Yesterday, GM announced that it will sell its European brands, Opel and Vauxhall, to French carmaker Peugeot for $2.3B, after they have failed to turn a profit for nearly 20 years.
To say that GM’s European operations have “struggled” would be an understatement — over the past 16 years, Opel and Vauxhall have lost a combined $18B. So, rather than throwing money down a hole…
GM’s pulling the plug
By letting go of Europe, GM hopes it’ll be able to improve their profitability and cash flow.
The extra $2B in cash will free up resources they need to supplement GM’s share buyback program, and the deal will save them the $1.1B per year that they would spend in Europe. But, they’re not totally off the hook yet…
They still have a few loose ends to tie up
And by “loose ends” we mean pension funds, which were a big sticking point during the negotiations.
On top of the deal terms, GM will have to raise about $3B in debt to pay off Opel’s current European pension obligations as well (the plan is underfunded by about $6.5B).
However, the parties established that Peugeot will be responsible for future pension costs. So after paying Peugeot $400m annually for the next 15 years, GM’s tootally in the clear…
And Peugeot’s making big moves
The deal will boost Peugeot’s share of the European car market to 16%, making them the second largest carmaker (surpassing rival Renault) in the region behind Volkswagen AG in terms of volume.
Which is a surprising play, considering their CEO, Carlos Tavares, is known as a cost-cutter, rathers than a growth guy.
But, in the past three years, Tavares was able to turn things around at Peugeot, and now he thinks he can do the same for GM’s brands. (Hint: It’s going to involve some budget slashing — Tavares has promised to deliver $1.8B in annual savings by 2026.)
You Peugeot, girl!
TomTom goes from hardware to big data
With autonomous vehicles on the way, consumer demand for satellite navigation devices is about to disappear into thin air.
That’s why Dutch navigation company, TomTom, is doubling down on traffic management systems as it “carves out its role in the future.”
More details
Traffic management systems are used by cities to manage congestion (by controlling traffic lights, etc), and when we’re all being driven around by Wall-E in a few years, this cloud-based infrastructure will only play a larger role.
TomTom wants to own that space — and to get a head start, it’s supplying cities like Berlin, Zurich, and Amsterdam with its technology for free. In return, TomTom gets a boatload of traffic data that it can use to improve its products… which it licenses to tech companies like Apple and Uber.
“Uber is very much relying on our technology and our data for routing, for traffic information,” said CEO Harold Goddijn. “We have a vast amount of data and experience, which helps them to tune their algorithms.”
This is gonna be an uphill battle
At the end of December, TomTom had $152m in cash and equivalents, which sounds like a lot of money until you see how much its biggest competitors had at the same time:
Apple: $246,000,000,000
Google: $92,000,000,000
Garmin: $2,300,000,000
TomTom: $152,000,000
Needless to say, TomTom’s the underdog to win out in the traffic management sector, especially if it proves to be an attractive revenue source and the big boys start swarming. But hey, for now, it’s got the lead.
<3 Wall-E
a few good reads
The Invisible Force That Warps What You Read In The News (Backchannel)
Are we in a bubble? Why has Uber’s story spun out of control? The answers hinge less on facts and more on the hidden physics of Narrative Gravity.
Why This CEO Is Helping 20% Of His Employees Find New Jobs By Next Year (Fast Company)
“One out of every five of my employees won’t be in their roles next year,” says Hootsuite’s Ryan Holmes. “And I couldn’t be happier.”
This Man Makes Founders Cry (Backchannel)
Wow, second Backchannel recommendation of the day! They must be killing it! Yup, they are. Consistent, awesome articles. Definitely give them a follow on Medium if you don’t already. This article’s about Jerry Colonna, a VC/certified professional coach who helps CEOs make money by making peace with their demons.
These Are The 50 Most Promising Startups You’ve Never Heard Of (Bloomberg)
The title says it all, man.
Activists Rush To Save Government Science Data — If They Can Find It (New York Times)
Thousands of academics, librarians, coders, and science-minded citizens have gathered at “data rescue” events in recent weeks. Why? Because they fear that the Trump administration could lead a crusade “against the scientific information provided to the public.”
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