Vice Society hackers post 500GB of data stolen from LA school district to dark web

Monday, October 03, 2022

Oc-flippin-tober? You’ve got to be mock-tobering us. It’s a sobering experience, though, to see the who-ber year fly by like that! Ahem.

Forgive the incoherence, we are entering TechCrunch Disrupt silly season over here. We are psyyyyched. Also, there’s just a few hours left to apply to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt and attend for free, if you want to get your application in for next week! — Christine and Haje

Image Credits: Irfan Khan / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

Now it’s out: Hackers released a lot of data — some 500GB worth — that it stole during the Los Angeles Unified School District ransomware attack, Carly writes. This includes some personal identifying information, financial reports and healthcare data. Ugh.
Someone wasn’t “keeping up”: And that someone was Kim Kardashian, who settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $1.26 million after it was found she was in violation of rules regarding the disclosure of receiving payment in exchange for touting cryptocurrency. Darrell has more. Meanwhile, Anita and Dominic-Madori pair up to opine on why it’s okay not to defend Kardashian, particularly, as they put it, “EthereumMax was an unknown token worth almost nothing before she posted about it on Instagram.”
Name change: Amazon now has a dedicated portal for its affordable shopping options called Amazon Access that includes features like layaway and coupons, Aisha reports.

Startups and VC

Look, we know we usually focus on content from TC.com here, but this week, two stories from our subscription site, TechCrunch+, caught our eye.

Ron and Alex observed that at the beginning of 2022, it looked like it was going to be a bumper year for SaaS M&A. That seems to have not really happened. With much head scratching and some theories, they ask why we aren’t seeing more aggressive SaaS M&A?

Meanwhile, Becca notes that venture capital has been on a roller coaster this year. The theme is similar; 2022 started riding the strongest wave of venture deployment on record, just before the stock market plummeted and dragged venture down with it. She reaches for her crystal ball and admits that while it is unclear what will happen in VC in Q4, it definitely won’t be boring.

If you don’t have a TC+ subscription, we have a special deal for you DC subscribers; Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Across the rest of the site, we have these nuggets for you:

Plug it up, plug it in, let us begin: Haje reports that Loop raises $60 million to send EV charging infrastructure for a Loop.
Because streaming isn’t like other web data: With $17 million in funding, Immerok launches a cloud service for real-time streaming data, reports Kyle.
Dollars for dollars: Despite the venture slowdown, fintech startups are still hiring, reports Mary Ann.
Walk deeper into the store: Christine reports that Kahani wants to turn your e-commerce website into an interactive experience.
Like a checking account, but chain-ier: Manish writes that web3 banking platform Juno raises $18 million and launches a tokenized loyalty program.

3 guiding FinOps principles that will help you explain cloud costs to the board

Cloud financial management, or more simply, “FinOps,” uses cross-functional teamwork between finance, engineering and product teams to help organizations make better use of their resources.

“Knowing your cloud unit economics is key to building an explainable, transparent model of your cloud costs,” writes Liran Grinberg, co-founder of Team8.

“Dev teams need to face the music and start being financially accountable for the infrastructure and services they use. Meanwhile, CFOs and CTOs need to get ready to answer some tough questions at board meetings.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

De-horning the unicorns: The unicorn funding slump is worse than you thought, by Alex.
Time to crawl out of the deep sea onto dry land: Form Bio says now is the time to launch — despite cooling software sales, by Becca.
From slump-kins to pumpkins: Welcome to spooky season in startups, by Natasha M.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Prosus decided not to move forward with its $4.7 billion acquisition of BillDesk, Manish reports. Just a month after receiving the green light from India’s antitrust organization, the company is citing “certain conditions” that were not fulfilled as to the reason the deal is not proceeding.

Meanwhile, TikTok is looking for a few good partners to help launch its live shopping offering in the U.S., Ivan writes.

And we have five more for you:

The old days of grocery: Rapid delivery startup Deliveroo is turning the term “dark store” on its head by creating a store model where non-app users can go into one of its stores, order from a kiosk and be handed groceries minutes later, Natasha L reports.
Taking the helm: Rivian is taking the next business step, naming former Capital One executive, Diane Lye, as its first chief information officer, Kirsten reports.
I need you; you need me: Ingrid writes that Vodafone confirms merger talks with Three UK in a deal that will speed up Vodafone’s 5G rollout.
Be careful what you capture: Two robbers walk into a bank and end up learning how to “BeReal.” Amanda riffs on the “Saturday Night Live” skit about the social media startup, leaving us in stitches.
Poised for launch: Wisk Aero said it was ready to go after the certifications needed to begin operating its self-flying air taxi service, Rebecca reports.