This week in tech: hackers, data privacy and deals

It was another busy week for tech, with deals, funding and more data privacy hiccups.

Russian hackers have threatened to release private data that was believed to be stolen from ComReg in an attack earlier this year. The notorious Russian cybercriminal gang known as Cl0p said it has 143GB of data stolen from the agency in the ransomware attack that exploited a weakness in file transfer system Moveit. The attack also hit other organisations around the globe.

SoapBox Labs, the Irish voice technology start-up, has been given funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a Spanish language voice engine. The technology will open up literacy tools for millions of children in the US.

This is another win for the Irish company, which earlier this year struck a deal with global publisher Scholastic to integrate the company’s technology into its future reading products, and already has a deal with Imagine Learning. Last year awarded the first product certification to an educational technology company that focuses on equity in the design of artificial intelligence systems, Prioritising Racial Equity in AI Design.

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Also on the deals front, Irish software company Emydex has done a strategic deal with Baader, a German-based player in the global food processing industry. Baader has taken a majority stake in the Irish company, bringing its global reach to Emydex while also expanding its own digitalisation skills.

Keywords Studios, meanwhile, landed a $400 million line of credit to pursue new deals. The company, which is based in Dublin, landed the credit from a group of banks that includes AIB and Bank of Ireland to pursue its growth strategy.

The company has been growing steadily in recent years, with its most recent acquisitions including Hardsuit Studios in Seattle in May, Digital Media Management in March, and tech PR company LabCom at the end of last year.

Meta Platforms is facing mounting fines of one million Norwegian crowns (€88,000) per day over privacy breaches unless it takes remedial action, the country’s data protections regulator has said. The fines will begin on August 4th until November 3rd unless Meta takes action. The row is over harvesting0 user data in Norway, such as users’ physical locations, for targetted advertising.

Meta was also in the headlines this week after it said it would make its artificial intelligence solution Llama 2 more widely available. But talk of AI models posing a threat to humanity has “run in advance of the technology”, Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg said.

Microsoft’s new AI capabilities will cost customers more, to the tune of about $30 a month. That is a bigger premium than expected on the technology, but Microsoft chief Satya Nadella has defended the move, saying it is part of a generational shift in technology.

Intellexa, which produces a software product called Predator that can turn a mobile phone into a spying device, was recently placed on a “blacklist” by US authorities. But did you know that the company has had a presence in the Republic since at least late 2019? Jack Power looks at what the company does.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times Business Person of the Month is technology entrepreneur Terry Clune, the chief executive of CluneTech. Mr Clune is poised to secure a near €350 million pay-day after his CluneTech group agreed to sell its payroll software developer subsidiary Immedis to US multinational UKG in a deal reported to be worth €575 million.

With new iPhones predicted to arrive in the coming weeks, Karlin Lillington has some issues with the current design - specifically the side buttons, and the complicated combination to turn off the phone. Accidental screenshots, turning the volume up instead of down, and problems with contactless payments - the side buttons are “design hell”.

Speaking of smartphones, if you want to break your addiction to your smartphone, we have some tips. Greyscale screens, ditching notifications, and implementing screen time controls can help you keep your head up and your attention on the real world.

This week’s review may also help: a new service from Vodafone that lets you leave that smartphone at home and get your messages, calls and streaming music on your smartwatch.

Sky launched its Sky Glass TV months ago, but if you don’t need - or want - a new TV, the latest product might be more to your liking. Sky Stream works over your internet connection, and all you need is a compact box - and a decent broadband connection.

This week’s New Innovator is Vyra, a company that was developed by three life-long friend with a passion for sustainability. The company has a platform that allows companies to train large numbers of employees in sustainability awareness at the same time.

Mark Broadie may be a mild-mannered professor at Columbia Business School in New York City, but he has also revolutionised golf analytics, with a new statistical measure called “strokes gained”.

Hybrid working may be falling out of favour with some companies as bosses try to force people back into the office, but Dropbox was an early adopter, one of the first to announce it was going virtual-first. With remote working the “primary experience” for all employees, Olive Keogh looks at how that led to a rethink of the company’s traditional office layout.

Cantillon looks at Threads and the fall-off in usage - which coincides with parent company Meta locking out EU users - but it is still rattling Twitter boss Elon Musk.