Self-Interview: Seeking Co-Founders for SAAS Startup - <AUTHOR> THE PRIMARY FOCUS
RideBounty - http://www.ridebounty.com On-demand vehicle sharing platform (similar to Uber and Lyft, but also for developers). This platform is targeted toward rural areas/users who prefer not to have a mobile application. The process for vehicle-matching takes place through txt messaging and customer has the ability to set a higher fare (or bounty) to make their ride request more desirable. We are opening up the API to developers who can in turn develop whitelabel on-demand service applications, such as pizza delivery, courier services, etc.
THE COMPANY
Dynamictivity is a start-up company I have been playing around with for several years now, trying and failing on many ideas. I believe I have a winner here and I do have one co-founder who is committed to the success of this company. We are 100% boot-strapped and I pay for everything out of my own personal bank account. We have not approached any investors yet, however we do plan to in the future once we launch our beta. We are launching our alpha in a couple weeks and will begin having customers utilizing the platform, along with drivers.
THE INTERVIEW
To give you an idea of what kind of company I am building and also what working with me might be like, I am performing a self-interview. I will post the question and then I will answer it directly. I hope that this method will give you all a good idea as to what my vision is and hopefully attract the people who share similar visions.
Read the interview here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ic-Rjhs7fOqtxT_MrjGqss_o6D_oqoc3u53S-cCul04/edit?usp=sharing <comment><USER2> Great post! I hope you find equally nice cofounders!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Meira!</comment></comment>


Writing Testable Code in D (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V98Z11V7kEY

<comment><AUTHOR> Abstract:

Modern large-scale software design often requires ever-growing team sizes. As team size scales up, so does the amount of churn (and number of bugs introduced) to a code base in a release. Unfortunately, the amount of manual developer or QA testing necessary to find those bugs scales quadratically (or worse) as N features are tested by hand in M configurations. The solution is to keep coders, not QA, responsible for maintaining the quality of their individual components, and to make it trivial and fast to run just the right tests that cover the code the coder changes. D comes pre-baked with lots of tools to make this easier, including a standard unit testing harness, but there'smuch more we can build on top of that to help write not only tests for code, but code that can be tested in an automated fashion.

We'll discuss techniques and tools for designing large-scale testable code in D, including unit testing, mocks, fakes, inversion of control, and dependency injection.

Benefits: Learn how to write unit tests in D, and how to structure D code so it can be effectively unit tested.

Speaker Bio: Ben Gertzfield is a mobile engineer at Facebook. He's designed and shipped testability and dependency injection frameworks for Objective-C and C++, and is a huge advocate for freeing engineers from the burdens of manual testing.</comment>


Environment and the programming language Self, part 4 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rfox.eu/Bystroushaak%20s%20blog/English%20section/Series%20about%20Self/Environment%20and%20the%20programming%20language%20Self%20part%203.html <comment><USER2> I happened to use all three of the Sun Labs languages the article mentions, around that time. My university had a relationship with Sun, so I got to play with Self, and I added autoindent to the morphs world trait editors. Where I was working in parallel, I was responsible for the Tcl-based extension language for a commercial CAD-like system. I also got an advance look at what became Java, and later I wrote some of the first Java application code outside of Sun, plus some fancier GUI widgets.

All three languages were innovative, but I'd say Self had more innovations. Students of programming languages would do well to take a look at Self, even though things like JIT, prototype object models, and direct-manipulation graphics worlds are now used elsewhere.</comment>


Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge as early as 6 years old - <AUTHOR> http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6323/389.full <comment><AUTHOR> Abstract: Common stereotypes associate high-level intellectual ability (brilliance, genius, etc.) with men more than women. These stereotypes discourage women's pursuit of many prestigious careers; that is, women are underrepresented in fields whose members cherish brilliance (such as physics and philosophy). Here we show that these stereotypes are endorsed by, and influence the interests of, children as young as 6. Specifically, 6-year-old girls are less likely than boys to believe that members of their gender are "really, really smart." Also at age 6, girls begin to avoid activities said to be for children who are "really, really smart." These findings suggest that gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early and have an immediate effect on children's interests.</comment>


What is Cloud Computing? - <AUTHOR>

The technology of computers is advancing at an astonishing rate. Businesses large and small find it necessary to update their computer systems every 4 to 6 years due to wear and tear and to stay current with the latest technological advances. These are just some of the issues allowing the Cloud to gain in popularity. Basically Cloud Computing is enabling businesses to access their software applications from a centralized data center simply by connecting to the internet.
Cloud computing is said to be the biggest paradigm shift in the past 20 years. Leaders of the technology industry are calling it a "game changer". These statements highlight the incredible rate of advancements we've seen in the world of computers. Keeping up with these changes is a necessity for the success of most any business today. As a consumer, you may just be hearing about computing in "the cloud". It's only been recently that we've been seeing commercials on television introducing the Cloud to the public.
The beginnings of Cloud Computing can be traced back to the concept of "software as a service" which started to circulate in 2001. The acronym SaaS was coined in 2005 and gained popularity as an economical alternative to expensive software applications operating on business computer systems or servers. The development of broadband connectivity has enabled Cloud Computing to be more accessible anywhere there is an internet connection. In today's increasingly mobile world, business owners and workers can have convenient access to software programs and corporate data not only in the office, but in airports, restaurants, coffee houses and even in the comfort of their own home or on vacation in a foreign country.
There are great advantages of computing in the Cloud to consider. This gives the business owner many benefits to enjoy. Let's take a look at some of these benefits.
	Secure automatic backup: Enjoy never having to back up your files. The statistics show that less than 75% of all small businesses are not backing up adequately. The cloud computing model allows for your data to be encrypted and instantly stored in world class data centers using the latest technology available. This will insure the safety of your data and the ability of recovery from a secure data storage facility. This is a fully automated system and far superior to anything your average small business would be able to consider for secure backup storage.
	Remote accessibility: Remote accessibility is a convenience and a great advantage for a business any size. An owner, manager or employee can access the company's company file system and software programs to work from anywhere. All that's needed is an internet connection and a device like a laptop, iPad or smart phone to access the web. Being able to add multiple locations for businesses is a huge advantage for corporations needing to expand in a way that is affordable and smart. Just imagine eliminating the expense of investing in IT hardware and the time to set it up. These revenues can be used to grow the business. For a new small business just starting out, this could be the difference between making it and breaking the bank. For a larger corporation it could open up the door for global accessibility.
	Cost efficiency: With the Cloud, your IT cost will now be a predictable low monthly affordable rate. These expenses become an operational expense versus a capital expenditure. You will no longer need to own the equipment being used, eliminating the cost of owning servers or expensive computer hardware which needs to be updated and / or replaced every few years on a vicious cycle. Also enjoy the convenience of eliminating software installations and automatic upgrades. It also eliminates the cost of paying for your IT support team! Your only investment will be your monthly subscription, an internet connection and a device to access that connection.
	Hardware longevity: The recommended usage of computer components and servers in the business world is 4 to 5 years and then replacements with updates are needed. Since you are not storing the information on your computer or using your machine to run your software programs, you are able to operate your computers much longer. In many cases this can double the life of your average PC and gives you the freedom to focus on your business.
	Computer power: Many software programs have a list of minimum requirements needed to operate their programs. This could be processing power or special equipment. Some software programs only operate in a particular environment like Windows or MAC. Cloud computing levels the playing field. The host provider is running your applications so you only need to access the internet. This eliminates the need for your software to operate on any particular platform or a server that may cost anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000!
What should you look for? Not all cloud providers are alike. Most are very limited in what services they are able to provide. Ideally, for maximum ease and efficiency, one should have access to all of the programs needed to run the entire business. This will allow for seamless integration between all programs. Most businesses require a CRM (customer relationship manager) or a particular business application and a program for accounting, word processing, data spreadsheets, etc… You will want to be able to connect your entire business via the cloud. 	Who should you choose to partner with? VOStm (Virtual Office Systems) has been providing cloud solutions for the past 9 years, and has customers accessing their business from 8 different countries as far as China. VOStm has focused on the needs of small and mid-sized companies, allowing them to operate with greater efficiency and more profitability.
Now is the time to consider operating your business from the cloud. Contact a VOStm representative to analyze your needs with an easy and quick business evaluation. Get VOStm to host your entire business and start to invest in your future. To be successful you need to be informed and know your options. A FREE business evaluation will give you all the information you need to make the right decision for your business.
Milo Mannino VOS (Virtual Office Systems) www.getvos.com (614) 436-2921 ext.107 <comment><AUTHOR> Very informative.</comment>


Show HN: AppScreens.io – Create and Localize App Screens - <AUTHOR> https://appscreens.io

<comment><AUTHOR> I was tired of wasting so much time making and localizing App Store Screens for our iTranslate Apps and wanted to have a nice WYSIWYG web tool to create those fancy screens. So I teamed up with the nice guys from @bytepoets and we created AppScreens.io

Of course we know that there are already some solutions, but AppScreens brings three new things on the table:

\- It's totally WYSIWYG. A real App Screen design tool, right in your Browser. \- You can localize your Screens in 5 different languages (more coming soon). \- No login required. We use hashed urls for App projects that can easily be bookmarked and shared.

We already have lots of new features in the pipeline and can't wait to hear what you guys think!</comment>


A Multi-Risk Sir Model with Optimally Targeted Lockdown [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://economics.mit.edu/files/19699 <comment><AUTHOR> > We develop a multi-risk SIR model (MR-SIR) where infection, hospitalization > and fatality rates vary between groups—in particular between the "young", > "the middle- aged" and the "old". Our MR-SIR model enables a tractable > quantitative analysis of optimal policy similar to those already developed > in the context of the homogeneous- agent SIR models. For baseline parameter > values for the COVID-19 pandemic applied to the US, we find that optimal > policies differentially targeting risk/age groups sig- nificantly outperform > optimal uniform policies and most of the gains can be realized by having > stricter lockdown policies on the oldest group. For example, for the same > economic cost (24.3% decline in GDP), optimal semi–targeted or fully- > targeted poli- cies reduce mortality from 1.83% to 0.71% (thus, saving 2.7 > million lives) relative to optimal uniform policies. Intuitively, a strict > and long lockdown for the most vulnera- ble group both reduces infections > and enables less strict lockdowns for the lower-risk groups. We also study > the impacts of social distancing, the matching technology, the expected > arrival time of a vaccine, and testing with or without tracing on optimal > policies. Overall, targeted policies that are combined with measures that > reduce inter- actions between groups and increase testing and isolation of > the infected can minimize both economic losses and deaths in our model.</comment>


Feedback for Probstack – Find problems that are worth solving - <AUTHOR> https://www.probstack.io <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

Hope you are safe and well.

I would like to know your feedback and first impressions on [https://www.probstack.io](https://www.probstack.io) a community to find problems that are worth solving!

A place to raise, discuss and get problems solved that are worth it organically.

A little background on how it all started in 2019.

I have seen successful failures with most of my projects since last few years except 'How's It Like' \- www.howsitlike.com which is doing great! ;) This took me back to the first step of understanding if I'm looking at the right problem at all that needs a solution. Often times, I found majority of the products are solving something that is not actually broken and not worth fixing it.

I started curiously searching for some real problems from users so that I can pick the most pressing problem in that list and work on that. I ended up finding thousands of articles and content on how to find problems that are worth solving but there is no actual platform where this can be initiated. I've seen loads of time, effort and money going into products that ended up failing and most of the times, the reason being the product is not of interest to the users!

This is where our initial MVP started off in 2019 Feb..

Kicked off in February 2019 with a small community of people raising, discussing and sharing problems in an excel sheet.

In April 2019, we have launched 'ProShareUs' \- 'Share your problems with us' through a minimal product and that helped us reach more people.

And in 2020, we are redesigning and rebranding our product as 'Probstack' \- 'Find problems that are worth solving' to better reflect our mission and stand out.

I'm happy to be re-launching very soon and would love to speak to people who have frustrating problems and also to curious makers who are looking for valuable problems.

Here is our landing page meanwhile we launch - [https://www.probstack.io](https://www.probstack.io)

Many thanks!!</comment>


SaaS ideas weekly in your emailbox - <AUTHOR> http://www.saasidea.io/saasideasweekly <comment><AUTHOR> Hello,

approximately 2 weeks ago, when I wrote down the next idea of some SaaS app into my 35-page Google doc, I suddenly realized that (surprise, surprise!) there is no way for me to implement all of them. Even a half. Even maybe a ten. So, I started feeling like the wealthy who buries a treasure - nobody, including me, can't use it.

Well, it wasn't good feeling :)

That's how I came to the idea to share most of my ideas (sorry for tautology :) - every week (on Friday) I will send you a new email with the description of one SaaS app.

I created a mailing series and you can subscribe to it here [http://www.saasidea.io/saasideasweekly](http://www.saasidea.io/saasideasweekly)

 _Why wouldn 't I share the whole list?_

Because I actually have several of them located on different devices - <USER2> drive, iphone, and Mac, and a bunch on paper. It's kind of hard to organize the whole list. Another reason - documents have some private notes that I need to remove or edit.

 _Why only weekly?_

Because it's not just an idea itself, I carefully prepare them, every email has a bunch of additional information like:

\- Name, description, and tags (subject areas)

\- A problem that SaaS app can solve

\- Potential users

\- Actions that users can do online (or actions that SaaS can automate)

\- Existing competitors or similar services and how to differentiate from them

\- Some technical stuff (libraries/frameworks/technologies that can be used)

\- Components involved in development (such as maps, full-text search, AI, ML etc.)

\- Possible ways to monetize

\- Possible difficulties and obstacles

 _Are your ideas unique?_

Well, yes and no. Most of them, of course, already implemented somehow. But it doesn't mean that there is no place for yet another implementation. Find your unique niche, add unique features, make your service outstanding. Some of these things I listed in the description.

 _May I use your ideas?_

Of course, you can! Even you must - that's why I created the list.

 _What if I have another cool idea?_

If you have a cool idea and ready to prepare it accordingly to the list, you are very welcome! Just drop me email (see it in my profile) and if I find your idea nice and relevant, I will publish it in some nearest emails along with your name.

Any questions? suggestions? please comment or drop me email at info@saas- idea.com

Thanks!</comment>


Show HN: Paladin Cyber (YC S17)- Free browser security and protection for Chrome - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/paladin-browser-protectio/lkhghipfmlbmmcamcamkhpjjggnlpani <comment><USER2> Great job guys! Nice to see one solution that covers many different types of potential security threats.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very cool, some other good information on the website:

[https://www.meetpaladin.com/paladin-browser-protection- for-c...](https://www.meetpaladin.com/paladin-browser-protection-for-chrome)

Hope to see some deep dives on the extension features on your blog!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Han from Paladin here. We are really excited to launch our latest Chrome Extension and excited to get feedback from users like you.

Paladin was founded as a Cyber Protection company for SMBs. One of the products that we began building was a cyber protection tool suite for employers to give to their employees. The tool would help mitigate the risk of being hacked. We also provided remediation services, that was all backstopped by a cyber insurance policy. Our chrome extension was built with NSA level encryption and security measures, and we realized that we couldn't just let this chrome extension hide behind a wall only for small businesses.

Once we had tested our chrome extension extensively, we decided to take our mission of making cyber protection easy for the little guy, and extend it to consumers by offering our Paladin Browser Protection for Chrome to the general consumer, free of charge.

As consumers and internet users we are often at risk of being hacked, even when we don't necessarily realize it. Add to that the fact that most available tools out there are really only band-aids, incomplete, or act as medicine, we realized it was important to build a vaccine. Paladin Browser Protection for Chrome provides protection against the top 5 consumer vulnerabilities:

Weak passwords, unsecured public WiFi, phishing emails and website, unsafe content and XSS vulnerabilities and attacks. Here's a breakdown of the features and how they work:

\- Password management -65% of people use a single password among all applications, so when one login is breached, they all will be. Setup a single sign-on password with our password manager and generate strong passwords for all of your logins.

\- Phishing protection - 91% of successful hacking attempts start with phishing emails. With Paladin's Browser Protection Chrome Extension we protect your inbox (compatible with Gmail and Outlook365) by calling out malicious attempts so you don't get hacked.

\- Unsecured WiFi protection - 68% of public and unsecured wifi users fall victim to an attack. We encrypt all your data before it goes to the router, then route it back through our servers, leaving you clear of any danger.

\- Website and content filtering - 99% of known threats are blocked by our filter. The filter prevents you from accessing all phishing websites along with other unsafe sites

\- Cross-site scripting protection - 50% of websites are affected by XSS vulnerability. A script attack allows a hacker to transfer malicious code right through a normally visited website. We stop them dead in their tracks and report back to Paladin and the authorities to take them down.

Explore the chrome extension, test it out, and let us know what you think. I'm here to answer your questions.</comment>


Hashing for large-scale similarity - <AUTHOR> https://mesuvash.github.io/blog/2019/Hashing-for-similarity/ <comment><USER2> If you're interested in state-of-the-art approaches, there is work around learned similarity functions.

First method is using autoencoders, which are networks that try to reconstruct their input, but going through a constricted, smaller space. This smaller space is hypothethised to be a good representation of your inputs. The first half of the autoencoder is the function that goes input -> restricted space which is similar to a hash function and can be used as such for similarity measures. Examples of papers from this method: "Using very deep autoencoders for content-based image retrieval"

Another, conceptually simpler approach is to just train a learned similarity function directly using triplet loss. Have samples of each input, labelled with a similar input and a dissimilar input. This will force the learned function to output similar hashes for the similar inputs and dissimilar hashes for the dissimilar outputs. This works surprisingly well. See for example: "Loc2Vec: Learning location embeddings with triplet-loss networks" For image inputs, it's best for the learned function to have some convolutional layers.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the pointers.

From my personal experience, Auto-encoders are amazing for dense input (images, audio etc), more specifically, when the input feature space is not large. However, in many real-world problems such as recommendation, ranking etc. the feature space is generally very sparse for eg clicks, purchase of items (say 100M items). In such cases, scaling can be challenging with neural models esp Autoencoder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The Jaccard and Cosine similarity metrics are easy to grasp. I think the hashes could take some work.

Also you're counting up to k hash functions, but the element before the three dots is already element k. I think it should be 1,2,...,k, instead of 1,k,...,k.

<comment><USER3> >>I think the hashes could take some work. Any suggestions or thing that are not clear?

Thanks for your feedback. I shall update the post accordingly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you're looking for other connections, simhash is very closely related to random projections and can be used for dimensionality reduction in machine learning.</comment>


"Antedisciplinary" Science - <AUTHOR> https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010006 <comment><USER2> I'm currently in the middle of applying for graduate programs in [[Computational/Systems/Synthetic/Quantitative Biology]/Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering/Bioinformatics/Biotechnology] and, after working in related fields for years and having combed through dozens of relevant departments, I couldn't tell you what any of those terms _mean_ relative to another (or rather, for any of those terms, I could show you two important universities that seem to use them very differently.) They all indicate overlapping areas of a very poorly-defined space in between "normal" biology, computer science, and physical engineering (as well as several other fields.)

Pragmatically, for a prospective student, it's a giant pain simply because it's hard to tell what a program bearing one of these names will actually teach you! Some "computational biology" programs will include wet-lab work, others will never let you near a pipette. Some bioengineering programs are almost purely physical-machines engineering; others use the word interchangeably with "bioinformatics." And so on.

But somewhere in that mess is the future of biology, medicine, and probably some other things as well.

<comment><USER3> I'm working in biomedical research, and wholeheartedly agree. I have a Bioengineering degree and can't define Bioengineering.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Every generation, we somehow compress our knowledge just enough to leave > room in our brains for one more generation of progress.

I imagine it'd be pretty easy to do that today given the state of math edjumacation in American schools (never went to one). Looks like the bulk of it is calculus and not even the rigorous kind or the kind that could at least be immediately applied to problems today. A 1368 pages calculus book doesn't have a word about something as immediately useful as Gamma function (comes up a lot in today's compsci). Wouldn't it be more fruitful to chop all the current calculus sequences and instead have a semester of finite-dimensional vector spaces first followed up by a semester of functional analysis while introducing only the important bits of analysis as one goes? The relevant bits of mulitvariable calculus and differential geometry of curves and surfaces could be easily introduced within the framework of linear algebra within the first or second semester. That way students could progress to the frontiers of math and bleeding edge of engineering and sciences much faster. As it stands right now, it seems to me the students are forced to waster time, energy, money, potential on memorizing how to solve old chestnuts like the optimization problems from the single variable calculus that were (probably) barely relevant in the middle of the last century.

</comment><comment><USER5> > However these 3 years of work in isolation, when I was thrown onto my own > resources, following guidelines which I myself had spontaneously invented, > instilled in me a strong degree of confidence, unassuming yet enduring, in > my ability to do mathematics, which owes nothing to any consensus or to the > fashions which pass as law. [..] to reach out in my own way to the things I > wished to learn, rather than relying on the notions of the consensus, overt > or tacit, coming from a more or less extended clan of which I found myself a > member, or which for any other reason laid claim to be taken as an > authority. This silent consensus had informed me, both at the lyé and at the > university, that one shouldn't bother worrying about what was really meant > when using a term like "volume", which was "obviously self-evident", > "generally known", "unproblematic", etc. I'd gone over their heads, almost > as a matter of course, even as Lesbesgue himself had, several decades > before, gone over their heads. It is in this gesture of "going beyond", to > be something in oneself rather than the pawn of a consensus, the refusal to > stay within a rigid circle that others have drawn around one - it is in this > _solitary_ act that one finds _true creativity_. All others things follow as > a matter of course.

\-- Alexandre Grothendieck, "The Life of a Mathematician - Reflections and Bearing Witness" (1986)</comment>


The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Logic_Puzzle_Ever

<comment><AUTHOR> The puzzle:

"Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are da and ja, in some order. You do not know which word means which."

Clarifications: A single god may be asked more than one question, questions are permitted to depend on the answers to earlier questions, and the nature of Random's response should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely.</comment>


Web 2.0 Deals Spread Beyond San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119017472849832220.html?mod=mkts_main_news_hs_h Possibly Paywalled, so:
Venture-capital investment in so-called Web 2.0 companies, generally ad-supported Web sites in fields like social networking or blogging, is showing signs of maturity, with deals spreading outside the San Francisco Bay Area, according to new data released Monday.
The Bay Area, known for producing some of the most high-profile Internet companies, exploded last year with $413.7 million over 69 rounds of financing, which easily trumped any other region in the U.S. or overseas. However, in the first half of 2007, venture capitalists invested just $90.5 million in 25 rounds there, according to data from Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young LLP.
Meanwhile, New England topped the Bay Area in dollars with $102 million in the first half, over 10 deals, compared with $62 million and 12 deals in all of 2006.
Overall, the research showed that investors directed $646.2 million into 101 deals world-wide in the first half of the year, a 6% increase in investments over the same period in 2006, amid a rising interest in Web 2.0 in Europe and Israel. U.S. investments were virtually unchanged from the first half of 2006 with 67 deals and $357 million invested.
The data show that $52 million was put to work in 20 European Web 2.0 deals in the first half, roughly double the deals and investments seen in the same period last year. Israeli Web 2.0 companies raised $15 million in five deals in the first half, up from two deals and $5 million invested in all of 2006.
Investment in Web 2.0 start-ups has skyrocketed in the past two years as inexpensive technology has made it easier for people to communicate through the Internet.
"If you're a venture guy, there are few areas you can look now and find an equally attractive place to put your money," said Scott Raney, partner at Redpoint Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif. "You can't beat an investment of $5 million in a company that could get acquired for hundreds of millions."
Mr. Raney said companies better understand how to monetize the Web and are moving on from building a Web property -- like a social network that attracts a particular demographic -- to building a Web business that knows how to deliver targeted advertising to that demographic.
Meanwhile, valuations for Web companies continue to rise, a worrisome factor for venture capitalists in a much-hyped market. Mr. Raney said investors are split on whether it is best to invest in an unproven company at a low valuation or invest a large chunk of money at a high valuation in a company that is already gaining traction. <comment><AUTHOR> Venture-capital investment in so-called Web 2.0 companies, generally ad- supported Web sites in fields like social networking or blogging, is showing signs of maturity, with deals spreading outside the San Francisco Bay Area, according to new data released Monday.

The Bay Area, known for producing some of the most high-profile Internet companies, exploded last year with $413.7 million over 69 rounds of financing, which easily trumped any other region in the U.S. or overseas. However, in the first half of 2007, venture capitalists invested just $90.5 million in 25 rounds there, according to data from Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young LLP.

Meanwhile, New England topped the Bay Area in dollars with $102 million in the first half, over 10 deals, compared with $62 million and 12 deals in all of 2006.

Overall, the research showed that investors directed $646.2 million into 101 deals world-wide in the first half of the year, a 6% increase in investments over the same period in 2006, amid a rising interest in Web 2.0 in Europe and Israel. U.S. investments were virtually unchanged from the first half of 2006 with 67 deals and $357 million invested.

The data show that $52 million was put to work in 20 European Web 2.0 deals in the first half, roughly double the deals and investments seen in the same period last year. Israeli Web 2.0 companies raised $15 million in five deals in the first half, up from two deals and $5 million invested in all of 2006.

Investment in Web 2.0 start-ups has skyrocketed in the past two years as inexpensive technology has made it easier for people to communicate through the Internet.

"If you're a venture guy, there are few areas you can look now and find an equally attractive place to put your money," said Scott Raney, partner at Redpoint Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif. "You can't beat an investment of $5 million in a company that could get acquired for hundreds of millions."

Mr. Raney said companies better understand how to monetize the Web and are moving on from building a Web property -- like a social network that attracts a particular demographic -- to building a Web business that knows how to deliver targeted advertising to that demographic.

Meanwhile, valuations for Web companies continue to rise, a worrisome factor for venture capitalists in a much-hyped market. Mr. Raney said investors are split on whether it is best to invest in an unproven company at a low valuation or invest a large chunk of money at a high valuation in a company that is already gaining traction.

</comment><comment><USER2> I'm very skeptical, esp about New England beating SV. The numbers they quote are not that high; a few big deals could be responsible for this "trend."

In our sample, which is getting to be quite big, the SV investors are much more aggressive than the Boston investors.

<comment><AUTHOR> What about [New York](<http://informationarbitrage.typepad.com/about.html>)? There are plenty of rich ex-bankers/traders throwing money at new ventures (Wallstrip, for example, was funded with $600,000 -- for a video blog).

<comment><USER2> Rich is not enough. The value of Silicon Valley investors is that they're also experts in startups.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is there a $15k penalty for not accepting YC's offer to join? - <AUTHOR> I was looking at startup school's rules for being eligible for the $15k they will give out to some founders/companies who complete it.
The rules state: Additionally, to be eligible companies must apply to Y Combinator's core program by completing the application on our website, located at ycombinator.com. Applicants who are accepted to the core program will not be eligible for the $15K grant.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u1PhQxw4zNY3Pu0ZViTW-7tdDUOsqQSRDO9pKH6Bq70/edit#bookmark=id.kxlsfxzbs19b
In a sense if you are deemed good enough for the grant and then accepted but then don't accept the YC offer to join, you also seem to lose the $15k? <comment><USER3> There is no "but you're good enough for the grant if you're good enough for the core" or "lose the 15k" or whatever. It's not there to be an independent program, it's there so they can cover bets they otherwise lack the space to engage.

Think about it in terms of logistics.

They go over applications, which are attached to core program applications, so they decide who to accept, then they grab the pile that was good but couldn't fit and award grants to some of those that sent the auxiliary application for a grant. Then they send award letters for both.

After they've sent letters, whose grant do you propose they retroactively deny to make room for someone who got the main prize but changed their mind about accepting it and just wants money?

They could hypothetically set it up so you could pick one, but that adds a bunch of extra work to administer it, plus you'd get people trying to game the process by sending in core program apps they don't intend to follow through on. So it doesn't make any sense for them to do it that way.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't think it is a penalty, you arent asked to pay anything. From how I read that, if you are accepted into the main program, then you are not considered anymore for the 15k grant and are out of the running for that - <USER2> just becomes irrelevant. It's not that you get 15k, then get in, then get the 15k taken away from you. You won't even be considered for the grant.

<comment><AUTHOR> You not asked to pay anything. But here are the 4 possible outcomes from completing startup school and trying for the $15k:

1\. Go through it, apply for core, don't get accepted don't get $15k

2\. Go through it, apply for core, don't get accepted to core but get $15k

3\. Go through it, apply for core, get accepted to core, enter core, don't get $15k (but get more money, with strings)

4\. Go through it, apply for core, get accepted to core, decline core, don't get $15k

Point is if you are accepted in to the core program then clearly you are good enough to get the $15k. But if you decide to NOT enter the core program, they seem to pull that $15k which clearly you are good enough for.

For some startups, they might actually prefer the no strings $15k over the more money and network but giving up equity.

Now of course YC is not obligated to give anyone $15k. But it seems they are pulling the $15k which they consider you at least good enough for, if you don't accept their terms. Which is again their right, though should be clear.

<comment><USER4> From their perspective if they think you are far enough along for the core, you might be too good for the grant. I think the aim is to support those marginal companies that just need a bit of a push to become investment ready, not the companies that are already good enough to raise from YC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No, I read this that if you are accepted to YC accelerator you will get the $150k (or whatever it is) but not the $15k in addition to the $150k. If you are not accepted into YC and only into startup school then it is the $15k assuming you meet all the other criteria.

Does that make more sense?

<comment><AUTHOR> It might be me being legalistic, but technically it says accepted, not accepted and enter. I think because they mandate you apply to the core program, that I am wondering about the technicalities.

I get that if you do enter the core program, you don't also get the $15k, that makes sense.</comment></comment>


Private Mossad for Hire - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/private-mossad-for-hire <comment><USER2> And then again.. This would be the ideal psy-op, especially this time with governmental shutdowns in the USA. What sources are truly reliable now a days, whomst has no agenda to advance and no agenda to push...

</comment><comment><USER3> Spoiler: the op backfires and actually increases public outrage over these naked manipulation tactics, resulting in a massive electoral victory for the target.

I feel like the same thing may be happening with BDS. The naked attempts to smear and dox college kids is just shining a light on these shady tactics that right-wing Israel activists have employed for years.

<comment><USER4> There should be as much outrage over Israeli meddling in domestic politics as there is in Russian meddling in domestic politics. Sure Israel is not a competitor to the US and so Israel meddling only affects countries, people, or groups not friendly to Israel or Israeli companies supplying tech to dictators, it's still something that should be concerning for affecting the process of democracy and for general world peace.

<comment><USER3> There's a difference that's important to understand. U.S. support for Israel's aggressive policies is not a result of Israeli "meddling" or even the domestic "Israel lobby". Those things would never be permitted over so many decades if there wasn't a bipartisan U.S. geopolitical objective to begin with: namely, to have a strong Western-aligned military ally to project power over the region.

For comparison, Russia is nothing like that kind of client state ally, and support for their meddling is a fairly recent and specific case and not likely to last.

<comment><USER5> > U.S. support for Israel's aggressive policies is not a result of Israeli > "meddling" or even the domestic "Israel lobby". Those things would never be > permitted over so many decades if there wasn't a bipartisan U.S. > geopolitical objective to begin with

A successful lobby will of course convince its targets- politicians, but the entire public opinion when necessary- that its objectives coincide with their objectives. Mearsheimer and Walt, in their famous "the Israel lobby" argued that "no [other] lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical".

In fact, have you ever thought exactly _how_ would the interests of Israel coincide with those of the US?

<comment><USER3> The idea that an "all-powerful small ethnic Jewish lobby" can trick the corporate elite of America for decades to do things against their interests is, putting aside its anti-semitic implications, utterly ridiculous. It is a way of deflecting blame away from the U.S. government itself.[1]

The strategic interests are obvious: Israel is one of the largest military powers in the middle east and a means to project U.S. power over it. This was observed by the Pentagon as early as the late 1940s.[2] This is why the U.S. has given so much financial, military and diplomatic aid to Israel, one of the effects of which has been to build up its tech industry.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds7c3gOf2_I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds7c3gOf2_I)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQ_0MubbcM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQ_0MubbcM)

<comment><USER5> > The idea ... is, putting aside its anti-semitic implications, utterly > ridiculous.

And yet it's what any other lobby does. Let's just clear a first point: the lobby exists. It has websites:

[https://www.aipac.org/](https://www.aipac.org/)

And it's not just made of "ethnic jews":

[https://www.cufi.org/](https://www.cufi.org/)

As for the strategic interest, it might have been obvious at the beginning of Israel, now not so much. Let me remind you that Israel is an aggressive state in contravention of international law since many decades, with a history of ethnic cleansing [1] and apartheid [2], and that such practices are drivers of instability and violence in the region, and that supporting and defending them has a political and military cost. The 9/11 attacks and the subsequent "war on terror" were part of this costs, as stated clearly by the perpetrators of the attacks. [3]

Have a read of this article by a former US ambassador in the region, that discusses the reality of the strategic value and "US power projection" provided by Israel to the US:

[https://www.wrmea.org/010-september-october/what-they- said-t...](https://www.wrmea.org/010-september-october/what-they-said-the-big- lie-that-israel-is-a-strategic-asset-for-the-united-states.html)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethnic_Cleansing_of_Palest...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethnic_Cleansing_of_Palestine) [2] [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/13/palest...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/13/palestinians- still-face-apartheid-israel-25-years-after-oslo-accord) [3] [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver)

<comment><USER3> The United States has never had a problem supporting aggressive states in contravention of international law with a history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. It is itself such a state.

From the perspective of U.S. planners there are both costs and benefits to aggressively projecting power over the middle east (and for that matter the rest of the world). You've only identified the costs. You omit the perceived benefits and implicitly exaggerate the influence of a small, (primarily) ethnic domestic lobby.

That is like saying the Roman empire was a bad idea because it obviously would lead to collapse--true--but instead of chalking it up to outsized imperialism by the Romans themselves you blame some like Mesopotamian lobbyists for overextending it.

<comment><USER5> > a history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. It is itself such a state.

Well, you tried to score an easy win there. (1)

But Israel is engaging in such oppression _now_ , we're not talking about a remote past. We're talking about very public and vociferous support for the very public actions of a democratic state- a state on whose policies the citizens have control through democratic elections and knowledge through public opinion.

> aggressively projecting power

It's the third time you use the expression "projecting power" in a handwavy fashion, without explaining what you mean in detail. I've linked in my previous comment the opinion of a former US ambassador, arguing that this supposed "power projection" amounts to nil. I was expecting some counter- arguments.

I'll paste an excerpt here:

"It's useful to recall what we generally expect allies and strategic partners to do for us. In Europe, Asia, and elsewhere in the Middle East, they provide bases and support the projection of American power beyond their borders. They join us on the battlefield in places like Kuwait and Afghanistan or underwrite the costs of our military operations. They help recruit others to our coalitions. They coordinate their foreign aid with ours. Many defray the costs of our use of their facilities with "host nation support" that reduces the costs of our military operations from and through their territory. They store weapons for our troops', rather than their own troops', use. They pay cash for the weapons we transfer to them.

Israel does none of things and shows no interest in doing them. Perhaps it can't. It is so estranged from everyone else in the Middle East that no neighboring country will accept flight plans that originate in or transit it. Israel is therefore useless in terms of support for American power projection."

-

1- As an aside, I understand that there might be a fundamental contradiction in the minds of the freedom and independence-loving Americans: while they repeal and condemn ethnic cleansing and oppression of native populations by superior force, they also somehow must accept its eventual historical outcome, as they are themselves that outcome.

<comment><USER3> You are being obstinate. I cited a couple extensive discussions of the matter backed by voluminous scholarly work, compared to your one ambassador to Saudi Arabia. You promptly ignored them. Israel is literally the only nuclear power in the middle east and they are essentially a client state of the U.S. They have helped destroy secular Arab nationalism (e.g. 1967) which was/is the greatest threat to U.S. control of the region. There is intelligence collaboration. There are internal U.S. planning documents going back to the 1940s demonstrating the perceived military value in supporting Israel.

The existence of dissenting voices within the establishment proves nothing. There are always hawks & doves that debate the costs & benefits of policies. It's as shabby an argument as the notion that a relatively small Jewish lobby could "trick" U.S. corporate powers that be into doing something against their perceived interests for decades.

<comment><USER5> > You are being obstinate. I cited a couple extensive discussions of the > matter backed by voluminous scholarly work

Hm? Sorry, I think I missed them. I can only see two videos of Noam Chomsky.

> and they are essentially a client state of the U.S

This is what you are trying to prove. I haven't heard a single argument or seen a single good reference yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> what cracks me up about this story is that the voters triumphed simply because they were oblivious to the internet's lies

</comment><comment><USER7> With so many separate distinct groups trying to influence US voting, all we have is an election.

</comment><comment><USER8> Like Uber, but for Mossad.

</comment><comment><USER9> The enemy within. Our government has plants all over the place. I guarantee it. The law of averages says so.

</comment><comment><USER10> The reassuring bit is how remarkably useless this whole operation sounds - basically cargo cult Trumpism. Bet they could have hired a couple of local high school kids to run a more dirty tricks campaign that had more salience with the local population than a presidential campaign knockoff.

(edit: am really interested to know who thinks the draintulareswamp.com websites and questioning the ancestry of a Hispanic candidate in a 60% Hispanic town and resulting electoral defeat by an >80% margin was doing an effective job...)</comment>


We busted a fake Chrome extension that was trying to steal data - <AUTHOR> https://www.extrahop.com/company/blog/2018/fake-chrome-extension-threat-hunt/ <comment><USER2> _" It's also not clear how any other tool would have detected the long-lived, persistent outbound connection with relatively low bandwidth"_

Perhaps, but this extension could have been stealthier. It was using a plaintext web socket on port 6332. If the extension author had instead gotten a Google analytics account, and exfiltrated data via encrypted https GETS to Google servers, it might have never been spotted. That kind of traffic likely happens 24/7 in a typical corporate environment.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally. This extension was trying to be stealthy about exfiltrating data...but it wasn't trying that hard. As noted in the article, the same developer had at least one other extension using the same code to obfuscate and exfiltrate data. Seems like sort of a spray and pray approach

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The blog post was moderately informative/useful and interesting, marketing brochure website behind it next to useless and can't find anything meaningful about what they actually sell or do. Frustrating follow-up experience for me that reminds me of most enterprise ISVs.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a network traffic analysis product. You send it traffic via port mirror and it analyzes for shady behavior. Here's the main overview of what it is [https://www.extrahop.com/products/security/](https://www.extrahop.com/products/security/)

<comment><USER4> And here's a technical overview of the product: [https://www.extrahop.com/products/security/how-it- works/](https://www.extrahop.com/products/security/how-it-works/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a serious issue with Chrome Store. Google doesn't properly warn users that the store is not premoderated and can contain malware. Instead, they have made a colourful positively looking site without necessary warnings.

<comment><USER6> Neither does download.com. Maybe what we need is a good A/V designed around chrome and firefox et al.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It should be noted, that at one time, Postman was a chrome extension. They recently depreciated that extension.

[http://blog.getpostman.com/2017/11/01/goodbye-postman- chrome...](http://blog.getpostman.com/2017/11/01/goodbye-postman-chrome-app/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep that's a great point. That deprecation probably contributed to the gap that the malware uploader exploited. People expect an extension called postman, and they find it. Their guard is down and they download the fake one. I don't know the solution but there has to be a better way for App/extension stores to handle this relatively common scenario.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Because the visibility of the Arc Welder extension (the one that lets you use Android apps on desktop chrome) is set to hidden, which hides it from both Web Store and Google Searches, there are malicious extensions that take advantage of this and will become the top search result for Arc Welder. And if you don't know where to look, it can be very hard to find the real link for Arc Welder. So as a result, these malicious Arc Welders often get many thousands of installs before being taken down. Very frustrating because even if you report them immediately after they are added, it takes a few days to take them down.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that is incredibly frustrating. It seems to me that many of these types of scams target general consumers, piggybacking on legitimate app's names to get a few thousand people to pay a buck or give you some personal info, etc. These instances that target developer tools have the potential to do a different kind of damage to peoples' livelihoods.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _As of this writing, the malicious "Postman" extension is still available in the Google Chrome extension store and has been downloaded over 27,000 times._

This is pretty much par for the course, unfortunately.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep. Pretty hard to police. Unlikely to be removed until it gets quite a lot of attention.

<comment><USER10> Firefox does it really well though, before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's a ZDNet article about the same extension [https://www.zdnet.com/article/industrial-espionage-fears- ari...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/industrial-espionage-fears-arise-over- chrome-extension-caught-stealing-browsing-history/)

</comment><comment><USER11> Black theme of tool makes me chuckle. Wondering how it became defacto color theme of hacking tools! Only thing missing is neon green.

<comment><USER12> Because it's easier on the eyes. For people spending unhealthy amounts of time being bombarded by monitors right in the retinas, it's a necessity.

<comment><USER13> It's not a "necessity," it's a personal preference.

I started out programming on a dark theme (the emacs default) but I've used a light theme professionally for about 15 years (and no other dark applications). I prefer the light theme and I don't find it hard on my eyes one bit and I have astigmatism.

<comment><USER14> The Emacs default is bright (black text on white background), not dark.

The exception is if you're using it in a terminal, in which case it re-uses the terminal's colors.

<comment><USER13> Well, the emacs theme installed on our school computers was a dark theme. This was way back in the day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> .. and this is what SimilarWeb browser extensions have been doing for 5+ years. Yet Google doesn't seem to care.

</comment><comment><USER16> Well, that was a fun way to find out you have a malicious app installed in your browser.

It would be nice to have an overview of what exactly was exported to know the impact of this breach (without having to use reveal(x) myself).

<comment><AUTHOR> It was sending off URLs visited by the host machine. Browsing history, essentially, which could be benign except that when your machine is inside a corp network you might be visiting all kinds of internal resources with URLs that shouldn't be public/with sensitive info included in the resource locator, GET/POST contents, etc

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Generally speaking anyone can create malicious software disguised in various way, so FOSS project included.

However instead of creating a "antivirus" vs "virus" classic scenario, that we all know it doesn't work my lines is: all must be open (hw, sw) and developed in a FOSS way from the start.

For instance if you are an hw OEM who want to produce a new GNU/Linux phone? Ok, start work on it in a public repo. If your project interest others, many with valuable skills came to help. Perhaps including some bad one. But the community will protect you, because you publish from the start the rate of benevolent and interested individuals that follow your project from the start will likely detect any bad guys, far better than any software, heuristic and even "AI" in general terms. After you know that community give credit so if the project will be successful people will buy your product, paying you back for your part of work and physical production. Other, of course, may use your schematics and software for free but if they add competitive features you get them back for free because of FOSS licensing, if they do not respect licenses you'll get backed by FSF&c that have a firepower and advertising capability normally superior to any new company/startup. Otherwise if there is only a price competition many will go for the cheap, many, not all. And if you and the community keep innovate the project you keep gaining money, no different than pharmaceutical industry that do research vs pharmaceutical "generic" industry.

Long story short: I can't trust closed sources extensions nor more nor less than closed source security software, I can't trust a company no more than another (only reputation can lead to small percentage variations). So I do my best to avoid inoculate in my systems software that I can't trust... Good assessments are still needed but they are IMO not really much valuable without the openness at the base: the _need_ of trust is a weakness, so we need to being able to trust each other with the power of verify trust at the core, not only at the skin.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nice ad.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As of this writing, the fake Postman extension appears to have been removed from the Chrome extension store. Huzzah!</comment>


The Seamus Heaney Experience - <AUTHOR> https://www.drb.ie/essays/the-seamus-heaney-experience <comment><USER2> Incredible poet. This poem is so sad:

Mid-Term Break BY SEAMUS HEANEY I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying— He had always taken funerals in his stride— And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'. Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

</comment><comment><USER3> And some time make the time to drive out west

Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,

In September or October, when the wind

And the light are working off each other

So that the ocean on one side is wild

With foam and glitter, and inland among stones

The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit

By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,

Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,

Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads

Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.

Useless to think you'll park and capture it

More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,

A hurry through which known and strange things pass

As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways

And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.</comment>


What was the earliest electronic transfer of money? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Western Union started their money transfer service in 1871. At the time they were a telegraph company that happened to have this wire transfer business. Today the telegraph is gone but the wire transfers remain as their primary business.

Probably not the absolute earliest but it's a major part of the timeline.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The Federal Reserve in the early 1900s is the earliest I came across in wikipedia, which inspired the question.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedwire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedwire) In the early 1900s, settlement of interbank payments was often done by the physical delivery of cash or gold. By 1915, The Federal Reserve Banks began to move funds electronically. In 1918, the Banks established a proprietary telecommunications system to process funds transfers, connecting all 12 Reserve Banks, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury by telegraph using Morse code. Starting in the 1920s up until the 1970s, the system remained largely telegraphic; however as technology improved, they began to make the shift from telegraphy towards telex, then to computer operations and then to proprietary telecommunications networks.[5]

<comment><USER3> I love how often the answer to "what was the first time someone did X?" turns out to be several times longer ago than one might have imagined (that Ancient Greek battery seems to have surfaced a couple Times this week too).</comment></comment>


University Hospital New Jersey hit by ransomware, 48,000 files leaked - <AUTHOR> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/university-hospital-new-jersey-hit-by-suncrypt-ransomware-data-leaked/ <comment><USER2> to counter cloudflare's js gatekeeping:

University Hospital New Jersey hit by SunCrypt ransomware, data leaked By Ax Sharma September 16, 2020 01:39 PM 0 uhnj

University Hospital New Jersey (UHNJ) has suffered a massive 48,000 document data breach after a ransomware operation leaked their stolen data.

Established in 1994, the University Hospital is a New Jersey state-owned teaching hospital that provides medical care to residents.

The hospital runs on a $626 million budget and has over 3,500 employees, 519 licensed beds, and over 172,000 annual outpatient visits.

Sensitive info leaked after a ransomware attack The SunCrypt ransomware operation has leaked data allegedly stolen from UHNJ in a September ransomware attack.

SunCrypt is a ransomware operation that began its activities in October 2019 but was not very active. Over the past few months, they have become much more active since releasing a dedicated leak site.

While BleepingComputer has not corroborated all of the attacker's claims, the data seen by BleepingComputer does appear to belong to UHNJ.

Of the 240 GB of data allegedly stolen from University Hospital New Jersey, the attackers have leaked a 1.7 GB archive containing over 48,000 documents.

Alleged data leak for University Hospital New Jersey Alleged data leak for University Hospital New Jersey This data leak includes patient information release authorization forms, copies of driving licenses, Social Security Numbers (SSNs), date of birth (DOB), and records about the Board of Directors.

UHNJ Data leak UHNJ Data leak Shown below is a partial image of one such record leaked in the dump, with PII redacted:

An example patient information release form An example patient information release form If you have first-hand information about this or other unreported cyberattacks, you can confidentially contact us on Signal at +16469613731.

Employee infected with TrickBot prior to the attack A source in the cybersecurity industry has told BleepingComputer that an employee of UHNJ was infected with the TrickBot trojan at the end of August.

When a computer is infected with TrickBot, it usually leads to a full compromise of the network with ransomware eventually being deployed.

TrickBot has historically been known to lead to Ryuk ransomware attacks and an occasional Maze ransomware attack. Now TrickBot is predominately pushing the Conti ransomware.

While Maze denies any affiliation with SunCrypt, the SunCrypt ransomware operators have told BleepingComputer that they are part of the Maze Cartel.

Furthermore, when infecting a victim, SunCrypt will connect to an IP address previously associated with Maze infections.

The SunCrypt operators may have also partnered with TrickBot to provide access to compromised networks, such as the network of UHNJ.

BleepingComputer has reached out to UHNJ multiple times but did not receive a response to our emails and calls.</comment>