About a year ago, Open AI released the ChatGPT Enterprise plan for corporate users that offers additional security and privacy features. A few months later, they launched ChatGPT Team for smaller businesses, followed by ChatGPT EDU for students and universities. Those three services have brought the number of paid users to 1 million, up from the 600,000 last reported in April 2024.
Why it matters: While ChatGPT has a free plan that anyone can use, the paid tiers provide OpenAI with a regular income stream. The monthly fee also helps the company offset infrastructure costs. Paying customers have access to newer models, are guaranteed faster response times, and have enhanced security features, most notably the ability to exclude their data from training future OpenAI models.
Further Reading: VentureBeat; Bloomberg; Quartz
Verizon, a well-known mobile service provider, is expanding its business as an internet provider with a $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications. The combined network will pass over 25 million premises across 31 states. According to the company, Frontier’s fiber network will be seamlessly integrated into the Fios product offering.
Why it matters: As humanity relies more on the internet for work and pleasure, access to a reliable connection has shifted from a “nice-to-have” to something as ubiquitous as a utility like water or electricity. Verizon is establishing itself as a key player in this space by building (or acquiring) the infrastructure necessary to deliver high-speed broadband across North America.
Further Reading: Ars Technica; TechCrunch; Engadget; Verizon’s Press Release
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has seized 32 web domains run by Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog, which were spreading propaganda and attempting to influence the US 2024 presidential election. The campaign, referred to as “Doppelganger,” was undertaken at the direction of Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, Russia’s First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. The campaign used domains with similar names to reputable sites (for example, fox-news.in and washingtonpost.pm) to deliver misinformation to unsuspecting readers, placed paid advertisements on social media, created fake social-media profiles, and even recruited influencers to promote their message.
Why it matters: Less than a month ago, at the Black Hat security conference, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Jen Easterly proclaimed that the United States’ election infrastructure has never been more secure. While the government may have the voting process under control, state-sponsored attempts to influence the election are still a risk as China, North Korea, and Russia find new ways to use their cyber resources to disrupt the operations of their adversaries.
Further Reading: Bleeping Computer; The Register; Fortune; US Government’s Affidavit
