Many people find it challenging to write their biography. It’s even more stressful when your romantic options may depend on it. Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones said, “Users have a lot of anxiety in creating profiles. We’re going to make that as smooth as possible.” That’s why the dating app is exploring AI powered tools to help write their profile bios and start conversations. The company also plans a photo selection tool to suggest the best selfie options from a user’s camera roll.
Why it matters: Competitor Tinder launched an AI-powered photo selection feature in July. Bumble has a third of the paying users as Tinder (9.6 million vs. 2.8 million), so it needs to do something to increase its market share. Apps like Grammarly, Jasper, and Copy.ai have proven that artificial intelligence can refine everyday writing without losing an individual’s personality. But it also has the power to make everything sound the same – which could backfire.
Further Reading: TechRadar; TechCrunch; Mashable
In February, Google quietly started removing the ability to view cached pages from search results. Before we even had a chance to notice it was missing, Google partnered with The Internet Archive to display web pages from their collection of billions of stored web pages. The Internet Archive has been storing web pages since 1996 in an effort to archive and preserve online digital content.
Why it matters: This change is more beneficial than the option to view Google’s cached version of the page, as Google only kept the most recent version. The Internet Archive takes multiple snapshots over a web page’s lifespan so that users can view the history of changes over time. For example, Yahoo’s home page has changed significantly over the past 30 years.
Further Reading: The Verge; Engadget; 9to5 Google; Internet Archive’s Blog Post
It’s not unusual for companies to request job seekers take a test to demonstrate they have the skills necessary for the position. Unfortunately, this has allowed members of the Lazarus hacker group to trick developers into downloading malware. Victims think they are conducting a technical interview with a prominent financial institution. In reality, they are communicating with members of the North Korean hacker group. Once on the hook, the unsuspecting interviewee downloads modified versions of Python libraries that launch command-and-control attacks on the developer’s system.
Why it matters: IT pros may believe they are above social engineering, but no one is immune. Social engineering also works best when defenses are down. Job seeking is a stressful task, especially during a prolonged search. The hacker group has been contacting targets via LinkedIn, so the assailants know how long their targets have been unemployed. They also instill a sense of urgency by adding time limits to the tests, which may prevent a normally cautious user from running the appropriate security scans. Stay vigilant!
Further Reading: Bleeping Computer; SC Magazine; The Hacker News
