The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) has become the first catastrophe bond sponsor to benefit from an issuance that has disaster-resilience features integrated in it, with its recent $600 million Cape Lookout Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1) the very first cat bond to include an additional resilience feature.As a result, this recent cat bond deal … Read more
TikTok is making it a lot easier for its creators to use AI. TikTok AI Alive, a feature the app launched on Tuesday, helps users turn static photos into “captivating, short-form videos enhanced with movement, atmospheric and creative effects” when they use the TikTok Story Camera. “We all know a photo can say a thousand … Read more
Feb 19, 2025Ravie LakshmananMobile Security / Cyber Espionage Multiple Russia-aligned threat actors have been observed targeting individuals of interest via the privacy-focused messaging app Signal to gain unauthorized access to their accounts. “The most novel and widely used technique underpinning Russian-aligned attempts to compromise Signal accounts is the abuse of the app’s legitimate ‘linked devices’ … Read more
Feb 15, 2025Ravie LakshmananMobile Security / Technology Google is working on a new security feature for Android that blocks device owners from changing sensitive settings when a phone call is in progress. Specifically, the in-call anti-scammer protections include preventing users from turning on settings to install apps from unknown sources and granting accessibility access. The … Read more
Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda), Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s semi-autobiographical debut feature about a queer romance experienced amid mourning is the only movie from India competing at the Sundance Film Festival. The story of love and grief in a rural setting came to Kanawade while coping with his own father’s death, as he wondered how different processing … Read more