Bitcoin market in chaos amid fears Binance cryptocurrency exchange hit by biggest hack in history
Billions of dollars worth of digital currency may have been stolen in suspect security breach at world’s biggest exchange

© Reuters
Billions of dollars worth of digital currency may have been stolen in suspect security breach at world’s biggest exchange

© Reuters
Billions of dollars worth of digital currency may have been stolen in suspect security breach at world’s biggest exchange

© Reuters

Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Two major trading platforms — Binance and Polymarket — were investigating security incidents on Thursday, with the former facing potential losses in the billions. There's no evidence the incidents were related.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, said it was actively investigating reports of a "potential security issue."
In an update late Thursday, Binance said that its initial investigation suggested that the incident may involve a compromised development operations engineer's laptop. This allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
"We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak," the company added.
Binance said the estimated total impact is about $6.3 billion, and it has worked with its blockchain partners to freeze around $3 billion in assets so far.
"Binance will cover all losses," Binance said on X. "As a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement."
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Binance founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said on X a hack seemed likely.
“User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance,” Zhao wrote in a post on X. “I don't manage Binance anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”
Zhao expressed appreciation to Tether and Circle, issuers of cryptocurrencies traded on Binance, for quickly freezing funds.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X the company froze more than $1.5 billion related to the potential Binance hack. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company froze over $800 million in connection with the incident and that it was coordinating with law enforcement.
Also on Thursday, Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market by trading volume, temporarily halted trading after users reported unauthorized withdrawals.
The company said in a statement on X that one of its third-party providers was compromised and that the incident had been referred to law enforcement. It also said trading had resumed by 3 p.m. Eastern time.
A Polymarket spokesperson told Business Insider that the malicious activity occurred in the UK and that the company will reimburse affected users. The company was unable to confirm the amount that may have been stolen.
Polymarket's US exchange was not halted and did not appear to be affected.
A person familiar with the matter attributed the Polymarket hack to a compromised third-party provider called DebugBear, a web performance monitoring platform designed to help businesses optimize website speed. It's unclear exactly how Polymarket uses the platform.
DebugBear did not respond to a request for comment. The company said in an X post on Thursday that it was aware of a security incident and was treating it as a "top priority."
A hacker going by the name "Department of Peace" has published personal data belonging to more than 40,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees, exposing ICE agents, cybersecurity staff and senior officials to potential harassment and violence.
The post Hacker Leaks Data of 40,000+ Homeland Security Employees Including ICE Agents appeared first on Breitbart.
“People have the power”, canta Patti Smith e parecem acreditar os manifestantes que tumultuam as cidades europeias reclamando um futuro. Mas será mesmo assim nos dias de hoje? A democracia, na clássica definição de Abraham Lincoln, é “o governo do povo, pelo povo e para o povo.” Acontece que, na verdade, a democracia é o governo da maioria. Como elucida Alexis de Tocqueville na obra “Democracia na América”, “em todos os países onde o povo é soberano, é a maioria que governa em nome do povo.” O busílis está no facto de essa maioria ser a maioria dos que votam, o que pode levar a que muitos cidadãos não se sintam verdadeiramente representados pelas instituições democráticas.
Talvez seja esse o caso dos jovens que se manifestam nas cidades europeias, causando aquilo que António Guerreiro apelida de “guerra civil planetária”. O mal-estar social que faz emergir movimentos inorgânicos e leva a contestação às ruas expõe os limites da democracia liberal, num tempo em que o poder é cada vez mais difuso e fragmentado. A hiperpolítica, conceito popularizado pelo historiador Anton Jäger no livro homónimo, invadiu o espaço público entendido quer como conceito urbanístico, quer como conceito filosófico de lugar de debate e formação de opiniões.
A politização exacerbada e contínua do espaço público no seu duplo sentido não trará, muito provavelmente, reformas estruturais ou soluções concretas para problemas coletivos. Quando a maré descer, só ficarão na restinga os despojos da degradação das democracias liberais, bem patente na incapacidade dos governos de exercerem a sua autoridade e de conterem a fúria dos manifestantes dentro dos limites da civilidade democrática. Enquadrar a natureza inorgânica e muitas vezes violenta dos movimentos de rua na organização institucional das democracias é, hoje, um dos principais desafios do poder político nos países ocidentais.
Novas geografias do poder
Historicamente, o poder esteve sempre associado a lugares e símbolos identificáveis: o trono, o palácio, o parlamento, o quartel, a fábrica… O poder tinha um rosto, uma hierarquia e um território. Mesmo quando se encontrava disperso por diferentes instituições, era possível reconhecer os seus centros de gravidade e os limites da sua ação. Hoje, a geografia do poder tornou-se mais complexa. Embora o poder continue a habitar os lugares tradicionais, também circula, e cada vez mais, por redes financeiras, infraestruturas tecnológicas, sistemas de informação, plataformas digitais e mecanismos algorítmicos cuja influência nem sempre é visível.
É atribuída a William Shakespeare a frase “o horror visível tem menos poder sobre a alma do que o horror imaginado.” O problema contemporâneo com o poder é, justamente, a sua invisibilidade aos olhos da maioria dos cidadãos. A questão decisiva do nosso tempo já não consiste, por isso, em saber apenas quem governa. Consiste em perceber quem define as condições em que se governa, quem controla os instrumentos que permitem decidir e quem tem capacidade para impor limites aos decisores.
O poder formal nem sempre coincide com a capacidade real de influenciar os acontecimentos. Um governo empoderado pela legitimidade eleitoral pode, ainda assim, estar condicionado por múltiplos poderes difusos. A distância entre a titularidade formal do poder e a capacidade efetiva de intervenção constitui uma das questões centrais das democracias contemporâneas, como se vê pela inépcia dos governos europeus em encontrar respostas para quem protesta nas ruas.
Tradicionalmente, o poder é distribuído por diferentes esferas que se cruzam e ora cooperam, ora entram em conflito. Grosso modo, o Estado conserva os três monopólios legítimos: legislar, tributar e punir. O poder económico condiciona o investimento, o emprego, os salários e a distribuição da riqueza. O poder tecnológico controla infraestruturas essenciais à comunicação, ao acesso à informação e à gestão de dados. O poder mediático participa na definição dos assuntos que merecem atenção coletiva e influencia a formação da opinião pública. E o poder cultural contribui para estabelecer os valores, as aspirações e as representações através das quais uma sociedade questiona a sua própria condição.
Atualmente, estes poderes continuam a existir e a influenciar o modo de vida nas sociedades democráticas. Mas, entretanto, verificou-se a concentração num número restrito de pessoas, grupos ou instituições de poderes com menor visibilidade e, por isso, menos escrutináveis. O poder contemporâneo já não é piramidal, mas sim uma imbricada rede de relações e dependências. Neste sentido, o exercício do poder depende da posição ocupada nessa rede, dos recursos disponíveis e da capacidade de transformar esses recursos em influência.
Longa manus da tecnologia
Nas novas geografias do poder, o capital, a informação e a tecnologia estão, seguramente, entre os fatores que mais condicionam e influenciam quem decide. No caso da tecnologia, a inteligência artificial veio, aliás, acentuar o carácter concêntrico, etéreo, manipulador e inescrutável dos novos instrumentos de poder. De repente, os centros tradicionais de poder ficaram expostos a mecanismos de influência cuja lógica desconhecemos e muito menos controlamos. A inteligência artificial permite ampliar a vigilância, dificultar a identificação de manipulações e concentrar poder nas organizações que controlam os dados, os modelos e a infraestrutura digital.
O pequeno grupo de oligarcas tecnológicos acumula um poder económico, político e social sem precedentes, através do controlo dos sistemas digitais globais. Dispõe de uma extraordinária capacidade de moldar a opinião pública a partir das redes sociais, de avançar sem regras no desenvolvimento da superinteligência, de investir na reversão do envelhecimento celular, de esboroar as regras da privacidade ou de acelerar a crise ambiental. Tudo isto tem efeitos profundos no funcionamento das democracias liberais e até no equilíbrio geopolítico.
Há poucos dias, as forças militares ucranianas deram conta de que os terminais Starshield começaram, sem aviso prévio, a perder conectividade acima de 160 km/h, dificultando a ação dos drones intercetores usados contra os drones russos impulsionados a jato. As limitações à velocidade da rede de internet via satélite desenvolvida pela SpaceX, de Elon Musk, estão a servir para forçar a Ucrânia a ceder a um acordo de paz (ou de capitulação, na verdade) com a Rússia, como deseja a administração Trump.
Um tech oligarch é, portanto, capaz de influenciar decisivamente o desfecho de uma guerra que está a massacrar um povo e que tem implicações profundas na segurança da Europa. É um sinal dos tempos e representa a tendência para impor o poder pela superioridade tecnológica, através de parcerias entre governos e setor privado. Assim será cada vez mais no futuro, considerando a velocidade de desenvolvimento de tecnologias complexas com fins simultaneamente civis e militares.
É claro que a superioridade económica, tecnológica, energética ou militar sempre ditou as regras no mundo, ao longo da História. A diferença é que o poder hoje é cada vez mais difuso e fragmentado, o que torna difícil o seu controlo, limitação e escrutínio democráticos. Das ruas de Paris aos escritórios de Silicon Valley, das corretoras de Wall Street ao estreito de Ormuz, da linha da frente da Ucrânia às redes de bots, dos campos de morte de Gaza ao luxo de Mar-a-Lago, da opacidade dos offshores à sede da ONU, onde se esconde, afinal, o poder?

Carl Timpone/BFA
For WeWork's CEO, Fridays are for sneakers. Sometimes.
At Business Insider's The Long Play event on Thursday, John Santora told Deputy News Chief Cadie Thompson that he rebuilt WeWork in part by establishing a sense of trust and decorum among employees.
In pursuit of that goal, Santora instituted a dress code for employees, but also gave them one day a week to work from home.
"I didn't have the ability to go watch my son play a 3 o'clock baseball game," Santora said, adding, "We have to give our employees that flexibility to do all that."
Santora, formerly the chief operating officer at Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate firm, became WeWork's CEO in 2024 as the once-buzzy office startup emerged from a disastrous Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Santora had a short time to decide whether to join the faltering company, he recalled. And it wasn't exactly an easy choice.
"I was kind of at that point of, 'Should I retire?'" he said. "My daughter Nancy said, 'Dad, you know we love you, but when you have too much time on your hands, you're a pain in the ass.'"
Since those deeply red days in 2019 when WeWork's valuation plummeted from $47 billion to roughly $8 billion before it was bailed out, the company has stabilized. It posted eight quarters of EBITDA profitability and expects a fourth straight quarter of cash-flow profitability.
In 2025, it reported about $2.3 billion in revenue.
Though it hasn't hit the valuation it once had, the fact that the company could be revived at all is remarkable. WeWork, founded in 2010, rents out office space, spruces it up, and parcels it out to freelancers, startups, and other businesses.
Its first CEO and founder, Adam Neumann, made bold pronouncements that WeWork would "change the world" and "elevate the world's consciousness" by renting out office space to startups.
But after a bungled IPO, it became clear to the new stakeholders that a different type of leader was sorely needed.
As it turned out, Santora was that leader.
Having worked for 47 years at Cushman & Wakefield, Santora had the real estate experience that Neumann lacked, albeit without the magnetism of a Silicon Valley whiz kid.
"From a leadership standpoint, I'm a very structured, disciplined person," he said. "I'm a suit and tie, buttoned-up real estate person."
Santora recalled an early trip to one of the offices, where he discovered employees wearing jeans, pajamas, slippers, and shorts.
"I grabbed my head of HR," he said. "See that? I don't want to see it anymore."
Santora, who at one point described himself as an "old chubby guy from Staten Island," didn't just force employees to wear sports coats to important meetings. In his words, there was some "give and take."
"I don't look at what time they leave, what time they come in," he said of his employees. "As long as they're getting their work done and they're keeping their clients happy."
And Santora allows himself one exception to his suit-and-tie persona.
"Fridays, I'll actually sometimes wear sneakers, depending on what my schedule is," he said.
O Dia das Bruxas - internacionalmente conhecido como Halloween - é já este sábado, dia 31, e caso queira entrar no espírito e passar o fim de semana a jogar algo dentro do género de terror, temos algumas sugestões que vai querer considerar.
A lista é composta por opções disponíveis para praticamente todas as plataformas atuais e também decidimos eleger propostas lançadas recentemente ao invés de ir para os clássicos que, possivelmente, já conhece.
A nossa lista de melhores jogos para desfrutar neste Halloween é composta por dez opções, sendo que também tentámos diversificar no que diz respeito a franchises. Significa isto que, apesar de “Resident Evil” e “Silent Hill” terem múltiplas opções de qualidade, decidimos eleger apenas um jogo.
Posto isto, convidamo-lo a ver na galeria acima quais foram os jogos que selecionámos para considerar jogar neste Halloween.
Leia Também: Mesmo com IA, "haverá sempre espaço para humanos", diz criador de "Mario"


Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Amazon is already spending a record amount on AI data centers. Next year will be even bigger.
The world's biggest cloud-computing company reported third-quarter results on Thursday and reiterated its plan for $220 billion in capital expenditure for 2026.
Then, CEO Andy Jassy shared his outlook for next year, saying Amazon expects "to spend meaningfully more in 2027."
Amazon’s spending has become the central question hanging over the company. It's building massive data centers and buying expensive chips and other gear to meet surging demand for AI.
That's pushed its free cash flow into negative territory, with third-quarter results showing a hole of $42.4 billion for the trailing twelve months.
Amazon spent $75.9 billion in cash capital expenditures during the third quarter alone, CFO Brian Olsavsky said, primarily on AWS and AI infrastructure.
The results did little to ease investors' concern about the spending. Amazon's third-quarter revenue and earnings came in below Wall Street expectations, and its shares fell roughly 6% in after-hours trading.
"The cloud unit's improving operating margin was one welcome signal, but it may not be sufficient to alleviate concerns about the sharp spike in capex spending and corresponding freefall of its free cash flow," Sky Canaves, a principal analyst at eMarketer, said in a statement.
Amazon has argued that AI infrastructure takes years to build before it can begin generating revenue, and that AI chip servers typically break even in less than three years once deployed. But the scale of the outlay has raised the stakes for Amazon's cloud business to sustain rapid growth as competitors make similarly enormous bets.
On Thursday, Jassy reiterated his confidence in the company's AI business model and outlook, saying there's a "clear line of sight to attractive financial returns."
The time it takes Amazon to turn newly delivered servers into revenue-generating capacity has also come under scrutiny.
Last week, Business Insider exclusively reported that Amazon has begun receiving billions of dollars in Nvidia server racks before all of the gear can be deployed at their final data-center sites, as power shortages and construction delays hold back new capacity.
Jassy argued Thursday that Amazon has visibility into the demand supporting its huge AI investments. Customers that need the largest AI deployments reserve capacity well ahead of time, he said, in blocks ranging from hundreds of megawatts to, in some cases, as much as a gigawatt.
"We have very good visibility into 2027 and 2028 and some of '29 too with respect to what customers want in those really big chunks of capacity," Jassy said.
AWS revenue rose 39.3% year over year to $46 billion in the third quarter, its fastest growth in nearly five years. Jassy said he expects AWS revenue to grow more than 40% in both 2027 and 2028, a projection that requires the company to keep rapidly adding capacity.
Jassy described the spending as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity rather than an optional expansion. It would be more convenient, he said, if Amazon could spread the investment over 25 years. But the speed of the AI market does not allow that.
"We can fund this plan," he said. "It will forever change our revenue. It will forever change our free cash flow."
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Carl Timpone/BFA
Strauss Zelnick is relentlessly focused on making "the best entertainment on earth." There's no confusion about that mission among his employees, he said.
"I have 13,000 colleagues," the Take-Two Interactive CEO said at Business Insider's The Long Play event in New York City on Thursday. "100% of them can and will tell you exactly what I just said."
His management philosophy — "establish a mission, establish a strategy, and promulgate collective culture" — is about to get its biggest test in years.
Take-Two is the publisher behind popular games like "Red Dead Redemption" and "NBA 2K," and, on November 19, they'll launch a new "Grand Theft Auto." The wildly popular series hasn't had a new mainline installment since 2013 and has delayed its launch twice in an effort to meet the studio's exacting standards. GTA 6 is central to Take-Two's forecast for at least $8 billion in net bookings for fiscal 2027.
Zelnick has run the company since 2007. To align employee incentives with Take-Two's big expectations, he believes compensation should be based on a formula aligned with the company's mission — not left to manager discretion.
"I personally believe that discretionary compensation programs are toxic," he said, adding that they create "politics and get you the wrong results, especially over time."
"So, we're all formulaic," he said. "You perform, the company performs — you get paid. You perform, the company doesn't perform — you don't get paid. Company performs, you don't perform — if you still have your job, you get paid."
Zelnick also said he has no chief of staff, is available on Slack 24/7, and shares his cellphone number with employees.
"If you're not president of the United States, you have no reason to have a chief of staff," he said.
That doesn't mean he will swoop in and override an employee's manager, said Zelnick, who considers himself an empathetic listener. He said workers should feel heard — and that he will try to help them solve a problem.
Still, he doesn't believe his formula at Take-Two is necessarily the right approach for every leader.
"Leadership comes in all flavors," he said. "You have to be your own kind of leader, and I don't think anyone should adopt my skills, because you're not me."
Ainda que a Apple seja entendida como uma empresa responsável por criar tendências no mercado de consumo de tecnologia, a verdade é que a “Empresa da Maçã” está longe de ser a mais disposta a apostar em tecnologias e funcionalidades inovadoras.
Comparando, por exemplo, com a rival Samsung, vemos que no passado recente a tecnológica sul-coreana está mais disponível em arriscar do que a Apple e uma demonstração disso mesmo é o caso dos dobráveis.
Enquanto a Apple lançou este ano o seu primeiro telemóvel dobrável sob forma do iPhone Duo, a Samsung já conta com sete anos de experiência nesta categoria. Lembrar que o primeiro dobrável lançado pela Samsung foi o Galaxy Fold, em 2019.
O Samsung W27 é descrito como uma versão alterada do Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra e deverá mais memória RAM e capacidade de armazenamento interno. Deve ser anunciado oficialmente esta quinta-feira, dia 29.
Miguel Patinha Dias | 08:55 - 28/10/2026Como referimos acima, os telemóveis dobráveis são apenas um exemplo de situações em que a Samsung se conseguiu antecipar à Apple e, em alguns casos, certas funcionalidades e tecnologias foram mesmo aproveitadas pela “Empresa da Maçã” depois de serem abandonadas pela tecnológica sul-coreana.
O site TechTudo pegou em três exemplos onde vemos esta tendência de a Apple reaproveitar tecnologias que começam por ser adotadas pela Samsung.
Pode ficar a conhecer abaixo alguns destes casos.
Câmaras de abertura variável
Originalmente introduzidas nos telemóveis da Samsung em 2018 com o Galaxy S9 e o Galaxy S9+, a empresa continuou esta aposta em 2019 com o Galaxy S10 e Galaxy S10+. No entanto, a Samsung não lançou mais telemóveis com este tipo de câmara, ao passo que a Apple decidiu fazê-lo este ano com os dois modelos Pro da série iPhone 18.
Caneta stylus compatível com ecrã dobrável
A Samsung permitiu usar a caneta stylus em telemóveis com ecrã dobrável em 2021, com o lançamento do Galaxy Z Fold 3 e a possibilidade continuou a estar presente até 2024 com o Galaxy Z Fold 6. No entanto, este foi o último dispositivo dobrável da Samsung a permiti-lo, com o iPhone Duo da Apple (lançado em outubro de 2026) a permitir o uso deste acessório.
Câmara frontal por baixo do ecrã
Esconder a câmara por baixo do ecrã é uma caraterística que foi abandonada pela Samsung em 2024 com o Galaxy Z Fold 6. Esta tecnologia foi introduzida em 2021 com o Galaxy Z Fold 3 e acabou por se tornar pouco popular por reduzir a resolução da câmara, com a Samsung a considerar que o “sacrifício” não compensava.
Pois bem, a Apple decidiu integrar esta mesma tecnologia com o iPhone Duo, com o ecrã interno do telemóvel a não ter qualquer orifício para o sensor da câmara.
Leia Também: Samsung bate recorde de lucro no terceiro trimestre de 2026

You send your child to school expecting teachers to protect their education. You probably don't think much about what happens to their personal information after they take a standardized test. But a massive data breach in California is raising some uncomfortable questions about who has access to student records and how safely that information is stored.
Hackers accessed and copied sensitive records belonging to millions of current and former California public school students. The stolen information includes home addresses, birth dates and even details about disabilities. And here's something families need to know. You could live thousands of miles from California today and still be caught up in this breach if you or your child previously attended a public school there.
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ORACLE HEALTH DATA BREACH EXPOSES NEARLY 20 MILLION PATIENTS
The breach involves Educational Testing Service (ETS), a nonprofit organization that works with the California Department of Education. ETS helps administer statewide student assessments and maintains information connected to those tests. According to state officials, someone gained unauthorized access to an ETS-operated secure file transfer site. Investigators determined that the attacker used a compromised login credential to enter the system. The intruder then copied files containing student information at various times between May 22 and Sept. 18, 2026.
ETS discovered the suspicious activity on Sept. 25. The company disabled the affected account and took the file transfer site offline. It also brought in outside cybersecurity specialists to investigate. The company says it has since built a replacement system with stronger security controls. So far, ETS reports finding no evidence that the stolen information has been made publicly available. However, investigators have confirmed that someone accessed and copied the records.
The California student data breach involved far more than test scores. Depending on the student, the compromised files may contain information that could help someone identify a child or learn personal details about their family circumstances.
The exposed records may include:
Some records also identified whether a student qualified for programs serving children experiencing homelessness or other educational needs. Fortunately, officials say the stolen files did not contain Social Security numbers, financial account details, driver's license numbers, passwords or parent and guardian personal information.
However, there is still plenty to be concerned about. Someone who knows a child's name, school and address could potentially use that information to create a convincing message that appears to come from a teacher or school administrator. Disability information also raises additional privacy concerns because those details are particularly personal.
This is where the story gets especially troubling. Although the breach involves California's public school system, the people whose records were stolen may now live anywhere in the United States. According to the California Department of Education, the compromised information includes records covering all students enrolled during the previous three school years. However, the affected population extends beyond those students.
The state also identifies a group of former students who left California public schools as far back as 2006 and whose transfers to another school were never confirmed with the department. That creates a situation many families may never have considered. Say your child attended elementary school in Los Angeles before your family relocated to Texas. Perhaps you graduated from a California public school years ago and now live in Florida. Your old student information could still be among the compromised records if it falls within the affected groups.
Former students who are now adults may also be eligible for the free identity-protection services being offered. Importantly, this does not mean every student attending school outside California has been affected. In a statement to CyberGuy, ETS confirmed that no other ETS customers were affected by the incident. The concern for families elsewhere comes from their past connection to California's public schools. California has roughly 5.7 million public school students, according to reporting on the breach. Since the compromised files span multiple school years, millions of people are potentially involved. Officials have not yet released a final count of unique affected individuals.
The California Department of Education and the State Board of Education are coordinating with cybersecurity specialists and other state agencies. The California Cybersecurity Integration Center is assisting with the technical investigation. Meanwhile, state officials are reviewing ETS's compliance with applicable data security requirements and its contractual obligations.
In its statement to CyberGuy, ETS said, "We have implemented additional safeguards, including enhanced monitoring, strengthened access controls, and further third-party review of our security practices." ETS says it continues monitoring for signs that the stolen information has surfaced publicly. For families, the unresolved question is what happens to the copied information next. Even without evidence of a public leak, sensitive student records in unauthorized hands create a privacy risk that deserves continued attention.
A SCAMMER HAS YOUR NAME, PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS. WHAT CAN THEY ACTUALLY DO?
ETS began notifying affected students and families on October 16, 2026. The state expects notifications to continue through early November. Letters and emails will explain the incident and identify the types of information involved. They will also include instructions for accessing complimentary identity-protection services. However, here's an important warning. Not receiving a notification does not necessarily mean your information is safe. Some former students may have outdated contact information on file.
Families who are concerned should visit the official California ETS incident webpage. It contains frequently asked questions and links to breach notifications available in 27 languages. You can also call the incident assistance line at 833-931-8488, Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time.
ETS is offering affected current and former students 24 months of free identity theft protection. Parents or legal guardians can enroll eligible children under 18, while adults, including former students, can enroll themselves. The services are designed to help monitor for potential identity theft and provide assistance if someone misuses their personal information.
The enrollment deadline is March 19, 2027. Eligible minors who turn 18 before March 19, 2029 may also qualify for adult coverage using the activation code provided in their notification. Enrollment is free, and no credit card is required. Identity restoration assistance is also available to eligible individuals for 24 months from their notification date, even without enrolling in monitoring services. For complete eligibility details and enrollment instructions, visit the California Department of Education's official incident webpage at at cde.ca.gov/nr/in/ets-incident.asp.
Even without stolen passwords or financial account numbers, student records deserve serious attention. Here are practical steps I recommend taking if your family may be affected.
Scammers frequently use real data breaches as an excuse to send fraudulent emails. A message claiming to come from ETS or Experian could direct you to a fake enrollment website. Instead of clicking an unexpected link, open your browser and visit the official California Department of Education incident page. Follow the verified instructions from there.
Eligible families should take advantage of the 24 months of free identity-protection services being offered following this breach. Follow the enrollment instructions in your official notification and keep a copy for your records. No credit card is required.
For additional protection, consider an identity theft protection service which offers identity monitoring, alerts about suspicious activity and access to restoration specialists if identity theft occurs. Some services also offer paid family plans that can cover children, making it an option for parents concerned about protecting their family's personal information over the long term. Coverage and benefits vary by plan. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at CyberGuy.com.
One of the strongest steps you can take against certain forms of identity theft is placing a security freeze on a child's credit file. The Federal Trade Commission says parents and legal guardians can request a free credit freeze for children under 16. Teenagers ages 16 and 17 can request their own freezes. Contact Equifax, Experian and TransUnion separately. Each bureau has its own process for handling minors. A freeze can make it harder for criminals to open new credit accounts using a child's identity. However, it cannot prevent every form of fraud.
Pay closer attention to unexpected emails or text messages claiming to involve school records. A scammer with access to personal details could make a fraudulent communication seem unusually credible. For example, someone might claim that your child's testing account requires immediate verification. Before responding, contact the school using a phone number you already trust. Avoid sharing personal information through unexpected links or attachments. Consider using strong antivirus software on your family's devices. It can help detect malicious links, suspicious downloads and malware hidden in fake school notifications. While it cannot recover stolen student information, it adds another layer of protection against scammers who may try to exploit the breach. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com
Scammers can use information found online to build a more detailed profile of you or your family. That's why I recommend considering a personal data removal service. These services can help remove personal information from data broker websites that collect and sell details such as names, addresses and phone numbers. While these services cannot retrieve information stolen in this breach, they can help reduce how much additional information is publicly available. If you're concerned about your child's information, check whether the service offers protection for minors before signing up. Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting CyberGuy.com.
Adults who may have been affected can review their credit reports for unfamiliar accounts or suspicious activity. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to obtain free reports from the three major credit bureaus. Parents should also watch for unexpected bills or collection notices addressed to their children. Those can be warning signs that someone has misused a minor's identity. If you discover evidence of identity theft, report it through IdentityTheft.gov . The FTC provides a recovery plan to help you address fraudulent accounts and document the problem.
You can also contact your child's school district to better understand how it handles student records. Ask what information outside contractors receive and how long they retain it. Schools may have legal obligations to maintain certain records. Still, parents can ask about retention policies and security safeguards. This conversation is worthwhile regardless of where your family lives.
I've covered plenty of data breaches over the years, but this one bothers me because we're talking about children who had no choice about handing over their information. They went to school, took required tests and trusted the adults and organizations handling their records. Now, some of those details have ended up in the wrong hands. What I find especially troubling is how far back some of these records could go. Think about someone who left California years ago and has no reason to believe their old student information is still sitting on a testing company's system. That person could be living on the opposite side of the country and suddenly have to worry about a breach involving records from childhood. I appreciate that ETS is offering free identity protection, but I'd like to see schools and testing companies explain more clearly how long they keep sensitive student information and why. Parents deserve answers before a breach happens.
Should schools and outside testing companies be allowed to keep sensitive student records for years after a child leaves, or should families have more control over when that information gets deleted? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Cristina Junqueira helped build Brazilian fintech player Nubank into one of the world's largest digital financial services platforms.
Now, as she leads Nu's emerging US business, she is taking on its biggest challenge yet: breaking into America's crowded banking market.
As part of Business Insider's The Long Play, Junqueira sat down with Dan DeFrancesco, executive editor and anchor of Business Insider Today, to share her insights on how to build trust and scale in banking, like leaning into convenience through digital banking products.
During the discussion, called "Building a Global Challenger," Junqueira also talked about her plan to take on incumbents in retail banking.
O MPT aponta a responsabilidade da Meta pelo conteúdo publicado em suas plataformas e pede que o Tribunal Regional do Trabalho (TRT) da 2ª Região arbitre indenização de R$ 50 milhões por danos morais coletivos.
>> Descubra se você está sofrendo assédio eleitoral e saiba como denunciar
Conforme a Agência Brasil noticiou, as denúncias de assédio eleitoral aumentaram mais de 75% desde a última segunda-feira (26), dia seguinte ao segundo turno das eleições gerais, totalizando 1.459 casos em todo o país.
O maior número de denúncias é proveniente de São Paulo (620), seguido de Minas Gerais (351), Paraná (338), Rio de Janeiro (252), Rio Grande do Sul (223) e Santa Catarina (165).
Os dados coincidem com a multiplicação de relatos sobre incentivos a boicotes e a demissões de funcionários que tenham votado em candidato contrário à orientação política do patrão.
De acordo com o MPT, passado o pleito em que o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva se reelegeu, perfis nas plataformas digitais passaram a incentivar e orientar empregadores a vasculharem as redes sociais de seus funcionários ou colaboradores com o objetivo de descobrir em quem estes votaram e, no caso de a opção ser diferente da patronal, demiti-los.
“Outras publicações expõem pessoas à ridicularização, com nome e imagem, ou comemoram demissões”, sustenta o MPT, assegurando que só quatro das publicações analisadas em um único perfil, que totaliza 3,8 milhões de seguidores, somaram mais de 2 milhões de curtidas.
De acordo com o MPT, além de permitir conteúdos ilegais durante dias, os próprios sistemas de recomendação da Meta, como a aba ‘Explorar’ e os ‘Reels’ sugeridos, ampliam o alcance do que gera mais engajamento.
Consultada pela reportagem, a Meta informou que não comentaria o assunto.

Carl Timpone/ BFA
He may have run Paramount, built the Fox television network, and just pulled a buyout offer for MGM Resorts, but media and tech executive Barry Diller says he's not done yet.
He has a "motor inside" that just won't stop, Diller said Thursday at Business Insider's The Long Play in New York.
"I'm still curious," he told Peter Kafka, BI's chief correspondent. "If I can be engaged and hopefully be useful, then OK."
"At some point, someone will tell me in some masterful way, either it's over or, in another way, it will be over," he said, alluding to the final bow. "I will either pay attention, or not, and they will drag me out to the heap."
Diller's desire to keep leading companies means staying on top of major technological changes, such as AI.
"I am, at any point, ready to change my mind based on events of that moment," he said. "I don't think whatever the past process is should educate that," he said.
At People Inc., Diller has overseen multiple strategy shifts. The company is evolving from print to a digital business, and like other publishers, it's had to adjust to significant Google traffic declines.
On Thursday, People Inc. laid off 195 workers, according to a memo from its CEO, Neil Vogel, which Business Insider viewed. The company cut workers from its "print and legacy web businesses," while adding hundreds of staffers in other business areas that it hopes to grow, the memo said.
Diller told Kafka that People's layoffs were a sign that its print business was in a "steady kind of decline," and that it was shifting its workforce to focus on new business priorities.
Diller's time isn't solely focused on business: He's also worked on various public-interest projects, such as developing New York's High Line and Little Island alongside his wife, Diane von Fürstenberg.
On Thursday, he teased a coming project for Los Angeles, too, but wouldn't reveal details.
Despite taking joy in seeing satisfied attendees at Little Island on the Hudson River, Diller said he's not focused on his public legacy.
"I don't do legacy," he told Kafka. "If you say legacy, it kind of means all you're doing is looking backward, and that's just boring to me."
O governo da China pretende apoiar o lançamento para o Espaço de uma rede de satélites que servirá para proporcionar ligação à Internet neste território, rivalizando também com a Starlink detida pela SpaceX de Elon Musk.
A empresa responsável pelo projeto dá pelo nome de Qianfan (SpaceSail, em inglês) e tem como objetivo colocar em órbita 10 mil satélites até 2030.
Atualmente, há apenas poucas centenas de satélites em órbita e, ainda que estejam limitados a uma velocidade de 20mbps, a ideia é desenvolver novas gerações de satélites que proporcionem ligações mais rápidas.
A Câmara de Leiria alerta sobre a dependência do sistema Starlink após limitações do seu uso na Ucrânia, segundo o vereador da Proteção Civil.
Lusa | 14:34 - 26/10/2026Ainda há certamente muito caminho a percorrer durante os próximos anos, mas conta o site BGR que, em agosto deste ano, foi reportado que a empresa responsável pelo projeto recebeu um investimento de 7 mil milhões de yuans, o que equivale a cerca de 940 milhões de euros.
Apesar de a intenção ser a de rivalizar com a Starlink, é preciso lembrar que o serviço proporcionado pela SpaceX conta com um número bem maior de satélites em órbita. Na prática, este número mais elevado permite disponibilizar o serviço Starlink em mais territórios.
Atualmente, a Starlink conta com uma rede formada por quase 10 mil satélites, os quais são capazes de oferecer uma ligação à Internet aos clientes do serviço com velocidade acima dos 400mbps.
Leia Também: Pentágono rejeita investigar limitações ao Starlink na Ucrânia

U.S. officials have reportedly determined that Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and top executive at the Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, is a Chinese intelligence asset who had developed a close relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and has been funneling information to Beijing.
The post Report: China Used Female Agent to Spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared first on Breitbart.
Actor-comedians David Spade and Dana Carvey have suggested that Hollywood should quit focusing on race and gender, calling it a "little diminishing" to individual accomplishments.
The post Dana Carvey, David Spade Say Hollywood Should Quit Its Obsession with Race and Gender appeared first on Breitbart.