Data breaches down, J.P. Morgan to launch cryptocurrency, Apple pivots to subscriptions | TECH(feed)

Hey everyone, welcome back to tech feed. The number of data breaches decreased last year, but is that really cause for celebration? and get ready for cryptocurrency to enter the enterprise… all that and more on today’s episode of tech feed. stick around.

okay, so i know i’m always going on about the latest data breach or hack, but we actually have some slightly positive news in terms of data security. a report by risk based security revealed that the number of publicly known data breaches decreased last year in comparison to 2017. the amount of exposed records also decreased by a third. that’s definitely an improvement, but we should note that the report says that 2018 was still the second most active year for publicly disclosed breaches. that’s second place to 2017, which was an especially bad year. and this data only accounts for publicly disclosed breaches, not data breaches that were only revealed to regulators. so it might be best to take this somewhat optimistic news with a grain of salt. and hey, if there’s a publicly disclosed data breach in 2019, we’ll be talking about it here on tech talk.

j.p. morgan chase could be the first major bank to launch a cryptocurrency. the new cryptocoin will be called jpm coin and will be backed by u.s. dollars. one jpm coin will be worth one dollar. this move could mean a practical use for blockchain and distributed ledger technology for enterprises. it’s important to note that this cryptocurrency is actually pretty different than something like bitcoin--for one, its value stays consistent. one jpm coin will always equal one dollar, while bitcoin’s value fluctuates with supply and demand. and, jpm coin will only be available to the bank’s large institutional clients, meaning everyday people won’t have access to it, at least at first. trials for jpm coin are expected to roll out in the next few months.

in other crypto news… a report published last week by researchers at symantec revealed several cryptomining apps available in the microsoft app store. the apps disguised themselves as search engines or web browsers, among other things. however, once launched, the apps would activate a mining script that mined monero and utilize most of the devices’ cpu cycles. it’s unclear how many people were affected by these apps. in response to this discovery, microsoft pulled all affected apps from its store.

as we’ve reported on our channel in the past, apple has had slower than anticipated iphone sales as of late. and in fairness, it’s a trend affecting most smartphone manufacturers. new reports reveal that apple is focusing on selling subscriptions services to drive business. the company already has apple music, and it will roll out news, video and gaming services in the coming months. in fact, apple pledges that in 2020, its service business will be double what it was three years prior.

thanks for watching today’s episode of tech feed. if you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel. and let me know in the comments if you’d be interested in any of apple’s new services… see you next time.