Intro

Good morning and welcome to the future 👋

The job market in the EU is to get a boost over the next few years, as Facebook announces it is to hire 10,000 people, among them ‘highly specialized engineers’, to develop a metaverse for gaming, work, and communication. Time to brush up your résumé ….!

Today’s update is 302 words, 1.5 minutes

Snippets

💻 Back to the future: Apple has revealed the start of a new era in MacBooks with the launch of two new MacBook Pros that have more than a little in common with its 2015 models. As always, Six Colors has a great roundup of the announcement. Six Colors →

🆔 Colossal data breach in Argentina: ID card data for the entire population of Argentina has been stolen by hackers, who breached the government’s national registry of people. The publication of, among others, Lionel Messi’s ID card photo and information was the first sign that something was amiss… The Record →

🗺️ Latest Facebook ambitions: After revealing its vision for the world of AI, Facebook has now announced it is planning to hire 10,000 people in the EU to develop a ‘metaverse’, a virtual world of gaming, work, and communication, that will unlock access to a multitude of creative, social and economic opportunities. BBC →

1-Big Thing

Criminals steal $35M by faking director’s voice

Source: K. Grabowska

What’s the deal: So convincing was the deepfaked voice of a company executive, that criminals were able to dupe a UAE bank manager into transferring $35M into their own accounts across the world.

According to the alleged executive, his company was about to make an acquisition and needed the funds to do so. The bank manager had previously worked with the executive and recognized his voice.

So, believing everything was in order, he approved the transfer — straight to the criminals’ accounts.

Why it matters: Deep voice impersonation has become extremely sophisticated, and it’s still a lot easier than creating deepfake videos. Because this isn’t widely known yet, more businesses will be targeted in the future.

Dive Deeper (Forbes) →