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Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler stumbled upon a large database of login information and passwords containing over 184 million records recently. He mentioned the discovery in an article on Website Planet. The data was not encrypted in any form and stored publicly, which meant that anyone with knowledge of its existence could download the data. The sheer size of the database, more than 47 gigabytes of data, makes it one of the largest leaks in recent history. In early 2024, a 70 million records password dump was discovered. A preliminary sampling of the data unveiled emails, usernames, passwords, and also links...

Legislation Reversing $600 Threshold for Reporting Payments to IRS Filed by U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty April 11, 2025 Tom Pappert Bill Hagerty U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) filed legislation on Thursday to reverse the decision to require third-party payment processors to report transfers more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Hagerty called the three-year-old policy an “egregious and unwarranted overreach” into citizens’ privacy. Hagerty introduced the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments (SNOOP) Act, which his office said would remove the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code created by former President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP),...

An FBI agent who was once the handler for tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and who later criticized the bureau for allegedly suppressing investigations into ties between Rudy Giuliani and Russian intelligence assets, was arrested this week on charges of illegally disclosing classified information, according to court records filed Tuesday. Johnathan Buma, who has worked for the FBI for 15 years, allegedly printed copies of confidential FBI documents and messages and later shared the material with associates as part of a draft of a book he was writing on his time in the bureau. He was arrested Monday at a departure...

No joke: Wired wants you to believe this is a bad thing. The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure. WWW.WIRED.COM https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/ "Elon Musk's Government Takeover" Gotta love the pea-sized brains over at Wired. Elon Musk's takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of — and in at least one case, purportedly still in — college. Elon isn't taking over anything. He's...

Valley investor David Sacks will serve as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s new artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto czar, advising the White House on the two critical emergent technologies. Sacks was an early backer of Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) during the 2024 Republican presidential primary but later jumped ship as the campaign struggled, eventually backing Trump’s bid to retake the White House.A close ally of technology and space exploration mogul Elon Musk, Sacks, too, hails from South Africa. He was born in Cape Town before his parents emigrated to Tennessee. In 1999, Sacks—then a business consultant with McKinsey & Company—joined the...

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My CC is fine - Rejection only happens on Free Republic

<p>Apparently our merchant account company that we've used for 28 years or so has either merged with or has been bought out by another company. We missed an important email from the company, and important deadline, because we thought it was somebody fishing for information.</p>

Many Americans were surprised to recently see a coalition of the country’s most radical politicians — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Blumentha l, D-Conn., to name a few — teaming up to introduce heavy-handed legislation against the peer-to-peer payment companies (like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle and CashApp) that have improved all our lives. Blumenthal even went so far as to dispatch a separate letter to the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) demanding an investigation into Zelle... The Biden administration brass, especially CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, have fought aggressively to convince the American...

KEY POINTS: * For customers, fintech promised the best of both worlds: The innovation, ease of use and fun of the newest apps combined with the safety of government-backed accounts held at real banks. * The collapse of middleman Synapse has revealed fintech’s promise of safety as a mirage. More than 100,000 Americans with $265 million in deposits have been locked out of their accounts. * The implications of this disaster may be far-reaching. The most popular banking apps in the country, including Block’s Cash App, PayPal and Chime, partner with banks instead of owning them. * CNBC reached out...

The payment company's CEO Alex Chriss told staff on Tuesday that another 9% of the workforce — about 2,500 positions — will be slashed. The news comes after PayPal said it would reduce its headcount by about 2,000 in January last year."We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," Chriss wrote in a memo. "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth." The cuts will come from current positions as...

Elon Musk is presently the richest man in the world. He may also be the smartest. In an interview with the British prime minister, Musk warned about the dangers of AI (artificial intelligence). He said, "There will come a point when no job is needed – you can have a job if you want for personal satisfaction, but the AI will be able to do everything."Breitbart.com has added a new category to its menu: AI danger. Here you can read some of what Musk has concluded:Google has replaced its ad sales employees with AIAn L.A.-based company, Channel 1, claims it...

The IRS announced on Tuesday that it is delaying a controversial tax reporting requirement targeting Americans who made more than $600 online through third-party payment apps like Venmo or PayPal. The rule change – approved by Democrats in March 2021 with the passage of the American Rescue Plan – would have required payments platforms, including Venmo, PayPal, Etsy and Airbnb, to send Form 1099-K to the IRS and users if their transactions totaled more than $600 over the course of the year. Instead, the IRS will treat 2023 as "an additional transition year," meaning that payment apps will not be...

wasn’t clear at first why Peter Thiel agreed to talk to me. He is, famously, no friend of the media. But Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, avatar of techno-libertarianism, bogeyman of the left—consented to a series of long interviews at his home and office in Los Angeles. He was more open than I expected him to be, and he had a lot to say. But the impetus for these conversations? He wanted me to publish a promise he was going to make, so that he would not be tempted to go back on his word. And what was that thing...

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who previously supported former President Trump, said the Trump administration was “crazier” and “more dangerous” than he expected, in a recent interview. Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal, has been a vocal supporter and financial advocate for Trump. In an interview with The Atlantic published Thursday, Thiel said he is not giving money to the former president — or any other candidate — in the 2024 presidential campaign.

I have no idea whether this report is accurate, but given the nature of events and revelations in the past several years – this seems plausible, possibly likely.In the aftermath of the 2020 election outcome, several people on the more libertarian/conservative side of the political spectrum, were concerned about being targeted by an Obama third term. As the rather revelatory story is told today, that provided the motive for Peter Thiel to cozy up to the FBI and avoid being a target.Business Insider is reporting that Billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel became a “confidential human source” for the FBI in...

A pair of Senate Republicans are demanding PayPal remove the account for a Black Lives Matter chapter that showed support for the terrorist group Hamas after its deadly attack against Israel. BLM Chicago came under the spotlight last week upon sharing an "I stand with Palestine" graphic on social media that depicted a Hamas terrorist in a paraglider, although the group later deleted it and said it wasn't "proud" of the post. But because the chapter is actively fundraising through PayPal, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are calling on the payment processor to support Israel and cut...

The Federal Reserve Thursday officially launched its long-awaited instant payment service FedNow, which allows consumers and businesses to send and receive money in seconds. The system lets Americans pay for groceries instantly, businesses pay their suppliers, or people pay each other. It will be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with full access to funds immediately. FedNow isn’t offered directly to individuals and businesses, but it will serve as the basis of infrastructure for instant payments by linking banks. Transactions occur between bank accounts and enable funds to be transferred from a sender’s bank account to...

Crypto YouTuber and trader Lark Davis has posted a tweet, in which he reminded followers of the recent news of the Bitcoin whitepaper spotted within the operational system of Mac computers...The blogger also stated that the periods when Satoshi went off the grid and Steve Jobs differ by just one year, with these events happening in 2010 and 2011. With this tweet, he started a poll, offering his audience the choice between three answers: "yes" Steve Jobs was Satoshi, "no" he was not and "it does not matter."A total of 37.7% of the respondents chose "no." Slightly less but close...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sided with conservative investors this week in their request to investigate what they say is PayPal’s systematic political and religious discrimination against customers. Over the objections of PayPal’s management, the SEC allowed a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) to go to a shareholder vote at the company’s next annual meeting. This decision follows a similar decision on March 29, in which the SEC green-lighted a proposal regarding alleged political and religious discrimination at JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank. In an April 10 letter to PayPal’s attorneys, the SEC stated...