Best Buy is pulling CDs off shelves this summer, Forbes introduces its first list of Cryptocurrency’s richest people, and Uber confirms the two hackers who breached their data were found to be in Canada and Florida.
It’s the end of an era. People on LinkedIn are reeling from Best Buy’s latest announcement that it will stop selling CDs in all its stores by this summer. CD sales have been declining at Best Buy since 2000, while the rise of MP3s, followed by the invention of streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, have simplified access to music. According to reports, Target could be the next retailer to pull CDs off shelves. Isn’t it more of a surprise that this hasn’t happened already?
Forbes’ first list of cryptocurrency’s richest people is gaining traction on Twitter. Ten of the 19 prophets of boom hover near $1 billion, and Forbes says there are close to 1,500 crypto-assets in existence, valued at approximately $550 billion, up 31 times since the beginning of 2017. The average age of the cryptocurrency’s richest people is 42, while the average age of the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, is 67. Fast-track retirement plan, here I come.
And on Facebook, a lot of chatter around the two people who hacked Uber in 2016. John Flynn, chief information security officer for Uber, testified on Capitol Hill in Washington and revealed details about the breach. One of the men who hacked Uber was in Florida. His partner was in Canada, and contacted the company November 2016 to demand a six-figure payment. Flynn said Uber made a mistake in not reporting the breach to consumers and law enforcement immediately. Uber Canada announced late last year that 815,000 Canadian riders and drivers may have been affected. The company’s security team paid the intruders $100,000 after receiving assurances that the stolen data had been destroyed.
That’s what’s trending today. Hashtag Trending is produced by IT World Canada. Today’s episode is brought to you by SAS, the world leader in advanced analytics and Official Analytics Partner of the Canadian Olympic Team.