The popular wedding planning website Zola, known for its online gift registries, guest list management, and wedding websites, confirmed Monday that hackers had managed to access the accounts of a number of its users and tried to initiate fraudulent cash transfers.Over the weekend, some Zola users posted on social media that linked bank accounts had been used to purchase gift cards. One tweet flagged by a Reddit user claimed to show cracked Zola accounts being resold on the black market and used to buy gift vouchers.Zola’s director of communications, Emily Forrest, told The Verge that the unauthorized account access took place through a “credential stuffing” attack, where hackers test out email and password combinations stolen from other breaches across a range of websites to target people using the same password on multiple sites. “We understand the disruption and stress that this caused some of our couples, but we are happy to report that all attempted fraudulent cash fund transfer attempts were blocked,” Forrest said. “Credit cards and bank info were never exposed and continue to be protected.”Forrest also said that the company is aware of fraudulent gift card orders and is working to correct them. She said that there was no direct hack of Zola’s infrastructure and that fewer than 0.1 percent of couples using Zola were affected.On Sunday, Zola sent out a mass email informing users that account passwords had automatically been reset. Zola said that this action had been extended to all site users “out of an abundance of caution,” though the vast majority were not affected. Both iOS and Android versions of the Zola app were also disabled during the incident but have since been re-enabled.As TechCrunch highlights, Zola does not currently provide any two-factor authentication for account users, making credential stuffing attacks far easier to achieve. The lack of a secondary authentication process goes against best practice for a site like Zola, which handles a large amount of personally and financially sensitive user data.Zola has been directing any users who have been affected to contact support@zola.com for further information.

Expanding its service to more locations should help GoLocal operate more efficiently as it competes with other same-day delivery providers.

Take-Two has officially completed its $12.7 billion deal for social game developer Zynga, the two companies announced Monday. With the acquisition, Take-Two not only takes ownership of big Zynga franchises like FarmVille but also gets access to Zynga’s expertise building hugely popular free-to-play mobile games. Many notable game studios have invested heavily into mobile, and some of the biggest titles have proven to be absolutely massive revenue drivers. For example, Activision’s Call of Duty: Mobile, which launched in October 2019, recently surpassed $1.5 billion in lifetime revenue, according to Sensor Tower. And in November, Sensor Tower said Krafton’s PUBG Mobile surpassed an eye-popping $7 billion in lifetime revenue. (Tencent is significantly involved with the development of both of those titles, by the way.)Take-Two, which owns major properties like Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, and Civilization, likely wants to get in on that mobile money, and it said in an investor presentation at the time of the deal that it plans to bring more of its franchises to mobile platforms with the help of Zynga. The deal was first revealed in January in what ultimately kicked off a series of blockbuster gaming acquisition announcements. At the time, Take-Two’s Zynga buy was considered one of the biggest acquisitions in video game history, but just over a week later, Microsoft upped it significantly by announcing its $68.7 billion deal for Activision Blizzard. And at the end of that month, Sony said it would be buying Destiny developer Bungie in a $3.6 billion deal.

The EPA has announced $500 million in new funding for school districts and other eligible bus operators to begin replacing the nation’s fleet of school buses with American-made zero-emission buses. This 500 big ones represents the first round of funding from the $5-billion investment authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Portions of the rebates can... Read more »

GM has announced that its current Ultium platform-based EVs come standard with an energy recovery system composed of a patented heat pump and technology that recovers waste heat from the vehicle as well as humidity from inside and outside the vehicle.  Waste heat from batteries and power electronics, and humidity—including humidity from the body heat... Read more »

The District of Columbia has just announced fresh litigation targeting Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, for his role in the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data misuse episode — alleging it has evidence the Facebook founder was personally involved in the failures that led to the incident. The District is alleging breaches of the Consumer Protection Procedures Act […]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has licensed some electrolyte and thin-film coating technologies it developed to battery technology company BTRY, which plans to use them to manufacture lithium-ion batteries. ORNL says the licensing will enable BTRY to “make batteries with increased energy density, at lower cost and with an improved safety profile in crashes.” Composed... Read more »

Google Assistant’s arrival on the Galaxy Watch 4 has been like a look time coming, for a variety of reasons. First, Samsung’s attempt at its own in-house assistant, Bixby, was essentially a non-starter from day one. Second, the two companies have been openly discussing their joint plan for taking on the Apple Watch since last […]

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi has voted to delist from the U.S. stock market, a long-expected result of Didi finding itself in hot water with the Chinese government after a troubled U.S. debut.

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Good news for Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 owners: the wait is over. Google Assistant is finally available for download starting today.Google Assistant for Wear OS 3 is available for download in the Google Play Store and can be launched from the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic’s app menu. However, you can also use voice commands to open Google Assistant or reprogram the watches’ home button as a shortcut. This update has been a long time coming. When Google and Samsung first announced Wear OS 3, the companies promised that the unified platform would give Samsung smartwatch users more choice in apps. Previously, Samsung’s Tizen-based smartwatches could only offer Bixby as a digital assistant. The idea was that Wear OS 3 would let consumers choose between Bixby and Google Assistant. The same would be true for apps like Google Pay.Google Assistant has been notably absent from the Galaxy Watch 4 since its launch last year. Despite user frustrations, Google and Samsung continued to be vague about when Assistant would arrive, saying little more than “coming soon.” It was clear the wait was coming to an end in the lead-up to this year’s Google I/OHowever, it was clear the wait was coming to an end in the lead-up to this year’s Google I/O. First, Verizon accidentally implied Assistant was already available in an update log at the end of April. (It was not.) Then, a few days later, Samsung uploaded a teaser video to YouTube showing Assistant on the Galaxy Watch 4. Then, right after the Google I/O keynote earlier this month, Samsung confirmed that Assistant was arriving “this summer.” The only “surprising” thing about today’s announcement is how soon it’s arrived after I/O. (After all, it’s been less than two weeks since I/O, and it’s not even officially summer yet.) Then again, it makes a lot of sense that it’s shipping sooner rather than later. At I/O, Google emphasized it would include more Google services on the forthcoming Pixel Watch when it launches this fall — and it’s hard to imagine a Pixel Watch without Assistant.

SPONSORED JOBS: We’re almost halfway through 2022, and the gender pay gap for women is still a thing. It still persists for many factors, but the monetary reality, according to Payscale’s 2022 State of the Gender Pay Gap Report is that the uncontrolled gender pay gap (which measures median salary for all men and women), is $0.82 […]

We love early-stage startups, Memorial Day weekend, summer and a great deal. So we’re celebrating the convergence of our favorite things with a two-for-one sale on tickets to all of our upcoming events.  Starting today — and running through 11:59 pm (PT) on Tuesday, May 30 — buy an attendee ticket to any of the […]

Pony Ma shared a brief excerpt from an opinion piece that accused Chinese internet users of taking online companies for granted, Bloomberg reported.