Skip to Content
Silicon Valley

Alphabet and Amazon want to protect you from hackers. That’s a blessing and a curse

January 25, 2018

Big tech companies are plunging deeper into the cybersecurity business.

The news: Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has launched a new cybersecurity firm called Chronicle, which is spinning out from its X research lab. Amazon has just acquired Sqrrl, a security startup launched by ex-NSA staffers, and reportedly wants to offer more security services to customers of its AWS cloud.

The blessing: Giant tech companies have hoovered up some of the brightest minds in security to protect their digital crown jewels—so customers using their cloud services can benefit from this know-how and the firms’ tech infrastructure.

The curse: There’s already plenty of concern over the hold that big tech companies have on our data, and trusting them with security could make businesses even more dependent on them. Bruce Schneier, a security expert, has highlighted the risks of what he calls “feudal security.” Entrepreneurs may also think twice about launching security-focused startups if they fear being crushed by the tech behemoths. That would deprive the world of some badly needed new ideas.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.