A survey finds that while 50% of businesses have adopted AI in 2022, 2.5x higher than in 2017, AI adoption has plateaued between 50%-60% for the past few years (McKinsey & Company)

More than 50 percent of organizations reported a third-party data breach in 2022, and more than 70 percent found third-party breaches or cyberattacks in 2022 resulted from giving too much privileged access to third parties. This is according to a recent survey of 632 people involved in managing third-party data and cyber risk for their organizations.
The resulting report, “The State of Cybersecurity and Third-Party Remote Access Risk,” reveals that many organizations are “not treating those external parties as the security risk they are.”
The report’s authors note that while organizations…

Jon Victor / The Information:
Source: between Q1 2019 and this fall, Alphabet’s Google Cloud, hardware unit, and YouTube have roughly doubled headcount, as the total employee count grew ~80%  —  Alphabet has doubled the headcount in its Google Cloud unit since early 2019, according to data obtained by The Information, outstripping Alphabet’s overall hiring growth.

Frederick Munawa / CoinDesk:
Chainalysis: sub-Saharan Africa crypto usage is driven by everyday necessity; 80% of crypto payments in the region are under $1K, the world’s highest proportion  —  The report shows strong crypto usage and adoption rates in the region.  With highly educated young people and low job prospects …

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
A US Senate committee votes 15-7 to pass the Journalism Competition and Protection Act letting news organizations band together to negotiate with tech platforms  —  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve a bill aimed at allowing news organizations to band together …

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:
Chainalysis: emerging markets, led by Vietnam and the Philippines, drove global cryptocurrency adoption over the past year; China remained active despite a ban  —  The blockchain analytics firm’s 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index also shows China remains active despite a ban on crypto trading.

Svea Herbst-Bayliss / Reuters:
Filing: Starboard Value has built a 9% stake in Wix, which has been struggling with losses since Q4 2021 and has adopted a three-year cost-cutting program  —  Starboard Value LP has built a 9% stake in website development platform Wix.com Ltd (WIX.O), the activist hedge fund disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.