Technology

Walmart announced today an expansion of its existing relationship with financial services provider Green Dot, which will continue to serve as the issuing bank and program manager for the Walmart MoneyCard program for another seven years. The two companies also agreed to partner on the creation of a new accelerator that focuses on the intersection of retail and consumer financial services.

The accelerator, called Tailfin Labs, will help startups develop solutions that integrate omni-channel shopping and financial tech, which can be aimed either at consumers or businesses. These may involve products built on top of Green Dot &Banking-as-a-Service& (BaaS) platform.

&Green Dot is extremely proud and honored to both extend our MoneyCard partnership for many years and to additionally enter into an entirely new equity partnership with Walmart in the creation of a fintech accelerator,& said Steve Streit, founder and CEO, Green Dot, in a statement. &We believe the combination of Walmartunmatched retail ecosystem with Green Dotinnovative and highly flexible BaaS platform, which enables the worldlargest technology and consumer brands to address their consumers with bespoke financial products and services, has the opportunity to create and bring to market many new and exciting innovations over the years to come.&

Walmart partnered with Green Dot in 2006 to create the Walmart MoneyCard, which offers FDIC-insured accounts and cash-back rewards on Walmart purchases, alongside other features, like early direct deposit, online bill pay, prize savings entries and more — as well as the usual set of features you&d have in a personal checking account, but without the fees. Itnow the largest retailer exclusive prepaid account program in the U.S.

In many ways, it was also a precursor to the sort of mobile banking startups seen today, which directly target consumers with similar products.

This is a busy space these days, as more companies go after the growing market of millennials (and even their younger Gen Z counterparts) who don&t want a traditional bank. Instead, they want banking services in a modern, easy-to-use mobile interface, where innovative features help them to better save and manage their money.

Just last week, for example, mobile banking app Current snagged $20 million more in funding for its service, now used by half a million users. Others in the space include Step, Cleo, N26, Chime, Simple and Stash, to name a few.

The new accelerator is seemingly poised to capitalize on this trend, while also giving Walmart and Green Dot a new foothold in the market.

&Over the years, Walmart has brought to market many innovative industry-defining financial services offerings to serve our customers & including several introduced through the Walmart MoneyCard program managed by Green Dot,& noted Daniel Eckert, senior vice president, Walmart Services and Digital Acceleration, in an announcement. &With this expanded relationship, and by leveraging Walmartfootprint and existing offerings with Green Dotcutting-edge capabilities, we&ll be uniquely positioned to offer an unmatched set of customer experiences that sit at the nexus of omni-channel retail and tech-enabled financial services,& he said.

The new agreement between Green Dot and Walmart begins January 1, 2020 and will replace the agreement that would have otherwise expired in May 2020.

Ittime to get your robotics fix, startup fans. Thatright, TC Sessions: Robotics - AI returns to UC BerkeleyZellerbach Hall on March 3, 2020. Join us for a day-long deep dive focused on the intersection of robotics and AI — arguably two of the most exciting and world-changing technologies.

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This is our fourth year hosting this event and last year, 1,500 founders, technologists, engineering students and investors heard TechCrunch editors interview top leaders in AI and robotics, participated in workshops, watched live demos, attended speaker Q-As and enjoyed world-class networking. With so many advances in a range of technologies like AI, GPUs, sensors (to name just a few), itan exciting time to be part of this rapidly evolving space.

We&re building out the speaker roster and agenda, so keep checking back. In the meantime, take a look at last yearagenda to get a sense of the quality programming you can expect.

Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert, a perennial favorite at TC Sessions: Robotics - AI, offers this perspective on the conference. It &blends the best of thoughtful, research-focused robotics with a unique business in technology focus.&

TC Sessions: Robotics - AI takes place on March 3, 2020 at UC BerkeleyZellerbach Hall. Itnot too early to save the date, and itnever too early to save $100 on the price of admission. Join the top people in robotics and AI for a full day devoted to world-changing technologies.

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WhatsApp has filed a suit in federal court accusing Israeli mobile surveillance maker NSO Group of creating an exploit that was used hundreds of times to hack into targetphone.

The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, said the mobile surveillance outfit &developed their malware in order to access messages and other communications after they were decrypted& on target devices.

The attack worked by exploiting an audio-calling vulnerability in WhatsApp. Users may appear to get an ordinary call, but the malware would quietly infect the device with spyware, giving the attackers full access to the device.

In some cases it happened so quickly, the targetphone may not have rung at all.

Because WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, itnear-impossible to access the messages as they traverse the internet. But in recent years, governments and mobile spyware companies have begun targeting the devices where the messages were sent or received. The logic goes that if you hack the device, you can obtain its data.

Thatwhat WhatsApp says happened.

WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, quickly patched the vulnerability. Although blame fell fast on NSO Group, WhatsApp did not publicly accuse the company at the time — until now.

In an op-ed posted shortly after the suit was filed, WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the messaging giant &learned that the attackers used servers and Internet-hosting services that were previously associated& with NSO Group, and that certain WhatsApp accounts used during the attacks were traced back to the company.

&While their attack was highly sophisticated, their attempts to cover their tracks were not entirely successful,& said Cathcart.

The attack involved disguising the malicious code as call settings, allowing the surveillance outfit to deliver the code as if it came from WhatsAppsignaling servers. Once the malicious calls were delivered to the targetphone, they &injected the malicious code into the memory of the target device — even when the target did not answer the call,& the complaint read. When the code was run, it sent a request to the surveillance companyservers, and downloaded additional malware to the targetdevice.

In total, some 1,400 targeted devices were affected by the exploit, the lawsuit said.

Most people were unaffected by the WhatsApp exploit. But WhatsApp said that more than 100 human rights defenders, journalists and &other members of civil society& were targeted by the attack.

Other targets included government officials and diplomats.

In a statement, NSO Group said: &In the strongest possible terms, we dispute todayallegations and will vigorously fight them.&