Disney laid off staff as it rebalances product, tech resources
Disney laid off workers for the second time this month, this time in product and technology.
The layoffs, under Adam Smith, affected under 2% of the group.
Disney is still hiring in product and technology despite the head count reductions.
Disney has laid off workers for the second time this month, this time in product and technology.
This one fell under Adam Smith, product and technology chief over Disney's entertainment and sports media businesses, and amounted to under 2% of the group, according to a person with direct knowledge.
The layoffs were geared toward rebalancing resources, and the company continues to hire in product and technology, the person said.
Smith, who joined last year from YouTube, is tasked with boosting technologies for Disney+ and Hulu and also developing the upcoming ESPN flagship streaming product that is set to come out this year.
Earlier this month, the entertainment giant let go of several hundred people, the latest in a series of head count reductions in recent years.
That cut mainly affected people in TV and film marketing and was related to the industrywide decline in linear TV viewership.
Disney has made several head count reductions in recent years as the TV audiences migrate to streaming platforms, where profits have been slow to follow.
CEO Bob Iger laid the groundwork for broad cuts when he returned in late 2022 for his second tour as chief executive, saying in 2023 that he would cut 7,000 jobs.
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an hour ago
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
SANDHURST, England -- Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon" focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment" because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge" than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' so that you can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, "what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now."
an hour ago
Iranian-backed hackers go to work after US strikes
WASHINGTON -- Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and oil industry companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions to critical infrastructure or the economy. But that could change if the ceasefire between Iran and Israel collapses or if independent hacking groups supporting Iran make good on promises to wage their own digital conflict against the U.S., analysts and cyber experts say. The U.S. strikes could even prompt Iran, Russia, China and North Korea to double down on investments in cyberwarfare, according to Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor. Bellini noted that hacking operations are much cheaper than bullets, planes or nuclear arms — what defense analysts call kinetic warfare. America may be militarily dominant, he said, but its reliance on digital technology poses a vulnerability. 'We just showed the world: You don't want to mess with us kinetically,' said Bellini, CEO of Bellini Capital. 'But we are wide open digitally. We are like Swiss cheese." Two pro-Palestinian hacking groups claimed they targeted more than a dozen aviation firms, banks and oil companies following the U.S. strikes over the weekend. The hackers detailed their work in a post on the Telegram messaging service and urged other hackers to follow their lead, according to researchers at the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the groups' activity. The attacks were denial-of-service attacks, in which a hacker tries to disrupt a website or online network. 'We increase attacks from today,' one of the hacker groups, known as Mysterious Team, posted Monday. Federal authorities say they are on guard for additional attempts by hackers to penetrate U.S. networks. The Department of Homeland Security issued a public bulletin Sunday warning of increased Iranian cyber threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement Tuesday urging organizations that operate critical infrastructure like water systems, pipelines or power plants to stay vigilant. While it lacks the technical abilities of China or Russia, Iran has long been known as a 'chaos agent' when it comes to using cyberattacks to steal secrets, score political points or frighten opponents. Cyberattacks mounted by Iran's government may end if the ceasefire holds and Tehran looks to avoid another confrontation with the U.S. But hacker groups could still retaliate on Iran's behalf. In some cases, these groups have ties to military or intelligence agencies. In other cases, they act entirely independently. More than 60 such groups have been identified by researchers at the security firm Trustwave. These hackers can inflict significant economic and psychological blows. Following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, for instance, hackers penetrated an emergency alert app used by some Israelis and directed it to inform users that a nuclear missile was incoming. 'It causes an immediate psychological impact," said Ziv Mador, vice president of security research at Trustwave's SpiderLabs, which tracks cyberthreats. Economic disruption, confusion and fear are all the goals of such operations, said Mador, who is based in Israel. 'We saw the same thing in Russia-Ukraine.' While Iran lacks the cyberwarfare capabilities of China or Russia, it has repeatedly tried to use its more modest operations to try to spy on foreign leaders — something national security experts predict Tehran is almost certain to try again as it seeks to suss out President Donald Trump's next moves. Last year, federal authorities charged three Iranian operatives with trying to hack Trump's presidential campaign. It would be wrong to assume Iran has given up those efforts, according to Jake Williams, a former National Security Agency cybersecurity expert who is now vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy, a Washington-based cybersecurity firm. 'It's fairly certain that these limited resources are being used for intelligence collection to understand what Israel or the U.S. might be planning next, rather than performing destructive attacks against U.S. commercial organizations,' Williams said. Calls to bolster America's digital defense come as the Trump administration has moved to slash some cybersecurity programs as part of its effort to shrink the size of government. CISA has placed staffers who worked on election security on leave and cut millions of dollars in funding for cybersecurity programs for local and state elections. The CIA, NSA and other intelligence agencies also have seen reductions in staffing. Trump abruptly fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, who oversaw the NSA and the Pentagon's Cyber Command. The Israel-Iran conflict shows the value of investments in cybersecurity and cyber offense, Mador said. He said Israel's strikes on Iran, which included attacks on nuclear scientists, required sophisticated cyberespionage that allowed Israel to track its targets. Expanding America's cyber defenses will require investments in education as well as technical fixes to ensure connected devices or networks aren't vulnerable, said Bellini, who recently contributed $40 million toward a new cybersecurity center at the University of South Florida. There is a new arms race when it comes to cyberwar, Bellini said, and it's a contest America can't afford to lose. 'It's Wile E. Coyote vs. the Road Runner,' Bellini said. "It will go back and forth, and it will never end.'
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
SANDHURST, England (AP) — Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon" focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment" because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge" than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' so that you can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, "what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now."
