This Week in Tech: Capital One’s Very Bad Week

Welcome back to your favorite weekly tech news roundup – the biggest trending stories that SHIFT’s B2B PR teams have been monitoring on behalf of our clients. Here’s the run down:

Capital One’s massive data breach

This was, by far, the biggest story in cybersecurity this week. A woman in Seattle was arrested after gaining access to more than 100 million Capital One customer accounts and credit card applications.

The number one concern here is obviously the vast amount of personal information that may be compromised. But, from a PR and crisis communications standpoint, it’s also interesting to examine what this means for Capital One’s reputation. The financial giant has long been seen as a savvy digital innovator (it was one of the first big banks to migrate their customer and corporate data from their own data centers to AWS), but do people really want their bank to act like a tech company? For a great analysis of the situation, check out this piece in The Wall Street Journal.

Equifax payouts: be prepared for disappointment

Speaking of colossal data breaches, remember the Equifax one from a couple years ago? While the Federal Trade Commission reached a $700 million agreement with the company this month, it’s now trying to manage our expectations. The agency has said that there’s too much interest from consumers in a payout of up to $125 each, so the actual amount that people receive could be much lower. Only $31 million of the settlement was set aside for the cash payouts, and they’re urging people to opt for free credit monitoring instead. People are going to be very disappointed.

Here comes the Apple Card

On the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Apple Card will be launching in August. This is just the start, as most believe it’ll be a jumping off point for Apple to break into more financial services down the road. 

Lyft’s e-bikes are on fire

Like, literally. Two of Lyft’s electric-assist bikes have gone up in flames in San Francisco, and no one knows why (there were no injuries). The company is temporarily suspending the program throughout SF as it looks into the cause of the fires.

Pro tip

We’re still hiring! And you should come work with us. Check out our openings here.