A plan to build a system of data centers for artificial intelligence has been revealed in a White House press conference, with Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison joining Donald Trump to announce The Stargate Project. Their companies, Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle (respectively), along with MGX are listed as “initial equity funders” for $500 billion in investments over the next four years, “building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.”

According to a statement from OpenAI, “Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI” are the initial tech partners, with a buildout “currently underway” starting in Texas as other sites across the country are evaluated. It also says that “Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system.”

Day Two of the Trump administration and the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) website is up and running. Only time will tell if DOGE actually accomplishes anything. The big idea behind it is to find savings and improve the efficiency of the government. And who better to do that than Elon Musk himself?

Maybe this new government department could start with disbanding useless government departments?

Dogecoin to be the Official US Government Cryptocurrency?

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that one of the cost savings a Department of Government Efficiency could implement would be to move the payroll of federal transactions over to the blockchain. Since Musk is a crypto fanatic, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if that happened. And with the Dogecoin logo already on the DOGE website, could $DOGE be used as the official government cryptocurrency? Then again, perhaps it will be Solaxy ($SOLX).

Solaxy to Boost Efficiency on the Solana Ecosystem

After all, the whole reason for Solaxy’s existence is to optimize the Solana blockchain for better efficiency. And right now, ‘efficiency’ is Elon’s favorite buzzword.

Fact is, just like the US government, the Solana blockchain has become overwhelmed with problems and inefficiencies, resulting in congestion and slow transactions. Solaxy, like Musk’s D.O.G.E, has come along just at the right time to potentially fix it.

Solaxy is still in its presale phase, and with the current $SOLX token price at a bargain $0.00161, and a 286% staking APY, those are cost savings that the US public can get behind.

Solana Swamped by $TRUMP and $MELANIA Coin Transactions

Solana is getting a surge of attention due to the emergence of the Solana-based $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins. The rush onto Solana to buy Trump coins has been sorely testing the Solana network like never before, with both users and third-party platforms reporting congestion and delays.

But as President Trump has chosen Solana for his own new coin, the platform is due for an upgrade. This is precisely what Solaxy will offer, a layer-2 solution to Solana to offload some traffic and reduce the load.

Solaxy, being an Ethereum-based token, will also bridge the two blockchains, leveraging Ethereum’s liquidity and Solana’s popularity to unleash the full potential of the meme coin market.

Make Way for the Memes

So, if efficiency and fixing the problems holding back the memes and the government get you inspired, check out this new presale before the price goes up. The use case couldn’t be stronger at the moment.

Just head on over to the official Solaxy website, connect your crypto wallet, and start buying $SOLX. God bless you, good citizen, for serving your country. But remember, never invest money you can’t afford to lose, and always do plenty of independent research before committing any funds.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3956.13, down 0.5% (-21.14) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Three of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: SOL (+2.8%) and XRP (+0.2%).

Laggards: ICP (-5.6%) and HBAR (-4.9%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

It’s only January, but the recent hack of U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool has the potential to be one of the biggest breaches of the year. 

PowerSchool, which provides K-12 software to more than 18,000 schools to support some 60 million students in the United States, confirmed the breach in early January. The California-based company, which Bain Capital acquired for $5.6 billion in 2024, said at the time that hackers used compromised credentials to breach its customer support portal, allowing further access to the company’s school information system, PowerSchool SIS, which schools use to manage student records, grades, attendance, and enrollment. 

“On December 28, 2024, we became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS information through one of our community-focused customer portals, PowerSource,” PowerSchool spokesperson Beth Keebler told TechCrunch. 

PowerSchool has been open about certain aspects of the breach. Keebler told TechCrunch that the PowerSource portal, for example, did not support MFA at the time of the incident, while PowerSchool did. But a number of important questions remain unanswered.

This week, TechCrunch sent PowerSchool a list of outstanding questions about the incident, which has the potential to impact millions of students in the U.S. Keebler declined to answer our questions, saying that all updates related to the breach would be posted on the company’s SIS incident page, which hasn’t been updated since January 17.

PowerSchool told customers it would share an incident report from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which the company hired to investigate the breach, on January 17. But several sources who work at schools impacted by the breach told TechCrunch that they have yet to receive it.

The company’s customers also have lots of unanswered questions, forcing those impacted by the breach to work together to investigate the hack. 

Here are some of the questions that remain unanswered. 

It’s not known how many schools, or students, are affected

TechCrunch has heard from schools affected by the PowerSchool breach that the impact could be “massive.” However, PowerSchool’s incident page makes no mention of the scale of the breach, and the company has repeatedly declined to say how many schools and individuals are affected. 

In a statement sent to TechCrunch last week, Keebler said PowerSchool had “identified the schools and districts whose data was involved in this incident,” but would not be sharing the names of those involved. 

However, communications from impacted school districts give a general idea of the size of the breach. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Canada’s largest school board that serves approximately 240,000 students each year, said this week that hackers may have accessed some 40 years’ worth of student data. Similarly, California’s Menlo Park City School District confirmed that hackers accessed information on all current students and staff — which respectively number around 2,700 students and 400 staff — as well as students and staff dating back to the start of the 2009-10 school year.

The scale of the data theft is also unknown. PowerSchool also hasn’t said how much data was accessed during the cyberattack, but in a communication shared with its customers earlier this month, seen by TechCrunch, the company confirmed that hackers stole “sensitive personal information” on students and teachers, including some students’ Social Security numbers, grades, demographics, and medical information. TechCrunch has also heard from multiple schools affected by the incident that “all” of their historical student and teacher data was accessed. 

One person who works at an affected school district told TechCrunch that the stolen data includes highly sensitive student data, including information about parental access rights to their children, including restraining orders, and information about when certain students need to take their medications. 

PowerSchool hasn’t said how much it paid the hackers responsible for the breach

PowerSchool told TechCrunch that the organization had taken “appropriate steps” to prevent the stolen data from being published. In the communication shared with customers, the company confirmed that it worked with a cyber-extortion incident response company to negotiate with the threat actors responsible for the breach. 

This all but confirms that PowerSchool paid a ransom to the attackers that breached its systems. However, when asked by TechCrunch, the company refused to say how much it paid, nor how much the hackers demanded.

We don’t know what evidence PowerSchool received that the stolen data has been deleted

In a statement shared with TechCrunch earlier this month, PowerSchool’s Keebler said the organization “does not anticipate the data being shared or made public” and that it “believes the data has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.”

However, the company has repeatedly declined to say what evidence it has received to suggest that the stolen data had been deleted. Early reports said the company received video proof, but PowerSchool wouldn’t confirm or deny when asked by TechCrunch. 

Even then, proof of deletion is by no means a guarantee that the hackers are still not in possession of the data; the U.K.’s recent takedown of the LockBit ransomware gang unearthed evidence that the gang still had data belonging to victims who had paid a ransom demand. 

We don’t yet know who was behind the attack

One of the biggest unknowns about the PowerSchool cyberattack is who was responsible. The company has been in communication with the hackers but has refused to reveal their identities. CyberSteward, the Canadian incident response organization that PowerSchool worked with to negotiate, did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions.

Do you have more information about the PowerSchool data breach? We’d love to hear from you. From a non-work device, you can contact Carly Page securely on Signal at +44 1536 853968 or via email at carly.page@techcrunch.com.

The California mom who pleaded guilty to running an organized retail crime ring that stole millions of dollars in beauty products from Ulta Beauty and Sephora to resell on Amazon will now have to pay those retailers back as part of her sentence.

Michelle Mack, who began her five-year prison sentence on Jan. 9 following her arrest outside of San Diego in December 2023, was ordered to pay $3 million in restitution to Ulta, Sephora and a number of other retailers after striking a plea deal with prosecutors last year. 

As part of the deal, Mack, 54, forfeited her 4,500-square-foot mansion in Bonsall, California, which was sold in December for $2.35 million, property records show. 

Any funds left from the sale, after bank debts were satisfied, will go toward restitution, while Mack and her husband Kenneth Mack, 60, will pay back the remainder “over time,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said. 

It’s not clear if Mack had a mortgage on the property, but she originally purchased it for $2.29 million in 2021, according to property records.

It’s also not clear how the restitution will be divvied up among Mack’s victims. The crime ring she admitted to running primarily targeted Ulta stores, but it stole from other retailers, including Sephora.

When compared with the net income that retailers like Ulta bring in annually, the restitution is likely a drop in the bucket — but it would still be a small windfall. Ulta declined to comment on the restitution, including how it would use the funds or account for them in financial statements. The company did say it was proud to have partnered with law enforcement officials on the investigation and was grateful for their efforts. 

“This case demonstrates that through close partnerships between retailers, law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as legislative support, we can make a meaningful impact on organized retail crime and hold the criminals perpetuating this problem accountable,” Dan Petrousek, senior vice president of loss prevention at Ulta Beauty, said in a statement. 

Sephora didn’t return a request for comment. 

David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at the National Retail Federation, said restitution is common for retailers, victimized by theft, but the amounts only recently started reaching the millions.

“The level of theft … has not been as substantial and as commonplace as we’ve seen over the last, you know, four years or so,” said Johnston. “This is going to be what we would expect to see when we start to get these organized retail crime groups through the judicial process. It is a substantial amount of loss, a complex organization, which involves a number of individuals, and then sentencing and restitution that meet the crime.” 

He cautioned that restitution rarely makes up for a retailers’ lost income in full, and it can take years for a defendant to pay back the fines entirely.

“Restitution is part of the judicial process, but it does not guarantee that the victim will receive all or any funds,” said Johnston. “It’s dependent upon the ability to obtain that restitution from the offender and the process in which that restitution is in fact paid and shared across multiple victims.” 

Last year, Bonta filed a slew of felony charges against Mack and her husband, alleging they ran what his office called a sprawling retail crime ring that led to an estimated $8 million in stolen beauty products, CNBC previously reported. The operation spanned at least a dozen states, CNBC reported.

Mack wasn’t accused of stealing the products herself. Instead, police said she recruited a crew of young women to take the items so she could resell the products on her Amazon storefront for a fraction of their retail price. 

The investigation, led by the California Highway Patrol, gained national attention and revealed the sophisticated nature behind some retail crime rings and how bad actors can use online marketplaces to sell stolen products. 

Last summer, Mack was sentenced to five years and four months in state prison, but was given a delayed sentence that began this month. Mack’s husband, Kenneth, was also sentenced in connection with the case, so the judge agreed to postpone her sentence so she could care for their children while Kenneth was incarcerated. 

Additional reporting by Scott Zamost and Courtney Reagan

When it comes to protecting yourself online, having a secure password has been the default recommendation. However, you may be surprised to know that having a secure username is just as important as using a strong password.

Serving as your identity online, usernames are prized assets for hackers to acquire. Even if they’re not as coveted as your passwords, they can be used to get hold of your online data.  In this sense, it’s essential to craft a unique and safe username that will keep your accounts away from threat actors and prying eyes.

In this article, we discuss what a username is, why it’s important to have a unique and secure username, and some tips and tricks to get there.

What is a username?

A username is a group of characters that serve as your identity for an account or service, either in a computer system or on the internet. They’re also called login names, user IDs, login IDs, and account names.

As identifiers, usernames help distinguish and set you apart from other people or accounts. This is in contrast to passwords, which are used to authenticate or verify that you are who you say you are when logging into an account.

Below is a quick description of both and their main difference:

• Usernames: Identifies who you are, either in a computer, a network, an online service, or an application.
• Passwords: Authenticates or confirms that you are who you claim to be, enabling you access to an account after it’s correctly provided.

These days, most online sites, social media networks, games, and applications require a username before you can continue using their service. Some websites allow you to use your email address as a username, but that isn’t always the case and, at times, isn’t the recommended practice.

SEE: SMB Security Pack (TechRepublic Premium)

Why is it important to create a secure username?

While it seems like a no-brainer to have a strong password, having an equally secure username is crucial for these reasons:

They’re often included in data leaks and breaches

In a massive data breach, a hacker aims to get as much information on you as possible. This means they not only target passwords but also eye your phone number, address, email, and of course, your username.

Since usernames and passwords go hand-in-hand, a hacker having your username technically means they have 50% of your login credentials. This makes it significantly easier for cybercriminals to use strategies like brute force attacks or credential stuffing, i.e., a high-powered form of trial and error, to try and steal your account.

Usernames are public information

It’s essential to remember that most usernames are available to the public because they act as identifiers. Think about your business’ LinkedIn account, your Amazon account, or even your personal username for gaming. All of these can be viewed by both you, other people, and hackers alike. In this regard, they don’t have the same type of security as passwords regarding private information.

With this, I strongly recommend creating unique usernames for each account you have. Why? Let’s say you regularly use one username for many of your accounts — including your email address. Here, hackers can use your public username to track down all your other accounts. This leaves you highly susceptible to social engineering tactics, scams, or phishing attempts.

They can help build your anonymity online

While usernames are public, they don’t necessarily have to include your full name. In this regard, having a secure username can be a great way for you to strengthen your online privacy. If you do it right, no one technically knows which username is tied to your account. This allows you to browse the internet without worrying about others looking into what you’re doing online.

Another way usernames can help strengthen privacy is by using them to separate your work and personal life online. Like the example above, you can use a completely different username for your personal accounts. This allows you to keep your personal feed private and maintain your business account at the same time.

How do I create a secure username?

Fortunately, creating a secure username can be a straightforward process, provided you follow some key steps. Here’s what I recommend:

1. Avoid including your full name, address, or other personal information

Most accounts, except work accounts perhaps, won’t require you to use your full name — and for good reason. Having your name in your username will make it much easier for hackers to identify you and subsequently find your other accounts.

For example, if both your name is John Doe and you have “JohnDoe” as your Amazon account, it would be a breeze for cybercriminals to put two and two together and conclude that this Amazon username is yours.

Similarly, any personally identifiable information also shouldn’t be in your username, as you’re inadvertently giving hackers more data to work with to hack your account.

Here’s a list of data you should definitely avoid including in your username:

• Date of birth.
• Address.
• Email address.
• Phone number/s.
• ID numbers or PINs.
• Social security number.
• Your hometown.

Remember, since usernames are public info, hackers have the same access to them as you do. If you include something like your home address in your username, a savvy hacker can use it to their advantage and possibly target you.

Hackers can also use any personal info you have in your username to answer security questions. These questions are safeguards placed in most online services that help authenticate your identity and allow you to retrieve or reset your password when needed.

To illustrate, let’s say your username is JohnDoeAug11. In this instance, a hacker can assume that “Aug11” is your date of birth. In theory, this means the hacker now has both your name and your birthday.

If you have an online account, that has a security question asking what your birthday is, they would now be able to unlock your account or login credentials without you knowing.

2. Don’t reuse usernames for other accounts

It’s worth emphasizing that you should avoid reusing usernames when creating a new account. Using a new, unique username every time you make a new account drastically reduces the likelihood of your accounts being hacked.

While this can be inconvenient, I do think the additional layer of security you provide your accounts with this practice is very much worth it.

In addition, I also discourage merely revising old usernames or slightly modifying them. Why so? Let’s take for example, having the username “techrepublic1.”

If we change it to something like “techrepublic2,” this still leaves you at great risk of being compromised since hackers can readily sift through different variations of your username when they try to acquire your credentials.

Steering clear of repeating used login details is the same practice recommended when creating a new password. If you’re curious about how to have a strong password, check out our How to Create a Secure Password guide.

3. Make it memorable for you but hard to guess for everyone else

Now that we’ve gone through some things not to do, let’s see how we can actually create a unique username from scratch. Since usernames can be anything under the sun, one way to do it is to use a combination of words that mean something to you and only you.

I strongly suggest mixing words or phrases that mean something to you but can be hard for anyone else to guess. Here are some ideas to think of when creating your unique username:

• Your hobbies or interests.
• Your characteristics or personality.
• Your favorite items.
• Old nicknames or pet names.
• Favorite movies, games, or TV shows.

Let’s say your favorite animal is a dolphin, and you’re quite fond of pizza. For you, maybe “pizzadolphin37” as a username is a good pick.

It’s also encouraged to add in random characters, like symbols or numbers, at your discretion. Just make sure you’re able to remember it well.

4. Ensure your username and password are unrelated

Another thing to remember is to ensure your username and password are two completely unrelated words. While this may seem obvious, having a username-password combo that connects somehow is a recipe for disaster.

Below is an example of login credentials that relate to each other:

• Username: RosesAreRed.
• Password: VioletsAreBlue.

Even if having related login details helps remember them, it’s important to acknowledge that both hackers and their tools have evolved. Such a combination would not be difficult to crack for hackers and threat actors, much less more experienced ones at that.

5. Use a random username generator

Finally, you can also use online username generators that will automatically create a username for you. Many of these username generators let you set specific parameters for your username, such as how many characters it has, what type of words are used if it’s random text or an actual phrase, and the like.

Below are some online username generators I’ve seen that provide a fair amount of options and settings you can tweak to get your desired username:

A handful of password managers also have username generators you can use, such as 1Password and Bitwarden. I’ll be listing these password managers, and more details about them are below to better understand which ones to go for.

6. Have a secure way to store them, such as via a password manager

As we’ve touched on them, password managers can be worthwhile investments in storing and securing unique usernames. Aside from storing passwords, password managers are also designed to automatically store all the usernames you use for each account. This means you won’t have to think about remembering all your usernames, as the password manager does for you.

Most modern password managers also include autofill capabilities, which removes the hassle of remembering the specific username and password for each account. With autofill, password managers will automatically populate the login form fields for you.

Password managers with username generators

If you’re interested in trying out a password manager service, here are three that I find are worth checking out.

Fortunately, all three password managers below offer a username generator either within the app or via their official website, so you’ll have no trouble creating a unique username with any of them.

Bitwarden

If you’re looking for a fully free password manager, Bitwarden is one of the best. Its free plan provides unlimited password storage, which is a big plus considering other free password managers impose a cap on how many passwords can be stored. Bitwarden Free also enables access to an unlimited number of devices, letting you access your encrypted vault from any device. Privacy enthusiasts also appreciate Bitwarden for being open-source and having a strong portfolio of third-party audits.

To learn more, read our full Bitwarden review.

1Password

For users that prioritize having a streamlined user experience, I recommend 1Password. Its desktop application and browser extension both have polished designs, making it easy to manage numerous passwords and accounts. On the security side, 1Password employs a zero-knowledge approach, ensuring all your sensitive credentials are only accessible to you alone. 1Password accounts are also end-to-end encrypted and use AES-256 encryption, the gold standard encryption algorithm in the industry today.

To learn more, read our full 1Password review.

NordPass

If you’re a fan of NordVPN and looking for a companion password manager, NordPass should be on your radar. As Nord Security’s take on password management, NordPass takes a lot of cues from their popular VPN in providing a strong balance between having a clean UI without sacrificing overall security. It uses the “future-proof” XChaCha20 encryption algorithm; offers a refined and modern-looking desktop app; and provides a reasonable amount of multifactor authentication methods as well. I personally appreciate its subscription options, having both a free version and either an annual or two-year paid plan.

To learn more, read our full NordPass review.