• Sauron, the high-end home security startup for “super premium” customers, plucks a new CEO out of Sonos

    December 29, 2025

    When Kevin Hartz’s security system failed to alert him as an intruder rang his doorbell and tried to enter his San Francisco home late one night, the serial entrepreneur decided existing solutions weren’t good enough. His co-founder Jack Abraham had experienced similar frustrations at his Miami Beach residence. In 2024, they launched Sauron — named after the sinister, all-seeing eye from “The Lord of the Rings” — to build what they envisioned as a military-grade home security system for tech elites. The concept resonated in Bay Area circles, where crime had become a constant topic during and after the pandemic,…

  • You’ve been targeted by government spyware. Now what?

    December 29, 2025

    It was a normal day when Jay Gibson got an unexpected notification on his iPhone. “Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone,” the message read. Ironically, Gibson used to work at companies that developed exactly the kind of spyware that could trigger such a notification. Still, he was shocked that he received a notification on his own phone. He called his father, turned off and put his phone away, and went to buy a new one. “I was panicking,” he told TechCrunch. “It was a mess. It was a huge mess.”   Gibson is just one of an…