Gallery: Tourism Leadership Council hosts October Networking Luncheon

TechCrunch Feds arrest man who allegedly participated in hack of the SEC's X account, boosting Bitcoin's price Federal authorities announced Thursday the arrest of a man in Alabama, accusing him of participating in the hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission X account earlier this year. Eric Council Jr. was indicted in connection with the SEC X account hack, which happened on January 9, when the account published a post falsely announcing that the Commission had approved Bitcoin ETFs to be listed in securities exchanges in the country, a post that increased the price of Bitcoin by $1,000, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia. According to the indictment against Council, he worked with other unnamed co-conspirators to perform a SIM swap on the phone account of a person who had access to the SEC X account, only identified as "C.L.".

Yahoo News What the return of 'a weak La Nina' could mean for the coming winter — and the next hurricane season After a year of record warm global temperatures caused by climate change and an El Niño weather pattern, "a weak La Niña" is expected to form ahead of the arrival of winter, the National Weather Service said, and could last through March of next year.

Google replaces executive in charge of Search and advertising Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Thursday that Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive in charge of the company's search engine and ads products, is leaving his role. Longtime Google executive Nick Fox will replace Raghavan, who will now take on the role of chief technologist. "Prabhakar has decided it's time to make a big leap in his own career," Pichai said in the announcement post.

Apple Music's latest feature lets artists create dedicated playlists for concerts and tours Apple Music introduced a new feature for artists on Thursday to enable them to create playlists tied to their recent concert set lists. It allows artists to turn their set list from a single show, residency, or entire tour into a playlist, which can then be shared with fans on Apple Music and displayed on Shazam's Artist and Concert pages, as well as posted on social media. Artists first need to upload an artist image to their profile for the playlist's cover art.

Hackers are extorting Globe Life with stolen customer data Insurance giant Globe Life, which provides life and health insurance policies to millions of Americans, says it is being extorted by a hacker that has stolen customers' sensitive data. In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, the Texas-based conglomerate said it has "recently received communications" from an unknown threat actor who is seeking to extort money from the company in exchange for not disclosing data stolen from its systems. The compromised data, which Globe Life has traced back to its American Income Life Insurance Company subsidiary (AIL), includes personally identifiable information, such as customer names, postal addresses, and phone numbers.

Apple says support for redeeming rewards with more partners is coming to Apple Pay On Thursday, Apple celebrated 10 years with Apple Pay and announced how the service will evolve in the future, including features like redeeming rewards and expanding installment loan options. In addition to Apple Pay's newly added support for loan options from Affirm in the U.S., and Monzo Flex in the U.K., the iPhone maker shared that starting today, support for Klarna will go live in the two countries including both at checkout online and in-app with Apple Pay. Further down the road, the company says it will expand access to installment loan options to include those from eligible credit or debit cards, including those from Citi and Synchrony in the U.S. and other participating issuers with Fiserv.

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Film Room: 4 offenses we need fixed for fantasy | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast It's Thursday and 'Fantasy Film Room' is back with Nate Tice and Matt Harmon. The two look into four offenses that have gotten off to uneven starts to the season that have players the fantasy world is counting on. Harmon and Tice do a deep dive on the Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, L.A. Chargers and Miami Dolphins. The two look at what's gone wrong so far and what ways each team can tweak, fix and evolve their offenses the rest of the season. The two also preview the 'instant classic' TNF matchup between the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints.

Hyperspectral imagery startup Wyvern looks to raise US presence with $6M raise The Alberta-based company, which collects what it says is the highest-resolution hyperspectral imagery on the market, has raised $6 million to, among other things, expand into U.S. commercial and defense markets. The new funding was led by Squadra Ventures, a firm squarely focused on investing in companies in the cyber and national security spaces. Wyvern has already established an American subsidiary, and co-founder Kurtis Broda told TechCrunch that working with Squadra was a "natural fit" for growing in that market.