*By Carlo Versano*
Shares of Tesla jumped more than 15 percent in the pre-market Monday on news that CEO Elon Musk settled a lawsuit with the SEC over Musk's social media use.
Under the terms of the settlement, Musk will step down as chairman of Tesla ($TSLA) for at least three years but can remain in the chief executive role. He and the company must each pay $20 million in fines. Two independent board members will also be appointed.
Federal regulators sued Musk last week, arguing that his infamous Aug. 7 "funding secured" tweet amounted to securities fraud. The lawsuit was filed after Musk reportedly scuttled a last-minute deal with the agency under which he would resign as chairman and pay a fine but not admit to any wrongdoing. Talks restarted soon after, and by Saturday a new settlement was in place.
The settlement takes care of one major headache for investors, who will now look to the car maker's third-quarter production and delivery numbers, which may be reported as early as Monday. Musk [reportedly] (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/30/elon-musk-tells-tesla-to-ignore-distractions-hints-at-profitability.html) emailed employees over the weekend, telling them to "ignore all distractions" and that the company was approaching profitability.
Inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets this week.
The world’s largest meat processing company says it paid the equivalent of $11 million to hackers who broke into its computer system late last month.
Now that El Salvador is taking bitcoin nationwide, other Central and South American countries are coming forward with their own proposals in what's shaping up to be a regional race to become the next bitcoin hub.
The White House dropped Trump-era executive orders that attempted to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and will conduct its own review.
Criminal gangs that used a secure-messaging app called ANOM unwittingly allowed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on their conversations.
Jeff Bezos will be aboard for Blue Origin's first human space flight next month.
Twitter is rolling out a subscription service, starting in Canada and Australia, that offers perks like an undo button for subscribers.
Facebook says it will suspend former President Donald Trump's accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
Gas pipelines have long been a vulnerable target due to their value and exposed nature, yet while government agencies have doubled down on physical security, cybersecurity has been overlooked for decades.
Critics of bitcoin's energy use argue that its carbon footprint is way out of proportion with its social value, while supporters assert that bitcoin is no different than the rest of the financial system.
