New words – 4 October 2021

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finfluencer noun [C]
UK /ˈfɪn.flu.ən.səʳ/ US /ˈfɪn.flu.ən.sɚ/
someone who attracts followers on social media through giving financial advice

Becoming a finfluencer can be highly lucrative. On TikTok the hashtag #FinTok has been viewed more than 340 million times … But as lucrative as this trend may be for those who make it to the top of the finfluencer money tree, the gains for followers are far less certain. It is the wild west for financial information, with few of the checks and balances that regulate other areas of financial advice.
[theconversation.com, 25 May 2021]

soonicorn noun [C]
UK /ˈsuː.nɪ.kɔːn/ US /ˈsuː.nɪ.kɔːrn/
a startup that is likely to become a unicorn (a business valued at over $1 billion) in the near future

In 2020, the local tech startups that made it to the soonicorn list were iflix, Carsome, and Fave … At the time this list was created in March 2020, iflix was supposedly the most promising soonicorn, as it had a disclosed funding of US$350 million, followed by Carsome with US$86 million, and Fave with US$32 million. There were over 2.7k tech startups and over 40 public ones.
[vulcanpost.com, 3 May 2021]

cyber mercenary noun [C]
UK /ˈsaɪ.bə.mɜː.sᵊn.ri/ US /ˈsaɪ.bɚ.mɝː.sᵊn.ri/
someone who is paid by an organization to use the internet to illegally enter a computer system without permission, for example in order to get secret information or to damage the system

Generally, mercenaries provide support for military operations – most often in the form of defensive security, training for national forces, and technical support. The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries has identified cyber mercenaries as one category of actors that can generate mercenary-related activities. This entails a wide range of military and security services provided in cyberspace, including data collection and espionage.
[hscrentre.org, 15 May 2021]

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