Google Inc. hit back at News Corp. for calling it a platform for piracy and an "unaccountable bureaucracy," in a point-by-point rebuttal that stressed the Internet search company's commitment to fighting online crime. In Google's official blog, Rachel Whetstone, head of global communications, defended the company's practices while taking a jab at News Corp-owned British tabloid The Sun.
Sandwich restaurant chain Jimmy John’s said there was a potential security breach involving customers' credit and debit card data at 216 of its stores and franchised locations on July 30. An intruder stole log-in credentials from the company's vendor and used the credentials to remotely access the point-of-sale systems at some corporate and franchised locations between June 16 and Sept. 5, the company said.
A group of authors protesting Amazon.com's ongoing contract negotiation with publisher Hachette Book Group plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the retailer’s business practices. The group, Authors United, plans to send a letter to William Baer, the head of the department’s antitrust division, said Douglas Preston, a Hachette-published author and organizer of the group.
A large data breach at Home Depot Inc. has started to trigger fraudulent transactions that are rippling across financial institutions and, in some cases, draining cash from customer bank accounts, according to people familiar with the impact of the hacking attack. The fraudulent transactions are showing up across the U.S. as criminals use stolen card information to buy prepaid cards, electronics and even groceries, these people said.
The FTC has shut down a Missouri-based company accused of scamming customers in its attempts to sell Bitcoin-mining computers and cards. The FTC complaint alleges that Butterfly Labs sold Bitcoin mining machines that did not live up to their promised capabilities.
Google Inc, the target of an EU antitrust investigation into its Internet search engine, may face further scrutiny over its other services following several complaints, Europe's antitrust chief said. European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said this meant Google could end up a bigger case than Microsoft Corp, which found itself embroiled in a decade-long battle with the EU watchdog and was hit with more than 2.2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in fines.
Since the country's top court struck down patents on a computer program that reduces risk in financial transactions, federal trial courts have rejected software patents in nine cases, according to Lex Machina, which supplies patent data to lawyers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which sets much of the nation's patent law, has nixed software patents in three others.
Moves by Apple Inc. and Google Inc. to put some smartphone data out of the reach of police and the courts are raising alarms inside U.S. law-enforcement agencies, current and former officials say. Several officials in Washington said they were bracing for a confrontation with Silicon Valley on the issue, the latest fallout from the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about government surveillance.
New York's financial regulator said his agency will focus on cyber security over the next year, saying the possibility of a systemic attack to the financial system is one thing that keeps him awake at night. "It is impossible to take it seriously enough," said Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) for the state of New York.
As part of a broad campaign to tighten internal security, the Chinese government has draped a darker shroud over Internet communications in recent weeks, a situation that has made it more difficult for Google and its customers to do business. Even as Google and other big technology companies have lobbied heavily for an easing of the restrictions, Beijing’s broader scrutiny of multinationals has intensified.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (or AO) has a plan to restore online access to documents that were controversially removed in August from PACER, the online system for accessing public court records, a spokesperson said. "The Administrative Office is working to restore electronic access to these cases by converting the docket sheets in these cases to PDF format which will allow us to make them available in PACER," said David Sellers, assistant director for public affairs at the AO, in a statement to the Washington Post.
Despite alarms as far back as 2008, Home Depot was slow to raise its defenses against hackers, according to former employees. Interviews with former members of the company’s cybersecurity team — who spoke on the condition they not be named, because they still work in the industry — suggest the company was slow to respond to early threats and only belatedly took action.
A bipartisan group of senators are backing the idea that emails held by U.S. services providers overseas need greater legal protection than they currently enjoy, but some are praising its existence and pointing out what they see as its significant flaws. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) introduced the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act, or LEADS Act.
A U.S. federal judge in Texas ordered Bitcoin Savings and Trust and its owner to pay a combined $40.7 million after the Securities and Exchange Commission established that the company, which sold investments using the virtual currency, was a Ponzi scheme. U.S. Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant said Trendon Shavers "knowingly and intentionally" operated his company "as a sham and a Ponzi scheme," misleading investors about the use of their bitcoin, how he would generate promised returns and the safety of their investments.
The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones. Android has offered optional encryption on some devices since 2011, but security experts say few users have known how to turn on the feature.
The Home Depot Inc.’s Sept. 2 data breach will cost the company $62 million and is estimated to have put payment card information at risk for 56 million payment debit/credit cards. The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer confirmed the malware used in its recent breach has been eliminated from its U.S. and Canadian networks.
A few weeks after it became embroiled in a hacking scandal that resulted in the leak of nude celebrity photos, Apple Inc. launched a campaign to explain how it handles users' personal information and to provide guidelines on protecting online accounts. Although there are few big changes in policies themselves, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company wants to be transparent about how it handles user information, the data it collects and doesn't collect, and why.
Internet retailers are facing new rules from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requiring them to ship customers' orders on time and promptly offer refunds for some items that are late. The FTC said that online sellers will be required to ship merchandise within 30 days of purchase, or else give customers the option for a refund.
Apple said that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police -- even when they have a search warrant -- taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information. The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked its latest encryption in a way that prevents the company -- or anyone but the device’s owner -- from gaining access to the vast troves of user data typically stored on smartphones or tablet computers.
Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of U.S. airlines, technology companies and other firms involved in the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment, a U.S. Senate panel has found. The Senate Armed Services Committee's year-long probe, details of which were made public on Wednesday, found that the military's U.S. Transportation Command, or Transcom, was aware of only two out of at least 20 such cyber intrusions within a single year.
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