The U.S. consumer finance watchdog has ordered PayPal to pay $25 million in refunds and fines, stemming from the regulator's claims the payment company illegally signed up users for PayPal Credit, its online credit service. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said PayPal deceptively advertised promotions for PayPal Credit, formerly known as Bill Me Later, which is a line of credit consumers can use to pay for online and other purchases.
The Obama administration announced the arrest of a Chinese professor and the indictment of five other Chinese citizens in what it contended was a decade-long scheme to steal microelectronics designs from Silicon Valley companies. The indictment was the broadest since five members of the People’s Liberation Army were indicted last year by the United States, accused of hacking into the computer systems of American companies to steal technology for state-owned companies.
Two consumer groups have found some pretty appallingly adult content in Google’s ostensibly child-friendly video app, YouTube Kids. The two groups allege that “Google is deceiving parents by marketing YouTube Kids as a safe place for children under five to explore when, in reality, the app is rife with videos that would not meet anyone’s definition of ‘family friendly.'”
Tech behemoths including Apple and Google and leading cryptologists are urging President Obama to reject any government proposal that alters the security of smartphones and other communications devices so that law enforcement can view decrypted data. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post, a coalition of tech firms, security experts and others appeal to the White House to protect privacy rights as it considers how to address law enforcement’s need to access data that is increasingly encrypted.
The founder of Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. called "regrettable" a lawsuit by a group of luxury goods firms owned by Kering SA accusing the Chinese e-commerce giant of being a conduit for counterfeiters. Executive Chairman Jack Ma was speaking after Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands owned by Kering sued Alibaba in the United States, accusing it of knowingly making it possible for counterfeiters to sell their products throughout the world.
U.S. law enforcement officials have no credible evidence that commercial airplane cockpits have been hacked from passengers’ seats, contradicting a man who claims he did just that. While most airplanes can’t be hacked because flight-control computers are separate from the connections passengers use, newer aircraft have more interconnections, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said an April 14 report.
Pennsylvania State University's College of Engineering revealed that it has been the target of two "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks over the last two years. University President Eric Barron issued an apology that said usernames and passwords from more than 18,000 people may have been accessed.
Google Inc. should not have to remove an anti-Islamic film from its YouTube website because a woman complained that she was duped into performing in a film that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a fool and sexual deviant, a U.S. appeals court ruled. In a case widely followed for its potential impact on the entertainment industry, an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that an injunction that had prohibited Google from broadcasting the film should be dissolved.
GCHQ staff, intelligence officers and police have been given immunity from prosecution for hacking into computers, laptops and mobile phones under legislative changes that were never fully debated by parliament, a tribunal has been told. The unnoticed rewriting of a key clause of the Computer Misuse Act has exempted law enforcement officials from the prohibition on breaking into other people’s laptops, databases, mobile phones or digital systems. It came into force in May.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on the contentious issue of the proposed sale of consumer data by bankrupt retailer RadioShack, recommending that a model be adopted based on a settlement the agency reached with a failed online toy retailer. The state of Texas, which is leading action by several U.S. states, has opposed the sale of personally identifiable information by RadioShack, citing the online and in-store privacy policies of the bankrupt consumer electronics retailer.
A U.S. appeals court reversed part of a $930 million verdict that Apple Inc. won in 2012 against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd., saying the iPhone maker's trademark-related appearance could not be protected. In a highly anticipated ruling stemming from the global smartphone wars, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., upheld the patent infringement violations found by a federal jury in a court in San Jose, California, as well as the damages awarded for those violations.
Internet pioneer Vinton G. Cerf warned that political and technological forces threaten universal access and integrity, which he described as the foundation of the Internet’s value. “In my view, fragmentation is destructive of the basic functioning of the Internet. … Fragmentation would be a terrible outcome [and] destroy value …. But we have to work to make sure there is no reason to fragment,” Cerf said during a conference on Internet governance and cybersecurity, sponsored by the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the Global Commission on Internet Governance.
A California man has sued Uber Technologies Inc and its Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick, claiming they stole his idea for a cellphone-based car hailing service. Kevin Halpern sued Uber, Kalanick and several early investors in the company in San Francisco Superior Court, accusing them of misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract.
Just a few days after illegal music-streaming service Grooveshark apologized and shut down, a mysterious person identified only as "Shark" reconstituted the site at Grooveshark.io. In response, the major record labels appear to have obtained a temporary restraining order wresting away that domain name.
A group of luxury goods makers sued Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., contending the Chinese online shopping giant had knowingly made it possible for counterfeiters to sell their products throughout the world. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court by Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands owned by Paris-based Kering SA seeking damages and an injunction for alleged violations of trademark and racketeering laws.
A security researcher kicked off a United Airlines flight last month after tweeting about security vulnerabilities in its system had previously taken control of an airplane and caused it to briefly fly sideways, according to an application for a search warrant filed by an FBI agent. Chris Roberts, a security researcher with One World Labs, told the FBI agent during an interview in February that he had hacked the in-flight entertainment system, or IFE, on an airplane and overwrote code on the plane’s Thrust Management Computer while aboard the flight.
In an attack on the Washington Post, hackers supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hijacked parts of the Post's Web site so that users were redirected to a site controlled by the SEA. Washington Post chief information officer Shailesh Prakash said Thursday's attack affected the Post's mobile homepage and "some section fronts on the mobile site," but not article pages.
AT&T and Apple have what many experts consider is a strong case against RadioShack as they try to protect their companies' and consumers’ data. The data RadioShack has offered up for sale could affect up to 117 million customer files, according to court documents.
United Airlines announced that it’s launching a bug bounty program inviting researchers to report bugs in its websites, apps and online portals. The announcement comes weeks after the airline kicked a security researcher off of one of its flights for tweeting about vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi and entertainment networks of certain models of United planes made by Boeing and Airbus.
Ex-Formula One president Max Mosley has settled lawsuits against Google Inc. over the search engine’s links to photos of him at a sex party. “The dispute has been resolved amicably and to the parties’ mutual satisfaction,” his U.K. lawyer, Dominic Crossley, said in an e-mail.
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