Pakistan has banned BlackBerry’s enterprise server and its Internet and messaging services “for security reasons” in a crackdown on privacy. Mobile phone operators were told by the Pakistan telecommunication authority that the BlackBerry services must be shut down by the start of December.
Police in Beijing have busted a factory that produced more than 41,000 fake iPhones worth as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million), including some that reached the United States, and have arrested nine suspects in the counterfeiting operation. Apple is one of the most popular brands in China, where authorities have stepped up efforts in recent years to dispel the country's reputation for turning out counterfeit goods.
In another move to warm up to Europeans, Google updated its user consent policy for ad targeting in the continent. European websites that plan to sell ads through Google or track visitors with cookies must now, per Google, “disclose clearly, and obtain consent to, any data collection, sharing and usage” on desktop and mobile.
When President Obama launched his Twitter account in May, people noticed his rapid accumulation of followers, a silly back-and-forth with President Clinton, but also something more serious: the number of hostile and threatening messages directed at the president. Sifting through those messages to determine which, if any, need to be taken seriously is the responsibility of the Secret Service Internet Threat Desk, a group of agents tasked with identifying and assessing online threats to the president and his family.
It now appears Twitter is using its legal authority to crack down on tweet-stealers. A number of tweets have been deleted on copyright grounds for apparently stealing a bad joke.
In a modern day version of a mob shakedown, hackers around the world have seized files on millions of computers, taken down public websites and even, in a few cases, threatened physical harm. The victims -- who have ranged from ordinary computer users to financial firms and police departments -- are told that their only way out is through a Bitcoin payment that is sometimes more than $20,000.
An internal government review found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent at least four emails from her personal account containing classified information during her time heading the State Department. In a letter to members of Congress, the inspector general of the intelligence community concluded that Mrs. Clinton’s email contains material from the intelligence community that should have been considered “secret” -- the second-highest level of classification -- at the time it was sent.
Fiat Chrysler issued a sweeping recall of 1.4 million vehicles to fix a software flaw that could allow hackers to remotely gain control of the vehicle, including cutting off the engine and brakes, and even the steering. The vulnerability was revealed by two technology researchers who demonstrated how they successfully hacked a Jeep Cherokee through Chrysler’s Uconnect entertainment and connectivity system.
Democrats were unsuccessful in stripping out a net neutrality rider in a Senate spending bill that would bar the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the rates that Internet service providers charge their customers. Democrats urged the Senate Appropriations Committee to give net neutrality negotiations time to breath in the Commerce Committee, where Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) have been trying to come up with a legislative solution.
Lax security left the U.S. Treasury's computer system for tracking overseas threats to America's financial system vulnerable to hackers, according to a government audit prepared in late 2014 and obtained by Reuters. The Treasury Foreign Intelligence Network is used by U.S. spy agencies to share top-secret information and to keep tabs on the impact of sanctions against countries such as Iran and Russia, as well as militant groups like Hezbollah.
As mobile devices proliferate, app advertising has become a huge business, worth an estimated $20 billion in the U.S. alone. But how much of that is being wasted? According to a new report from fraud-detection firm Forensiq, as much as $1 billion of that advertising money is being lost to fraud in a number of ways -- including malicious apps that hijack mobile phones and turn them into an ad-viewing botnet.
Google has started a program for startups to give away up to two non-organic patent families off Google, as well as potentially make offers to buy patents from it in the future. It’s tying up the offer with a requirement to join the LOT Network, a cross-company licensing push (others in the group include Dropbox, SAP and Canon) aimed at driving down the number of patent trolling suits.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said that terrorist groups had begun discussing ways to hit Americans with a cyberattack, though he said plotting appeared to be in early stages. “We are picking up signs of increasing interest,” he said in evening remarks at the Aspen Security Forum.
Sen. Al Franken wants federal regulators to investigate whether Apple's new music-streaming service runs afoul of antitrust law, marking the latest escalation in an ongoing, multipronged battle for dominance in the crowded online market. In a letter addressed to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, the Minnesota Democrat warned that the Apple Music platform may be harming consumers by limiting competition and driving up the price of access to streaming music.
A pair of Democratic senators want rules requiring automakers to develop hacking and privacy protections for their cars and trucks. Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) introduced the Spy Car Act, which would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop standards to protect drivers' privacy and to guard against a potentially deadly hack of a vehicle.
Republican and Democratic U.S. senators introduced legislation to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses, hoping to prevent more cyber attacks like recent massive breaches at the government's hiring office. Among other things, the legislation would give the DHS the authority to monitor all federal agencies in the "dot-gov" Internet domain, and operate defensive countermeasures.
A New York computer consultant who appeared as a key government witness against the founder of the underground black market website Silk Road was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison. Michael Duch, who earned $60,000 to $70,000 a month selling heroin on Silk Road using the alias “deezletime,” pleaded guilty in December 2014 to conspiring to sell drugs and testified against the site’s operator, Ross Ulbricht, at trial last year.
Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to protect the privacy of people sharing intimate and explicit photos with their loved ones: The company said it'll no longer tolerate "revenge porn,” and announced a new, dedicated Web site to help victims report abuse. The reporting page will help users make takedown requests.
Law enforcement authorities arrested four people in Israel and Florida and revealed a complex securities fraud scheme tied to the computer hacks of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other financial institutions. The arrests are the culmination of a months-long investigation of several friends who met more than a decade ago at Florida State University and are linked by an FBI memo to one of the largest U.S. bank hacks in history -- one that JPMorgan officials argued initially was the work of the Russian government.
Facebook Inc. lost a bid to block the biggest set of search warrants the company said it ever received in a case that might affect the amount of information social-media sites turn over to law enforcement. The trove of digital information held by social-media companies has sparked privacy concerns across the U.S., especially as law enforcement officials increasingly use the information as evidence of wrongdoing.
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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.