An Obama administration working group has explored four possible approaches tech companies might use that would allow law enforcement to unlock encrypted communications -- access that some tech firms say their systems are not set up to provide. The group concluded that the solutions were “technically feasible,” but all had drawbacks as well.
In Trend Micro's new report, dubbed "Understanding Data Breaches," the security firm explores who is most often targeted in data breaches, how they take place, and what happens to data once it leaves corporate networks. Using the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC)'s Data Breaches database, Trend Micro found that hacking or malware was behind only 25 percent of data breach incidents from 2005 to April this year.
A New Jersey-based bitcoin swap trading platform was sanctioned by U.S. derivatives regulators after it allegedly facilitated illegal wash trades and then misled U.S. regulators both through press releases and at a government-sponsored public meeting. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said TerraExchange LLC pre-arranged the sale of a swap that derived its value from bitcoins for trading last October, in an effort to test its systems.
The European Commission launched an inquiry into the behavior of online companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon to try to gauge whether there is a need to regulate the web. The public consultation seeks answers on a broad range of issues, from the contractual restrictions online groups may impose on other businesses, for example, companies seeking to display ads, to how proactive they should be in removing illegal content online.
A 15-year-old pact that allows the transfer of data between the United States and European Union may be illegal, according to an opinion from the European Court of Justice's top legal counsel . The decision could have far-reaching consequences for Facebook, Google, Twitter and thousands of other U.S. companies. Countries should be able to prevent data about their citizens from being sent to the U.S. if that data will be used in ways that violate citizens' rights, Advocate General Yves Bot said in his recommendation to the ECJ.
President Xi Jinping pledged in a speech in Seattle to work with the United States on fighting cybercrime, saying that the Chinese government was a staunch defender of cybersecurity. “The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties,” Mr. Xi said in an address to American business executives.
Hackers who stole security clearance data on millions of Defense Department and other U.S. government employees got away with about 5.6 million fingerprint records, some 4.5 million more than initially reported, the government said. The additional stolen fingerprint records were identified as part of an ongoing analysis of the data breach by the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense, OPM said in a statement.
In a broadside against federal regulators, GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush says he'd overturn the government's sweeping net neutrality rules that currently prohibit Internet providers from favoring some Web sites over others. Arguing that Washington is in the midst of a "regulatory crisis" spurred by President Obama and the Federal Communications Commission, Bush said that, if elected to the White House, he'd "repeal or reform" a number of regulations, beginning with net neutrality.
Smule, a maker of popular apps like Sing!Karaoke, AutoRap, and I am T-Pain, has sued two former employees who quit to build their own startup. Smule is claiming that Shred Video's founders, Mike Allen and Mark Godfrey, used Smule's intellectual property when building their new startup.
A senior Apple Inc. executive said the company would make it easier for Chinese app developers to download its tools for building mobile apps in a bid to prevent further attacks on its App Store. In the wake of the first major breach on its outlet for distributing iPhone and iPad software, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller told Chinese news site Sina.com that it will offer domestic downloads within China of its software for developing apps.
Circle Internet Financial, a Boston-based bitcoin startup backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, has received New York's first BitLicense, allowing it to offer digital currency services in the state. The BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services is based on the first set of U.S. state guidelines for companies that operate in virtual currencies such as bitcoin, which is created and exchanged independent of banks.
Leaders of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee have abandoned an effort to force social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to report instances of “terrorist activity” to the federal government. The decision from committee leaders comes after deep opposition from tech companies who had protested the measure as well as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who blocked it from moving to the Senate floor.
A top Washington trade group for Internet companies such as Dropbox, Facebook and Netflix is now defending federal regulators in a major court battle over net neutrality, adding a legal brief to the flurry from both sides of the debate. Arguing that the FCC acted legally when it rolled out strong new rules for broadband companies this year, the Internet Association said that the regulations help protect consumers from Internet providers who control access to the Web.
Pandora Media Inc. said it was pleased that the U.S. Copyright Office agreed that the company's pact with Merlin Network, a global rights agency for independent musicians, was admissible as a benchmark in royalty proceedings. A three-judge panel called the Copyright Royalty Board has been working on setting royalties for Internet radio, companies like Pandora and Jango, and is due to come to a decision in mid-December.
Twenty federal agencies are overhauling their policies to promote the deployment of broadband Internet across the U.S. The changes range from allowing community recreation centers to tap into a $2.3 billion program to pay for high-speed internet, to collecting more data on who is and who isn't able to access broadband, to making it easier for service providers to lay cables beneath federal lands.
Flamboyant German tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom appeared in a New Zealand court, after nearly four years of legal wrangling, at a hearing to determine whether he will face copyright infringement and other charges in the United States. The case will decide whether Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, and three other executives can be extradited to the United States.
Google’s appeal against the global enforcement of “right to be forgotten” removals has been rejected by the French data regulator. The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) ordered Google in May to apply RTBF removals not only to the company’s European domains such as google.co.uk or google.fr, but to the search engine’s global domain google.com.
The European Union has no intention of discriminating against U.S. technology giants like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. when designing its regulatory framework for online platforms, the EU’s digital chief said. “I’m still certain that we’ll find rules [for platforms] that don’t smell of protection and discrimination, but are reasonable for European, American and for Asian players,” Günther Oettinger, the EU commissioner in charge of digital affairs, said in a telephone interview ahead of a trip to the U.S.
Apple Inc. said it is cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet. The company disclosed the effort after several cyber security firms reported finding a malicious program dubbed XcodeGhost that was embedded in hundreds of legitimate apps.
The United States and China are negotiating what could become the first arms control accord for cyberspace, embracing a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyberweapons to cripple the other’s critical infrastructure during peacetime, according to officials involved in the talks. While such an agreement could address attacks on power stations, banking systems, cellphone networks and hospitals, it would not, at least in its first version, protect against most of the attacks that China has been accused of conducting in the United States, including the widespread poaching of intellectual property and the theft of millions of government employees’ personal data.
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