Silk Road Adviser Arrested in Thailand, U.S. Announces

More than two years after Ross Ulbricht was arrested in a San Francisco and accused of creating and running the Dark Web drug bazaar known as the Silk Road, a manhunt on the other side of the world has found the man believed to be Ulbricht’s closest adviser and mentor: Variety Jones. The Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against Roger Thomas Clark, a 54-year-old Canadian who has been arrested in Thailand through a joint operation of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local Thai police.

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Two-Month-Old Company Sues Apple for Patent Infringement

A company that was formed nearly two months ago has sued multinational business Apple for allegedly infringing a patent covering mobile phones. In a lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Iris Connex claimed Apple’s iPhone 5 model and all models produced since then have infringed the patent.

Samsung Prepares to Pay Apple $548M for Infringement

Samsung fought until the bitter end to avoid paying Apple, but the company now says it will finally hand over the more than $548 million it owes for infringing the patents and designs of its biggest smartphone rival. In papers filed in federal court in San Jose, California, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. said it will make the payment by Dec. 14 if Apple Inc. sends an invoice on Dec. 4.

Operator of Revenge Porn Site Gets 2 1/2-Year Sentence

Hunter Moore, operator of the now-defunct revenge porn website Is Anyone Up, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. At the completion of the sentence, Moore will be subject to three years supervised release, in which he will be required to log every "computer, computer-related device, screen name, password, e-mail account or ISP" with his probation officer, Motherboard reports.

E.U. Officials Meet with U.S. Tech Firms on Surveillance Access

European Union officials are pressing big U.S. tech companies to free up surveillance access to their user data in the wake of last month’s attacks in Paris, marking a continued shift in the debate over privacy and security within the bloc. Firms including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google were meeting with a raft of government and law-enforcement officials from the EU and member states including France to discuss deepening their cooperation in fighting terrorism, people familiar with the meetings said.

U.S., China Agree on Assistance for Cyber Crimes

The United States and China have reached an agreement on guidelines for requesting assistance on cyber crime or other malicious cyber activities, the U.S. Justice Department said. The agreement was reached in talks in Washington among officials including U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun.

China Says Criminal Chinese Hackers Behind U.S. Attack

China has acknowledged for the first time that the breach of the United States Office of Personnel Management’s computer systems, which the Obama administration said exposed the personal information of more than 21.5 million people, was the work of Chinese hackers. But China insisted that the breach was the result of criminal activity, not a state-sponsored cyberattack.

Google Collects Students' Records, EFF Tells FTC in Complaint

Google has been "deceptively" collecting and mining school children's personal information, including their Internet searches, according to The Electronic Frontier Foundation. In a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the EFF alleges that the "Sync" feature of Google's Chrome Web browser is enabled by default on Chromebooks sold to schools, allowing the Web giant to track and store on its servers "records of every Internet site students visit, every search term they use, the results they click on, videos they look for and watch on YouTube, and their saved passwords."

Home Depot, MasterCard Near Settlement for Data Breach

The Home Depot Inc. has reached a contingent settlement with MasterCard International Inc. over the home improvement giant's massive 2014 data breach. Attorneys representing the financial institutions suing Home Depot over the data breach are unhappy about notices of the potential settlement that were sent to banks, calling them "misleading and coercive."

Chinese Military Scales Back Cybertheft in U.S.

The Chinese military scaled back its cybertheft of U.S. commercial secrets in the wake of Justice Department indictments of five officers, and the surprising drawdown shows that the law enforcement action had a more significant impact than is commonly assumed, current and former U.S. officials said. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has not substantially reengaged in commercial cyberespionage since then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced charges against the officers in May 2014, the officials said.

Ryanair Sues Google Over 'Misleading Subdomain' in Ads

Ryanair has launched legal proceedings against Google and online travel agent eDreams in the Irish High Court over what it says are misleading adverts for Ryanair flights, the airline said. Ryanair said Google was allowing eDreams to use "misleading subdomain" www.Ryanair.eDreams.com and a web site with branding similar to Ryanair's to sell tickets at higher prices than on Ryanair's own web site.

National Security Letter Sheds Light on FBI Internet Probe

After a decade of court battles, the Internet entrepreneur who filed the first legal challenge to a type of secret administrative order known as a national security letter revealed the breadth of an FBI demand in 2004 for information about a customer. National security letters, which empower federal investigators to seek certain customer records without court approval or oversight, were significantly expanded as part of the USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

States Plan to Probe VTech Hacking After Child Data Exposed

At least two U.S. states plan to investigate a breach at Hong Kong-based toymaker VTech Holdings Ltd, which surfaced late last week and exposed data of millions of customers who use a portal for downloading content including children's games. Security experts said the attack, which was disclosed on the crucial Black Friday start of the holiday U.S. shopping season, was noteworthy because it had exposed data of children.

BlackBerry Shutting Down in Pakistan Amid Privacy Fight

BlackBerry will shut down operations in Pakistan at year's end because demands from the country's Telecommunications Authority would result in a massive invasion of user privacy, the company said. BlackBerry refuses to agree to the Pakistani government's order to monitor BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES), including encrypted emails and BBM messages sent and received in the country.