As Vladimir Putin tightens his his grip over the Internet in Russia, the latest target is the country’s largest movie-sharing website. But Russians have found ways to circumvent the blocks instituted by local Internet providers.
European and U.S. negotiators agreed a data pact that should prevent European Union regulators from restricting data transfers by companies such as Google and Amazon across the Atlantic. The European Union and the United States have been racing to replace the Safe Harbour framework that was outlawed by a top EU court last year over concerns about U.S. mass surveillance, leaving thousands of companies in legal limbo.
For more than two years the FBI and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers. Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies -- like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars -- are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.
A $6 billion security system intended to keep hackers out of computers belonging to federal agencies isn’t living up to expectations, an audit by the Government Accountability Office has found. A public version of the secret audit released last week -- a secret version containing more sensitive findings was circulated to government agencies in November -- concerns the Einstein system, formally called the National Cybersecurity Protection System and operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Nokia Oyj received a positive arbitration court decision in a patent dispute with Samsung Electronics Co. that will bolster the revenue it generates from its intellectual property portfolio. The decision by a court of the International Chamber of Commerce settles the amount of additional compensation payable to Nokia for a five-year extension of a licensing pact between the companies, Nokia said in a statement.
American and European officials failed to reach an agreement over how digital data -- including financial information and social media posts -- could be transferred between the two regions. Without an agreement, companies that regularly move data, including tech giants like Google and nontech companies like General Electric, could find themselves in murky legal waters.
A new report by an influential Stanford law professor concluded that T-Mobile’s new video offering is likely “illegal” under net neutrality rules. Professor Barbara van Schewick submitted a 51-page report to the Federal Communications Commission that accused the carrier's program, named Binge On, of violating the FCC’s general conduct rule that bars Internet service providers from unreasonably interfering with customers’ Internet choices.
An Arizona man who co-created software distributed by an organization called Blackshades that was used to hack into a million computers worldwide was sentenced to five years of probation. Michael Hogue, who online was known by the moniker "xVisceral," was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan after pleading guilty in 2013 to distributing malware and conspiring to commit computer hacking.
Facebook is banning private sales of guns on its flagship social network and its Instagram photo-sharing service, a move meant to clamp down on unlicensed gun transactions. Facebook already prohibits people from offering marijuana, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs for sale, and the company said on Friday that it was updating its policy to include guns.
A U.S. congressional probe into the impact of a hack of Juniper Networks Inc. software will examine the possibility that it was initially altered at the behest of the National Security Agency, a lawmaker said in an interview. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent letters asking some two dozen agencies to provide documents showing whether they used Juniper devices running ScreenOS software.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to approve an annual report on broadband deployment that has become a magnet for controversy in recent years. In the report, the commission found that around 34 million Americans still lack access to wired high-speed internet service. It also found that rural residents still have a harder time accessing broadband than their urban counterparts.
The Federal Trade Commission has upgraded a web site designed to guide victims of identity theft in their efforts to mitigate the damage, the agency said. An estimated 17.6 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2014, according to Justice Department figures.
A group of top U.S. officials and business leaders visited Cuba to urge the government there to more rapidly build out its Internet infrastructure and make it more widely available. U.S. officials said they recommended that the country “leapfrog” current buildout of aging technology, such as DSL and 3G mobile service, for faster technology such as fiber and high-speed mobile.
A new app that allows users to send anonymous text messages is causing alarm among parents, politicians and some teenagers, who say it is being used as a weapon for cyber-bullying. Blindspot, launched by Israeli company Shellanoo, has attracted 700,000 users since it was launched a month ago, mostly in Israel where it is being heavily marketed but also in the United States and Britain.
A U.S. court has awarded an insurance company $1.2 million in damages in a cybersquatting dispute. In a judgment handed down at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Florida-based Insurance Depot Marketing was fined for failing to respond to Neutron Insurance’s complaint.
Google's secretive drone delivery project could include a component designed to store packages securely. A patent filed in the United States by the company, a unit of Alphabet Inc, describes a "delivery receptacle" designed to take packages from an "aerial delivery device" for deposit to a secure location.
With firewalls no longer seen as enough of a defense against security breaches, companies are looking at new tools to foil hackers trying to enter a computer network. U.S. and Israeli startups are leading the way, with new approaches such as "honeytraps" that lure a hacker to fake data or "polymorphic" technology that constantly changes the structure of applications running on a computer.
The FBI has said it will focus on working with online retailers and payment service providers to help clamp down on the sale of counterfeits. In a statement, the agency said it will work with digital marketplaces to tackle criminal groups that sell fake goods.
President Obama is the first true gadget geek to occupy the Oval Office, and yet his eagerness to take part in the personal technology revolution is hampered by the secrecy and security challenges that are daily requirements of his job. What counts as must-have features for many people — high-definition cameras, powerful microphones, cloud-connected wireless radios and precise GPS location transmitters — are potential threats when the leader of the free world wants to carry them around.
The European Union will monitor rather than regulate "hyped" virtual currencies for now, because too little is known to justify new rules beyond reining in specific risks like money-laundering, the body's executive said. The world's 600 virtual currencies are tiny, with bitcoin alone accounting for 90 percent of the $7 billion sector, compared with daily turnover of about $5 trillion on global foreign exchange markets.
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