Judge Rules for Apple in Government's iPhone Data Request

A federal judge in New York ruled in favor of Apple, saying that an obscure colonial-era law did not authorize him to force the firm to lift data from an iPhone at the government’s request. The ruling is not binding in any other court, but it takes on an outsize importance as the U.S. government battles Apple in a separate case in California over whether the tech firm should help unlock a phone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December.

Microsoft Launches New Cyber Defense Operations Center

With a touch of a button on the wall outside Microsoft Corp.’s Cyber Defense Operations Center, opaque windows turn clear, offering visitors a glimpse of the high-tech bunker where the software giant’s security engineers work to thwart hackers. The new facility is at the heart of Microsoft’s campaign to rebuild its reputation for security at a time when the number of potential targets for cyberattacks -- from smartphones to corporate servers and Web services -- has exploded.

German Court Fines Facebook $109,000 Over Data Protection

A German court has fined Facebook 100,000 euros ($109,000) for refusing to follow an order to adequately inform users about how it was using their intellectual property, a consumer group said. News of the ruling followed a visit by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which he mounted a charm offensive in the face of increasing antipathy in Germany toward the world's biggest social media network prompted by fears for data protection.

Chinese Internet Regulator Closes Accounts of President's Critic

China’s top Internet regulator closed the social media accounts of an influential, retired property developer who criticized President Xi Jinping’s campaign to tighten control over state-run media. Sites including Sina Corp.’s Weibo and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s QQ were told to shut down accounts held by Ren Zhiqiang for spreading “illegal information,” a spokesman for the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement.

YouTube 'Listening' to Feedback About Complaint System

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki tweeted out a message of thanks to the YouTube community at large, vowing that the company is "listening" to recent feedback from creators, who've taken issue with the site's complaint system. A growing number of popular YouTubers have criticized the company's way of handling copyright violations and, in turn, the appeals process about those notices.

Saudi Court Gives Man 10 Years for Twitter Posts on Atheism

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism in hundreds of Twitter posts. Al-Watan online daily said that religious police in charge of monitoring social networks found more than 600 tweets denying the existence of God, ridiculing Quranic verses, accusing all prophets of lies and saying their teachings fueled hostilities.

U.S. Agrees to Limits on Use of Data Collected from Europe

The United States has set out limits to its use of data collected in bulk about European citizens after a new information-sharing pact was agreed this month, according to documents seen by Reuters. A clear explanation of what information could be used for -- preventing its "indiscriminate" and "arbitrary" use -- was a key condition of the new Privacy Shield framework that enables firms to easily transfer personal data to the United States.

IRS Review Shows 700,000 Taxpayers Affected by Cyber Attack

The IRS announced that during a 9-month review of last year's cyber attack, it discovered that an additional 390,000 taxpayer accounts were potentially accessed during the breach. Those accounts are in addition to the confirmed access of and initial 114,000 last May and the subsequent 220,000 that were added in August. For those keeping track at home, today's announcement brings the total to over 700,000 affected taxpayers.

Federal Circuit Reverses Apple's Patent Win Against Samsung

A U.S. appeals court overturned a $120 million jury verdict against Samsung, finally handing the South Korean smartphone maker a significant win in its longstanding patent feud with top rival Apple. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd did not infringe Apple's "quick links" patent, and that two other patents covering the iPhone's slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features were invalid.

U.S. Blames Power Outage in Ukraine on Cyber Attack

A December power outage in Ukraine affecting 225,000 customers was the result of a cyber attack, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said, marking the first time the U.S. government officially recognized the blackout as caused by a malicious hack. Security experts had already widely concluded that the downing of utilities in western Ukraine on December 23 was due to an attack, which is believed to be the first known successful cyber intrusion to knock a power grid offline.

FBI Director Asks Congress to Help with Phone Encryption

The head of the FBI, battling Apple over unlocking an iPhone used by one of the killers in a December rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., called on Congress to settle the question of when law enforcement officials should get access to citizens’ private data. “The larger question isn’t going to be answered in the courts, and shouldn’t be,” the FBI chief, James B. Comey Jr., told lawmakers at a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.

Apple Asks Court to Drop Order to Help Unlock iPhone

Apple Inc. said it asked a federal court to toss out an order requiring the company to help law enforcement unlock a phone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino terror attacks, calling the order “unprecedented” with “no support in the law.” The lengthy court filing was made to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, who on Feb. 16 ordered Apple to help investigators bypass a security passcode function on the work iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, who -- along with his wife -- shot and killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December.

German Official Describes 'Constructive' Zuckerberg Meeting

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg understands the need to stamp out hate speech on the world's biggest social network, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff said after a meeting between the two in Berlin. Zuckerberg is on a charm offensive in Germany, where the company he co-founded has faced criticism for months from politicians and regulators over its privacy practices and a slow response to anti-immigrant postings by neo-Nazi sympathizers.

U.S. Meets with Social Media Firms to Fight Extremism

The U.S. government, acknowledging its limited success in combating Islamic extremist messaging, is recruiting tech companies, community organizations and educational groups to take the lead in disrupting online radicalization. The change in strategy, which took a step forward when the Justice Department convened a meeting with social media firms including Facebook Inc, Twitter and Alphabet Inc's Google , comes despite what critics say is scant evidence on the effectiveness of such efforts.

Apple Working on Enhanced Security to Thwart Break-Ins

Apple engineers have begun developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone using methods similar to those now at the center of a court fight in California, according to people close to the company and security experts. If Apple succeeds in upgrading its security — and experts say it almost surely will — the company will create a significant technical challenge for law enforcement agencies, even if the Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on an iPhone used by one of the killers in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., rampage.

Vulnerabilities in Nissan Leaf Allow Internet Access

Two security researchers have demonstrated security vulnerabilities in the Nissan Leaf electric car by using mobile management APIs supplied by the car manufacturer. The unsecured APIs allow anyone who knows the VIN number of a car to access non-critical features such as climate control and battery charge management from anywhere across the Internet.

Sony Hackers Backed by Governments, Report Says

The perpetrators of the 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment were not activists or disgruntled employees, and likely had attacked other targets in China, India, Japan and Taiwan, according to a coalition of security companies that jointly investigated the Sony case for more than a year. The coalition, organized by security analytics company Novetta, concluded in a report that the hackers were government-backed but it stopped short of endorsing the official U.S. view that North Korea was to blame.

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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.