Uber, the high-flying transportation firm, is releasing a technical map of its computer and communications systems and inviting hackers to find weaknesses in exchange for cash bounties. While so-called "bug bounties" are not new, Uber's move shows how mainstream companies are increasingly relying on independent computer researchers to help them bolster their systems.
Hillary Clinton urged the United States to do more to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on social media, hours after the group took responsibility for a deadly terror attack in Brussels. "We've got to take them on on the Internet," Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
The Justice Department has indicted three current or former members of the so-called Syrian Electronic Army for computer hacking-related conspiracies. Prosecutors allege that two Syrians, 22-year-old Ahmad Umar Agha and 27-year-old Firas Dardar, tricked email users to steal usernames and passwords to compromise government, media and private-sector computer systems.
Bangladesh's central bank has hired a lawyer in the United States for a potential lawsuit against the New York Federal Reserve after unknown hackers stole $81 million from its account with the U.S. bank, an internal report said. In one of the largest cyber heists in history, the hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank in early February and succeeded in issuing instructions to the New York Fed to transfer $81 million to accounts in the Philippines.
The Justice Department said that it might no longer need Apple’s assistance to help open an iPhone used by a gunman in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting, leading to a postponement of a key hearing over the issue and potentially sidestepping what has become a bitter clash with the world’s most valuable company. The turn of events came after the Justice Department said in a new court filing that as of Sunday, an outside party had demonstrated a way for the FBI to possibly unlock the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino attackers.
The U.S. government was hit by more than 77,000 "cyber incidents" like data thefts or other security breaches in fiscal year 2015, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, according to a White House audit. Part of the uptick stems from federal agencies improving their ability to identify and detect incidents, the annual performance review from the Office and Management and Budget said.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has begun circulating long-awaited draft legislation that would give federal judges clear authority to order technology companies like Apple to help law enforcement officials access encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The proposal from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not spell out how companies must provide access or the circumstances under which they could be ordered to help.
Jurors in the Hulk Hogan sex tape case ignored a plea for mercy Monday and added another $25 million to the $115 million they already awarded ex-wrestler Hulk Hogan. The six jurors said that Gawker was liable for $15 million in punitive damages and founder Nick Denton was liable for $10 million.
A group of Johns Hopkins University researchers has found a bug in Apple's vaunted encryption, one that would enable a skilled attacker to decrypt photos and videos sent as secure instant messages. This specific flaw in Apple’s iMessage platform probably would not have helped the FBI pull data from an iPhone recovered in December’s San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack, but it shatters the notion that strong commercial encryption has left no opening for law enforcement and hackers, said Matthew D. Green, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University who led the research team.
The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the high-profile patent fight between the world's two fiercest smartphone rivals, Apple and Samsung, agreeing to hear Samsung's appeal of what it contends were excessive penalties for copying the patented designs of the iPhone. Samsung Electronics paid Apple more than $548 million in December related to a jury verdict from 2012.
DraftKings and FanDuel will stop running paid contests in New York amid an ongoing fight to operate in the key market. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sought to shut down the companies' operations since last year, when he issued a cease-and-desist order, arguing their contests rely on chance and are illegal under state law.
The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has issued a warning to a total of 12 Android developers who are using the controversial software in their apps. The software being referred was created by a company named SilverPush; it is an advertising software that is able to detect what is known as audio beacons.
Contracts between suppliers and distributors that actively prevent consumers from buying goods and digital content online across the European Union’s borders could face closer antitrust inspection, the bloc’s competition watchdog said. The European Commission, the bloc’s antitrust authority, released the first findings of its probe into the e-commerce sector with a paper that focused on geo-blocking, a practice to discriminate via price or the range of goods a company offers based on a customer’s location.
The SWIFT messaging system plans to ask banks to make sure they are following recommended security practices following an unprecedented cyber attack on Bangladesh's central bank that yielded $81 million, a spokeswoman for the group told Reuters. Brussels-based SWIFT, a cooperative owned by some 3,000 global financial institutions, will issue a written advisory asking banks to review internal security, the spokeswoman said.
In a public service announcement issued together with the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the FBI released a warning to drivers about the threat of over-the-Internet attacks on cars and trucks. The announcement cites all of last year’s car hacking research to offer a list of tips about how to keep vehicles secure from hackers and recommendations about what to do if you believe your car has been hacked -- including a request to notify the FBI.
The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape — an astounding figure that tops the $100 million he had asked for, that will probably grow before the trial concludes, and that could send a cautionary signal to online publishers despite the likelihood of an appeal by Gawker. The wrestler’s team said the verdict represented “a statement as to the public’s disgust with the invasion of privacy disguised as journalism,” adding: “The verdict says, ‘No more.’ ”
Hackers posted what they're alleging to be Donald Trump's cell phone number and social security number. The information, posted on a popular site for Anonymous leaks, also includes phone numbers, home addresses, and other personal information associated with people close to Trump, including his spokesperson, campaign manager and family members.
Spotify has reached an agreement with the National Music Publisher's Association (NMPA) over unpaid royalties. The streaming service will pay out around $21 million to publishers and songwriters in the deal, according to sources, with roughly $16 million set aside for royalty payments and a $5 million bonus fund for publishers and songwriters who opt in to the deal.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to hold classified ads site Backpage.com and its chief executive in contempt for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into sex trafficking. The upper chamber voted, 96-0, to approve a resolution championed by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) that holds the website and CEO Carl Ferrer in civil contempt.
If the FBI wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers. Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.
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