Google has been repeatedly ordered to help federal agents open cellphones, according to court records in seven states that show Apple Inc. isn’t the only company facing government demands at the center of a fierce debate over privacy and security. The American Civil Liberties Union found 63 instances where the government sought a court order under a 1789 law called the All Writs Act to compel Apple and Google to help them access data on locked phones.
CNBC inadvertently exposed peoples' passwords after it ran an article that ironically was intended to promote secure password practices. The story was removed from CNBC's website shortly after it ran following a flurry of criticism from security experts.
China's technology regulator has rejected criticism of proposed Internet rules that could block access to foreign websites, saying there was misunderstanding about what some people see as a way to tighten control over cyberspace. Experts have said the draft regulations, like many laws in China, could be interpreted broadly and, in extreme cases, could give authorities the power to shut off access to all websites that have not registered their web addresses in the country.
A lull in high-profile data breaches prompted insurers to cut cyber insurance rates for high-risk businesses such as retailers and healthcare companies during the first three months of this year, according to insurance industry brokers. The dip comes after sudden rate hikes for many firms last year in the wake of a spate of attacks on Home Depot Inc, Target Corp, Anthem Inc and others.
Hackers broke into the computer networks at some of the country’s most prestigious law firms, and federal investigators are exploring whether they stole confidential information for the purpose of insider trading, according to people familiar with the matter. The firms include Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, which represent Wall Street banks and Fortune 500 companies in everything from lawsuits to multibillion-dollar merger negotiations.
A Nevada man pleaded guilty to making Facebook threats to kill a federal judge in Phoenix. Jason Andre Willis, 41, who is in federal custody, pleaded guilty to a felony count of threatening interstate communications.
A vocal group of activists and people in media circles have charged that the News Genius Web annotation tool from the startup Genius can be used to harass and abuse people online. By effectively duplicating and attaching a line-by-line comments section to any article, with or without the consent of the author, they say that Genius “silences writers.”
Just as the feds back down from one fight to unlock an Apple iPhone linked to terrorist activity, another is ongoing. It revolves around another man suspected of links to terrorist group ISIS, though this time the alleged perp, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, is alive.
A Chinese junket operator in Manila said that two high-rollers from Beijing and Macau were responsible for bringing $81 million stolen by hackers from Bangladesh's central bank into the Philippines. Kim Wong, a long-time Chinese resident of the Philippines, denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of who masterminded one of world's biggest cyber heists, but vowed to give back a small portion of the money with him.
Oracle is seeking as much as $9.3 billion in damages in a long-running copyright lawsuit against Google over its use of Java in Android, court filings show. Oracle sued Google six years ago, claiming the search giant needs a license to use parts of the Java platform in Google's market-leading mobile OS.
The Justice Department is abandoning its bid to force Apple to help it unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack because investigators have found a way in without the tech giant’s assistance, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. In a three-sentence filing, prosecutors wrote they had “now successfully accessed the data” stored on Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone, and they consequently no longer needed Apple’s court-ordered help getting in.
After recent attacks on the Continent, like the bombings in Brussels and the wave of violence in Paris, governments across the European Union are increasingly pushing for greater access to people’s digital lives. French lawmakers are expected to debate proposals to toughen laws, giving intelligence services greater power to get access to personal data.
A 27-year-old Parma, Ohio, man faces possible criminal charges that accuse him of creating a parody Facebook account that mimicked the Parma Police Department's official page. The page contained what Parma police considered "derogatory" and "inflammatory" information that appeared as though it was coming directly from department officials, Lt. Kevin Riley said.
The FBI is asking businesses and software security experts for emergency assistance in its investigation into a pernicious new type of "ransomware" virus used by hackers for extortion. "We need your help!" the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a confidential "Flash" advisory that was dated March 25 and obtained by Reuters.
France’s data-protection regulator has slapped a fine on Alphabet Inc.’s Google for not implementing Europe’s “right to be forgotten” globally, rejecting a compromise offered by the search firm and setting up a court battle over the scope of the divisive rule. France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, said that the search engine had violated a formal order last year ordering it to apply the new right to be forgotten to “all domain names” of the search engine, including google.com, and fined the company €100,000 ($112,000).
Records for more than 1.5 million customers of the computer security wing of Verizon, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, appeared for sale. This Verizon unit aids large corporations when they’ve been the victims of a hack. Now the company itself has been breached.
U.S. officials said that they are hopeful they will be able to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters without help from Apple Inc, but said the national debate over privacy and encryption must still be resolved. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a news conference that the Justice Department is "trying to exhaust all investigative tools" to gain information on the San Bernardino attackers, including by using techniques offered by third parties.
A government report says the web portal for health insurance coverage under President Barack Obama's law logged 316 security incidents during a period of about 18 months. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office says none of the attempted cyberattacks appeared to have succeeded in compromising sensitive data, including the personal information of millions of consumers shopping for subsidized health insurance.
Google updated Gmail with two new security improvements. First up, Google has turned on its Safe Browsing service for Gmail users. Next up, Google wants to be even more helpful in fighting state-sponsored attacks.
The Justice Department announced it has indicted seven hackers associated with the Iranian government and charged them with cybercrimes. The crimes include disrupting U.S. banks’ public websites from late 2011 through May 2013 and with breaking into a small dam in Rye, N.Y., in an apparent attempt to stop its operation.
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