A nuclear power plant became the target of a disruptive cyber attack two to three years ago, and there is a serious threat of militant attacks on such plants, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Yukiya Amano also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called "dirty bomb."
The CEO and owners of Backpage.com are accused of heinous crimes, but California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ indictment of the three men could lead to a major upheaval for some Silicon Valley tech companies, experts said. Backpage is an online marketplace that has been fighting authorities for years because it carries ads featuring escorts who pose provocatively and, authorities say, offer sex for sale. Now, Harris is arguing that selling those ads makes Backpage executives guilty of illegal acts, charging CEO Carl Ferrer, 55, and controlling shareholders Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67, with pimping children under 16 and other felony offenses.
A U.S. senator and civil groups critical of surveillance practices called on the government to release a 2015 order by a secret court directing Yahoo to scan all its users' incoming email, saying it appeared to involve new interpretations of at least two important legal issues. Their concerns center on the nature of the technical assistance the court required Yahoo to provide and the scope of the search that legal experts said appeared to cover the Silicon Valley internet company's entire network.
The Obama administration officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations. The denunciation, made by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, came as pressure was growing from within the administration and some lawmakers to hold Moscow accountable for a set of actions apparently aimed at sowing discord around the election.
Apple Inc. won an appeals court ruling that reinstates a patent-infringement verdict it won against Samsung Electronics Co., including for its slide-to-unlock feature for smartphones and tablets. In an 8-3 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said a three-judge panel was wrong to throw out the $119.6 million verdict in February.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a new study calling for reforms to help crack down on so-called patent trolls. In their report, the FTC called for improvements in patent lawsuit notifications so businesses know more about why they are being sued.
Facebook has been in talks for months with U.S. government officials and wireless carriers with an eye toward unveiling an American version of an app that has caused controversy abroad, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The social media giant is trying to determine how to roll out its program, known as Free Basics, in the United States without triggering the regulatory scrutiny that effectively killed a version of the app in India earlier this year.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on Oct. 27 on a revised proposed regulation setting rules to safeguard the privacy of broadband users. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's initial proposal came under harsh criticism from internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp, because it subjected them to more stringent rules than websites like Facebook Inc, Twitter or Alphabet Inc's Google.
Yahoo! Inc. is disputing a report that said it built a software program to scan customers’ incoming e-mails for U.S. intelligence agencies, an effort to reassure consumers as the company comes under growing scrutiny ahead of a planned acquisition by Verizon Communications Inc. “The article is misleading,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We narrowly interpret every government request for user data to minimize disclosure. The mail scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems.”
Internet companies are bracing for more trouble after hackers released the code behind one of the most powerful online attacks ever, which harnessed as many as one million internet-connected devices to knock a blogger offline. The malicious software takes advantage of weak security on video recorders, routers and other internet-connected devices, taking control of the systems and forming them into a collection of attacking machines, called a “botnet.”
A federal contractor suspected of leaking powerful National Security Agency hacking tools has been arrested and charged with stealing highly classified information from the U.S. government, according to court records and a law enforcement official familiar with the case. Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Md., was charged with theft of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials, authorities said.
A number of BuzzFeed posts were vandalized by hackers in apparent retaliation for a story that claimed to expose a member of their group. The hacking group, which goes by OurMine, changed the titles of several BuzzFeed posts to read “Hacked by OurMine” and replaced the body of some stories with a note not to “share fake news about us again.”
Soon after Facebook introduced Marketplace, a new section on its mobile app that allowed its users to buy and sell with their friends and strangers, the social giant was apologizing for an issue with the section, which featured some posts that would not have been out of place on the online black market Silk Road, which was shut down by the FBI in 2013. Illegal drugs. Dogs. Guns. Sexual services. Baby hedgehogs. Selling all of these items and services on Facebook goes against the site’s commerce policy. And all of them were available on Marketplace.
iPhone 6 users have sued Apple over a design defect dubbed "Touch Disease." According to a class-action suit, filed in California, the company concealed a material design defect that causes iPhone 6 and 6 Plus touch screens to become unresponsive.
Amazon is talking to European Union antitrust regulators about settling a year-long investigation into its e-book deals with publishers without a fine, a person familiar with the matter said. The move comes as Amazon is also under scrutiny over its tax deal with Luxembourg, which may result in the U.S. online retailer paying millions of euros in back taxes.
Yahoo last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The company complied with a classified U.S. government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said two former employees and a third person apprised of the events.
In the battle to dominate Europe’s cloud computing market, American tech giants are spending big to build up their local credibility. As the European Union continues to clamp down on the perceived misuse of people’s digital information, analysts also say that many Silicon Valley giants are responding to these privacy concerns by increasingly offering individuals and companies the ability to keep information close to home, whereas in the past, data might have been stored solely in the United States.
Gawker Media LLC plans to set aside at least $5.5 million from the sale of its websites to fund a continuing legal battle with former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, a feud the company says it intends to win. In court papers filed in Manhattan, Gawker asked a bankruptcy judge to approve an outline of a liquidation plan that would wind down what remains of the former internet publisher.
When a user sends someone a message through Apple’s iMessage feature, Apple encrypts that message between Apple devices so that only the sender and recipient can read its contents. But a report from news site the Intercept is a good reminder that not all data related to iMessage has that same level of protection — and that information can still be turned over to law enforcement.
Alphabet's Google has been given until the end of October, the fourth extension, to rebut EU antitrust charges that it uses its dominant Android mobile operating system to block competitors, the European Commission said. The Commission in April said the U.S. technology giant's demand that mobile phone makers pre-install Google Search and the Google Chrome browser on their smartphones to access other Google apps harms consumers and competition.
About : Legal Services | Doug Isenberg | Cases & Clients | Firm News
Resources : YouTube Channel | Daily News | Blog | Masterclass | Domain Dispute Digest
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.