If someone invites you to edit a file in Google Docs today, don’t open it — it may be spam from a phishing scheme that’s been spreading quickly this afternoon. As detailed on Reddit, the attack sends targets an emailed invitation from someone they may know, takes them to a real Google sign-in screen, then asks them to “continue to Google Docs.”
Peter Sunde, the controversial co-founder of the world's most famous online torrent website Pirate Bay, has launched an anonymous domain registration service in order to help website owners keep their geographic locations and identities away from prying eyes. The Njalla service aims to protect website owners, but in a slightly different way to Whois masking services.
China issued tighter rules for online news portals and network providers, the latest step in President Xi Jinping's push to secure the internet and maintain strict party control over content. Xi has made China's "cyber sovereignty" a top priority in his sweeping campaign to bolster security.
Facebook is planning to hire thousands of people to help review user content following multiple high-profile incidents of people sharing videos of suicide and murder. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and cofounder, said the company will add 3,000 people to its global community operations team to help "review the millions of reports we get every week."
It has only been a bit over 100 days, but the Trump administration is already known for making previously available data harder to find. To make it harder for this administration and future ones to hide data and pull info that's already out there, Senators Gary Peters and Cory Gardner have introduced a bipartisan bill aptly called Preserving Government Data Act of 2017.
Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) are urging Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai not to go forward with his plan to repeal his agency’s net neutrality rules. The two Democrats in a letter to Pai said that taking away net neutrality would spark a public uproar similar to the one last month after Republicans dismantled internet privacy rules.
A privacy group sued the New York Police Department to demand the release of documents related to its use of facial-recognition technology, which rights groups have criticized as discriminatory and lacking in proper oversight. The lawsuit is the latest attempt to compel U.S. law enforcement agencies to disclose more about how they rely on searchable facial-recognition databases in criminal investigations.
Facebook shared research with at least one advertiser that outlined how the tech firm can target teens who feel “worthless” or “insecure,” raising privacy concerns about the data it’s gathering on young users. A 23-page document leaked to The Australian states that Facebook can figure out through posts, photos and online activity when teens feel stressed, anxious or other “moments when young people need a confidence boost.”
A federal court declined to reconsider telecommunications companies’ challenge to Obama-era net neutrality rules, setting the stage for a likely appeal to the Supreme Court. The widely anticipated rejection came just days after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai laid out his proposal for rolling back the net neutrality rules, giving the industry a big win.
U.S. President Donald Trump intends to huddle with top technology executives in early June to discuss ways to modernize the federal government, a White House official confirmed. The gathering is part of a new effort, called the American Technology Council, commissioned by Trump in an executive order.
Social media were heavily criticized by a committee of British lawmakers for failing to do enough to remove illegal and extremist material posted on their sites, and for not preventing it appearing in the first place. Platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook has been criticized over their moderation policies after high-profile cases in which violent or abusive material has been posted online and, in some cases, not been removed even after they were notified.
An examination of the culture and practices at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), including interviews with more than a dozen people who have worked for or closely with Swift, shows it was ill-prepared for some of the toughest challenges of the cyberattack era. Security standards for banks using the Swift network were dictated in what was an eight-gigabyte handbook but rarely enforced, these people say.
Apple Inc. cut off billions of dollars in payments to Qualcomm Inc., turning a contract dispute into what one analyst called an "all-out war" that forced the chip supplier to slash forecasts given only days ago. The world’s largest publicly-traded technology company and one of the main suppliers of components to the iPhone, its most important product, have traded accusations of lying, making threats and trying to create an illegal monopoly.
Turkey has blocked Wikipedia, the country’s telecommunications watchdog has said, citing a law that allows it to ban access to websites deemed obscene or a threat to national security. The move is likely to further worry rights groups and Turkey’s western allies, who say Ankara has curtailed freedom of speech and other basic rights in the crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup.
An anonymous hacker has carried through on a threat to release “Orange Is the New Black” season five episodes online — after Netflix allegedly failed to respond to the cybercriminal’s shakedown demands. In a statement, Netflix said: “We are aware of the situation. A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.”
Bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the House and the Senate reintroduced legislation that would make it easier for states to collect sales taxes from online purchases. The bills would allow states to require out-of-state online retailers to collect their sales taxes, if the states simplify their tax laws.
Facebook finally has a better solution to freebooting — the common practice of stealing video and uploading it to one’s Facebook Page to reap the engagement and audience growth. Facebook's update to the its Rights Manager tool that launched last year includes the new option to “claim ad earnings” on other people’s uploads of a video you own.
Hackers spreading ransomware are getting greedier. In 2016, the average ransom demand to free computers hit with the infection rose to $1,077, up from $294 the year before, according to security firm Symantec. In addition, the security company has been detecting more ransomware infection attempts.
Vietnam's government said Facebook has committed to work with it to prevent content that violates the country's laws from appearing on its platform. In February, communist Vietnam complained about "toxic" anti-government and offensive content on Facebook and Google Inc.'s YouTube and pressured local companies to withdraw advertising until the social media firms found a solution.
The government in India’s Jammu and Kashmir State ordered internet service providers in the restive Kashmir valley to block social networking services there, an unusually harsh measure to counteract escalating waves of protests and violence in the region. In the order, the government notified internet service providers to block the transmission of messages on 22 social networking services, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, for a month, or until further orders were issued.
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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.