A data breach at the Department of Homeland Security exposed the personally identifiable information on more than 240,000 current and former DHS employees, the department said. The breach at the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) Case Management System affected 247,167 people employed by DHS in 2014, as well as subjects, witnesses and complainants associated with DHS OIG investigations from 2002 through 2014, the department said in a statement.
Emmanuel Macron has vowed to introduce a law to ban fake news on the internet during French election campaigns. The French president, who beat the far-right Marine Le Pen to win 2017’s election, said he wanted new legislation for social media platforms during election periods "in order to protect democracy."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned that investors should “exercise caution” with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, noting state and federal regulators may not be able to recoup any lost investments from illegal actors. Many promoters of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and other cryptocurrency investments are not following federal and state securities laws, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and Commissioners Kara Stein and Michael Piwowar said in a statement.
States are moving to write their own net neutrality regulations after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in December decided to scrap the Obama-era Internet rules. California, New York and Washington are pushing their own versions of net neutrality rules and more state governments are expected to do the same, according to a report from Fast Company.
Computer security experts have discovered two major security flaws in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world’s computers. The two problems, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to steal the entire memory contents of a computer.
Read the article: The New York Times
The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service’s leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector. Since 2015, the NSA has lost several hundred hackers, engineers and data scientists, according to current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Trump’s tweet raising the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea isn’t in violation of Twitter’s guidelines, the company says, and will remain online. In the tweet, Trump boasted that his “Nuclear Button” is “much bigger” and “more powerful” than the one belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- a combative and childish taunt that raises serious questions about Trump’s fitness for office, as well as to what extent Twitter is complicit in allowing him to publish threats of this nature to its platform.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a settlement with computer manufacturer Lenovo over charges that it had violated user privacy with software that came preloaded on its computers. “Lenovo compromised consumers’ privacy when it preloaded software that could access consumers’ sensitive information without adequate notice or consent to its use,” acting FTC Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen said in a statement when it reached the settlement in September.
Wixen Music Publishing filed a lawsuit in California federal court that alleges that Spotify is using Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'," the Doors' "Light My Fire" and tens of thousands of other songs without a license and compensation. The plaintiff is seeking a damages award worth at least $1.6 billion plus injunctive relief.
A bipartisan group of six senators has introduced legislation that would take a huge step toward securing elections in the United States. Called the Secure Elections Act, the bill aims to eliminate insecure paperless voting machines from American elections while promoting routine audits that would dramatically reduce the danger of interference from foreign governments.
Apple Inc. defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various federal courts since the company opened up about the year-old software change. The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.
A German court has ordered Amazon not to lure Internet shoppers to its online marketplace when they mistakenly search for “Brikenstock”, “Birkenstok”, “Bierkenstock” and other variations in Google. The ruling is a victory for the German sandal maker, whose relationship with Amazon has grown increasingly antagonistic.
A Louisiana man was arrested in connection with the "Nigerian prince" scheme that has scammed people out of thousands of dollars, police announced. Michael Neu, 67, faces 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering after being taken into custody following an 18-month investigation, according to the Slidell Police Department.
Inconsistent Facebook rulings on hate speech are not unusual, ProPublica has found in an analysis of more than 900 posts submitted to us as part of a crowd-sourced investigation into how the world’s largest social network implements its hate-speech rules. Based on this small fraction of Facebook posts, its content reviewers often make different calls on items with similar content, and don’t always abide by the company’s complex guidelines.
Facebook and Twitter could face sanctions if they continue to stonewall parliament over Russian interference in the EU referendum, the chair of a Commons inquiry has said. Damian Collins, chair of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee, which is looking into so-called “fake news”, has given the companies until 18 January to correct their failure to hand over information he requested about Russian misinformation campaigns on their platforms.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said citizens are “absolutely free to criticise the government” amid the fourth day of nationwide protests. Iranian authorities temporarily blocked mobile phone access to Instagram and the messaging app Telegram to “maintain peace” amid anti-government protests, state TV reported.
Read the article: Independent
Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material. Sites that do not remove "obviously illegal" posts could face fines of up to 50 million euros.
The ability of advertisers to deliver their message to the precise audience most likely to respond is the cornerstone of Facebook’s business model. But using the system to expose job opportunities only to certain age groups has raised concerns about fairness to older workers. Several experts questioned whether the practice is in keeping with the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which prohibits bias against people 40 or older in hiring or employment.
The U.S. Republican tax overhaul passed by Congress will allow Apple Inc. to bring back its $252.3 billion foreign cash pile without a major tax hit -- a long-standing company goal. But not everything went the company’s way. A critical difference between the Senate version of the bill and the final version could actually raise the amount of cash taxes that Apple pays on profits from patents held abroad, tax experts said.
Two Romanian hackers infiltrated nearly two-thirds of the outdoor surveillance cameras in Washington, DC, as part of an extortion scheme, according to federal court documents. In a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. government alleges that the two Romanian hackers operating outside the United States infiltrated 65% of the outdoor surveillance cameras operated by D.C. city police -- that's 123 cameras out of 187 in the city.
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