Facebook is fessing up to what many people have known for a long time: The giant social network can be bad for democracy. The acknowledgment came as Facebook races against the clock to shut down Russian interference that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign before U.S. voters cast their ballots in hundreds of midterm elections.
More than 10 percent of funds raised through “initial coin offerings” are lost or stolen in hacker attacks, according to new research by Ernst & Young that delves into the risks of investing in cryptocurrency projects online. The professional services firm analyzed more than 372 ICOs, in which new digital currencies are distributed to buyers, and found that roughly $400 million of the total $3.7 billion funds raised to date had been stolen, according to research.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) signed an executive order requiring internet service providers with state contracts to abide by net neutrality principles. The order makes his state the first to push back on the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to repeal the open internet rules last month.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against two companies for fraud involving the sale of and advice on cryptocurrency investments, the agency said. The CFTC charged Dillon Michael Dean and his company, The Entrepreneurs Headquarters, with fraud for running a Ponzi scheme that promised high returns for investing in a cryptocurrency pool.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he signed into law a bill renewing the National Security Agency’s warrantless Internet surveillance program, sealing a defeat for digital privacy advocates. The law renews for six years and with minimal changes the National Security Agency (NSA) program, which gathers information from foreigners overseas but incidentally collects an unknown amount of communications belonging to Americans.
OnePlus said credit card information belonging to up to 40,000 customers was captured by a malicious (and currently unknown) actor between November 2017 and mid-January 2018. As a result of the breach, OnePlus says it's continuing to work with law enforcement, and will offer a year of free credit monitoring to all affected users.
Read the article: Engadget
Instagram became the latest social network to sign up to the EU's code of conduct on fighting online hate speech. The social network joins Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, which all signed the code back in 2016, in committing to countering the spread of illegal hate speech online.
A major hacking operation tied to one of the most powerful security and intelligence agencies in Lebanon has been exposed after careless spies left hundreds of gigabytes of intercepted data exposed to the open internet, according to a report. Mobile security firm Lookout, Inc. and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said the haul, which includes nearly half a million intercepted text messages, had simply been left online by hackers linked to Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security.
YouTube and Facebook are trying to stop the spread of the Tide Pod Challenge, a bizarre and dangerous phenomenon in which social media users eat laundry detergent packets on camera. YouTube, which is owned by Google, says it's taking down clips that show people taking bites of the pods. The videos have become an online craze among teenagers, prompting widespread health and safety warnings.
Digital currencies and the software developed to track them have become attractive targets for cybercriminals while also creating a lucrative new market for computer-security firms. In less than a decade, hackers have stolen $1.2 billion worth of Bitcoin and rival currency Ether, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research LLP.
Italy’s antitrust body said it had opened a probe into allegations that Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. used software updates to slow their mobile phones and push clients into buying new handsets. The watchdog said in a statement that the two companies had not told clients that the updates might have a negative impact on the performance of their phones.
Twitter is planning to notify users who may have been exposed to Russian propaganda during the 2016 presidential election, the company's head of public policy told a Senate panel. The initiative follows Facebook's move, announced last year, to create an online tool for people to learn whether they liked or followed Facebook and Instagram accounts generated by a Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating whether chipmaker Broadcom Ltd. engaged in anticompetitive tactics in negotiations with customers, the company said. The company was recently issued subpoenas that seek an extensive amount of information, according to the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report the probe.
TWiT, officially known as This Week in Tech, is suing Twitter. The audio and video media platform alleges breach of written contract, breach of oral agreement, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and trademark infringement.
The legal fight against the Federal Communications Commission’s recent repeal of so-called net neutrality regulations began with a flurry of lawsuits filed to block the agency’s action. One suit, filed by 21 state attorneys general, said the agency’s actions broke federal law.
A new hacking offensive against cryptocurrency investors uses malware similar to that deployed in North Korea’s attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment and its WannaCry ransomware assault, cybersecurity researchers said, providing further evidence of Pyongyang’s involvement in crypto heists. U.S. cybersecurity firm Recorded Future in a report identified the Lazarus group -- a hacking operation with links to the North Korean regime -- as behind the malware campaign, which began targeting users of a South Korean exchange in the late fall and may still be active.
According to a report published by antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab, "Skygofree" is most likely an offensive Android security product sold by an Italy-based IT company that markets various surveillance wares. Skygofree is capable of taking pictures, capturing video, and seizing call records, text messages, gelocation data, calendar events, and business-related information stored in device memory.
U.S. lawmakers are urging AT&T Inc., the No. 2 wireless carrier, to cut commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and oppose plans by telecom operator China Mobile Ltd. to enter the U.S. market because of national security concerns, two congressional aides said. The warning comes after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump took a harder line on policies initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama on issues ranging from Beijing’s role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. strategic industries.
Despite noting improvements on takedown efforts, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has again blacklisted Alibaba's eBay-like Taobao shopping site. In its annual report on the trade of illicit goods in online and physical marketplaces, the USTR said Taobao hasn't "objectively demonstrated that the volume or prevalence of counterfeit goods has decreased over the last year."
Read the article: Engadget
Danish police have charged 1,004 young people with distributing sexually explicit material of two 15-year-olds following a tip-off from Facebook Inc. The activity may constitute distribution of child pornography, the Danish National Police said.
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