U.S. Officials Creating New Penalties to Fight Foreign Utility Hackers

Top administration officials are devising new penalties to hit back more forcefully at state-sponsored hackers of critical infrastructure to deter attacks such as the successful penetration of U.S. utilities by Russian agents last year.The push for explicit action is coming from top federal agencies to fight worsening threats to the country’s electricity system and other critical industries, particularly menacing actions from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

FCC Says Hackers Not to Blame for Crash of Online Commenting System

The FCC has come clean on the fact that a purported hack of its comment system last year never actually took place, after a report from its inspector general found a lack of evidence supporting the idea. Chairman Ajit Pai blamed the former chief information officer and the Obama administration for providing “inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people.”

Creators of Fake Facebook Accounts Getting Harder to Identify

Creators of fake accounts and news pages on Facebook are learning from their past mistakes and making themselves harder to track and identify, posing new challenges in preventing the platform from being used for political misinformation, cyber security experts say. This was apparent as Facebook tried to determine who created pages it said were aimed at sowing dissension among U.S. voters ahead of congressional elections in November.

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Vacate Net Neutrality Ruling

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a 2016 appeals court ruling that had upheld Obama era “net neutrality” rules that barred internet service providers from blocking, throttling or prioritizing content. The request was made even though the Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines to toss out the 2015 rules late last year, rendering the fight over their legality moot.

Amazon Removes Items with Racist Imagery, Bans Seller

Amazon has pulled items from its site featuring racist imagery like burning crosses and swastikas, a company executive said in a letter to a lawmaker. BuzzFeed News reported that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) had sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last month, questioning why the site was selling and profiting from some of the items featuring the racist symbols.

Ransomware Attack Against City of Atlanta Could Cost $17 Million

The cyber attack that struck the City of Atlanta in March could cost taxpayers as much as $17 million, according to a report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News. The seven-page document -- marked "confidential and privileged" -- identifies roughly $6 million in existing contracts along with an additional $11 million in potential costs associated with the March 22 attack.

Gun-Rights Groups Vow to Publish 3-D Blueprints on New Website

Hours after a federal judge forced a group in Texas to remove online blueprints for 3-D printed firearms, gun-rights groups in California said they were publishing the files on a separate website. The Firearms Policy Coalition and other groups pulled the plans off the website of pro-gun group Defense Distributed before the court order and are now sharing those same files on a new site, said Craig DeLuz, a spokesman for the group.

China Appoints New Director of Cyberspace Administration

China appointed a new director for its powerful Internet regulator, elevating an official seen as an associate of President Xi Jinping to a post with censorship responsibilities and huge sway over tech companies. Zhuang Rongwen was named to head the Cyberspace Administration of China, the regulator said in a brief statement; he had been a deputy director since 2015.

Chinese Regulators Investigating Pinduoduo for Counterfeit Goods

Chinese regulators are investigating Pinduoduo Inc. after media reports of third-party vendors selling counterfeit goods on its group-discounting marketplace, a move analysts said is likely to further batter the firm’s newly listed shares. The probe comes just days after the Shanghai-based startup raised $1.63 billion in the year’s second-biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese firm, which valued Pinduoduo at $23.8 billion.

U.S. Arrests Three Ukrainians, Part of Notorious Cybercrime Gang FIN7

Three Ukrainians have been arrested on criminal hacking charges including stealing payment card numbers, in attacks on more than 100 U.S. companies that cost businesses tens of millions of dollars, the U.S. Justice Department said. U.S. prosecutors alleged that the three Ukrainians, who were arrested in Europe between January and June, are members of FIN7, a notorious cybercrime gang.

Spotify Removes Some Episodes of 'Alex Jones Show' for Hate Speech

Infowars founder Alex Jones is getting another slap on the wrist from a major tech company: Spotify, the music streaming service that also streams podcasts, has removed multiple episode of “The Alex Jones Show” for violating the company’s policies around hate speech. “We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,” a Spotify spokesperson told Recode.

Pence Vows to Protect Elections from Foreign Interference

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence vowed to protect domestic elections from foreign interference, hours after Facebook said it had identified a new effort to use its site to influence November’s U.S. congressional elections. Facebook Inc disclosed it had taken down dozens of fake accounts after identifying a new coordinated political influence campaign to mislead users and organize rallies ahead of this year’s elections.

Facebook Deletes Hundreds of Posts Under German Hate-Speech Law

Facebook said it had deleted hundreds of offensive posts since a law banning online hate speech came into force in Germany at the start of the year that foresees fines of up to 50 million euros ($58 million) for failure to comply.The social network received 1,704 complaints under the law, known in Germany as NetzDG, and removed 362 posts between January and June, Richard Allan, Facebook’s vice president for global policy solutions said in a blog.

Trump Plans Nomination for Head of Office of Science and Technology Policy

President Trump intends to nominate Kelvin Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather from the University of Oklahoma, as his top science and technology adviser at the White House, according to an administration official. Droegemeier’s selection, if approved by the Senate, could soon end a roughly 19-month vacancy at the top of the Office of Science and Technology Policy — a critical arm of the White House that guides the president on such issues as self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, emerging medical research and climate change.

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.