Tech Companies Lobbying for Federal Privacy Law -- With Leeway

In recent months, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and others have aggressively lobbied officials in the Trump administration and elsewhere to start outlining a federal privacy law, according to administration officials and the companies. The law would have a dual purpose, they said: It would overrule the California law and instead put into place a kinder set of rules that would give the companies wide leeway over how personal digital information was handled.

Cyber Attack Targets Bank of Spain's Website; No Data Breach Reported

The Bank of Spain’s website has been hit by a cyber attack which has temporarily disrupted access to the site, a spokesman for the central bank said. The spokesman said that the attack has not had any effect on the bank’s services or its communications with the European Central Bank or other institutions and that there was no risk of a data breach.

Facebook Removes Myanmar Military Officials for Spreading Hate

Facebook said it was removing several Myanmar military officials from the social media website and an Instagram account to prevent the spread of “hate and misinformation” after reviewing the content. Facebook also said it removed dozens of accounts for engaging in a campaign that “used seemingly independent news and opinion pages to covertly push the messages of the Myanmar military.”

Airbnb Sues New York City Over Law Requiring Disclosure of Names

Airbnb filed suit over a new law, passed in July, that would make it easier for New York City to crack down on illegal listings by requiring Airbnb and other home-sharing companies to share hosts’ names and addresses with the city’s enforcement agency on a monthly basis. In its suit, Airbnb says the law violates its users’ privacy and constitutional rights.

Twitter CEO to Testify Before House Committee Studying Censorship

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee as Republican lawmakers claim that they're victims of censorship on social media. “Twitter is an incredibly powerful platform that can change the national conversation in the time it takes a tweet to go viral," Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the panel, said in a statement.

Trump Says 'Social Media Giants Silencing Millions of People'

U.S. President Donald Trump accused social media companies of silencing “millions of people” in an act of censorship, but without offering evidence to support the claim. “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Trump wrote on Twitter, not mentioning any specific companies.

T-Mobile Says Hackers Accessed Personal Data on 2 Million Customers

T-Mobile has announced that the company was hit by hackers who were able to gain access to personal information from roughly 2 million customers, including the name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number, and account type of users. According to the company, more sensitive information -- financial data, Social Security numbers, and passwords -- weren’t compromised in the hack.

Google Shuts 58 YouTube Accounts Linked to Iran Broadcasting

Google has removed dozens of YouTube channels it says are linked to an influence operation run by Iran's state broadcaster. Google says it shut down 58 accounts on its video service YouTube and other sites that had ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, according to Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global affairs.

Australia Bars Huawei, ZTE from Supporting Telecom Networks

The fog of cyberespionage concerns surrounding Huawei has for years kept the Chinese technology giant largely out of the United States. Now it has cost the company potentially lucrative business in another country: Australia. Huawei said that the Australian government had barred it and another Chinese company, ZTE, from providing equipment to support the country’s new telecommunications networks. 

DNC Says Reported Hacking Attack Was Only a Simulation

The Democratic National Committee said that what it had earlier feared was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database, was, in fact, an unauthorized "simulated phishing test" and not an actual attempt to hack into its systems by an adversary. The Democratic Party of Michigan confirmed to CNN on  that it had made a "misstep" and was responsible for the scare.

  • Read the article: CNN

Russian Bill Would Require Foreign Internet Firms to Help Pay for Storage

Russian telecoms operators have proposed legislation that would oblige foreign Internet companies to share the financial burden of a new law on storing data in the country, a draft bill seen by Reuters shows. If adopted, the legislation would allow Russian telecoms companies to claim compensation from foreign Internet companies, including social media and messenger services such as Google and Facebook, for compliance with the data storage rules that come into effect from October.

Security Audit Finds Many Passwords Contain Word 'Password'

A security audit of the Western Australian government released by the state’s auditor general found that 26 percent of its officials had weak, common passwords -- including more than 5,000 including the word “password” out of 234,000 in 17 government agencies. The legions of lazy passwords were exactly what you -- or a thrilled hacker -- would expect: 1,464 people went for “Password123” and 813 used “password1.”

Facebook, Twitter Take Action Against Accounts Linked to Iranian State Media

Facebook said it had removed hundreds of Iran-based pages, groups and accounts, alleging that they formed a network linked to Iranian state media that covertly spread political content to people on four continents including in the U.S. Facebook said in a blog post that the 652 pages, groups and accounts were in violation of its terms of service because they were engaged in "coordinated inauthentic behavior."

Democratic National Committee Alerts FBI to Attempted Hacking

The Democratic National Committee contacted the FBI after it detected what it believes was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database, a Democratic source tells CNN. The DNC was alerted in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a cloud service provider and a security research firm that a fake login page had been created in an attempt to gather usernames and passwords that would allow access to the party's database, the source said.
 

  • Read the article: CNN

After More Russian Hacking Disclosed, Senators Seek New Sanctions

Faced with new evidence that Russian hackers are targeting conservative American research groups and the Senate’s own web pages, key lawmakers from both parties signaled that they were ready to move forward with punishing new sanctions legislation capable of crippling the Russian economy. And in three separate hearings on Capitol Hill, senators prodded the Trump administration to do more with its existing authorities to deter Russia and protect American political infrastructure.

State Attorneys General Ask Appeals Court to Reinstate Net Neutrality

A group of 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia asked a U.S. appeals court to reinstate the Obama administration's 2015 landmark net neutrality rules and reject the Trump administration's efforts to preempt states from imposing their own rules guaranteeing an open Internet. The states, led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit in January after the Federal Communications Commission voted in December along party lines to reverse rules that barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic or offering paid fast lanes, also known as paid prioritization.

  • Read the article: CNBC

WhatsApp Assures India It Will Develop Tools to Fight Fake Messages

India said Facebook-owned WhatsApp had pledged to develop tools that would combat fake messages, to help the country crack down on people whipping up public anger through mass message forwards on social media. WhatsApp chief executive officer Chris Daniels gave the assurance to India’s information technology minister during a meeting in New Delhi.

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