At Hearing, Lawmakers Push for Consumer Protections Online

Top lawmakers of both parties argued that Congress needs to take action to rein in big tech companies, citing revelations about Google+ as the latest example of questionable practices involving consumers’ private information. At a Senate hearing, Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R., S.D.) said it is increasingly clear from Google+ as well as Facebook Inc.’s earlier Cambridge Analytica scandal that industry self-regulation is no longer sufficient to protect users’ privacy.

Amount of Hacking-Related Cryptocurrency Theft Rises 250 Percent

Theft of cryptocurrencies through hacking of exchanges and trading platforms soared to $927 million in the first nine months of the year, up nearly 250 percent from the level seen in 2017, according to a report from U.S.-based cyber security firm CipherTrace. The report, which looks at criminal activity and money laundering in the digital currency market, also showed a steadily growing number of smaller thefts in the $20-60 million range, totaling $173 million in the third quarter.

Belgium Extradites Accused Chinese Government Spy to U.S.

In a first, federal agents lured a Chinese government spy to Belgium, where authorities transferred him to the United States for prosecution on economic espionage charges, U.S. officials said. Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said.

U.S. Telecom Company Found Manipulated Hardware Linked to China

A major U.S. telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in August, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the U.S., according to a security expert working for the telecom company. The security expert, Yossi Appleboum, provided documents, analysis and other evidence of the discovery following the publication of an investigative report in Bloomberg Businessweek that detailed how China’s intelligence services had ordered subcontractors to plant malicious chips in Supermicro server motherboards over a two-year period ending in 2015.

WhatsApp Fixes Bug That Allowed Hackers to Take Over Application

Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messenger service said it has fixed the latest bug on its platform that allowed hackers to take over users’ applications when they answered an incoming video call. The announcement follows reports from technology websites ZDnet and The Register that the vulnerability, which affected WhatsApp applications on Apple and Android smartphones, was discovered in late August and was fixed by Facebook in early October.

Lawmaker Wants Amazon, Apple to Testify About Chinese Hack Report

One of the top Republicans in Congress wants Amazon, Apple and information technology company Super Micro to hold a congressional briefing over concerns about a hardware hack reportedly carried out against them by the Chinese government. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 3 Senate Republican who serves as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent letters to the CEOs of each of the companies asking them to brief committee staff on the reported hack.

German Data Protection Commissioner Probes Google+ Data Exposure

Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces at least one European privacy probe in the wake of revelations it kept quiet for months about a “software glitch” in its Google+ social network. Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner in Hamburg, Germany, said his agency has started investigating the matter, that could have exposed the personal data of as many as half a million users.

GAO Report Says Pentagon Long Failed to Prioritize Cybersecurity

The Pentagon has "routinely" found mission-critical cyber vulnerabilities in most systems under development from 2012-2017, and yet, U.S. military officials still often think the Pentagon's weapon systems are secure against cyberthreats, per a Government Accountability Office report. The report assesses that "[a]lthough GAO and others have warned of cyber risks for decades, until recently, DoD did not prioritize weapon systems cybersecurity."

Apple's VP of Info Security Denies Breach in Letter to Congress

Apple's top security employee told Congress that it has not found anything to suggest that its systems were compromised through a sophisticated breach of its supply chain. George Stathakopoulos, the company’s vice president of information security, wrote in a letter to the Senate Commerce and House Energy and Commerce committees that Apple had conducted multiple investigations and not found evidence of the cybersecurity breaches detailed in a story published by Bloomberg Businessweek last week.

Google Shuts Down Google+ After User Data Exposed

Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage, according to people briefed on the incident and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. As part of its response to the incident, the Alphabet Inc. unit plans to announce a sweeping set of data privacy measures that include permanently shutting down all consumer functionality of Google+, the people said.

UK Cybersecurity Agency Supports Apple, Amazon in Chinese Chip Story

The United Kingdom's cybersecurity agency said it supported Apple and Amazon’s claim that their systems were not compromised as was reported by Bloomberg News. “We are aware of the media reports but at this stage have no reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by [Amazon Web Services] and Apple,” National Cyber Security Centre, a unit of the British intelligence agency, GCHQ, told Reuters.

Amazon Says Email Addresses Wrongly Shared with Outside Seller

Amazon.com Inc. notified some customers that their email addresses were shared with an outside seller on its platform in violation of the company’s policy. Amazon said it had identified and fired the employee responsible for sharing the information. No other customer information was disclosed, and the seller who received it was blocked from selling on Amazon, the company said.

Google Agrees to Payment to Settle Age Discrimination Lawsuit

Google agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to settle the claims of job applicants who said the company discriminated against them on the basis of age. Daniel Low, a lawyer for the applicants age 40 and older, said the parties agreed to a dollar amount during a settlement conference but agreed to keep the amount confidential until it is approved by the court.

EU Competition Commissioner Reports 'Improvements' from Google

Google’s proposals to increase competition in online shopping are bearing fruit, Europe’s antitrust chief said, suggesting that the company may be able to avoid further fines. Alphabet Inc’s Google last year offered to allow price-comparison rivals to bid for advertising space at the top of a search page, giving them the chance to compete on equal terms, seeking to appease regulators after the European Commission fined it a record 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for favoring its own service.

Google CEO Visits Pentagon, Meets with Leaders for AI Drone Project

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai quietly paid the Pentagon a visit during his recent trip to Washington, seeking to smooth over tensions roughly four months after employee outrage prompted the tech giant to sever a defense contract to analyze drone video, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Pichai met with a group of civilian and military leaders mostly from the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Defense Department directorate that oversees the artificial-intelligence drone system known as Project Maven, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the meeting.

Pence Says Google's 'Dragonfly' App Would Aid Chinese Censorship

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized what he said was China’s theft of U.S. technology, and he urged Google to immediately end development of its “Dragonfly” app that would make it easier to track someone’s Internet searches. Pence said in a speech that business leaders are now thinking twice before entering the Chinese market “if it means turning over their intellectual property or abetting Beijing’s oppression.”

U.S. Indicts Seven Russian Officers for Hacking Antidrug Agencies

Russian intelligence officers brazenly launched cyberattacks on investigators pursuing Russian malfeasance around the globe, Western officials said, offering a litany of victims including antidoping agencies, inspectors scrutinizing the poisoning of a former spy in Britain and others examining the downing of a passenger jet in 2014. The Justice Department indicted seven Russian officers on charges of trying to hack into antidrug agencies in the United States, Canada and Europe, an apparent effort to undermine their pursuit of Russian doping.

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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.