Cyberattacks Target Companies, Governments Distributing Coronavirus Vaccines

A series of cyberattacks is underway aimed at the companies and government organizations that will be distributing coronavirus vaccines around the world, IBM’s cybersecurity division has found, though it is unclear whether the goal is to steal the technology for keeping the vaccines refrigerated in transit or to sabotage the movements. The findings are alarming enough that the Department of Homeland Security plans to issue its own warning to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccines, federal officials said.

NLRB Files Complaint Against Google for Spying on, Firing Two Employees

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Google alleging that the company illegally spied on and then fired two employees for organizing. The complaint says that Google violated labor laws by surveilling and terminating Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both former engineers at the company's San Francisco office, in 2019.

Homeland Security Inspector General to Probe Cell-Phone Surveillance

Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog said it would open an investigation into the use of mobile-phone surveillance technologies to track Americans without a warrant, the latest salvo in a debate within the U.S. government over the legality of such techniques. The department’s inspector general told five Democratic senators that his office would initiate an audit “to determine if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components have developed, updated, and adhered to policies related to cell-phone surveillance devices,” according to a letter sent last week to Capitol Hill and shared with The Wall Street Journal.

Republicans Break with Trump on Demand to Eliminate Section 230

President Donald Trump’s threat to veto a defense bill if it does not repeal legal protections for social media companies faced stiff bipartisan opposition, setting the stage for a confrontation with lawmakers scrambling to pass the massive bill by year-end. Unusually, members of Trump’s Republican Party broke from the president to join Democrats in objecting to his threat to veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a $740 billion annual bill setting policy for the Pentagon, if it does not include a measure eliminating a federal law — known as Section 230 — protecting tech companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc.

Trump Threatens to Veto Defense Bill Unless Congress Repeals Section 230

President Trump threatened to veto an annual defense bill unless Congress repeals the federal law that spares Facebook, Google and other social-media sites from legal liability over their content-moderation decisions. Trump delivered the ultimatum targeting the digital protections, known as Section 230, in a late-night tweet that marked a dramatic escalation in his attacks against Silicon Valley over unproven allegations that the country’s tech giants exhibit bias against conservatives.

Accused Tesla Hacker Ordered to Pay $400,000 to Former Employer

Martin Tripp, the former Tesla worker who has been embroiled in a bitter legal battle with CEO Elon Musk for over two years, was ordered to pay his former employer $400,000 after admitting to leaking confidential information to a reporter. The settlement is intended to bring an end to one of the more sordid stories at Tesla, in which Tripp, a former process technician, locked horns with the billionaire CEO over allegations that Tesla was wasting a “jaw-dropping” amount of raw material as it ramped up production of the Model 3 sedan.

Commission Urges U.S. to Take Bigger Role in Promoting Tech Against China

Advocates of the U.S. government taking a bigger role in industrial policy got a boost from a bipartisan commission on China, which said the government should consider getting more involved in promoting U.S. technology or risk losing its edge to Chinese products. In its annual report, the influential U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission advised Congress to consider establishing a government committee to work with companies and U.S. allies to push their priorities at global organizations that set technology standards.

France to Seek EU Retaliation if U.S. Imposes Sanctions Over Digital Tax

France will immediately seek European Union retaliation if Washington goes ahead in January with planned trade sanctions over a French tax on digital services, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. The Trump administration announced in July additional duties of 25% on French cosmetics, handbags and other imports valued at $1.3 billion in response to France’s digital services tax, but said it would hold off on implementing the move until January.

FCC Chair Pai to Leave Agency When Biden Becomes President

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Ajit Pai has announced that he will leave the agency on January 20, when Joe Biden is sworn in as president. Pai’s controversial tenure as FCC chair has been marked by business-friendly deregulation that helped media conglomerates get even bigger while doing little for lower-income people who couldn’t afford Internet access — which has become an even more essential service during the pandemic.

Federal, State Authorities Plan More Antitrust Suits Against Facebook, Google

Big Tech’s legal woes are expected to worsen in the coming weeks as federal and state antitrust authorities prepare to file new lawsuits against Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, people familiar with the matter said. The authorities are readying as many as four more cases targeting Google or Facebook by the end of January, these people said, following the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google last month.

Groups Tell Biden Big Tech Companies Hurt Consumers, U.S. Economy

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden was urged to reject the influence of Big Tech companies on his administration, by 32 antitrust, consumer advocacy, labor and related groups in a letter. The letter urged that the Biden administration exclude executives, lobbyists and consultants working for or with companies such as Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet-owned Google, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp . The groups argue that the companies’ business practices hurt consumers and the U.S. economy.

Canada Plans Tax Starting in 2022 on Companies Providing Digital Services

Canada plans to impose a tax on corporations providing digital services from 2022 that will stay in place until major nations come up with a coordinated approach on taxation, the Finance Department said. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is working on a common approach to ensure digital behemoths, such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, pay their share of taxes as the coronavirus hammers budgets.

Supreme Court Justices Express Concerns About Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

The Supreme Court indicated serious reservations about the ambiguity and scope of the nation’s only major cybercrime law, hinting it may narrow the law’s applicability to avoid criminalizing such acts as checking social media at work. During arguments in a case involving a Georgia police officer convicted of violating the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by accessing a license plate database, the justices pushed a Justice Department lawyer to explain how a ruling in the government’s favor wouldn’t open the door to prosecutions of innocuous behavior.

France's Finance Ministry Sends Notices to Tech Firms for Digital Services Tax

France’s finance ministry has sent out notices to big tech companies liable for its digital service tax to pay the levy as planned in December, the ministry said. France suspended collection of the tax, which will hit companies like Facebook and Amazon, early this year while negotiations were underway at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on an overhaul of international tax rules.

Ransomware Attack Shuts Down Baltimore County's School System

Three days after a ransomware attack shut down Baltimore County’s school system, there is no indication the problem will be resolved quickly, and the timeline for resuming classes remains uncertain. School officials issued a statement saying the district continues to address the “catastrophic attack on our technology system” but gave no specifics on when online learning might be back up and running.

Cyberattacks on Hospitals Increase But Often Go Unreported

Cyberattacks on America’s health systems have become their own kind of pandemic over the past year as Russian cybercriminals have shut down clinical trials and treatment studies for the coronavirus vaccine and cut off hospitals’ access to patient records, demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms for their return. The attacks have largely unfolded in private, as hospitals scramble to restore their systems — or to quietly pay the ransom — without releasing information that could compromise an FBI investigation.

South Korean Mastermind of Sex Videos Gets 40 Years in Prison

Cho Joo-bin, the South Korean mastermind of a scheme luring young women into making videos that he sold online through encrypted chat rooms, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The criminal acts by Mr. Cho “inflicted irreparable damage on the victims,” Judge Lee Hyun-woo of the Seoul Central District Court said in handing down the sentence.

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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.