Florida Teenager Gets Three-Year Sentence for Twitter Hacking

A Florida teenager who was involved in the high-profile and massive hack of Twitter last year has reached a plea deal with prosecutors and will serve three years in a juvenile facility, followed by three years of probation. Graham Ivan Clark, now 18, was the “mastermind” of the “Bit-Con” hack, authorities said, and one of three charged in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Facebook Agrees to Pay News Corp. for Journalism Content in Australia

Facebook has agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for its journalism content in Australia, a month after the social media platform temporarily blocked news links inside the country over legislation pressing digital giants to compensate publishers. The multiyear deal includes news content from major Murdoch conservative media outlets like The Australian, a national newspaper; the news site news.com.au; and other metropolitan, regional and community publications.

More State Join Texas Antitrust Advertising Lawsuit Against Google

Alaska, Florida, Montana, Nevada, and Puerto Rico have joined a lawsuit filed by Texas and others against Google, which accuse it of breaking antitrust law to boost its already dominant online advertising business, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. The lawsuit was one of five filed last year by the federal government or states against two big tech platforms, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc.

Facebook Studying Vaccine Hesitancy to Understand Medical Attitudes Online

Facebook is conducting a vast behind-the-scenes study of doubts expressed by U.S. users about vaccines, a major project that attempts to probe and teach software to identify the medical attitudes of millions of Americans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The research is a large-scale attempt to understand the spread of ideas that contribute to vaccine hesitancy, or the act of delaying or refusing a vaccination despite its availability, on social media — a primary source of health information for millions of people.

More Privacy Decisions Being Challenged in European Courts

Nearly three years after a sweeping privacy law took effect in Europe, regulators are seeing more sanction decisions challenged and overturned as companies file appeals. European courts struck down or reduced several multimillion-dollar fines in recent months, raising questions about whether judges and privacy regulators disagree about how to enforce the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation.

Swiss Authorities Raid Software Engineer's Home in Probe of Camera Hacking

Swiss authorities confirmed a police raid at the home of a Swiss software engineer who took credit for helping to break into a U.S. security-camera company’s online networks, part of what the activist hacker cited as an effort to raise awareness about the dangers of mass surveillance. The Federal Office of Justice said regional police in central Lucerne, acting on a legal assistance request from U.S. authorities, carried out a house search involving hacker Tillie Kottmann.

Hack Attack Uses Text Messaging Services to Access Two-Factor Codes

There’s a newly discovered attack on SMS messaging that’s almost invisible to victims, and seemingly sanctioned by the telecom industry, uncovered in a report by Motherboard. The attack uses text-messaging management services that are aimed at businesses to silently redirect text messages from a victim to hackers, giving them access to any two-factor codes or login links that are sent via text message.

India to Propose Law to Make Holding Cryptocurrency Illegal

India will propose a law banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets, a senior government official told Reuters in a potential blow to millions of investors piling into the red-hot asset class. The bill, one of the world’s strictest policies against cryptocurrencies, would criminalize possession, issuance, mining, trading and transferring crypto-assets, said the official, who has direct knowledge of the plan.

White House to Coordinate with Private Sector on Hacking Responses

The White House is ramping up coordination with the private sector to address the ongoing fallout from a major breach of Microsoft software leaving thousands of American organizations vulnerable to hackers. That includes for the first time including private companies in the meetings of an interagency taskforce dedicated to the incident, a senior administration official told reporters.

SEC Charges California Man with Fraud for False Posts on Twitter

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it has charged a California-based trader for an alleged fraud scheme in which he spread false information about a defunct company on Twitter. Andrew L. Fassari, or @OCMillionaire on Twitter, tweeted false statements about Arcis Resources Corporation during December 2020, shortly after purchasing over 41 million shares of the stock, the SEC said in a complaint.

Microsoft Supports Antitrust Bill Giving Power to News Publishers Online

Lawmakers debated an antitrust bill that would give news publishers collective bargaining power with online platforms like Facebook and Google, putting the spotlight on a proposal aimed at chipping away at the power of Big Tech. At a hearing held by the House antitrust subcommittee, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, emerged as a leading industry voice in favor of the law.

Microsoft Says Hackers Exploiting Exchange Flaw for Ransomware

Hackers are exploiting recently discovered vulnerabilities in Exchange email servers to drop ransomware, Microsoft has warned, a move that puts tens of thousands of email servers at risk of destructive attacks. In a tweet, the tech giant said it had detected the new kind of file-encrypting malware called DoejoCrypt — or DearCry — which uses the same four vulnerabilities that Microsoft linked to a new China-backed hacking group called Hafnium.

Amazon Stops Selling Books 'That Frame LGBTQ+ Identity As a Mental Illness'

Amazon.com Inc. said it recently removed a three-year-old book about transgender issues from its platforms because it decided not to sell books that frame transgender and other sexual identities as mental illnesses. The company explained its decision in a letter to Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

EU Competition Commissioner Says Google Faces 'Very Large Investigation'

European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google faces a “very large investigation” into its advertising business, adding a new front to a decade-long antitrust battle. Technology “is really a high priority for us because what has happened over these last 12 months has changed a lot of habits,” Vestager told an online event.

Judge Dismisses Several Privacy Claims in Lawsuit Against Zoom

A U.S. judge dismissed large parts of a lawsuit accusing Zoom Video Communications Inc of violating users’ privacy rights by sharing personal information with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and letting malevolent intruders join Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing. In a decision, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, dismissed several claims in the proposed class action including invasion of privacy, negligence, and violations of that state’s consumer and anti-hacking laws. She allowed some contract-based claims to proceed.

After Crackdown from Mainstream Social Sites, QAnon Followers Go Elsewhere

Adherents of QAnon, an extremist ideology that the FBI has deemed a domestic terrorism threat, can now be found in the less-visible but still-virulent world of encrypted chat app groups on Telegram and elsewhere. These largely unmoderated online spaces have become cauldrons of ludicrous claims about the pandemic and breeding grounds for an increasingly intense alliance between QAnon and covid denialism.

Biden Administration Adds Conditions to 5G Export Licenses with Huawei

The Biden administration has informed some suppliers to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. of tighter conditions on previously approved export licenses, prohibiting items for use in or with 5G devices, according to people familiar with the move. The 5G ban is effective as of this week, according to the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss nonpublic communications.

Facebook Asks Court to Dismiss Antitrust Cases from FTC, Most States

Facebook asked a federal court to dismiss major antitrust cases filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and nearly every U.S. state, saying they failed to show the company had a monopoly or harmed consumers. “By a one-vote margin, in the fraught environment of relentless criticism of Facebook for matters entirely unrelated to antitrust concerns, the agency decided to bring a case against Facebook,” Facebook said in responding to the FTC complaint.

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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.