Ransomware Gang Threatens to Leak Sensitive Files from D.C. Police Department

A ransomware gang is threatening to leak sensitive police files that may expose police investigations and informants unless the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia agrees to pay a ransom demand. “We are aware of unauthorized access on our server,” Sean Hickman, a public spokesperson for DC Police, told The Record in an email today after screenshots of the department’s internal files and servers were published on the website of the Babuk Locker ransomware gang.

German Advertising Federation Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple

The German Advertising Federation filed an antitrust complaint against Apple over the tech giant’s rollout of its App Tracking Transparency feature. The ZAW, the advertising federation, filed the complaint with a German competition regulator, arguing Apple is abusing its market power and violating antitrust law through the launch of its antitracking feature, according to the federation’s press release.

China's Internet Watchdog Releases New Rules to Regulate Live Streaming

China’s internet watchdog and six other regulators have jointly released new rules to regulate live streaming in the country’s booming e-commerce sector, set to go into effect on May 25, in Beijing’s latest move to tighten oversight of the powerful digital economy. Live-streaming service providers will be required to create a list specifying the categories of products and services that are either unlawful or unsuited for sales through live-streaming, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said on its official website.

Twitter Removes Tweets Critical of Indian Government's Pandemic Response

Twitter has removed more than 50 tweets critical of the Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and did so at the request of the Indian government. First reported by Indian news site MediaNama, the Indian government sent Twitter an emergency order to censor 52 tweets, according to a disclosure notice on the Lumen database.

U.S. Response to SolarWinds Hack Unlikely to Deter Russia, Official Says

The White House's top official on the response to the massive SolarWinds hack says the sweeping measures announced by the Biden administration against Russia are unlikely on their own to prevent Moscow's malicious cyber activity against the U.S. and did not dispute that the hackers responsible for the massive breach are still lurking on American networks. Expelling Russian hackers from U.S. government networks and getting them to re-consider their malign behavior is going to take time, more comprehensive dialogue and fundamental changes to American cybersecurity, deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told CNN in an interview.

  • Read the article: CNN

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Executives to Testify on Social Media Algorithms

Executives from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on social media algorithms and amplification, the panel announced. The hearing will feature Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy, Alexandra Veitch, YouTube’s director of government affairs and public policy for the Americas and emerging markets, and Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s head of U.S. public policy.

Internal Facebook Report Says Company Failed to Shut 'Stop the Steal'

Less than a week after Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance in front of a House of Representatives committee, an internal company report concluded that Facebook failed to stop a highly influential movement from using its platform to delegitimize the election, encourage violence, and help incite the Capitol riot. Shared on Facebook’s employee communication platform last month, the report is a blunt assessment of how people connected to “Stop the Steal,” a far-right movement based on the conspiracy theory that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, used the social network to foment an attempted coup.

Fake Claims About George Floyd Still on Facebook, Human Rights Group Says

Fabricated claims targeting George Floyd remain on Facebook despite pledges by the social media giant to take them down, a new investigation by human rights group Avaaz has found. USA Today reported in January that Facebook had not removed racist falsehoods, stereotypes and tropes about Floyd and other victims of police brutality that had been debunked by fact-checkers.

London's High Court Allows Copyright Suit Against Bitcoin Website

London's High Court has paved the way for a case that could force its judges to take a view on who invented bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency which last week soared to all-time highs. The court has allowed Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who alleges he created bitcoin, to serve a copyright infringement lawsuit against the operator and publisher of the bitcoin.org website, which calls itself Cobra, over Twitter or a generic email address.

Senators Want FTC to Probe Google for Child Privacy Violations in App Store

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate if Google’s app store is misleadingly marketing children’s apps as compliant with a law aimed at protecting children’s privacy. The Democrats sent a letter to the FTC calling for the commission to launch an investigation into the Silicon Valley giant’s app store, citing recent studies that suggest apps that infringe on children's privacy, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), are “rampant on the Google Play Store.”

Apple Targeted in $50 Million Ransomware Attack as Leaked Images Posted

Apple has been targeted in a $50 million ransomware attack following the theft of a trove of engineering and manufacturing schematics of current and future products from Quanta, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures MacBooks and other products for Apple. The leak, first reported by The Record, was carried out by REvil, a Russian hacking group that’s also known by the name Sodinokibi.

FTC Nominee Says She'll Take Aggressive Approach to Regulating Tech Giants

Lina Kahn’s unconventional ideas to take on tech companies’ power were decried as “hipster antitrust” by conservatives when her academic paper about Amazon went practically viral just a few years ago. But with anti-Silicon Valley sentiment mounting on both sides of the aisle in Congress, President Biden’s nominee to serve on the Federal Trade Commission received a relatively warm reception from senators as they weighed her nomination to become the youngest-ever commissioner of that body.

Justice Department Forms Task Force to Fight Ransomware Attacks

The Justice Department has formed a task force to curtail the proliferation of ransomware cyberattacks, in a bid to make the popular extortion schemes less lucrative by targeting the entire digital ecosystem that supports them. In an internal memorandum, Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin said ransomware poses not just an economic threat to businesses but “jeopardizes the safety and health of Americans.”

Seven House Republicans to Refuse Donations from Major Tech Companies

A group of seven House Republicans said that they would no longer take donations from major tech companies or their top executives, a sign of the growing distance between some conservatives and big business. The lawmakers said in a letter that the companies had limited the reach of conservative voices, citing bans on the chat app Parler after it was used by participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and had abused their market power.

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