Brooklyn Jury Deliberates Fate of Russian Known as 'King of Fraud'

A jury in Brooklyn, New York, is set to begin deliberating whether the Russian national Aleksandr Zhukov is guilty of being the “King of fraud,” as he texted in a 2014 message to an associate. According to federal prosecutors, Zhukov, 41, was the ringleader of an online scam that used 1,900 servers to create fake web traffic at media sites including the New York Times that led companies like Pepsi Co. to pay inflated advertising rates.

D.C. Files Antitrust Suit Against Amazon for Creating Increased Prices

The District of Columbia sued Amazon, accusing it of artificially raising prices for products around the web by abusing its monopoly power, a sign that regulators in the United States are increasingly turning their attention to the company’s dominance across the economy. In the lawsuit, believed to be the first government antitrust suit against Amazon in the United States, the district government said Amazon had effectively prohibited merchants that use its platform from charging lower prices for the same products elsewhere online.

Biden Administration Working with Pipeline Companies on Cyber Protections

The Biden administration is working with pipeline companies to strengthen protections against cyberattacks following the Colonial Pipeline hack, with announcements of actions planned in coming days, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. A ransomware attack forced Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey, to shut much of its network for several days this month, leaving thousands of gas stations across the U.S. Southeast without fuel. Motorists fearing prolonged shortages raced to fill their tanks as the outage laid bare the nation's reliance on a few key pipelines for fuel needs.

Russia Targets Google, Twitter in Effort to Ban Prohibited Content

Russia's communications watchdog gave Google 24 hours to delete what it called prohibited content or be fined and said Moscow could eventually slow down the company's traffic in the country. Russia has already placed a punitive slowdown on U.S. social network Twitter for not deleting banned content, part of a push by Moscow to rein in Western tech giants and beef up what it calls its internet "sovereignty".

Walmart Says 'External Bad Actor' Used Racial Epithet to Send Emails

Walmart is faulting an "external bad actor" for a slew of phony accounts that generated emails using the company's domain that addressed recipients with a racial epithet. Those behind the attack created new accounts for people whose emails were not previously identified by the company as belonging to Walmart customers, automatically sending a "Welcome to Walmart" email that replaced the receiver's name with a racist smear.

WhatsApp Tells Indian Government Privacy 'Remains Our Highest Priority'

Facebook Inc-owned WhatsApp said that it had told the Indian government that the privacy of users was its highest priority after the country's technology ministry raised questions about the messaging app's new privacy policy. India's technology ministry asked WhatsApp in a May 18 letter to withdraw its updated privacy policy, which came into effect on May 15, and also said the government could take legal action against the company.

Judge to Decide Outcome in Apple versus Epic Antitrust Trial

Apple Inc. spent the final moments of its high-profile courtroom fight against Epic Games Inc. arguing the videogame maker’s antitrust lawsuit was simply a way for it to get out of paying for access to iPhone users. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will rule in the coming months on Epic’s claim that Apple has improperly prohibited third-party app stores on the iPhone and required app developers to use its in-app payment system that takes a commission of as much as 30%.

White House Willing to Accept Smaller Broadband Spending Proposal

The White House said it was willing to accept a smaller Republican proposal to spend $65 billion to expand high-speed broadband internet to unserved areas as it seeks to win Republican support for a broader infrastructure plan. President Joe Biden in April called for $100 billion over eight years to expand high-speed broadband access to the entire United States.

Child Advocates Worry About Pandemic's Impact on Cyberbullying

As the pandemic has pushed kids to use the Internet more for school and socialization, children's media safety advocates warn that social media giants’ business models are a key hurdle in combating cyberbullying. Relying on social media platforms for kids and teens to interact amid the pandemic, combined with remote schooling which has put distance between teachers tasked with monitoring students, has exacerbated often toxic and dangerous online environments, according to experts.

German Hospitals Face Increased Risk From Hackers, Leader Says

German hospitals may be at increased risk from hackers, the head of the country's cyber security agency said, following two high-profile digital attacks this month on the Irish health service and a U.S. fuel pipeline. Ireland's health service operator shut down its IT systems to protect them from a "significant" ransomware attack, crippling diagnostic services, disrupting COVID-19 testing and forcing the cancellation of many appointments.

U.S. Treasury to Require Reporting Cryptocurrency Transactions Over $10,000

The Treasury Department announced that it is taking steps to crack down on cryptocurrency markets and transactions, and said it will require any transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. “Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the Treasury Department said in a release.

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Ransomware Attack on Ireland's Health System Shuts Down Services

A cyberattack on Ireland’s health system has paralyzed the country’s health services for a week, cutting off access to patient records, delaying Covid-19 testing, and forcing cancellations of medical appointments. Using ransomware, which is malware that encrypts a victims’ data until they pay a ransom, the people behind the attack have been holding hostage the data at Ireland’s publicly funded health care system, the Health Service Executive.

Facebook Won't Remove AIPAC Ad Targeting Rep. Omar Over Gaza Support

Facebook has refused to remove a widely viewed attack ad that links Rep. Ilhan Omar to Hamas, even after her aides told the tech giant the message is inaccurate, hateful and threatened to subject her to death threats. The controversy could further inflame tensions between Facebook and Democratic lawmakers, who say the social media company has failed to police its platform against known, viral falsehoods and refused to heed their cries about the real-world consequences of online speech.

CNA Financial Corp. Paid $40 Million After Ransomware Attack

CNA Financial Corp., among the largest insurance companies in the U.S., paid $40 million in late March to regain control of its network after a ransomware attack, according to people with knowledge of the attack. The Chicago-based company paid the hackers about two weeks after a trove of company data was stolen, and CNA officials were locked out of their network, according to two people familiar with the attack who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

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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.