'Decentralized Finance' Losses Rise While Overall Cryptocurrency Losses Drop

Losses from theft, hacks, and fraud in "decentralized finance" or DeFi, a thriving segment in the cryptocurrency sector, hit an all-time high in the first seven months of the year, a report from crypto intelligence company CipherTrace showed. But losses from crime in the overall cryptocurrency market dropped sharply to $681 million at the end of July, compared to $1.9 billion for the whole of 2020 and $4.5 billion in 2019.

Twitter Again Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for Coronavirus Misinformation

Twitter suspended Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, from its service for seven days after she posted that the Food and Drug Administration should not approve the coronavirus vaccines and that the vaccines were “failing.” The company said that this was Ms. Greene’s fourth “strike,” which means that under the company’s rules she could be permanently barred if she violated Twitter’s coronavirus misinformation policy again.

Indian Supreme Court Orders Antitrust Probe for Amazon, Flipkart

Amazon.com Inc and Walmart's Flipkart must face antitrust investigations ordered against them in India, the country's Supreme Court ruled, in a blow to the leading e-commerce giants which had urged judges to quash the inquiries. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered the investigation against the companies last year for allegedly promoting select sellers on their e-commerce platforms and using business practices that stifle competition.

Amazon Sellers Push Customers to Revise Negative Reviews, Violating Terms

Some Amazon sellers are reaching out to unhappy buyers to revise or delete their negative reviews, in exchange for refunds or gift cards. Sellers who ship products via Amazon aren’t supposed to reach out to customers outside of Amazon’s official channel — in fact, it’s a violation of the terms they agree to on the retail platform.

Apple Defends Plan to Scan Photos for Illegal Child Sex Abuse

Apple defended its new system that will scan iCloud for illegal child sexual abuse materials, or CSAM, amid a controversy over whether the system reduces Apple user privacy and could be used by governments to surveil citizens. Last week, Apple announced it has started testing a system that uses sophisticated cryptography to identify when users upload collections of known child pornography to its cloud storage service.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Judge Dismisses $308.5 Million Patent Verdict Against Apple

Apple Inc. persuaded a federal judge to throw out a $308.5 million jury verdict it lost to a privately-held licensing firm for infringing a patent associated with digital rights management. In a decision, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap said Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC) intentionally delayed filing its application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, hoping to obtain a larger payout.

Record Labels Sue Charter Communications for Copyright Infringement

A group of major record labels has filed a new lawsuit against Charter Communications alleging that the company has failed to address its subscribers’ copyright infringement of musical works. And it’s not the first time the labels have sued Charter for its subscribers’ alleged behavior. In a complaint filed in US District Court in Colorado July 26th, Universal Music, EMI, Sony Music, and Warner Music, along with several subsidiaries, claim that Charter, which provides internet services as Spectrum, “has insisted on doing nothing despite receiving thousands of notices that detailed the illegal activity of its subscribers, despite its clear legal obligation to address the widespread, illegal downloading of copyrighted works on its Internet services, and despite being sued previously by Plaintiffs for similar conduct.”

India's Supreme Court Rules for Amazon in Fight Over Supermarket Chain

India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of Amazon’s bid to block a multibillion-dollar deal that would give the country’s richest man control over an Indian supermarket chain, in a boost to the American retailing giant’s ambitions toward India’s nearly $900 billion retail market. Amazon is embroiled in a bitter, politically fraught clash with Reliance Industries, one of the biggest and most powerful companies in India.

WeChat's 'Youth Mode' Doesn't Comply with Chinese Laws, Lawsuit Says

Beijing prosecutors initiated a civil public-interest lawsuit against a Tencent subsidiary, saying the "youth mode" on the company's popular social messaging app WeChat does not comply with laws protecting minors. The lawsuit was initiated by Beijing’s Haidian District People’s Procuratorate against Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co Ltd, according to a filing posted on JCRB.com, a website run by China’s top prosecutor.

Senators Plan Legislation to Sanction Countries That Harbor Cyber Criminals

Two senior U.S. senators planned legislation that would fight ransomware attacks on U.S. infrastructure by sanctioning countries the harbor cyber criminals, as well as by strengthening protections against attacks. Senators Marco Rubio, the Republican vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, a senior member of the intelligence and judiciary committees, planned to introduce the "Sanction and Stop Ransomware Act.”

Google Fires Dozens of Employees for Misusing Access to Tools, Data

Google fired dozens of employees for misusing their access to the company’s tools and data between 2018 and 2020, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. “The instances referred to mostly relate to inappropriate access to, or misuse of, proprietary and sensitive Google corporate information or [intellectual property] IP,” the Google spokesperson said in a statement.

FTC Official Criticizes Facebook for Blocking NYU Researchers' Access

A senior Federal Trade Commission official is criticizing Facebook’s move to shut down the personal accounts of two academic researchers and terminate their probe into misinformation spread through political ads on the social network. Facebook wrongly used a 2019 data-privacy settlement with the FTC to justify shutting down the New York University researchers’ accounts this week, Samuel Levine, acting director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau, said in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Apple to Scan iPhones for Child Pornography, Explicit Content

Apple unveiled a sweeping new set of software tools that will scan iPhones and other devices for child pornography and text messages with explicit content and report users suspected of storing illegal pictures on their phones to authorities. The aggressive plan to thwart child predators and pedophiles and prohibit them from utilizing Apple’s services for illegal activity pitted the tech giant against civil liberties activists and appeared to contradict some of its own long-held assertions about privacy and the way the company interacts with law enforcement.

Scammers Abusing Instagram's Protections to Sell Banning Services

Scammers are abusing Instagram's protections against suicide, self-harm, and impersonation to purposefully target and ban Instagram accounts at will, with some people even advertising professionalized ban-as-a-service offerings so anyone can harass or censor others, according to screenshots, interviews, and other material reviewed by Motherboard. It appears that in some cases, the same scammers who offer ban-as-a-service also offer or are at least connected to services to restore accounts for users who were unfairly banned from Instagram, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

  • Read the article: Vice

Homeland Security Enlists Tech Companies to Help Fight Cyber Threats

The U.S. government is enlisting the help of tech companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google, to bolster the country’s critical infrastructure defenses against cyber threats after a string of high-profile attacks. The Department of Homeland Security is formally unveiling the initiative called the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.

New York City Ignites Debate About Privacy of Vaccine Passports

When New York City announced that it would soon require people to show proof of at least one coronavirus vaccine shot to enter businesses, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the system was “simple — just show it and you’re in.” But the mainstreaming of these credentials could also usher in an era of increased digital surveillance, privacy researchers said.

Senator Calls Facebook's Disabling of NYU Researcher Accounts 'Concerning'

Senator Mark Warner said that Facebook Inc's move to disable the accounts of a group of New York University researchers who were studying political ads on its platform was "deeply concerning." Facebook said it had cut off the personal accounts and access of the NYU researchers, who were studying political ads on the site, because of concerns about other users' privacy.

Customers Lack Information About Attack on Passwordstate Password Manager

It has been over three months since Click Studios, the Australian software house behind the enterprise password manager Passwordstate, warned its customers to “commence resetting all passwords.” But customers tell TechCrunch that they are still without answers about the attack, and several customers say they were met with silence from Click Studios, while others were asked to sign strict secrecy agreements when they asked for assurances about the security of the software.

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