Britain Vows to Push Back Against Chinese, Russian Cyberspace Control

Britain said it would push back at what it casts as attempts by Russia and China to establish national sovereignty over the communications arteries and emerging technologies which will shape the 21st century. Britain depicts China and Russia as strategic rivals whose rush for control of some major technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and microprocessor design could threaten both Western security and a relatively free internet.

Britain's Antitrust Regulator Says Apple, Google Hold 'Vise-Like Grip'

Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google hold a “vise-like grip” over how people use mobile devices, Britain’s antitrust regulator said, adding it was assessing whether to try to loosen what it said was their control over smartphone ecosystems. The preliminary report is among several, nonbinding research efforts by the U.K. and other antitrust regulators in Europe into competition in the tech industry.

CISA 'Not Seeing Widespread' Attacks from Log4j Vulnerability

The U.S. agency charged with defending the country against hacking said the majority of attacks it has seen using a recently disclosed flaw in widely used open-source software were minor, with many of them seeking to hijack computing power to mine cryptocurrency. Officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they had not confirmed reports by multiple security companies of ransomware installations or attempts by other governments to steal secrets.

Huawei Presentations Show Role in China's State Surveillance

A review by The Washington Post of more than 100 Huawei PowerPoint presentations, many marked “confidential,” suggests that the company has had a broader role in tracking China’s populace than it has acknowledged. These marketing presentations, posted to a public-facing Huawei website before the company removed them late last year, show Huawei pitching how its technologies can help government authorities identify individuals by voice, monitor political individuals of interest, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers track shoppers using facial recognition.

German Official Wants Telegram Removed from App Stores

Germany should order the messaging program Telegram removed from Apple's and Google's app stores if it continues to ignore requests to help track down extremist content, a senior German official said. Telegram has been blamed in Germany for fueling an increasingly virulent subculture of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists who exchange news about supposed dangers and arrange protests that have spilled over into violence.

Chinese Authorities Fine Weibo for Disseminating 'Illegal Information'

Chinese authorities said they have fined social-media giant Weibo Corp. millions of dollars for a string of infractions, the second time in two weeks that Beijing has announced the punishment of a major internet platform amid a further tightening of controls online. The Cyberspace Administration of China said that Twitter-like Weibo had been ordered to pay a penalty of 3 million yuan, the equivalent of about $471,000, for disseminating “illegal information” in severe violation of regulations including the country’s cybersecurity law and its law governing the protection of minors.

U.K.’s Antitrust Watchdog Investigating Microsoft's Acquisition of Nuance

The $19.7 billion acquisition of speech-to-text specialist Nuance by Microsoft, announced earlier this year, has attracted the attention of the U.K.’s active antitrust watchdog — which said it’s taking a first look to assess whether there are reasons to be concerned about the proposed deal. A decision on whether the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will open a phase 1 investigation will follow in due course.

CISA Director Calls 'Log4j' Vulnerability 'One of the Most Serious'

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly told industry leaders in a phone briefing that a vulnerability in a widely used logging library “is one of the most serious I’ve seen in my entire career, if not the most serious.” “We expect the vulnerability to be widely exploited by sophisticated actors and we have limited time to take necessary steps in order to reduce the likelihood of damage,” she said of the Apache Log4j flaw.

Store Thefts by Flash Mobs Organized on Social Media, Law Enforcement Says

A recent rash of thefts by fast-moving mobs at stores in the Bay Area and outside Minneapolis were organized on social media and committed by people who often didn’t know one another, according to law-enforcement officials investigating the incidents. Snapchat was among the social-media apps and messaging services used by thieves in the Bay Area, one of the law-enforcement officials said.

Facebook's Parent Company Acquires 'Meta' Trademarks for $60 Million

Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of social media network Facebook, is behind a $60 million deal to acquire the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group, spokespeople for the companies said. The deal underscores how valuable the Meta name has become for the technology giant, which is betting that its focus on the metaverse — shared digital spaces accessed via the internet through an array of devices — will pay off handsomely in the coming years.

Volvo Investigating Cybersecurity Breach That Targeted Its R&D Files

Volvo Car AB, the Swedish car maker, said that it was investigating a cybersecurity breach targeting systems that store research and development files and warned the hack could have an impact on the company’s operations. Volvo, majority-owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said the data had been stolen from an unnamed third party, which it said had contacted Volvo about the theft.

Extremists Using Twitter's Live Audio Chat Feature Without Moderation

Taliban supporters, white nationalists, and anti-vaccine activists sowing coronavirus misinformation have hosted live audio broadcasts on Twitter’s Spaces, its new live audio chat feature that hundreds of people have tuned in to, according to researchers, users and screenshots viewed by The Washington Post. These chats are neither policed nor moderated by Twitter, the company acknowledges, because it does not have human moderators or technology that can scan audio in real-time.

Bill Would Allow NSF to Review Sensitive Social Media Documents

A bill would open social media company data to scrutiny by outside researchers. Sponsored by Senators Klobuchar (D-MN), Coons (D-DE) and Portman (R-OH), it proposes to use the National Science Foundation as the intermediary between sensitive platform information and requests from interested parties. Senate aides, speaking under condition of anonymity to the Wall Street Journal, claim the bill is a direct response to recent disclosures about negative externalities associated with Instagram.

Shortage of Cream Cheese Blamed Partly on Cyberattack on Manufacturer

The cream cheese shortage wreaking havoc on bagel shops and bakeries is, in part, due to a cyberattack on the biggest U.S. cheese manufacturer. Schreiber Foods in Wisconsin, which makes cheese slices for most of the top burger chains in America and has a cream cheese business rivaling Kraft’s, closed for days in October after hackers compromised its plants and distribution centers.

Hackers Take Down Computers Running Brazil's Immunization Program

Brazil's health ministry said its website was hit by a hacker attack that took several systems down, including one with information about the national immunization program and another used to issue digital vaccination certificates. The government put off for a week implementing new health requirements for travelers arriving in Brazil due to the attack.

Instagram Reverses Decision on Post About Religious Use of Non-Medical Drugs

Instagram reversed its decision to remove a post about ayahuasca, a plant-based psychoactive brew used in spiritual ceremonies by indigenous groups in South America, after the Oversight Board of parent Meta called for the social platform to allow for “positive discussion of religious or traditional uses of non-medical drugs.” In its ruling, the Oversight Board also said the company formerly known as Facebook needed to change its rules on regulated goods to better “respect diverse traditional and religious practices” on some non-medical drugs.

ADL Finds Hundreds of Posts Promoting White Supremacism on Instagram

Despite taking significant steps to remove hateful content, hundreds of posts promoting dangerous white supremacist ideologies are still readily available on Instagram where they could radicalize unsuspecting users, new research shows. The Anti Defamation League's Center on Extremism searched for terms on Instagram related to white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements, quickly uncovering hundreds of accounts sharing extremist propaganda.

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.