Google Allegedly Paid Activision Blizzard $350 Million to Stop App Store

Activision Blizzard and Riot Games at one point told Google they might launch their own mobile app stores, according to new documents filed in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant. The details came to light as part of allegations about major deals signed with the two companies. Google allegedly agreed to pay Activision about $360 million over three years and Riot about $30 million for a one-year deal.

Meta Fires Dozens for Improperly Taking Over Accounts, Sometimes for Bribes

Meta Platforms Inc. has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors over the last year whom it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards stationed at Meta facilities and were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter.

FBI Director Tells Lawmakers China Could Use TikTok for 'Influence Operations'

FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated the bureau’s longstanding national security concerns about Chinese-owned video app TikTok to lawmakers and said the agency is sharing its views with officials who are weighing a deal that would allow it to keep operating in the U.S. Wray told lawmakers China’s government could use the app to control millions of users’ data or software, and its recommendation algorithm -- which determines which videos users will see next -- “could be used for influence operations if they so choose.”

Jury Orders Intel to Pay $948.8 Million for Infringing VLSI Chip Patent

A federal jury in Texas said Intel Corp. must pay VLSI Technology LLC $948.8 million for infringing a VLSI patent for computer chips. VLSI, a patent-holding company affiliated with the SoftBank Group Corp-owned private equity firm Fortress Investment Group, argued during the six-day trial that Intel's Cascade Lake and Skylake microprocessors violated its patent covering improvements to data processing.

Thousands of Mobile Apps Using Computer Code Developed in Russia

Thousands of smartphone applications in Apple and Google's online stores contain computer code developed by a technology company, Pushwoosh, that presents itself as based in the United States, but is actually Russian, Reuters has found. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States' main agency for fighting major health threats, said it had been deceived into believing Pushwoosh was based in the U.S. capital. After learning about its Russian roots from Reuters, it removed Pushwoosh software from seven public-facing apps, citing security concerns.

Google Agrees to $391.5 Million Privacy Settlement with 40 States

Google agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general on Monday for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information. Under the settlement, Google will also make its location tracking disclosures clearer starting in 2023.

Australia Formalizes Partnership with Federal Police to Target Cyber Criminals

Australia on formalized a new cyber-policing model in a stepped-up effort to "hunt down" cyber criminal syndicates, following recent hacks impacting millions of Australians. Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil said the government had formalized a permanent partnership between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Signals Directorate — which intercepts electronic communications from foreign countries — to do "new tough policing" on cybercrime.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Says It's Investigating Hacking After Bankruptcy Filing

A day after it filed for bankruptcy, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said that it was investigating “unauthorized transactions” flowing from its accounts, as crypto researchers documented suspicious transfers of $515 million that may have been the result of a hack or theft. John J. Ray III, the newly instated chief executive of FTX, said in a statement that “unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred,” and that the company was in touch with law-enforcement officials and regulators.

FBI Considered Deploying Pegasus Hacking Tools, Documents Reveal

FBI officials made a push in late 2020 and the first half of 2021 to deploy the Pegasus hacking tools — made by the Israeli spyware firm NSO — in its own criminal investigations. The officials developed advanced plans to brief the bureau’s leadership, and drew up guidelines for federal prosecutors about how the FBI’s use of hacking tools would need to be disclosed during criminal proceedings.

Australia May Consider Banning Ransomware Payments After Attacks

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said the government would consider making illegal the paying of ransoms to cyber hackers, following recent cyber attacks affecting millions of Australians. Australia's biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd., last month suffered a massive cyber attack, as Australia grapples with a rise in hacks.

Hate Speech Surged on Twitter in Week After Musk's Takeover, Report Says

Hate speech surged during the first week of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, according to a new report released by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Social media analytics tool Brandwatch documented that during the week of Oct. 31, the social media platform saw significantly higher numbers of slurs referring to people in the Black, Jewish and LGBT communities, among others.

EU Antitrust Regulators Launch Probe of Microsoft's Deal for Activision Blizzard

EU antitrust regulators opened a full-scale investigation into Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard, warning the deal may hurt competition. The U.S. software company, which announced the deal in January, is betting Activision’s stable of games will help it compete better with leaders Tencent and Sony, with the latter being a critic of the deal.

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Maker of Oreo Cookies Stops Advertising on Twitter, Citing Hate Speech

Mondelez International Inc. CEO Dirk Van de Put said in a Reuters Newsmaker interview that the maker of Oreo cookies has pulled its ads off Twitter after Tesla Inc. boss Elon Musk acquired the social media site. "What we’ve seen recently since the change on Twitter has been announced, is the amount of hate speech increase significantly," Van de Put said.

European Tech Trade Group Files Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. faces an antitrust complaint from a European industry group over its cloud services, adding to recent allegations of anticompetitive behavior against the U.S. tech company. Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe, or Cispe, a trade group which includes Amazon.com Inc. among its members, said it filed the complaint with the bloc’s competition regulator, the European Commission.

Greece to Ban Sale of Spyware After Allegations of Government Spying

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that Greece would ban the sale of spyware, after his government was accused in a news report of targeting dozens of prominent politicians, journalists and businessmen for surveillance, and the judicial authorities began an investigation. The announcement is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted over the summer, when Mr. Mitsotakis conceded that Greece’s state intelligence service had been monitoring an opposition party leader with a traditional wiretap last year.

Australia's Biggest Health Insurer Says Hacker Stole, Disclosed Personal Data

Medibank Private Ltd, Australia's biggest health insurer, said some customer personal data believed to have been stolen from its systems has been released by the hacker on a dark web forum. The leaked data includes names, addresses and phone numbers of its customers, and in the case of some international students, passport numbers. Some health claims data was also released.

YouTube Removes Archive of WWDC Videos After Apple Files Complaint

After Apple issued several copyright claims, YouTube took down an archival channel containing hundreds of decades-old videos from past Apple Worldwide Developer Conferences (WWDC). Brendan Shanks, the owner of the Apple WWDC Videos channel, says his account’s been permanently disabled after receiving well over three copyright strikes — the maximum number of violations you can incur before YouTube removes your account.

Justice Department Seizes 50,000 Bitcoin After Theft Obtained on Silk Road

The Department of Justice announced it’s seized around 50,676 Bitcoin that a 32-year-old from Georgia fraudulently obtained from The Silk Road — a site on the dark web once called “the Amazon of drugs” — in 2012. After seemingly tipping authorities off to his large cache of Bitcoin a few years ago, James Zhong pleaded guilty to the crime after authorities found the Bitcoin stored in an underground safe and on a “single-board computer” hidden in a popcorn tin in a bathroom closet, according to a press release from the DOJ.

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