New Jersey, Ohio Join Ban on TikTok on Government-Owned Devices

New Jersey and Ohio said they were joining other states in banning use of the popular video app TikTok on government-owned and managed devices. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said in addition to banning the short-video app owned by Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance from state devices he also was banning software vendors, products, and services from more than a dozen vendors including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent Holdings, ZTE Corporation and Kaspersky Lab.

Ukrainian Official Says Russian Cyberattacks on Civilians Amount to War Crimes

One of Ukraine's top cyber officials said some cyberattacks on Ukrainian critical and civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes. Victor Zhora, chief digital transformation officer at the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection (SSSCIP) of Ukraine, said Russia has launched cyberattacks in coordination with kinetic military attacks as part of its invasion of Ukraine, arguing the digital warfare is part of what Kyiv considers war crimes committed against its citizens.

Hackers Disrupt Access to Denmark's Central Bank, Seven Private Banks

Hackers have disrupted access to the websites of Denmark's central bank and seven private banks in the country this week, according to the central bank and an IT firm that serves the industry. The websites of the central bank and Bankdata, a company that develops IT solutions for the financial industry, were hit by so-called distributed denials of service (DDoS), which direct traffic towards targeted servers in a bid to knock them offline.

Misinformation About Climate Change Surges on Twitter After Musk's Purchase

Under new owner Elon Musk, falsehoods about the warming planet are whipping around the social media platform at a sizzling pace, according to a study of climate-related conversations shared exclusively with USA Today. The new report echoes recent research showing a surge in climate misinformation since Musk bought the company in October.

TikTok CEO Tries to Reassure EU About Compliance with Privacy Rules

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew on a visit to Brussels sought to reassure the European Union the app would respect the bloc's increasingly stringent tech rules and commitments to privacy and child safety. The short-video app, which is owned by Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance, has for the last three years worked to counter U.S. concerns over whether the personal data of its citizens can be accessed and its content manipulated by China's Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing's influence.

ITC Judge Says Some Apple Watch Models Infringe Blood Oxygen Patents

Certain models of the Apple Watch infringe one of five Masimo Corp. patents related to using light sensors to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood, a US International Trade Commission judge found in the first round of Masimo’s bid to block imports of Apple Inc.'s popular smartwatch. The ITC had postponed the decision three times before Judge Monica Bhattacharyya issued her initial determination, announced in a notice.

European Regulators Find Meta's Advertising Practices Violate Privacy Law

Meta suffered a major defeat that could severely undercut its Facebook and Instagram advertising business after European Union regulators found it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads. The decision, including a fine of 390 million euros ($414 million), has the potential to require Meta to make costly changes to its advertising-based business in the European Union, one of its largest markets.

Records of 235 Million Twitter Accounts, Emails Posted to Hacking Forum

Records of 235 million Twitter accounts and the email addresses used to register them have been posted to an online hacking forum, setting the stage for anonymous handles to be linked to real-world identities. That poses threats of exposure, arrest or violence against people who used Twitter to criticize governments or powerful individuals, and it could open up others to extortion, security experts said.

Los Angeles Housing Authority Investigating After Report of Cyberattack

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, or HACLA, has confirmed it is investigating a cybersecurity incident shortly after the LockBit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the agency. HACLA, which provides affordable housing to more than 19,000 low-income families across Los Angeles, was added to LockBit’s dark web leak site on December 31.

Google Says India's Antitrust Investigators Copied Parts of EU Ruling

Google has told a tribunal in India that the country's antitrust investigators copied parts of a European ruling against the U.S. firm for abusing the market dominance of its Android operating system, arguing the decision be quashed, legal papers show. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October fined Alphabet Inc's Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store, and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps.

N.Y. Governor Signs First State 'Right to Repair' Law for Customers

New York's Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, made her state the first in the U.S. to establish that customers have the right to obtain diagnostic tools, parts and documentation from device makers in order to repair their devices. But right-to-repair advocates say the move will have limited impact. The new law, called the Digital Fair Repair Act, is set to go into effect on July 1, and requires that manufacturers provide "documents like manuals and diagrams, and tools like diagnostics and parts" to consumers for many electronics, excluding items such as home appliances, vehicles and medical equipment.

  • Read the article: CNET

Lawmakers Start Investigating U.S. Government's Use of Israeli Spyware

Senior lawmakers said they would investigate the government’s purchase and use of powerful spyware made by two Israeli hacking firms, as Congress passed a measure in recent days to try to rein in the proliferation of the hacking tools. Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration asking for detailed information about the agency’s use of Graphite, a spyware tool produced by the Israeli company Paragon.

Cybersecurity Experts Criticize LastPass for 'Half-Truths' in Breach Announcement

Just before Christmas, LastPass dropped a bombshell announcement: as the result of a breach in August, which led to another breach in November, hackers had gotten their hands on users’ password vaults. While the company insists that your login information is still secure, some cybersecurity experts are heavily criticizing its post, saying that it could make people feel more secure than they actually are and pointing out that this is just the latest in a series of incidents that make it hard to trust the password manager.

Hacker Claims Access to Private Data on 400 Million Twitter Accounts

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) says it "will examine Twitter's compliance with data-protection law in relation to that security issue" after a hacker claimed to have private details linked to more than 400 million accounts. The hacker, "Ryushi", is demanding $200,000 (£166,000) to hand over the data - reported to include that of some celebrities - and delete it.

  • Read the article: BBC

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