Apple to Allow iPhone Users in Europe to Download Apps from Websites

IPhone users in the European Union will be able to download apps from websites, instead of through the App Store or a competing app store app, Apple said, in the the latest change forced by the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act. The announcement is the latest example of the Digital Markets Act forcing Apple to make long-resisted changes to its App Store business processes.

  • Read the article: CNBC

OpenAI Responds to Musk's Lawsuit, Denies Founding Agreement

OpenAI hit back at Elon Musk’s lawsuit against it, saying in a legal filing that it never had a founding agreement with the technology billionaire and describing his contentions as “often incoherent.” “There is no Founding Agreement, or any agreement at all with Musk, as the complaint itself makes clear,” OpenAI said in a recent filing to California’s superior court for San Francisco County. Musk’s claims “rest on convoluted — often incoherent — factual premises,” the filing said.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Says TikTok Could Influence Elections

China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing. Asked by Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi if China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) would use TikTok to influence the elections, Haines said: "We cannot rule out that the CCP would use it."

Apple Reverses Course, Allows Epic Games to Create App Store in Europe

Apple has reversed course under regulatory pressure and cleared the way for a nettlesome adversary, video game maker Epic Games, to set up an alternative store for iPhone apps in Europe. The about-face disclosed Friday is the latest twist in a bitter fight between Apple and Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, over the way iPhone apps are distributed and the fees for digital transactions that occur within them.

Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Requiring Porn Sites to Verify Ages

A federal appeals court has upheld a Texas law mandating that pornography websites verify that their users are adults, though it struck down a part of the law requiring them to display health warnings about their content. The 2-1 decision, opens new tab from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling blocking the law, which had been challenged in court by pornography producers.

U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Hacked, Takes Systems Offline

A federal agency in charge of cybersecurity discovered it was hacked last month and was forced to take two key computer systems offline, an agency spokesperson and US officials familiar with the incident told CNN. One of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s affected systems runs a program that allows federal, state and local officials to share cyber and physical security assessment tools, according to the U.S. officials briefed on the matter.

  • Read the article: CNN

Russian State-Sponsored Hacking Group Still Using Microsoft Data

Microsoft said a Russian state-sponsored hacking group that stole information from its senior leadership team is still using that information to gain unauthorized access to its internal systems. The tech company disclosed in January that the threat actor, which it has identified as the group Midnight Blizzard, had extracted information from a small percentage of employee email accounts, including members of its senior leadership team and employees in its cybersecurity and legal teams.

States Push Meta to Take Action Against Facebook, Instagram Account Hijackers

Forty U.S. states and Washington, D.C. called on Meta Platforms to crack down on scammers who hijack Facebook and Instagram accounts, to address a "dramatic" surge in account takeovers. In a letter to Meta's chief lawyer, states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James said fraudsters are "winning the war and running rampant on Meta," after the company in November 2022 announced thousands of job cuts focused on security and privacy.

Treasury Department Bans Spyware Maker That Targeted Officials, Reporters

The Treasury Department banned the maker of spyware used to target government officials, reporters and activists, deploying “first-of-its-kind” sanctions against sellers of commercial spyware. The U.S. government deployed sanctions against Greece-based spyware vendor Intellexa on Tuesday and the company’s leadership after targeting U.S. officials.

Apple Blocks Epic Games Subsidiary from Using iPhone Software Tools

When the European Union passed a 2022 law to loosen Apple’s grip on the app economy, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, began planning to launch a competing app store for developers. But before that law could go into effect this week, Apple has blocked Epic’s European subsidiary from using iPhone software tools, making it impossible for the game developer to create the Epic Games Store.

U.S. Charges Chinese Citizen with Stealing AI Trade Secrets from Google

A Chinese citizen was charged with stealing trade secrets from Google about artificial intelligence technology, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced. Linwei Ding, who is also known as Leon Ding, was charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. Ding, 38, a resident of Newark, Calif., was arrested there and the indictment unsealed.

Ransomware Gang Behind Attack on UnitedHealth Says It Shut Down

A notorious ransomware gang said that it had shut down, but it left American prescription services in continued chaos after two weeks, showing the difficulty in trying to counter an enormous, shape-shifting criminal economy. ALPHV, the gang blamed for the massive Feb. 21 attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit, took in a ransomware payment of $22 million before shutting down and will probably reemerge under a new name, as its core group has done before, analysts said.

Bill Would Require ByteDance to Sell TikTok or Face Ban in United States

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to give China's ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership. The bill is the first significant legislative move in nearly a year toward banning or forcing ByteDance to divest the popular app, after senate legislation to ban it stalled in Congress last year in the face of heavy lobbying by TikTok.

After Being Sued by Nintendo, Developers of Switch Emulator Shut Down

Just over a week ago, Nintendo sued the developers of the leading Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.” Now, it appears that Yuzu will give up without a fight — according to a joint filing, Tropic Haze has not only agreed to pay $2,400,000 to Nintendo but also says Yuzu is “primarily designed to circumvent and play Nintendo Switch games.”

Cyberattack on Health-Care Company Creating Widespread Problems

The fallout from the hack of a little-known but pivotal health-care company is inflicting pain on hospitals, doctor offices, pharmacies and millions of patients across the nation, with government and industry officials calling it one of the most serious attacks on the health-care system in U.S. history. The Feb. 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, owned by UnitedHealth Group, has cut off many health-care organizations from the systems they rely on to transmit patients’ health-care claims and get paid.

EU Fines Apple Almost $2 Billion, Says App Store Violates Antitrust Rules

The European Union fined Apple almost $2 billion, saying the iPhone maker set unfair rules for developers of music-streaming apps, in what could be the start of a wider battle between the bloc’s antitrust watchdog and the tech giant. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said a yearslong investigation into Apple’s app-store practices found the company violated antitrust rules by restricting app developers from telling users about alternative ways to subscribe to music-streaming services.

Judge Seems Skeptical of Musk's Suit Against Center for Countering Digital Hate

A federal judge in San Francisco appears poised to toss a lawsuit brought by Elon's Musk's X against a nonprofit that found the platform allowed hate speech to spread on the site once known as Twitter. Last year, lawyers for X sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, claiming the group improperly scraped X to prepare damning reports about the proliferation of hate speech on the site.

  • Read the article: NPR

Apple Says EU Government Agencies Concerned About iPhone App Stores

A number of government agencies in the European Union and elsewhere have voiced concerns about security risks as Apple opens up its iPhones and iPads to rival app stores to comply with EU tech rules, Apple said. Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), from March 7 Apple will be required to offer alternative app stores on iPhones and allow developers to opt out of using its in-app payment system, which charges fees of up to 30%.

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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.