Some Indian Government Websites Link to Online Betting Platforms

Some Indian government websites continue to allow the planting of scammy links on their official domains months after TechCrunch reported the issue. TechCrunch found more than 90 “gov.in” website links associated with Indian government departments — including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and India Post, as well as state governments and councils of Haryana and Maharashtra and others — were redirecting to sites linked to online betting and investment scams.

U.S. Launches 'U.S. Cyber Trust Mark' for Internet-Connected Products

The U.S. will begin rolling out a program to label certain internet-connected products as meeting a basic cybersecurity standard, a White House official said. Called the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, the initiative is comparable to the “Energy Star“ program, and will label products like baby monitors, fitness trackers and security cameras that have passed a U.S. cybersecurity audit.

Republicans, Trump Disagree About TikTok Ahead of Supreme Court Case

While President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block a looming U.S. ban on TikTok in a major case that pits free speech rights against national security concerns over the Chinese-owned short-video app, many of his Republican allies have urged the opposite. These diverging views raise the stakes for the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, as it prepares to decide the fate of a popular social media platform used by about half of Americans in a case testing the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech.

Meta Platforms Names Republican to Role of Chief Policy Executive

Meta Platforms is replacing its chief policy executive Nick Clegg with his Republican deputy Joel Kaplan, the latest move by the tech industry to align itself with the incoming Trump administration. Clegg, former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom and head of the country’s center-left Liberal Democratic Party, joined Meta in 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica scandal damaged its reputation. He became the company’s top policy executive in 2022.

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC's Net Neutrality Rules

A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s landmark net neutrality rules, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers as utilities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said the FCC lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to internet content.

Apple Agrees to $95 Million Settlement in Privacy Suit Over Siri Recordings

Apple agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class action lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated Siri assistant violated users' privacy. Mobile device owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after they activated Siri unintentionally, and disclosed these conversations to third parties such as advertisers.

Hackers Target Official Italian Websites, Blame 'Russophobes'

Hackers targeted around ten official websites in Italy, including the websites of the Foreign Ministry and Milan's two airports, putting them out of action temporarily, the country's cyber security agency said. The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyber attack on Telegram, saying Italy's "Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response".

U.S. Proposes Enhanced Cybersecurity Rules for Healthcare Companies

Healthcare organizations may be required to bolster their cybersecurity, to better prevent sensitive information from being leaked by cyberattacks like the ones that hit Ascension and UnitedHealth, a senior White House official said. Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters that proposed requirements are necessary in light of the massive number of Americans whose data has been affected by large breaches of healthcare information.

Venezuela's Top Court Fines TikTok $10 Million Over Viral Challenges

Venezuela’s top court imposed a $10 million fine on TikTok over viral challenges that killed three children and injured dozens of people in recent months. In a ruling, the court said the social media company should pay the fine to the country’s telecommunications agency within the next 10 days. It also ordered TikTok to establish an office in Venezuela.

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Delay Potential Ban on TikTok

President-elect Donald Trump in a legal filing asked the Supreme Court to delay a potential ban on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok due to take effect in January to allow time for him to negotiate a way to “save the platform.” Trump’s intervention follows his campaign promises to keep the popular social media app accessible to its more than 170 million U.S. users if he won.

Chinese Hacker Accesses Computers at U.S. Treasury Department

A state-sponsored actor in China hacked the U.S. Treasury Department, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said. The announcement comes after revelations in recent months that China had penetrated deep into U.S. telecommunications systems, gaining access to the phone conversations and text messages of U.S. officials and others.

Apple Accuses Meta of Trying to Access Key Software Tools on iPhones

Apple called out Meta Platforms for trying to gain access to key software tools on iPhones, a criticism that comes as the European Union is ramping up its efforts to force the iPhone maker to give developers greater access to its technology. Apple said that it is concerned that companies might “attempt to abuse” the EU’s Digital Markets Act — a new rule book designed to curb the dominance of tech companies like Apple in the digital economy — to access sensitive user data.

U.S. Officials Investigating Links Between Chinese Routers, Cyberattacks

U.S. authorities are investigating whether a Chinese company whose popular home-internet routers have been linked to cyberattacks poses a national-security risk and are considering banning the devices. The router-manufacturer TP-Link, established in China, has roughly 65% of the U.S. market for routers for homes and small businesses.

European Commission Investigating TikTok Over Role in Romanian Election

The European Commission opened a formal investigation into TikTok over concerns foreign actors used the video platform to interfere in Romanian presidential elections. The European Union’s digital regulator said that it opened formal proceedings against TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, for potentially violating the Digital Services Act, a relatively new European law that forces tech companies to do more to protect users from coordinated campaigns that can sway elections.

British Watchdog Publishes Codes of Practice for Online Safety

The U.K. officially brought its sweeping online safety law into force, paving the way for stricter supervision of harmful content online and potentially massive fines for technology giants like Meta, Google and TikTok. Ofcom, the British media and telecommunications watchdog, published its first-edition codes of practice and guidance for tech firms laying out what they should be doing to tackle illegal harms such as terror, hate, fraud and child sexual abuse on their platforms.

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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.