Cybersecurity Experts Targeting Russian, Chinese Hackers Ousted

Cybersecurity experts who worked to secure U.S. government computers from Russian and Chinese hackers have been ousted from their roles following pressure from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to two people familiar with the matter. More than 200 people, split roughly between contractors and employees, were let go beginning in February from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, amid sweeping staff reductions across the federal government, said the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share information with the media. Some of the workers had decades of experience, they said.

News Corp. Threatens Brave in Copyright Case, Prompting Suit

News Corp. has been sued by Google search engine rival Brave Software, which seeks to forestall a lawsuit by Rupert Murdoch's company for when readers are directed to copyrighted articles from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. In a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court, Brave said News Corp. sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening litigation and demanding compensation for the alleged misappropriation of copyrighted articles by "scraping" its websites and indexing their content.

Google Criticizes Utah Legislation Requiring Verification of App Users' Ages

Google is pushing back against other major technology companies’ efforts to put the responsibility of age verification on the app stores, arguing the onus is on both the stores and developers to boost children’s safety. In a blog post, Google pushed back against what it called “concerning legislation” in Utah, which became the first state in the country to pass a bill requiring app stores to verify users’ ages.

Publisher to Keep Promoting Book by Ex-Facebook Worker Despite Order

Book publisher Macmillan said it would continue promoting a book written by a former Facebook employee who is now critical of the tech company, despite a statement by Meta that the book should not have been published and an order by an arbitrator for the author to retract claims she had made that were “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental.” The book, “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams, was published Tuesday, and it covers the six-plus years when Wynn-Williams worked at the social media giant.

Senators Seek Probe of Possible Pressure by Musk on X Advertisers

Five Democratic senators have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Elon Musk is leveraging his influence in the Trump administration to bully advertisers into returning to X. The request, from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen, follows a Wall Street Journal report last month about the social-media platform’s pressuring Interpublic Group to spend more on X.

Trump Administration Considers Vetting Social Media Accounts for Immigrants

The Trump administration may soon demand the social media accounts of people applying for green cards, U.S. citizenship, and asylum or refugee status. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — the federal agency that oversees legal migration, proposed the new policy in the Federal Register — calling this information “necessary for a rigorous vetting and screening” of all people applying for “immigration-related benefits.”

Melania Trump Pushes 'Take It Down Act' to Fight Online Sex Abuse

A bill aimed at criminalizing nonconsensual sexual imagery and forcing online platforms to take it down got a big boost from the White House. Reviving the “Be Best” online safety campaign she started in President Donald Trump’s first term, first lady Melania Trump held a Capitol Hill roundtable with lawmakers and victims of online sexual abuse to tout the Take It Down Act.

EU Lawmakers Combat U.S. Accusations About Tech Competition Rules

A group of European Union lawmakers wrote to top U.S. officials to push back on accusations that the bloc is using its new digital competition rules to treat American tech giants unfairly, saying that some U.S. companies are calling for its enforcement. EU lawmakers called for regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to work together to take on Big Tech, and said claims that EU tech laws undermine relations or act in effect as a tax on American companies are unfounded.

House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Alphabet Over Content Moderation

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alphabet, seeking its communications with former President Joe Biden's administration about content moderation policies. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a Republican, also asked the YouTube parent company for similar communications with companies and groups outside government, according to a copy of the subpoena seen by Reuters.

Secret Service Seizes Website of Russian Cryptocurrency Exchange

The U.S. Secret Service, working with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies, has taken down and seized the website of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange accused of being associated with darknet markets and ransomware hackers. The official Garantex website was replaced with a notice saying the exchange’s domain has been seized by the Secret Service following a warrant by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Trump Issues Executive Order to Create Strategic Reserve of Crypto

U.S. President Donald Trump on social media announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new U.S. strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies, spiking the market value of each. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano.

U.S. Regulators Dismantling Crackdown on Crypto Industry

Just over a month since President Trump’s inauguration, U.S. regulators have almost entirely dismantled a yearslong government crackdown on the crypto industry, a volatile sector rife with fraud, scams and theft. Regulators are following through on campaign promises that Mr. Trump made last year, as he courted donations from deep-pocketed crypto investors and marketed his own digital currency to the public.

Chinese Authorities Tell AI Entrepreneurs to Avoid Visiting U.S.

Chinese authorities are instructing top artificial-intelligence entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid visiting the U.S., people familiar with the matter said, reflecting Beijing’s view of the technology as an economic and national security priority. The authorities are concerned that Chinese AI experts traveling abroad could divulge confidential information about the nation’s progress.

Hegseth Orders U.S. Cyber Command to Stop Attacks on Russia

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, according to a current official and two former officials briefed on the secret instructions. The move is apparently part of a broader effort to draw President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into talks on Ukraine and a new relationship with the United States.

Online Education Company Sues Google for Eroding Demand

Alphabet's Google Internet search engine is eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers' ability to compete with its artificial intelligence-generated overviews, a U.S. educational technology company said in a lawsuit. Chegg, an online education company that offers textbook rentals, homework help, and tutoring, said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., that Google is co-opting publishers' content to keep users on its own site, erasing financial incentives to publish.

Data on 3.3M Exposed in Breach at Employee Screening Company

DISA Global Solutions, a U.S.-based provider of employee screening services, has said it suffered a data breach that affects more than 3.3 million people. DISA, which provides services like drug and alcohol testing and background checks to more than 55,000 enterprises and a third of Fortune 500 companies, confirmed the data breach in a filing with Maine’s attorney general.

European Court Rules Against Google in Android Auto Case

Alphabet unit Google's refusal to allow an e-mobility app developed by Enel access to its Android Auto platform can be considered an abuse of its market power, Europe's top court said as it sided with Italy's antitrust authority. The Italian watchdog fined Google 102 million euros ($106.7 million) in 2021 for blocking Enel's JuicePass on Android Auto, software that allows drivers to navigate with maps on their car dashboards and send messages while behind the wheel.

Indonesia Lifts iPhone Ban as Apple Agrees to $1 Billion Investment

Indonesia and Apple Inc. have agreed on terms to lift the country’s ban on iPhone 16s, said people familiar with the matter, paving the way to end a five-month tug-of-war that forced the US tech giant to raise its promised investment in the country to $1 billion. The Ministry for Industry, which is responsible for upholding the ban, is set to sign a memorandum of agreement with Apple as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the talks, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

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.