Cyberlaw

The US Department of Homeland Security has issued a statement that seems to refute Bloomberg’s claim that a significant number of US companies had been compromised due to clandestine microchips reporting sensitive data back to China. Amazon Web Services and Apple have also rebuked the article’s content.

Finally, after a month since the law was approved by California's legislative branch, Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law SB822, their Net Neutrality legislation. However, just hours after the law was signed, the Department of Justice announced its intention to sue California for enacting what it claims is an illegal law.

A Facebook breach has compromised almost 50 million accounts. After discovering the breach on September 25, the company reset the access tokens of the 50 million affected accounts and 40 million others as a precautionary step. The attackers accessed the accounts via a vulnerability involving Facebook's access tokens which keep users logged in.

The latest version of Google's Chrome browser will now automatically log users in if they log into any Google service. This, in turn, opens the door for the user's browsing data to be accessed by Google. While this isn't the case now (Chrome's sync features aren't turned on by default), it raises several red flags as to the future of the privacy of user's browsing data.

In June 2017, the New York Times's request to view server information related to public comments on the repeal of Net Neutrality was denied on the grounds that it would reveal private information. Now, after months of back and forth attempts to retrieve at least some information, the NYT has finally decided to sue.

Over the past week, fewer and fewer Chinese users have been able to access Twitch. As of September 20th, Twitch's site and official iOS App were shut down in China, rendering them inaccessible within the nation. While the reason for the ban is unknown, it is not unlike other censorship measures exercised by China.

Less than 24 hours after its launch, Nintendo's Switch Online service has already been hacked to allow gamers to load their own custom NES ROMs in to the NES library. The process, which seems to be simple, is possible because of Nintendo's use of common .nes ROM files, the same filetype used by ROM sites online.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) may have opened up a criminal investigation into Telsa incorporated after statements made by CEO Elon Musk last month. Two sources familiar with the company and this matter have stated that DOJ is investigating potential fraud. This investigation, if true, would coincide with a similar investigation started by the SEC last month.

After a highly public campaign to pass the bill SB822, which will serve as a replacement for the FCC's Net Neutrality rules, the legislative branch of California has approved the bill. Assuming the Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signs the SB822, California will be yet another state that has its own Net Neutrality laws.

Yahoo, which is now a part of Oath Inc., has been reported to persist in the sale of user email data to advertisers. This practice, which Google for one has sworn off in the past, may include the scanning of information concerning purchases sent by online retailers.

Microsoft has confirmed that it has fired four employees and terminated business relationships with four partners in Hungary over ongoing probings for bribery and corruption. The investigation is on for sale of Microsoft software to middlemen for a discounted price who then resold the same to the Hungarian Government at full price.

A Melbourne, Australia based teenager was able to remotely hack and access some of Apple's secure servers for over a year, downloading over 90 GB of secure files and customer information. Using hacking software to obtain authorized keys for logging in, the teen hacked the company because he has always "dreamed of" working there.

Although ZTE can sell its products to the civilian consumers all over the US, a recent bill that was signed by Donal Trump bans the government use of any device made by the Chinese brand due to security issues. Even more, this bill also forbids the use of Huawei hardware for the same reason.

The GDPR was instituted in May 2018. However, it appears that over a thousand websites (at least) have not complied with it. Therefore, users with EU IP addresses cannot access their content. An independent archivist maintains a website listing examples of them associated with US newspapers.

Smartphone users in India are reporting seeing an entry for a contact in their phonebook that purportedly belongs to a Government authority. The number apparently was added without users' consent and Google has now issued a clarification that this contact entry was 'inadvertently coded' in Android releases seeded to Indian OEMs. Google's statement, however, creates more questions than answers.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has instructed Government agencies to come up with procedures to remove Adobe Flash from all US Government sites and PCs by August 1, 2019 citing Adobe's end of Flash support by end of 2020. This move is being done to avoid a Windows XP-like situation, which some Government agencies are apparently still using.

The ubiquitous and all-pervasive Wi-Fi is receiving its first major update in 14 years with the announcement of the WPA3 authentication protocol by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WPA3 is the successor to WPA2, which was the target of many hackers in the last year and comes with new features that prevent offline dictionary attacks and enable forward secrecy. The protocol is available for implementation in new routers today and is expected to go mainstream by 2019.

In a second letter this month, lawmakers are again expressing concern that Google has been showing preference in working with the Chinese telecommunications company rather than the U.S. army. The search giant only sees Huawei as just one of many contractors under its belt with no current plans to cease cooperation for now.

Tron's creator Justin Sun hopes to make the Internet more decentralized and in order to further this plan he just bought BitTorrent Inc. The popular peer-to-peer sharing platform combined with blockchain tech could revolutionize the way people access data over the Internet and may give a significant boost to the Tron coin adoption.

A user on Reddit has narrated the tales of their trip into China, which saw the country’s border police accost them and install what was almost definitely surveillance software on their Android devices.

Facebook will be banned in Papua New Guinea for a month, but the starting day has not been unveiled yet. The reason for this is to allow the government's analysts to track down those behind fake accounts, adult uploads, and those who introduce and promote fake news and misleading information.

An article from English-language newspaper The Korea Times has revealed that PUBG Corporation has filed a lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court against Epic Games, the developer of battle royale rival Fortnite. PUBG Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the South Korean company Bluehole, apparently filed the lawsuit back in January.

A report by The New York Times has stated that the Trump administration has worked out a deal that would prevent ZTE from complete collapse. According to a source familiar with the matter, ZTE would have to comply with a number of demands from the US Department of Commerce but by doing so would be able to remain in business.

It looked like Bitcoin could finally break the 10K line after the Consensus annual event, but the US Justice Department thwarted all bullish plans, triggering a considerable devaluation. In just 5 days, Bitcoin dropped from ~US$8,400 to almost US$7,000 as the DoJ is currently investigating price manipulation schemes pulled by crypto traders.

There has been a report published stating at least 500,000 networking devices around the world have been infected by malware known as VPNFilter. It has been speculated that Russian state-sponsored hackers are behind the attack due to the activity specifically aimed at devices based in the Ukraine. Apparently, VPNFilter offers both intelligence-gathering and destructive capabilities.

Present in Google's corporate code of conduct since 2000, the "Don't be evil" motto was changed to "Do the right thing" in 2015 for use in Alphabet's code of conduct. However, Google did not drop this slogan until late April/early May, when all references to it have been apparently removed.

A very promising new entry into the cryptocurrency world has just announced a pre-ICO sale that offers some impressive bonuses to those who sign up in time. HoweyCoin claims to combine blockchain technology with elements of the luxury sector and has already received several celebrity endorsements. Early-bird Platinum investors can receive a double 25% discount, but there is a catch...

A class action law suit against Apple was filed in the Northern District Court of California by two plaintiffs who have been at the receiving end of the Apple MacBook Pro faulty keyboard fiasco. The suit alleges that Apple intentionally promoted and sold these laptops knowing very well that the keyboards were inherently defective.

In a statement issued to stockholders today, ZTE said that the it was suspending all "major operating activities" due to the sales ban placed on the company by the U.S. Department of Commerce. While ZTE has enough cash on hand to fulfill its current commercial obligations, the future looks bleak for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer.

It appears neither Bill Gates nor Warren Buffett are the greatest fans of bitcoin. Both men have been recently reported saying rather disparaging things about the famous cryptocurrency, which may have prevented bitcoin from achieving a five-figure value for the first time since March. Regulation concerns are believed to have also contributed to the slight dip in price.

Nvidia has decided to cancel the controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP). A blog post by John Teeple, the person responsible for Nvidia’s GeForce Partner Marketing, has the very unambiguous title “Pulling the Plug on GPP, Leaning into GeForce.” The program has attracted a considerable amount of criticism since its introduction barely two months ago.

A Swiss technology company has started rolling out smart banknotes called Tangem Notes that offer a physical presence for cryptocurrencies. The "banknotes," which are actually plastic cards, have been launched for sale in a large store in Singapore and there are plans for a wider rollout throughout 2018 and 2019. Currently available Tangem banknotes are valued at 0.01 BTC and 0.05 BTC.

A report by the Wall Street Journal has stated that Telegram has scrapped plans to carry out an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the public. Apparently, because the two coin presales that have already been carried out for private investors have attracted US$1.7 billion in funds, there is now no need for the instant messaging service to engage in a public ICO.

A press release from Cambridge Analytica and parent company SCL Group has stated that all the firm's operations have ceased. Insolvency applications have been filed in the UK and bankruptcy proceedings will soon commence in the USA. The company’s closure has been attributed to “damage caused to the business by the unfairly negative media coverage” in relation to the ongoing Facebook data scandal.

A report from a leading investment banking firm has forecast that cryptocurrencies are heading for a 90% correction within the next 12 months that will devastate the cryptocurrency market. Many virtual currencies could be wiped out, although those that survive the predicted market turmoil will enjoy impressive growth in the resulting less-cramped environment.

It looks like a certain type of governments does not like Telegram at all since Iran is now banning the popular encrypted messaging service that was recently taken down in Russia. Telegram has about 40 million users in Iran and has been apparently used to organize the protests that took place back in January.

It has been reported that Huawei is working on a possible replacement of the ubiquitous Android OS. Anonymous sources talking to the South China Morning Post have commented that the Chinese tech giant is developing the alternative operating system in case the company ends up receiving a similar US-imposed ban to the one that ZTE is currently facing.

YouTube has released a Community Guidelines enforcement report that states the video-sharing website removed over 8.28 million videos from the platform during the last quarter of 2017. The majority of these videos, 6.68 million of them, were flagged by automatic processes rather than human flaggers. The company’s official blog states that almost 76% of the machine-flagged videos were taken down before receiving a single view.

After getting hit with a 7-year ban barring them from buying anything from a U.S. company, ZTE released a new statement today. The statement calls the Department of Commerce's ban unfair and says that it will not only severely damage ZTE but will harm ZTE's partners, including some U.S. companies.

A department of the Quebec government has stated that Bitcoin is not a “magnet” for illicit transactions and that the widely believed perception of the cryptocurrency being mainly connected to criminal activity is erroneous. In other reports, Russian police busted an illegal Bitcoin mining facility, a woman has been arrested for arranging a Bitcoin-funded hit, and the alleged mastermind behind Iceland’s “Big Bitcoin Heist” has escaped from prison.

ZTE's poor fortunes continue, as a British government agency claims the use of ZTE manufactured equipment would cause a national security risk and mitigate measures currently in place to allow the use of equipment from Huawei.

The New York Times has published an article detailing Cambridge Analytica’s plans to create its own virtual currency (VC). The British consulting firm is now deeply embroiled in the Facebook data breach. In other cryptocurrency news, a VC known as Verge has agreed on a potentially lucrative partnership with one of the world’s most popular websites.

AMD's Scott Herkelman took to pen a blog post regarding AMD's stance in providing choice to the PC gamer. Although his post does not directly mention the controversial NVIDIA GeForce Partner Program, there is enough information in the post to convey that AMD will not take NVIDIA's route in the garb of ensuring a great PC gaming experience.

According to a report from Reuters, ZTE may lose its Android license. As the current seventh-largest Android-based smartphone manufacturer, this would be a massive blow against the Shenzhen-based corporation. Even just losing access to the Google Play Store application would be incredibly detrimental to the beleaguered telecommunications-equipment maker.

Law enforcement agencies in the US and UK have accused Russia of attempting to hack routers on a global scale. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has released an alert today entitled “Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Targeting Network Infrastructure Devices.” Apparently, millions of network devices have been targeted.

The United States Department of Commerce has banned all American companies from selling components to Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE. This includes Qualcomm and Dolby, both of whom have made major contributions to previous ZTE phones. The loss of Qualcomm-made SoCs is sure to damage the salability of ZTE phones.

An internal memo warning Apple employees about the consequences of leaking information has been leaked. The tech giant has suffered from a considerable number of leaks in the past, and the memo warns that leakers face losing their jobs and may be fined and even imprisoned. Apparently, the Cupertino-based firm caught 29 leakers in 2017.

Less than a month since it managed to reach 200 million users within a 30-day period, Telegram Messenger has to take a serious blow as the Russian authorities decide to ban its use in the country. The reason for this decision is the company's unwillingness to provide the keys required by the Federal Security Service to decrypt the users' messages.

Bitcoin’s price rocketed for a short period on April 12, soaring from US$6,852 to US$7,834 in the space of barely two hours. The virtual currency’s value has been dropping consistently since December 2017, when it enjoyed record prices of over US$19,000. The latest close for the famous digital coin was US$7,819.

In a statement made yesterday, the Federal Trade Commision stated that it had sent warnings to six major manufacturers of cars, mobile phones, or video game consoles. The warning stated that policies requiring users to repair their products via a preset list of vendors or replacement parts in order to maintain a product's warranty is, in fact, illegal.