Cyberlaw

A newly discovered mobile surveillance tool, Phonespy, appears to offer hackers and governments similar capabilities to NSO's Pegasus. Researchers found that Phonespy was being used by unknown actors to monitor and steal data from thousands of South Koreans.

European Union’s General Court has rejected Google’s appeal against a US$2.8 billion fine that the company had received in 2017. The fine was the result of the European Commission’s verdict that Google had broken antitrust law by giving preference to its own shopping comparison product in search results over other, potentially better alternatives.

Congress finally passed the new infrastructure bill with its provisions to tax cryptocurrency transactions essentially unchanged. Pending IRS and Treasury Department guidance, any digital asset class deal above US$10,000 may now have to be reported by the exchanges for tax purposes.

A report by RiskIQ indicates that hackers are abusing the Discord CDN to in a range of ways to send users over 27 different types of malware, including remote access trojans that allow them to gain control of victims' devices.

REvil, a Russian-led ransomware group that was involved in the Colonial Pipeline attack, has been hacked and its website was taken down by the FBI. The bureau, along with the Secret Service and partner countries, managed to infiltrate the group's infrastructure and compromise its backups. The anti-ransomware operation is part of a larger initiative by the US government to curb cyberattacks on the country's facilities.

A ransomware attack by a group called AvosLocker reportedly hit Gigabyte. As a result of the attack, sensitive information including customer credit card details, NDA'd agreements with Gigabyte partners, and employee payroll information, among other details, were leaked.

A new rule from the U.S. Department of Commerce prohibits the sale or export of cybersecurity-related software and hardware to specific countries. Citing national security and anti-terrorism reasons, the rule bans exports to governments the U.S. deems "authoritarian," including China and Russia.

US lawmakers from the House of Representatives have written a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy demanding evidence in support of the company's 2020 congressional testimony. Recently, reports from Reuters and The Markup alleged that the company uses third-party seller data to copy popular products and manipulate search results to favor its private label products. These reports go against the congressional testimony that the company executives gave in 2020.

Acer's Indian servers have been breached by the hacker group Desorden, who claim to have access to 60 GB of sensitive corporate information and financial data. The group also claimed to release data of millions of Acer customers for a fee. Acer said that the breach has been reported to local law enforcement, and that it will have no impact on business continuity.

In a recent policy change, Valve decided that the Steam platform would no longer support games built on blockchain technology that let users receive or exchange crypto or NFT assets, raising questions about the future of player-owned NFT assets.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network stated that so far in 2021, crypto exchange and financial institutions have reported nearly US$600 million in transactions to pay ransomware attackers. This is signifcantly higher than 2020’s entire-year figure of US$416 million.

The US Energy and Commerce Committee has announced an amendment to Section 230 that previously shielded social platforms from liability. Thus, these companies will now be held accountable for algorithms that recommend harmful content. However, critics have claimed that the House Bill could conflict with the First Amendment rights.

Google’s AI department was recently hit by a class-action lawsuit in the UK, because of possible irregularities in the way that it received and handled the data of over 1.6 million NHS patients from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

President Biden's administration may soon issue an executive order on crypto trading that will be a coordinated regulation push by all government agencies involved - from the Treasury Department to the national security ones.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has just announced a ban on cryptocurrency miners and related paraphernalia on its website. Sales will be allowed till October 8, following which the listings will be deleted on October 15.

After the totalitarian country has already banned crypto mining a few months ago, the new regulations also prohibit all financial transactions that involve cryptocurrencies like the popular Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Xiaomi appears to be shipping some phones in Europe with a feature that potentially allows the detection and censoring of anti-Chinese Communist Party phrases. The feature is, of course, turned off but that's unlikely to assuage doubts.

With Russia’s parliamentary elections ongoing, Apple and Google removed a voting app published by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, reported under pressure from the Kremlin, setting a worrying precedent for other international tech brands operating in the country.

In an effort to clamp down on fake and compensated reviews, Amazon has banned over 3000 merchant accounts, connected to approximately 600 Chinese technology brands.

The Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs wants the Government to ban VPN services in India. It cites a rise in cybercrime and the fact that one can assess the 'dark web' using a VPN as the reasons.

The Chinese Government has introduced a new rule that will allow minors to play online games for an hour on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays between 8 PM and 9 PM. It is also working with game developers, teachers and parents to educate children about the ill effects of gaming addiction.

The Bangladesh High Court has asked the government to ban popular mobile apps such as PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, TikTok, Likee and Bigo Live for three months. The court claims that the apps affect the country's youth, giving the authorities ten days to comply.

Xiaomi has now continued its war against leaks by slamming a media company with a huge US$155k fine for leaking the Mi Mix 4 before launch last week. This comes after similar moves by Samsung and Apple to restrict an industry that has become the bread and butter of tech journalism over the years.

Apple released details on the controversial steps it will take to fight child abuse in the United States. Privacy advocates strongly criticized Apple's plans, even though other tech companies have been using similar technologies for many years.

Chinese behemoth Tencent has enacted new measures to curb gaming addiction among minors. People under 18 will now be allowed to play Honor of Kings only for an hour on weekdays and two hours on weekends/public holidays. There are additional limitations on how much money minors can spend on in-app purchases, too.

A group of hackers that hoped to make a quick buck by selling FIFA 21's source code have now dumped the whole thing online weeks after nobody expressed interest in buying it. The code in question didn't have any personal information, which is why it didn't drum up much interest.

One of the co-creators of Dogecoin, Jackson Palmer, has been sharing some very strong opinions about the cryptocurrency industry and its involvement with “a network of shady business connections, bought influencers and pay-for-play media outlets”. Dogecoin was launched as a joke in 2013 but now has a market cap of over US$21 billion.

Following the security incident at CD Projekt Red, it appears that Electronic Arts is dealing with the aftermath of a data breach. Hackers have reportedly made away with nearly 1 Terabyte of sensitive data, including the source code for the Frostbite engine.

Someone has posted a 100 GB TXT file to a hacker forum that contains up to 82 billion passwords. According to a report, the number of unique entries may only be 8.4 billion, but it still significantly increases the risk of password dictionary attacks. All passwords in RockYou2021 are between 6 and 20 characters long.

A surprise move by Google brings to an end the three-year-old policy banning the use of its ad services by cryptocurrency exchanges. The revised policy will allow ads for Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets targeting the United States to go online starting in August, as long as they will be certified by Google.

Check Point Software Technologies, a security research firm, reports that 23 apps on the Google Play Store may have exposed the personal data of over 100 million users. The data leaks are the result of poor practices with regard to data management and syncing with cloud databases.

The United Kingdom released a report stating that it tracked the location of 10% of cell phone users without notifying them or receiving their consent. The tracking was used to determine how willing citizens were to spend time away from home after the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

A German security researcher who goes by the alias "stacksmashing" posted a YouTube video detailing how he was able to dump the firmware of an Apple AirTag. Furthermore, he was able to inject a custom firmware that changed the AirTag's "Lost Mode" function. This could open the door to more malicious jailbreaks of AirTags in the future.

A new report published today by the Me2B Alliance found that as many as 60% of apps used by schools in the United States share student data with third parties. This data is typically shared immediately upon launching affected apps. Some data is shared with what Me2BA labels "very high-risk third parties" that share data they receive with other networks of vendors and organizations.

University of Virginia cybersecurity researchers published a paper in which they claimed that a variant of the Spectre vulnerability could potentially impact "billions" of devices, and require patches that severely hinder performance. Intel, however, refuted the claim in a statement.

Worries worsen that Chia, a storage-based cryptocurrency, could trigger a future shortage of SSDs and HDDs, as ADATA registered a massive 500 percent spike in sales in April, alongside a 6x increase in Chia's storage capacity.

In mid-2020, DARPA created a bug bounty program dubbed Finding Exploits to Thwart Tampering (FETT), to which it invited more than 500 cybersecurity experts tasked to breach certain experimental computer processors. Morpheus, the "unhackable" processor developed by the University of Michigan was the only one to live up to its nickname.

A proposed North Dakota law will force Apple and Google to allow developers alternative options for distributing iOS and Android apps, respectively. The bill will also allow developers to receive in-app payments through any method they choose, not just through the app's respective app platform.

A crowdfunding campaign for infrastructure repair on Tsushima island exceeded its funding goals by five times, thanks in part to fans of PlayStation exclusive Ghost of Tsushima.

Multiple US government branches, including the Department of Commerce, and an unknown number of private sector players have been hit by a massive cyber attack. Experts still remain uncertain about the volume of sensitive information that's been secreted beyond borders by hackers with alleged ties to the Russian government.

Jay Freeman, the developer of the Cydia app store, has filed suit against Apple for monopolistic practices that have shut alternative app distribution methods out of iOS. If Freeman wins this suit, it could force Apple to allow and support alternative app installation methods for iOS.

Thieves in China have nicked CN¥2.2 million (~US$336,700) worth of Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPUs from an MSI factory, according to reports from Chinese news outlets and social media. This translates to about 225 graphics cards.

Apple's latest operating system, macOS Big Sur, uses a new API to constantly send users' data (including how, when, and where a Mac is used) to Apple. This data is transmitted to Apple without encryption, meaning anyone with access to the same network as the Mac can see the information.

Just days before its release, Super Mario 3D All-Stars leaked onto the Internet in full. While a leak of the game is bad enough, an intrepid data miner reports that the game uses emulators to play the three retro Mario games within. In other words, the games are not ports for the Switch but are rather original ROM/ISO files (with some patches applied) played in emulation.

Massively popular Battle Royale title PUBG Mobile might make its highly-awaited comeback to the Indian market soon. The game's developer has terminated its agreement with Tencent, indicating that it is looking for another publisher.

After mulling on the decision for over a month, the Indian Government has finally banned PUBG Mobile. Over 110 other Chinese-origin apps join it, most of which appear to be mobile games from lesser-known developers like NetEase. We can expect the ban to be implemented in the coming weeks.

Facebook claims that Apple blocked an update that would have informed users of Apple's practice of taking 30% of all in-app purchases. The update, which introduces a tool allowing businesses to sell tickets to online events, originally notified users of Apple's policy. The update was only allowed on the App Store after that wording was removed.

As public school systems in the United States shift to online learning in response to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, many districts face a massive shortage of laptops for students. The shortage compounds existing problems facing American students in the midst of COVID-19.

Another class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple for the "flexgate" flaw that plagued some 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros. The lawsuit alleges that Apple knew about the flaw when they sold the MacBook Pros and that Apple violated fraud prevention and consumer protection laws.

Reddit, one of the most popular social media sites on the Internet, suffered a major breach. The hackers, whose identities and affiliations are currently unknown, used hacked moderator accounts to post strangely worded pro-Trump messages. Many of the compromised subreddits boast over one million members.