Florida-based mobile device maker BLU has settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges it allowed a Chinese partner to collect detailed personal customer information from some of its devices without authorization or consent.
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Report: Chinese Ties to US Tech Firms put Federal Supply Chain at Risk
China poses a serious and immediate cybersecurity threat to the federal supply chain in part because of connections Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have to key tech companies working in the government sector, a report recently issued by the U.S. China Commission has found.
A Tale of Two Industries: the RSA Conference in 2018
Best of times worst of times? Check. Age of wisdom age of foolishness? Check. A look at this year’s RSA Conference and some of the big take-aways from the show.
Microsoft, Facebook and other tech giants join forces on cybersecurity
In light of increased and more sophisticated threats in the cybersecurity landscape, tech giants have vowed to get more serious about protecting their customers by working together through a new Cybersecurity Tech Accord. Thirty-four companies—including Microsoft, Oracle, HP, Facebook, Cisco, Nokia TrendMicro and others—have signed on to the accord, which was unveiled Tuesday at the RSA Conference taking place in San Francisco this week. Those signing on said it’s the largest-ever group to agree to band together in the fight against malicious attacks from cybercriminals and nation-states. Speaking at the conference at the unveiling of the accord, Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith told attendees that the recent WannaCry and NotPetya malware attacks were a sign that cybersecurity events were taking a turn for the worse. “We need to get the governments of the world to stop targeting tech companies, stop targeting the electrical grid, the private sector, hospitals,” […]
Russia blocks 800K Amazon sites in Telegram crackdown, disables legitimate ones in the process
Russia this week blocked hundreds of thousands of Amazon Web Services (AWS) sites in an apparent attempt to eliminate the secure Telegram messaging service from its borders. In the process, however, the government also disabled a number of legitimate websites operating in the country as well. Telegram is a service akin to WhatsApp that’s rapidly replacing the latter because messages sent over it are encrypted and not linked to Facebook data sharing. Russian, however, doesn’t want its citizens using Telegram, presumably because government can’t spy on them then–although the official reasoning is it’s an anti-terrorism method because Telegram officials is skirting new laws requiring the decryption of messages. Earlier this month, a Russian court officially blocked Telegram from being used in the country. On Monday, Russia’s federal censor directed the country’s ISPs to block hundreds of thousands of AWS IP addresses that were being used to bypass the Telegram ban, […]
