Expansion of National Security Letter Use Dropped From Intelligence Bill
A controversial provision in the Intelligence Authorization Act that would have granted the FBI the ability to access Americans’ browsing and email records without a warrant has been removed from the bill. The section of the appropriations bill for the various intelligence agencies had drawn criticism from civil liberties groups and lawmakers who opposed the […]
FTC Cracks Down on Two Huge Robocall Groups
Continuing its campaign against phone fraud operations, the FTC has dismantled two major robocall organizations that the commission alleges were making hundreds of millions of calls over the course of several years to consumers who were on the Do Not Call registry. The FTC filed complaints against two separate groups of defendants, the leaders of which […]
Bill Seeks to Update Ancient Email Privacy Law
A group of lawmakers from both parties have reintroduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would overhaul the aging Electronic Communications Privacy Act and add a provision to require the government to get a search warrant to access emails and other communications that are older than 180 days. The Email Privacy Act passed the House […]
Foreign Government Blamed for Anthem Data Breach
Attackers backed by a foreign government were behind the attack that compromised health insurance company Anthem in 2015, a breach that compromised the information of more than 78 million people, according to the findings of an investigation into the attack. The Anthem data breach is one of the larger health cae-related incidents ever in the United […]
Details of Nexus 6 Bootloader Flaw Emerge
Details have emerged on one of the high-risk vulnerabilities that Google patched in last week’s Android Nougat update, a bug that could allow an attacker to force a phone into a special boot mode that then gives him access to extra functionality and the ability to intercept calls and take other actions. The vulnerability affects […]
U.S. Intel Report Points to Russia in Election-Related Hacks
In a new report, CIA, FBI, and NSA say that the hacking campaign that targeted the Democratic National Committee, other political organizations, and government agencies in the months before last year’s presidential election was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, but says the intrusions didn’t affect vote-tallying systems. The report is a declassified version of […]
FTC Files Complaint Against D-Link Over Router, Camera Security
D-Link didn’t “take reasonable software testing and remediation measures” to protect users of its routers and IP-enabled cameras, failed to protect the private keys that sign the software on those devices, and put thousands of consumers at risk of attack, according to a new complaint brought against the technology vendor by the Federal Trade Commission. In […]
NSA: Russia Is the Top U.S. Competitor in Cyberspace
In a report to be published next week, the United States intelligence community will provide further support for its assertions that Russian intelligence services compromised government and private networks to influence the November presidential election. The report also will include details on a motive for the hacking campaign. The new report is the result of […]
Google Patches Dozens of Critical Android Flaws
The new version of Android Nougat released this week by Google fixes more than 70 vulnerabilities, including three remote code execution bugs and 29 critical flaws. As it has done for the last few months, Google released two separate patch levels in its January update, the Jan. 1 and Jan. 5 levels. The latter is the […]