CyberScoop Wrote:The updated data protection protocol, which will render Android users’ messages only readable by the sender and recipient, will initially be available in beta this month, and those interested in participating in testing will have to sign up, Google said. Once end-to-end encryption is available more broadly for Android users, Google will implement it by default, according to The Verge.
Russia and China will be exempt from encryption.

CyberScoop Wrote:The announcement of the forthcoming privacy and security feature coincides with Google’s announcement that Android users are now able to use RCS, or Rich Communications Services, messaging globally, with a few exceptions. The update is meant to catapult users from relying on SMS text messaging to more modern messaging features, such as chatting over Wi-Fi, sending and receiving better quality pictures and videos, and being able to use read receipts.

Kaspersky’s Igor Golovin Wrote:Because the ‘modpack’ seemed glitchy from the start, most users, especially kids and teens, won’t waste time looking for it. They may even forget it and not bother trying to remove it. Unbeknownst to the user, however, the app remains on the smartphone — and not merely there, but hard at work.

CyberScoop Wrote:ATT essentially will block iOS apps from tracking the use of other apps on a device. The goal is to limit the information that advertising networks collect about Apple device users.

CyberScoop Wrote:the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology establishes a baseline security requirements for any IoT manufacturer that wishes to contract with the federal government, in areas such as patching or identity management. The bill also would require contractors to implement vulnerability disclosure policies.

BBC Wrote:The Snapdragon 888 is Qualcomm's first chip to be made using a five nanometre process. This is a reference to the fact its transistors are smaller than before and can therefore be packed more densely together to offer performance gains.
"Snapdragon 888 will... transform smartphones into professional cameras," said Qualcomm in a press release.
"[The chip can capture] roughly 120 photos at 12 megapixels resolution - up to 35% faster than the previous generation."
Another advance is that the 5G modem is now built into the chip rather than being a separate component, as was the case last time round.
Qualcomm said the chip's "AI engine" had also been completely re-engineered.

CyberScoop Wrote:IBM researchers on Thursday revealed a global spearphishing campaign they said was aimed at companies involved in the storage and transport of vaccines in temperature-controlled environments. Those controls allow the medicine to be sent to far-flung places. IBM suspects the attackers are tied to a government, but they said they didn’t have enough evidence to determine which one.
The attackers’ goal may have been to steal login credentials from those companies in order to gain future access “to corporate networks and sensitive information relating to the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
The phishing campaign uncovered by IBM began in September and has targeted organizations in six countries in Europe and Asia. All of the organizations appear to be associated with a supply-chain program run by Gavi, an international organization that handles vaccines.

CyberScoop Wrote:That cover saw the hackers pose as an executive at Haier Biomedical, a supplier involved in Gavi’s vaccine supply-chain program, and send phishing emails to companies supporting transportation needs for the program. China-based Haier touts itself as “the world’s only complete cold chain provider,” or organization that offers the full range of temperatures needed for storing biomedical equipment.

CyberScoop Wrote:Greater Baltimore Medical Center on Sunday became the latest U.S. hospital to grapple with a ransomware incident.
The ransomware attack caused “many of our [IT] systems” to go down, the 342-bed medical center said in a statement late Sunday. That means some patient procedures scheduled for Monday “may be affected,” GBMC said.

The Towson, Maryland-based medical center is following a playbook that numerous hospitals across the country have exercised after having their computer systems hampered by ransomware.

Fox Business Wrote:The purchase price for the transaction is $1.175 billion subject to customary working capital and other adjustments, and the proceeds will be paid in cash at closing, AT&T and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc said.

Chief Executive Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment Tony Vinciquerra Wrote:Together with Crunchyroll, we will create ... greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere.

Fox Business Wrote:Sony is beefing up gaming and entertainment businesses under Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida’s strategy to increase recurring revenue streams that cushion the impact of volatile hardware sales cycles.

Fox Business Wrote:The U.S. government has acknowledged reports that hackers backed by a foreign government have breached the U.S. Treasury Department and an agency within the Commerce Department.
According to Reuters, the elaborate cyber hack was launched on the Treasury Department as well as the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, a U.S. agency that is tasked with crafting internet and telecommunications policy. Sources told the outlet that the hack was so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting on Saturday.
Hackers reportedly used the organization's Microsoft Office 365 platform to monitor staff members emails for months.

Fox News Wrote:Your public profile is created automatically, whether you want it or not, and it contains your comments and any ratings that you have left on products purchased on Amazon. Your biographical information and other site interactions are also posted to your profile.
Amazon's Ring cameras are watching, and hundreds of police departments can tap into the footage.
About a year ago, Amazon quietly announced a new product called Sidewalk, which is basically a mesh network that extends your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection range by up to a mile.
Sidewalk turns your Echo speakers and Ring gadgets into bridge devices. That gives internet-connected tech far from your router, like lights at the edge of your driveway, a real boost.

Fox News Wrote:“Something went wrong,” said a message on the YouTube home page. The Downdetector website also noted problems accessing the video-sharing service.
Citing user reports, Downdetector also mentioned problems with Gmail, Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Home and Nest, which is owned by Google.

BBC Wrote:It also had a knock-on effect on other apps, with players of the smartphone game Pokémon Go, for example, reporting being unable to log in.
The cause of the problem is unclear. However, while it lasted, users were still able to access the websites' landing pages in "incognito mode", which does not store a log of the users' browsing activity.

Politico Wrote:The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said.
On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE.
They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE.

Fox Business Wrote:Google on Thursday said the lawsuit filed against them by attorneys general from more than three dozen states seeks to redesign search in ways that would "deprive Americans" of information and "hurt businesses" in their efforts to connect directly with customers.
Google argued in its response that the platform shows information that helps connect consumers with businesses directly.

Fox Business Wrote:Google Search has prime placement on more than 90 web browsers, including Google Chrome, the most popular web browser in the U.S., and Apple’s Safari, the complaint states. It also says Google pays Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion annually under the agreement that Google pay Apple "a significant percentage of the Google search advertising revenue generated on Apple personal computers.”

CyberScoop Wrote:The scammers are using malicious browser extensions— a tried and tested fraud tactic — to inject bogus advertisements into the results displayed on a search engine page. The more users who visit the fraudulent ad pages, the more money the perpetrators earn via a traffic-driven advertising program.
...
In addition, the malware maintains persistence and exfiltrates website credentials, exposing affected devices to additional risks.
Researchers from Awake Security in June revealed a sweeping campaign, which amassed 33 million downloads of malicious code, that used Chrome extensions to spy on users in the oil and gas, finance and health care sectors.
The code has other insidious features, including the capability to alter security settings on some browsers to give scammers more control over the browser.

Fox Business Wrote:Dozens of state attorneys general and the Justice Department also filed two separate antitrust complaints, led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, respectively, against the tech giant on Thursday and Wednesday, respectively.
Sweepstakes Today is one of four companies that filed two private lawsuits, which Reuters published online, against Google, alleging that the tech giant has violated the Sherman Act by displaying monopolistic behavior through its digital ad sales.

Sweepstakes Today\s Attorney John Herman Wrote:Publishers, including Sweepstakes Today, have seen their revenues decline significantly as Google uses their monopoly to horde more and more of the digital advertisement revenues.

Fox Business Wrote:The company says it made about $150,000 per year for about 10 years before 2012, when Google, "through both acquisitions and vertical integration, began consolidating the various markets that together constitute the online advertising market, driving out rivals, and became a direct horizontal competitor of publishers such as Sweepstakes Today," the complaint reads.
The complaint also accuses Google of making it nearly impossible for publishers to do business with smaller advertisers that compete with Google.

CyberScoop Wrote:Microsoft revealed that a second hacking group had deployed malicious code that affects software made by SolarWinds, the federal contractor at the center of a suspected Russian espionage campaign against multiple U.S. government agencies.
While Russian hackers are suspected in the compromise of the Orion software updates, it is unclear who is responsible for the additional malware discovered by Microsoft.
The newly revealed malware, known to researchers as Supernova, differs from the alleged Russian tampering because it does not appear to involve a compromise of the supply chain, Microsoft said. The Supernova code does, however, allow an attacker to send and execute a malicious program on the victim’s device, Microsoft said.
Researchers from cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks described Supernova as using “in-memory execution,” meaning the malicious code is loaded within a computer’s memory rather than on its disk. This suggests the code is designed to evade certain cybersecurity software that covers more external parts of a computer.