House Democrats are looking to put reins on Big Tech through legislative means. A proposed $1 billion addition to the $3.5 trillion economic package would go to the FTC for the purposes of establishing a digital division.
Zoom will be required to make a number of significant changes to its security practices as a result of decisions that the FTC says ‘gave users a false sense of security.’
From 2017 to 2020 the edtech company experienced four serious data breaches, and the FTC finds that this was not simply a run of bad luck but rather an endemic lack of concern for cybersecurity.
Legal action may be forthcoming for organizations that do not patch Log4j. The FTC has issued an alert that references the Equifax breach (which ended in a settlement of $700 million) as a precedent.
Recent letters sent out by FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson were directed to tech companies and warned against watering down privacy protections or censoring their products due to pressure by foreign governments.
The FTC has found that not only has Facebook not fully complied with its obligations, but that it has also been in violation of children's privacy regulations with its Messenger Kids app.
The FTC advisory tracks crypto scams up to May 2022, but the losses from 2021 alone represent a 60x increase from those recorded in 2018, and over 5x the 2020 numbers.
Over 95,000 United States consumers lost money to social media scams in 2021. The most common type of scam involves online shopping, but the largest individual losses were caused by investment scams.
The FTX recovery team says that it has recovered about $5 billion at this point, but that a significant portion of the remaining shortfall is due to almost half a billion in stolen crypto.
European oil terminals are reporting recent cyber attacks that have disrupted operations, collectively impacting port operations throughout Europe and Africa. Timing of cyber attacks in Europe raises questions about coordinated campaign.
