The U.S. Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation into Uber Technologies Inc's use of a software tool that helped its drivers evade local transportation regulators.
Uber has acknowledged the software, known as "Greyball," helped it identify and circumvent government officials who were trying to clamp down on Uber in areas where its service had not yet been approved, such as Portland, Oregon. The company prohibited the use of Greyball for this purpose shortly after journalists revealed its existence in March, saying the program was created to check ride requests to prevent fraud and safeguard drivers.
Read moreThe U.S. National Security Agency collected more than 151 million records of Americans' phone calls last year, even after Congress limited its ability to collect bulk phone records.
The report from the office of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was the first measure of the effects of the 2015 USA Freedom Act, which limited the NSA to collecting phone records and contacts of people U.S. and allied intelligence agencies suspect may have ties to terrorism. It found that the NSA collected the 151 million records even though it had warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court to spy on only 42 terrorism suspects in 2016.
Read moreThe United States Department of Defense is now migrating to Windows 10 as part of a broader effort announced in collaboration with Microsoft, and the transition to the new operating system is projected to be finalized in the fall of this year.
In the meantime, however, there are lots of computers operated by the Pentagon that are still running older Windows versions, and according to officials, some are even powered by Windows 95 or 98. Many of the critical computers are currently powered by unsupported Windows versions, including not only Windows XP but also releases that are more than 20 years old.
Read moreFederal investigators suspect a vetted member of the U.S. intelligence community supplied WikiLeaks with the trove of previously unpublished CIA documents released by the anti-secrecy group last month.
A joint investigation launched by the CIA and FBI in the wake of last month’s WikiLeaks publication has given way to a manhunt within the federal government, sources familiar with the probe told this week. The material released by WikiLeaks was “classified and stored in a highly secure section of the intelligence agency,” and had likely been compromised by an individual with physical access to the documents, such as a CIA employee or contractor.
Read moreThe UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group has confirmed that cash registers at more than 1,000 of its properties were infected with malicious malware designed to steal customer debit and credit card data. When the group initially confirmed the breach in February, IHG said only a dozen properties were affected.
Operating over 5,000 hotels across around 100 countries, some of the company's brands include Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContintental and Kimpton Hotels. IHG said it was informed by payment card network networks of patterns of unauthorised charges on customers' payment cards after they were used at some its franchisee-operated locations in the Americas.
Read moreHacker group Shadow Brokers released a fresh batch of alleged NSA hacking tools, which security experts said contain a whole host of exploits capable of causing widespread cyber panic.
One such tool uncovered by security researchers hints at the first real connection between the NSA and the infamous Stuxnet worm, which made headlines in 2010 after it was used against Iran, in what is considered as one of the first targeted cyberespionage attacks. Previous reports indicate that Stuxnet has long been suspected to have been developed by a collaborative effort between the NSA and Israel.
Read moreBritish travellers to the US face the uncomfortable choice of handing over personal information or running the risk of being denied entry to the country, under a new “extreme vetting” policy being considered by the Trump administration.
Tourists from the UK and other US allies including Germany and France, could be forced to reveal personal data, as well as disclose financial information and face detailed ideological questioning. While US citizens have established rights against unlawful searches at the border, the extent to which foreign travellers can resist requests to hand over personal information is unclear.
Read moreSince March, Wikileaks has published more than 8,761 confidential documents it claims originated from inside the US Central Intelligence Agency. Contained within the whistleblowing organisation's Vault 7 files are details of recent security exploits used by the agency to spy on people.
In particular, the documents claim the CIA developed malware to hack Samsung smart TVs, shared zero-day exploits with UK security agencies, developed anti-forensic tools to avoid detection, and built tools so its code could be disguised as being created in a third-party country.
Read moreWikiLeaks’ latest batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, details CIA hacking tactics and how they can hamper forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the spy agency. The tool was in use as recently as 2016.
The third release, which contains 676 source code files for the agency’s secret anti-forensics framework, is part of the CIA’s Core Library of malware, according to a statement from WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks said Marble hides fragments of texts that would allow for the author of the malware to be identified, meaning the agency allows another party to be blamed for the hack.
Read moreIf the death of online privacy rules wasn't enough for Internet Service Providers and advertisers to celebrate, Verizon has planned to pre-install spyware on customers' Android devices in order to collect their personal data.
The telecom giant has partnered with Evie Launcher to bring a new application called 'AppFlash' — a universal search bar that will come pre-installed on the home screens of all Verizon Android handsets for quickly finding apps and web content. AppFlash is simply a Google search bar replacement, but instead of collecting and sending telemetry data including what you search, handset, apps and other online activities to Google, it will send to Verizon.
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