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“Ofcom to Detail Action Required from Social Media Companies Over Illegal Content – December Deadline Looming for Compliance”
LONDON – Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said on Oct 17 that it would detail what action it expected social media companies to take over illegal content on their platforms in December, saying it expected swift action or they would face consequences.
Ofcom, which is responsible for implementing the government’s Online Safety Bill, said the platforms would have three months to complete their own illegal harms risk assessments after the publication of its demands.
“The time for talk is over,” Ofcom’s Chief Executive Melanie Dawes said on Oct 17. “From December, tech firms will be legally required to start taking action, meaning 2025 will be a pivotal year in creating a safer life online.”
She said the regulator had already seen positive changes, but expectations were going to be high.
“We’ll be coming down hard on those who fall short,” she said.
Ofcom said better protections had already been introduced by Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, and Snapchat which have brought in changes to help prevent children being contacted by strangers.
Britain’s new online safety regime, which became law last year, requires social media companies to tackle the causes of harm, particularly for children, by making their services safer.
If companies do not comply with the new law, they could face significant fines and, in the most serious cases, their services could be blocked in Britain. REUTERS
DUBLIN – Ireland’s data protection commission has fined LinkedIn €310 million (S$442 million) for illegally processing the personal data of users within the European Union to deliver targeted advertising.
The decision also includes an order for Microsoft Corp-owned LinkedIn to bring its data processing into compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to a statement by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) on Oct 24.
Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement that LinkedIn’s processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis was a “clear and serious violation of data subjects’ fundamental right to data protection”.
It is the sixth-largest fine to be issued under GDPR since it was introduced in 2018.
The Irish regulator has issued hefty fines to several social media companies for GDPR violations in recent years.
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc has faced the brunt of the penalties, including a record €1.2 billion charge in May 2023 for transferring EU users’ data to the US. The commission fined ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok €345 million in September 2023 over its handling of children’s data.
It is part of a broader crackdown on Big Tech companies by the EU over a range of issues including data privacy, competition and disinformation.
LinkedIn said the case relates to claims from 2018 about some of its digital advertising efforts in the EU.
“While we believe we have been in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are working to ensure our ad practices meet this decision by the IDPC’s deadline,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Ireland’s data protection commission launched an inquiry into LinkedIn’s data processing practices following a complaint made to the French data regulator. LinkedIn, like many other big tech companies, has its European headquarters in Ireland, which means that local regulators are tasked with enforcing EU rules. BLOOMBERG
WASHINGTON – Chinese state-affiliated hackers intercepted audio from the phone calls of US political figures including an unnamed campaign adviser of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported on Oct 27.
The FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Oct 25 they were investigating unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by people associated with China.
Trump’s campaign and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post also reported the hackers were able to access unencrypted communications like text messages, of the individual.
Reuters reported on Oct 25 that Chinese hackers also targeted phones used by people affiliated with the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, were targeted, various media outlets reported last week.
The Trump campaign was made aware last week that Trump and Mr Vance were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, the New York Times reported on Oct 25.
The Trump campaign was hacked earlier in 2024. The US Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with the hack, accusing them of trying to disrupt the Nov 5 election.
Verizon said on Oct 25 it was aware of a sophisticated attempt to target US telecoms and gather intelligence and is working with law enforcement.
Congress is also investigating and earlier this month U.S. lawmakers asked AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies to answer questions about reports Chinese hackers accessed the networks of U.S. broadband providers.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said last week it was unaware of the specific situation but said China opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber thefts in all forms. REUTERS
WASHINGTON – The mastermind behind one of the biggest-ever Bitcoin heists was ordered to serve five years in prison for conspiring with his social-media rapper wife to launder money he stole by hacking into the Bitfinex exchange and grabbing cryptoassets now worth billions of dollars.
Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein was sentenced in Washington on Nov 14, after he and his wife, Heather Morgan, pleaded guilty last year in a scheme to hide proceeds from the 2016 hack. Morgan, known as “Razzlekhan” in her rap videos, will be sentenced Nov 18. The government recommended an 18-month sentence for her.
Lichtenstein, 37, faced as long as 20 years behind bars. But the government cited his substantial assistance that “has benefited numerous investigations.” The Bitfinex hack resulted in the theft of 119,754 Bitcoin worth about US$71 million (S$23 million) at the time. But since then, the token has surged from US$580 in 2016 to more than US$90,000 this week, boosting the value of the assets to billions.
“This is so massive, it is not comparable to other crypto crimes” based on its scale and complexity, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said before sentencing. Lichtenstein carried out his scheme over several years, which undermines defense claims that his actions were “impulsive,” the judge said.
Lichtenstein, a “highly skilled computer expert,” used several hacking techniques to gain access to the Bitfinex network, and then, in August 2016, fraudulently authorised more than 2,000 transactions to move Bitcoin to a cryptocurrency wallet he controlled, the government said.
He and his wife used sophisticated and meticulous money-laundering techniques to hide the stolen proceeds, including setting up accounts under fictitious identities, moving funds in small amounts, and breaking up the trail of transactions by depositing and withdrawing funds from crypto exchanges and darknet markets. They bought nonfungible tokens, gold and Walmart gift cards, according to the government.
Lichtenstein “became one of the greatest money launderers that the government has encountered in the cryptocurrency space,” prosecutors wrote in an October sentencing memo. “If the defendant were to take what he has learned from this prosecution and incorporate it into a future money laundering scheme, he would be even better-equipped to conceal his activity while monetizing his crimes,” they wrote.
Since his plea last year, Lichtenstein has assisted the government in other criminal cases, including as a government witness in a money-laundering trial involving a mixing service called Bitcoin Fog.
Other hacks
While Lichtenstein had no official criminal history before his arrest in 2022, the Bitfinex hack wasn’t his first, the government said. As a juvenile, he experimented with hacking and financial fraud, and around 2015, he illegally transferred a small amount of PayCoin, an alternative form of virtual currency, prosecutors said. The following year, he stole about US$200,000 from a virtual currency exchange, the government said.
But he also worked in legitimate businesses. While in college, Lichtenstein ran a digital marketing agency from his dorm, and after graduation, a software company he co-founded grew to 30 employees, the government said.
“His decision to use his skills for criminal ends is thus particularly disappointing, but it gives hope for continued successful rehabilitation,” prosecutors said in the sentencing memo.
Morgan attended her husband’s sentencing, along with Lichtenstein’s family. Lichtenstein expressed remorse to the judge and pledged that he would use his skills to help with cybersecurity. “I can make a real difference in the fight against cybercrime,” he said.
He asked that his wife avoid prison time. “Heather is only involved in this case because of me,” he said. BLOOMBERG
WASHINGTON – Members of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s family and officials from the Biden administration were among those targeted by China-linked hackers who were able to break into telecommunications company systems, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Times said State Department officials, Trump family members including Eric Trump and Jared Kushner, and prominent Democrats including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer were among those targeted by the spies.
Concerns about the hacking group have grown since media reports disclosed its activities last month.
On Oct. 6, the Wall Street Journal reported that the group, nicknamed “Salt Typhoon”, had accessed the networks of broadband providers and obtained information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping.
The State Department, as well as aides for Trump family members, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions. The White House, the National Security Agency, and the cybersecurity watchdog agency CISA did not immediately return messages. A Schumer aide did not immediately reply to an email. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email, although Beijing routinely denies being behind cyberespionage campaigns. REUTERS
HELSINKI – A fibre optic communications cable linking Finland and Germany along the seabed has stopped working and may have been severed by an outside force, Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms network company Cinia said on Monday.
The 1,200 km (745 miles) C-Lion1 cable running through the Baltic Sea from Finland’s capital Helsinki to the German port of Rostock malfunctioned just after 0200 GMT, the company said.
The sudden outage implied that the cable was completely severed by an outside force, although a physical inspection has not yet been conducted, Cinia’s Chief Executive Ari-Jussi Knaapila told a press conference.
The damage occurred near the southern tip of Sweden’s Oland island and could typically take between five and 15 days to repair, he added.
Cinia said it was working with authorities to investigate the incident.
Last year a subsea gas pipeline and several telecoms cables running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea were severely damaged in an incident raising alarm bells in the region.
Finnish police investigating the 2023 case have named a Chinese container ship believed to have dragged its anchor as a prime suspect, but have not said whether the damage was believed to be accidental or done with intention.
In 2022 the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany in the Baltic Sea were destroyed by explosions in a case that remains under investigation by German authorities. REUTERS