FTC Drops Case Seeking to Block Microsoft-Activision Deal

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission dropped a case that sought to block Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, saying that pursuing the case against the long-closed deal was not in the public interest. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson is seeking to use the agency's resources for cases that fit with President Donald Trump's agenda, such as a probe related to whether advertisers colluded to spend less on X.

Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty to Hacking Education Tech Company

A Massachusetts man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into one of the top education tech companies in the United States and stealing tens of millions of schoolchildren’s personal information for profit. Matthew Lane, 19, of Worcester County, Massachusetts, signed a plea agreement related to charges connected to a major hack on an educational technology company last year, as well as another company, according to court documents.

TeleMessage Hacker Accessed Data for 60+ Government Users

A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broader swathe of American officials than has previously been reported, according to a Reuters review, potentially raising the stakes of a breach that has already drawn questions about data security in the Trump administration. Reuters identified more than 60 unique government users of the messaging platform TeleMessage in a cache of leaked data provided by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. nonprofit whose stated mission is to archive hacked and leaked documents in the public interest.

U.S. Scrutinizing Apple's Plans with Alibaba for AI Tools on iPhone

In recent months, the White House and congressional officials have been scrutinizing Apple’s plan to strike a deal with Alibaba to make the Chinese company’s A.I. available on iPhones in China, three people familiar with the deliberations said. They are concerned that the deal would help a Chinese company improve its artificial intelligence abilities, broaden the reach of Chinese chatbots with censorship limits and deepen Apple’s exposure to Beijing laws over censorship and data sharing.

'Significant Amount of Personal Data' Stolen in U.K. Legal Aid Attack

Hackers have stolen a “significant amount of personal data” from people who received legal aid across England and Wales, the UK’s Ministry of Justice said. A breach at the Legal Aid Agency that was identified by the government in April was found to have been worse than originally thought, according to a joint statement Monday from the agency and the Ministry.

Five Months After Failure, Senators Reintroduce Kids Online Safety Act

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill imposing sweeping obligations on tech platforms to protect children that use them, has been revived in the Senate after a failed sprint to become law late last year. The bill’s lead sponsors, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), reintroduced the bill roughly five months after it died in the House of Representatives after a 90+ vote to pass it in the Senate.

Report Says X Continues to Accept Payments from Terrorist Organizations

More than a year after researchers first warned X that it was potentially violating U.S. sanctions by accepting payments for subscription accounts from terrorist organizations and other groups barred from doing business in the country, Elon Musk’s social media platform continues to accept such payments, according to a new report. The report, by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit focused on accountability for large technology companies, said X had continued to take payments from accounts that appeared to be affiliated with Hezbollah leaders, Houthi officials, and militia leaders in Syria and Iraq.

Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Limit Smuggling of AI Chips to China

A bipartisan group of eight U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill that would require makers of artificial intelligence chips such as Nvidia to include technology to verify the location of their chips before exporting them. The Chip Security Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives aims to address reports of U.S. export-controlled AI chips being smuggled into China.

EU Regulators Accuse TikTok of Breaching Digital Content Rules

European Union regulators accused TikTok of breaching digital content rules because it’s not being transparent enough about ads shown to users of the video sharing app. TikTok’s ad repository isn’t up to the standards required by the bloc’s Digital Services Act, known as the DSA, the 27-nation EU’s executive Commission said in preliminary findings from its investigation.

Italian Price Comparison Company Sues Google for $3.33 Billion

Italy’s price comparison site operator Moltiply Group is suing Alphabet’s Google for 2.97 billion euros ($3.33 billion) in damages over what it called anti-competitive behavior. The lawsuit, which leans on a key European Commission ruling, alleges that the tech giant abused its market dominance to suppress competition from Trovaprezzi.it, a comparison platform operated by Moltiply subsidiary 7Pixel.

Jury Orders NSO Group to Pay $167 Million for WhatsApp Hacking

A federal jury ordered the best-known maker of government spyware to pay a record-setting $167 million for hacking more than 1,000 people through WhatsApp messages in a stunning cap to six years of litigation. U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton granted WhatsApp’s motion for summary judgment against Israel-based NSO Group in December, finding that it had violated the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and a similar California law with its spying program known as Pegasus.

In Loss for Crypto Industry, Senate Fails to Approve GENIUS Act

Legislation to create a framework for payment stablecoins failed to clear a key hurdle on the Senate floor, after several Democrats voted against moving forward with consideration of the bill. Senators voted 48-49 to end debate on a motion to proceed on the GENIUS Act, short of the 60 votes required to move the measure further along the road to final passage.

OpenAI's CEO Reverses Course, Calls AI Regulation 'Disastrous'

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, warned at a Senate hearing that requiring government approval to release powerful artificial intelligence software would be “disastrous” for the United States’ lead in the technology. It was a striking reversal after his comments at a Senate hearing two years ago, when he listed creating a new agency to license the technology as his “number one” recommendation for making sure AI was safe.

Hackers Attack Darkweb Site Used by Extortion Group Lockbit

The ransom-seeking cybercriminals behind the extortion group Lockbit appear to have suffered a breach of their own, according to a rogue post to one of the group's websites and security analysts who follow the gang. One of Lockbit's darkweb sites was replaced with a message saying, "Don't do crime CRIME IS BAD xoxo from Prague" and a link to an apparent cache of leaked data.

Version of Signal Used by Trump's Former NSA Adviser Reportedly Hacked

The unofficial version of Signal used by Donald Trump's former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been hacked, tech site 404 Media said, raising further concern over the security of the communications exchanged at the highest levels of the U.S. government. 404 Media said the hacker exploited a vulnerability in TeleMessage, a Signal-like application which a Reuters photograph appeared to show Waltz using at a cabinet meeting.

Irish Data Protection Commission Fines TikTok $600 Million

Ireland’s data-privacy watchdog fined TikTok about $600 million for failing to guarantee that user data sent to China was protected from government surveillance, a blow to the company’s efforts to convince Western countries that it is safe to use. The Irish Data Protection Commission said that TikTok had failed to demonstrate that any user data it sends to China would be protected from government access under Chinese laws covering things like espionage and cybersecurity.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.