Items tagged with investigation
The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been investigating the sale of users’ location data by wireless carriers for several years. This investigation now appears to be coming to a close. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recently informed Congress that at least one wireless carrier has violated federal law and illegally sold users’ location data. Pai did not name specific companies or disclose which laws had been violated. His letter stated that, “Accordingly, in the coming days, I intend to circulate to my fellow Commissioners for their consideration one or more Notice(s) of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in connection with the apparent violation(s).” The...
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Sources who claim to be close to the investigation are reporting that the FBI is currently probing an Israeli firm called NSO Group Technologies for its role in possible hacks on American residents and companies. The probe is allegedly looking at suspected intelligence gathering on governments according to the sources. The probe has been ongoing since 2017, when the FBI was trying to ascertain whether NSO had obtained code from hackers that was needed to infect smartphones. NSO has said that it sells spy software and technical support exclusively to governments and that the tools are meant to be used in pursuing terrorists and other criminals. The company claims that its software can't be used...
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A report that surfaced over the weekend claims the House Judiciary Committee is investigating Google's plan to add DNS over TLS to the Chrome browser. DNS is the service that takes an easier to remember and type a domain name, such as Google.com, and translates that into a site's physical IP addresses. TLS, in turn, refers to transportation layer security. DNS information is currently mostly unencrypted, and this allows service providers to see which websites a user visits and then monetize those traffic records. Google is reportedly considering integrating TLS into DNS in Chrome. There are some upsides to using DNS over TLS as it would help to protect Chrome users from spoofing attacks or unauthorized...
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The FCC upset a lot of people when it voted to repeal net neutrality rules. The Commission then wanted to reduce the speed that is considered to be broadband in some areas, however, the backlash to that move saw the FCC step back and stop its attempts to reclassify broadband speeds in some areas. The FCC has worked to ensure that it's easier for broadband providers to get their speedy services to more people; Google Fiber in particular benefitted from a change in FCC regulations regarding utility pole usage. The FCC has now announced that it is launching an investigation into one or more major wireless carriers. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced that the agency is launching an investigation...
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Police around the world have been using fingerprints to catch criminals for decades. Normally these fingerprints are lifted from surfaces or objects at the scene of a crime. Police in Wales recently used a photograph of a finger to catch and convict 11 drug traffickers. The process of using fingerprints from a digital photo is hailed as groundbreaking. Dave Thomas of South Wales Police said that the police force will now analyze images more closely when it finds them on smartphones seized during investigations. In this case, the police seized a smartphone at a home where an anonymous tip informed police of potential drug activity. The phone was found to have WhatsApp messages that went back for...
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Ethereum has taken a swift kick to the blockchain after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has "dozens" of investigations open in the cryptocurrency space associated with ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). The announcement of the investigations was made by an agency official on March 15. The confirmation that the investigations have been opened comes after SEC Enforcement Division co-Director Stephanie Avakian announced in February that subpoenas had been sent to firms that were believed to have broken securities laws. SEC scrutiny of ICOs (initial coin offerings) has grown significantly since billions of dollars in digital assets were sold during 2017, many of which were...
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Yahoo has some ‘splaining to do. A judge in an appeal case for a drug trafficker recently ordered Yahoo to present a witness and provide documents explaining how the company recovers deleted emails. According to Yahoo’s policies, deleted emails are not recoverable. The appeal will decide the fate of Russell Knaggs of Yorkshire, England. In 2009 Knaggs was the ringleader for a plan to import five tons of cocaine from South America. A dealer in Colombia and one in Europe would communicate with one another through an email account “slimjim25@ymail.com”. One would write a “draft” and the other would then read it and delete it from both the “draft” and “trash” folders. Knagg’s solicitor mentioned...
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New York customers are not satisfied with their internet service. Thousands of Time Warner Cable's customers have written to the New York Attorney General insisting that they are not receiving the download speeds they paid for. As a response, New York AG Eric Schneiderman is working on an investigation regarding the company's advertised internet speeds. Former Columbia University law professor Tim Wu is leading the investigation. Wu coined the term “net neutrality” and ran for lieutenant governor of New York in 2014. Wu’s platform attacked large business, particularly those in the telecom and cable industries. Schneiderman’s letter stated, “In advertisement after advertisement, Time Warner...
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Wow, this is odd. According to a new report today from the United States Department of Justice, six very well recognized silicon valley companies are have their hands slapped by a very powerful entity. The DoJ has mandated that six companies stop entering into anti-competitive employee solicitation agreements, which they have apparently been doing for as many as 5 years. It sounds like the six companies have agreed to comply, as the DoJ filed a lawsuit but says that the accompanying agreement should cover that. You're probably dying to know who exactly has been named here, so here goes: Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Intuit Inc. and Pixar. We're pretty sure you have...
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Intel announced it intended to appeal the EU's decision to slap it with a $1.45 billion fine; the text of the company's request for annulment is now available in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Santa Clara-based company's request is best understood as an attempt to throw mud on the wall and see if anything sticks—Intel goes after the decision from all angles.In its petition, Intel claims the following: The conditional discounts Intel offered its partners were not proven to have affected competition.The Directorate General for Competition (DG-COMP) did not conduct analyze whether Intel's actions had a material effect on consumers, andThe EC failed to consider whether or not Intel's...
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The Attorney General of New York has issued subpoenas to Intel, seeking information about whether Intel unlawfully compelled their customers to exclude rival AMD from the market for certain computer chips. At issue in Cuomo's probe is whether AMD has a fair chance to supply its X86 computer processing units for desktop and laptop computers and servers. Cuomo says Intel commanded 80% of the $30 billion market.In 2005, AMD filed a lawsuit saying Intel bullied major customers — PC makers like Dell (DELL)— into exclusive deals and offered secret rebates.The lawsuit alleged anti-competitive practices in several countries, including Britain, Germany and Japan.Intel, which commands three-quarters of...
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Continuing their investigation on mobile memory performance with linux, Phoronix is looking to see how various memory configurations effect the Pentium M's performance. Today they'll be testing DDR 2 PC2-4000 memory, ranging from 512MB to 2GB. "In our previous piece yesterday, we had covered the performance benefits of using a 16MB cache on 2.5-inch mobile devices compared to the traditional 8MB capacity and overall we were pleasantly surprised by our penguin findings. Today we are going to be looking again at mobile memory performance under Linux but rather than the form of permanent storage, we are examining various memory configurations and...
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