News Briefs

France to Stop Using Google as Part of Its Plan to Establish Digital Sovereignty

The 2013 NSA revelations by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden was a stern wake call for French politicians. more

Google Building 600 Million Euro Data Center in Denmark Powered by Renewable Energy

Google will invest 600 million euro (roughly $700 million USD) to construct its first Danish datacenter. The company says the site will be matching its energy use with 100 percent carbon-free energy. more

EU Should Not Be Setting US WHOIS and Privacy Policy, Says MPAA

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in its recent submission to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has raised a stern objection regarding ICANN's attempt to adhere to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), stating that the temporary specification had gone "well beyond what the GDPR mandates." more

SpaceX Wins FCC Approval to Deploy 7,518 Satellites for Broadband Communications

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is granted permission from U.S. regulators to deploy over 7,000 satellites. more

Neglected Domain Renewals Increasingly Scooped Up by Crooks for Credit Card Stealing Purposes

The registrant of domain names with decent traffic who fail to renew them are proving quite costly for owners and others. more

US, Russia and China Stay Out of Paris International Cybersecurity Pact

US, China and Russia have refused to sign the French-backed agreement, Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, announced by French President at the UNESCO Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on Monday. more

Nigerian Cable Company Takes Blame for Misrouting Google’s Global Traffic Through China

Much of Google's traffic yesterday appeared to be re-routed through Russia and dropped at China Telecom. The issue raises serious concerns as a possible traffic hijacking incident. more

Schneier: Lasting IoT Security Will Only Happen if Governments Start Introducing Stiff Penalties

Without regulation, there is little hope companies will implement proper security protection measures for IoT devices, said author and security expert Bruce Schneier, during a panel discussion at the Aspen Cyber Summit. more

China Telecom Accused of Misdirecting Internet Traffic

A paper published by the Naval War College titled, "China's Maxim - Leave No Access Point Unexploited: The Hidden Story of China Telecom's BGP Hijacking," accuses the Chinese government of manipulating BGP routing in order to intercept internet traffic. more

Berners-Lee Launches Global Campaign to Save the Web From Destruction

Tim Berners-Lee has called on governments, companies and individuals to back a new "Contract for the Web" that aims to protect people's rights and freedoms on the internet. more

U.S. Government Extends Its Cooperative Agreement With Verisign, Green Lights .Com Price Increase

NTIA released a statement today announcing the agreement reached to extend and modify Verisign's Cooperative Agreement. more

US Senator Wyden Proposes Bill That Could Jail Executives Over Repeated Data Privacy Violations

U.S. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden released an early draft of a bill today that would subject company CEOs and senior executives to tough penalties including 10 to 20 years of imprisonment for failing to protect consumer data. more

Berners-Lee Warns About the Danger of Concentration Regarding Growing Dominance of Tech Giants

World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee speaking during an interview this week, warned Silicon Valley technology giants have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up. more

Weekend Cyberattack on Pakistani bank reported to be a Historic $6 Million Loss, Bank Denies Claim

Karachi-based Bank Islami revealed Saturday morning that it had detected abnormal transactions resulting in 2.6 million Pakistani rupees, roughly $19,500 and precautionary steps where taken immediately. more

US Copyright Office Expands Security Researchers’ Ability to Hack Without Going to Jail

The Librarian of Congress and US Copyright Office has updated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act extending some essential exemptions ensuring that computer security researchers won't be treated like nefarious criminals for their contributions to society. more