Tech Week In Review: The War on Cybercrime, Self-Driving Vehicles, Anti-Trust, Metaverse and More

Signs of Progress on Combatting Cybercrime

Although cybercrime isn’t going away any time soon, there appears to be some headway being made on combatting it.

“We are seeing a new level of collaboration between the public and private sectors,” Christian Hoffman, Aon’s Cyber Solutions chief executive officer of North America, wrote in a new report.

Hoffman attributed some of that recent progress to the Biden administration.

“In the U.S., President Biden signed an Executive order to modernize the nation’s cybersecurity defenses, improve information sharing between the U.S. government and private sector, and improve the government’s incident response readiness,” he wrote. “The Biden Administration reinforced its commitment to combatting ransomware by offering rewards up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of foreign bad-actors that have attacked U.S. infrastructure.”

Hoffman also indicated that there’s been more global collaboration. He noted, for example, that the Institute of Security and Technology Ransomware Task Force, led by representatives of organizations from around the world, had released a framework for combatting ransomware attacks that included 48 recommendations, all of which involved international coordination. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

T-Mobile Confirms Major Data Breach:

T-Mobile confirmed that the personal data of about 8 million current customers and 40 million prospective or former customers was stolen by hackers. The company evidently learned of the breach from an Aug. 15 report by Vice indicating that a poster on an underground forum was offering personal data, including social security and driver’s license numbers, of 30 million people for 6 bitcoin, or around $270,000. The poster reportedly told Vice’s Motherboard they’d obtained personal data of over 100 million people from T-Mobile servers. (CNET, VICE, TMOBILE)

U.S. Sens Request Probe of Tesla Self-Driving Technology Marketing:

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) sent a letter last week to FTC Chair Lina Khan asking her to investigate Tesla for “potentially deceptive and unfair practices” in the marketing of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies. Two days earlier the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal investigation of Tesla’s Autopilot system, after identifying 11 crashes since 2018 involving that system and parked emergency vehicles. (CNBC, CNET)

Apple to Pay $300M for Patent Infringements:

A jury awarded Optis Wireless Technology LLC and several other companies $300 million in damages for patent infringements by Apple Inc. Another jury had previously found Apple guilty of infringing on five Optis patents and awarded Optis $506 million in damages, but a federal judge vacated that award and ordered a new trial to decide how much the damages should be. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

FTC Files Renewed Antitrust Complaint against Facebook:

The Federal Trade Commission filed an amended antitrust complaint against Facebook on Aug. 19, accusing the company of unlawfully preserving its dominance by acquiring or eliminating competitors. An earlier FTC antitrust complaint against Facebook was dismissed by a federal judge in June on the grounds that the agency failed to provide sufficient evidence that the company held a monopoly in personal social networking. The agency said the amended complaint includes more evidence to support its monopoly claim. (CNET)

COVID-19 Double Standard for Facebook Employees, Contractors:

Facebook contractors hired through staffing firm Accenture have been required to return to Facebook offices. The return of Facebook’s U.S. employees, however, has been delayed until January 2022, due to the Delta wave of COVID-19. (CNBC)

Facebook Takes Step Toward Metaverse:

Facebook unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a way for up to 16 people, represented by avatars, to meet in a virtual conference room. The company says it’s a step toward the metaverse, a future digital world where people will work and play together. (CNBC)

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK