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Negotiations around contentious EU copyright reforms have stalled due to continued disagreement.
When it comes to web exploits, attackers have a bevy of options to choose from, but you can make yourself aware of some of the most popular of 2018 thanks to research from WhiteHat Security.
In the privacy space, a massive trove of data leaked last week, including some 773m email addresses. The data was discovered by Troy Hunt, cybersecurity expert and owner of Have I Been Pwned, who dubbed it ‘Collection #1’.
Meanwhile, more locally in Ireland, people have been warned of a phishing scam doing the rounds from a group claiming to be ‘DNS Ireland’, pressuring businesses into buying domain names they don’t need.
Read on for a selection of the week’s most notable enterprise stories.
EU copyright directive in flux as disagreements mount
EU member states were set to negotiate today (21 January) around the Copyright Directive, but resistance to the changes from some countries saw discussions break down. According to The Inquirer, 11 countries including Finland, Italy and Sweden voted against the compromised text proposed last week by Romania.
This leaves the Directive in an awkward position. A vote was projected to take place in March ahead of the May European elections, but it may be too much of an ordeal to reach a compromise that pleases the majority of MEPs in that timeframe.
Privacy campaigner Max Schrems files GDPR complaint against tech firms
Austrian privacy non-profit NOYB, headed up by campaigner Max Schrems, has filed suit against eight tech firms for alleged non-compliance with GDPR regulations. The documents named Netflix, Spotify, Apple and Amazon as firms who allegedly did not fully comply with private data requests.
“Many services set up automated systems to respond to access requests, but they often don’t even remotely provide the data that every user has a right to,” Schrems said. “This leads to structural violations of users’ rights, as these systems are built to withhold the relevant information.”
US DNC claims Russian group targeted staff after 2018 mid-terms
The US Democratic National Committee (DNC) has claimed Russian hacking group APT29 posed as a state department official in a spear-phishing email campaign sent to dozens of DNC employees in the days after the mid-term elections.
The filing said: “The content of these emails and their timestamps were consistent with a spear-phishing campaign that leading cybersecurity experts have tied to Russian intelligence.” The filing is part of a civil suit filed by the DNC against parties including the Kremlin and WikiLeaks.
Fortnite is allegedly a money-laundering hub
It’s fair to say that online gaming sensation Fortnite has spawned several cybercrime-related cottage industries, as anything as widely popular as the Epic Games title generally does.
According to new research, money-laundering is one of the activities on the rise. The in-game currency, V-Bucks, are apparently being used to launder money from stolen credit cards. Cybersecurity firm Sixgill found that $250,000 of Fortnite items were sold on eBay over just a two-month period.
Tim Cook calls for federal digital privacy legislation in US
Apple CEO Tim Cook is no stranger to discussions around privacy and last week he made the step of calling on the Federal Trade Commission in the US to keep data brokers on a tighter leash.
He said: “The Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all.”
