Senate Intelligence Committee
TikTok announced today a new initiative designed to help small businesses better market themselves on its app — and eventually become TikTok advertisers. The company is introducing a free program…
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It’s not rocket science: Why Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover could be bad for privacy
Elon Musk has put an end to weeks of speculation with the announcement that Twitter has accepted his offer to buy the platform for $54.20 per share, valuing the social media platform at about $44 billion. While Musk’s drawn-out pursuit of Twitter has come to an end, for him at…
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‘Always on and watching’: A former Xinjiang prisoner describes life inside China’s detention camps
For 10 months in 2018, Ovalbek Turdakun was a prisoner in one of China’s notorious detention camps, where he was tortured, subject to horrific conditions and under constant surveillance. In a makeshift courtroom inside the detention camp he was being held, Turdakun was not permitted to speak and was made…
Homeland Security establishes the Cyber Safety Review Board to learn the mistakes from past cyber incidents
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assembled a review board that will be tasked with investigating major national cybersecurity incidents in an effort to “meaningfully improve” the nation’s cyber resilience.…
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US government agencies bought Chinese surveillance tech despite federal ban
This story was reported in partnership with video surveillance news site IPVM. At least three U.S. federal agencies, including the military, have purchased China-made video surveillance equipment banned from use in the federal government. Purchasing records seen by TechCrunch and video surveillance news site IPVM show the agencies collectively spent…
Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves
Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better…
Hackers are said to have broken into the networks of U.S. space agency NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration as part of a wider espionage campaign targeting U.S. government agencies…
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Decrypted: The tech police use against the public
In this week’s Decrypted, we look at the technologies that police use against the people.
A newly released draft intelligence bill, passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, would require the government to detail the threats posed by commercial spyware and surveillance technology. The…
It’s no secret that I hate predictions — not least because the security field changes rapidly, making it difficult to know what’s next. But given what we know about the…
Senate report says Russian election interference ‘invariably’ supported Trump, recommends national PSA
A bipartisan Senate investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election released today definitively implicates the country in online operations designed specifically to get then-candidate Donald Trump elected. The tactics…
New research by the Oxford Internet Institute has found that social media manipulation is getting worse, with rising numbers of governments and political parties making cynical use of social media…
Voting machine maker ES&S has said it “will no longer sell” paperless voting machines as the primary device for casting ballots in a jurisdiction. ES&S chief executive Tom Burt confirmed…
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National security journalism just became a national security threat
Six years ago, British intelligence officers walked into the offices of The Guardian newspaper in London and demanded its staff destroy computers they believed stored highly classified documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. In the basement of the newspaper’s offices, editors used angle-grinders and drills to destroy the computers…
A draft executive order circulating around the White House “is not the result of an official White House policymaking process,” according to deputy White House press secretary, Lindsay Walters. According…
If you weren’t done watching tech giants get grilled by lawmakers, mark your calendar for September 26 in what’s expected to be another riveting round of questioning. Policy chiefs from…
Another day, another political grilling for social media platform giants. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s fourth hearing took place this morning, with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey…
The Justice Department has confirmed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed a “growing concern” that social media giants may be “hurting competition” and “intentionally stifling” free speech and expression. The…
Alphabet’s decision to decline to send its CEO Larry Page to today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing — to answer questions about what social media platforms are doing to thwart foreign influence…
On Wednesday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will appear before Congress in the latest high profile hearings for tech on Capitol Hill. The main event will…
Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has admitted that the social networking giant could have done more to prevent foreign interference on its platforms, but said that the government also…
Silicon Valley is about to have another big moment before Congress. On Wednesday, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg will go before the Senate Intelligence Committee to follow-up on…
It might be a snow day in Washington, but the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on election system security continued as planned. During Wednesday’s hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and…
In a press conference today, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence presented its urgent recommendations for protecting election systems as the U.S. moves toward midterm elections later this year. “Currently…
It’s impossible to know just how much stuff being circulated on social networks is Russian state content in sheep’s clothing, although tech companies are scrambling to figure that out. Now,…
While the Senate has spent the better part of a year making sense of Russia’s actions to influence the 2016 election, tech made quick work of its own analysis —…
In an update on the progress of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, the Senate Intelligence Committee weighed in on recent revelations that have implicated major…
One of the Senate’s main cybersecurity proponents wants assurances that voting systems in the U.S. are ready for their next major threat — and he’s going straight to the hardware makers…
Congressional investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are looking at the spread of misinformation on a number of online services — not just Facebook. In fact,…
