Security News
Coinbase announced on Tuesday that it is funding a lawsuit brought by six people in the U.S. against the Department of Treasury's for the sanctions on the Tornado Cash open-source cryptocurrency mixer platform. "In the Tornado Cash action, OFAC did not target the bad actors or the property controlled by those actors; instead, it took the unprecedented step of sanctioning open source technology - a tool legitimately used by many innocent people even if also by some bad actors," reads the Coinbase announcement.
A Moscow Arbitration Court has reportedly seized almost $11 million belonging to Dell LLC after the company failed to provide paid-for services to a local system integrator. IT systems integrator Talmer sued Dell early last month when the American computer giant declined to provide technical support services for VMware as previously agreed.
On 6th December 2021, the New Jersey Superior Court granted partial summary judgment in favour of Merck and International Indemnity, declaring that the War or Hostile Acts exclusion was inapplicable to the dispute. Merck suffered US$1.4 billion in business interruption losses from the Notpetya cyber attack of 2017 which were claimed against "All risks" property re/insurance policies providing coverage for losses resulting from destruction or corruption of computer data and software.
Activision, publisher of the enormously popular gaming franchise Call of Duty, has taken an extraordinary step to try and shut down cheat software by suing the popular site EngineOwning. EO cheats for Call of Duty include "Aimbots" which automatically train the shooter's weapon on the opponent; "Triggerbots" that automatically fire at another player when they become visible on-screen; and a feature the lawsuit calls "ESP and 2D/3D Radar," which allows gamers to see opposing players through walls.
In tandem, Google also filed a lawsuit against the botnet's operators. "And at any moment, the power of the Glupteba botnet could be leveraged for use in a powerful ransomware or distributed denial-of-service attack," Google noted in its lawsuit, shared with Threatpost on Tuesday.
The complaint alleges that the maker of the infamous Pegasus mobile spyware is responsible for the illegal surveillance of Apple users. "In a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponize powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place," said Ivan Krstić, head of apple security engineering and architecture, in an Apple statement, issued Monday.
The humble PC continues to bring home the bacon for Dell, with shipments to corporate customers going through the roof, in spite of previous worries about shortages and price hikes. Things are less rosy at HP, which has been caught out by the recent collapse in Chromebook orders.
South Korea's privacy watchdog leaked personal information relating to participants in a case that sought to probe Facebook's leak of personal information. "Recently, while handling a Facebook collective dispute mediation case, an accident occurred in which the personal information in the dispute mediation was leaked to other applicants. We deeply apologize to the victims and the public for the fact that such a leak occurred," wrote Yoon Jong-in of the Personal Information Protection Commission on Monday, as machine-translated from Korean.
Spyware maker NSO Group cannot use its government clients to shield itself from litigation, a US appeals court ruled on Monday, a decision that allows WhatsApp's lawsuit against the Israel-based firm to resume. In 2019, Facebook and its WhatsApp subsidiary sued NSO claiming the firm's intrusion software, known as Pegasus, was used to unlawfully compromise the accounts of WhatsApp customers.
A hospital that continued to admit patients during a ransomware attack has been sued over claims that a baby died after doctors and nurses failed to spot there was a problem due to networks being shut down. Nicko Silar died after six months in intensive care after being born at Springhill Memorial Hospital with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, documents filed in the Alabama Circuit Court state [PDF].