An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: In a press release Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice charged a former Acting Inspector General for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the theft of proprietary software and confidential government databases. The indictment named Charles K. Edwards, a former DHS Acting Inspector General between 2011 to 2013, but also his former aid, 54-year-old…
Tag: department of Justice
American Lawmakers Launch Investigations Into Ring’s Police Deals
A U.S. Congressional subcommittee is now “pursuing a deeper understanding of how Ring’s partnerships with local and state law enforcement agencies mesh with the constitutional protections Americans enjoy against unbridled police surveillance,” reports Gizmodo: Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, is seeking to learn why, in more than 700 jurisdictions, police…
Huawei’s Silicon Valley Outpost Allegedly Stole Trade Secrets From Cisco
“Controversial Chinese technology firm Huawei and its Santa Clara-based subsidiary Futurewei allegedly stole trade secrets from San Jose tech giant Cisco and used them to copy Cisco routers,” reports the San Jose Mercury News, citing the federal indictment released Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice claimed in its racketeering indictment and a news release that Huawei and its Silicon Valley subsidiary…
How Apple — and Millennials — Stopped the Rise of eBooks
As this decade winds to a close, Vox looks back 10 years to when ebooks “appeared poised to disrupt the publishing industry on a fundamental level.”
Analysts confidently predicted that millennials would embrace ebooks with open arms and abandon print books, that ebook sales would keep rising to take up more and more market share, that the price of ebooks would continue…
Hacker Stole Unreleased Music and Then Tried To Frame Someone Else
US authorities charged a Texas man this week for hacking into the cloud accounts of two music companies and the social media account of a high-profile music producer, from where he stole unreleased songs that he later published online for free on public internet forums. From a report: When the man realized he could be caught, he contacted one of the…
AT&T and Verizon Agree To Change Their eSIM Practices
In early 2018, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into whether AT&T, Verizon and the GSM Association (GSMA) worked together to limit eSIM technology. Today, The New York Times reports that the DOJ is closing the investigation and has found no evidence of wrongdoing. From a report: The DOJ was initially concerned that AT&T and Verizon attempted to lock devices…
Is Microsoft Being Weighed Down By the Ghosts of Its Past?
“The Microsoft of the future is being weighed down by the ghosts of its past,” argues former Microsoft engineer James Whittaker, in a new essay at Medium’s new tech site, OneZero: The Microsoft of the ’90s, with Bill Gates calling the shots, was a technology-forward company, fast-paced, ambitious, and unapologetically capitalistic. .. The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was…
New Federal Rules Limit Police Searches of Family Tree DNA Databases
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released new rules yesterday governing when police can use genetic genealogy to track down suspects in serious crimes — the first-ever policy covering how these databases, popular among amateur genealogists, should be used in law enforcement attempts to balance public safety and privacy concerns. The DOJ…
Two Arrested In $10 Million Tech Support Scam That Preyed On the Elderly
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Two individuals were arrested this week in connection with a fraud scheme that manipulated thousands of victims into paying for invented tech services that they didn’t need. The Department of Justice announced that the two individuals Romana Leyva, 35, and Ariful Haque, 33, were arrested Wednesday for their alleged participation in the fraud…
281 Alleged Email Scammers Arrested In Massive Global Sweep
The Department of Justice today announced the arrest of 281 suspects in connection with email scams and wire transfer fraud. The action is the biggest of its kind yet against this type of digital scammer, and is a strong symbol of law enforcement’s sense of urgency in trying to contain a rapidly growing threat. Wired reports: You’re familiar with crimes like…