Detente is ending in the global fight over tech taxes. Earlier this year, France agreed to suspend collection of a tax on digital revenue from large technology companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet’s Google. Meanwhile, the U.S. delayed the application of tariffs it was putting on French goods in retaliation for the tax. But now France has resumed collecting what…
Tag: Treasury Department
US Cyber Agency Says SolarWinds Hackers Are ‘Impacting’ State, Local Governments
The U.S. cybersecurity agency says that a sprawling cyber espionage campaign made public earlier this month is affecting state and local governments, although it released few additional details. From a report: The hacking campaign, which used U.S. tech company SolarWinds as a springboard to penetrate federal government networks, was “impacting enterprise networks across federal, state, and local governments, as well as…
How Do US Government Agencies Verify Security Software from Private Contractors?
A recent article at Politico argues that the U.S. government “doesn’t do much to verify the security of software from private contractors. And that’s how suspected Russian hackers got in.” The federal government conducts only cursory security inspections of the software it buys from private companies for a wide range of activities, from managing databases to operating internal chat applications. That…
Russia Breached Update Server Used by 300,000 Organizations, Including the NSA
Sunday Reuters reported that “a sophisticated hacking group” backed by “a foreign government” has stolen information from America’s Treasury Department, and also from “a U.S. agency responsible for deciding policy around the internet and telecommunications.” The Washington Post has since attributed the breach to “Russian government hackers,” and discovered it’s “part of a global espionage campaign that stretches back months, according…
US Treasury Department Breached by ‘Hackers Backed By Foreign Government’
Reuters reports that “a sophisticated hacking group” backed by “a foreign government” has stolen information from America’s Treasury Department, and also from “a U.S. agency responsible for deciding policy around the internet and telecommunications.” There is concern within the U.S. intelligence community that the hackers who targeted the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration used a…
TikTok Misses US Deadline For Sale Without Punishment
“After months of wrangling, proposals, court rulings and a few extensions, a deadline set by the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department mandated a sale for TikTok by December 4th,” remembers Engadget. But that’s not what happened. “Instead, Bloomberg and Reuters report, based on anonymous sources, that the Chinese company and the US government will continue negotiations.” Bloomberg reports: While the deadline has…
Ransomware Victims That Pay Up Could Incur Steep Fines from Uncle Sam
Krebs on Security: Companies victimized by ransomware and firms that facilitate negotiations with ransomware extortionists could face steep fines from the U.S. federal government if the crooks who profit from the attack are already under economic sanctions, the Treasury Department warned today. In its advisory, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said “companies that facilitate ransomware payments to cyber…
Last-Minute TikTok Deal Averts Shutdown
“President Donald Trump said Saturday he’s given his ‘blessing’ to a proposed deal that would see the popular video-sharing app TikTok partner with Oracle and Walmart and form a U.S. company,” reports CBS News:
Mr. Trump has targeted Chinese-owned TikTok for national security and data privacy concerns in the latest flashpoint in the rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. The president’s support…
China Says TikTok Sale Shows US ‘Economic Bullying’
A senior Chinese official accused the U.S., which forced the sale of TikTok on national security grounds, of “economic bullying,” while lambasting European Union restrictions on Huawei Technologies, in comments highlighting Beijing’s increasing assertiveness against what it sees as unfair treatment from Western governments. From a report: “What has happened with TikTok in the United States is a typical act of…
Amazon Will Pay $135,000 To Settle Alleged US Sanction Violations
In a statement (PDF) issued this week, the U.S. Treasury Department notes that Amazon has agreed to pay $134,523 to settle potential liability over alleged sanctions violations. TechCrunch reports: The charges specifically pertain to goods and services sent to people located in Crimea, Iran and Syria, which are covered by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, between November 2011 and…