General
To boost voter-fraud claims, Trump advocate Sidney Powell turns to unusual source: The longtime operator of QAnon’s Internet home
Drew Harwell, The Washington Post
In her legal quest to reverse the reality of last month’s election, President Trump’s recently disavowed attorney Sidney Powell has gained a strange new ally: the longtime administrator of the message board 8kun, the QAnon conspiracy theory’s Internet home.
Government should take bigger role in promoting U.S. technology or risk losing ground to China, commission says
Jeanne Whalen, The Washington Post
Advocates of the U.S. government taking a bigger role in industrial policy got a boost Tuesday from a bipartisan commission on China, which said the government should consider getting more involved in promoting U.S. technology or risk losing its edge to Chinese products.
China Panel Calls for More Federal Trade Commission Authority in Approving Mergers Involving Foreign Money
Yuka Hayashi, The Wall Street Journal
An influential bipartisan commission on China recommended Tuesday Congress expand the Federal Trade Commission’s authority, which would allow it to examine the influence of foreign government subsidies earlier in the process of considering large mergers and acquisitions involving foreign companies.
Google, Facebook and Amazon Gain as Coronavirus Reshapes Ad Spending
Suzanne Vranica, The Wall Street Journal
For the first time, more than half of U.S. advertising spending is set to go to digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, the world’s largest ad buyer said, a reflection of marketers’ strategy shift as the coronavirus pandemic pummeled the industry this year.
Chinese state-backed funds invest in US tech despite Washington curbs
Mercedes Ruehl et al., Financial Times
Groups strike deals in sensitive sectors even as new rules enacted over security concerns.
Uber completes $2.65 billion Postmates acquisition
Rebecca Klar, The Hill
Uber completed its $2.65 billion acquisition of delivery platform Postmates, the companies announced Tuesday. The announcement came about five months after Uber said it reached an agreement to acquire Postmates in an all-stock deal.
Facebook-backed Libra Association has been renamed Diem
Jessica Bursztynsky, CNBC
Libra Association, a Facebook-backed digital payment group, said Tuesday it’s transitioning to the name “Diem.”
Showdown looms over digital services tax
Ashley Gold, Axios
A fight over foreign countries’ efforts to tax big American tech companies’ digital services is likely to come to a head in January just as Joe Biden takes office.
Amazon and Apple Are Powering a Shift Away From Intel’s Chips
Don Clark, The New York Times
For close to a decade, supporters of the chip technology that powers mobile phones vowed to shake up the market for computers. For the most part, they made little headway. Now that finally seems to be changing, in a potential power shift over the direction of the computer industry.
Tech Companies Won Big in California, but the Gig Worker Battle Isn’t Over
David Bradley Isenberg, The Markup
It was expensive—about $205 million, the most ever spent on a ballot initiative—and certainly unconventional, but Uber, Lyft, and Instacart gladly paid the price for passing Proposition 22, which classifies app-based drivers as contractors, an exemption to California’s law that would otherwise require that they receive full employee benefits. Emboldened, tech company executives have already started talking about how to cement a non-employee status for gig workers across the country and even the world.
Tesla whistleblower Martin Tripp ordered to pay $400,000 to settle hacking case
Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge
Martin Tripp, the former Tesla worker who has been embroiled in a bitter legal battle with CEO Elon Musk for over two years, was ordered to pay his former employer $400,000 after admitting to leaking confidential information to a reporter.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
Amazon Is Laying the Groundwork for Its Own Quantum Computer
Yaacov Benmeleh, Bloomberg
Amazon.com Inc. is laying the groundwork for a quantum computer, deepening efforts to harness technology that can crunch in seconds vast amounts of data that take even the most powerful supercomputers hours or days to process.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
Roku Hires Apple’s Former Chief Siri Architect for Software Role
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg
Brian Pinkerton has joined the Los Gatos, California-based maker of TV set-top-boxes and software where he will focus on “technical innovation and strategic software development across the platform,” the company said on Tuesday.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tanium Move Headquarters Out of California
Nick Wingfield, The Information
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a cloud software and services company that split off from its namesake parent company in 2015, said in an earnings announcement that it decided to relocate its headquarters to Houston because it is an “attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent.”
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Pinterest shareholders sue over ‘toxic’ work culture
Zoe Schiffer, The Verge
Pinterest shareholders are suing the company’s top executives, including CEO Ben Silbermann, for allegedly enabling a culture of discrimination. The toxic work environment has hurt the company’s reputation, leading to a user boycott and financial harm, the complaint alleges.
Apple sued in Europe over software update that slowed old iPhones
Patrick McGee, Financial Times
Legal action comes after company agreed to $500m settlement in US over similar claims.
Ads Inc. Shut Down, But The Tools It Used To Trick People On Facebook Have Lived On
Craig Silverman, BuzzFeed News
In the fall of 2019, Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ads Inc., a San Diego marketing firm that bought over $50 million in Facebook ads that used the images of celebrities without their permission to trick people into enrolling in difficult-to-cancel monthly subscriptions.
In 2020, Apple redesigned the parts of iPhones and Macs you can’t see
Ian Sherr, CNET
If you look at Apple’s new lineup of iPhones and Macs, you’ll probably struggle to see the difference from last year’s models. They’re roughly the same size and shape. This year’s iPhone 12 family is a bit boxier than 2019’s iPhone 11, though there is a new, smaller iPhone 12 Mini. The same goes for Mac exteriors. It’s hard to pinpoint changes. But inside, Apple has made some of the most significant alterations to its devices in years. And Apple watchers believe they’ll have lasting repercussions.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Homeland Security Watchdog to Probe Department’s Use of Phone Location Data
Byron Tau, The Wall Street Journal
The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog said it would open an investigation into the use of mobile-phone surveillance technologies to track Americans without a warrant, the latest salvo in a debate within the U.S. government over the legality of such techniques.
North Korean Hackers Are Said to Have Targeted Companies Working on Covid-19 Vaccines
Andrew Jeong, The Wall Street Journal
North Korean hackers have targeted at least six pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., the U.K. and South Korea working on Covid-19 treatments, according to people familiar with the matter, as the regime seeks sensitive information it could sell or weaponize.
Trump Campaign’s Unproven Vote Claims Lead to Cyber Staff Exodus
Alyza Sebenius, Bloomberg
The recent departure of a spate of high-profile U.S. cybersecurity officials resulted from their insistence that the presidential election was legitimate while President Donald Trump’s campaign peddled false claims of widespread fraud, according to one of the officials who was forced out.
Former CISA deputy details ouster, condemns violent threat from Trump campaign
Sean Lyngaas, CyberScoop
The former deputy of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday faulted the Trump campaign for politicizing election security and condemned a violent threat from a campaign lawyer toward his former boss, Chris Krebs, in his first public comments since leaving the agency.
Massachusetts lawmakers pass state-wide police ban on facial recognition
Mariella Moon, Engadget
Massachusetts could make history as the first state to issue a ban on the use of facial recognition by law enforcement. The state’s House and Senate lawmakers have approved a police reform bill that would prohibit police departments and other public agencies from using facial recognition systems. As Forbes notes, there will be exceptions, such as if cops can secure a warrant to use facial recognition against someone’s driver’s license. Officers can also write a request to be able to use the technology if they can show evidence that it’s needed to prevent serious injury or death.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
When Is Success Illegal?
Joe Kennedy, Morning Consult
There is a sea change underway in U.S. antitrust policy, and it has the potential to wreak havoc on corporations and harm consumers in the process.
Trump fired me for saying this, but I’ll say it again: The election wasn’t rigged
Christopher Krebs, The Washington Post
On Nov. 17, I was dismissed as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a Senate-confirmed post, in a tweet from President Trump after my team and other election security experts rebutted claims of hacking in the 2020 election. On Monday, a lawyer for the president’s campaign plainly stated that I should be executed. I am not going to be intimidated by these threats from telling the truth to the American people.
Ajit Pai Bids Adieu
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
The leadership of regulatory agencies usually turns over with the change of federal administrations, so it’s no surprise that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced Monday that he will step down after four years in the job. He leaves a notable legacy, especially after the mess he inherited from the Obama era.
Research Reports
Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles
Bill Marczak et al., The Citizen Lab
Circles is a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system to snoop on calls, texts, and the location of phones around the globe. Circles is affiliated with NSO Group, which develops the oft-abused Pegasus spyware.
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