News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

‘OK Kim Jong-Un’ — Macron Compared to Communist Dictators over Call to ‘Cut Off’ Social Networks During Riots

In a meeting with 300 mayors at the Élysée Palace in Paris earlier this week, embattled President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the government could implement a blackout to “cut off social networks” when “things get carried away” during riots, according to Le Figaro.

The country, which is somewhat accustomed to people rioting in the streets has faced the most destructive mayhem in recent memory following the police shooting of an Algerian teen after he sped away from a traffic stop in the Nanterre suburb of Paris last Tuesday. During the ensuing riots, over 5,000 vehicles have been destroyed and some 1,000 buildings were set on fire. So far, over 3,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested.

Nevertheless, Macron’s call for censorship of social media to combat the violent riots — a measure typically only deployed in war zones or in despotic regimes — has prompted a fierce backlash, with many comparing his inclinations to those of communist dictators.

President of the centre-right Les Républicains group in the National Assembly, Olivier Marleix wrote on Twitter: “Cut social media? Like China, Iran, North Korea? Even if it is a provocation to divert attention, it is in very bad taste.”

Green Party MP Cyrielle Châtelain echoed the sentiment, questioning: “ We are going to manage social networks like in Russia or China?”
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Ironically, one of the few national leaders to refrain from criticising the president for his call for censorship was Fabien Roussel, the national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), who called for similar censorship measures to be imposed in response to the riots.

Attempting to quell the outrage, the government later tried to clarify the remarks from Macron, with Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion Christophe Béchu noting that it was “not the announcement of a censorship law, in any way”.

 Right... and then they suddenly notice how the social networks get cut off anyway.

French Police to Spy Through Phones, Laptops, Cars Using Remote Camera, Microphone Activation

France’s Parliament has voted to approve a controversial new clause in the justice reform bill allowing police to remotely turn on cameras and microphones in a host of internet-connected devices for up to six months to surveil suspects.

A move by the Emmanuel Macron government to grab more power for the security state has passed a key stage in the national Parliament, with MPs voting 80 to 24 in favour of article three of the justice bill. As reported, included in the article are provisions allowing police to ask a judge for permission to use modern personal technology to spy on suspects.

The new rules would allow police to surveil suspects for six months by using their smart devices including mobile phones, computers, and even car dashboards to watch, listen, and locate using cameras, microphones, and GPS.

Le Monde reports that while the law has been criticised by defenders of freedom and privacy from both left and right, its defenders insist this is not ‘1984’, will only be used in a handful of cases a year, and will save lives.

Constraints on the power added to the bill include needing the permission of a judge to activate a cell phone remotely, a time limit on that permission’s validity, that the snooping has to be “justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime”, and that it only be applicable to suspected crimes punishable by five or more years in prison.

That's like saying that  Hall 2000 is a humanitarian, a real beneficient machine...

Elon Musk Sues Wachtell Law Firm to Recoup Fees From Twitter Buyout

Elon Musk has sued the elite law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to recover most of a $90 million fee it received from Twitter for defeating his bid to walk away from his $44 billion buyout of the social media company.

The complaint by Mr. Musk’s X Corp., which owns Twitter, was filed on Wednesday in the California Superior Court in San Francisco.

Mr. Musk accused Wachtell of exploiting Twitter by accepting, in the final days before the Oct. 27, 2022, buyout closed, huge “success” fees doled out by departing Twitter executives who were grateful that Mr. Musk would be forced to close.

The world’s richest person, who also runs Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, called the $90 million payout “unconscionable,” given that Wachtell had billed less than one-third that sum for its few months of work on the Delaware lawsuit.
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Mr. Musk wants to recoup “excess” fees that Wachtell charged under an agreement signed on the day of closing by one of its partners and Twitter’s chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.

The complaint also quoted former Twitter director Martha Lane Fox who, upon learning how much lawyers would be paid, emailed general counsel Sean Edgett: “O My Freaking God.”
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Wachtell is no stranger to lawsuits by billionaires over buyouts, having spent years litigating with Carl Icahn over his 2012 hostile takeover of CVR Energy.

Google Will Record Everything Users Post Online to Train Its AI Products

Google will record everything people post online in order to train its artificial intelligence products.

On July 1, Google amended its privacy policy to allow it to scrape comments that posters put on the internet, to help it to hone its AI tools.

The tech company’s plan to harvest and harness online public data is raising new privacy concerns.

Google’s previous user policy stated that publicly available information would only be scraped to help train its “language models” for Google Translate.
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There are also concerns that advanced AI technology will be used to steal intellectual property and eliminate several professions done by humans, along with violating user privacy.
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So far, the tech giant seems to have shifted its data collection focus from language to AI models, and mentioned Bard and Cloud AI for the first time in its updated service terms.

Google will keep and read any public comments from now on, with some of them being retained for chatbot training.

Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over Rival Threads App

In a July 5 letter addressed to Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro wrote that Twitter has “serious concerns” that Meta has engaged in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

The lawyer then went on to accuse Meta of having hired “dozens” of former Twitter employees over the past year who he claimed “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets” and other confidential information.

Mr. Musk launched a series of layoffs at Twitter when he took over the company last year after discovering the social media site was losing over $4 million a day.
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“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” the lawyer continued. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”
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“Please consider this letter a formal notice that Meta must preserve any documents that could be relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta, and/or former Twitter employees who now work for Meta,” Mr. Musk’s attorney wrote in his letter.

Australia’s Cybersecurity Chief Confirms ‘Sensitive Government Information’ Stolen by Russian Hackers

Australia’s newly appointed national cybersecurity coordinator, Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Darren Goldie, has confirmed that Australian government entities embroiled in the HWL Ebsworth cyberattack have had their “sensitive personal and government information” stolen by Russian cybercriminals.

This comes as over 40 Australian government agencies are feared to have been impacted by the database hacking, including Australia’s four major banks.

AVM. Goldie said that he is working with the law firm EWL Ebsworth to understand the full extent of the data breach.
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As the cyber security chief’s first order of business, AVM. Goldie was tasked to seek briefings from the Department of Home Affairs and HWL Ebsworth on the status of the cyberattack, which occurred in April.

Of the four terabytes that were stolen by Russian cybercriminal BlackCat, approximately 1.45 terabytes of sensitive information were published by the hacking grouping on the dark web on June 8.
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Departments such as Home Affairs, the Australian Taxation Office, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), the Defence Department, and the Australian Federal Police have been impacted by the database hacking of HWL Ebsworth.

Other governmental departments include the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, Education, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Industry, Science, and Resources, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT), ASIC, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Fair Work Ombudsman, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

 This truly smells bad. They couldn't even protect the prime minister's office from being hacked by Russians!?