All news in category “Regulation and Policy Brief”

🔒 CISA announced a transition to a new support model to better equip state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments to strengthen shared responsibility nationwide. The agency's cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) will end on September 30, 2025, prompting a shift to direct support. CISA will provide access to grant funding (via DHS/FEMA SLCGP and TCGP), no-cost tools such as cyber hygiene scanning and phishing assessments, regional advisors, and professional services to bolster local cybersecurity posture.

🔒 CISA has transitioned to a new direct-support model to equip state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments with access to grant funding, no-cost cybersecurity tools, and hands-on expertise. The agency’s cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security concludes on September 30, 2025, and CISA will deliver funding via DHS/FEMA programs including SLCGP and TCGP. Offered services include cyber hygiene scanning, phishing assessments, vulnerability management, the Cybersecurity Performance Goals and Cyber Security Evaluation Tool, regional advisors and incident response coordination, while CISA continues collaboration with MS-ISAC for Albert sensor users.

⚖️ The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether SAP engaged in anti-competitive conduct in aftermarket services for its on‑premise ERP software. The probe focuses on four practices: mandatory uniform support across products, blocking termination of unused licenses, extending non‑terminable initial support terms, and charging reinstatement fees equal to prior amounts. The Commission says these practices could limit competition from third‑party support providers and amount to unfair trading conditions. SAP says its policies follow industry standards and expects no significant financial impact.

🔐 President Trump has signed an executive order approving a plan to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese owner ByteDance, enabling a new U.S.-based joint venture to manage the service domestically. The agreement covers TikTok and related apps such as Lemon8 and CapCut and limits ByteDance to under 20% ownership. Oracle and other American investors will control algorithms, data storage, and content moderation while security partners monitor code and data flows.

🛡️ The Singapore Police Force has issued an implementation directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act requiring Meta to implement enhanced facial recognition for Singapore users and to prioritise review of local scam reports by September 30. The Ministry of Home Affairs said Facebook was the primary platform for government impersonation scams between June 2024 and June 2025, and the SPF disrupted about 2,000 problematic ad schemes on Meta. If Meta fails to comply without a reasonable excuse it faces a S$1m fine and daily penalties after conviction.

⚖️ The FTC announced a $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon over allegations it used dark patterns to trick millions into enrolling in and retaining Prime subscriptions. The agreement includes a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds for an estimated 35 million affected consumers. The FTC said Amazon's checkout and cancellation designs obscured opt-outs, failed to disclose automatic renewals, and relied on an internal cancellation flow nicknamed "Iliad" that deterred cancellations. Internal documents, the agency added, showed employees discussing the problematic practices.

🛡️ Microsoft will provide no-cost Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10 consumer users across the European Economic Area (EEA). The company adjusted enrollment so consumers can access critical patches without tying updates to Windows Backup or Microsoft Rewards, following pressure from Euroconsumers. Microsoft says the change aims to support customers transitioning to Windows 11 before Windows 10 reaches end of support on October 14, 2025.

⚖️ A year after Google Cloud filed a formal complaint with the European Commission, restrictive cloud licensing by Microsoft remains entrenched and, according to recent disclosures, appears to be intensifying. Microsoft has described efforts to drive customers to Azure as a core growth pillar, while new licensing changes due at the end of September further restrict managed service providers from hosting workloads on competing clouds. Regulators such as the U.K.'s CMA have found these policies harm customers, competition, innovation, and cybersecurity, and multiple global authorities are now scrutinizing the practices.

🔐 CISA and partners released Foundations for OT Cybersecurity: Asset Inventory Guidance for Owners and Operators to help operational technology (OT) owners build accurate, prioritized asset inventories. The guide—co-developed with federal, international, and industry experts—details practical steps to classify devices, map dependencies, and integrate inventories into risk and incident response workflows. It emphasizes continuous maintenance and alignment with NIST and IEC 62443.

⚖️ The Irish government has appointed Niamh Sweeney as a member of the Data Protection Commission, the authority that leads EU oversight of major technology companies. The appointment has drawn strong criticism from privacy organization Noyb, which highlights Sweeney’s previous role as a lobbyist for Meta. Critics, including Max Schrems, argue this raises questions about impartiality and potential regulatory capture. As recently as December, the DPC fined Meta €251 million for breaches of GDPR, a fact cited by opponents of the appointment.

🛡️ Attaullah Baig, former head of security at WhatsApp, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that Facebook knowingly failed to fix multiple security flaws in breach of its 2019 settlement with the FTC. The complaint asserts that in 2022 roughly 100,000 accounts were compromised daily, rising to as many as 400,000 daily lockouts by last year, and that inadequate anti-scraping protections exposed profile data at scale. Baig invokes the whistleblower-protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the filing has prompted wider media coverage and potential regulatory scrutiny.

🔍 The DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit found that CISA misused federal funds and undermined its mission by broadly administering the Cyber Incentive program. The review identified 240 recipients in non-cyber support roles, poor record-keeping in OCHCO, and $1.4m in undocumented back pay among more than $138m disbursed since 2020. Payments typically ranged from $21,000 to $25,000 annually per person, more than 40% of staff received incentives, and the OIG issued eight recommendations to tighten eligibility, tracking, governance and recovery procedures; CISA has concurred with all recommendations.

🔔 This report analyzes the persistent difficulty organizations face when notifying victims of cyber incidents and proposes a practical roadmap to improve outcomes. It introduces the CSRB's native-notification concept and outlines nearer-term, narrower changes that could increase both delivery and trust. The authors recommend that cloud service providers adopt better notification practices, support secure middleware for cross-platform delivery, and strengthen post-notification victim assistance.

🚨 U.S. Senator Ron Wyden requested that the FTC investigate Microsoft for what he describes as “gross cybersecurity negligence” after product weaknesses tied to Kerberos and legacy RC4 usage contributed to ransomware incidents, including the May 2024 Ascension Health breach that exposed data for 5.6 million patients. Wyden says his office alerted Microsoft in July 2024 and urged setting stronger ciphers like AES as defaults; he criticized an October Microsoft blog as too technical to warn corporate decision-makers. Microsoft replied that RC4 accounts for under 0.1% of traffic, that full removal risks breaking legacy systems, and that deprecation is on its roadmap.

🔒 CISA has published a strategic focus document, “CVE Quality for a Cyber Secure Future,” signaling federal support for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program and a shift from a growth-focused expansion to a defined Quality Era. The agency reaffirmed that the program should remain public and vendor‑neutral while evaluating potential mechanisms for diversified funding and taking a more active leadership role. The roadmap prioritizes automation, strengthened CNA services and CNAs of Last Resort, expanded API support, improved CVE.org capabilities, minimum data-quality standards and federated enrichment approaches such as Vulnrichment.

🛡️ US Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft following the 2024 ransomware attack on healthcare operator Ascension, which exposed data for 5.6 million patients after a contractor clicked a malicious Bing search result. Wyden says default Microsoft settings and support for the outdated RC4 standard enabled a Kerberoasting technique that granted administrative access. He notes Microsoft was warned in July 2024 and posted a blog in October announcing a planned update, but nearly a year later no update has been issued nor direct customer outreach made. The letter frames Microsoft’s control over default configurations as a systemic national security risk.

🔍 Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft for what he describes as "gross cybersecurity negligence" that he says facilitated ransomware attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, including healthcare. Wyden's four-page letter to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson cites the 2024 Ascension breach attributed to Black Basta and details an attack chain that began when a contractor clicked a malicious link after using Microsoft's Bing search. The senator highlights exploitation of insecure default Kerberos settings and legacy RC4 support enabling Kerberoasting, and criticizes Microsoft for not enforcing stronger defaults and minimum password requirements while noting the company's published mitigations and planned deprecations.

🚨 Senator Ron Wyden has asked the FTC to investigate Microsoft for what he calls "gross cybersecurity negligence," arguing insecure defaults enabled widespread ransomware attacks. He cites the February 2024 Ascension Health breach that exposed 5.6 million patient records and describes how a single click enabled lateral movement via Kerberoasting and lingering RC4 support. Wyden criticizes Microsoft for building a >$20 billion security business of add-on protections while leaving core products vulnerable and says promised fixes and plain-language guidance were inadequate. The letter warns this pattern poses national-security and industry-wide risks.

🔔 The California Privacy Protection Agency and the attorneys general of California, Colorado and Connecticut announced a coordinated enforcement sweep targeting businesses that fail to detect or honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) opt-out signals. Regulators will contact firms believed not to be processing consumers’ opt-out requests and urge immediate remediation. Legal advisers recommend technical steps — from reliable GPC signal recognition to consent management platform integration, routine testing and monitoring, and clear privacy notice updates — to reduce enforcement risk.

🔒CISA reaffirms federal leadership of the CVE Program, arguing that a neutral, government steward is essential to preserve trust and national security. The agency ties the program to operational initiatives such as the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog and warns that privatization or fragmentation would erode reliability and increase risk. CISA outlines a shift from a 'Growth Era' to a 'Quality Era' focused on improving completeness, accuracy, timeliness, governance, and sustainable infrastructure, and invites practitioners, industry, and international partners to help shape the program's future.