All news with #regulatory action tag

⚖️ 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.

🔔 CISA has issued Emergency Directive 25-03 requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies to remediate two actively exploited Cisco vulnerabilities, CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362, in ASA and FTD devices. Agencies must inventory appliances, collect forensics, disconnect compromised and end-of-support devices, and apply patches by the stated deadlines. Cisco links the exploitation to the ArcaneDoor campaign, which leverages ROMMON manipulation and in-memory backdoors to maintain persistence.

⚖️ 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.

🛡️ CISA issued Emergency Directive 25-03 directing federal civilian agencies to identify and mitigate exploitation of a zero-day affecting Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA). Agencies must inventory in-scope devices, collect forensic data, and assess compromises using CISA-provided procedures and tools. End-of-support devices must be disconnected and remaining appliances upgraded by 11:59 PM EST on September 26, 2025; CISA will monitor compliance and provide assistance.

🔒 British investigators arrested a man in his forties in West Sussex in connection with a suspected ransomware outbreak that disrupted flights across Europe. The National Crime Agency said the suspect was released on conditional bail and the probe remains at an early stage. Security researchers have linked the incident to the HardBit variant, which affected ARINC vMUSE systems and forced airlines to revert to paper processes amid repeated reinfections.

🕵️‍♂️ In a five-month international campaign, Operation HAECHI VI led by Interpol and partner agencies recovered more than $439 million in cash and cryptocurrency tied to cyber-enabled financial crimes. Investigators from 40 countries across five continents targeted a broad range of scams — including voice phishing, investment fraud, BEC, sextortion and romance scams — freezing 400 crypto wallets and blocking over 68,000 bank accounts. The action included 45 arrests in Portugal and multimillion-dollar recoveries in Thailand, building on prior HAECHI phases that netted hundreds of millions and thousands of arrests.

⚖️ 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.

🔒 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have dismantled the TradeOgre cryptocurrency exchange and seized more than $40 million in assets believed linked to criminal activity. The small, privacy-focused platform — which supported Monero and did not enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) checks — was taken offline after an investigation by the RCMP’s Money Laundering Investigative Team. Authorities say the exchange failed to register with FINTRAC and cautioned not all seized funds have been confirmed as criminal proceeds.

🚨 Two teenagers have been arrested in the UK on suspicion of involvement in the August 2024 cyberattack against Transport for London; authorities say the suspects are believed to be members of the Scattered Spider collective. The National Crime Agency is prosecuting both on computer misuse and fraud-related charges, while U.S. prosecutors also filed charges against one suspect tied to multiple intrusions and extortion schemes. TfL reported that the breach disrupted internal systems and later confirmed customer data, including names and contact details, was compromised, causing operational disruption and financial losses.

🔒 Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, known online as "Pompompurin", has been resentenced to three years in prison after a U.S. appeals court overturned his earlier lenient term. He created and administered the notorious BreachForums, a marketplace for stolen data and hacking tools, and was arrested after the Department of Justice disrupted the site. Fitzpatrick had violated pretrial release conditions and pleaded guilty to hacking charges and possession of child sexual abuse material; the forum remains active under a new domain.

🔒 A US court filing identifies a TaskUs employee as a key conspirator in the December 2024 breach of Coinbase, a compromise publicly disclosed in May 2025. Prosecutors allege support agents were bribed and recruited to steal customer PII, impacting almost 70,000 users and facilitating social engineering and asset theft. The filing names employee Ashita Mishra, accuses her of stealing and photographing hundreds of records per day and selling data for $200 a record, and claims TaskUs tried to minimize and conceal its security failures. Plaintiffs seek monetary damages and court-ordered security reforms.

⚖️ The U.S. Department of Justice resentenced Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (aka Pompompurin) to three years in prison after vacating his prior 17‑day time‑served sentence for operating BreachForums and possessing child sexual abuse material. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in 2023 to access device conspiracy, access device solicitation, and CSAM possession and agreed to forfeit domains, devices, and cryptocurrency representing illicit proceeds. The resentencing followed a Fourth Circuit decision that remanded his case for a new term.

🛡️ 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.

🚨 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.

🛡️ 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.