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The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on a cybersecurity company based in Beijing, accusing it of involvement with the Chinese state-backed hacking group known as Flax Typhoon. On Friday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against the Integrity Technology Group for its alleged role in “numerous computer intrusion incidents targeting U.S. entities,” including critical infrastructure. The move comes months after the U.S. accused Integrity Technology, also referred to as Yongxin Zhicheng, of operating a botnet linked to Flax Typhoon. This botnet, dismantled by the FBI in September during a court-authorized operation, reportedly consisted of over…

Several widely used VPN applications, including Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, have been removed from India’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store at the direction of government authorities. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs reportedly issued takedown orders for these apps, as per documents reviewed and a disclosure from Google to Lumen, Harvard University’s database that monitors government-led content removal requests worldwide. Among the affected VPNs are Hide.me and PrivadoVPN. Apple, in a communication to one of the developers, referenced a directive from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The notice claimed that the…

India has lifted restrictions on WhatsApp’s payment service, marking a major win for Meta as it strives to establish itself in the country’s competitive fintech space. With over 500 million users in India, WhatsApp now has the green light to expand its payment offerings to all users. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the governing body for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), announced the decision on Tuesday. This move eliminates the previous limit of 100 million users for WhatsApp Pay, signaling a shift in the regulatory stance toward the service’s broader adoption. Since its initial rollout in 2020, WhatsApp…

The U.S. Treasury Department disclosed to lawmakers that it suffered a significant cyberattack earlier in December, which has been attributed to hackers linked to the Chinese government. In a letter addressed to senior U.S. House lawmakers, the Treasury revealed that attackers remotely accessed employee workstations and unclassified documents, describing the incident as a “major cybersecurity breach.” The attack came to light on December 8 when BeyondTrust, a provider of identity access and remote support tools for organizations and government agencies, alerted the Treasury to the compromise. The attackers reportedly obtained a key used by BeyondTrust for remote technical support, though…

Encode, a nonprofit organization that previously backed California’s SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested court approval to file an amicus brief supporting Elon Musk’s effort to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit entity. In a brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Encode argued that OpenAI’s planned restructuring would undermine its original mission of creating transformative technology that benefits the public. The brief highlighted concerns over the potential shift in priorities, emphasizing that such advanced AI development should remain guided by safety and public welfare rather than profit motives. Encode’s founder and…

Cybersecurity startup Cyberhaven has reported a significant breach involving its Chrome browser extension, which was exploited by hackers to steal user credentials and session tokens. The incident, described as a potential supply-chain attack, was disclosed in an email to affected customers. The breach occurred when attackers compromised a company account to release a malicious update (version 24.10.4) to Cyberhaven’s Chrome extension on December 25. The update allowed the theft of sensitive user data, including authenticated sessions and cookies, which could be exploited to access accounts without needing passwords or two-factor authentication. Cyberhaven detected the issue later that day, removed the…

The global app economy continued its recovery in 2024, showing significant growth in consumer spending despite a slight decline in app downloads. According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, consumer spending on mobile apps and games reached $127 billion worldwide across the App Store and Google Play, reflecting a 15.7% increase from the previous year. This growth, however, was largely driven by Apple’s App Store, as spending on Google Play saw a slight decline. In contrast to the rise in spending, global app downloads fell by 2.3% year-over-year, totaling nearly 110 billion. This decrease affected both iOS and Android platforms, with…

Flipboard, known for its social magazine app, is taking a leap into the era of the open social web with the introduction of its latest app, Surf. Unlike its original app, which allowed users to curate content from blogs, news outlets, and traditional social media platforms, Surf is designed to help users discover and navigate the open social web. Currently in invite-only beta, Surf supports decentralized platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as other public content such as blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. Surf operates on open protocols, including RSS for website and podcast updates, Bluesky’s AT Protocol, and…

Arctic Wolf has acquired Cylance, BlackBerry’s cybersecurity division, for $160 million, a sharp decline from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry paid for the startup in 2018. As part of the agreement, which is expected to close during BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4, the company will receive $80 million upfront, with the remaining payment due a year later. Additionally, BlackBerry will acquire approximately 5.5 million common shares in Arctic Wolf. BlackBerry CEO John Giammatteo described the deal as mutually beneficial, stating, “This transaction is advantageous for all stakeholders. Customers will continue to enjoy uninterrupted service and benefit from Arctic Wolf’s expertise in cybersecurity. Arctic…

Microsoft has unveiled its latest addition to the Phi series of generative AI models, named Phi-4. This new model brings notable improvements over its predecessors, especially in solving mathematical problems, which Microsoft attributes to enhanced training data quality. Currently, Phi-4 is accessible only for research purposes through Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry development platform, under a research license agreement. The platform provides limited access to the model, which was made available starting Thursday night. Phi-4 is the newest member of Microsoft’s small language model lineup, featuring 14 billion parameters. It enters a competitive market alongside other compact models such as GPT-4o…