THREATS
Bless the rains down in Africa. Technicians at Huawei, the embattled Chinese tech giant, helped African governments spy on political opponents, alleges a Wall Street Journal investigation. The engineers supposedly aided Uganded and Zambian authorities in intercepting communications and tracking whereabouts of opposition leaders and supporters. Huawei has denied the claim, saying it "rejects completely these unfounded and inaccurate allegations."
Lock her up. In a Tuesday filing, federal prosecutors have requested the court system keep Paige Thompson, the suspected hacker behind Capital One's recent data breach, detained without bail. The prosecutors wrote that Thompson's alleged actions "resulted in the theft of massive amounts of data from what now appears to be more than 30 victim companies." If released, she could sell or spread the "multiple terabytes" of data she supposedly stole.
You've got a leak. A database, called Biostar 2 and filled with biometric information and passwords for more than 1 million people, leaked online. Credit Karma customers are complaining that the service sent them other people's information accidentally. Add Facebook to the growing number of tech companies who have been found to be paying contractors to transcribe people's audio chats.
A gathering storm cloud. Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure startup that provides cybersecurity services to websites, is preparing for an initial public offering. The company cited controversies over hosting potentially unsavory customers as a potential risk factor to its business in a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As an example, the prospectus specifically called out 8chan —a forum that inspired mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand—which Cloudflare suspended only recently, after facing heated criticism.
Through the looking glass. Using its censorial stranglehold on its domestic internet, China is manipulating media to turn popular sentiment against the mass protests in Hong Kong. The country is distorting the context of images on social media to create the impression that the popular movement is the work of a small group of violent thugs.
What dank GIFs is NSA hiding??
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ACCESS GRANTED
Salute your solution. Continuing the discussion about election security above, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial that looks carefully at that divisive election security bill. The legislation has been opposed—to the consternation of many proponents—by certain members of Congress, especially Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Here the Journal details the arguments of the bill blockers.
The media's latest hot take is that Republicans—in particular the dastardly Senator Mitch McConnell —are blocking bipartisan legislation to protect the nation's elections. Reality, as usual, is more complicated. Consider the Securing America's Federal Elections Act, or the Safe Act, which the Democratic House passed in June....
Some of these ideas may have merit, but others have trade-offs. Running elections has been a state responsibility, and there are legitimate questions about further federalizing it. The Safe Act says post-election audits would be fully paid for by Washington—assuming Congress appropriated enough funds. If states think free money for new voting equipment is around the corner, they may quit upgrading themselves.
FORTUNE RECON
Update Windows 10 Immediately, Warns Microsoft by Chris Morris
Domestic Terrorism Is Likely to Grow, Experts Warn by Tovin Lapan
Twitter Has Tripled the Number of Workers Policing Its Service in the Past Year by Danielle Abril
Facebook Stops Recording Users' Audio, as Contract Transcriptionists Express Ethical Concerns by Sarah Frier
Hundreds of Gun Control Bills Have Been Introduced Since Sandy Hook. Why Has Nothing Changed? by Renae Reints
British Airways Has Yet Another Security Problem, New Report Says by Alyssa Newcomb
What the IRS Wants You to Know About Tax Scams by Joyce R. Rosenberg
Cathay Pacific Vowed Not to Keep Staff From Hong Kong's Protests. Then Beijing Intervened by Eamon Barrett
ONE MORE THING
NULL. After Joseph Tartaro, a security researcher, acquired a vanity license plate that read "NULL," he began receiving a flood of citations for other people's traffic violations. Backend computer systems began associating any "null" values, where a traffic cop may have forgotten to record license plate information, with Tartaro's personal information. As someone who recently visited the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, I advise against playing jokes on any such backend systems.
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