Security News Bites for January 31, 2025
Court Rules FISA 702 Surveillance of US Resident Unconstitutional
It will be interesting to see if this holds up under appeal. A court in NY ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is not a free pass when it comes to surveilling US residents. If this holds, this is a huge win to reduce government surveillance. Credit: The Register
President’s Firing of Intel Oversight Board Could Threaten EU-US Data Transfers
The administration’s decision to fire all Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a key part of the Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework (version 3 of an effort to allow data to flow freely between the EU and US – Safe Harbor, EU-US Privacy Shield and now TDPF) could jeopardize the transfer of data between the EU and US since this board, according the agreement we made, is supposed to be independent. This is either a negotiating tactic or no one told him that he could have a problem, so stay tuned. Credit: The Record
Europe Not Messing Around With Ships Sabotaging Underwater Cables
Swedish authorities have confirmed that a team of their elite armed police used a helicopter to board a ship suspected of sabotaging an underwater communications cable. While some people are saying that all of these cable attacks are accidents, others are saying that is unlikely. The ship and the crew are being held near a major Swedish naval base. The crew was initially held at gunpoint by the cops. Every time you lose a ship after an attack, it gets expensive and if the crew winds up being thrown in prison, both of those should reduce the desire to participate. Credit: The Record
China Hides Attacks in Plain Sight
It is as old as time. Blend in. Don’t stand out. China has figured this one out. Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure) are providing hosting services to Chinese companies. One company, Funnull, is named in a UN report for laundering millions for North Korea. One of Funnull’s customers is Suncity Group. Suncity’s CEO was sentenced to 18 years in prison for building a banking system that laundered billions for criminals. All being facilitated by Microsoft and Amazon. Last year the feds almost passed a bill requiring hosting providers to “know your customer” like banks have to do. The industry killed the bill. Maybe the new Congress won’t roll over. Credit: Brian Krebs
OpenAI Accuses DeepSeek of Stealing IP
OpenAI has accused Deepeek of using it’s proprietary models to train its own system. Since DeepSeek hit the global stage American tech stocks have gotten hammered. Sam Altman said it was invigorating to have a new competitor, but that hasn’t stopped him from accusing DeepSeek of IP theft. Remember that Altman’s company makes a living off of stealing everyone’s IP. No evidence yet but it may well exist. Stay tuned. The sparks have just begun. But even if true, it is likely impossible to get control of the stolen IP since their models are open source and have been downloaded millions of times. Credit: Computing
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