Hillicon Valley: Biden’s cyber priorities zero in on Russian hack | Apple, Facebook report increase in earnings at the end of 2020 | International authorities disrupt ‘world’s most dangerous malware’
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Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.
STRONG START FOR BIDEN ON CYBER: President Biden and his administration have hit the ground running on cybersecurity during his first week in office, with a particular emphasis on addressing the fallout from the recently discovered Russian hack that hit much of the federal government.
Experts are calling the focus on cyber issues — and Biden’s efforts to quickly fill key roles and push back against foreign adversaries — a breath of fresh air after four years of the Trump administration.
“Certainly all of the action, and the substantive nature of the action, represents that they’ve put cybersecurity as a priority, which they had said in the transition, but they are putting their money where their mouth is and moving forward on it,” said Kiersten Todt, former executive director of a cybersecurity commission under former President Obama who’s now managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute.
APPLE, FACEBOOK FINISH STRONG: Apple and Facebook both reported strong earnings from the last three months of 2020 in their quarterly earning reports released Wednesday.
Facebook reported a total revenue of $28 billion in the last three months of 2020, a 33 percent increase from the same period last year, and Apple reported an all-time record revenue of $111.4 billion in the last three months of 2020, up 21 percent from the previous year.
Facebook noted challenges it faces regarding targeted ads in the new year, specifically citing Apple’s new iOS 14 update which the social media giant has repeatedly criticized as it limits the reach of targeted ads.
BOTNET DOWN: A coalition of international law enforcement and judicial groups on Wednesday announced the takedown of infrastructure used by cyber criminals to spread what authorities described as the “world’s most dangerous malware” and attack organizations worldwide.
The Emotet botnet, one of the most prolific malware viruses used by hackers over the past decade, saw its infrastructure disrupted by authorities in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Ukraine that was coordinated by European Union agencies Europol and Eurojust.
“EMOTET was much more than just a malware,” Europol wrote in a statement Wednesday. “What made EMOTET so dangerous is that the malware was offered for hire to other cybercriminals to install other types of malware, such as banking Trojans or ransomware, onto a victim’s computer.”
Read more about the botnet takedown here.
A HUAWEI DILEMMA: House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul (R-Texas), on Wednesday called on members of the Senate to block consideration of Gina Raimondo, President Biden’s pick for Commerce secretary, until she clarifies her stance on Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
McCaul was critical of Raimondo’s refusal to commit to keeping Huawei on the Commerce Department’s “entity list” if confirmed, and also around the Biden administration’s unclear stance on the issue.
“Until they make their intentions clear on whether they will keep Huawei on the Entity List, I urge my Senate colleagues to hold Ms. Raimondo’s confirmation,” McCaul said in a statement.
While McCaul as a member of the House does not have the power to block consideration of Raimondo, a spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told The Hill that “all options remain on the table” terms of a potential block.
Read more about the nomination drama here.
FAILING GRADES: Facebook and Reddit were given failing grades by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “report card” about responding to online Holocaust denial content.
The ADL report released on International Holocaust Remembrance Day gave Facebook, Reddit, Discord and Steam a “D” in terms of their response to Holocaust denial content.
Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Roblox fared a bit better, each receiving a “C” from the ADL. And although no platform received an “A,” Twitch was ranked the highest with a “B” grade.
Read more about the report here.
INFLUENCER CHARGED: A Florida man who was an ardent supporter of former President Trump on Twitter was charged Wednesday with election interference after allegedly running a scam in 2016 that fooled thousands of people into believing they could vote via text message.
In a press release, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of 31-year-old Douglass Mackey, who went by the name “Ricky Vaughn” on Twitter in several now-deleted accounts.
The DOJ release details that Mackey allegedly conspired with others using Twitter to trick U.S. voters into believing they could cast valid ballots in the 2016 election via text message.
TWITTER OPENS TWEET ARCHIVE: Twitter on Tuesday said it is opening up full access to the platform’s archive to researchers for free.
Twitter’s new Academic Research product track will grant researchers access to the full history of public conversations, a feature which was previously only available to customers who paid for premium access.
The new feature will also allow for more precise filtering capabilities to limit data collection to what is relevant to researchers’ studies, Twitter said.
PROGRESSIVES WARN AGAINST SECTION 230 CHANGES: A coalition of more than 70 progressive groups sent a letter to congress and the Biden administration urging caution when potentially changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The law, which protects internet companies from liability for most content posted by third parties and allows them to do good-faith moderation, is facing sustained efforts aimed at reform or repeal for the first time since being enshrined in 1996.
In their letter to Congress and the Biden administration, the organizations argue that the law is fundamental to free expression and human rights on the internet.
Lighter click: America’s next top app
An op-ed to chew on: First 100 days: Invest in space infrastructure to spark economic recovery
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
More women are joining China’s tech elite, but ‘Wolf Culture’ isn’t going away (Protocol / Shen Lu)
Debate heats up over how countries tax Big Tech companies (AP / David McHugh)
TikTok is laying off employees in India as ban becomes permanent (CNN / Michelle Toh)
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