The U.S. Commerce Department has placed two European-based Israeli-owned spyware companies on its trade blacklist, citing national security concerns. Intellexa S.A. in Greece and its entity Intellexa Limited in Ireland, and Cytrox AD in North Macedonia, along with its entity Cytrox Holdings Crt in Hungary, were added to the technology export blacklist, the Commerce Department…

A hacker was able to gain access to cosmetics company Estee Lauder’s internal system, prompting the makeup and beauty giant to launch an investigation into the incident, it announced on July 18. In a statement, the New York-headquartered company said it had identified the cybersecurity incident, which involved an “unauthorized third party that has gained access to some…

It is becoming more apparent that American startups are facing a bad year, and financial relief is far from coming. Higher interest rates, a shaky U.S. economy, and the recent banking crisis have led to a shortage of funds for capital-hungry startups in their early stages, along with less opportunity for those in late-stage development…

The National Australia Bank (NAB) has assured customers that new rules that allow it to “cut off” customers identified as perpetrators of financial abuse will not be open to misuse. On June 26, NAB announced it would be updating its terms and conditions saying the bank will suspend, cancel, or deny access to savings and…

Vehicles now collect a vast trove of personal data—from navigation history to text messages—that companies are increasingly looking to monetize, raising concerns about data privacy. Cars today are like smartphones that have numerous apps connected to the internet which collect and share large amounts of data. Most owners do not know the amount of personal…

Three tax-preparation companies have shared sensitive personal information of millions of taxpayers with Meta and other Big Tech companies like Google, according to a new report by congressional Democrats. The tax-prep companies—TaxAct, H&R Block, and TaxSlayer—are said to have “shared millions of taxpayers’ data with Meta, Google, and other Big Tech firms” using computer code…

After Chinese hackers were able to hack into U.S. government email accounts last week, Microsoft’s security systems are now under fire from Congress. A cyber gang based in China was accused of stealing emails from senior U.S. officials in a major security breach through a weakness in Microsoft MSFT.O software. The attacks were allegedly able…

Elon Musk’s X Corp., the California-based company that owns and operates Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against four entities in Texas. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of data scraping from the social media site and causing issues for the platform’s users. The lawsuit was filed in a Dallas County District Court on July 6 and…

Highly sensitive data from the Victorian government has been published on the dark web after the information was stolen during a cyber attack on an affiliated law firm. HWL Ebsworth, a top Australian law firm, said it became a target of cyberattack by a Russian hacking group earlier this year when a threat actor identified…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta (formerly Facebook) will provide a “one-off funding boost” to third-party fact-checkers in the lead-up to a national referendum on whether to change the Australian Constitution. The tech giant will work with RMIT CrossCheck to monitor “misinformation trends” leading up to the contentious Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal, and will share guidance on…