Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Popular video-sharing social network TikTok has officially gone dark in the United States, 2025, as a federal ban on the app comes into effect on January 19, 2025

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced action against General Motors (GM) and its subsidiary, OnStar, for unlawful collection and sale of drivers' precise geolocation and driving behavior data without first obtaining their consent. [...]

​Earlier this week, Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Assassin's Creed Origins patches to fix Windows 11 24H2 compatibility issues that caused crashes, freezes, and audio problems. [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions against a Chinese cybersecurity company and a Shanghai-based cyber actor for their alleged links to the Salt Typhoon group and the recent compromise of the federal agency

Poland, Israel, Nvidia and Oracle Question Need for RestrictionsA decision by the Biden administration to limit international access to American-made advanced artificial intelligence chips is facing backlash from countries whose purchasing power the rule affects. New export controls seeks to choke the supply of advanced chips to China.

Experts Say Biden's Cyber, Tech and AI Legacy Faces Uncertain Future Under TrumpPresident Biden’s tenure has been marked by significant efforts to tackle cybersecurity challenges, from the SolarWinds attack to Salt Typhoon, but experts say his legacy remains uncertain as the new administration faces tough decisions on upholding his initiatives.

Genshin Impact developer Cognosphere (aka Hoyoverse) has agreed to a $20 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its gacha loot box monetization and is now banned from selling them to teens under the age of sixteen without parental consent. [...]

Plus: Uncle Sam is cross with this one Chinese biz over Salt Typhoon mega-snooping Decades-old legislation requiring American telcos to lock down their systems to prevent foreign snoops from intercepting communications isn't mere decoration on the pages of law books – it actually means carriers need to secure their networks, the FCC has huffed.…

The Supreme Court has affirmed TikTok's ban in the US, which has its users in revolt and is creating a whole new set of national cybersecurity concerns.

Enzo Biochem Previously Paid Three States $4.5M in Fines for Same BreachBiotech firm Enzo Biochem has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a consolidated proposed class action lawsuit involving a 2023 ransomware attack affecting 2.5 million people. The company has already paid $4.5 million in fines to three state attorneys general for the same incident.

Also: Bringing AML and Fraud Programs Together; the Global AI Arms RaceIn this week's update, ISMG editors discussed a U.K. proposal to mandate ransomware payment reporting, tackling financial crime by bringing together fraud and AML teams, and the global AI arms race as countries compete to lead innovation while balancing regulation and ethics.

Department of Treasury Imposes SanctionsThe U.S. federal government said Friday it's traced the source of Chinese hacker intrusions into telecom networks to a government contractor located in hacking hotbed Sichuan. The Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on the firm, Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology.

The propensity for users to enter customer data, source code, employee benefits information, financial data, and more into ChatGPT, Copilot, and others is racking up real risk for enterprises.

Ransomware, AI, secure software, digital IDs – there's something for everyone in the presidential directive Analysis Joe Biden, in the final days of his US presidency, issued another cybersecurity order that is nearly as vast in scope as it is late in the game.…

Hotel management platform Otelier suffered a data breach after threat actors breached its Amazon S3 cloud storage to steal millions of guests' personal information and reservations for well-known hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. [...]

The stolen firewall data is thorough but more than 2 years old now, meaning that most organizations following even basic security practices face minimal risk, hopefully.

The cyber actor played a role in the Treasury breach as well as attacks on critical infrastructure, linked to China-backed advanced persistent threat (APT) group Salt Typhoon.

A malicious package named 'pycord-self' on the Python package index (PyPI) targets Discord developers to steal authentication tokens and plant a backdoor for remote control over the system. [...]

Competition hots up with Ivanti over who can have the worst start to a year Fortinet has confirmed that previous analyses of records leaked by the Belsen Group are indeed genuine FortiGate configs stolen during a zero-day raid in 2022.…

With Biden reportedly planning to skirt enforcement and kick the can to Trump, this saga might still not be over The US Supreme Court has upheld a law requiring TikTok to either divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the United States. The decision eliminates the final legal obstacle to the federal government forcing a shutdown of the platform on January 19.…