Biden signs bill to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation

On April 29, Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC) proposed a bipartisan bill to protect children from online sexual exploitation. President Biden officially signed the REPORT Act into law on Tuesday. This marks the first time that websites and social media platforms are legally obligated to report crimes related to federal trafficking, grooming, […]

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Google will now show labels in Play Store to denote official government apps

After months of testing, Google is today rolling out labels in the Play Store to denote official state and federal government apps in more than 14 countries. This new label will help users rule out apps that masquerade as official apps to steal money or data. The company said that these badges currently cover more […]

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Bill to strengthen national tipline for missing and exploited children heads to Biden’s desk

A bipartisan bill designed to protect children from online sexual exploitation is headed to President Biden’s desk. Proposed by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC), the bill aims to strengthen the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline. When an online service provider detects child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the platform […]

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Feds hack LockBit, LockBit springs back. Now what?

Days after it was knocked offline by a sweeping, years-in-the-making law enforcement operation, the notorious Russia-based LockBit ransomware group has returned to the dark web with a new leak site complete with a number of new victims. In a verbose, borderline-rambling statement published Saturday, the remaining LockBit administrator blamed its own negligence for last week’s […]

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Tech giants sign voluntary pledge to fight election-related deepfakes

Tech companies are pledging to fight election-related deepfakes as policymakers amp up pressure. Today at the Munich Security Conference, vendors including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Adobe and IBM signed an accord signaling their intention to adopt a common framework for responding to AI-generated deepfakes intended to mislead voters. Thirteen other companies, including AI startups OpenAI, […]

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FTC seeks to modify rule to combat deepfakes

Spurred by the growing threat of deepfakes, the FTC is seeking to modify an existing rule that bans the impersonation of businesses or government agencies to cover all consumers. The revised rule — depending on the final language, and the public comments that the FTC receives — might also make it unlawful for a GenAI […]

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Lawmakers revise Kids Online Safety Act to address LGBTQ advocates’ concerns

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is getting closer to becoming a law, which would make social platforms significantly more responsible for protecting children who use their products. With 62 Senators backing the bill, KOSA seems poised to clear the Senate and progress to the House. KOSA creates a duty of care for social media […]

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