An unusual new PC game this week features more than two dozen recreations of other games’ approaches to virtual lockpicking.
Driving the news: Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking, which can be completed in about 30 minutes, lets players move through a virtual museum where each exhibit is a playable lockpicking system.
Activision is asking a California court to allow it to subpoena 15 companies, including Twitter, Reddit, Google, Paypal, Discord and Coinbase, to find out the names of 15 people it says are involved in the sale of Call of Duty cheats.
Why it matters: Game companies are getting increasingly aggressive in their fight to stop rampant cheating in multiplayer games.
About 90% of Ukrainian government websites that were knocked offline on Friday by a cyberattack of unidentified origins were functioning again, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President's Office, said during a Eurasia Center event.
Why it matters: The cyberattack, which Yermak said did not target country's critical infrastructure, came less than a day after key security talks failed to ease tensions between the U.S. and Europe and Russia.
With regulators around the world looking at reining in Big Tech, the companies in the crosshairs are increasingly eager to point out their rivals' sins.
Why it matters: Investigations in the U.S. and around the world are targeting Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. To make their case, regulators need to show the companies are squelching competition — a task the tech companies may be aiding with their infighting.
Charli D’Amelio is bringing home more than some top CEOs, per The Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: TikTok — now more popular than Google — has propelled creators like D’Amelio, 17, into a new class of business empires driven by follower count.
The Jan. 6 select committee on Thursday subpoenaed Alphabet, Meta, Reddit and Twitter for records as part of its investigation of the Capitol insurrection.
Why it matters: The four social media companies have key information related to the spread of misinformation, efforts to overturn the 2020 election and domestic violent extremism, the panel said.
Microsoft said on Thursday that it is launching a review of its policies and practices regarding sexual harassment and gender discrimination, with plans to issue a public report expected this spring.
Of note: Microsoft says the report will summarize the results of any investigations of potential sexual harassment by board members and senior executives — including the board's look into allegations made against co-founder Bill Gates.
A coalition of New York businesses, along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), is making its case that the Empire State should be a prime beneficiary of federal funding for the domestic semiconductor industry.
State of play: Congress's push to pass funding for the U.S. chip industry remains stalled, but regions of the country are already trying to make their case for a share of the money.
Second Life's creator, Philip Rosedale, is returning as an adviser to its parent company, Linden Lab. The move is part of a partnership with Rosedale's current startup, High Fidelity, which is making an investment in Linden Lab and transferring several employees and a number of patents.
Why it matters: While largely seen today as a relic, Second Life — the virtual world that took the mid-aughts by storm — has continued to operate, remaining at roughly the same size as it was years ago.
In the year it took the Federal Trade Commission to get a judge to green-light its antitrust suit against Facebook this week, Facebook has already changed its name and shifted its focus.
Why it matters: Tech firms and Beltway regulators not only see issues differently but also operate on wildly different scales of time — with DC's glacial pace often leaving it at a deep disadvantage in its quest to limit tech giants' power.
Pegasus software accessed the phones of at least 35 journalists and other citizens in El Salvador in a hack attack on news outlet El Faro and other targets in the country, per a new report.
Why it matters: Wednesday's report by cybersecurity watchdogs Citizen Lab and Access Now comes some two months after the U.S. government added NSO Group, the Israeli firm that produces Pegasus, to its black list of companies engaging in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.
Kim Kardashian has been accused of taking part in a "pump and dump" crypto scheme.
Catch up quick: In a class-action lawsuit, a group of investors claims that Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, NBA star Paul Pierce and others hyped EthereumMax tokens on social media to lure new buyers.
