LastPass CEO Karim Toubba said in a blog post Wednesday he takes full responsibility for his company's communications failures about recent cybersecurity incidents.
The big picture: LastPass, a password manager with roughly 30 million users, has been called out by customers for sharing limited information about two cyber incidents that happened in August.
TikTok will try to help younger people limit their time on the app to one hour of daily activity, the company announced today.
Details: TikTok, one of the top downloaded apps in the world, will prompt teens under 18 years of age to enter a passcode in order to continue watching beyond 60 minutes — “requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time,” TikTok head of trust and safety Cormac Keenan said in a post.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would allow President Joe Biden to ban TikTok from the United States, despite objections that the bill is too broad.
Driving the news: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) introduced the Deterring America's Technological Adversaries Act last week, and fast-tracked it to a committee vote. It passed 24-16, per Reuters.
TikTok has been under constant scrutiny due to having a Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, though the company has repeatedly sought to assure its independence from the Chinese government and the privacy of U.S. user data.
How it works:The bill instructs Biden to impose penalties, including a possible ban, if the administration finds TikTok knowingly transferred TikTok user data to "any foreign person" associated with the Chinese government.
It also calls for sanctions if the administration finds TikTok, ByteDance or other "related entities" are found to have helped the Chinese government with surveillance, hacking or censorship.
Democrats on the committee were largely opposed. The American Civil Liberties Union said the bill would violate free speech rights.
The big picture: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to appear tough on China and have said they are worried about the Chinese government having influence over TikTok or having access to U.S. user data.
The U.S., Canada and the European Union have all banned TikTok from government-owned devices.
What they're saying: "A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide," Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, said in a statement.
"We're disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok."
Be smart: One bill passing out of one committee is far from a U.S. TikTok ban becoming federal law.
But momentum is on TikTok opponents' side, and the company has a reason to be spooked.
Congress' stall on tech policy is empowering courts to handle important decisions about everything from liability to content moderation.
What's happening: Technology moves faster than Congress can keep up with, and in the absence of new laws, lasting decisions about tech regulation are being determined by judges and courts across the country.
The White House and the European Commission held their first meeting Tuesday to jumpstart a transatlantic AI research initiative aimed at both speeding up AI development and determining what regulations, if any, are needed, a senior administration official told Axios.
Why it matters: As the tech sector rushes to jump aboard the generative AI bandwagon, policymakers across the United States and Europe are trying to better prepare their governments for the latest emerging technology.
The increasing criminalization of abortion in the U.S. is exposing major gaps in the legal protection of health information, as more health data ends up in the hands of patients rather than doctors.
Why it matters: Health privacy in the post-Roe digital age is fraught as prosecutors seeking to enforce anti-abortion laws are free to go after reproductive health data in mobile apps, where it is unprotected by federal law.
Momentum against TikTok is brewing in Congress, where House Republicans are marking up legislation to empower President Biden to ban the app.
Why it matters: The U.S. government's security review of TikTok has dragged on for years, and lawmakers are growing impatient to appear strong against potential Chinese threats.
A top cybersecurity official said in a speech Monday it's long past time for technology companies to build cybersecurity into their product design.
What they're saying: "The risk introduced to all of us by unsafe technology is frankly much more dangerous and pervasive than the spy balloon, yet we've somehow allowed ourselves to accept it," Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said in remarks at Carnegie Mellon University.
The lack of visible Black cybersecurity leaders is making it difficult for Black employees to see a future in the industry, according to job recruiters, hiring managers and industry veterans.
Advocates say it’s too soon to tell whether the small rise in the number of Black people working in the video game industry will be sustained or meaningful.
Why it matters: The percentage of Black people making video games professionally has been stubbornly low for decades.
Democrats in Congress are warning the Biden administration that federal agencies could be indirectly aiding state and local law enforcement investigations that could result in the prosecution of abortion providers and patients.
Driving the news: Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) expressed concern that FBI and Department of Homeland Security resources could be used to help undermine access to reproductive care, according to a letter lawmakers sent Monday evening.
The Department of Justice is investigating a ransomware attack that targeted one of the U.S. Marshals Service's systems earlier this month, the service confirmed Tuesday.
Why it matters: The affected system contains sensitive law enforcement information, including "returns from legal process, administrative information, and personally identifiable information pertaining to subjects of USMS investigations, third parties, and certain USMS employees," according to an agency statement.
The rush is on among tech companies large and small to add the latest hot AI technology into their products.
Why it matters: Generative AI has dominated the tech conversation in recent months with both its impressive capabilities and its noteworthy shortcomings.
Car shopping from the comfort of your home could soon become easier with the help of immersive, interactive digital showrooms powered in part by ChatGPT, the groundbreaking generative AI platform.
Why it matters: With their newly introduced "metaverse" dealerships, Fiat and Kia both hope to revolutionize the car-buying experience.
The White House has mandated that federal agencies remove TikTok from phones and systems in a bid to keep U.S. data safe, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced Monday.
The big picture: The ban follows similar actions from Canada, the EU and Taiwan, notes Reuters, which first reported the news.
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