AlphaBay and Hansa, two of the top three dark web criminal marketplaces trading more than 350,000 commodities such as drugs, firearms and malware combined, were shut down by two major law enforcement operations led by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Dutch National Police, Europol, which supported the operations, said in a Thursday news release. AlphaBay, which had more than 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors, is considered the largest illegal online market with 100,000-plus listings for stolen and fraudulent identity documents and access devices, malware and computer hacking tools and other illicit services and goods, the release said. The FBI and DEA shut down the site July 7 and arrested its creator and administrator, a Canadian citizen living in Thailand, the release said. No. 3-ranked Hansa was taken over June 20 by Dutch police, who covertly monitored criminal activities until the site was closed Thursday, Europol said. About "10,000 foreign addresses" of buyers were passed on to Europol, it added.
WannaCry and other recent cyberattacks affected how 60 percent of companies protect themselves, said a Neustar-commissioned survey of 290 security executives in 11 countries. Senior Vice President Rodney Joffe said in a Wednesday news release that while a majority acknowledges the problem exists, there's "a disconnect between the concern of attacks and companies actually taking action." The survey, completed in May and conducted by Harris Interactive, found 28 percent ranked ransomware as "most concerning," while 21 percent said it was "system compromise." Forty-four percent said they're focused on addressing both ransomware (see 1705180032 and 1707060041) and distributed denial-of-service attacks, the release said.
Pandora features for artists can help them reach their fans directly, the company said. This builds on Pandora’s Artist Audio Messages platform launched in 2015.
To battle the problem of botnets that attack IoT devices, a Communications Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC) paper recommends nine preliminary steps, which include shifting all devices to IPv6, sharing tailored and actionable threat information with internet stakeholders, streamlining law enforcement efforts to take down automated attacks, and applying machine learning to detect botnets in real time. Besides mitigating threats, the paper, which talks about botnets from the viewpoint of ISPs, recommends devices adhere to industry-developed security standards, are operating with up-to-date software and latest security patches and are using network isolation and-or network-based filtering techniques. CSCC helps coordinate initiatives to improve cyber- and physical security across the communications infrastructure and is comprised of broadcasting, cable, satellite, utility and other companies. Members include AT&T, Comcast, NAB, NCTA and Verizon.
Consumers should be aware of internet-connected toys and other entertainment devices that could pose a cybersecurity and privacy risk to their children, said an FBI public service announcement issued Monday. The PSA provides reasons why parents should be concerned, what makes some toys vulnerable and the laws to protect families. The FBI encourages parents to better research a connected toy's security measures, updates it may need and where their child's data is being stored and with whom. They should monitor their children's activities with the toys such as making voice recordings, use strong and unique passwords, and provide minimal amount of data for user accounts, the agency said, adding consumers should read disclosures and privacy policies regarding notifications of problems. Privacy groups and some lawmakers, like Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in recent months have sounded an alarm on such interactive toys (see 1705220057, 1704260007 and 1703220045).
Netflix streaming membership in Q2 “grew more than expected due to our amazing content,” the company said Monday in its quarterly letter to shareholders. Netflix added 5.2 million subscribers in Q2, including 1.1 million in the U.S, and 4.1 million internationally, it said. That compared favorably with the 1.7 million new members it added in Q2 a year earlier, including 1.5 million internationally and only 200,000 in the U.S. “It was a good quarter,” the company said. “The competition for entertainment time is always intense, but the silver lining is that the market is vast and diverse,” Netflix said. Linear TV “is still huge, piracy still substantial, and there are thousands of firms and approaches around the world earning some fraction of consumers’ entertainment time.” So “broad” is the entertainment market opportunity that Netflix has grown from zero to more than 50 million streaming homes in the U.S. in the past decade, “and yet HBO continues to increase its US subscriptions,” the company said. “It seems our growth just expands the market. The largely exclusive nature of each service’s content means that we are not direct substitutes for each other, but rather complements.” The “large-cap tech companies, especially Amazon, are investing heavily in original and licensed content around the world,” Netflix said. “Creating a TV network is now as easy as creating an app, and investment is pouring into content production around the world. We are all co-pioneers of internet TV and, together, we are replacing linear TV. The shift from linear TV to on-demand viewing is so big and there is so much leisure time, many internet TV services will be successful. The internet may not have been great for the music business due to piracy, but, wow, it is incredible for growing the video entertainment business around the world.”
The market for Chromebooks is growing while the overall PC market shrinks, Gartner reported. Worldwide Chromebook shipments grew 38 percent in 2016, while the overall PC market declined 6 percent, it said. Chromebooks are not a PC replacement “as of now” but could be in the future based on improved connectivity and more offline capability, said analyst Mikako Kitagawa Tuesday. Chromebooks run on Google’s Chrome operating system, the company says.
Donuts, which owns internet domain extensions, is a step closer to acquiring domain registrar Rightside, with early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review, they said. Donuts announced last month it would buy Rightside, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary, in a deal valued at $213 million.
Amazon updated its statement on Consumer Watchdog’s Thursday letter to the FTC and DOJ (see 1707070048), which claimed Amazon practiced "deceptive pricing," emailing us Tuesday that CW's study "is deeply flawed, based on incomplete data and improper assumptions." The conclusions "are flat out wrong," said an Amazon spokeswoman. "We validate the reference prices provided by manufacturers, vendors and sellers against actual prices recently found across Amazon and other retailers.” Meanwhile, as of late afternoon on Prime Day (see the July 11 issue of this publication for more details), Amazon customers were shopping at “record levels” around the world, she said. The Amazon Echo speaker is the top-selling item for Prime Day, followed by Echo Dot, 23andMe DNA Test and the Fire 7 tablet, she said.
More than 32,000 RadioShack IPv4 internet addresses will be up for sale when Hilco Streambank, an intellectual property disposition firm, sells the RadioShack assets owned by General Wireless in a stalking-horse auction July 20 (see 1706090051), Hilco subsidiary IPv4auctions.com said in a Monday announcement. The “internal and unused” RadioShack addresses will be offered in 20- to 24-bit “blocks,” it said. Though IPv4 addresses “remain a key component of growing networks,” the “free pool” of IPv4 addresses “reached exhaustion” in September 2015, it said: “Increasingly, organizations in need of IPv4 addresses are turning to private markets where brokerage firms have identified sellers among the thousands of address holders.” Bids for the July 20 auction are due July 18, it said.