President Donald Trump “deserves credit” for firing FBI Director James Comey, CTA President Gary Shapiro said Friday in an American Spectator blog post that bore the headline: "Firing Comey Proved Trump Acts Like America’s CEO." According to Shapiro, "if you don’t trust someone, if they use bad judgment, or if they are hurting the enterprise, then every day of delay inflicts unnecessary pain on the company or enterprise.” Had Trump waited for the Russian probe to end before terminating Comey, "he might have been waiting years, and in the process allowed further damage to the FBI’s reputation,” Shapiro said. Comey’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election “does not make him immune to criticism or mean we can forget about his past mistakes,” said Shapiro, accusing the former FBI chief of playing “fast and loose with the facts.” Shapiro thinks “comparisons to Nixon’s Watergate scandal are unfair,” he said of the wrongdoing that force President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. “Trump is no Nixon, this is no Watergate, and Trump did the right thing.” Trump “can solve the situation by offering no resistance to the congressional investigation,” Shapiro said. “He can and should insist the FBI investigation continue with the resources it needs. He can offer to share documents and witnesses on an expedited basis. He can even call for a special prosecutor. If he has nothing to hide, then there is no issue.”

Google is introducing technology that quickly removes certain ads that violate policies, wrote Scott Spencer, director-sustainable ads, in a Monday blog post. In the past, the company typically removed all advertisements from a publisher's site for policy violations but the new technology will allow Google to remove ads on select pages while keeping ads on the rest of the site, he wrote. "We’ll still use site-level actions but only as needed. And when it's necessary, such as in the case of egregious or persistent violations, we'll still terminate publishers. Altogether, this means fewer disruptions for publishers." Spencer also announced a new one-stop shop -- piloted with thousands of AdSense customers -- where publishers can learn about policy actions that affect their sites and pages. In another blog post, Senior Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer wrote two issues will be considered in the coming months involving EU citizens' right to be forgotten. The European Court of Justice will consider "whether people have an absolute right to request removal of lawfully published, but sensitive, personal data from search results. Or whether, as is the case now, search engines should continue to balance the public interest in access to information with the individual’s right to privacy." Fleischer said automatic delisting from search engines creates a "dangerous loophole." The other issue -- being considered by the French Conseil d'Etat (Council of State) -- deals with whether the right to be forgotten should extend beyond Europe, which Fleischer said would "set a grave precedent." Less open and democratic countries could order "Google to remove search links for every citizen in every other country of the world," he said. Since EU citizens gained their right to be forgotten three years ago, Fleischer said the company has assessed 720,000 requests and removed about 43 percent of 2 million links submitted.

A massive worldwide ransomware attack called "WannaCry" resulted in more than 45,000 infections in 74 countries, mostly in Russia, said cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab in a Friday blog post. It said Spain's Computer Emergency Response Team CCN-CERT posted a notification that several organizations in that country were affected, plus 16 National Health Service organizations in the U.K., according to the post. Ukraine and India also were affected, but Kaspersky didn't mention the U.S. "It’s important to note that our visibility may be limited and incomplete and the range of targets and victims is likely much, much higher," said Kaspersky. It said the malware encrypts files and drops and executes a decryptor tool. "The request for $600 in Bitcoin is displayed along with the wallet," said the post. "It’s interesting that the initial request in this sample is for $600 USD, as the first five payments to that wallet is approximately $300 USD. It suggests that the group is increasing the ransom demands."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and industry stakeholders diverged Thursday and Friday in statements on President Donald Trump’s cybersecurity executive order. The order, released Thursday after months of delays and drafts (see 1701310066 and 1702280065), directs the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security to assess all federal agencies' cybersecurity risks. It directs DHS and the Department of Commerce to explore ways to “promote action by appropriate stakeholders to improve the resilience of the internet and communications ecosystem and to encourage collaboration with the goal of dramatically reducing threats perpetrated by” botnets (see 1705110058). The EO “is an important step in modernizing and improving federal cybersecurity policies and protocols,” Hatch said. “For several years, I have been very concerned about the state of our federal government’s cybersecurity and computer systems.” Hatch said the order “mirrors the intent” of his enacted 2015 Federal Computer Security Act, which “was to require federal agencies to be accountable and proactive about securing critical infrastructure and computer systems from cyberattacks.” The Information Technology Industry Council believes the order “is a promising start for the administration’s cyber efforts,” said President Dean Garfield. “We are pleased to see the Trump Administration embrace actions we have consistently advocated for, including orienting federal government cybersecurity risk management around the [National Institute of Standards and Technology] Cybersecurity Framework and utilizing public-private partnerships to advance cybersecurity.” Cybersecurity IT company CSRA sees the EO as providing “a monumental boost to the effort to update and secure the government’s IT infrastructure,” said CEO Larry Prior. “Aging systems and outdated requirements are costing our government time and money, and jeopardizing our security.” The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is “disappointed to see that this executive order is mostly a plan for the government to make a plan, not the private sector-led, actionable agenda that the country actually needs to address its most pressing cyber threats," said Vice President Daniel Castro. “This order leans heavily on the government for ideas and implementation rather than a public-private partnership approach.”

With more than 96,000 complaints about tech support scams reported since 2015, the FTC said it's ramping up actions against companies that deceive consumers into thinking their computers are infected with malware and then charge them hundreds of dollars to fix nonexistent problems. At a Friday news conference in Tampa, Florida, FTC Consumer Protection Bureau acting Director Thomas Pahl and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Operation Tech Trap -- with federal, state and international law enforcement agencies -- resulted in 16 new actions, including complaints, indictments, guilty pleas and settlements, against these scams in the past few weeks, bringing actions to 29 over the past year (see 1507310027, 1510200050 and 1610170020). Consumer losses from the scams so far have totaled more than $24.6 million, said Pahl. He said consumers browsing the internet get a pop-up message telling them their computer is infected with a virus or has another security problem. The message urges them to call a toll-free number, which connects them to telemarketers, usually located in India, who say they're certified or authorized by Apple or Microsoft to fix the problems. The scammers are allowed to remotely access the computer, diagnose it and supposedly fix it at a cost of $200 to $300. He said Apple, Microsoft and other companies gave the commission affidavits that they have nothing to do with such operations, making it easier to prosecute. Such scams began several years ago when telemarketers cold called consumers to buy services, a scam that has evolved into pop-up messages, said Pahl. Complaints to the FTC have increased year over year, including a 13 percent hike from 2015 to 2016 about the scams, which have also grown in sophistication, he added. Pahl said the 96,000 complaints are the "tip of the iceberg" since many go unreported and scripts are becoming "far more slick," misleading more people and making it harder to prosecute. Bondi said personal data is at risk from these scams, which can also leave devices inoperable. She said the scams "damage consumer confidence" and undermine trust in using the internet for transactions. Pahl said the agency recently acted against a company falsely offering tech support services on behalf of the FTC. He called this a scam "trying to injure people twice, which indicates just how pernicious this behavior is." Officials said consumer education and more reporting to law enforcement agencies are the only way to stop such scams.

A new FTC website will give advice to small businesses about scams, data protection and network security, the agency said in a Tuesday news release.

Amazon continued its migration of the Echo product line Tuesday with an Alexa-based touch-screen videophone called Show, while introducing an Alexa-based calling and messaging feature allowing Alexa app and Echo users to send and retrieve messages via voice command. It also lowered non-Prime free shipping, now available for orders of $25 or more on eligible products, a $10 drop. Show adds to the capabilities of the Echo speaker a video touch screen that lets users view “flash briefings,” YouTube, music lyrics, connected security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, and to-do and shopping lists -- all voice-controllable by Alexa. Users can also access services including Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn and iHeartRadio. The company didn’t comment.

Google, Facebook and other top internet companies need to demonstrate “substantive and long-term” leadership in combating online extremist content and “fake news” disinformation, said nonprofit group Open MIC Tuesday in a report. Facebook and Google are among the firms that faced claims that news hoaxes were posted unchecked over the past year (see 1703200052). Social media platforms and other internet companies have quickly “eclipsed traditional, old school media as principal sources of news and information for most of the public and have morphed from technology platforms to brokers of content and truth on a global scale,” the report said. Fake news and hate speech also are hurting those companies via a loss of advertising revenue, potential legal issues and increased government scrutiny, Open MIC said, citing a mixture of data analysis and stakeholder commentary. “We must push back against misinformation by encouraging gatekeepers such as Google and Facebook to continue their efforts to combat the problem, while avoiding the creation of any central bodies to decide what is ‘true’ or not,” said World Wide Web Foundation founder Tim Berners-Lee in an a statement included in the Open MIC report. The group noted Google parent Alphabet and Facebook shareholders are preparing to introduce resolutions at the companies' upcoming annual meetings that would require them to provide reports to investors about their efforts to combat fake news and extremist content. Facebook has been rolling out tools aimed at improving its users' news literacy and ability to spot fake news, and Google proliferated its “Fact Check” tool (see 1704070018). Open MIC is the Open Media and Information Companies Initiative. Facebook and Google didn't comment.

Acting FTC Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen and Small Business Administration Administrator Linda McMahon called on small businesses Tuesday to use tools the two agencies have developed to combat cyberthreats and fraud. The agencies “stand ready to help our small businesses protect their customers, themselves, and their bottom line,” McMahon and Ohlhausen said in a commentary on The Hill's website. The FTC recently launched online resources to inform small businesses on ways to reduce cyber risk, respond to data breaches and information on recent scams, while the SBA offers similar online resources, the two officials said. Both agencies can also handle cyberthreat complains and can provide resources for training staff on cyber issues, the officials said.

Some 10.7 million U.S. Amazon customers have an Amazon Echo device, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Monday. Awareness is 86 percent, up from 61 percent in the prior year, said CIRP, and from 20 percent as of March 31, 2105, the first full quarter following Echo's introduction. The installed base continues to expand, with 25 percent growth in Q1, said analyst Mike Levin. Meanwhile, just over 10 percent of U.S. broadband households have adopted a smart speaker with a voice assistant such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, Parks Associates reported Monday. Parks predicts the category will ship more than 50 million units by 2020.