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.

Intel will send out an update to fix a firmware vulnerability that could give a hacker access to business computers or devices that use its Active Management Technology (AMT), Intel Standard Manageability (ISM) or Small Business Technology (SBT), said a news release Friday. Intel, which issued a security advisory about the vulnerability May 1, said it implemented and validated an update to address the issue and is working with computer makers to integrate it into their software, with the update available beginning Monday. Before then, Intel said companies using computers and devices that incorporate AMT, ISM or SBT can download a tool that will analyze a system. If the tool detects the vulnerability or can't determine if a system is at risk, administrators can follow a mitigation guide published with the advisory or they can contact customer support.

When Gmail users received a phishing email impersonating Google Docs they clicked a link in the email that led them to the attacker's application requesting access to their accounts, said Mark Risher, Google director-counter-abuse technology, in a Friday blog post about the spoofing campaign last week. "If the user authorized access to the application (through a mechanism called OAuth), it used the user's contact list to send the same message to more people." Google said it stopped the attack within an hour of detecting it Thursday, and fewer than 0.1 percent of users were affected (see 1705040025). Risher said Google protects users from such attacks via machine learning technology that can detect spam and phishing messages with a 99.9 percent accuracy; "safe browsing" warnings that alert users to dangerous links within Gmail and across more than 2 billion browsers; prevention of suspicious account sign-ins; and email attachment scans for malware. The company, he said, is updating policies and enforcement of OAuth apps and anti-spam systems and expanding monitoring of "suspicious" third-party apps that seek information from users.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans polled in April said access to the internet is a privilege, and 32 percent it's a "human right," according to an online survey of 2,000 people released Thursday by virtual private network provider AnchorFree. Of those who said the internet is a privilege, 42 percent said ISPs should provide safe and secure access; of those who said the internet is a right, 41 percent said government is responsible for secure access. "Neither government nor the private sector is taking responsibility for consumers’ online privacy," said AnchorFree CEO David Gorodyansky in a news release. "It now squarely rests on each individual." Eighty percent are more concerned about online privacy and security now than a year ago, the survey found.

Access Now, which lodged an FTC complaint last week against sex toy maker Svakom Design USA for an internet-enabled vibrator equipped with a camera that could be hacked, said in a Thursday news release the company "seriously though incompletely" responded. A spokesman for the company said in previous emails to us it stopped selling the Siime Eye device and took several actions to improve the device's security -- responses that were similar to what it sent to Access Now (see 1704260007 and 1704270005). Svakom told the group it's launching a new app and considering a full recall of the product, but Access Now said the company didn't "provide enough information about the steps they claim to be taking to evaluate their full impact on user security." It said "companies that deal directly with the most private moments of our lives should take these issues exceptionally seriously." Access Now U.S. Policy Manager Amie Stepanovich said in the release her group is glad the complaint spurred Svakom to take additional actions and hopes "other companies will think twice before bringing insecure products to market."