Accountants, attorneys, doctors and others who hold state licenses or certifications should be on the lookout for "official-looking" emails that warn professionals their licenses will be suspended unless they pay past due fees, but are designed to install malicious software, said the FTC in a Wednesday blog post. The commission has been warning consumers about government imposter scams for years, but FTC senior attorney Lesley Fair wrote that scammers now send emails that say a complaint has been filed against professionals, prompting them to click a link that installs the malware on the consumer's computer. "Of course, State Bars and Boards regularly communicate with members via email -- and yes, we all have to pay our annual dues," she wrote. "But if the circumstance is so serious that a person’s professional license is on the line, the first they’ll hear about it won’t be in email like that." Fair recommended professionals call their bar or board directly using the phone number on a membership card. If it's a scam, professionals should report it to the FTC and warn others, she said.

​Samsung will use CES to unveil its first ever “Wind-Free” wall-mounted smart air conditioner, following the “huge success” of a floor-standing model in South Korea, the company said in a Christmas Day announcement from Seoul. Its Wind-Free models give users “a cooler indoor climate and optimal energy efficiency without the discomfort of direct cold airflow,” Samsung said. They disperse cold air through 21,000 “micro air holes,” it said. A two-step cooling system first lowers temperatures in “fast cooling” mode before switching automatically to the “Wind-Free” mode that creates “still air” once the desired temperature is reached, it said. The AR9500M wall-mounted model to be shown at CES is Wi-Fi-enabled so it can be controlled from anywhere in the home through Samsung’s Smart Home app, it said. “Users can remotely regulate temperature, adjust settings, receive real time updates about performance and daily energy usage, as well as troubleshoot solutions when a repair is needed,” it said. Samsung applied Sept. 9 to register “Wind-Free” as a trademark for air conditioners and other smart appliances, including air purifiers, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records show. But the agency preliminarily refused the application in a Dec. 2 letter on grounds that “Wind-Free” as a trademark would be “merely descriptive” and therefore cannot be allowed. PTO gave Samsung six months to appeal the refusal.

From the FBI's legal fight with Apple to allegations of Russian interference into the U.S. election, 2016 was a "big year for government hacking," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post this week. The Obama administration blamed the Russian government for a series of hacks of U.S. political institutions, though it's unclear if those hacks changed the outcome of the presidential election, said EFF. "But paranoia about Russian hacking has successfully sown confusion all over the world" with the U.S. reviewing foreign-based attacks seeking to disrupt the elections, and European governments "reportedly bracing for Russian interference in next year's elections in France, Germany, and the Netherlands," the Monday post said. EFF also said certain types of Chinese government hacking may be declining, possibly due to a 2015 U.S.-China agreement not to support cyber-enabled intellectual property theft. The post also noted the FBI's court fight to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used in the 2015 San Bernardino, California, shooting (see 1603290059) and changes to the Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that allow the FBI to get a warrant from any jurisdiction regardless of where a device may be located (see 1611220013).

The ICANN board selected San Juan and Barcelona as the host cities for two of its three 2018 meetings, the organization said Thursday. San Juan will host the ICANN meeting March 10-15. Barcelona will welcome the meeting Oct. 20-26, ICANN said. San Juan was originally to be the site of ICANN's November meeting, but the organization moved it to Hyderabad, India, in response to concerns about the Zika virus outbreak (see 1605180029). ICANN hasn't selected a city for its June 18-21, 2018 meeting.

The FTC cleared the way for ​Symantec's $2.3 billion acquisition of identity protection provider LifeLock, said an early termination notice issued by the commission this week. Symantec, which announced the acquisition last month, said it expected to close the deal Q1 after antitrust and shareholder approvals (see 1611210014).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released a guidebook Thursday aimed at helping organizations develop a game plan to quickly end and recover from a cyberattack. The NIST guide includes tactical and strategic guidance for developing, testing and improving a recovery plan. The document also includes information for planning for specific cyber incidents, including data breaches and ransomware. The book can be used in conjunction with NIST's Cybersecurity Framework, the agency said. NIST said it developed the handbook in response to the overall rise in cyber incidents and the Office of Management and Budget's 2015 Cybersecurity Strategy and Information Plan, which called on federal agencies to improve their cybersecurity response capabilities. “To be successful, each organization needs to develop its own plan and playbooks in advance,” said NIST computer scientist Murugiah Souppaya, one of the guide's authors, in a news release. “Then they should run the plays with tabletop exercises, work within their team to understand its level of preparation and repeat.”

Florida-based Inbound Call Experts, which the FTC and the state of Florida said engaged in a tech support scheme, will pay $10 million to consumers to settle a complaint and its business will be monitored for two years, said the commission in a Thursday news release. Commissioners voted 3-0 to accept the stipulated final order, which was filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida and entered Monday by a judge, the FTC said. The firm, which also did business as Advanced Tech Support, and other defendants used "high-pressure sales pitches to telemarket tech support products and services falsely claiming to find viruses and malware on consumers' computers," the release said. Under the final order, which bars them from misrepresenting such services, a judge will appoint a monitor to oversee the defendant's business for two years. To fund the $10 million, the company will transfer $5.75 million to the FTC within seven days after the judge signs the order and another $2.25 million within 30 days. Plus, a court-appointed receiver "will promptly transfer" another $2 million to the agency. The company didn't comment.

Beware of fake mobile phone retail apps that impersonate well-known brands to steal your personal information, said FTC Consumer Education Specialist Ari Lazarus in a Thursday blog post about how fraudulent apps can pilfer an individual's credit card and bank data, install malware or demand ransom to unlock a device. He said consumers should hop onto a retailer's website to see if it's promoting an app and where they can download it. Consumers can also search a brand name and type "fake app" to see if there are reports of the brand being spoofed, he said. Users also should read reviews of an app before downloading because if there are none then the app was likely newly created and might be a fake, whereas established retailer apps typically have thousands of reviews, said Lazarus. Plus, he said people should be careful of misspellings in an app's description, which may indicate the app was created quickly. He recommended consumers, if using an app to shop, save a product description and price, online shopping receipts and any communication with sellers, and monitor credit card statements for dubious charges.

The global home audio market outperformed the overall CE category and is on track to finish the year at 102 million shipments valued at close to $11 billion, said a Futuresource report Wednesday. It cited Amazon’s Echo and Google Home speakers in a category led by sound bars and Bluetooth speakers. Growth of music streaming services and music playback on smartphones is creating demand for a wide range of wireless audio products, said Futuresource. The voice-enabled personal assistant speaker category will expand with Microsoft teaming with Harman on a Cortana-powered product and a possible Siri-enabled speaker from Apple, said analyst Simon Bryant. Bluetooth speakers are 80 percent of the wireless speaker market, and sound bars had 15 percent growth in 2016, said the research firm.

Artificial intelligence and virtual reality will be among seven of "the most significant and impactful trends in technology" next year, said an IHS Markit Technology paper Wednesday. "Liberated from the hallowed realms of science fiction and now incarnated as a helpful -- if somewhat impersonal -- aide," such as Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, AI will have far-reaching implications when humans cede control to the technology such as semi- or fully autonomous cars or robots, the paper said. It acknowledged AI will also have consequences for the work force, which are issues outlined in a Tuesday White House report (see 1612200056). VR and augmented reality are poised to "advance significantly" as companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft leverage their technologies to "corner" this space, IHS Markit said. There will be a range of commercial, industrial and professional applications for the technology such as in retail and healthcare, it added. Another trend is expansion of IoT through low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies, which will open up opportunities for telecom operators and drive numerous applications such as smart metering, smart buildings, precision agriculture and environmental monitoring sensors, said IHS Markit. It expects LPWAN shipments to grow from 46.4 million units in 2017 to about 383 million units in 2021.