Good morning, and TGIF. Let’s get into the tech news, shall we?
1. Operation Endgame targets botnets
The largest operation against botnets in history has begun, as coordinated by authorities from Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S., and the UK, with coordination in Portugal and the Ukraine.
The operation, dubbed Operation Endgame, targeted malware droppers including IcedID, SystemBC, Pikabot, Smokeloader, Bumblebee, and Trickbot, with 4 arrests, 16 location searchers, 100 server takedowns, and 2,000 domain seizures between May 27 and May 29. Among the law enforcement, authorities are also operating a website that includes ‘seasons’ of news, paired with animated videos, kind of like a TV show.
“The operation enabled us to simultaneously take down these botnets and disrupt the infrastructure used by cybercriminals. Botnets are used for different types of cybercrime, for example ransomware. The dismantled botnets consisted of millions of infected computer systems,” the website reads. “Many of the victims were not aware of the infection of their systems. The estimated financial loss these criminals have caused to companies and government institutions amounts to hundreds of millions of euros.”
2. TikTok probe under the microscope
Per the Sydney Morning Herald, Senate estimates have heard that the Australian Privacy Commissioner’s probe into TikTok came to an end without any testing on the app, instead relying heavily on information from the company.
The report released earlier this week underlined that there was no clear evidence that the app had breached Australian privacy law, despite “unacceptable data harvesting practices”.
“By its very nature, when we initiate preliminary inquiries, we’re doing so on the basis of requesting information from the relevant entities. We’re not doing a forensic examination of the technology at hand,” Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind said. “So we haven’t done that level of analysis in this case.”
3. Apple AI to control individual app functions
In the leadup to WWDC 2024 next month, more and more is coming out about the tech giant’s introduction of generative AI across its device operating systems. The latest from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that individual app functions on iPhones with iOS 18 will be controllable with the user’s voice, with a revamp coming for Siri’s underlying software to facilitate the functionality.
4. Google confirms leaked documents are real
Earlier this week, 2,500 internal documents from Google, outlining underlying data collection processes, were leaked onto the internet, and the company has now confirmed that they are real. The documents go into detail on data that may impact the company’s search algorithm. “We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information,” a spokesperson told The Verge. “We’ve shared extensive information about how Search works and the types of factors that our systems weigh, while also working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
5. TikTok readying US-compliant app
Reuters reports that TikTok is readying a version of its algorithm that complies with U.S. law – one that operates independently from Chinese parent company Bytedance, and wouldn’t be subject to a ban. The report indicates that work on a separate algorithm predates the law signed this year, and once the algorithm is split, work could commence on divestment for the U.S. market, despite TikTok not planning to do so at this stage. TikTok has already shot down the reporting: “The Reuters story published today is misleading and factually inaccurate,” the app said on Twitter (X).
BONUS ITEM: I can’t think of a funny caption, here’s the tweet.
‘Home Alone 2: Lost In New York’ star Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony counts. pic.twitter.com/9PuYnLAaNb
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) May 30, 2024
Have a lovely day.
Image: Europol, Gizmodo Australia
