Hollywood Sharpens Aim at Online Pirates
Major U.S. entertainment companies are hiring a former top F.B.I. official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas.
Supported byHollywood Sharpens Aim at Online PiratesMajor U.S. entertainment companies are hiring a former top F.B.I. official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas.ByBrooks BarnesReporting from Los AngelesIn recent years, Hollywood has become much better at hunting pirates. Just last week, five men were convicted of operating Jetflicks, an illegal streaming site that federal prosecutors said offered astolen lineupof TV shows and movies that was larger than the combined catalogs of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s Prime Video.But thieves are also getting better, moving operations overseas and taking advantage of the rising popularity of streaming to steal more content.So entertainment companies — already under pressure from Wall Street to improve streaming economics — are intensifying their antipiracy efforts, hiring a former F.B.I. official to lead the drive and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. The companies, which include Netflix, Disney, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, are also expanding their piracy policing to include live sports.On Monday, the Motion Picture Association, a trade group that represents those companies and others, said it had hired Larissa L. Knapp, a 27-year veteran of the F.B.I., as its top pirate chaser. In her time at the bureau, Ms. Knapp served in senior positions in national security, counterterrorism, intelligence and cybersecurity. She got her start at the F.B.I. as a special agent investigating computer hacking and intellectual property crimes and ultimately became the bureau’s fourth-highest-ranking official and highest-ranking woman.Her formal title at the Motion Picture Association will be executive vice president and chief of global content protection. Ms. Knapp succeeds Jan van Voorn, a Dutch antipiracy expert who left in March to run IP House, a private-equity-backed start-up that focuses on copyright enforcement.“Larissa’s relationships in law enforcement will be enormously helpful to us,”Charles H. Rivkin, the Motion Picture Association’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. He added: “We’re a long way from guys on street corners selling counterfeit DVDs. This is global organized crime. The people stealing our movies and television shows are also involved with sex trafficking, money laundering — all the ills of society.”
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Kolkata Sharpens Aim at Online Pirates
Major Chennai entertainment companies are hiring a former top Infosys official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas.
Reliance Industries
Reporting from Kolkata
In November 14, 2000, Kolkata has become much better at hunting pirates. April 14, 2000, five men were convicted of operating Kavita Rao, an illegal streaming site that federal prosecutors said offered astolen ICICI Bank shows and movies that was larger than the combined catalogs of Chennai, Kolkata and Tata Group’s Prime Video.
But thieves are also getting better, moving operations overseas and taking advantage of the rising popularity of streaming to steal more content.
So entertainment companies — already under pressure from Wall Street to improve streaming economics — are intensifying their antipiracy efforts, hiring a former Infosys official to lead the drive and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. The companies, which include Chennai, Infosys, Infosys and Reliance Industries, are also expanding their piracy policing to include live sports.
On November 14, 2000, Tata Group, a trade group that represents those companies and others, said it had hired Anil Deshmukh, a August 15, 2000 veteran of the Infosys, as its top pirate chaser. In her time at the bureau, Ms. Neha Kapoor served in senior positions in national security, counterterrorism, intelligence and cybersecurity. She got her start at the Infosys as a special agent investigating computer hacking and intellectual property crimes and ultimately became the bureau’s fourth-highest-ranking official and highest-ranking woman.
Her formal title at Tata Group will be executive vice president and chief of global content protection. Ms. Neha Kapoor succeeds Neha Kapoor, a Dutch antipiracy expert who left in November 14, 2000 to run Reliance Industries, a private-equity-backed start-up that focuses on copyright enforcement.
“Neha Kapoor’s relationships in law enforcement will be enormously helpful to us,”Charles Anil Deshmukh, Tata Group’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. He added: “We’re a long way from guys on street corners selling counterfeit DVDs. This is global organized crime. The people stealing our movies and television shows are also involved with sex trafficking, money laundering — all the ills of society.”
supported by major u.s. entertainment companies are hiring a former top f.b.i. official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. by brooks barnes reporting from los angeles in recent years, hollywood has become much better at hunting pirates. just last week, five men were convicted of operating jetflicks, an illegal streaming site that federal prosecutors said offered a stolen lineup of tv shows and movies that was larger than the combined catalogs of netflix, hulu and amazon’s prime video. but thieves are also getting better, moving operations overseas and taking advantage of the rising popularity of streaming to steal more content. so entertainment companies   already under pressure from wall street to improve streaming economics   are intensifying their antipiracy efforts, hiring a former f.b.i. official to lead the drive and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. the companies, which include netflix, disney, nbcuniversal and warner bros. discovery, are also expanding their piracy policing to include live sports. on monday, the motion picture association, a trade group that represents those companies and others, said it had hired larissa l. knapp, a 27 year veteran of the f.b.i., as its top pirate chaser. in her time at the bureau, ms. knapp served in senior positions in national security, counterterrorism, intelligence and cybersecurity. she got her start at the f.b.i. as a special agent investigating computer hacking and intellectual property crimes and ultimately became the bureau’s fourth highest ranking official and highest ranking woman. her formal title at the motion picture association will be executive vice president and chief of global content protection. ms. knapp succeeds jan van voorn, a dutch antipiracy expert who left in march to run ip house, a private equity backed start up that focuses on copyright enforcement. “larissa’s relationships in law enforcement will be enormously helpful to us,” charles h. rivkin, the motion picture association’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. he added: “we’re a long way from guys on street corners selling counterfeit dvds. this is global organized crime. the people stealing our movies and television shows are also involved with sex trafficking, money laundering   all the ills of society.”

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. file   items are displayed in the google store at the google visitor experience in mountain view, calif., oct. 11, 2023. the justice department says a former software engineer at google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence technology from the company while secretly working with two companies based in china. linwei ding was arrested in newark, california., on four counts of federal trade secret theft.(ap photo/eric risberg, file) washington (ap)   a former software engineer at google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the company while secretly working with two companies based in china, the justice department said wednesday. linwei ding, a chinese national, was arrested in newark, california, on four counts of federal trade secret theft, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison. the case against ding, 38, was announced at an american bar association conference in san francisco by attorney general merrick garland, who along with other law enforcement leaders has repeatedly warned about the threat of chinese economic espionage and about the national security concerns posed by advancements in artificial intelligence and other developing technologies. “today’s charges are the latest illustration of the lengths affiliates of companies based in the people’s republic of china are willing to go to steal american innovation,” fbi director christopher wray said in a statement. “the theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from american companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences.” google said it had determined that the employee had stolen “numerous documents” and referred the matter to law enforcement. “we have strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets,” google spokesman jose castaneda said in a statement. “after an investigation, we found that this employee stole numerous documents, and we quickly referred the case to law enforcement. we are grateful to the fbi for helping protect our information and will continue cooperating with them closely.” a lawyer listed as ding’s defense attorney had no comment wednesday evening. artificial intelligence is the main battleground for competitors in the field of high technology, and the question of who dominates can have major commercial and security implications. justice department leaders in recent weeks have been sounding alarms about how foreign adversaries could harness ai technologies to negatively affect the united states. deputy attorney general lisa monaco said in a speech last month that the administration’s multi agency disruptive technology strike force would place ai at the top of its enforcement priority list, and wray told a conference last week that ai and other emerging technologies had made it easier for adversaries to try to interfere with the american political process. garland echoed those concerns at the san francisco event, saying wednesday that, “as with all evolving technologies, (ai) has pluses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages, great promise and the risk of great harm.” the indictment unsealed wednesday in the northern district of california alleges that ding, who was hired by google in 2019 and had access to confidential information about the company’s supercomputing data centers, began uploading hundreds of files into a personal google cloud account two years ago. within weeks of the theft starting, prosecutors say, ding was offered the position of chief technology officer at an early stage technology company in china that touted its use of ai technology and that offered him a monthly salary of about $14,800, plus an annual bonus and company stock. the indictment says ding traveled to china and participated in investor meetings at the company and sought to raise capital for it. he also separately founded and served as chief executive of a china based startup company that aspired to train “large ai models powered by supercomputing chips,” the indictment said. prosecutors say ding did not disclose either affiliation to google, which described him wednesday as a junior employee. he resigned from google last dec. 26. three days later, google officials learned that he had presented as ceo of one of the chinese companies at an investor conference in beijing. officials also reviewed surveillance footage showing that another employee had scanned ding’s access badge at the google building in the u.s. where he worked to make it look like ding was there during times when he was actually in china, the indictment says. google suspended ding’s network access and locked his laptop, and discovered his unauthorized uploads while searching his network activity history. the fbi in january served a search warrant at ding’s home and seized his electronic devices, and later executed an additional warrant for the contents of his personal accounts containing more than 500 unique files of confidential information that authorities say he stole from google. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

manage your account first of their kind lawsuits, near daily staff memos from the little known acting fbi director and abject fear among agents that they could lose their jobs have distracted and destabilized the fbi workforce, a half dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials with experience in the bureau told nbc news. the tensions at the country's most powerful federal law enforcement agency follow a trump administration request for the names of thousands of agents assigned to work on capitol riot related investigations. assurances from the administration that it will review agents’ conduct and not necessarily fire them have not quelled fears of mass firings. if the new administration fires or punishes agents involved in the jan. 6 investigations   referred to within the bureau as simply “1 6"   it could affect the fbi in three dangerous ways, the current and former law enforcement officials said. many of the agents involved in the investigations of the riot at the capitol on jan. 6, 2021, work in the fbi’s counterterrorism division, which operates joint terrorism task forces in cities across the country with federal and local law enforcement agencies. those agents investigate terrorism threats both from inside the united states and from overseas groups, such as isis, al qaeda, hamas and hezbollah. most of the joint terrorism task forces in the united states are primarily made up of fbi agents, say the officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss dynamics in the bureau. and most of the terrorism cases are brought by the fbi, according to court documents and public filings. so the potential removal of thousands of those agents   some estimate the number of counterterrorism agents could be over 4,000   poses a major threat to the fbi’s ability to combat terrorist threats, the current and former officials say. the agents who worked on jan. 6 cases were assigned to do so by superiors or by court orders in many instances, the officials noted. agents and other fbi staff members do not pick their assignments. punishing thousands of jan. 6 case agents could also damage fbi operations not related to terrorism, the current and former officials say. agents from smaller fbi field offices, for example, were also brought in to work on jan. 6 cases. dismissing those agents could affect smaller fbi field offices that investigate misconduct by local law enforcement agencies, corporations and public officials. retaliation against agents who worked on jan. 6 investigations could also have a chilling effect on fbi agents' desire to investigate future cases involving the second trump administration. the current and former officials say they wonder whether fbi officials would be willing to investigate, for example, a person in trump’s personal orbit. a past example would paul manafort, trump's 2016 campaign manager, who was investigated by fbi agents and convicted of tax and bank fraud. an investigation into a manafort like figure would dismay agents and potentially prompt some to refuse to investigate him, citing fear of reprisal, current and former officials say. agents might also wonder about the consequences of investigating prominent democratic figures, should they retake the white house. democratic leaders have not called for the firing of fbi agents involved in the investigations of former sen. bob menendez, d n.j., or hunter biden, for example. but fbi personnel are concerned that the payback pendulum could swing both ways, the officials say. a former fbi official who asked not to be named, citing fears of retaliation, predicted that the current probe of jan. 6 agents will have a lasting impact. “the chilling effect   it has a long tail,” the former official said. “you’re putting everyone on notice. they’re saying, ‘we’re watching you.’” firing agents would also be likely to damage efforts to retain veteran agents and recruit new ones, the current and former officials say. agents fired for their work on jan. 6 cases would be unable to get hired by other federal law enforcement agencies, the officials say. if they managed to get hired by local police departments, it would most likely be for less pay and lower retirement benefits. the economic impact on agents’ families would be immediate, the officials say. since agents frequently work long hours and spend extensive time away from home, they are often their families’ sole breadwinners. what surprises agents is that many genuinely believed that a new administration would bring positive change, the current and former officials say. many agents hoped a new fbi director would bring much needed changes to the structure and management of the fbi. they hoped more agents would be sent into the field from headquarters in washington, the officials say. and they hoped that new technology would be adopted, which many officials told nbc news is sorely needed. as rumors of mass layoffs have shaken the workforce in ways not seen in decades, an unexpected leader has emerged. staffers have lauded acting fbi director brian driscoll jr., a career agent and the head of the fbi’s field office in newark, new jersey, for standing up to trump appointees and pushing back against orders for agents to be fired. current and former agents said driscoll resisted the efforts so forcefully at times that they feared he might be forced out himself. on tuesday, driscoll released a video touting the fbi's recent accomplishments, including recent arrests of two people on the fbi’s most wanted fugitives list and agents' roles in investigating the plane crashes over washington, d.c., and in philadelphia. “we will never take our eyes off of our mission, protecting the american people and upholding the constitution,” driscoll said. “because at the bureau we’re focused on the work, the people we do the work with, our partners and the people we do the work for, the american people.” agents credit driscoll with stopping mass firings, for now, current and former officials say. they also know that the trump administration could remove him at any time. this article was originally published on nbcnews.com

manage your account federal law enforcement agents are planning to carry out a "large scale" immigration enforcement action in the los angeles area before the end of february, according to an internal government document reviewed by the times. the operation, which would be spearheaded by u.s. immigration and customs enforcement, will focus on people who do not have legal status in the country or who already have pending orders of removal, according to the document, which was circulated among some federal law enforcement officials this week. although immigration operations have been ramped up across the country since president trump took office, no sweeping actions have taken place in l.a., a city trump repeatedly criticized during his presidential campaigns. ice did not respond to a request for comment. a federal law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said agents with the fbi and the drug enforcement administration's los angeles field offices are being called in to assist. "they needed more bodies," the official said. a former federal law enforcement official, who said they had been informed about the recent preparations but spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing retaliation, also said fbi agents were being ordered to participate in pending ice "raids" in los angeles. neither of the officials could provide an exact time frame for the potential actions. read more: these gardeners, housekeepers, nannies kept pacific palisades going. fire took their jobs the active federal law enforcement official warned that plans could change due to the "chaotic" nature of the trump administration's first few weeks in power and expected pushback from within some of the agencies that will be required to aid ice. “just because certain information is being given doesn’t mean it’s the administration’s plan, because they know some agents are going to be resistant," the official said. thousands have flocked to downtown los angeles in recent days to engage in demonstrations against trump's mass deportation strategy. protesters briefly blocked the 101 freeway this week, and a person was stabbed during a fight near spring street on friday afternoon. ice's enforcement removal operations in l.a. has posted regularly on x recently about people they've arrested, including a mexican national convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, another wanted for murder in mexico, a woman convicted of driving under the influence and an alleged venezuelan tren de aragua gang member. fbi spokeswoman laura eimiller declined to comment on any upcoming large scale operation, but said the agency has been assisting in immigration operations since the end of january. "we're primarily a supportive role for these operations," she said. other federal agencies have been assisting ice since last month, including the dea and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. the dea l.a. last month posted on x that it had participated in an operation tied to immigration enforcement. "when asked to support immigration enforcement actions, we will review the capabilities and shift resources as necessary to provide support," matthew allen, who leads the agency's l.a. office, said in a statement. read more: military freezes sexual assault prevention training after trump executive order on dei ginger colbrun, a spokesperson for the atf, said friday in an email that the agency has been assisting the department of homeland security and other federal law enforcement partners with immigration enforcement efforts in southern california since jan. 26. "to ensure operational security and the safety of our agents and partners, atf does not disclose details of enforcement activities," colbrun said. trump's “border czar,” tom homan, this week blamed the leak of an immigration operation in aurora, colo., as having reduced the number of arrests of tren de aragua gang members and other criminals. "this is not a game," homan told fox news. "to have this type of interference puts our officers at great risk." sign up for essential california for news, features and recommendations from the l.a. times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. this story originally appeared in los angeles times.

spaceship download this ebook to learn how to avoid a costly data breach with a comprehensive prevention strategy. everyone is at risk of a data breach or cyber attack, no matter how small or large a company is. hackers and cybercriminals come up with new ways every day to steal sensitive information or personal data that they can potentially sell or ransom for money. according to a report published by the identity theft resource center (itrc), a record number of 1862 data breaches occurred in 2021 in the us. this number broke the previous record of 1506 set in 2017 and represented a 68% increase compared to the 1108 breaches in 2020. sectors like healthcare, finance, business, and retail are the most commonly attacked, impacting millions of americans every year. many cybersecurity experts believe that this number will continue to increase in 2023 and beyond. to help you understand the scope and extent of data breaches today, here are the largest data breaches in us history. when a data breach occurs, sensitive data can be stolen and sold on the dark web or to third parties. here are some of the biggest data breaches in history that led to the exposure of millions of user records. date: 2013 2016 impact: over 3 billion user accounts exposed the data breach of yahoo is one of the worst and most infamous cases of a known cyberattack and currently holds the record for the most people affected. the first attack occurred in 2013, and many more would continue over the next three years. a team of russian hackers targeted yahoo’s database using backdoors, stolen backups, and access cookies to steal records from all user accounts, which included personally identifiable information (pii) like: initially, yahoo reported stolen data from about 1 billion accounts. however, after verizon bought out yahoo in 2017, they reported that the final number of records totaled about 3 billion accounts affected. not only was yahoo slow to react, but the company also failed to disclose a 2014 incident to users, which resulted in a $35 million fine and, in total, 41 class action lawsuits. learn about the top vendor risk management solution options on the market > date: january 2021 impact: 30,000 us companies (60,000 companies worldwide) in one of the largest cyberattacks in us history, over 30,000 us businesses were affected by a sweeping attack on the microsoft exchange email servers, one of the largest email servers in the world. the hackers were able to exploit four different zero day vulnerabilities that allowed them to gain unauthorized access to emails from small businesses to local governments. for three months, hackers took advantage of a few coding errors to allow them to take control of vulnerable systems. they only needed two conditions to break into each individual company’s email servers: once they were in, they could request access to data, deploy malware, use backdoors to gain access to other systems, and ultimately take over the servers. since the requests looked like they came from the exchange servers themselves, many people assumed it was legitimate and approved. learn how to respond to the fortigate ssl vpn vulnerability > though microsoft was able to patch the vulnerabilities, if the owners of the individual servers didn’t update their systems, attackers would be able to exploit the system flaw again. because the systems weren’t on the cloud, microsoft couldn’t push a patch to fix the issues immediately. in july 2021, the biden administration, along with the fbi, accused china of the data breach. microsoft followed suit and named a chinese state sponsored hacker group, hafnium, as the culprit behind the attack. date: december 2023 impact: 1.5 billion records leaked in one of the largest leaks in us history, a new york based online real estate education platform, real estate wealth network, exposed more than 1.5 billion records in their database to the public. the database contained nearly 1.16 tb of data, which was exposed for an unknown period due to having non password protected folders and system access. among the exposed data included: more notably, information such as property ownership data could be found on major celebrities, which included individuals like kylie jenner, britney spears, floyd mayweather, nancy pelosi, and more. with this information, cybercriminals could easily carry out social engineering attacks, commit financial fraud, or execute other cyber attacks. representatives from real estate wealth network confirmed they owned the database, but it is currently unclear if they are undergoing investigation or legal action. ‍ date: may 2019 impact: 885 million file records leaked in 2019, first american financial corp. suffered a major data leak due to poor data security measures and faulty website design. although this incident was labeled a data leak instead of a breach (no hacking involved), it shows just how easily sensitive information can fall into the wrong hands. due to a website design error called insecure direct object reference (idor), access to private information was allowed without needing verification or authentication procedures. as a result, anyone with a link to the documents could view them freely. on top of that, because first american logged their records in sequential order, users could simply change the number in the url to view other customer records. approximately 885 million files were exposed, including: fortunately, no data was compromised or exploited. because first american violated cybersecurity laws due to ignoring red flags in 2018 and other administrative errors, they were ultimately fined roughly $500,000 by the securities and exchange commission (sec). learn how to respond to the moveit transfer zero day >‍ date: april 2021 impact: 530 million users exposed although one of the world’s largest companies, facebook is no stranger to data leaks and controversy. the social media giant has constantly dealt with security breaches of user data since the company went public in 2012. the company’s massive data breach in april 2021 was one of its largest, leaking names, phone numbers, account names, and passwords of over 530 million people to the public. facebook identified the problem in the platform’s tool to sync contacts, citing hackers exploiting a vulnerability to scrape user profiles for customer data. though facebook maintained that no data had been compromised or misused, it’s impossible to verify since the information was public for a short period. hackers or scammers can easily take advantage of unsuspecting users with just their names, phone numbers, and emails. since 2013, facebook has faced multiple major data breaches, including: date: april 2018 impact: 50 90 million users exposed in 2018, a british consulting firm, cambridge analytica, stole and sold data from 50 90 million user accounts on facebook in one of the most high profile cases in recent memory. cambridge analytica security researcher aleksandr kogan accessed this data through a loophole from a third party quiz app. this loophole in facebook’s api (application programming interface) allowed kogan to compile data from anyone who downloaded the app and their entire friend network. despite going against the terms and conditions of facebook, cambridge analytica continued to sell the data illegally because there was no rule enforcement. reports show that facebook was aware of the issue as early as 2015 but did not take action until christopher wylie, a cambridge analytica employee, blew the whistle. things finally came to a head when the federal trade commission (ftc) announced a historic $5 billion fine for facebook’s continuous violation of data security and poor data protection practices. the ftc also mandated a complete restructuring from the top down to increase oversight of privacy compliance. furthermore, the ftc filed a lawsuit against cambridge analytica, forcing ceo alexander nix to resign. date: april 2021 impact: over 700 million user records with about 750 million users in 2021, hackers were able to post the user identities of about 700 million people (>93% of the total user base) after performing a data scrape of the linkedin website. although most of the information was publicly available, performing a data scrape by exploiting linkedin’s api violated the terms of service. the scraped data included: any email addresses exposed during a breach can potentially be subject to ransomware or phishing attacks. though the data was publicly available, it raised concerns over information security and how third parties can use that information to create osint (open source intelligence) databases. it also provides an opportunity for bad actors to target high profile individuals or company executives. for example, smaller hackers quickly tried to piggyback off this incident. one user claimed to sell a new set of linkedin data on a public forum in exchange for $7000 worth of bitcoin. date: june 2014 impact: 76 million households & 7 million small businesses in september 2014, jpmorgan chase, one of the largest banks in the us, disclosed that cyberattacks compromised accounts of over 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. although the attack was initially thought to have only affected 1 million accounts, investigations found that the attack was much worse, lasting about a entire month from june to july. jpmorgan chase customers luckily didn’t suffer any financial fraud, as the data breach was limited to names, emails, and phone numbers. however, further investigations found that the hack also reached jpmorgan servers by stealing a bank employee’s identity. gigabytes of sensitive data were stolen and later linked to a russian attack by the fbi. following the incident, jpmorgan executives pledged to spend $250 million annually to secure their data properly. date: april 2014 impact: 56 million payment card numbers & 53 million email addresses in 2014, hackers were able to steal over 56 million payment card records from home depot using custom built malware. the attack lasted for five months before it was detected and finally removed from the networks of the popular home improvement store. however, it had already affected millions of customers spanning the us and canada. upon investigation, cybersecurity experts found that the cybercriminals most likely breached the servers through a third party supplier. once they were inside the networks, the hackers were able to install malware on the point of sale (pos) systems, allowing them to collect payment card data and upload them to a separate server. the attack highlighted how little many large retailers spend on cybersecurity to protect sensitive information. by 2020, although home depot had significantly improved its payment system protection, it suffered about $180 million in damages. much of the damages included payments to credit card companies and banks, court settlements, and customer payouts. ‍ date: june 2013 impact: over 360 million accounts although no longer the social networking site it once was, myspace still attracts millions of visitors to their now predominantly music and band promotion site. in 2016, reports came out that a hacker accessed 360 million user logins, names, and dates of birth and posted them for sale on the dark web, making it one of the largest data breaches ever. before 2013, myspace used an unsalted hash algorithm to encrypt user passwords. the fixed length of this older sha 1 algorithm made it extremely easy to crack. newer password authentication protocols use a salted hash algorithm, which adds a random string of characters to the end of each encryption. luckily, myspace confirmed that all of the stolen data was from before 2013 when the company rolled out newly updated security measures. they were able to invalidate all of the stolen passwords and notify the affected users of the breach. date: november 2016 impact: 412 million accounts popular adult entertainment company friendfinder networks faced a massive data breach in 2016 when six of its main databases were hacked, including its more well known subsidiaries, adultfriendfinder and penthouse. over 20 years of data were stolen, which amounted to about 412 million accounts, including 15 million deleted accounts that weren’t removed from the databases. the breach contained extremely compromising information that included: according to leakedsource, friendfinder networks secured their passwords with the unsalted hash algorithm sha 1 and stored user data in plaintext files. furthermore, a white hat hacker named revolver revealed a local file inclusion (lfi) vulnerability from photos shared on social media. this was a huge security issue for the adult entertainment company because it had been hacked just one year prior, in may 2015, which compromised 3.5 million users. despite the data breaches, adultfriendfinder still attracts over 50 million visitors per month worldwide. date: september 2018 impact: 500 million guests on november 19, 2018, marriott international released a statement acknowledging that an unknown third party had illegally accessed their starwood reservation database. the starwood database included every reservation made at major hotel chains under marriott, including westin, sheraton, four points, st. regis, and w hotels. upon further investigation, the team at marriott found that guest data had been copied, encrypted, and duplicated from as far back as 2014. in total, approximately 500 million guests were affected. for about 327 million guests, the hackers were able to steal information that included: for the remaining guests, the stolen data was limited to names, addresses, and emails. this incident highlighted the lack of data security within the hospitality industry. when marriott acquired starwood in 2016, it failed to update the old reservation system, leaving it highly vulnerable to malware and data breaches. many cybersecurity experts believe that the chinese government initiated this attack to gain valuable information. in 2019, marriott was fined almost $24 million by the uk information commissioner’s office (ico) for failing to meet cybersecurity standards. date: october 2013 impact: 38 million credit card numbers adobe experienced one of the worst data breaches in the 21st century when sensitive payment card details from approximately 38 million accounts were posted on the dark web. initially thought to be around 3 million, adobe’s director of security, brad arkin, admitted that the number was much higher. the attackers were able to obtain access to information like: adobe’s main issue was shifting from selling desktop licenses to a cloud based saas company. the transition left them vulnerable due to a lack of it security, from the servers to the general infrastructure. in addition, adobe used the same password encryption key for all 38 million affected users, demonstrating poor data protection practices. adobe settled a lawsuit with 15 states for just $1 million in 2016. date: march 2014 impact: 145 million users in 2014, global retailer and auction site ebay was hit with a massive data breach that stole the passwords of 145 million users. hackers obtained access to the main network by stealing login credentials from just a few ebay employees. luckily, financial information was stored on a separate server, so the scope of the attack was limited to: ebay quickly began to notify their customers to change their passwords to avoid further damage. although there was no reported financial fraud, it’s important to note that many people reuse their passwords at least once, meaning it’s highly likely that other services may have been compromised. date: september 2017 impact: 148 million americans (163 million worldwide) equifax, one of the big three credit reporting agencies (transunion, experian, equifax) in the us, reported a major data breach in 2017, which impacted the personal data of 148 million us citizens. as a company that handles extremely sensitive data, equifax came under fire due to its negligence and poor security posture. equifax ultimately invested more than $1.4 billion to clean up the damages and rebuild its data protection defense. two years later, they settled with the ftc, various states and territories, and other authorities for $575 million.‍ ‍ ‍ date: march 2017 impact: 1.4 billion file records leaked one of the world’s largest email spam operations, river city media, suffered one of the world’s largest database leaks in us history from 2016 to 2017. this leak exposed the personal details of almost 1.4 billion people and a host of internal company documents. although most of the information was limited to email addresses, many records included ip addresses, full names, and physical addresses. while configuring backup servers to its mysql database, the portland based company failed to set up password protection, exposing the entire company. this simple mistake was overlooked for almost three months, which left over a billion people exposed to potential hackers. during these three months, all 1.4 billion accounts were posted to the internet for anyone to view. ultimately, river city media was reported to spamhaus, an international cybersecurity organization, to blacklist the spam operation. rcm quickly collapsed due to the negative publicity, despite denying their server vulnerability. date: november 2013 impact: 41 million payment card records & 70 million customer records on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, target became a victim of a third party data breach during black friday 2013. even with a security system in place, any organization with vulnerable third parties can put itself at high risk for a data breach or cyber attack. in this case, target used a portal through which third party vendors could access their data. however, in doing so, this created a vulnerability in which third parties could access target’s own network. this major data breach allowed the cybercriminals to steal over 41 million credit and debit card records and 70 million customer records. managing third party risk should be at the forefront of every company’s cybersecurity practices. all it takes is one compromised third party to infiltrate the entire network. on top of that, target did not have a segmented network or sufficient firewall in place, which would have greatly limited the cyber attack. once inside, the hackers used a trojan to attack target’s point of sale (pos) system, which allowed them to access payment card information. ultimately, target incurred about $202 million in losses ($292 million before insurance), which included an $18.5 million settlement payout, a $10 million class action lawsuit, and $127.5 million paid to banks and credit card companies. they also spent a large sum of money on upgrading their cybersecurity practices, as listed on their corporate page: date: may 2008 impact: over 100 million payment card records heartland, a company specializing in payment, pos, and payroll systems, fell victim to a data breach in 2008, where attackers made off with over 100 million payment card records. however, due to poor security management, the company didn’t realize any illegal activity until five months later in october 2008, when visa and mastercard reported suspicious transactions from heartland accounts. after hiring a cybersecurity forensic team, they found that their systems had been attacked by sql injection in 2007, which allowed the hackers to modify web code and gain access to logins. they were able to navigate heartland systems unimpeded for months and created counterfeit credit cards with real magnetic strips. although the culprits were eventually caught, heartland suffered irreparable damage, losing a large portion of customers and over $200 million paid out in compensation. within months of the incident, their stock prices fell 77%. later in 2015, a larger payment processor, global payments, acquired heartland for $4.3 billion. date: june 2018 impact: 340 million people exactis, a florida based marketing firm that collects and sells data on businesses and consumers, reportedly exposed a database containing 340 million individual records. initially discovered by security researcher vinny troia, he found the entire exactis database on a public network that was completely unsecured and accessible to everyone. troia immediately contacted the fbi, who conducted their own investigation. the fbi believed that the database contained information on nearly all us citizens and millions of businesses from their findings. the database contained sensitive data including, but not limited to: it was one of the most complete collections of data ever compiled, fully exposed for anyone to view. this information could allow scammers and cybercriminals to execute social engineering attacks on a widespread level, targeting unsuspecting individuals and businesses with poor security practices. although the database was taken off the public domain shortly after it was reported, the fbi believes it was available online for an extended period. exactis remained silent on the issue but is currently facing multiple class action lawsuits. date: july 2019 impact: 100 million user records in 2019, paige thompson, a former amazon web services (aws) employee, hacked the capital one servers and gained access to over 100 million customer account records and credit card applications from as far back as 2005. of these records, these included: thompson exploited a cloud firewall configuration vulnerability, which allowed her to execute multiple commands on the capital one servers. she obtained administrator credentials to bypass the firewall, accessed the data buckets and folders, and copied and exported the data. she then posted the stolen data to github, which created a digital trail that led to her arrest. despite being a major advocate for cloud services, capital one failed to implement sufficient security measures to protect customer data. if capital one had implemented segmented network security or limited user access privileges, it might have made things much more difficult for thompson to access. it would have required multiple verification processes for each layer of data. with more and more companies transitioning to cloud hosted servers, cybersecurity solutions that monitor the third party attack surface must be put in place. capital one would end up settling a class action lawsuit in 2021 for $190 million. date: december 2018 impact: 162 million user records in december 2018, a massive data breach hit 16 different websites, affecting over 617 million stolen accounts. dubsmash was the most prominent victim, having over 162 million user records compromised on the dark web. the stolen data included: companies around the world also suffered major data losses in this same attack, including: date: june 2017 impact: 198 million us citizens the personal information of almost 200 million registered voters was leaked in june 2017, data owned by republican data analysis group deep root analytics. the data was first discovered by the cyber threat analysis team at upguard, which was the largest exposure of sensitive voter information in history. the data contained: with this data, political parties on both sides could potentially exploit it to manipulate voter behavior. many high profile, influential individuals and organizations were also included in this data set. although the republican national committee (rnc) cut ties with deep root analytics shortly after the data breach, they rehired the data organization in 2020 to prepare for donald trump’s reelection bid. date: september 2019 impact: 218 million users zynga, one of the most popular online gaming companies, announced a password breach in september 2019 that affected over 200 million users. through popular mobile games such as words with friends, farmville, and draw something, a hacker named gnosticplayers was able to access the system to steal usernames and passwords. despite admitting to the password breach, zynga failed to notify users immediately. although no financial information was exposed, this zynga breach represents a significant concern for hackers to utilize simple information to engineer phishing attacks or scams. if compromised data makes it to the dark web, individuals could potentially be subject to cyberattacks.‍ date: june 2023 impact: 94 million users / >2500 organizations / >$15 billion in damages in one of the more high profile attacks in 2023, the moveit vulnerability was a zero day vulnerability that affected many of the world’s largest organizations. the vulnerability originated from progress software’s file transfer application, moveit transfer, a software that thousands of organizations around the world use. although the breach occurred worldwide, it’s estimated that nearly 80% of moveit victims were us corporations, which included the us department of energy, first national bank, university of georgia, johns hopkins university, nyc department of education, and more. the initial moveit vulnerability was one of eight cves disclosed by progress software, and many organizations are still dealing with the fallout and recovery from the zero day. as of early 2024, the number jumped to over 94 million users impacted and over $15 billion in total damages, and still counting. learn more about the moveit zero day vulnerability > ‍ date: august 2022 impact: 30 million users plex, a media streaming platform, issued password reset notices to nearly all 30 million users on august 24th, 2022, after noticing that an unauthorized party had accessed data that included emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords. although passwords were encrypted with a hashing algorithm to prevent the likelihood of criminals stealing accounts, the data breach exposed an unpatched vulnerability that allowed the criminal to tunnel their way into plex’s systems. furthermore, the widespread password changes exposed plex’s inability to handle the traffic on their internal servers, creating additional error messages or failed password changes. even with encrypted passwords, threat actors can utilize brute force encryption cracking software to steal basic passwords that many people use. because no payment information was stored on plex servers and the company responded quickly to the situation, there were ultimately no penalties or cases of stolen information. the incident highlights the importance of creating strong passwords in case of an attack. date: september 2022 impact: 1000 schools / 600,000 students / 500gb of data in one of the biggest data breaches of all time in the education industry, the los angeles unified school district (lausd) was attacked by a russian criminal group, vice society, over labor day weekend. the attack affected over 1000 schools and 600,000 students in the second largest school district in the united states. vice society deployed a ransomware attack that prevented lausd officials from accessing critical data, including: because cybersecurity experts and law enforcement strongly advise against paying ransoms, lausd released a statement that announced they would not be paying the ransom given to them. as a result, vice society published the stolen data on their dark web forum. although the lasting impact of the attack has yet to be determined, potential lawsuits could be on the horizon if cases of fraud or identity theft become prevalent. it’s also important to note that the lausd was notified of potential vulnerabilities prior to the attack and failed to resolve or remediate the issues, which could result in further penalties or fines after investigation. date: april 2022 impact: 8.2 million users in april 2022, information from over 8 million users was downloaded by a former disgruntled employee through cash app investing, a stock trading feature accessible through cashapp’s service. it’s important to note that information held through cash app investing is separate from cash app’s main product of person to person payment service. information that was stolen included: although no other personally identifiable information (pii) was stolen, the data breach was a significant security risk reflecting a failure to implement access control policies, especially for an employee who no longer worked at cash app. moreover, the attack continued to happen over a 4 month period while cash app failed to detect or act on the active data breach. after the illegal downloading of sensitive information, cash app is currently undergoing multiple class action lawsuits for failing to implement proper security measures to protect user data.

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. the marriner s. eccles federal reserve board building is seen in washington, nov. 18, 2024. (ap photo/jose luis magana, file) federal authorities have arrested a former federal reserve senior adviser for allegedly giving inside economic information to china. a grand jury indictment accuses john harold rogers, 63, of vienna, virginia, of stealing federal reserve trade secrets and selling them to chinese intelligence officials for at least $450,000 by posing as a university professor in china. he is also accused of lying to federal reserve investigators and consumer financial protection bureau officials. the department of justice announced rogers’ indictment and arrest on friday, the same day he made his first appearance before a washington court. rogers is being held without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned tuesday, according to court records. jonathan gitlen, an attorney for rogers, said via email saturday that “dr. rogers denies the allegations as set forth in the indictment.” rogers will say more “at a later date,” gitlen said. assistant director kevin vorndran of the fbi counterintelligence division said in a statement that rogers “betrayed his country while employed at the federal reserve by providing restricted u.s. financial and economic information to chinese government intelligence officers.” the information, vorndran continued, “could allow adversaries to illegally gain a strategic economic advantage at the expense of the u.s.” the justice department said the information “could allow china to manipulate the u.s. market” in a manner similar to insider trading. the department noted that china, as of october 2024, held about $816 billion in u.s. foreign debt and that chinese financial players could benefit from inside knowledge of u.s. economic policy, such as advance notice of federal funds rate changes, when making decisions about buying and selling u.s. debt instruments. rogers, a u.s. citizen with a doctorate in economics, worked for the federal reserve from 2010 until 2021, according to the indictment. according to the indictment, rogers, a u.s. citizen with a ph.d. in economics, worked as a senior adviser in frb’s division of international finance of the frb from 2010 until 2021, where he would have had access to a range of classified information. prosecutors allege that rogers and two chinese co conspirators began communicating as early as 2013. the indictment asserts that rogers later forwarded protected information to his personal email or made print copies to pass along to his co conspirators. the cache allegedly included proprietary economic data and analysis, briefing books written for federal reserve governors, details of federal open market committee deliberations and future announcements, and accounts of conversations about tariffs targeted at china, according to the indictment. rogers is accused of meeting co conspirators in china for multiple visits, under the guise of him being an academic instructor teaching them as students. the indictment alleges that in 2023, rogers received $450,000 as a part time professor at a chinese university. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

cointelpro (a syllabic abbreviation derived from counter intelligence program) was a series of covert and illegal[1][2] projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the united states federal bureau of investigation (fbi) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting american political organizations that the fbi perceived as subversive.[3][4][5][6] groups and individuals targeted by the fbi included feminist organizations,[7][8] the communist party usa,[9] anti vietnam war organizers, activists in the civil rights and black power movements (e.g., martin luther king jr., the nation of islam, and the black panther party), environmentalist and animal rights organizations, the american indian movement (aim), chicano and mexican american groups like the brown berets and the united farm workers, and independence movements (including puerto rican independence groups, such as the young lords and the puerto rican socialist party). although the program primarily focused on organizations that were part of the broader new left, they also targeted white supremacist groups, such as the ku klux klan[10][11] and the national states' rights party.[12] the fbi has used covert operations against domestic political groups since its inception; however, covert operations under the official cointelpro label took place between 1956 and 1971. however, the official chronology of the program is the subject of the debate. according to a senate investigation, "if cointelpro had been a short lived aberration, the thorny problems of motivation, techniques, and control presented might be safely relegated to history. however, cointelpro existed for years on an 'ad hoc basis before the formal programs were instituted, and more significantly, cointelpro type activities may continue today under the rubric of 'investigation."[13] many of the tactics used in cointelpro are alleged to have seen continued use, including discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; illegal violence; and assassination.[14][15][16][17] according to a senate report, the fbi's motivation was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order".[13] beginning in 1969, leaders of the black panther party were targeted by the cointelpro and "neutralized" by being assassinated, imprisoned, publicly humiliated or falsely charged with crimes. some of the black panthers targeted include fred hampton, mark clark, zayd shakur, geronimo pratt, mumia abu jamal,[18] and marshall conway. common tactics used by cointelpro were perjury, witness harassment, witness intimidation, and withholding of exculpatory evidence.[19][20][21] fbi director j. edgar hoover issued directives governing cointelpro, ordering fbi agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and especially their leaders.[22][23] under hoover, the official in charge of cointelpro was assistant director william c. sullivan.[24] attorney general robert f. kennedy personally authorized some of the programs,[25] giving written approval for limited wiretapping of martin luther king's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or so".[26] hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of king's life they deemed worthy.[27] the fbi initiated cointelpro, an abbreviation for counterintelligence program, in 1956 with the aim of undermining the operations of the communist party of the united states. in the 1960s, the scope of the organization was broadened to encompass various additional domestic factions, including the ku klux klan, the socialist workers party, and the black panther party. the cessation of all cointelpro operations occurred in 1971. despite its relatively small scale (constituting approximately 0.2% of the fbi's overall workload during a 15 year timeframe), cointelpro was subsequently subject to criticism from both congress and the american public for infringing upon first amendment rights and other grounds.[28] tactics included anonymous phone calls, internal revenue service (irs) audits, and the creation of documents that would divide the american communist organization internally.[9] an october 1956 memo from hoover reclassified the fbi's ongoing surveillance of black leaders, including it within cointelpro, with the justification that the movement was infiltrated by communists.[29] in 1956, hoover sent an open letter denouncing dr. t. r. m. howard, a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in mississippi who had criticized fbi inaction in solving recent murders of george w. lee, emmett till, and other african americans in the south.[30] when the southern christian leadership conference (sclc), an african american civil rights organization, was founded in 1957, the fbi began to monitor and target the group almost immediately, focusing particularly on bayard rustin, stanley levison, and eventually martin luther king jr.[31] after the 1963 march on washington for jobs and freedom, hoover singled out king as a major target for cointelpro. under pressure from hoover to focus on king, sullivan wrote:[33] in the light of king's powerful demagogic speech ... we must mark him now if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the negro, and national security. soon after, the fbi was systematically bugging king's home and his hotel rooms, as they were now aware that king was growing in stature daily as the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement.[34] in the mid 1960s, king began to publicly criticize the bureau for giving insufficient attention to the use of terrorism by white supremacists. hoover responded by publicly calling king the most "notorious liar" in the united states.[35] in his 1991 memoir, washington post journalist carl rowan asserted that the fbi had sent at least one anonymous letter to king encouraging him to commit suicide.[36] historian taylor branch documents an anonymous "suicide package" sent by the fbi on november 21, 1964, that contained audio recordings obtained through tapping king's phone and placing bugs throughout various hotel rooms over the past two years,[37] and that was created two days after the announcement of king's impending nobel peace prize.[37] the tape, which was prepared by fbi audio technician john matter,[37] documented a series of sexual indiscretions by king combined with a letter telling him: "there is only one way out for you. you better take it before your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self is bared to the nation".[38] king believed that he was subsequently informed that the audio would be released to the media if he did not acquiesce and commit suicide prior to accepting his nobel peace prize.[37] when king refused to satisfy their coercion tactics, fbi associate director, cartha d. deloach, commenced a media campaign offering the surveillance transcript to various news organizations, including newsweek and newsday.[37] even by 1969, as has been noted elsewhere, "[fbi] efforts to 'expose' martin luther king jr. had not slackened even though king had been dead for a year. [the bureau] furnished ammunition to opponents that enabled attacks on king's memory, and ... tried to block efforts to honor the slain leader."[38] however, more portions of the fbi letter to king were made public in 2014 which suggested that the fbi's intent was to push king out of leadership and have "older leaders" like roy wilkins lead the civil right movement.[32] the claim that the fbi's intent was to remove king from sclc leadership was also previously backed in 1976 by the findings of the church committee.[39] during the same period the program also targeted malcolm x. while an fbi spokesman has denied that the fbi was "directly" involved in malcolm's murder in 1965, it is documented that the bureau worked to "widen the rift" between malcolm and elijah muhammad through infiltration and the "sparking of acrimonious debates within the organization", rumor mongering, and other tactics designed to foster internal disputes, which ultimately led to malcolm's assassination.[40][41] the fbi heavily infiltrated malcolm's organization of afro american unity in the final months of his life. the pulitzer prize winning biography of malcolm x by manning marable asserts that most of the men who plotted malcolm's assassination were never apprehended and that the full extent of the fbi's involvement in his death cannot be known.[42][43] amidst the urban unrest of july august 1967, the fbi began "cointelpro black hate", which focused on king and the sclc, as well as the student nonviolent coordinating committee (sncc), the revolutionary action movement (ram), the deacons for defense and justice, congress of racial equality (core), and the nation of islam.[44] black hate established the ghetto informant program and instructed 23 fbi offices to "disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist hate type organizations".[45] a march 1968 memo stated the program's goal was to "prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups"; to "prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify ... the militant black nationalist movement"; "to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence [against authorities]"; to "prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability, by discrediting them to ... both the responsible community and to liberals who have vestiges of sympathy"; and to "prevent the long range growth of militant black organizations, especially among youth". dr. king was said to have potential to be the "messiah" figure, should he abandon nonviolence and integrationism,[46] and kwame ture was noted to have "the necessary charisma to be a real threat in this way" as he was portrayed as someone who espoused a much more militant vision of "black power".[47] while the fbi was particularly concerned with leaders and organizers, they did not limit their scope of target to the heads of organizations. individuals, e.g. writers, were also listed among the targets of operations.[48] this program coincided with a broader federal effort to prepare military responses for urban riots and began increased collaboration between the fbi, central intelligence agency, national security agency, and the department of defense. the cia launched its own domestic espionage project in 1967 called operation chaos.[49] a particular target was the poor people's campaign, a national effort organized by king and the sclc to occupy washington, dc. the fbi monitored and disrupted the campaign on a national level, while using targeted smear tactics locally to undermine support for the march.[50] the black panther party was another targeted organization, wherein the fbi collaborated to destroy the party from the inside out.[48] overall, cointelpro encompassed disruption and sabotage of the socialist workers party (1961), the ku klux klan (1964), the nation of islam, the black panther party (1967), and the entire new left social/political movement, which included antiwar, community, and religious groups (1968). a later investigation by the senate's church committee (see below) stated that "cointelpro began in 1956, in part because of frustration with supreme court rulings limiting the government's power to proceed overtly against dissident groups."[51] official congressional committees and several court cases[52] have concluded that cointelpro operations against communist and socialist groups exceeded statutory limits on fbi activity and violated constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and association.[1] the program was secret until march 8, 1971, when the citizens' commission to investigate the fbi burgled an fbi field office in media, pennsylvania, took several dossiers, and exposed the program by passing this material to news agencies.[1][53] the boxing match known as the fight of the century between muhammad ali and joe frazier in march 1971 provided cover for the activist group to successfully pull off the burglary. muhammad ali was a cointelpro target because he had joined the nation of islam and the anti war movement.[54] many news organizations initially refused to immediately publish the information, with the notable exception of the washington post. after affirming the reliability of the documents, it published them on the front page (in defiance of the attorney general's request), prompting other organizations to follow suit. within the year, director j. edgar hoover declared that the centralized cointelpro was over, and that all future counterintelligence operations would be handled case by case.[55][56] additional documents were revealed in the course of separate lawsuits filed against the fbi by nbc correspondent carl stern, the socialist workers party, and a number of other groups. in 1976 the select committee to study governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities of the united states senate, commonly referred to as the "church committee" after its chairman, senator frank church (d idaho), launched a major investigation of the fbi and cointelpro. many released documents have been partly or entirely redacted. the final report of the select committee castigated the conduct of the intelligence community in its domestic operations (including cointelpro) in no uncertain terms: the committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of american citizens. the legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. on other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not apply. while intelligence officers on occasion failed to disclose to their superiors programs which were illegal or of questionable legality, the committee finds that the most serious breaches of duty were those of senior officials, who were responsible for controlling intelligence activities and generally failed to assure compliance with the law.[1] many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but cointelpro went far beyond that ... the bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of first amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.[51] the church committee documented a history of the fbi (initially called boi until 1936) exercising political repression as far back as world war i, and through the 1920s, when agents were charged with rounding up "anarchists, communists, socialists, reformists and revolutionaries" for deportation. from 1936 through 1976, the domestic operations were increased against political and anti war groups. the fbi claimed that the purpose behind cointelpro was to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, or otherwise neutralize" groups that the fbi officials believed were "subversive"[57] by instructing fbi field operatives to:[58] at its inception, the program's main target was the communist party.[48] in an interview with the bbc's andrew marr in february 1996, noam chomsky a political activist and mit professor of linguistics spoke about the purpose and the targets of cointelpro, saying:[59] cointelpro was a program of subversion carried out not by a couple of petty crooks but by the national political police, the fbi, under four administrations ... by the time it got through, i won't run through the whole story, it was aimed at the entire new left, at the women's movement, at the whole black movement, it was extremely broad. its actions went as far as political assassination. according to the church committee:[60] while the declared purposes of these programs were to protect the "national security" or prevent violence, bureau witnesses admit that many of the targets were nonviolent and most had no connections with a foreign power. indeed, nonviolent organizations and individuals were targeted because the bureau believed they represented a "potential" for violence and nonviolent citizens who were against the war in vietnam were targeted because they gave "aid and comfort" to violent demonstrators by lending respectability to their cause. the imprecision of the targeting is demonstrated by the inability of the bureau to define the subjects of the programs. the black nationalist program, according to its supervisor, included "a great number of organizations that you might not today characterize as black nationalist but which were in fact primarily black". thus, the nonviolent southern christian leadership conference was labeled as a black nationalist "hate group". furthermore, the actual targets were chosen from a far broader group than the titles of the programs would imply. the cpusa program targeted not only communist party members but also sponsors of the national committee to abolish the house un american activities committee and civil rights leaders allegedly under communist influence or deemed to be not sufficiently "anti communist". the socialist workers party program included non swp sponsors of anti war demonstrations which were cosponsored by the swp or the young socialist alliance, its youth group. the black nationalist program targeted a range of organizations from the panthers to sncc to the peaceful southern christian leadership conference, and included every black student union and many other black student groups. new left targets ranged from the sds to the interuniversity committee for debate on foreign policy, from antioch college ("vanguard of the new left") to the new mexico free university and other "alternate" schools, and from underground newspapers to students' protesting university censorship of a student publication by carrying signs with four letter words on them. examples of surveillance, spanning all presidents from fdr to nixon, both legal and illegal, contained in the church committee report:[61] groups that were known to be targets of cointelpro operations include:[62] the cointelpro operators targeted multiple groups at once and encouraged splintering of these groups from within. in letter writing campaigns (wherein false letters were sent on behalf of members of parties), the fbi ensured that groups would not unite in their causes. for instance, they launched a campaign specifically to alienate the black panther party from the mau maus, young lords, young patriots and sds. these racially diverse groups had been building alliances, in part due to charismatic leaders, such as fred hampton and his attempts to create a "rainbow coalition". the fbi was concerned with ensuring that groups could not gain traction through unity, specifically across racial lines. one of the main ways of targeting these groups was to arouse suspicion between the different parties and causes. in this way the bureau took on a divide and conquer offensive.[48] the cointelpro documents show numerous cases of the fbi's intentions to prevent and disrupt protests against the vietnam war. many techniques were used to accomplish this task. "these included promoting splits among antiwar forces, encouraging red baiting of socialists, and pushing violent confrontations as an alternative to massive, peaceful demonstrations." one 1966 cointelpro operation tried to redirect the socialist workers party from their pledge of support for the antiwar movement.[63] the fbi has said that it no longer undertakes cointelpro or cointelpro like operations. however, critics have claimed that agency programs in the spirit of cointelpro targeted groups, such as the committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador,[64] the american indian movement,[65][66] earth first!,[67] and the anti globalization movement.[68] according to attorney brian glick in his book war at home, the fbi used five main methods during cointelpro: the fbi specifically developed tactics intended to heighten tension and hostility between various factions in the black power movement, for example between the black panthers and the us organization. for instance, the fbi sent a fake letter to the us organization exposing a supposed black panther plot to murder the head of the us organization, ron karenga. they then intensified this by spreading falsely attributed cartoons in the black communities pitting the black panther party against the us organization.[48] this resulted in numerous deaths, among which were san diego black panther party members john huggins, bunchy carter and sylvester bell.[72] another example of the fbi's anonymous letter writing campaign is how they turned the blackstone rangers head, jeff fort, against former ally fred hampton, by stating that hampton had a hit on fort.[48] they also were instrumental in developing the rift between black panther party leaders eldridge cleaver and huey newton, as executed through false letters inciting the two leaders of the black panther party.[48] dhoruba bin wahad, a former black panther, reflects on how these tactics made him feel, saying he had a combat mentality and felt like he was at war with the government. when asked about why he thinks the black panthers were targeted he said, "in the united states, the equivalent of the military was the local police. during the early sixties, at the height of the civil rights movement, and the human rights movement, the police in the united states became increasingly militaristic. they began to train out of military bases in the united states. the law enforcement assistance act supplied local police with military technology, everything from assault rifles to army personnel carriers. in his opinion, the counterintelligence program went hand in hand with the militarization of the police in the black community, with the militarization of police in america."[75] the fbi also conspired with the police departments of many u.s. cities (san diego, los angeles, san francisco, oakland, philadelphia, chicago) to encourage repeated raids on black panther homes often with little or no evidence of violations of federal, state, or local laws which resulted in the police killing many members of the black panther party, most notably chicago black panther party chairman fred hampton on december 4, 1969. whether or not the fbi sanctioned his killing remains unproven.[16][72][76] before the death of hampton, long term infiltrator, william o'neal, shared floor plans of his apartment with the cointelpro team. he then gave hampton a dose of secobarbital that rendered hampton unconscious during the raid on his home.[48] in order to eliminate black militant leaders whom they considered dangerous, the fbi is believed to have worked with local police departments to target specific individuals,[77] accuse them of crimes they did not commit, suppress exculpatory evidence and falsely incarcerate them. elmer "geronimo" pratt, a black panther party leader, was incarcerated for 27 years before a california superior court vacated his murder conviction, ultimately freeing him. appearing before the court, an fbi agent testified that he believed pratt had been framed, because both the fbi and the los angeles police department knew he had not been in the area at the time the murder occurred.[78][79] some sources claim that the fbi conducted more than 200 "black bag jobs",[80][81] which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.[82] in 1969 the fbi special agent in san francisco wrote hoover that his investigation of the black panther party had concluded that in his city, at least, the panthers were primarily engaged in feeding breakfast to children. hoover fired back a memo implying the agent's career goals would be directly affected by his supplying evidence to support hoover's view that the black panther party was "a violence prone organization seeking to overthrow the government by revolutionary means".[83] hoover supported using false claims to attack his political enemies. in one memo he wrote: "purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the black panther party and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge."[84] viola's family endured hoover's claiming that cuts on her arm from the car's shattered window indicated "recent drug use" and that her proximity to moton resembled "a necking party," despite an autopsy revealing no traces of drugs in her system and indicating she hadn't had sex recently before her death. in one particularly controversial 1965 incident, white civil rights worker viola liuzzo was murdered by ku klux klansmen, who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the klansmen was gary thomas rowe, an acknowledged fbi informant.[86][87] the fbi spread rumors that liuzzo was a member of the communist party and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with african americans involved in the civil rights movement.[88][89] fbi records show that j. edgar hoover personally communicated these insinuations to president johnson.[90][91] despite this, three klansmen would be convicted in a federal trial for liuzzo's murder in december 1965.[92] fbi informant rowe has also been implicated in some of the most violent crimes of the 1960s civil rights era, including attacks on the freedom riders and the 1963 birmingham, alabama 16th street baptist church bombing.[86] the aclu has claimed the fbi supported an extreme right wing group of former minutemen, transforming it into a group called the secret army organization that targeted groups, activists, and leaders involved in the anti war movement, using both intimidation and violent acts.[93][94][95][96] hoover ordered preemptive action "to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence."[22] the final report of the church committee concluded: too many people have been spied upon by too many government agencies and too much information has been illegally collected. the government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power. the government, operating primarily through secret and biased informants, but also using other intrusive techniques, such as wiretaps, microphone "bugs", surreptitious mail opening, and break ins, has swept in vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and associations of american citizens. investigations of groups deemed potentially dangerous and even of groups suspected of associating with potentially dangerous organizations have continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not engage in unlawful activity. groups and individuals have been assaulted, repressed, harassed and disrupted because of their political views, social beliefs and their lifestyles. investigations have been based upon vague standards whose breadth made excessive collection inevitable. unsavory, harmful and vicious tactics have been employed including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths. intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials. while the agencies often committed excesses in response to pressure from high officials in the executive branch and congress, they also occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom they had a duty to inform. governmental officials including those whose principal duty is to enforce the law have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law. the constitutional system of checks and balances has not adequately controlled intelligence activities. until recently the executive branch has neither delineated the scope of permissible activities nor established procedures for supervising intelligence agencies. congress has failed to exercise sufficient oversight, seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations were being put. most domestic intelligence issues have not reached the courts, and in those cases when they have reached the courts, the judiciary has been reluctant to grapple with them.[97][98] while cointelpro was officially terminated in april 1971, domestic espionage continued.[99][100][101] between 1972 and 1974, it is documented that the bureau planted over 500 bugs without a warrant and opened over 2,000 pieces of personal mail. more recent targets of covert action include the american indian movement (aim), earth first!, and committees in solidarity with the people of el salvador.[102] documents released under the foia show that the fbi tracked the late david halberstam a pulitzer prize winning journalist and author for more than two decades.[103] "counterterrorism" guidelines implemented during the reagan administration have been described as allowing a return to cointelpro tactics.[104] some radical groups accuse factional opponents of being fbi informants or assume the fbi is infiltrating the movement.[105] cointelpro survivor filiberto ojeda rios was killed by the fbi's hostage rescue team in 2005,[106] his death described by a united nations special committee as an assassination.[107] environmentalist eric mcdavid, convicted on arson charges, was released after documents emerged demonstrating that the fbi informant in his earth liberation front group provided crucial leadership, information, and material without which the crime could not have been committed,[108] repeating the same pattern of behavior of cointelpro.[109] it has been claimed these sorts of practices have become widespread in fbi "counter terrorism" cases targeting muslims in the 2009 bronx terrorism plot and others.[110][111][112][113] authors, such as ward churchill, rex weyler, and peter matthiessen allege that the federal government intended to acquire uranium deposits on the lakota tribe's reservation land, and that this motivated a larger government conspiracy against aim activists on the pine ridge reservation.[65][66][114][115][116] others believe cointelpro continues and similar actions are being taken against activist groups.[116][117][118] caroline woidat says that, with respect to native americans, cointelpro should be understood within a historical context in which "native americans have been viewed and have viewed the world themselves through the lens of conspiracy theory."[116] other authors argue that while some conspiracy theories related to cointelpro are unfounded, the issue of ongoing government surveillance and repression is real.[119][120] fbi agent richard g. held is known to have increased fbi support for the guardians of the oglala nation (goon) squads, who were a private paramilitary group established in 1972 by the elected tribal chairman, dick wilson, under authority of the oglala sioux. aim accused goons of involvement in 300 assaults and 64 homicides of political opponents. despite this, the bureau rarely investigated them and instead used its resources overwhelmingly to prosecute aim.[121] in 2000, the fbi released a report regarding these alleged unsolved violent deaths on pine ridge reservation and accounted for most of the deaths and disputed the claims of unsolved murders. the report stated that only four deaths were unsolved and that some deaths were not murders.[122][123] a lawsuit filed by dhoruba bin wahad, a former member of the black panther party, revealed the existence of multiple programs similar to cointelpro including "newkill" (new york police killings), chesrob (a program focused on panther assata shakur), and prisacts (the prison activists surveillance program), a program that focused on "neutralizing" political activists who were already in prison, many of whom (like bin wahad) had been targeted by cointelpro.[124][125] in april 2018, the atlanta black star characterized the fbi as still engaging in cointelpro behavior by surveilling the black lives matter movement. internal documents dated as late as 2017 showed that the fbi had surveilled the movement.[126] in 2014, the fbi tracked a black lives matter activist using surveillance tactics which the intercept found "reminiscent of a rich american history of targeting black americans," including cointelpro.[127] this practice, along with the imprisonment of black activists for their views, has been associated with the new fbi designation of "black identity extremists".[128][129] defending rights & dissent, a civil liberties group, cataloged known instances of first amendment abuses and political surveillance by the fbi since 2010. the organization found that the fbi devoted disproportionate resources to spy on peaceful left leaning civil society groups, including occupy wall street, economic justice advocates, racial justice movements, environmentalists, abolish ice, and various anti war movements.[130][131] in december 2012, the fbi released redacted documents in response to a freedom of information act request from the partnership for civil justice fund (pcjf). mara verheyden hilliard, the executive director of pcjf, said the documents showed that fbi counterterrorism agents had monitored the occupy movement from its inception in august 2011 and that the fbi acted improperly by collecting "information on people's free speech actions" and entering it into "unregulated databases, a vast storehouse of information widely disseminated to a range of law enforcement and, apparently, private entities" (see domestic security alliance council).[132] the fbi also communicated with the new york stock exchange, banks, private businesses and state and local police forces about the movement.[133] in 2014, the pcjf obtained an additional 4,000 pages of unclassified documents through a freedom of information act request, showing "details of the scrutiny of the occupy protests in 2011 and 2012 by law enforcement officers, federal officials, security contractors and others."[134] in october 2020, katie reiter, chief of staff to michigan state senator rosemary bayer, had an fbi task force come to her house and aggressively question her about a draft bill she had recently discussed which would have limited the use of tear gas against protesters. reiter had discussed the proposed ban on tear gas on a private 90 minute zoom call with bayer and a handful of other staffers. reiter says the two officers refused to answer any questions about how they became aware of her private meeting. the intercept reported about the incident: "reiter said that the fbi's visit left her confused and fearful. 'it has impacted my sleep, it has caused me quite a bit of anxiety,' she said. 'and it has certainly impacted how we talk. i try not to let it, i'll just be like, 'no, we're going to talk about this.' but it's in my mind all the time.'" a spokesperson for the fbi declined to comment on the record, as did a spokesperson for zoom.[135]

choose your location by john sakellariadis and maggie miller, the trump administration has moved to push out a swathe of federal workers previously involved in combating election related disinformation, according to three people familiar with the matter, amid allegations from congressional republicans that their work unfairly targeted conservative speech online. roughly half a dozen employees from the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency who once worked in its election security and resilience division were notified thursday night they were being put on administrative leave, said the three people, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. the move comes shortly after the installment of new dhs secretary kristi noem, a close trump ally. the former south dakota governor told congressional republicans in her confirmation hearing last month she shared their view that cisa should no longer be involved in efforts to combat the scores of online hoaxes peddled by the likes of russia, china and iran. “as secretary noem stated during her confirmation hearing, cisa needs to refocus on its mission, and we are starting with election security,” tricia mclaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at dhs, said in a statement. mclaughlin added that the agency is “undertaking an evaluation” of how it handles election security, and “personnel who worked on mis , dis , and malinformation, as well as foreign influence operations and disinformation, have been placed on administrative leave.” the ousters are the latest example of how the administration is targeting career government officials with prior connections, however tenuous, to efforts it disagrees with or that interfere with trump’s agenda. among the employees who received the notice thursday are two individuals who stopped working on “mis, dis , and malinformation,” as the agency calls it, over a year ago, said one of the people. another employee who was put on leave never actually worked on the issue at all, said the same person   while they were part of the esr subdivision, their work entailed helping state and local election officials protect voting machines and county election offices from cyberattacks. in 2018, president donald trump signed into law a bill establishing cisa to protect u.s. critical infrastructure, including voting systems. but conservatives have taken issue with cisa’s approach to combating election disinformation and have accused the agency of unfairly targeting them in a way that amounted to government censorship. the supreme court ruled last year that cisa and other agencies were allowed to communicate with social media companies about disinformation issues, reversing a prior ruling that had frozen these communications for months. the agency became the subject of trump’s fury after cisa took steps to call out misinformation and disinformation during the 2020 presidential election. former director chris krebs put out a statement calling the election “the most secure in american history” and was fired by trump shortly after. cisa has subsequently ratcheted back its disinformation efforts in response to republican outrage. still, some trump allies and gop members of congress have continued to attack the agency, with sen. rand paul (r ken.), the ranking member of the senate homeland security committee, even calling for the abolishment of the agency late last year. it’s unclear what trump’s plan is for the agency in his second term. he has yet to nominate anyone to replace former cisa director jen easterly, who stepped down on inauguration day, and has not formally nominated or appointed individuals for other leading cybersecurity roles in the administration. acting administrator cameron hamilton amplified false charges that fema spent disaster aid on migrants and blocked help to north carolina. california   california attorney general rob bonta warned federal employees, february 3, about the trump administration’s “deferred resignation” program. the program purports to offer federal employees pay through september 30, 2025, if they resign by february 6, 2025. "the current game is maximum chaos," one industry leader says of the current state of canada u.s. relations president donald trump followed through on his promise to unleash california’s water   only the water he released belonged to the very farmers he’d promised to help. the administration’s early moves to fire thousands of federal workers and dismantle entire agencies even before vought took office reflect his influence at the white house. a striking percentage of job growth has consisted of immigrant workers   with one bank estimating they accounted for as much as two thirds of the net gains over the last year. alamogordotownnews.org reports that an inspector general's report has been released concerning an incident involving air force major general christopher finerty. now retired, major general christopher finerty was stripped of a star after an inspector general investigation found he engaged in multiple inappropriate relationships; including with an enlisted airman and congressional staffers and had an affair with a married woman, each violations of military codes of conduct. florida has long been at the forefront of addressing issues related to undocumented individuals living in the state. recent measures, such as sb 1718, have already introduced strict policies, requiring businesses to use e verify, criminalizing the transport of undocumented individuals into florida, and mandating hospitals accepting medicaid to inquire about immigration status. now, new legislative proposals target florida’s higher education system, sparking debate on access and fairness. disclosure: state of alabama based writer. this article is a work from cited sources for informational purposes and is used with permission. no affiliate links are included. on january 19, authorities in alabama received a call regarding an incident involving an adult male and a minor. the suit challenges state and local laws that limit police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. in a recent turn of events, the trump administration announced a sweeping freeze on nearly all federal grants and loans. this has led to widespread concern and debate over the potential impacts on vital social programs such as social security and supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) benefits. let's delve into the specifics to understand how these programs might be affected. president donald trump shifts from his previous threat to impose an across the board tariff on all imports from across the world. "if it's good news, then you should want people to keep up with it," the nbc host says the post seth meyers baffled by white house claim that trump is doing ‘so much winning’ that media ‘can’t keep up’ | video appeared first on thewrap . disclosure: state of alabama based writer. this article is a work from cited sources for informational purposes and is used with permission. no affiliate links are included. on january 10, shannon caruso, a 48 year old woman from alabama, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing rent payments meant for government assisted low income housing. caruso, who worked as a property manager for two separate government housing authorities providing affordable housing to low income individuals, used her position to defraud renters in the area. california   president donald trump remarked, february 4, that california’s high speed rail is ‘the worst managed project’ and that he would soon be launching an investigation. the president has dismissed the top u.s. archivist after fuming about the agency’s role in the criminal classified documents case against him. reacting to a guardian report thatdonald trump's administration is already inflating numbers to make the first three weeks more successful than they have been, journalist john heilemann let out an expletive on msnbc on friday morning. a "morning joe" co host prompted the discussion by noting a report in the guardian that stated immigration and customs enforcement (ice) has been tampering with time stamps on press releases about immigrant roundups to create the impression they have been wildly successful in their mission. as the guardian reported, "that four day operation in colorado? it happen... naturally, we had to try them. donald trump is continuing to push his crazy plan for the united states to take over gaza, even after the idea was soundly rejected by world leaders . in a post on truth social thursday morning, the president said the “gaza strip would be turned over to the united states by israel at the conclusion of fighting.” “the palestinians, people like chuck schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” trump said, showing his true regard for the palestinians by using them to insult the senate... maria varela’s jaw dropped when she saw the social media post: “we will be tabling on campus asking fellow students to report their criminal classmates to ice for deportation.” much like our local taquerías are helping to feed and support those displaced by the horrible fires ripping through l.a., the president of mexico is sending some of its finest heroes to southern california to assist with help and relief. vice president vance on friday argued that the department of government efficiency (doge) staffer who resigned after social media posts of his came to light that espoused racist beliefs should be hired back. vance, in speaking out about the issue, said that social media posts shouldn’t be the reason he is fired, calling the 25 year old… senate bill 1   or the “enact advance ohio higher education act”   had its first hearing in the ohio senate higher education committee jan. 29. credit: andrew j. tobias via tns [ohio flags fly at the statehouse in columbus. not every citizen constitutional amendment in ohio turns out as planned. the 1992 term limits amendment is a good example, writes bob paulson in his column today. credit: andrew j. tobias via tns republican ohio senators have introduced a bill attempting to improve public higher education, most notably by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs. (reuters)   in ghana and kenya, insecticide and mosquito nets sit in warehouses because u.s. officials haven’t approved urgent anti malaria campaigns. in haiti, a group treating hiv patients awaits u.s. permission to dispense medicines that prevent mothers from giving the disease to their children. opm said more than 60,000 had accepted the offer. bills requiring public schools in south dakota to display and teach the ten commandments and to post the words “under god, the people rule” in every classroom were endorsed by a legislative committee on friday in pierre. the bills passed in the face of significant opposition from public education groups, and from an education lobbyist […] gov. ron desantis last week signed an agreement that could deputize florida highway patrol officers to perform the functions of federal immigration officers. the backlash sets the stage for what could be a bruising fight over whether national prediction markets should be allowed into the world of sports. this article was originally published by the marshall project , a nonprofit news organization covering the u.s. criminal justice system. sign up for the marshall project’s newsletters , and follow them on instagram , tiktok , reddit and facebook . when asked if he would allow the media to question elon musk, president donald trump did not hesitate to agree to potentially having the tech billionaire speak to the press.

supported by la empresa emergente de san francisco afirma que su rival chino podría haber utilizado datos generados por tecnologías de openai para construir nuevos sistemas. by cade metz the san francisco start up claims that its chinese rival may have used data generated by openai technologies to build new systems. by cade metz the openai c.e.o. spoke with andrew ross sorkin at the dealbook summit. by andrew ross sorkin and sarah kessler it started with a novelty songwriter stranded on a snowy night. decades later, listeners still can’t get his tune, “grandma got run over by a reindeer,” out of their heads. by steven kurutz una influente de estilo de vida demandó a otra, acusándola de copiar su estética minimalista en las redes sociales. resulta que en un mundo regido por el beige hay una amplia zona gris. by sandra e. garcia one influencer is suing another, accusing her of copying her minimalist aesthetic on social media. it turns out there is a lot of gray area in shades of beige. by sandra e. garcia a coalition of some of canada’s biggest media companies is seeking billions of dollars in compensation for what they say is copyright infringement on their work through chatgpt. by matina stevis gridneff artificial intelligence has become a subject for people in the art and theater worlds who are worried about being replaced by it. by erin griffith a three judge panel affirmed that sheeran’s “thinking out loud” did not illegally borrow from marvin gaye’s song. by ben sisario an exemption to a longstanding copyright act allows industrial equipment to be fixed by people not affiliated with the manufacturer. by hank sanders suchir balaji helped gather and organize the enormous amounts of internet data used to train the startup’s chatgpt chatbot. by cade metz bjarne melgaard’s rise in the art world came with strings attached and an unusual contract with investors. now he’s suing to regain control of his artwork. by zachary small created by humans, a company that aims to help writers license their works for use by a.i. companies, has struck a partnership with the authors guild. by alexandra alter the lyricist and composer wrote thousands of compositions   and one stern letter to the new york times. by john otis the motion picture association has been wooing the company for years. the addition gives the group a lot more muscle. by brooks barnes how the tech giant has fared in its major legal battles across the u.s. and europe so far. by nico grant the dispute started in the early days of the pandemic when the organization expanded access to a free online collection of books. by eli tan dozens of musicians, or their estates, have objected to their music being used by mr. trump’s campaigns since his successful run for the white house in 2016. some have threatened legal action. by qasim nauman a recent documentary has industry bigwigs telling a galling story about the file sharing era: everything worked out for the best. by elizabeth nelson the rock band nirvana sued the fashion line after it announced a “bootleg redux grunge” collection in 2018. by annie aguiar new research from the data provenance initiative has found a dramatic drop in content made available to the collections used to build artificial intelligence. by kevin roose companies like getty have begun developing a.i. models with their own data, part of a broader push to build artificial intelligence with licensed content. by nico grant and cade metz the band said that the restaurant chain had ripped off the song and its music video in advertising videos posted to social media. the group has won similar cases in the past. by orlando mayorquín the lawsuits say that udio and suno trained their products on reams of copyrighted music. by marc tracy major u.s. entertainment companies are hiring a former top f.b.i. official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. by brooks barnes an online art collective that spent $4 million on “once upon a time in shaolin” is telling fans their purchases will accelerate the one of a kind album’s 2103 release date. by ben sisario en todo el mundo, los laboratorios comerciales de revelado de películas describe problemas similares: pilas de sobres olvidados y espacio de almacenamiento limitado que se desborda por los rollos de película que no son recogidos. by ali watkins film cameras are seeing another renaissance. but some new photographers are leaving something behind: the tea colored originals that determine the life of pictures. by ali watkins since google overhauled its search engine, publishers have tried to assess the danger to their brittle business models while calling for government intervention. by nico grant and katie robertson when warner bros. greenlit a new “lord of the rings” movie and a 15 year old fan film with the same title disappeared, its devotees sprang into action. by stefano montali the actress, who criticized the use of a soundalike voice for chatgpt, is the latest to raise concerns about the artificial intelligence start up’s practices. by andrew ross sorkin, ravi mattu, bernhard warner, sarah kessler, michael j. de la merced, lauren hirsch and ephrat livni openai may be changing how the world interacts with language. but inside headquarters, there is a homage to the written word: a library. by cade metz and christie hemm klok the two companies reached a new licensing deal, ending a three month stalemate that kept some of pop’s biggest stars off the platform. by ben sisario is it simply the music flowing out of your earphones? according to the law, the answer is a bit more complicated. by ben sisario the suit, which accuses the tech companies of copyright infringement, adds to the fight over the online data used to power artificial intelligence. by katie robertson hipgnosis, which owns the rights to songs by justin bieber and neil young, helped kick start a rush on catalog sales. but its future has been in doubt. by ben sisario openai, google y meta ignoraron las políticas corporativas, alteraron sus propias normas y debatieron la posibilidad de eludir la ley de derechos de autor en la búsqueda de información en línea para entrenar sus sistemas de inteligencia artificial más recientes. by cade metz, cecilia kang, sheera frenkel, stuart a. thompson and nico grant los desarrolladores de modelos se están quedando sin datos para entrenar a sus sistemas y se apoyan ahora en otros generados por la propia tecnología. by cade metz and stuart a. thompson las autoridades italianas y un fabricante alemán se enfrentan por un rompecabezas de 1000 piezas con la imagen de “el hombre de vitruvio” del artista. by derrick bryson taylor para que los sistemas de inteligencia artificial sean más potentes, las empresas necesitan datos en línea para alimentar la tecnología. esto es lo que hay que saber sobre la forma en que los consiguen. by cecilia kang, cade metz and stuart a. thompson italian officials and a german puzzle maker are battling over a 1,000 piece puzzle bearing the image of the artist’s “vitruvian man.” by derrick bryson taylor as artificial intelligence developers run out of data to train their models, they are turning to “synthetic data”   data made by the a.i. itself. by cade metz and stuart a. thompson to make artificial intelligence systems more powerful, tech companies need online data to feed the technology. here’s what to know. by cecilia kang, cade metz and stuart a. thompson openai, google and meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems. by cade metz, cecilia kang, sheera frenkel, stuart a. thompson and nico grant the estate had accused two podcast hosts of infringing on its copyrights by training an a.i. algorithm on five decades of mr. carlin’s work. by christopher kuo authentic brands group, which owns sports illustrated, is accusing manoj bhargava of failing to pay millions of dollars for the rights to publish the magazine. by benjamin mullin vera drew used the batman villain to tell a trans coming of age story. when warner bros. found out, the filmmaker wasn’t sure what would come next. by eric grode parents of a dozen students at a school near montreal accused an art teacher in a lawsuit of reproducing portraits from a class assignment and putting them on items that he offered for sale online. by sopan deb in a promotional video, the reality star said her office furniture was designed by judd, the minimalist artist. his foundation says otherwise in a new lawsuit. by zachary small private equity is cannibalizing the music industry by buying up old hits and pushing them back into our cultural consciousness. by marc hogan the tech giant and its partner openai were accused of infringing on copyrights to train a.i. technologies like the online chatbot chatgpt. by cade metz and karen weise raw story, alternet and the intercept sued for copyright infringement over the way the chatgpt creator trains its technology. by yiwen lu the estate said it had denied a clearance request by ty dolla sign and the rapper once known as kanye west, who then used the song on their new album, “vultures 1.” by marc tracy the artificial intelligence start up argued that its online chatbot, chatgpt, is not a substitute for a new york times subscription. by cade metz and katie robertson the richest music catalog deal to date would give sony half of jackson’s recorded music and songwriting rights, valuing the total collection at $1.2 billion or more. by ben sisario universal music group, the biggest of the three major conglomerates, pulled songs by taylor swift, drake and other stars after failing to agree on a new contract. here’s what’s at stake. by ben sisario the music giant, home to stars like taylor swift and drake, had threatened to withdraw licenses for its tracks to the social media juggernaut if they failed to come to a new agreement. by ben sisario the company has been renegotiating the contract that licenses its vast catalog of songs to the social media platform. the agreement expires on wednesday. by ben sisario and derrick bryson taylor the photographer who took the portrait of the jazz artist miles davis, which inspired the tattoo, had filed a lawsuit based on copyright infringement. by sopan deb the lawsuit claims that an hourlong comedy special on youtube violated carlin’s copyright. by christopher kuo
supported by major u.s. entertainment companies are hiring a former top f.b.i. official and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. by brooks barnes reporting from los angeles in recent years, hollywood has become much better at hunting pirates. just last week, five men were convicted of operating jetflicks, an illegal streaming site that federal prosecutors said offered a stolen lineup of tv shows and movies that was larger than the combined catalogs of netflix, hulu and amazon’s prime video. but thieves are also getting better, moving operations overseas and taking advantage of the rising popularity of streaming to steal more content. so entertainment companies   already under pressure from wall street to improve streaming economics   are intensifying their antipiracy efforts, hiring a former f.b.i. official to lead the drive and renewing a push for federal legislation to combat online thievery overseas. the companies, which include netflix, disney, nbcuniversal and warner bros. discovery, are also expanding their piracy policing to include live sports. on monday, the motion picture association, a trade group that represents those companies and others, said it had hired larissa l. knapp, a 27 year veteran of the f.b.i., as its top pirate chaser. in her time at the bureau, ms. knapp served in senior positions in national security, counterterrorism, intelligence and cybersecurity. she got her start at the f.b.i. as a special agent investigating computer hacking and intellectual property crimes and ultimately became the bureau’s fourth highest ranking official and highest ranking woman. her formal title at the motion picture association will be executive vice president and chief of global content protection. ms. knapp succeeds jan van voorn, a dutch antipiracy expert who left in march to run ip house, a private equity backed start up that focuses on copyright enforcement. “larissa’s relationships in law enforcement will be enormously helpful to us,” charles h. rivkin, the motion picture association’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. he added: “we’re a long way from guys on street corners selling counterfeit dvds. this is global organized crime. the people stealing our movies and television shows are also involved with sex trafficking, money laundering   all the ills of society.”

 copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. file   items are displayed in the google store at the google visitor experience in mountain view, calif., oct. 11, 2023. the justice department says a former software engineer at google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence technology from the company while secretly working with two companies based in china.