Tag Archive for: reason

No evidence of TikTok national security threat but reason for concern, experts say

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Social media app TikTok faces mounting bipartisan hostility in Washington D.C., where Biden administration officials and lawmakers are weighing a possible ban of the platform.

The app, which counts more than 150 million U.S. users each month but is owned by a China-based parent company, has faced growing scrutiny from government officials over fears that user data could fall into the possession of the Chinese government and the app could be weaponized by China to spread misinformation.

However, there is no evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts told ABC News.

Still, there’s reason to believe that the Chinese government could compel the company to share data on U.S. users or manipulate content on the app to forward a pro-China agenda, considering the nation’s authority over domestic companies and previous misleading statements made by TikTok on related issues, the experts added.

“We don’t have smoking-gun evidence,” Sarah Bauerle-Danzman, a professor who specializes in national security and business investment at Indiana University, told ABC News. “But we do know that if the [Chinese government] asks TikTok for any data, they would be compelled to provide it and we also probably wouldn’t know if they did.”

In a statement, TikTok cited Project Texas, an initiative that the company says keeps all U.S. user data on servers within the country.

“The whole point of Project Texas is to put TikTok U.S. user data and systems outside the reach or influence of any foreign government,” the company said in a statement to ABC News.

“Today, all new protected U.S. user data is stored exclusively in infrastructure in the United States, and today all access to that environment is managed exclusively by TikTok U.S. Data Security, a team led by Americans, in America,” the company added.

Here’s what we know and don’t know about the national security threat posed by TikTok.

No evidence that TikTok has shared US user data with the Chinese government

A key fear among lawmakers and other government officials is that TikTok could share sweeping data on U.S. users with the Chinese government or the…

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TikTok collects a lot of data. But that’s not the main reason officials say it’s a security risk

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(CNN) After TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified for more than five hours on Thursday before a Congressional committee, one thing was clear: US lawmakers remain convinced that TikTok is an urgent threat to national security.

The hearing, Chew’s first appearance before Congress, kicked off with a lawmaker calling for TikTok to be banned and remained combative throughout. A number of lawmakers expressed deep skepticism about TikTok’s efforts to safeguard US user data and ease concerns about its ties to China. Nothing Chew said appeared to move the needle.

The rhetoric inside and outside the hearing room highlighted the growing, bipartisan momentum for cracking down on the app in the United States. As the hearing was taking place, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he supports legislation that would effectively ban TikTok; Secretary of State Antony Blinken said TikTok should be “ended one way or another,” and the Treasury Department issued a statement vowing to “safeguard national security,” without mentioning TikTok by name.

Concerns about TikTok’s connections to China have led governments worldwide to ban the app on official devices, and those fears have factored into the increasingly tense US-China relationship. But the remarks across the federal government on Thursday, combined with a prior threat from the Biden administration to impose a nationwide ban unless TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes, shows that a complete ban of the hugely popular app very much remains a live possibility.

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T-Mobile hack is every reason you need two-factor authentication. How and why to use it

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T-Mobile has spent the last week doing damage control after the wireless carrier admitted it’d been hacked. Thus far, T-Mobile has discovered that 54 million customers have had their personal information, including names, addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers accessed. 



The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. Sarah Tew/CNET

© Provided by CNET
The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. Sarah Tew/CNET



The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. 

© Sarah Tew/CNET

The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. 


Whenever breaches like this happen, it’s common to wonder what more you can do to help protect your personal information from any scenario that could expose your sensitive information to hacking and fraud. The answer is: A lot. Start by creating and using complex passwords stored in a password manager, and then enable two-factor authentication for every account you have that supports boosting the security of your account. You should also check to see if your account passwords are already on the dark web, and then change them; again, using a password manager. 

Two-factor authentication may sound technical, but it’s more time-consuming to set up than anything. Below I’ll explain what two-factor authentication is and how it works, offer some best practices, and provide a shortlist of popular websites that support your accounts’ added layer of security. Trust me, it’s worth it. 

T-Mobile data breach: What you need to know

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What is two-factor authentication?

Two-factor authentication (also sometimes written as 2FA) is also commonly referred to as two-step verification or multi-factor verification. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to it as 2FA or two-factor authentication for the duration of this post. 

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Think of two-factor authentication as an extra layer of security for your online accounts. If you’re not using 2FA on an account, your login process involves entering your username and password, and that’s it….

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Boston University Applies For Trademark On Offensive COVID-19 Awareness Slogan For Some Reason

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Anyone who knows anything about me knows how much I both love and rely on profanity. Love, because profane language is precisely the sort of color the world needs more of. Rely on, because I use certain profane words the way most people use commas. So, when the courts decided that even the most profane words could be used in trademarks, I applauded. Fucks were literally given.

But not every piece of profanity deserves a trademark. And, while I again applaud Boston University’s decision to create a profane slogan around COVID-19 safety awareness for its student body, why in the actual fuck did the slogan have to be trademarked?

First, the context:

Boston University asked a group of communications students for help encouraging their peers to follow the school’s strict COVID-19 safety guidelines when they return to campus for the upcoming semester.

What it got back was a slogan that did not mince words.

Last week, BU officials filed a trademark application for the slogan “F*ck It Won’t Cut It” in order to promote “public awareness of safe and smart actions and behaviors for college and university students in a COVID-19 environment.” The filing first garnered attention after a trademark lawyer flagged it Tuesday morning on Twitter.

On the slogan, fuck yeah! In fact, pretty good for a Methodist school! But on the trademark application, what the fuck? I have serious questions as to whether the application even meets the criteria for a valid mark to begin with. How, precisely, is this being used in commerce? What good or service is this trademark supposed to identify a source for? Schooling? Not really. Healthcare? Nah. What precisely are we doing here?

“Our slogan is a powerful phrase that sparks a reminder for students to make safe choices at decision points each day, because saying ‘F-it’ to responsible protocols won’t keep us on campus,” Hailey McKee, a BU graduate student and public relations manager for the campaign, told the Boston Business Journal.

Well, sure, but why hell does this need to be siloed to Boston U via trademark? The school really doesn’t want its sister universities to be able to raise effective awareness using the slogan as well? Why not?

This feels ultimately like another long-tail outcome of permission culture and expansive IP enforcement, where an entity just defaults to wanting to claim IP on all the things. But the world would be better if leading institutions like BU… you know… did better.

Techdirt.