Is your Wi-Fi router a national security risk? US government weighs ban
TP-Link is the bestselling Wi-Fi router internationally and on Amazon. Now, the U.S. government is considering banning these devices over cyberattack risks.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, investigators at three agencies, Commerce, Defense and Justice, are looking into these Chinese-made routers.
In October, Microsoft said it was tracking “a network of compromised small office and home office (SOHO) routers” known as CovertNetwork-1658 and said “routers manufactured by TP-Link make up most of this network.”
The network has been used by multiple “Chinese threat actors” to gain access and launch cyberattacks.
This comes more than a year after Microsoft “uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity … aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States.”
Microsoft said Volt Typhoon is “a state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering.” The company said it “tries to blend into normal network activity by routing traffic through compromised [small office and home office] network equipment, including routers, firewalls and VPN hardware.”
“These small office home office routers were not themselves the intended targets,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in January. “The targets, of course, were our critical infrastructure, but what the Chinese were doing were using these easy targets to hide and obfuscate their role in the hacking of our critical infrastructure.”
In August, two lawmakers pressed the Biden administration to investigate TP-Link, calling it a “glaring national security issue.” Along with being in homes across America, the letter noted that TP-Link devices are also on U.S. military bases.
Straight Arrow News reached out to TP-Link to comment on these investigations. The company didn’t immediately respond.
A spokesperson did tell the Journal, “We welcome any opportunities to engage with the U.S. government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully in line with industry security standards, and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the U.S. market, U.S. consumers, and addressing U.S. national security risks.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the U.S. is using the guise of national security to suppress Chinese companies, something both sides have accused the other of in an ongoing tech tit-for-tat.
If the U.S. government went forward with banning TP-Link routers, it would be the biggest such move since the Trump administration labeled China’s Huawei and ZTE national security threats and ordered the tech be ripped out of U.S. infrastructure.
Any action against TP-Link would likely fall on Trump’s second term.
TP-Link was founded by two brothers in China in 1996. As tensions between China and the U.S. worsened, in October, TP-Link announced its new global headquarters would be in the United States.
The company said the move is “reinforcing our commitment to the U.S. market and enhancing our ability to innovate and compete on a global scale.”
Amazon invests $10 billion in Ohio data centers to drive AI evolution
Amazon is adding to its major Midwest technology hub investment while helping to shape the future of artificial intelligence. The company will invest $10 billion dollars in Ohio over the next five years.
The company will use the money to expand its Amazon Web Service data centers. They house equipment for powering AI, machine learning and other cloud computing technologies.
Data centers provide the power behind everyday tasks like prompting ChatGPT, streaming movies and performing Google searches.
The latest investment is in addition to Amazon’s $7.8 billion plan for Ohio announced in 2023 and the more than $6 billion it has already spent in the Buckeye State.
State officials said the investment will bring hundreds of jobs through the end of 2030.
Amazon has already contributed around $3.8 billion to the state’s gross domestic product. Their contributions support more than 4,700 jobs annually and create demand for telecommunications, software development and power generation workers.
While the company currently has seven data centers in central Ohio, it’s unclear how many more they will build. However, Amazon plans to expand into other parts of the state.
“As reliance on digital services continues to grow, so does the importance of data centers; they are critical to today’s modern economy,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
There are currently more than 2,500 data centers in the United States, with Amazon Web Services holding a 31% market share of online computing resources. That’s more than Microsoft, Google and IBM combined.
OpenAI releases emails showing Elon Musk asked for control of the company
As Elon Musk sues OpenAI over its ongoing transition into a for-profit company, the maker of ChatGPT is hitting back. In response, OpenAI has released emails from 2017, which show that taking the company for-profit was originally Musk’s idea.
The emails show Musk, then an OpenAI board member, demanding majority control of the company and the position of CEO. In a message to two of OpenAI’s co-founders in September 2017, Musk laid out a plan to make the company for-profit.
“I would unequivocally have initial control of the company,” Musk wrote.
Musk noted at the time that his tenure at the helm would be temporary. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever wrote back rejecting Musk’s request.
“It is a bad idea to create a structure where you could become a dictator if you chose to,” Sutskever wrote.
Musk resigned from the OpenAI board in 2018, after the company rejected an effort by Musk to “attach” the company to Tesla. Now, OpenAI is a leader in the field, thanks in part to its ChatGPT service, and financial backing from Microsoft.
In addition to a lawsuit, alleging OpenAI tricked investors by starting as a nonprofit, Musk is also accusing Microsoft of breaking antitrust laws. OpenAI has come under scrutiny and dealt with upheaval as it has quickly surged in value in recent years.
In September, three OpenAI executives left as CEO Sam Altman limited the organization’s nonprofit arm from controlling the for-profit business.
And last week, San Francisco authorities said they found a whistleblower dead after he alleged OpenAI was violating copyright law. They added that the death was a suicide and found no evidence of foul play.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta spends $1 million to mend fences with Trump
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is using $1 million to mend fences with President-elect Donald Trump. The social media company Trump has called a “true Enemy of the People” donated the sum to his inaugural fund.
The company behind Facebook confirmed the donation to multiple outlets. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report it.
It’s a break from tradition for Meta, which did not donate to Trump’s first inauguration nor President Joe Biden’s.
The company would not expand further on the million-dollar gift, but The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta told Trump aides about the planned donation before a dinner last month between Zuckerberg and Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Zuckerberg is navigating a years-long rift with the incoming president, sparked in part by a $400 million donation in 2020 from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The money went to local and state governments to help with election infrastructure during the pandemic.
Trump accused them of using the money to boost Democratic turnout.
“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison – as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote in his book, “Save America.”
After Jan. 6, 2021, Meta suspended Trump from its platforms for two years. A year into his suspension, Trump launched Truth Social. No longer just rich on real estate, Trump’s stake in Trump Media has doubled his net worth.
The president-elect’s fractured relationship with Instagram-owner Meta has also inspired him to flip the script on TikTok.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
But that vitriol is starting to smooth out. In July 2024, Zuckerberg expressed admiration for Trump.
“On a personal note, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. “On some level, as an American, it’s hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
Then in August 2024, Zuckerberg openly criticized Democrats.
“In 2021, the Biden Administration … repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content,” Zuckerberg said in written testimony to Congress. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take the content down … the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
Zuckerberg isn’t the only one courting Trump’s favor. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who said his rocket company, Blue Origin, will one day be bigger than Amazon, has posted on X only twice in 2024. The first post came after the assassination attempt on Trump, to say the “former president showed tremendous grace and courage.” The second post came after the election, to congratulate Trump on his “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.”
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos told DealBook in December 2024 about Trump’s second term. “He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him.”
The billionaire most involved in helping Trump with that is Bezos’ biggest competitor in the space race, Elon Musk.
Elon Musk files lawsuit to block OpenAI’s transition to for-profit
Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company he co-founded, alleging violations of licensing agreements tied to foundational technology developed by his companies. The legal battle comes amid scrutiny of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his push for profitability.
Musk’s lawsuit, filed this week, accuses OpenAI of abandoning its founding principles of transparency and collaboration by engaging in practices that Musk’s legal team called “commercially exploitative.”
With OpenAI valued at over $90 billion and Musk’s companies spanning multiple industries, the legal battle could have far-reaching implications for the tech industry.
Observers say this clash underscores a larger debate about the ethical and regulatory frameworks needed to guide AI development.
FTC probe targets Microsoft’s business model in Lina Khan’s last stand
It might be FTC Chair Lina Khan’slast stand. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a sweeping investigation into Microsoft, according to multiple reports.
A demand for information that’s “hundreds of pages long” drills “into everything from the company’s cloud computing and software licensing businesses to cybersecurity offerings and artificial intelligence products,” according to Bloomberg.
The investigation comes after more than a year of preparation but less than two months before a new administration.
Antitrust enforcers have stretched the boundaries under President Joe Biden with 35-year-old Khan leading the charge at the FTC.
Her latest shot at Microsoft, the world’s third-largest company, will drill into a longstanding criticism of Microsoft that bundling its services makes it hard for other companies to compete.
For instance, for years Slack and Zoom have complained about Microsoft bundling Teams with the likes of Word and Excel for free.
These antitrust complaints gained steam in the European Union, where a year ago Microsoft agreed to unbundle Teams from Office 365 in the European Economic Area. Six months later, they made the change globally.
Khan’s team will also look closely at Microsoft’s growing power in the AI space. Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
The latest investigation comes after Khan lost a major case which tried to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
This latest look into Microsoft comes about a quarter of a century after the Justice Department tried to break up the Big Tech giant. They later settled for a less extreme antitrust solution.
As for Khan, it is widely believed she’ll be out the door with the incoming Trump administration, despite being able to call Vice-president elect JD Vance one of her fans.
Microsoft’s AI language interpreter could be boon for cybercriminals
Microsoft unveiled a new Teams AI interpreter on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The program can replicate a user’s voice in near-real-time in nine different languages.
The company said it plans to expand to 31 different languages in the future. The languages reportedly range from English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.
The feature is currently available to a select group of users. Officials said that will expand to more customers with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in 2025.
The company touts the new technology as a less expensive way to have international phone calls or meetings without the expense of a human translator.
However, the new feature isn’t quite perfect yet, with Microsoft admitting the Teams AI interpreter may not be 100% accurate.
Still, critics say that’s not their biggest concern about the AI feature. They said they’re afraid the technology could open the door to fraudsters.
Security analysts warn of potential hackers using the technology, noting deepfakes are already a problem and impersonation scams reportedly cost Americans more than $1 billion in 2023.
In 2024, scammers used deepfake technology to setup a fake Teams video conference call and stole $25 million from a multinational firm.
An anonymous threat analyst group is already skeptical of Microsoft’s new technology, posting on X, “Ever be North Korean but want to sound American? It’s now possible,” apparently poking fun at the Big Tech company.
However, the group’s concerns may not just be talk. A recent report by SecureWorks warned of North Korean hackers applying for IT jobs at companies across the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, in an attempt to steal company secrets.
Cybersecurity experts urge companies and organizations worried about impersonation scams to opt out of the new Microsoft feature. They said companies should use the generic voice simulator option instead.
Microsoft users will reportedly have to give consent to the AI interpreter through privacy settings for it to use voice simulation during a meeting.
They can opt out of the voice replication by disabling it in settings. The interpreter will then use a default interpretation of the person’s voice instead.
Feds warn of Election Day disinformation campaigns by Russia, Iran
Federal law enforcement agencies are issuing a warning to American voters over Russian and Iranian attempts to interfere with the election. The agencies say foreign actors are trying to make Americans doubt the integrity of the voting process — which they say could lead to violence against election officials.
In a joint statement, federal officials pointed to a recent article posted by Russian actors falsely claiming U.S. officials in swing states were orchestrating a plan to commit fraud. They also mentioned a video that falsely depicted an interview with someone claiming election fraud in Arizona.
Intelligence officials warned about a spike in what they call “manufactured content” on Election Day, so, if you haven’t voted yet — be careful what content you take in before you do.
The statement also said Iran remains a “significant foreign influence threat to U.S. elections.”
Microsoft analysts say these foreign actors have even created fake news sites and impersonated activists online in attempts to sway American voters’ decisions. Russia and Iran have denied claims they’re trying to influence the election.
Harris, Trump look to win the West with 4 days until Election Day
As the presidential campaign heads into the final weekend, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris swing through the western U.S. to sway undecided voters. And crews in Spain search for survivors after a year’s worth of rain fell in just hours. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Friday, Nov. 1, 2024.
Harris, Trump look to win the West with days until Election Day
With just four days to go until Election Day and more than 65 million ballots already cast, the candidates are making their final stops on the campaign trail. On Thursday, Oct. 31, both nominees visited the western United States to make their case.
Republican nominee former President Donald Trump spoke at campaign events in New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona, while Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris held rallies in Arizona and Nevada.
At an event in Glendale, Arizona with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump repeated his stance of there being “an enemy within” the United States — a comment Harris has criticized in her speeches.
“If you have a smart president, somebody that knows what’s happening, you’re going to be fine,” Trump said, “But we do have an enemy from within. We have some very bad people, and those people are also very dangerous. They would like to take down our country. They’d like to have our country be a nice communist country or a fascist in any way they can, and we have to be careful of that.”
In Henderson, Nevada, Trump said Harris would not be able to handle the presidency, calling her “a child” when it comes to understanding the economy. He also announced former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be working on “health and women’s health” if he’s reelected.
While in Reno, Nevada, Harris continued her warnings to supporters about another Trump presidency, calling trump “increasingly unstable” and “obsessed with revenge.”
“In less than 90 days, either he or I will be sitting in the Oval Office, and listen, here’s what we can imagine, right, we’ve all seen on TV — you’ve seen the Oval Office — just visually imagine what that day will be,” Harris said. “Because, if elected, Donald Trump on day one would walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list on behalf of you.”
The vice president told the crowd that people are “exhausted with Trump’s rhetoric.” She also appealed to female voters, criticizing Trump’s comments that he would “protect women” saying, “Trump does not respect the freedom of women.”
Harris’ Nevada rally was interrupted by protesters at times, but the vice president said it was “OK” and “we’re fighting for the right to be heard.”
Friday, Nov. 1, both candidates will hold rallies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the final weekend of the 2024 election cycle begins.
‘Avengers,’ LeBron endorse Harris; Jake Paul backs Trump
Some famous faces put their names behind their pick for president on Thursday. Members of the cast of Marvel’s “Avengers” film franchise assembled to show their support for Vice President Harris while YouTube star Jake Paul backed former president Trump.
Actors Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and others gathered together in a social media video supporting Harris. NBA superstar LeBron James also backed Harris in a post on X saying, “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. Vote Kamala Harris.”
Social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul put his endorsement behind the Republican nominee. In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Paul laid out his reasons and asked his followers to do their own research.
“Regardless of your emotion, I’m just presenting you with facts,” he said. “Do I think Donald Trump is a perfect human being? No. I don’t think anybody on this planet is a perfect human being, myself included. To be frank, I’m not concerned with Donald Trump’s ‘character flaws’ or what he’s done in the past. What I’m concerned with is how good a president is he, because that is his job and that’s what’s going to affect the people of this nation.”
Why I Am Not Suspending My Campaign Let me be clear: Despite the immense pressures and intense assaults on my campaign and character, I intend to hold the torch and finish this race – to and after November 5th! The escalating corruption of the US political system and the… pic.twitter.com/CQrcOTX9vi
West accused the Pennsylvania secretary of state of improperly keeping him off the ballot for not filing all the required paperwork. The state’s top court agreed with the secretary of state, but a federal judge said while it does seem like Pennsylvania’s rules make it harder for third-party candidates to get on the ballot, it’s too close to Election Day to re-print ballots and re-test election machines without increasing the risk of error.
Flash floods claimed the lives of at least 158 people, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone. Spain’s minister for territorial policy said Thursday dozens of people are still missing but they don’t have an exact number of how many.
Army specialist charged in female soldier’s murder at Missouri base
Her body was found in a dumpster at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri last week. Rancy, who’s with the 5th Engineer Battalion, is also charged with obstruction.
The Department of Army Criminal Investigation Division, which is the primary federal law enforcement agency of the United States Army, is overseeing the probe.
The department has not specified a motive for the killing. It is also unclear if Rancy and Roque knew each other.
OpenAI adds search and summary function to ChatGPT
Google has some new competition. OpenAI has added a search function to its artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT.
Paying subscribers are now able to activate a mode on ChatGPT that makes it respond to queries by searching the internet for the latest information and summarizing what it finds. The search capabilities are powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine and will draw information from articles by publishers OpenAI has deals with, including The Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. and the Associated Press.
While this function is only for paying subscribers for now, OpenAI said it plans to bring search to all users eventually.
Microsoft accuses Google of ‘shadow campaigns’ to influence EU regulators
Microsoft publicly accused rival tech company Google of running “shadow campaigns” to discredit the competition to EU regulators. The accusations include funding a fake grassroots campaign to “mislead the public.”
“I’ve taken pains to tell the truth, even when that might make things more complicated for Microsoft,” Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily wrote in a blog post. “It’s not comfortable or natural for me to pen something critical of someone else, but in this case, I think it’s important because it concerns me when someone attacks us and, I believe, does so dishonestly.”
Microsoft claims Google hired an advisory firm to set up “an astroturf group” called the Open Cloud Coalition that is set to launch this week. A flyer linked in Microsoft’s blog post says it is a group of cloud platforms “being formed to advocate for a fair, competitive and open cloud services industry across the UK and EU.”
“It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public,” Alaily wrote. “Google has gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization.”
Alaily says Microsoft found out about the scheme from a company that chose not to join the Open Cloud Coalition.
“One of the companies approached, who ultimately declined, told us that the organization will be directed and largely funded by Google for the purpose of attacking Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the European Union and the United Kingdom,” Alaily said.
Google ranks third globally in the cloud market behind Amazon and Microsoft and has made multiple attempts to paint Microsoft as anti-competitive in the space.
“We’ve been very public about our concerns with Microsoft’s cloud licensing,” a Google Cloud spokesperson told Straight Arrow News in an email. “We and many others believe that Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices lock-in customers and create negative downstream effects that impact cybersecurity, innovation, and choice. You can read more in our many blog posts on these issues.”
“We’ve been speaking to many business and public sector organizations,” Google Cloud’s Head of Platforms Amit Zavery said in September. “What we’re seeing is a lot of restrictions Microsoft has created using their dominance in the on-premises software and not letting customers have a choice of moving that workload to any cloud provider of their choice.”
It’s not the first time Microsoft has faced criticism for bundling items and forcing users to adopt their products. The landmark antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s ruled Microsoft acted like a monopoly by restricting the ability to remove Internet Explorer and use other programs to surf the web. Microsoft avoided getting broken up on appeal and settled the case in 2001.
