DOJ this week indicted two co-founders of virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which it said facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering transactions for the Lazarus Group, the sanctioned North Korean cybercrime organization. The agency said Roman Storm of Auburn, Washington, and Russian national Roman Semenov knowingly conspired to violate U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president for international policy said that when the trade ministers for the G-20 nations meet in India later this week, they should pledge not to hike tariffs, impose new export restraints or add digital trade barriers.
DOJ this week indicted two co-founders of virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which it said facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering transactions for the Lazarus Group, the sanctioned North Korean cybercrime organization. The agency said Roman Storm of Auburn, Washington, and Russian national Roman Semenov knowingly conspired to violate U.S. sanctions.
Reauthorization of the FirstNet Authority is a top priority in FY 2024, CEO Joe Wassel said at the authority board’s quarterly meeting Wednesday. The authority will sunset in 2027 without congressional action, Wassel said. The authority oversees the network, which AT&T is building. The board, which met in Tacoma, Washington, and virtually, also approved a budget for the year.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president for international policy said that when the trade ministers for the G-20 nations meet in India later this week, they should pledge not to hike tariffs, impose new export restraints or add digital trade barriers.
Plaintiffs’ privacy claims over a COVID 19 contact-tracing app are moot, said defendants Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) and Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner Robert Goldstein in a proposed reply (docket 3:22-cv-11936) in support of their motion to dismiss Friday in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Springfield (see 2306140034). Lead plaintiff Robert Wright conceded that the MassNotify setting ended in May but urged the court to reach the merit of the plaintiffs' claims because the voluntary cessation and capable-of-repetition-yet-evading review exceptions to mootness should apply, said the defendants. Those arguments fail as a matter of law and fact, they said. Contrary to Wright’s assertion, the court may decline to apply the voluntary cessation exception and dismiss the case as moot without determining precisely who decided to end the MassNotify setting because there's no reason to believe that decision was made to moot this lawsuit “or for any reason related to this litigation,” said the reply. Records show the MassNotify setting “stopped functioning and is no longer installed on Android devices,” which it said isn't to avoid a court judgment but because the Event Notification Service program terminated at the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency. Plaintiffs’ rationale that there’s no absolute confirmation that the challenged policy will never be reimposed “finds no support in case law,” defendants said, citing West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency where SCOTUS determined the party asserting mootness has to establish only that it's “absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur.” DPH has no present plans “or even capacity to restart the setting or another digital exposure notification system on its own,” said the reply, and the department “is not aware of any plans to bring back the national program either.” On data collection, the reply said, “Where the unrebutted evidence shows that the data retained by the Department cannot be connected to Plaintiffs, an order directing the Department to destroy that data or stop accessing it would have no impact on Plaintiffs -- though it would stymie” DPH’s “ongoing efforts to evaluate and learn from the Commonwealth’s pandemic response.” Defendants asked the court to dismiss plaintiffs’ first amended complaint with prejudice and their request for jurisdictional discovery.
Carriers welcome the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s plans for an Oct. 4 test of the wireless emergency alert system, with a nationwide emergency alert system test the same day. The FCC is examining possible changes to WEA, including requiring participating providers to ensure mobile devices can translate alerts into the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. aside from English, and to send thumbnail-sized images in WEA messages. Industry said some of the changes would be difficult to quickly implement (see 2307240045). Replies are due Monday in docket 15-91.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could lead to new export restrictions related to illegal cyber-related activity. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Aug. 16, is titled: “Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.”
The current iteration of the FCC’s Technology Advisory Council, with its focus on 6G, held its final meeting Thursday, its first meeting in 2023. TAC members approved two white papers and reports by its working groups. Andrew Clegg, co-chair of the Advanced Spectrum Sharing Working Group, told TAC the group faced roadblocks getting data from the government. TAC approved recommendations and a white paper from the WG, which the FCC hasn't posted.
New Indian import restrictions on computers and other electronics could “significantly disrupt” trade, including U.S. exports, eight industry groups wrote in a letter this week to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The groups -- representing the American semiconductor, electronics, manufacturing and retail industries -- asked the Biden administration to raise the issue with the Indian government “as a matter of urgency.”