sanctions
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Blizzard blocks 'World of Warcraft' and 'Diablo 3' in Crimea
Players in Crimea can no longer access Battle.net, the service that houses Blizzard games World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Hearthstone and others, The Moscow Times reports. Blizzard blocked its games in response to US sanctions against Crimea -- Google, Apple, PayPal and Valve have also suspended service to the region, the site says. The Moscow Times pulled its Blizzard report from Russian site Geektimes.ru, which published an email sent to Crimean Battle.net users. "In accordance with current trade regulations relating to the region of Crimea, we are legally required to suspend access to your Battle.net account," a translation reads.
President's order lets the US sanction foreign cyberattackers
US authorities can't officially punish hackers in many countries, but they now have a way to hit those digital criminals where it hurts the most: their bank accounts. President Obama has signed an executive order that lets the Secretary of the Treasury impose sanctions on both foreign cyberattackers and those that knowingly support their activities, whether they're individuals or groups. If the Attorney General and Secretary of State deem these intruders to be major economic or security threats, the Treasury can freeze their assets and make it tougher to carry out (or profit from) their operations.
PayPal's failure to spot sanctioned accounts just cost it $7.7 millon
PayPal has has agreed to pay the US Department of the Treasury $7.7 million, after the financial giant processed transactions for a number of companies and individuals on the US sanctions list. A total of 486 violations of US regulations had apparently been committed by PayPal "for several years" after repeated failures in the firm's screening process, a reports explains. While the severity of each instance will vary, the Treasury highlighted a number that relate to Turkish national Kursud Zafer Cire -- an individual on the list after suspected involvement in the movement of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury's report states that Risk Operations Agents at PayPal manually overrode at least four alerts flagging Cire as blacklisted -- resulting in transactions totalling over $7,000. Since 2013, PayPal has introduced a "long term solution" that checks for violations in real time. An investment we imagine that's a little more cost effective, than predicting future malware.
President Obama orders stricter sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack
According to a press release that just hit the Treasury Department's website, President Barack Obama has issued an executive order that calls for even more restrictive sanctions on North Korea for its role in the massive hack attack on Sony Pictures late last year. In his words, the new financial clampdown is because of North Korea's "destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December." "Today's actions are driven by our commitment to hold North Korea accountable for its destructive and destabilizing conduct," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement. "Even as the FBI continues its investigation into the cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, these steps underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend U.S. businesses and citizens, and to respond to attempts to undermine our values or threaten the national security of the United States."
Russia invests in homegrown tech with Visa and Mastercard out of the picture
America's sanctions against Russia have already had an impact on high-level space and satellite projects, but it's clear this is just the beginning of the growing technological separation between East and West. Ordinary Russians are starting to be affected too, especially now that Mastercard and Visa are forbidden from processing many of their credit card transactions. According to Bloomberg, the Kremlin sees the disappearance of US-based financial services as a "betrayal." It's looking to wean the country off foreign banking services, starting with a law that would allow all state employees (more than 20 million people) to be paid via a totally new, homegrown card platform.
UK government issues ultimatum on Google's troublesome privacy policy
A year and a half after Google introduced its new, "simpler" privacy policy, UK regulators have come to a verdict: Mountain View must now change that policy by September 20th or face the possibility of "formal enforcement action." In a statement, the Information Commissioner's Office said: "We believe that the updated policy does not provide sufficient information to enable UK users of Google's services to understand how their data will be used across all the company's products." German and Italian governments have reached much the same conclusion, while France and Spain also wrote strongly-worded letters to Google last month. For its part, Google has the following response: "Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the authorities involved throughout this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward." As The Guardian points out however, Google's statement doesn't really explain how its privacy policy can "respect" EU law and yet be considered objectionable by five major EU governments.
Apple may now sell the iPhone in Iran
The US Treasury Department has opened a door that could allow Apple to sell iPhones in Iran. The Treasury Department has made an agreement to allow exportation to Iran "of certain services, software and hardware incident to personal communications," which would include Apple's mobile devices. This is good in a few different ways: Apple employees in the past have been rumored to not sell iPhones to people of Iranian descent, and in addition to the company from Cupertino being able to sell iPhones directly inside Iran itself, this should also prevent any other issues along those lines, thankfully. This isn't a completely open policy, however -- the Treasury Department still won't allow sales directly to the Iranian government, or to people or organizations in Iran on a "Specially Designated Nationals" list. So Apple doesn't have carte blanche to sell iPhones over there. But at least those sanctions issues can be laid to rest, and Apple can go forward with exporting consumer-focused devices over there.
Cisco reportedly drops sales pact with ZTE after claims of roundabout Iran dealings
ZTE might already be feeling heat from Congressional suspicions, but the company could soon take a more direct hit to the pocketbook. Cisco has reportedly dropped an already rocky seven-year deal with ZTE after it learned that the Chinese firm had been selling Cisco's networking gear to the Telecommunication Company of Iran as recently as July of last year. Being implicated in an end-run around US trade sanctions isn't great for business, as you'd imagine. While Cisco CEO John Chambers wouldn't directly confirm the severed link in a chat with Reuters, he noted that we would "not see that [sort of deal] happen again" -- an indication that his company at least isn't happy with the current state of affairs. ZTE isn't waiting for any public acknowledgment to voice its frustration and says it's "highly concerned," although it's not helped by allegations from its own US general counsel that there was an attempt to cover up the Iranian link. Nothing is definite until the investigations go public, but the Iran connection could make it that much harder for ZTE to keep US customers regardless of its distance from the Chinese government.
Blizzard cites US trade restrictions for disconnecting Iranian players
Blizzard Entertainment has disconnected Iranian players from Battle.net, preventing access to online-required games World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. The company states it has tightened its procedures to comply with current US law."Blizzard Entertainment cannot speak to any reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens," the company posted on the WoW forums. "What we can tell you is that United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran."The issue isn't a one-way street. Iran has also made moves to block online games for cultural reasons.Blizzard is unable to provide "refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts" in Iran and will "happily lift these restrictions as soon as US law allows."
TiVo asks court for a billion dollars in EchoStar case
Remember when we thought that those $90 million and $190 million judgments in the endless TiVo / EchoStar case were big noise? Yeah, they were apparently pocket change: according to documents recently filed with the court, TiVo's asking for nearly a billion dollars in contempt sanctions against EchoStar. Unfortunately, the original document in which TiVo made the request was filed under seal because it contains confidential information, but it appears that TiVo's none too pleased that EchoStar violated the permanent injunction that ordered it to disable some 193,000 DVRs in the wild, and it's looking for some payback. For its part, EchoStar says that it doesn't have to comply with the court's order because the injunction was put on hold pending appeal -- an argument that appears on the surface to make perfect sense, but since we can't read TiVo's motion we can't say for sure what's going on, and there's always a chance the company's just playing hardball in order to force a late settlement. Given the rocky history of this endless case, we doubt that's likely, but one thing's for certain: all these lawyers are eating well tonight.
