The Department of Commerce announced prohibitions on transactions relating to mobile applications (apps) WeChat and TikTok to safeguard the national security of the United States.

Digital Shadows has analyzed the cybercriminal marketplace landscape following the Empire Market exit scam. The company’s research has identified a number of currently available dark web marketplaces popular within the cybercriminal community. Noting the impact of the closure of Empire Market, some marketplaces, such as Icarus Market, have seen a major spike in listings, from 25,000 to 35,000 in the last month.

Google has updated its Play Store rules to impose a "formal" ban on stalkerware apps.

Shujinko announced the results of a survey of North American CISOs documenting the challenges facing security and compliance professionals preparing for a wave of upcoming audits. The survey, a joint effort between Shujinko and Pulse, found that calendars for security and compliance audits are largely unchanged despite COVID-19, yet the pandemic is straining teams as they work remotely.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with Dunkin’ Brands, Inc. (Dunkin’) — franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts — resolving a lawsuit over the company’s failure to respond to successful cyberattacks that compromised tens of thousands of customers’ online accounts. 

The fallout from the Schrems II judgment continued with an announcement from Switzerland’s Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) that the Swiss-US Privacy Shield regime “does not provide an adequate level of protection for data transfer from Switzerland to the US pursuant to [Switzerland’s] Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).”

On August’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft closed several vulnerabilities, among them CVE-2020-1472, known as Zerologon. Secura's security expert Tom Tervoort discovered the vulnerabilty and recently explained in a blog why the vulnerability is so dangerous. 

Siemens USA announced the launch of its technologically advanced cyber test range housed at its U.S. R&D headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. The COVID-19 pandemic and the related increase in cyberattacks has highlighted the need for facilities such as this to focus on prevention, detection, and response solutions.

U.S. federal agencies revealed criminal charges against five computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). All were charged of computer intrusions affecting over 100 victim companies in the United States and abroad, including software development companies, computer hardware manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks, and foreign governments, as well as pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong.

According to a new report, public-private collaboration would help government leaders keep pace with cyberthreats.