European Union | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Europe's top court has ruled that Meta Platforms must restrict the use of personal data harvested from Facebook for serving targeted ads even when users consent to their information being used for advertising purposes, a move that could have serious consequences for ad-driven companies operating in the region. "An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data," the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said in a ruling on Friday. In other words, social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using users' personal data for ad targeting indefinitely, the court said, adding limits must be set in place in order to comply with the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data minimization requirements. It's worth noting that Article 5(1)(c) of GDPR necessitates that companies limit the process...

The European Parliament announced a "provisional agreement" aimed at improving cybersecurity and resilience of both public and private sector entities in the European Union. The revised directive, called " NIS2 " (short for network and information systems), is expected to replace the  existing legislation  on cybersecurity that was established in July 2016. The revamp sets ground rules, requiring companies in energy, transport, financial markets, health, and digital infrastructure sectors to adhere to risk management measures and reporting obligations. Among the provisions in the new legislation are flagging cybersecurity incidents to authorities within 24 hours, patching software vulnerabilities, and readying risk management measures to secure networks, failing which can incur monetary penalties. "The directive will formally establish the European Cyber Crises Liaison Organization Network, EU-CyCLONe, which will support the coordinated management of larg...

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The European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed Thursday that it had been hit by a cyberattack that involved attackers injecting malware into one of its websites and potentially stealing contact information of its newsletter subscribers. Headquartered in Germany, the European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank of the 19 European Union countries which have adopted the euro and is itself responsible for supervising the data protection practices of the banking system across these countries. In an official statement published Thursday, the ECB said unknown "unauthorized parties" had managed to breach its Banks' Integrated Reporting Dictionary (BIRD) website, which was hosted by a third-party provider, eventually forcing the bank to shut down the site. Launched in 2015, BIRD is a joint initiative of the Eurosystem to the euro zone's central banks and the banking system, which provides banks with a precise description of the data that aims to help reporting agents e...

Google announced some major changes for its Android mobile operating system in October after the European Commission hit the company with a record $5 billion antitrust fine for pre-installing its own apps and services on third-party Android phones. The European Commission accused Google of forcing Android phone manufacturers to "illegally" tie its proprietary apps and services—specifically, Chrome and Google Search as the default browsers—to Android, unfairly blocking competitors from reaching consumers. This rule led Google to change the way it licenses the Google mobile application suite to Android smartphone makers. Now, Google is further making some changes related to browser and search engine choice. In a blog post published Tuesday, Google announced that the company would prompt Android phone owners in Europe (new and existing ones) in the coming months to choose from a variety of web browsers and search engines for their devices as their default apps. ...

Google has been hit by a record-breaking $5 billion antitrust fine by the European Union regulators for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system and thwarting competitors. That's the largest ever antitrust penalty. Though Android is an open-source and free operating system, device manufacturers still have to obtain a license, with certain conditions, from Google to integrate its Play Store service within their smartphones. The European Commission levied the fine Wednesday, saying that Google has broken the law by forcing Android smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its own mobile apps and services, like Google Search, Chrome, YouTube, and Gmail, as a condition for licensing. This tactic eventually gives Google's app and services an unfair preference over other rival services, preventing rivals from innovating and competing, which is "illegal under EU antitrust rules." Google's Android operating system runs on more than 80 percen...

Finally, European companies must inform employees in advance if their work email accounts are being monitored. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday gave a landmark judgement concerning privacy in the workplace by overturning an earlier ruling that gave employers the right to spy on workplace communications. The new ruling came in judging the case of Romanian engineer Bogdan Barbulescu, who was fired ten years ago for sending messages to his fianceé and brother using his workplace Yahoo Messenger account. Earlier Romanian courts had rejected Barbulescu's complaint that his employer had violated his right to correspondence—including in January last year when it was ruled that it was not " unreasonable for an employer to want to verify that the employees are completing their professional tasks during working hours. " But now, the European court ruled by an 11-6 majority that Romanian judges failed to protect Barbulescu's right to private life and cor...

Google has just lost its biggest regulatory battle! Google has been hit with a record-breaking $2.7 billion (€2.42 billion) fine by the European antitrust officials for unfairly manipulating search results since 2008. After a lengthy seven-year investigation that was launched in 2010 after several rivals complaint, the European Commission on Tuesday imposed this 'biggest even financial penalty' against the internet tech giant for breaking EU competition law. by using its search dominance to distort search-engine results to promote own shopping comparison service at the top of all search results. "Comparison shopping services rely to a large extent on traffic to be competitive." European Commission says in a press release . "The evidence shows that consumers click far more often on results that are more visible, i.e. the results appearing higher up in Google's search results. More traffic leads to more clicks and generates revenue." The Comm...

Google faces a record anti-trust penalty of about 3 BILLION Euros (US$3.4 Billion) from the European Commission in the coming days, according to reports. After 7-years of the investigation, the European Commission filed anti-trust charges against Google last year for violating antitrust laws. The European Union accused the search engine giant that it had abused its dominance in search by unfairly prioritize and displaying its own comparison shopping service at the top of its search results at the expense of rival products. British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reports that the European Union is currently preparing a fine of about 3 Billion Euros ($3.4 billion), which is almost triple the amount (1.06 Billion Euro) that Intel was levied several year ago over violating antitrust law. According to the newspaper's sources, the EU officials, led by Margrethe Vestager , are planning to openly announce the fine against Google as early as next month, although the exact figure...