Overnight Tech: SEC updates guidance on data breaches | Twitter cracks down on automated tweets | Feds hit former bitcoin exchange with fraud charges

View in your browser     SEC UPDATES GUIDANCE ON DISCLOSING DATA BREACHES: Wall Street's top regulator on Wednesday released updated guidance on how public companies should go about disclosing cybersecurity breaches and "risks" to the public. The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new guidance says companies should inform investors about cybersecurity risks, even if they have not yet been targeted by hackers in a cyberattack. It also stresses that companies publicly disclose breaches in a timely fashion, and instructs firms to take steps to prevent executives and others with previous knowledge of a breach from trading in its securities before the information is made public. The new guidance comes after credit reporting firm Equifax attracted massive scrutiny in Washington and across the country for a breach that impacted more than 145 million American consumers. Equifax discovered the breach internally at the end of July but did not publicly disclose it until September. The company has also been scrutinized over reports that top executives sold shares in the company in the days after the breach was discovered. The company has cleared the employees of wrongdoing, saying that an internal investigation revealed they had no knowledge of the breach when they made the trades. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said Wednesday he hopes the updated guidance "will promote clearer and more robust disclosure by companies about cybersecurity risks and incidents, resulting in more complete information being available to investors." "In particular, I urge public companies to examine their controls and procedures, with not only their securities law disclosure obligations in mind, but also reputational considerations around sales of securities by executives," Clayton said. The so-called interpretive guidance released Wednesday states that it is "critical that public companies take all required actions to inform investors about material cybersecurity risks and incidents in a timely fashion, including those companies that are subject to material cybersecurity risks but may not yet have been the target of a cyber-attack." Read more here.   Please send your tips, comments and compliments to Ali Breland (abreland@thehill.com) and Harper Neidig (hneidig@thehill.com) and follow us on Twitter: @alibreland and @hneidig. We're also on Signal and WhatsApp. Email or DM us for our numbers.   TWITTER CRACKS DOWN ON AUTOMATED TWEETS: Twitter is cracking down on its users' ability to coordinate posting across multiple social media platforms, a move the company hopes will tamp down on the spread of spam and misinformation. "These changes are an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter -- including elections in the United States and around the world," the company wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Twitter issued new guidance on Wednesday advising users not to publish identical or similar posts on different accounts simultaneously. And it's forbidding similar efforts to simultaneously "like" or retweet posts from across multiple accounts. Read more here.   CONSERVATIVES SAY THEY'VE LOST THOUSANDS OF TWITTER FOLLOWERS: Conservative Twitter users are speaking out about a loss in followers after Twitter reportedly suspended thousands of accounts. Twitter has yet to announce the purge, but there is speculation that the action was part of the social media giant's effort to get rid of suspected Russian bots. Conservatives say they have been targeted in the purge, Gizmodo reported. Some users are also claiming they were locked out of their accounts. By Wednesday morning, the hashtag "#TwitterLockOut" was trending on Twitter. "Twitter's tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias," a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill in a statement. Read more here.   MEDIUM SUSPENDS FAR-RIGHT ACCOUNTS: The online publishing platform Medium has suspended the accounts of prominent far-right figures Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer. Medium spokesperson Sandee Roston told The Hill that the company does "not comment on individual accounts." Roston did point to a Feb. 7 post detailing an update to its rules. "We have all seen an increase and evolution of online hate, abuse, harassment, and disinformation, along with ever-evolving campaigns of fraud and spam," Medium's rules update reads. "We have strengthened our policies around this type of behavior." Read more here.   POLL: MAJORITY UNLIKELY TO USE DRIVERLESS CARS: A majority of Americans are not likely to use self-driving vehicles, according to a new survey. A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 54 percent of Americans said they are unlikely to utilize self-driving cars, while a quarter of respondents, 25 percent, said they would likely use the cars. A majority of respondents, 59 percent, indicated that they were uncomfortable with the idea of traveling in a fully autonomous vehicle each day. Twenty-three percent said they are comfortable using a completely self-driven vehicle on a daily basis, while 18 percent said they feel neither way. Read more here.   FEDS CHARGE FORMER BITCOIN EXCHANGE WITH FRAUD: Federal authorities on Wednesday brought fraud charges against BitFunder, a defunct cryptocurrency stock exchange, and arrested the company's founder for obstruction of justice. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the company with defrauding users. The Justice Department separately arrested founder Jon Montroll and charged him with lying to the SEC during their probe into the fraud allegations. "As alleged, the defendant repeatedly lied during sworn testimony and misled SEC staff to avoid taking personal responsibility for the loss of thousands of his customers' bitcoins," said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on Wednesday. "These charges signify that we will use the full force of the federal criminal law to protect the integrity of the SEC's investigative process." Read more here.   WHATSAPP CO-FOUNDER PUMPS $50 MILLION INTO SIGNAL: Brian Acton, a co-founder of the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, is donating $50 million to a new nonprofit supporting the encrypted messaging app Signal. Acton will also serve as the executive chairman of the newly formed Signal Foundation. "After over 20 years of working for some of the largest technology companies in the world, I couldn't be more excited for this opportunity to build an organization at the intersection of technology and the nonprofit world," Acton wrote in a blog post announcing the move. Read more here.   SNAP RESPONDS TO PETITION CRITICIZING REDESIGN: Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, responded on Tuesday to a petition calling for it to reverse its app redesign. The messaging app did not say it would revert to its prior design, but did say that it will roll out a new update in the coming weeks that introduces tabs to its "Friends and Discover" section. Snap claimed that this change would make it easier for users to find stories in the app. At the time of publishing this story, the petition to scrap the redesign had over 1.2 million signatures on the online petition Change.org. "Many 'new features' are useless or defeats the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years," the petition created by Nic Rumsey reads. "This petition aims to help convince Snap Inc. to change the app back to the basics, before the new 2018 update." Read more here.   HOUSE NEXT WEEK TO CONSIDER BILL TO COMBAT ONLINE SEX TRAFFICKING: The House is expected to consider legislation when it returns from holiday recess next week that would ensure classified advertising websites such as Backpage.com can no longer enable sex trafficking. The bipartisan bill would allow the prosecution of websites that facilitate sex trafficking sales and clarify a provision of the Communications Decency Act that would let victims take action against such websites. "Online trafficking is flourishing because there are no serious, legal consequences for the websites that profit from the exploitation of our most vulnerable," said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), the chief author of the legislation, adding that it would "finally give prosecutors the tools they need to protect their communities and give victims a pathway to justice." Read more here.   ON TAP: The Tech Policy Institute will hold a conference on AI starting at 8:45 a.m. George Washington University Law School's will hold its annual Federal Communications Law Journal Symposium at 9:00 a.m. The FCC will hold its monthly open meeting at 10:30 a.m.   IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The New Yorker: The Uncertainty of Mueller's investigation. The New York Times: On Social Media, Lax Enforcement Lets Impostor Accounts Thrive Wired op-ed: The impacts of Ajit Pai's plans for Lifeline TechDirt: More Than Half Of U.S. States Now Pushing Their Own Net Neutrality Rules Motherboard: Top Researchers Write 100-Page Report Warning About AI Threat to Humanity         Did a friend forward you this email? 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