| Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Jacqueline Thomsen (@jacq_thomsen), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland). And CLICK HERE to subscribe to our newsletter. BREAKING – EX-TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER SENTENCED TO 14 DAYS IN JAIL: Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in jail, the first campaign official to be sentenced as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election interference. Papadopoulos has also been sentenced to one year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine, according to reports. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russia nationals and efforts to arrange a meeting with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The former campaign aide garnered widespread attention last year after becoming the first Trump associate to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in Mueller's probe. Read this developing story here. IT'S A FREE-FOR-ALL ON HACKED INFO: National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) said that he backed out of a pact that would have barred both Republicans and Democrats from using hacked information on the campaign trail after Democrats sought out media attention to gain "leverage." Stivers said that the NRCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) had largely been on the same page on the terms of such an agreement. But it was Democrats' willingness to speak to the press that thwarted the talks. "It wasn't about the language. We were this close on the language," Stivers said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Friday. "It was about ... trying to use the press for leverage on timing and other stuff, which I just felt like was a breach of what we agreed to at the beginning; to not play this out in the press." The NRCC and DCCC had spent months working on a plan to govern how the committees use hacked or stolen information on the campaign trail. But those negotiations broke down Thursday, with Republicans arguing that Democrats had broken an agreement not to speak to the media about the pact. Democrats, on the other hand, argued that Republicans had negotiated in bad faith and were simply looking for a reason to back out of the talks. Read more here. RUSSIAN EXTRADITED OVER MASSIVE FINANCIAL HACK: A Russian man accused of launching a major hacking campaign against U.S. financial institutions was extradited to the United States on Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced Friday. Andrei Tyurin was extradited from the country of Georgia and arrived in the U.S. on Friday. He is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Tyurin was arrested by Georgian officials on behalf of U.S. authorities for allegedly targeting financial institutions like Fidelity Investments, Dow Jones & Co. and JPMorgan Chase in a hacking campaign that lasted from 2012 until mid-2015. He is charged with conspiracy to commit computer hacking, wire fraud, computer hacking, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Tyurin could face up to 97 years in prison on the charges. "Tyurin's alleged hacking activities were so prolific, they lay claim to the largest theft of U.S. customer data from a single financial institution in history, accounting for a staggering 80 million-plus victims," U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. "As Americans increasingly turn to online banking, theft of online personal information can cause devastating effects on their financial wellbeing, sometimes taking years to recover." Read more here. ELON MUSK THE (TRAIL) BLAZER: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk smoked weed during a podcast interview with comedian Joe Rogan on late Thursday. "I'm not a regular smoker of weed," Musk, 47, said on the podcast before taking a puff from a joint Rogan said contained tobacco and weed, which is legal in California, where the two conducted the interview. Footage of the interview also shows Musk using a flamethrower. The interview is believed to be the Tesla CEO's first appearance in a public forum since he announced in a tweet in early August that he was thinking about taking the company private, Bloomberg noted. That tweet prompted controversy and an SEC investigation. "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured," Musk said at the time on Twitter. Read more here. Uh-oh... The Air Force is looking into Elon Musk's pot smoking, according to a report from CNBC. Also, Tesla stock was also down after Musk's interview. A WHOLE SALARY AND BENEFITS: Whole Foods employees are pushing to unionize following layoffs and lower wages since Amazon acquired the company last year. A group of employees sent a mass email to most stores urging them to support the unionization effort, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. "It is time to hold [CEO] John Mackey accountable in supporting his team members," they wrote in their letter obtained by the New Food Economy. "It is not acceptable to layoff dedicated team members with meager severance packages, no health insurance and then merely offer the opportunity to re-apply for other positions at a much lower wage." The workers attacked a policy change that occurred when Amazon took over that took away access to stock options for full-time team members who logged over 6,000 service hours. Now only store management and those at the Whole Foods home office have access to this, according to the letter. The employees' demands include a $15 minimum wage, 401k matching, paid maternity leave, lower health insurance deductibles and equal profit sharing, among others. Read more here. A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: What a crew. NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: A popular Mac app that stole users' browsing history has been removed. (BuzzFeed) Apple says proposed tariffs to hit a range of products. (Reuters) Amazon under attack for seeking tax breaks for HQ2. (Bloomberg) | 
沒有留言:
張貼留言