The Chinese Communist Party shared an ominous warning the same day U.S. lawmakers advanced a bill that could ban Chinese-owned TikTok nationwide.

The House passed the bill Wednesday morning in a bipartisan vote 352 – 65. 

The House China Select Committee says Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through ByteDance are using TikTok to spy on its U.S. users’ locations and dictate its algorithm to conduct influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.

ByteDance would have five months after the law is signed to divest from TikTok. If it does not, app stores and web hosting platforms would not be allowed to distribute it in the U.S. 

Ahead of the vote, a spokesman for the CCP railed against the key claims made by Republican and Democrat lawmakers in their push to get the…

As the world transitions towards Industry 4.0, cyberattacks are no longer limited to the IT infrastructure of organizations. Threat actors are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure and operational technology (OT) in organizations from different industries. For instance, The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has warned that ransomware groups will likely target and disrupt OT operations in the transport sector, in the foreseeable future.

One reason is that IT and OT networks have historically operated in siloes with limited collaboration. This has resulted in the lack of a cohesive strategy for organization-wide security risk management. While IT security teams are often adept at handling the latest threats, risks on the OT plant network side usually go…

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill which would ban TikTok in the US if its owners don’t sell.

The bill would force the app’s owner ByteDance to sell its stake in the platform within six months or have the app be banned from US app stores and web hosting services.

It was introduced amid concerns over ByteDance’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The bill passed by a vote of 352-65, and will now go on to the Senate, according to the Associated Press.

TikTok currently has around 170 million users in the US.

Lawmakers in favour of the bill…

• Michael Bugeja is a distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences at Iowa State University.

Long after risks became apparent 20 years ago — including screen addiction, loss of face-to-face communication, cyber stalking, bullying and harassment — lawmakers finally are trying to restrict social media accounts of underage users and monitor effects of these perilous platforms.

Lack of legislation has allowed tech CEOs to deflect deleterious effects, hire D.C. lobbyists and write service terms so obtuse that users simply ignore them and click “I agree,” the most pervasive lie told every day across Iowa.

As the Des Moines Register reported, the Iowa House has approved a bill (House File 2523), requiring children under age 18 to get parental approval to open social media accounts…

BotGuard, a Tallinn, Estonia-based cybersecurity software company, raised €12M in Series A funding.

The round was led by MMC Ventures. Existing investors Tera Ventures and Expeditions Fund also participated in the round, alongside prominent angel investors including Stefan Lindeberg.

The company intends to use the funds to further develop its technology, recruit tech development talent, and expand its sales and marketing teams as it continues to scale globally. 

Founded in 2019 by Nik Rozenberg, CEO, and Denis Prochko, CTO, BotGuard is a global web traffic management company that enables businesses to manage good, bad, and neutral web traffic. Its proprietary technology selectively blocks negative traffic (malicious bots) and neutral traffic – which would…