New SEC Cyber Guidelines, Tesla's Crypto Cloud, WhatsApp's Money

Get your own cloud. Hackers broke into Tesla’s Amazon cloud account and used it to “mine” cryptocurrency on the electric carmaker’s dime. The incident is the latest in a string of so-called cryptojackings, where hackers hijack computers to mint virtual coins. Once alerted to the threat, Tesla sealed up its systems and paid the researchers who discovered the intrusion $3,133.70 for reporting the vulnerability that enabled the thieves to get inside.

Get out the vote. Who ever said voting machines weren’t hackable? Election officials have long tried to quell the public’s cybersecurity concerns on this point, arguing that hackers can’t tamper with ballots since voting machines are not connected to the Internet. The reality is far more complicated, as Kim Zetter reveals in this piece for the New York Times Magazine; turns out remote access software and modems pose a threat to democracy.

Get out of my courtroom. Companies that sue—or threaten to sue—reporters and security researchers who are just doing their day jobs are bound to have a chilling effect on the cybersecurity world, argues ZDNet’s Zack Whittacker, who cites a number of active lawsuits and the concerns of 11 industry insiders. If researchers and reporters really are self-censoring their work for fear of litigation, that does not bode well for vulnerability-riddled private sector, which needs all the help it can get.

Get that money. WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton is pumping $50 million into the Signal Foundation, a nonprofit that will develop technology focused on privacy and data protection. The foundation will take over maintenance of the namesake Signal Protocol, a technology that provides end-to-end encrypted communications for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and more. Expect improvements, additional features, and new privacy projects out of the foundation.

Celebrity ICO endorsements just jumped the shark.

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