Tag Archive for: stores

US agency calls Apple, Google App Stores ‘harmful’


Apple appears to have been given yet another set of reasons to expand its legal team as the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) calls for antitrust action to force Apple and Google to make big changes to their mobile app store business models.

What’s the problem?

NTIA is the principal advisor on telecommunications and Internet policy to the Biden administration. It argues that the way things are run at present may be “harmful,” arguing that Google’s and Apple’s “gatekeeper” positions may harm consumers by raising prices and reducing innovation.

Among a raft of criticisms, the agency argues that some restrictions favor some apps over others. “In some areas, such as in-app payments, it is unclear how the current system benefits anyone other than Apple and Google,” NTIA says.

While it does concede the existing status quo has provided a range of benefits to app developers and users, the regulators still want to force both ecosystems to open up to greater competition.

The criticism does at least pay some lip service to Apple’s strong arguments concerning security and privacy and how its stores provide both, but on the strength of 150 conversations seems to think those should become a “feature” (see below).

It’s about ‘fairness’

Following President Biden’s Wall Street Journal piece in which the president called for a bipartisan approach to reeling in the Big Tech firms and how they use personal data, this is the icing on the cake of criticism from regulators worldwide concerning both companies’ business practices.

Source…

Ransomware attack blamed for closure of all 7-Eleven stores in Denmark


Ransomware is to blame for the closure of all 175 7-Eleven stores in Denmark on Monday.

The retailer closed all of its stores in Denmark after its cash registers and payment systems were brought down in the attack.

Initially, 7-Eleven’s Danish division did not say that ransomware was responsible for its problems, simply describing the incident as a “hacker attack”:

“We suspect that we have been the victim of a hacker attack today. We can’t use the cash registers nor accept payments. We are therefore closed until we know the extent of the attack.”

Jesper Østergaard, the CEO of 7-Eleven Denmark told a local TV station that the first indication that the company had been targeted by hackers came when staff reported that they were unable to process payments:

“The cash registers just stopped working in all the stores and the employees started letting us know. That has never happened before.”

As Bleeping Computer reports, the company has since confirmed that it was targeted by a ransomware attack, and that it is working with police investigators. Many of 7-Eleven’s stores in Denmark have since reopened.

7-Eleven Denmark is not sharing much in the way of technical detail regarding the attack, which means that not only do we not know what family of ransomware might have caused the disruption but we also do not know how it might have entered the organisation in the first place.

For instance, is it possible that all of the country’s 7-Eleven stores were seemingly impacted simultaneously because they were all reliant on the same technology – perhaps provided by a supplier who might themselves have been compromised?

In addition, there is no public word – as yet – about whether the attackers have made any ransom demands, and what 7-Eleven’s position is (Read more…)

Source…

The Works hit by hackers, UK retailer shuts some stores after problems with payment tills


UK high street retailer The Works has shut some of its stores following a “cyber security incident” which saw hackers gain unauthorised access to its systems.

According to a statement issued by the firm, which has over 500 stores across the country selling a range of cut-price books, art and craft materials, gifts, and stationery, the attack has caused issues with payment tills which have forced the closure of some stores:

There has been some limited disruption to trading and business operations, including the closure of some stores due to till issues. Replenishment deliveries to the Group’s stores were suspended temporarily and the normal delivery window for the fulfilment of online orders was extended, but store deliveries are expected to resume imminently and the normal online service levels are progressively being reintroduced.

While customers are experiencing longer delivery times for online orders, some stores are reported to only be accepting cash.

According to the retailer, customers have not had their payment card details exposed as a result of the security breach:

“All debit and credit card payment data are processed securely outside the group’s systems, via accredited third-party networks, and, therefore, there is no risk that this payment data has been accessed improperly.”

The Works says that it was “alerted to the incident by the operation of its security firewall,” and has disabled all internal and external access to its systems – including email – while it investigates the hack with an external team of cybersecurity experts.

In its statement, The Works has not confirmed that it suffered a ransomware attack and there is no indication that it has received a demand for cash from its attackers.

However, some media outlets are claiming that sources close to the incident are saying that computer systems were hit with ransomware after an employee fell victim to a malicious email.

The Works says that it has “made some immediate protective changes to further strengthen its security position,” and has informed the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in case any customer data might have been exposed by the breach.

Source…

How the Open App Markets Act wants to remake app stores


Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Open App Markets Act, one of legislators’ latest attempts to limit big tech companies’ power — a big step toward opening up iOS and Android’s app stores. But the proposal has raised questions about moderation and security alongside praise from anti-monopoly watchdogs, mirroring a tech world debate about the perks and harms of walled gardens.

The bill is aimed at increasing competition in mobile computing, a field where plenty of people agree a few companies have too much power. But as a series of proposed amendments demonstrated, though, not everyone agrees where that power should stop.

What is the Open App Markets Act?

You can read the Open App Markets Act or S. 2710 for yourself — unlike some omnibus tech reform bills, it’s not that long. But basically, it says companies that operate app stores with more than 50 million US users shouldn’t engage in certain potentially anti-competitive behaviors. That includes:

  • Requiring developers to use the company’s own in-app payment processor as a condition of using the store
  • Penalizing a developer for offering better prices on another app store
  • Restricting developers from directly contacting customers with business offers
  • Using private analytics data from third-party apps to build its own competitors
  • “Unreasonably” preferencing its own apps in search results

If a company that owns an app store also controls the underlying operating system, it also has to make it easy for users to perform the following tasks:

  • Install third-party apps without using the App Store
  • Choose third-party apps and app stores as system defaults
  • Uninstall or hide preinstalled apps

Companies that break the rules could be subject to antitrust enforcement from the Federal Trade Commission, the Attorney General, and state attorneys general, as well as civil lawsuits from “any developer” who was harmed by the banned conduct.

Notably, the bill doesn’t explicitly cover app stores on every device. It defines the term as a “publicly available website, software application, or other electronic service” on “a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.” That…

Source…