Doug Isenberg

The Federal Trade Commission is planning to launch an investigation into Microsoft’s cloud software business over alleged anticompetitive practices, as the Democratic-led agency tries to cement a legacy of aggressive regulation during President Joe Biden’s final weeks in office. President-elect Donald Trump’s antitrust policies are still unclear, but there are indications he will pressure Big Tech companies on some fronts.

A sizable portion of gamers on Valve’s Steam store are posting an “unprecedented” amount of hateful, racist and anti-Semetic content on the gaming site’s cyber social gathering place Steam Community, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League. The organization found 1.83 million unique pieces of “extremist or hateful content” from 1.5 million unique users in 73,824 groups.

U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said the agency should look into how artificial-intelligence products use the data they gather from younger users, amid privacy and safety concerns. Holyoak, one of two Republicans on the commission who could end up as its acting chair after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, said the agency should review what authority it has to gather information about AI privacy practices regarding children.

T-Mobile’s network was among the systems hacked in a damaging Chinese cyber-espionage operation that successfully gained entry into multiple U.S. and international telecommunications companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Hackers linked to a Chinese intelligence agency were able to breach T-Mobile as part of monthslong campaign to spy on the cellphone communications of high-value intelligence targets. I

The Library of Congress said hackers broke into its communications systems and were able to read its email correspondence with congressional offices for most of this year. In a private notification sent to some congressional offices, obtained by NBC News, the Library of Congress said that hackers “accessed email communications between congressional offices and some Library staff, including the Congressional Research Service.”

Germany’s defense minister called the severing of two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea an act of sabotage aimed at European countries that are supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. The damage disrupted some data transfers but did not endanger the internet connection or security of any of the countries, authorities said.

Apple released security updates that it says are “recommended for all users,” after fixing a pair of security bugs used in active cyberattacks targeting Mac users. In a security advisory on its website, Apple said it was aware of two vulnerabilities that “may have been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.”

More than a week after racist text messages threatening Black people with enslavement were sent by anonymous numbers to recipients across the country, similar threats have been sent to people in Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, according to the FBI. It was not immediately clear how many messages were sent by the anonymous users, but thousands more messages — and the numbers sending them — were blocked by wireless carriers once they were made aware of the situation, according to Nick Ludlum, senior vice president of CTIA, a trade group for the U.S. wireless communications industry.

Indian news agency ANI has sued OpenAI in a New Delhi court, accusing the ChatGPT creator of using its published content without permission to help train the artificial intelligence chatbot, something that OpenAI says it has stopped doing. ANI is the latest news organisation globally to take OpenAI to court following lawsuits in the U.S. by newspapers including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.