ProtonMail Caught Handing Over IP Address Of French Activist To Swiss Authorities

ProtonMail, an email provider that champions privacy through it’s end-to-end encrypted service, is under heavy criticism after a police report was uncovered showing that they had provided French authorities with the IP address of a French climate activist, leading to their arrest. While ProtonMail does not need to comply with French or EU laws, the Switzerland-based company must comply with the Swiss courts; and so, French authorities went through the Swiss police to get a court order.

Andy Yen, Proton Technologies CEO, came out with a statement that the company had no choice but to comply with the legally binding order as they are obligated to follow local laws. Under its own transparency report, they state that they are legally bound to log IP addresses “in extreme criminal cases,” such as when an account is suspected to be involved in criminal activity. “There was no possibility to appeal this particular request,” he said.

Andy added that their encryption be bypassed, meaning they, and therefore the authorities, have no access to the contents of users’ emails. “We do not know the identity of our users, and at no point were we aware that the targeted users were climate activists,” said the CEO. While Swiss law requires users to be notified of any requests for their data, ProtonMail notes that “in certain circumstances,” a notification “can be delayed.”

The data request was part of an investigation into a group of climate activists that protested against gentrification by occupying commercial locations and apartments near Paris’ Place Sainte Marthe. While it started as a local effort, it quickly grew into a national movement. On 1 September, the group published an article on an anti-capitalist news site that French police had contacted the Swiss authorities through Europol to uncover the owner of their ProtonMail account.

Proton reports that in 2020, it received 3572 orders for user information, contested 750 orders, and complied with 3017 requests. That number is more than double the number of requests from the Swiss authorities on behalf of foreign governments from the previous year, meaning that Swiss courts are issuing orders that violate privacy at an alarming rate. Amidst this worrying case, Andy Yen encourages its users to use Tor or ProtonVPN, as Swiss law does not touch on IP logging for VPNs.

Disney+ Web Address Now Redirects Malaysian Users To Disney+ Hotstar Website

For the longest time, Malaysian users that have tried to visit Disney+ official website would be redirected to a placeholder page where they can register their interest for the streaming service. Things have changed though as the Disney+ web address now redirects users to a different site.

Specifically, if you typed Disney+ URL (disneyplus.com) on your browser, you would be redirected to Disney+ Hotstar’s website (hotstar.com/my) instead of the ROI’s site (preview.disneyplus.com/my). As you can see from the redirected URL, we are likely looking at the address for Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia.

However, that address currently brings users to Disney+ Hotstar India (hotstar.com/in/my) instead. Furthermore, that specific section would return a 404 error as you can see from the screenshot above.

So, there is still no Disney+ Hostar Malaysia at the moment but we still deem that the sudden URL redirection is yet another huge sign indicating that the service is coming to Malaysia soon. Before this, we have seen its social media pages as well as the specific Malaysian user interface within the Disney+ Hotstar app.

Not to forget, Disney has also recently confirmed that it is shutting down the majority of its TV channels in Southeast Asia in order to focus on its streaming service. For what it’s worth, we believe that it is just a matter of time before Disney+ or Disney+ Hotstar make its debut in Malaysia.

Apple Rolls Out Update To Address WebKit Security Issue On iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS

Apple has rolled out a set of updates that are meant to address the security issue within WebKit which is the web browser engine that the company uses in its Safari web browser. Interesting enough, the issue seems to be affecting multiple Apple products at once.

The exact nature of the security issue which is labelled as the CVE-2021-1844 was not revealed by Apple although it has been described as a memory corruption issue that could provide space for a malicious website to run unauthorised codes. Its discovery was credited to Clément Lecigne from Google’s Threat Analysis Group and Alison Huffman of the Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research team.

For iPhone and iPod Touch, the patch comes in the form of iOS 14.4.1 and similarly, iPad users can also obtain it via iPadOS 14.4.1. On another hand, the fix is being delivered to Apple Watch Series 3 and above through watchOS 7.3.2.

Mac users should keep a look for macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 for the security fix but if they are using an older version of the operating system such as Catalina and Mojave, the update is delivered directly to the Safari web browser. Once the update is applied, the build number of the Safari 14.0.3 on their Catalina machine will be refreshed to 15610.4.3.1.7 while those on Mojave will see build 14610.4.3.1.7.

Biden Signs Executive Order, Seeks Funding To Address Global Chip Shortage

US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to address the ongoing global chip shortage, Reuters said. Insufficient chips have begun to strangle the tech and automotive industries, leading to widespread alarm throughout the US government.

Biden’s executive order triggers a 100-day review of supply chains for four critical products: semiconductor chips, large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles, rare earth materials, and pharmaceuticals. The US president will also be pursuing US$37 billion (~RM149 billion) in funding to boost chip manufacturing in the country.

US industry groups, including chipmakers and carmakers, have pleaded for more investment in semiconductor manufacturing. In a recent letter addressed to Biden, they noted that the US share of global chip-making capacity fell from 37% in 1990 to just 12% today.

They blamed this decline on “substantial subsidies offered by the governments of our global competitors, which have placed the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage in attracting new fab construction.” In other words, they’re saying, China subsidises their chipmakers, you got to help us out too.

On a related note, former president Trump’s feud with China is at least partly to blame for the current chip shortage. Trump banned Huawei from buying chips made with US technology, prompting the Chinese company to hoard chips ahead of the ban, Reuters noted.

Trump also slapped sanctions on China’s top semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, causing its customers look elsewhere for chips. Ultimately, this put even more strain on global supply as chipmakers struggled to contend with increased demand, on one hand, and decreased production (thanks to the pandemic) on the other.

The big question, of course, is whether Biden will take a less hardline approach towards China – it could go a long way in alleviating this crisis or preventing a repeat.