Cyber Week in Review: August 8, 2024

Google loses antitrust case, Google Search ruled a monopoly

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued a decision this week in a major antitrust case brought by the U.S. government against Google. Mehta found that Google’s practices around its search product are monopolistic and that the firm’ actions violated Section 2 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Google has paid billions of dollars to Apple and other companies to make Google Search the default product on their devices. These exclusive deals, entrench “the power of the default,” in Mehta’s words, and could combine with other factors to create an unassailable barrier to Google Search’s dominant position in the market. Mehta’s decision, which Google has said it will appeal, could have enormous implications for the company’s market dominance and access to data amidst the rapid growth of generative AI. The court has yet to issue any penalties against Google, and a separate trial is expected to begin on September 4 to determine what penalties or remedies the company will face. Some experts drew comparisons between Google’s case and a 1999 trial that saw Microsoft declared a monopolist and lose its ability to favor its own software and hardware, allowing companies like Google to fill the gaps left behind.

NIST will publish post-quantum cryptography standards

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is set to release three new quantum computing-proof security algorithms in the coming weeks. The standards aim to counter the threat posed by quantum computers' ability to break current cryptographic safeguards. Quantum computers are still in their infancy, but mathematicians, most notably Peter Shor, proved decades ago that quantum computers will be able to exponentially speed up the process of breaking traditional cryptographic codes. NIST had released the standards for public comment last year, and the new versions are expected to incorporate that feedback. Once the standards are formally released, U.S. federal agencies will be required to integrate them into their systems.

State-level officials issue open letter condemning misinformation from Musk’s Grok AI

Five current secretaries of state plan to send an open letter to Elon Musk urging him to immediately rectify false information on elections that can currently be generated by X’s AI chatbot Grok. The secretaries said that Grok has been used to generate fake headlines, including the incorrect claim that Kamala Harris was ineligible for the 2024 presidential ballot due to passed registration deadlines in nine states. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon took the lead on the letter, which criticizes the chatbot's propagation of misleading election data and X’s sluggish response in correcting these inaccuracies. In the letter, the secretaries emphasize the need to provide voters with accurate information, proposing that Grok direct users to trusted sources like CanIVote.org when it is queried in certain ways. Musk has previously declined to put guardrails on Grok around controversial subjects, arguing that it should be a counterweight to what he sees as the liberal bias of other generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

UN hosts final meeting on cybercrime treaty

The UN committee charged with creating a cybercrime treaty is hosting its final meeting this week as part of the years-long drafting process for the treaty. The treaty, originally proposed by Russia, has seen significant backing from authoritarian states hoping to expand the legal basis for state surveillance; civil society observers have said that the Chinese delegation has sought to strip out human rights-focused language from the draft of the treaty, although it is unclear if the changes are moving forward. The treaty has been especially controversial for its requirements that countries share information on suspected criminals with each other; advocates have argued that such principles are likely to be abused by authoritarian states to surveil activists and dissidents. Negotiations on the treaty have previously been postponed, and it is unclear if it has the support to advance to a vote in the UN General Assembly should it be approved by the committee.

Digital surveillance and repression spiked during Venezuela’s election

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government has intensified a digital crackdown on the opposition in the wake of the country’s presidential election last week, blocking sixty-two media outlets and increasing surveillance on political opponents. The election was one of the first competitive elections in years in Venezuela, as the opposition mobilized around Edmundo González and Maduro’s traditional base fractured. The outcome of the election, which Maduro’s ruling party claims he won, has been contested by the opposition, who say that a separate tally they conducted proves González was the winner. In addition to blocking the websites of media and human rights organizations, the ruling party has used a government-owned messaging app to collect data on opposition figures, arrested more than two thousand people, and allegedly kidnapped at least twenty-five opposition protestors.