Amazon doesn’t have to reinstate cloud hosting services for Parler, a judge ruled Thursday in a Seattle federal court. The ruling is a blow to Parler, a social media platform popular with right-wing extremists, which went offline earlier this month when Amazon Web Services suspended its account. Amazon said it took the action because Parler …

Since losing cloud hosting from Amazon Web Services, social media company Parler might not return to the internet, the company’s CEO reportedly told Reuters on Wednesday. Other cloud hosting companies have refused to work with Parler, Matze said, and the company’s best chance is to get its platform running again with Amazon’s services. Parler is popular with conservative and far-right …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. Corie Barry had quite a first year as Best Buy’s chief executive officer. The newly minted CEO steered the electronics retailer through the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and all the changes it brought to what customers bought and how they …

Online commerce and payment services have stopped the flow of money to Trump-related accounts in light of Wednesday’s insurrection at the US Capitol. Software maker Shopify removed stores affiliated with President Donald Trump from its platform, and payment processor PayPal shut down an account raising funds for Trump supporters who traveled to Washington, DC. The moves come the day after …

You’ve seen all the familiar rules for strong passwords almost every time you create an online account. Use capital letters, numbers and special characters, and make it at least 8 characters long (or 10, or 12). These requirements are designed to make it harder for hackers to get into your accounts. However, they don’t really make your password stronger, say …

Law enforcement aimed to make it harder for criminal hackers to cover their tracks on Tuesday. Europol, joined by the FBI and law enforcement agencies from Germany, the Netherlands and France, said they shut down a service favored by ransomware groups and other cybercriminals for hiding their identities, a VPN called Safe-Inet.  The service, which hides its customers’ IP addresses …

This story is part of Tech for a Better World, stories about the diverse teams creating products, apps and services to improve our lives and society. Like most of us, Elizabeth Softky needs her phone and computer. They are her lifeline to stay connected to friends, family and health care providers during the coronavirus pandemic. But for Softky, connection is …

Apple said Monday it’ll change the way it logs data from your Mac about the apps you launch. Cybersecurity experts pointed out Thursday that a security feature was sending the information to Apple along with your IP address, which effectively ties data about the apps you use to your location. The data was also transmitted to Apple over the internet …

Google announced a new policy Wednesday that will limit developers’ ability to put stalkerware apps on the Play store. The apps are typically used by someone who wants to monitor another person’s phone use, communications and web browsing history. The new policy forbids the apps if they don’t do enough to let phone users know they’ve been installed. Many apps …

The US Treasury Department announced Thursday it’s sanctioning four individuals for attempting to interfere with US elections on behalf of Russia. Three of the people who were sanctioned work for the “Russian troll factory known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA),” according to the Treasury Department.  US intelligence agencies and investigative reports have found that the IRA uses workers to …