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In a bid to address the escalating problem of online fraud and financial schemes, leading tech companies and crypto exchanges have joined forces to form the ‘Tech Against Scams’ alliance.
According to a May. 21 Coinbase announcement, the coalition includes industry giants such as Meta, Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Gemini, Match Group, and the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO). It aims to safeguard users and raise awareness about the pervasive nature of scams across various sectors, including social media, crypto, and finance. The announcement reads:
Our collaboration across sectors will enhance visibility and help us develop evolving best practices to combat rapidly evolving scams, such as “pig butchering.”
The alliance members will collaborate by sharing insights and expertise from their respective industries to create a safer digital environment and prevent scammers from exploiting users. According to a recent Global Financial Fraud assessment by INTERPOL, the adoption of new technologies has enabled organized crime groups to target victims worldwide more effectively.
Scammers are increasingly employing deceptive tactics like pig-butchering — United States authorities were recently able to recover $2.3 million lost to this scam type — which involves building trust with victims before stealing from them. The rise of AI, large language models, and cryptocurrencies has further contributed to the sophistication of these frauds, making them more difficult to detect and prevent.
The Tech Against Scams initiative seeks to address this growing concern by educating users about scam strategies and tactics and providing them with the tools to recognize the early signs of a potential scam. Estimates suggest that consumers worldwide lose a staggering $1.4 trillion to financial scams every year, highlighting the urgent need for proactive measures to combat this issue.
Coinbase, in an official release, emphasized the importance of collaboration across sectors in enhancing visibility and developing best practices to combat rapidly evolving scams.
Yoel Roth, VP of Trust & Safety at Match Group, echoed this sentiment. He said in an announcement:
Tech companies across industries collaborating with each other is essential for preventing criminal activity, and ultimately helps online platforms stay ahead of, and develop effective solutions for, various types of financial crimes
Ongoing war on scams
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, initiatives like the Tech Against Scams alliance will play a crucial role in protecting users from the ever-increasing threat of online fraud and financial schemes. By pooling resources and expertise, these industry leaders aim to create a safer online environment for all users, regardless of their background or level of technical knowledge.
The announcement follows recent reports that British engineering firm Arup has confirmed it was the victim of a serious deepfake scam after one of its Hong Kong-based employees was misled into sending $25 million to fraudsters.
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed the piece of crypto regulation Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) on Wednesday. This marks the first time comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation has been voted on in the full House.
According to data released by the Congress, the Republican-led bill passed with a vote of 279 to 136, garnering support from 71 Democrats including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
FIT21 aims to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, granting more authority and funding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee crypto spot markets and “digital commodities,” with a focus on Bitcoin (BTC). The bill creates a process for secondary market trading of digital commodities initially offered as investment contracts, and includes provisions for stablecoins and anti-money laundering measures.
While the bill is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate this year, it sets the stage for the next Congress in January. House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry said:
FIT21 provides the regulatory clarity and robust consumer protections necessary for the digital asset ecosystem to thrive in the United States. The bill also ensures America leads the financial system of the future and remains a hub for technological innovation.
A widely debated bill
However, the bill has faced criticism from some lawmakers and regulators. House Financial Services Committee Ranking Democrat Maxine Waters called FIT21 one of the worst bills she has ever seen, arguing that it would stretch the CFTC’s resources and weaken enforcement. SEC Chair Gary Gensler also criticized the bill, claiming it would create regulatory gaps and discard the Howey Test, a longstanding legal precedent for determining whether an asset qualifies as a security.
Looking ahead, the Senate does not currently have a companion bill for FIT21, and key lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled chamber have either not shown interest or have opposed the legislation in the past. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis introduced their own comprehensive crypto regulation bill in June 2022, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, but it has yet to gain traction on Capitol Hill.
Crypto regulation is becoming an increasingly partisan issue, with Republicans showing views significantly more friendly to digital asset proponents. Donald Trump, the Republican Party candidate for president of the United States, told a gathering of supporters that he supports cryptocurrency and his campaign would accept donations of it.
The post Controversial crypto bill FIT21 passes House appeared first on ReadWrite.

Back in the late 1970s Atari and Intellivision were head to head, tooth and nail for the home console market. Space Invaders and Pac-Man were doing the business in the arcades and anybody who could replicate those experiences in the living room was set for the big bucks. These two gaming behemoths from an era gone by were set to fight it out to the death.
For background, the Intellivision was our first gaming machine when I was a small kid. I loved it. I still have one along with 86 of the 126 games that ever came out for it. There are family memories of the Intellivision I don’t have about any other piece of technology – and I have owned just about everything gaming-wise.
Family game days every Sunday with relatives who are long since no longer with us – I can remember those like it was yesterday. So yes, the Intellivision means a lot.
Now, after some 45 years, the original console war seems to have come to a conclusion with today’s news that Atari has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision LLC.
“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision, and the golden age of gaming,” said Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari.
Now it’s obviously not as romantic as it sounds, both companies bear little resemblance to their originals. Mattel has not been involved with the Intellivision for many years.
Amico arrangement
A new Intellivision console – the Amico was mooted a few years back under the guidance of Tommy Tallarico – better known in the industry for his award-winning soundtracks to many Sega games such as Earthworm Jim and the like.
I spoke a lot with Tommy during the early Amico days – his enthusiasm to get the project over the line for a lot of the right reasons – families don’t game with each other anymore – rang true of my experiences of the original console.
It was not to be however, funding, Covid and so many other factors hamstrung the Amico and it has since been rebooted as a mobile gaming platform of sorts, with limited edition hardware.
“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest-running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, Studio Head at Digital Eclipse, an Atari-owned game studio.
The purchase by Atari includes the rights to 200 games from the portfolio as well as the trademarks. Intellivision Entertainment will rebrand and continue the development of Amico under license from Atari.
“Atari has been a valuable partner and we have every confidence they will be a responsible steward of the storied Intellivision brand,” said Phil Adam, CEO of Intellivision Entertainment. “We look forward to our expanded collaboration and bringing a broad array of new Atari and Intellivision titles to the Amico and Amico Home family gaming platforms.”
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The UK privacy watchdog Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is investigating Microsoft Copilot’s new Recall feature.
The Recall feature is present in the new AI-assistant Copilot+ PCs that have been purpose-built to meet consumer demand for devices with artificial intelligence capabilities as a standard.
Concerns have been raised about data security with Recall as it takes screenshots progressively when using a Copilot+ PC. These screenshots record all data, including personal data, which has worried regulators like the British ICO.
The ICO is the United Kingdom’s regulatory watchdog responsible for reporting data breaches, threats to public information security, and the risks of illegal activity in the digital domain.
How does Microsoft Copilot’s Recall feature work?
The Recall feature is designed to find content on a user’s PC and support the generative AI data-compiling method.
To do this, the Recall feature must progressively take snapshots of the user’s screen content to create a library to enhance the AI responses. This is then sent to the Recall App, which uses these gathered contents to piece together the answers to a user’s AI queries.
Things like gaming snapshots, pulling a certain document from weeks past, or going back to an old Zoom meeting seem innocuous.
In theory, this is an AI “learning” a user’s patterns and favorite things to search for, but it can bring many security concerns.
Microsoft stated that Recall “will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. That data may be in snapshots that are stored on your device, especially when sites do not follow standard internet protocols like cloaking password entry.”
The UK’s ICO has now raised concerns with Microsoft: “We are making inquiries with Microsoft to understand the safeguards in place to protect user privacy.”
Microsoft security guide
Microsoft has posted a guide to the new Recall features focusing on privacy and security. The computer giant states the Recall feature can be manually turned off by going to “Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots,” on Copilot+ PCs.
Despite this guide to pause or turn off the tool, the questions about how data is used and the safeguards in place remain.
Microsoft did say that the company does not use any mandatory internet or network connection to use the feature.
The company also stated that all data is stored locally on the device. The company said, “Snapshots are encrypted by Device Encryption or BitLocker, which are enabled by default on Windows 11.”
The ICO hopes Microsoft will be “transparent with users about how their data is being used and only process personal data to the extent that it is necessary to achieve a specific purpose. Industry must consider data protection from the outset and rigorously assess and mitigate risks to people’s rights and freedoms before bringing products to market.”
Other than the Recall privacy guide, Microsoft has yet to respond, but the ICO will be hoping for more reassurance that user data, even if encrypted, is safeguarded.
Image: Microsoft.
The post Is Microsoft Copilot’s screen grabbing Recall feature a privacy threat? UK watchdog is investigating appeared first on ReadWrite.

With most game launches in this day in age there are issues that arise due to various situations that the devs just didn’t quite prepare for. Most of these are down to simply too many people wanting to play the game at once, completely melting the servers in the process. However, there are some errors that require some workarounds to get you access to your playthrough and the gateway connection timed-out error for Wuthering Waves is one of these.
If you’re experiencing problems with the Wuthering Waves gateway connection timed-out error there are some fixes you can employ. Here, we’ll take you through some ideas on how to do this so you can get loaded into Kuro Games’ latest title.
Wuthering Waves gateway connection timed out error fixes

If you’re met with the annoying aforementioned error when trying to log into Wuthering Waves, we’ve got some potential fixes you can use to circumvent the bug. Read on for all the info.
Restart Wuthering Waves
The first method you can use to get rid of the Wuthering Waves gateway connection timed-out error is to restart your game completely.
If you’re on PC, this means quitting out and ensuring it is still not running on your task manager. On mobile or tablet, make sure it isn’t hidden in the background, where most apps go with a simple close.
Use a VPN
One workaround that is working for a lot of players is to use a VPN when trying to log into the game. This may seem a little strange but maybe it is circumventing the issue when the server handshake is occurring and letting you in instead.
This is working on both PC and mobile so you should be able to get the job done on either platform.
Change Internet connection
If you’re trying to play Wuthering Waves on a mobile device or tablet, another fix that is working for most is to change how you are connected to the internet and then try to log in.
This means switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data and vice versa to see if it has an effect on the error.
Sit and wait
The last potential fix for the Wuthering Waves gateway connection timed-out error is to sadly wait for the developers to make things more stable.
Yes, this is not exactly what you want to hear but there are occasions when it is a server-side issue and not from your end. This means it’s a simple waiting game so stretch your legs while you can before putting some serious hours into the game.
If one of these fixes helped out then fantastic, you can play Wuthering Waves until your heart’s content. For more help check out these guides:

Wuthering Waves codes and how to redeem them
How to Use the Levitator in Wuthering Waves
How to get Wuthering Waves Waking of a World Bundle: Twitch Drop explained
Can you unlock Wuthering Waves FPS? 120 FPS option explained
Wuthering Waves – How to use the Sensor

The post How to fix Wuthering Waves gateway connection timed out error appeared first on ReadWrite.