Regulators get tough, Adobe pulls plug on $20B Figma buy
ShutterstockIn yet another sign of increasing regulatory scrutiny of tech, Adobe and collaborative interface design tool provider Figma announced in December that they would pull the plug on their planned $20 billion merger. The EU Commission had published a Statement of Objections in November, citing the potential for the deal to reduce competition in multiple markets. That was followed by the UK competition authority’s list of objections a few weeks later. The final straw was reportedly a meeting with the US DOJ, days before the deal was called off, in which the US agency threatened to launch an antitrust case.
There were a few major tech acquisitions that were completed during the year — notably Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of game-maker Activision and Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMware. But concessions had to be made to regulators before those deals closed, and at the end of the year, the US Federal Trade Commission was still trying to unwind the Broadcom acquisition.
MOVEit hack: Carnage continues, CISOs under scrutiny
ThinkstockAt the end of May when Progress Software disclosed that it had discovered a vulnerability in its file transfer software MOVEit that could lead to unauthorized access, it was only the beginning of a security nightmare. Six months later, the vulnerability ended up causing about 2,620 organizations and 77.2 million people globally to suffer some kind of breach.
Because of the security incident, Progress now faces an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Corporation (SEC), which appears to be jacking up scrutiny of cybersecurity companies and executives: in a separate case, SEC staff recommended legal action against individual SolarWinds employees, including the CISO, in the wake of the company’s response to the 2020 attack on its infrastructure — a move that signals a whole new set of potential liabilities for cybersecurity professionals.
Israel-Hamas conflict extends to cyberspace, as geopolitics stoke security woes
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, a new battleground opened up in cyberspace as nation-state threat groups on both sides of the hostilities launched DDOS attacks and web site defacements. Meanwhile, as its campaign against Ukraine grinds on, Russia appears to be making greater use of hacktivists and cybercriminals, while China-led cyberattacks on Taiwan are rising sharply. Rising geopolitical tensions are causing CISOs to stay on high alert, as the trend of pulling private-sector entities and civil society organizations into cybersecurity crises is likely to continue.
US expands chip export curbs to China
ShutterstockIn October, the US imposed additional export curbs to restrict China from accessing advanced chips for AI and supercomputers, expanding a technology trade war that has intensified over the last year, broadly impacting the global semiconductor supply chain. The new rules include a worldwide licensing requirement for any company that is headquartered in China, Macau, and any destination subject to the US arms embargo.