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The US has accused members of the People’s Liberation Army of carrying out a massive cyberattack against Equifax. William Barr, the US attorney general, said on 10 February 2020: “This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people.” Image credit: US Department of Justice 

Chinese soldiers indicted for Equifax hack

US prosecutors charged four members of the Chinese military with the 2017 hack of Equifax, a credit bureau. Personal details of 147m residents of the US, Canada and Britain were stolen. William Barr, the US attorney general, alleged that China could use the data to train artificial intelligence programs and to identify potential spies. The four, members of the Chinese army’s 54th Research Institute, are believed to be located in China. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to news organisations’ requests for comment. Sources: AFP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, South China Morning Post.

German leadership race open

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany’s defence minister, who was widely seen as the probably successor to Angela Merkel, said she will not stand for German chancellor and will step down as CDU party leader in the summer. Sources: BBC, CNBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times and The Guardian.

Climate activists barricade Blackrock office

Protestors briefly occupied the Paris offices of Blackrock, calling on the world’s largest asset manager to pull out of fossil fuels. Sources: Bloomberg, Global News and Reuters.

Coronavirus cutting smartphone output

Global smartphone production is expected to take a major hit during the first quarter as many key Chinese factories remain closed or on reduced operations due to the Wuhan coronavirus. Sources: 9to5Mac, Computing, CNBC, The Guardian and Reuters.

Amazon wants to question Trump

Amazon asked a US court if it could depose Donald Trump as part of its legal action over the loss of a $10bn Pentagon cloud computing contract. Trump allegedly told his then defence secretary to “screw Amazon” out of the project. Sources: CNBC, Marketwatch and Reuters.

Uber loses first salvo on California gig law

A US judge refused a request by the tech firms Uber and Postmates to temporarily block California’s “AB5” law, which restricts the use of gig workers. Sources: Bloomberg, Cnet, Financial Times, Reuters and San Francisco Chronicle.

Google begins legal battle with EU

Google is contesting the €2.4bn fine levied by the European Commission for alleged anti-competitive online shopping behaviour before the EU General Court, in Kirchberg, this week. Sources: Bloomberg, Politico and the Telegraph.

Google faces vacation rentals complaint

More than 30 competitors have told the EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, that Google unfairly promotes its own holiday rental search engine. Sources: AFP, Financial Times and Reuters.

Apple fined over slowing down iPhones

France’s consumer protection watchdog fined Apple €25m for failing to tell customers that software upgrades would slow down their older iPhones. Sources: 9to5Mac, BBC and The Register.

Agenda

Tuesday 11 February, 7pm: Digital privacy workshop, held for Safer Internet Day, in Bonnevoie. Wednesday 12 February, 5:30pm: Amcham workplace culture seminar in Kirchberg. Friday 14 February, 6pm: Speed dating at the Silversquare share office space in the Gare district. Wednesday 19 February, 7pm: Free guided tour of the Mudam contemporary art museum in Kirchberg. Thursday 20 February, 8:30am: Defence and security communications confab Govsatcom 2020 in Kirchberg.

Stemming the disappearance of cafés in rural France

The Wall Street Journal examined the plight of village cafés in France through the eyes of a community project that will reopen a shuttered café in Ugny, about 20km southwest of Rodange, next month.

Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald