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Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsThe hacker group REvil has become a headache for a new victim: a 50-person firm based in Albuquerque that consults with the federal government on security-related projects.Sol Oriens, which consults for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Safety Administration, confirmed to CNBC that it became aware of the “cybersecurity incident” in May, its investigation is ongoing and law enforcement has been notified.In a statement, the company said it “recently determined that an unauthorized individual acquired certain documents from our systems. Those documents are currently under review, and we are working with a third-party technological forensic firm to determine the scope of potential data that may have been involved.”Sol Oriens did not name the attacker or confirm that it was ransomware, but CNBC has learned that the well-known hacker group REvil was responsible for the attack, according to cybersecurity sources. One cybersecurity firm, which has seen documents posted on the dark web, told CNBC that they include invoices for NNSA contracts, descriptions of research and development projects managed by defense and energy contractors dated as recently as 2021 and wage sheets containing full names and social security numbers of Sol Oriens employees. Sol Oriens said that it has “no current indication that this incident involves client classified or critical security-related information.” The company declined to say if it paid a ransom to the attackers.Sol Oriens, describes itself as a technology research and development firm. A recent job posting on GlassDoor, for example, said the firm was looking for a program analyst who could assist the NNSA with a “complex nuclear weapon sustainment program.”The NNSA, an agency within the Department of Energy, is responsible for maintaining the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. It also works with the U.S. Navy on nuclear propulsion, and it responds to radiological emergencies in the U.S.A spokesperson for the Department of Energy declined to comment. A spokesperson for the NSC declined to comment.REvil was most recently responsible for a ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, which fetched a ransom of $11 million. In April, REvil stole and published blueprints from Apple supplier Quanta Computer. That attack reportedly claimed a $50 million ransom. “In some ways, Sol Oriens, LLC is just one name among many,” cybersecurity firm Intel471 said. “There’s no indication yet that the company was targeted because of the work it does, rather than just being another potential pay day for hackers.” According to screenshots seen by CNBC, REvil threatened to reveal Sol Oriens’ data and documentation on its blog. 

In this articleAAPLTim CookSource: AppleApple introduced several new features for its smart home initiative at its annual WWDC conference, including a way to unlock your front door with an iPhone through a digital key in the Wallet App.But Apple is taking a different tack with its smart home strategy than it does its main platforms, like iOS or MacOS, where the company both builds the hardware and controls the software.Instead, Apple’s smart home strategy relies heavily on encouraging third-party hardware makers to adopt Apple’s platform, HomeKit, which aims to simplify the process of getting gadgets from various companies to work together seamlessly.For example, Apple didn’t release an Apple-branded smart lock, but it did promote a smart lock that uses Apple’s software and integrates tightly with the iPhone’s Home and Wallet apps. Other HomeKit-enabled gadgets include air conditioners, video cameras, motion sensors, doorbells, and lights.For Apple, this strategy aims to position iPhone and Apple Watch as controllers for a wide variety of in-home functions, making them more valuable to current customers and discouraging them from switching to an Android phone when it is time to upgrade. Apple’s smart home strategy could also boost Apple TV or HomePod sales, as these devices can be used as the smart home’s hub.’Hey Siri’ comes homePerhaps the biggest smart home announcement at WWDC for iOS 15, which will be released this fall, is that Apple said it planned to open up Siri, its voice assistant, to work with third-party smart home gadgets like Ecobee’s Smart Thermostat later this year. Soon, users will be able to say “Hey Siri” to non-Apple gadgets — matching an ability that Google’s Assistant and Amazon Alexa were already capable of.”While we don’t believe that Siri is a major reason why people buy Apple products, we do believe that the expansion of Siri into third-party devices could help drive the use of Siri and help support Apple’s push into the smart home market,” Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho wrote in a note this week.Through a supported third-party device like the Smart Thermostat, users will be able to call Siri and send messages, add reminders, and even use family members’ iPhones, Apple Watches, and HomePods as an intercom. There is one catch though — the feature requires a HomePod or HomePod mini. Essentially, the third-party Siri gadget passes messages to the HomePod for processing.Apple’s Home Key feature in the Wallet app.AppleApple will also allow users to unlock their front door or garage with their iPhone – if the user has a compatible smart lock installed. While Apple didn’t announce any devices this week, it did display a slide that said that top lock vendors such as Schlage and Aqara will support the feature.There were also smaller, more incremental updates that users will appreciate. HomeKit can use Siri to schedule events like turning on smart lights every day at 7 A.M. Cameras can identify when a package has been delivered. Users can monitor HomeKit cameras on an Apple TV in fullscreen mode and easily turn on lights or activate other gadgets in the scene.Most intriguingly, Apple has started to bundle one of the key smart home features as a paid service. Cameras are one of the most important smart home gadgets, and Apple is relying heavily on its privacy pitch to stand out against competitors like Amazon’s Ring, noting that it stores the raw footage in an encrypted, private way on iCloud called HomeKit Secure Video.To get the most out of this feature, users will be required to subscribe to the upper-end iCloud service, which costs $9.99 per month for 2TB of storage. And, unlike Amazon, Apple does not make its own smart cameras, but relies on partners like Logitech.For the 50 third-party hardware makers who support these features, HomeKit allows them reach a generally wealthy group of consumers without having to do a lot of the hard technical legwork to enable basic functionality. But it also means that they have to participate in Apple’s MFi accessory program, which means that Apple can exercise some control over what they launch through the program contract.Apple said this week that it is backing Matter, a standard that is designed to allow smart home gadgets to work together, and Apple said it contributed some open-source HomeKit code. Amazon, Google, and Samsung are also participating in the standard.In a video session on Thursday, Apple engineers said the goal for Matter was to ensure that smart home devices remain compatible for years to come and make it easier to develop new gadgets and apps. For developers, HomeKit code will work with Matter without any changes required, Apple said.

In this articleGOOGLFBAMZNAAPLAmazon, Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to overhaul their business practices under a new expansive set of antitrust reforms introduced by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Friday.The package of five bills, earlier reported by CNBC and other outlets, would make it harder for dominant platforms to complete mergers and prohibit them from owning businesses that present clear conflicts of interest. The legislation represents the most comprehensive effort to reform century-old antitrust laws in decades.The bills will need to be voted favorably by the Judiciary Committee before making their way to the full House. They would also need to be approved by the Senate before they could be signed into law by the president.The measures come in the wake of a lengthy investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust into the four companies that was completed last year.The panel found at the time that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google hold monopoly power and that antitrust laws should be revised to better deal with the unique challenges of competition in digital markets.While Democrats and Republicans diverged on some of the solutions, they mostly agreed on the alleged competitive harm and that reform was necessary to reinvigorate the markets.Two of the new bills introduced Friday could prove especially difficult for Amazon and Apple to navigate, given both operate marketplaces that include their own products or apps that compete with those of other sellers or developers that rely on their services — a risky set-up under the new legislation. Those bills comprise the Platform Anti-Monopoly Act (which seems to be renamed to the American Choice and Innovation Online Act), sponsored by House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust David Cicilline, D-R.I. and the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, sponsored by Vice Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.The bills, in their draft form, already inspired pushback from tech-funded groups.”Adopting the European regulatory model would make it harder for American tech companies to innovate and compete both here and globally,” Geoffrey Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics, said in a statement. The group has received funding from Google in the past. Adam Kovacevich, CEO of center-left advocacy group Chamber of Progress, backed by Amazon, Facebook and Google, among others, published a Medium post earlier this week arguing that consumers would lose out on more than a dozen popular features should those two bills pass.Under those proposals, Kovacevich argued, Amazon would not be able to offer Prime free shipping for some products and Google could not serve users the most popular results for businesses in their areas because of rules against discriminating on their platforms. He also wrote that Apple would not be allowed to pre-install its own “Find My” apps on its devices to help users locate lost items and Facebook couldn’t allow for easy cross-posting to Instagram, also due to the conflict of interest and non-discrimination provisions.Despite tech pushback, the bipartisan support for the bill is a formidable signal to the industry. The sector has inspired rare collaboration between Democrats and Republicans, who both believe tech companies have come to hold too much power and worry about stagnating innovation.Some tech companies who have been critical of the tech giants in the past applauded some of the bills.Spotify Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez called the American Choice and Innovation Online Act “an important step in addressing anti-competitive conduct in the App Store ecosystem, and a clear sign that momentum has shifted as the world is waking up to the need to demand fair competition in the App economy.””Roku applauds Reps. David Cicilline and Ken Buck for taking a crucial step toward curbing the predatory and anticompetitive behaviors of some of the country’s most powerful companies,” the company said in a statement. “Roku has firsthand experience competing against and interacting with these monopolists, and we’ve seen how they flagrantly ignore antitrust laws and harm consumers by leveraging their dominance in one line of business to stifle competition in another. An aggressive set of reforms is needed to prevent a future where these monopolists further abuse consumer choice and hamper access to innovative and independent products.”Here’s an overview of the five bills announced on Friday:Ending Platform Monopolies Act: Sponsored by Jayapal, whose district includes Amazon’s headquarters of Seattle, and co-sponsored by Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Tex., this bill would make it unlawful for a platform with at least 50 million monthly active U.S. users and a market cap over $600 billion to own or operate a business that presents a clear conflict of interest. Unlawful conflicts would include anything that incentivizes a business to favor its own services over those of a competitors’ or disadvantage potential competitors that use the platform. Lawmakers have previously expressed concern that both Amazon and Apple, which run their own platforms for sellers and developers, respectively, could undermine competition due to a conflict of interest for their own competing products or apps.American Choice and Innovation Online Act: This bill, proposed by Cicilline and co-sponsored by Gooden, would prohibit dominant platforms from giving their own products and services advantages over those of competitors on the platform. It would also prohibit other types of discriminatory behavior by dominant platforms, like cutting off a competitor that uses the platform from services offered by the platform itself, and ban dominant platforms from using data collected on their services that isn’t public to others to fuel their own competing products, among several other prohibitions.Platform Competition and Opportunity Act: This proposal from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., co-sponsored by subcommittee Ranking Member Ken Buck, R-Colo., would shift the burden of proof in merger cases to dominant platforms (defined with the same criteria as the previous bill) to prove that their acquisitions are in fact lawful, rather than the government having to prove they will lessen competition. The measure would likely substantially slow down acquisitions by dominant tech firms.Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act: This proposed bill from Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, would mandate dominant platforms maintain certain standards of data portability and interoperability, making it easier for consumers to take their data with them to other platforms.Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act: This bill, introduced by Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and co-sponsored by Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., appears to be companion legislation to the bipartisan bill of the same name in the Senate. The Senate version passed in that chamber on Tuesday as part of a larger $250 billion tech and manufacturing bill. The bill would raise the fees companies pay to notify the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division of large mergers with the goal of raising money for those agencies.This story is developing. Check back for updates.Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.WATCH: How US antitrust law works, and what it means for Big Tech

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during an event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, March 27, 2014. Nadella unveiled Office software for Apple Inc.’s iPad, laying out how he plans to more aggressively push the companys programs onto rival platforms after Windows for mobile devices failed to catch on.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesIn 2015, as Microsoft was preparing to release its Windows 10 operating system, a developer evangelist speaking at a technical session during a company event dropped an eyebrow-raising statement. “Windows 10 is the last version of Windows,” he said. But last week, Microsoft announced an online event to reveal “the next generation of Windows.”Six years after the remarks, the world’s second-most valuable public company has good reason to change direction. While Microsoft has diversified its business in the past three decades, Windows definitely still matters to the company’s identity and its finances. The corporate logo is still a window.Here are nine possible justifications for Microsoft’s decision to roll out a major update, which some suspect could be called Windows 11, instead of just another twice-per-year enhancement to Windows 10:It’s good for business. Shipping new versions of big products such as Windows has in the past led to increases in Microsoft’s revenue growth rate, the company has said. That has come about in part as a result of people buying PCs with Microsoft software pre-installed by manufacturers. Historically, Windows has had a higher operating margin than the whole of Microsoft, and keeping Windows growing can make the company more profitable.Tough comps. The coronavirus benefited PC makers including Microsoft as people rushed to buy computers to work and take classes at home. Technology industry research company Gartner estimated that PC shipments in 2020 grew faster than they had in a decade. That lifted growth rates for Windows license revenue tied to consumer PCs. As a result, Microsoft could release Windows updates that entice people to buy new machines, so that comparing results against the pandemic computer crush doesn’t make for weak presentations to investors.The Google threat. The threat from Google’s Chrome OS has arguably never been bigger, as people sprang for low-cost Chromebook laptops running the Google operating system instead of more traditional Windows or Apple macOS computers. According to Gartner, computer makers shipped 11.7 million Chromebooks in 2020. That’s still small compared with the 79.4 million shipments of PCs, but Chromebooks grew 200% while PCs grew about 11%. The challenge facing Microsoft is to entice people to return.The Apple threat. Apple has posed a threat to the Windows ecosystem by introducing Mac computers that run its own Arm-based M1 chips, which boast more impressive battery life than Intel-based PCs. Microsoft and other PC makers have come out with Arm-based Windows 10 computers, but software compatibility issues have made the machines hard for reviewers to recommend. Microsoft could improve that situation. “If Microsoft and the PC OEM ecosystem is able to offer a nearly-identical user experience across Windows on x86 and Windows on Arm for the fat tail of productivity applications that really matter for users, plus longer battery life, performance per watt, and 5G (via Qualcomm) approaching that of the M1, we think it would be a big winner for Windows,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst John McPeake, who has a buy rating on Microsoft stock, wrote in a note distributed to analysts on Thursday.Boosting Surface. It’s not nearly as big as Windows or other Microsoft franchises such as Azure and Office, but Microsoft still sells its own line of Surface PCs that could be made more intriguing on shelves. Surface revenue grew more than 30% in the second and third quarters of 2020, but that’s still far from Chromebook-style growth. A reinvigorated Windows might make consumers take a second look at the Surface Pro convertible tablet, whose basic hardware design hasn’t changed all that much since its 2012 debut.Getting older. By pumping out two Windows 10 updates per year, Microsoft is making sure the operating system is staying fresh. It’s still almost 6 years old, which means it’s been around longer than any of its predecessors.Enhancing the brand. A fresh new Windows could help with the company’s overall perception. Windows 10 is the world’s most popular operating system, with over 1.3 billion devices using it. If the company can persuade users that the operating system is evolving, they might feel that innovation at the company is alive and well, and that might make them more willing to pay for other Microsoft products, such as Office productivity software subscriptions.Developers. If Windows gets revamped, software developers might want to bring their software to the operating system to capitalize on renewed public attention. “Windows, of course, succeeded in large part because developers chose to build their applications for Windows,” Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer, said during a conversation with Evercore analyst Kirk Materne on Monday. The company could benefit by getting more hot properties into its app store for Windows. If people spend more time in the store, they might also spend more money in the store.The pursuit of perfection. There is still room to improve parts of Windows 10, which annoys some users with product promotions and alerts about software updates. “Our aspiration with Windows 10 is to move people from needing to choosing to loving Windows,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts on a conference call days before the company released the operating system in 2015. A documentation page on Microsoft’s website says that “Windows 10 has a much higher Net Promoter score than Windows 7.” That means users are more likely to recommend Windows 10 to friends or colleagues. It’s a positive development, but it doesn’t mean that Microsoft has achieved Nadella’s Windows nirvana.WATCH: Microsoft developing Netflix-like hardware for games