Major Tech Companies Sign Anti-Scam Pact; Cybersecurity Firms Expose Threats

Major technology companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft signed an anti-scam pact on March 17, 2026, to combat fraudulent activities targeting users across their platforms. The agreement establishes shared protocols for detecting and removing scam advertisements, phishing links, and impersonation attempts, though no specific technical enforcement mechanisms were disclosed. Separately, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike exposed a Russian state-sponsored threat group, FancyBear (APT29), for conducting a year-long espionage campaign targeting diplomatic entities in Europe and North America using spear-phishing emails with malicious PDF attachments. Additionally, Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo360 inadvertently leaked a private SSL certificate used for internal code-signing, exposing it in a public GitHub repository for approximately 48 hours before removal, potentially enabling certificate misuse for malware signing. No CVE IDs or affected user counts were provided for the Qihoo360 incident.