The 2024 US presidential election is entering its final stretch, which means state-backed hackers are slipping out of the shadows to meddle in their own special way. That includes Iran's APT42, a hacker group affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Google's Threat Analysis Group says targeted nearly a dozen people associated with Donald Trump's and Joe Biden's (now Kamala Harris') campaigns. The rolling disaster that is the breach of data broker and background-check company National Public Data is just beginning. While the breach of the company happened months ago, the company only acknowledged it publicly on Monday after someone posted what they claimed was "2.9 billion records" of people in the US, UK, and Canada, including names, physical addresses, and Social Security numbers. Ongoing analysis of the data, however, shows the story is far messier--as are the risks.

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have sued to block a law signed by Joe Biden just weeks ago that would force the sale of the short video app or ban it from the US. The companies filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the US government in the court of appeals for the District of Columbia, arguing the law is unconstitutional and violates free speech protections. Signed by the president on 24 April as part of a broader foreign aid package, the law gives China's ByteDance until 19 January 2025 to sell TikTok to an approved buyer. If it does not, the US would prohibit app stores from offering TikTok and bar internet hosting services from supporting TikTok. The companies argue in the suit that the divestiture required by the bill "is simply not commercially, legally, or technically possible. "There is no question: the Act (law) will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere," the suit said. The suit confirmed previous reports that ByteDance would not sell TikTok without the powerful recommendation algorithm that has fueled the platform's success. The Chinese government "has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States", the suit said. The potential for a ban of TikTok has been escalating since Donald Trump first unsuccessfully attempted to block it in 2020. Critics of TikTok have expressed worry that the platform's China-based parent company could collect sensitive user data and censor content that goes against the Chinese government – claims TikTok denies. Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters Amid the political fallout, TikTok spent more than 2bn to implement measures to protect the data of US users, according to the suit. The suit also highlighted additional commitments the company made in a 90-page draft National Security Agreement developed through negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency committee, chaired by the US Treasury Department, that reviews foreign investments in American businesses that implicate national security concerns. CFIUS had been in talks with TikTok to find solutions, though the agreement included TikTok agreeing to a "shut-down option" that would give the US government the authority to suspend TikTok in the US if it violated some obligations", according to the suit.

TuSimple Holdings Inc. co-founder Mo Chen has taken control of the self-driving trucking company as federal authorities continue to investigate TuSimple's relationship with Mr. Chen's other startup, a Chinese hydrogen-trucking company. A TuSimple filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday shows that Mr. Chen has 59% of the voting power at the San Diego-based company, giving him control as of Nov. 9, a day before the company announced it had ousted its board of directors. Mr. Chen acquired the stake through stock purchases using his family trust and British Virgin Islands-based entities, according to the securities filing. TuSimple's newly appointed chief executive officer, Cheng Lu, said, "We have a strong sense of urgency to put our company back on track and regain trust from all stakeholders." A weekly digest of tech reviews, headlines, columns and your questions answered by WSJ's Personal Tech gurus.

TuSimple Holdings Inc., a U.S.-based self-driving trucking company, faces federal investigations into whether it improperly financed and transferred technology to a Chinese startup, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The people said the concurrent probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Securities and Exchange Commission and Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., known as Cfius, are examining TuSimple's relationship with Hydron Inc., a startup that says it is developing autonomous hydrogen-powered trucks and is led by one of TuSimple's co-founders. Investigators at the FBI and SEC are looking at whether TuSimple and its executives--principally Chief Executive Xiaodi Hou--breached fiduciary duties and securities laws by failing to properly disclose the relationship, the people familiar with the matter said. They are also probing whether TuSimple shared with Hydron intellectual property developed in the U.S. and whether that action defrauded TuSimple investors by sending valuable technology to an overseas adversary, the people said. A personal, guided tour to the best scoops and stories every day in The Wall Street Journal.

Quanergy Systems, the Sunnyvale, California-based lidar company, said Tuesday it has agreed to merge with special purpose acquisition fund CITIC Capital Acquisition Corp., a Chinese blank-check firm affiliated with the country's largest state-owned investment conglomerate. The deal, which puts an implied valuation on Quanergy at $1.4 billion, is expected to close in the second half of 2021. After closing, the transaction will inject the lidar company with around $278 million in pro forma net cash, including $40 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) funding. Lidar is an essential component of most autonomous driving systems -- the notable exception being Tesla's stack, which is attempting to develop a pure vision-based system to support its pursuit of automated driving (Tesla vehicles are not autonomous today and have what is considered a Level 2 advanced driver assistance system). Quanergy is a developer of solid state silicon lidar units, which pulses a low-power laser through an optical phased array to measure the distance and shape of objects.

After opening at $40.25, the stock stumbled, slipping about 20%. But it regained much of its loss to close at $40. "I guess it was a rough awakening to life as a public company for a few hours, but we are optimistic," Chief Financial Officer Pat Dillon said. Top news and in-depth analysis on the world of logistics, from supply chain to transport and technology. Chief Executive Cheng Lu said the company is planning to conduct a "driver-out" pilot program without anyone at the wheel in the fourth quarter on a roughly 100-mile run between Tucson and Phoenix. The company has a fleet of 50 trucks it is testing in the U.S. Southwest and approximately 20 more in China, running with two people in the cab.

While the governments of the United States and China are pushing policies for technological decoupling, private tech firms continue to tap resources from both sides. In the field of autonomous vehicles, it's common to see Chinese startups -- or startups with a strong Chinese link -- keep operations and seek investments in both countries. But as these companies mature and expand globally, their ties to China also come under increasing scrutiny. When TuSimple, a self-driving truck company headquartered in San Diego, filed for an initial public offering on Nasdaq this week, its prospectus flagged a regulatory risk due to its Chinese funding source. On March 1, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) requested a written notice from TuSimple regarding an investment by Sun Dream, an affiliate of Sina Corporation, which runs China's biggest microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

Self-driving company TuSimple Inc. unveiled paperwork for its initial public offering Tuesday showing it has lost more than $300 million over the past three years in the race to be the first to launch fully autonomous long-haul trucks. TuSimple had already filed confidentially for an IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported, and the Tuesday filing offered the public the first detailed look at a startup that has attracted more funding than many of its Silicon Valley counterparts and maintained split operations in California and China. Its China connections have caught the attention of U.S. regulators. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or Cfius, has identified TuSimple as a company meriting review because of its ties to China and because autonomous driving technology is considered a critical technology for the Department of Defense. Cfius alerted TuSimple this month that it was probing a Chinese investment in the company from 2017, according to the IPO filing.

This article is authored by Duane Pozza, Megan Brown, and Rick Sofield. The U.S. government is increasingly focused on competition between the United States and China in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), as a national security issue. The Administration has oriented its approach to AI to position the U.S. as a leader in AI development and standards, explicitly stating that it is working with its allies in opposition to China. Given the Administration's aggressive stance on trade restrictions with China in a variety of areas, one question facing industry is how AI technology will be regulated by the U.S. government. A recent report by the congressionally formed National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) provides some insights on how the Administration – and in particular the U.S. Department of Commerce – might approach AI technology protection.

Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Limited is seeking to sell Grindr, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016, after a US government national security panel raised concerns about its ownership, according to people familiar with the matter. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has informed Kunlun that its ownership of West Hollywood, California-based Grindr constitutes a national security risk, the two sources told Reuters. CFIUS's specific concerns and whether any attempt was made to mitigate them could not be learned. The United States has been increasingly scrutinizing application developers over the safety of personal data they handle, especially if some of it involves US military or intelligence personnel. Kunlun had said last August it was preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) of Grindr.