It’s Friday! Get caught up on this week’s cybersecurity news with our picks for the week’s hottest articles from the IT and security presses:

1. “USA Freedom Act Passes House, Codifying Bulk Collection For First Time, Critics Say” by Sam Sacks
   On Wednesday, the USA Freedom Act was passed by the House of Representatives in response to all the controversy surrounding the surveillance of American communications. This legislation will prohibit the government from issuing orders for bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata for phone companies. Instead, phone companies will store this data and the government can gain access to specific data related to foreign terrorism upon request. To lean more, check out this article.
2. “Verizon Security Flaw Left Millions Of Home Internet Users Vulnerable To Attack” by Joseph Bernstein
   Verizon made headlines this week with its $4.4 billion purchase of AOL. With this purchase, Verizon gained millions of new home internet customers. Verizon didn’t make a good first impression with these new customers as a security flaw was discovered that allowed anyone to view the personal information of all of its home internet customers using a spoofed IP address. For more on this vulnerability in Verizon’s services, give this article a read.
3. “Whistleblower claims cybersecurity firm extorted clients” by Alan Martin
   Richard Wallace, a former employee of Tiversa (a U.S. cybersecurity firm), has accused the company of manipulating leaked client data so they could sell them security services. According to Wallace, Tiversa would find leaked data from companies, notify the companies, and then offer the companies their security services. Read this article to find out more.
4. “United Airlines To Reward Hackers Who Help Squish Nasty Bugs... Just Not In Its Planes” by Thomas Fox-Brewster
   United Airlines, the first airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi for customers, has also become the first to offer a bug bounty program. This program will reward professional white hat hackers with free air miles for finding vulnerabilities in their systems. However, this program is only for researchers who find flaws in United's websites and mobile applications, not its onboard Wi-Fi. For more information about this program, read this article.
5. “Digital Guardian Acquires Savant Protection” by Nate Lord
   This Tuesday we announced our acquisition of Savant Protection, provider of advanced application whitelisting solutions. This acquisition extends our endpoint security platform to fixed-function devices including point-of-sale systems, industrial control systems, ATMs, and SCADA systems. Read on to learn more about Savant, the acquisition, and our technology roadmap.