The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came down hard on silicon valley executives trading company stock when their companies were investigating security or design flaws that could potentially bring down stock value; as something like that borders on insider-trading, a felony under US law. This comes in the wake of senior executives of credit rating company Equifax, and chipmaker Intel, dumping company stock while their companies were investigating security flaws in their products or services. Intel CEO Brian Kraznich raised quite a stink when reports emerged that he sold $39 million worth Intel stock while the company was investigating the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in its processors (which hadn't been made public while he dumped the stock).

The SEC has come up with a far-reaching new guideline to keep tech execs from exhibiting similar borderline-insider-trading behavior. "Directors, officers, and other corporate insiders must not trade a public company's securities while in possession of material nonpublic information, which may include knowledge regarding a significant cybersecurity incident experienced by the company," the new guideline reads. "There is no doubt that the cybersecurity landscape and the risks associated with it continue to evolve," said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. "I have asked the Division of Corporation Finance to continue to carefully monitor cybersecurity disclosures as part of their selective filing reviews. We will continue to evaluate developments in this area and consider feedback about whether any further guidance or rules are needed."

Potentially thousands of websites operated by various government ministries, departments, and statutory agencies, of the United States and the United Kingdom, could be infected with crypto-currency mining malware. The already infamously slow government websites, often crippled with bandwidth and hosting deficiencies, not to mention webpage design that's often behind web standards, are now embedded with crypto-miners thanks to outdated accessibility software.

Most government websites implement a web-based text-to-speech software called Browsealoud. Outdated versions of the software can be surreptitiously infected with crypto-mining scripts, by exploiting a vulnerability in the way the software dials home to the text-to-speech server. The scripts slow down computers by forcing them to mine crypto-currency for unauthorized people. Browsealoud has been developed by British software company Texthelp, which is reaching out to all its customers to update to the latest version of their software. It's always handy to have mining script blocking browser extensions.

It's no surprise that leading Chinese tech companies have close associations with the Chinese Government and the PLA. Intel has waded into controversial waters as reports point to the chipmaker sharing information about its products' vulnerability to Meltdown and Spectre with Chinese tech companies before warning the United States Government, potentially giving the Chinese government either a head-start into securing its IT infrastructure, or exploiting that of a foreign government.

Lenovo and Alibaba were among the first big tech companies to be informed about Meltdown and Spectre; Lenovo is Intel's biggest PC OEM customer, while Alibaba is the world's largest e-commerce platform and cloud-computing service provider. Both companies are known to have close associations with the Chinese government. The United States Government was not part of the first group of companies informed about the deadly vulnerabilities.

TechPowerUp and nerdytec brought you a golden opportunity to win a nerdytec Couchmaster Cycon Black Edition lap-stand, along with a full set of gaming peripherals, including a Logitech G413 Carbon keyboard, a Logitech G703 gaming mouse, and a Logitech G533 Wireless gaming headset. Together with these, the Couchmaster Cycon converts your living room couch into a serious and ergonomic gaming station, loaded to the boot with pockets for your Cheetos and Monster drink. Winner takes all in this absolute cracker of a giveaway:

• David from Burton, United States

A huge Congratulations to you, David!

Earlier this month, ADATA and TechPowerUp brought you the XPG EMIX Giveaway, a chance for three lucky winners to get an set of ADATA XPG EMIX H30 Headset and SOLOX F30 Amplifier, each. Together, the XPG EMIX H30 headset and SOLOX F30 amp make for a high-end, eSports tournament-grade audio solution for competitive gamers. The XPG EMIX H30 combines the highest grade acoustic-dampening with large drivers. The SOLOX F30 is a tailor-made amp for this headset, that puts out just the right impedance and range, along with a great degree of physical and software control. Without further ado, the winners:

• Joshua from the United States
• Manuel from Spain
• Kevin from Canada

A huge congrats to you three! TechPowerUp will return with more such interesting giveaways!

Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it has shipped over 18 million SSDs worldwide utilizing Phison controllers symbolizing the strength of a longstanding relationship. Kingston and Phison Electronics Corp have been close collaborators for over a decade, first starting in USB Flash drives and then moving onto SSDs.

In 2010, both companies jointly invested in a new company to create embedded solutions to ease the design-in effort for handheld device makers expediting the overall product development cycle and bringing products to market faster. Both Phison and Kingston share and combine their expertise in engineering, production, sales and procurement. The company, Kingston Solutions, Inc., has grown exponentially from smart phones and tablets to a diverse portfolio including wearables, slot machines and consumer appliances such as smart beds and thermostats.

To celebrate America's 241st Independence Day, TechPowerUp, in partnership with Patriot Memory and Patriot Viper Gaming bring you the 4th of July Giveaway. Up for grabs are some of Patriot's very best gaming peripherals. The First Prize is a combo of Patriot Viper V770 mechanical gaming keyboard, Viper V570 gaming mouse, and Viper V370 gaming headset. The Second Prize is a Viper V361 gaming headset, with a Viper headset stand and USB 3.0 hub. The Third Prize is a Viper V530 gaming mouse. The giveaway is open to readers from the United States, Canadians are welcome, too. To win, simply fill out a form that lets us get back to you if you win. The giveaway closes on the 12th of July.

For more information, and to participate, visit this page. Good Luck!

Taiwan-based Foxconn, one of Apple's main suppliers, is looking to expand its operations in the US to the tune of $10 billion. The company is still deciding which state will get the greatest solo investment, in the form of a $7 billion display factory (worth mentioning here is that Foxconn's display manufacturing has seen a recent buff by the acquisition of Sharp.) Reportedly, investments are being considered in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and/or Texas. There was no given timeframe for the construction's start or finish, but a final decision should be made public in July. Foxconn's CEO Terry Gou also vowed to press on with a bid for Toshiba Corp.'s semiconductor business, although the Japanese company has already selected a preferred buyer in the form of a Japanese and US joint venture. Such a deal could cost $27 billion and introduce Foxconn (and, likely but indirectly, China) into the memory chip business.