Showing posts with label digital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital. Show all posts
Alibaba under investigation by competition authorities

Alibaba under investigation by competition authorities

Alibaba under investigation by competition authorities







Beijing worries about the power of technology groups and their forays into the online lending sector


Alibaba is in Beijing'scrosshairs. Chinese competition authorities announced on Thursday that it was opening an investigation against the e-commerce giant on "suspicion of monopolistic practices." The State Administration for Market Regulation also announced that it had contacted Ant Group, the world's leading online payment company, for "supervision" issues, less than two months after Beijing cancelled at the last minute the IPO of thisAlibabasubsidiary.



Stock falls in Hong Kong


The announcements caused Alibaba shares to fall sharply on the Hong KongStock Exchange, with the stock falling more than 3 percent at the opening on Thursday. It must be said that this investigation is a thunderbolt in the Chinese business world, where Alibaba and its charismatic boss Jack Ma are symbols of the technological success of the Middle Kingdom.


The suspension in extremis of Ant Group's IPO at the beginning of November had already caused amazement. It came days after a speech in Shanghai by Jack Ma, in which the multi-billionaire criticised the actions of financial regulators. They are concerned about the power of technology groups and in particular their forays into the online lending sector, where they are breaking the prudential rules imposed on state-owned banks.



Strengthening anti-monopoly supervision


Chinese media have relayed these concerns by warning of the risks of financial turbulence. The investigation against Alibaba "is an important step for our country to strengthen anti-monopoly supervision in the Internet sector and promote a healthy long-term development of the digital economy," the People's Daily,an organ of the ruling Communist Party, wrote on Thursday. In a sign of the government's impatience with Alibaba, the group was fined 500,000 yuan (62,000 euros) last week for failing to report an acquisition.



Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack

United States of America victims of massive cyberattack






The U.S. administration and thousands of private companies have been the victims of a cyberattack of unprecedented scale since last March. Washington and the country's press point the finger at Russia.


"This is the nightmare that has been keeping cybersecurity experts awake for years," TechCrunchassures. "Since March, at least, hackers probably acting on behalf of Russian intelligence have infiltrated, incognito, the unclassified networks of several government administrations and thousands of companies,"the site adds.


According to CNBC,the hackers "used the network management software of SolarWinds, a Texas-based computer company, to penetrate government networks." Some 18,000 SolarWinds customers, including the U.S. government, downloaded an update to The Orion software, where hackers installed a "backdoor" to give them access to the networks, the channel said.


The cyberattack, which hit the Departments of Budget and Trade, and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Security Agency, was "much larger than expected," CNBC added.


Months to repair the damage

And "the worst may be yet to come," USA Todaysaid. "The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity unit acknowledged that the exact scope of the attack was not yet known and that an unspecified number of local government and private company networks were 'seriously threatened'."


It will take "months" to repair the damage, APnotes. "Experts say there are not enough anti-piracy teams with the skills to identify all pirated systems, whether public or private,"the agency added. 


The Microsoft giant, a victim of hackers with about 40 of its customers, analyzed at length the cyberattack in a blog of its president, Brad Smith, taken up by Cnet. " This is not only an attack on specific targets, but also against the trust and reliability of a critical global infrastructure, to the benefit of the intelligence agency of one nation," Smith said.



Amazing blindness


The Microsoft boss also called for "international agreements to limit the creation of hacking tools, which undermine global cybersecurity," Cnetsaid.


Donald Trump has made no comment on the attack, either to condemn it or to threaten its officials with possible reprisals. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday night that it was "pretty clear" that Russia was at the helm.


The Kremlin denied that Vladimir Putin's spokesman called on the United States to stop "blaming the Russians without evidence"and assured that the Russian president himself had "invited the Americans to conclude a cooperation agreement in the field of cybersecurity," the official Tassnews agency said.


The Wall Street Journal notes that the cyberattack, "as shameless as it is,"is more a matter of "traditional digital espionage" than a desire to harm. Apparently, "no data has been altered or destroyed, and no infrastructure or computer systems have been damaged,"the business daily writes.


This makes Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor, say that the United States is "staggeringly blind"in this case.


In the columns of the conservative website The Dispatch, he recalls that the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden "clearly demonstrated that the United States regularly enters the computers of foreign governments", often "with the involuntary help of the private sector, for the purposes of espionage". The country is even "very likely the world leader in this practice,"he adds.



Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Video game videos have accumulated more than 100 billion viewing hours in 2020

Video game videos have accumulated more than 100 billion viewing hours in 2020

Video game videos have accumulated more than 100 billion viewing hours in 2020





Compared to 2019, the number of hours of viewing of video game programs has doubled in the Gaming branch



That's a record: Subscribers to YouTube's Gaming offering spent more than 100 billion hours watching video game-related content in 2020. This figure is two times higher than the previous year, reports 01net.



These results from Google's subsidiary allow it to assert itself as a major player in this sector, especially in the face of competition from Twitch, Amazon's streaming service.



Increasingly popular channels

Of the approximately 100 billion hours of viewing, about 10% were recorded through live gaming. This content is produced by more than 40 million channels that regularly broadcast live content.



By 2020, 80,000 content creators also surpassed the 100,000 subscriber mark on YouTube Gaming. There are 300 of them who can claim to have surpassed the 10 million subscriber mark on this platform in recent months. Finally, the most popular games on YouTube's Gaming subsidiary are Minecraft, GTA V and Fortnite.





Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

WhatsApp: Users "forced" to accept new privacy rules

WhatsApp: Users "forced" to accept new privacy rules

WhatsApp: Users "forced" to accept new privacy rules | Flash News




Users will have until February 8, 2021 to validate the new terms of use, otherwise they will no longer be able to use the app


Take it or leave it. In early 2021, WhatsApp will change the terms of use of its services, including the way the app processes users' personal data.


They will therefore soon have to validate the new "conditions and updates of the privacy policy." If they refuse, WhatsApp's services will no longer be accessible to them, reveals The Independent relayed by Fredzone.


WhatsApp doesn't take any tweezers. "By pressing I Accept, you accept the new conditions that will come into effect on February 8, 2021," the messagingplatform says. After that date, you will have to accept the new conditions to continue using WhatsApp or you will still be able to delete your account.


Contacted by The Independent, WhatsApp confirmed the imperative to validate these new conditions. Facebook's subsidiary did not comment further on changes to users' personal data.



What's new for businesses


The next update to the app will also boost trade and make it easier for users to connect with a product. WhatsApp already warned last October that the app would "allow customers to view available products and make purchases directly from a discussion."


With this update, businesses will be able to manage messages sent by customers via WhatsApp from Facebook hosting services. The application will of course charge these different services to businesses.





Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

TripAdvisor and 104 apps banned by China

TripAdvisor and 104 apps banned by China

TripAdvisor and 104 apps banned by China | Flash News






China has removed 105 apps from its app stores as part of a campaign to get rid of content related to pornography, prostitution, gambling and violence.



Most of the banned apps are Chinese, but the US travel app TripAdvisor is also included in the list.



According to the Chinese Cyberspace Administration, all of the apps broke one of the three cyber laws, although they did not provide details.



It comes as a second US court rules against the planned ban on TikTok.



U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said President Trump overstepped his authority in attempting to ban the Chinese video-sharing app on security grounds.  He is the second judge to rule in favor of TikTok.




The majority of apps in Beijing's latest crackdown are domestic apps, with authorities saying the ban was in response to content that the public "deemed offensive."



It is not known why TripAdvisor was banned.  The BBC has contacted the company for comment but has yet to receive a response.



Tensions between the United States and China have increasingly manifested in cyberspace in recent months.



When the TikTok ban was announced by President Trump this summer, Chinese officials accused the United States of intimidation tactics and said they would take "the necessary steps" to safeguard the interests of Chinese companies.



The internet remains heavily regulated in the country, with U.S. companies Google, Facebook and Twitter all blocked.





Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

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