Tech

Chinese state media called online video games ‘spiritual opium’, sending stocks of Tencent, other gaming firms tumbling. Tencent Holdings Ltd shares were on track to fall by their most in 10 years on Tuesday after a Chinese state media outlet branded online video games “spiritual opium”, stoking concern that the …

The abuse of the Pegasus software by autocratic regimes has been known for several years, though, through recent revelations, it appeared to gain much traction in the mainstream media, owing to the high number of civilians who have reportedly been under surveillance through its use. The continuation of the long-standing …

Zoom, the video conferencing firm, has agreed to settle a class-action US privacy lawsuit for $85 million, it said Sunday. The suit charged that Zoom’s sharing of users’ personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn was a breach of privacy for millions. While Zoom denied wrongdoing, it did agree to …

Amazon has been handed an $888 million fine by European Union regulators for breaching the bloc’s data protection laws. The fine is the largest issued by the EU but is still less than one percent of the firm’s annual revenue. The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) issued the …

Russia on Friday blamed a software failure for an incident that briefly knocked the International Space Station (ISS) off course and said it was pressing ahead with work to activate a newly-attached module at the centre of the episode. The ISS was thrown off track on Thursday after the engines …

The decision by some EU countries to ban Huawei from supplying 5G infrastructure is based on “political motivation”, the Chinese company has said, as it defended its legacy and ongoing investments in the region. Abraham Liu, Huawei’s chief representative to the EU, said “when you talk about certain, very few …

The company is currently looking for a digital currency and blockchain product lead Bitcoin surged on Monday amid ongoing speculations that retail giant Amazon may start accepting the cryptocurrency for payments. On Sunday, the virtual currency recorded its greatest increase in over six weeks, after reports that Amazon was looking …

Many popular websites fell offline on Thursday in a widespread global outage of service. Visitors attempting to reach some sites received DNS errors, meaning their requests could not reach the websites. Affected services included Airbnb, UPS, HSBC bank, British Airways and the PlayStation network used for online games. One popular …

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company acknowledged that some of its data is being held for ransom online. Aramco said it likely came from a third-party contractor, denying there’s been any breach of its computer systems. The company confirmed to AP on Wednesday it “recently became aware of the indirect release …

The popular TikTok video-sharing app was blocked Wednesday in Pakistan for a fourth time because of “inappropriate content”, the country’s telecommunication regulator said. The Chinese-owned site has fought a series of legal battles with religious activists and authorities in the conservative Muslim nation and was shut down two days earlier …

Beijing says Washington’s claims are incomplete and ‘hypocritical’, alleges the US is the main source of cyberattacks globally. China’s government has denied being responsible for cyberattacks against Western nations after the United States and its close allies accused it of a global cyberespionage campaign. The group of nations alleged on …

Jeff Bezos is about to soar on his space travel company’s first flight with people on board. The founder of Blue Origin as well as Amazon on Tuesday will become the second billionaire to ride his own rocket. He’ll launch from West Texas with his brother, an 18-year-old from the …

An Israeli company’s spyware was used in attempted and successful hacks of more than 50,000 smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials, and human rights activists around 50 countries, according to an investigation by 17 media organizations published on Sunday. One of the organizations, The Washington Post, said the Pegasus spyware …

The Russian Defense Ministry’s website has come under a cyberattack from outside of Russia that paralyzed the portal for an hour, the ministry has announced. The Defense Ministry said it had been hit by a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Friday. “The source of the attack on the… Defense Ministry’s website …

Twitter Inc saw a surge in government demands worldwide in 2020 to take down content posted by journalists and news outlets, according to data released by the social media platform. In its transparency report published on Wednesday, Twitter said verified accounts of 199 journalists and news outlets on its platform …

A TikTok feature that allows users to add another person’s audio to their videos is being used to promote misleading and harmful content about COVID-19 vaccines, a think tank said in a new report. The London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue analyzed 124 videos that used speech from four original TikTok …

France’s antitrust watchdog slapped a 500 million euro ($593 million) fine on Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday for failing to comply fully with temporary orders it had given in a row with the country’s news publishers. The US tech giant must within the next two months come up with proposals on …

Short-video sharing app TikTok on Wednesday launched a pilot program that lets users upload video resumes for US-based jobs ranging from a WWE Superstar to a senior data engineer at Shopify or a creative producer at TikTok itself. Under the “TikTok Resumes” program, companies including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Target …

Hackers suspected to be behind a mass extortion attack that affected hundreds of companies worldwide late on Sunday demanded $70 million to restore the data they are holding ransom, according to a posting on a dark website. The demand was posted on a blog typically used by the REvil cybercrime …

A security firm said the REvil gang, allegedly a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate appears to be responsible for the attack. A “colossal and devastating” ransomware attack is thought to have paralysed the networks of at least 200 US companies. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have said it is closely …