Technology

THE HAGUE: Police in Europe and the United States announced on Tuesday the arrest of 150 people who allegedly bought and sold significant volumes of drugs, weapons and other illegal goods on the dark web. Europol and US authorities said they had seized tens of millions of euros in cash and virtual currencies as they rolled up an online underground …

MOSCOW: US tech giant Google has paid Russia more than 32 million roubles ($455,079) in fines for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal, the company and a Russian lawmaker said after talks on Monday. Russia last week said it would seek to fine the US tech giant a percentage of its annual Russian turnover later this month for repeatedly …

WASHINGTON: The state-backed Russian hacking group that carried out last year’s massive SolarWinds cyberattacks is behind a new and ongoing assault against US and European targets, Microsoft said on Monday. The software giant’s Threat Intelligence Centre (MSTIC) said in a blog post that the Nobelium group was attempting to gain access to customers of cloud computing services and other IT service providers …

LONDON: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told UK lawmakers on Monday that posting content featuring anger and hate “is the easiest way to grow” on the social media platform as she urged better regulation. Haugen, who earlier this year shared a trove of internal documents alleging Facebook knew its products were harming children’s mental health, argued the platform was “unquestionably” fuelling hate. Haugen …

NEW DELHI: Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech, misinformation and inflammatory posts, particularly anti-Muslim content, according to leaked documents, even as the internet giant’s own employees cast doubt over its motivations and interests. Based on research produced as recently as March of this year on company memos that date back to 2019, internal company documents on …

Indian celebrities from the world of Bollywood and cricket are increasingly launching digital memorabilia through non-fungible tokens (NFT), hoping to rake in thousands of dollars by cashing in on growing interest in such assets. NFTs are a type of digital asset which use blockchain to record the ownership of items such as images, videos and other collectibles. Their roaring popularity …

France has successfully launched a state-of-the-art satellite into orbit, designed to allow all of France’s armed forces across the globe to communicate swiftly and securely. Paris created a space force command in July 2019, amongst concerns that rival countries were heavily investing in space technology, seen as a new military frontier. The satellite “is designed to resist military aggression from …

ISLAMABAD: The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) has termed the draft Pakistan personal data protection bill 2021 vague in many respect and made suggestions to make it of world standards. In a letter to minister for IT and telecom Syed Aminul Haq, the Asia Internet Coalition submitted recommendations to improve the draft Pakistan Personal Data Protection Bill 2021. “We are concerned …

Shares of Snap Inc plunged on Friday, dragging down other ad-dependent tech firms, after the photo messaging app owner warned of a prolonged hit from Apple Inc’s privacy changes on iOS devices. Snap shares were down nearly 20% at $60.8 before the bell, on track to open at a near three-month low. Shares of Facebook, Google parent Alphabet Inc and …

“Fortnite” creator Epic Games on Friday opposed Apple’s efforts to put on hold orders handed down in an antitrust trial as a potentially lengthy appeals process plays out. U.S. district Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in September struck down some of the iPhone maker’s App Store rules, including a prohibition on developers directing their users to other payment options beside Apple’s …