Year: 2022

Year: 2022

Drones Aim to Deliver Meals, Medicines to People’s Backyards
04/05/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

In the U.S., some restaurants and medical supply stores are turning to drones to deliver food, medicine, and other essential goods to people’s homes. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …

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Bypassing Digital Iron Curtain, Activists Message Millions in Russia
04/01/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The Kremlin’s clampdown on news of the war in Ukraine has hackers and volunteers from around the world are sending messages directly to Russian citizens’ phones to keep them informed. Matt Dibble has the story. …

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Kenya Gets Huawei-Linked Chinese Communications Cable
03/30/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

China has connected a high-speed, multimillion-dollar, 15,000-kilometer undersea cable to Kenya, as Beijing advances what’s been dubbed its “digital silk road,” and Africa seeks the infrastructure it badly needs for better internet connectivity.   Chinese giant Huawei is a shareholder in the $425-million PEACE cable, which stands for “Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe.” It

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Fighting Food Waste: Technology Tells Restaurants What They Are Throwing Away
03/29/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Up to 40% of food in the U.S. is discarded. But as VOA’s Julie Taboh reports, a company in the Netherlands has come up with technology that can help reduce food waste in industrial kitchens. Camera: Tina Trinh, Orbisk;          Produced by Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum …

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EU Negotiators Agree on Landmark Law to Curb Big Tech
03/25/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states agreed Thursday on a landmark law to curb the market dominance of U.S. big tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple. Meeting in Brussels, the lawmakers nailed down a long list of do’s and don’ts that will single out the world’s most iconic web

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Russian Agents Charged With Targeting US Nuclear Plant, Saudi Oil Refinery
03/25/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. and British officials on Thursday accused the Russian government of running a yearslong campaign to hack into critical infrastructure, including an American nuclear plant and a Saudi oil refinery. The announcement was paired with the unsealing of criminal charges against four Russian government officials, whom the U.S. Department of Justice accused of carrying out

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Seattle-Based Teenager Designed Relocation Website for Ukrainian Refugees
03/24/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Seattle-based teenager Avi Schiffmann is doing what he can to help Ukrainian refugees. He has launched a website that helps refugees find safe places to stay, matching refugees with people willing to share their homes. Anush Avetisyan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. …

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Hackers Hit Authentication Firm Okta; Customers ‘May Have Been Impacted’ 
03/23/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Okta whose authentication services are used by companies including Fedex and Moody’s to provide access to their networks, said on Tuesday that it had been hit by hackers and that some customers may have been affected. The scope of the breach is still unclear, but it could have major consequences because thousands of companies rely

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Microsoft Faces Anti-Competition Complaint in Europe
03/20/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Three companies have lodged a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, accusing the U.S. technology giant of anti-competitive practices in its cloud services, sources told AFP on Saturday, confirming media reports. Microsoft is “undermining fair competition and limiting the choice of consumers” in the computing cloud services market, said one of the three, French

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Visual Explainer: Russian Disinformation 
03/17/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, the groundwork had already begun — online. Russian disinformation is a key part of what many are calling a hybrid war.  VOA’s Tina Trinh explains. …

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Facebook Owner to Help Train Australian Politicians, Influencers in Run-up to Election
03/15/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook owner Meta Platforms FB.O will help train Australian political candidates on aspects of cyber security and coach influencers to stop the spread of misinformation in a bid to boost the integrity of an upcoming election, it said on Tuesday. Australia has not yet set a date for its next election, which is due by

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Corporations and Big Tech Find Ways to Help Ukraine 
03/13/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

For many Ukrainians, staying online has been daunting as Russia attacks telecoms and power supplies, but some people, like Oleg Kutkov, a software and communications engineer, are testing out a new way to stay connected. In a FaceTime interview with VOA Mandarin from Kyiv, Kutkov held up the components of the two-part terminal needed to

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Everyday Things Created by Black Inventors
03/13/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

From the three-light traffic signal, refrigerated trucks, automatic elevator doors, color monitors for desktop computers, to the shape of the modern ironing board, the clothes wringer, blood banks, laser treatment for cataracts, home security systems and the super-soaker children’s toy, many objects and services Americans use every day were invented by Black men and women.

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Deportation Agents Use Smartphone App to Monitor Immigrants
03/13/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. authorities have broadly expanded the use of a smartphone app during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure immigrants released from detention will attend deportation hearings, a requirement that advocates say violates their privacy and makes them feel they’re not free. More than 125,000 people — many of them stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border — are

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Facebook Eases Rules, Allows Violent Speech Against ‘Russian Invaders’
03/11/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook said Thursday that because of the invasion of Ukraine, it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech. Moscow’s internationally condemned invasion of its neighbor has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses, but also a surge of online anger. “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made

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Twitter Offers Darkweb Site to Restore Access for Russian Users
03/10/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Twitter says it has created a version of its microblogging service that can be used by Russians despite the regular version of the service being restricted in the country. The service will be available via a special “onion” URL on the darkweb that is accessible only when using a Tor browser. Onion URLs and Tor

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Ukrainian Charged in Ransomware Spree Is Extradited to US
03/10/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A Ukrainian man charged last year with conducting one of the most severe ransomware attacks against U.S. targets has been extradited to the United States and made a court appearance Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said. According to an August 2021 indictment, Yaroslav Vasinskyi accessed the internal computer networks of several victim companies and deployed

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US House Lawmakers Urge Department of Justice to Investigate Amazon
03/09/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has written a letter asking the Department of Justice to determine whether online retailer Amazon engaged in obstruction of Congress during an investigation of the company’s competitive practices.  The letter said the company had “engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct” that suggested it had sought to influence

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To Fight Its War, Russia Closing Digital Doors
03/05/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Russia’s blocking of Facebook is a symptom of its broader effort to cut itself off from sources of information that could imperil its internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine, experts say. The often-criticized social network is part of a web of information sources that can challenge the Kremlin’s preferred perspective that its assault on Ukraine is

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Ukraine Digital Army Brews Cyberattacks, Intel and Infowar
03/05/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Formed in a fury to counter Russia’s blitzkrieg attack, Ukraine’s hundreds-strong volunteer “hacker” corps is much more than a paramilitary cyberattack force in Europe’s first major war of the internet age. It is crucial to information combat and to crowdsourcing intelligence. “We are really a swarm. A self-organizing swarm,” said Roman Zakharov, a 37-year-old IT

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Tech Firms Move Fast, Create Restrictions Within Ukraine-Russia Conflict
03/05/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The Russian war on Ukraine is also happening online, as people share images from around Ukraine. Caught in the middle are U.S. technology firms, which have taken steps to curtail Russian propaganda and make changes for Ukrainians’ safety. But it’s a fine line to walk as VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports.     Produced by: Matt Dibble  

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Microsoft Suspends Sales, Services in Russia Over Ukraine Invasion
03/04/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Software giant Microsoft announced Friday that it is suspending “all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia” over that country’s invasion of Ukraine. “Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful

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