Year: 2024

Year: 2024

Losing your kids to doom scrolling? Greece is building government app for that
12/31/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

ATHENS, GREECE — Greece announced plans on Monday to enhance parental oversight of mobile devices in 2025 through a government-operated app that will help get digital age verification and browsing controls.  Dimitris Papastergiou, the minister of digital governance, said the Kids Wallet app, due to launch in March, was aimed at safeguarding children under the age

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US Treasury: Chinese hackers remotely accessed workstations, documents
12/31/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday.  The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it said in a letter to lawmakers

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Venezuela fines TikTok $10 million over viral challenge deaths
12/30/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela’s highest court Monday fined TikTok $10 million in connection with viral challenges that authorities say left three adolescents dead from intoxication by chemical substances. Supreme Tribunal of Justice Judge Tania D’Amelio said that the popular video-sharing app had been negligent in failing to implement “necessary and adequate measures” to stop the spread

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AI technology helps level playing field for students with disabilities
12/29/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

For Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros might come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastic as “srkastik.”  The 14-year-old from suburban Indianapolis can sound out words, but her dyslexia makes the process so draining that she often struggles with comprehension. “I just assumed I was stupid,” she recalled of her

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Elon Musk vows ‘war’ over H-1B visas in rift with Trump supporters
12/28/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, vowed to go to “war” to defend the H-1B visa program for foreign tech workers late Friday amid a dispute between President-elect Donald Trump’s longtime supporters and his most recently acquired backers from the tech industry.  In a post on social media

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Internet is rife with fake reviews – will AI make it worse?
12/28/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say.  Phony reviews have long plagued many popular consumer websites, such as Amazon and Yelp. They are typically traded

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US proposes cybersecurity rules to limit impact of health data leaks
12/28/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Health care organizations may be required to bolster their cybersecurity to better prevent sensitive information from being leaked by cyberattacks like the ones that hit Ascension and UnitedHealth, a senior White House official said Friday. Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters that proposed requirements are necessary

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Trump asks court to delay possible TikTok ban until he can weigh in as president
12/28/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike

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NASA spacecraft ‘safe’ after closest-ever approach to sun
12/27/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

NASA said on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe was “safe” and operating normally after successfully completing the closest-ever approach to the sun by any human-made object.  The spacecraft passed 6.1 million kilometers from the solar surface on Tuesday, flying into the sun’s outer atmosphere — called the corona — on a mission to help

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Massive Chinese espionage scheme hit 9th telecom firm, US says
12/27/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

WASHINGTON — A sprawling Chinese espionage campaign hacked a ninth U.S. telecom firm, a top White House official said Friday. The Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. The White House earlier this month said the attack affected at

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Ukraine tech company presents latest military simulators
12/27/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Russia’s invasion has pushed Ukrainian tech companies working with defense simulation technology to seriously compete in global markets. One such company is SKIFTECH, which specializes in high-tech military simulators. Iryna Solomko visited the company’s production site in Kyiv. Anna Rice narrates the story. Camera: Pavlo Terekhov …

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Japan Airlines suffers delays after carrier reports cyberattack
12/26/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

TOKYO — Japan Airlines reported a cyberattack on Thursday that caused delays to domestic and international flights but later said it had found and addressed the cause. The airline, Japan’s second biggest after All Nippon Airways (ANA), said 24 domestic flights had been delayed by more than half an hour. Public broadcaster NHK said problems with

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Iran cyberspace council votes to lift ban on WhatsApp
12/24/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran’s top council responsible for safeguarding the internet voted Tuesday to lift a ban on the popular messaging application WhatsApp, which has been subject to restrictions for over two years, state media reported.  “The ban on WhatsApp and Google Play was removed by unanimous vote of the members of the Supreme Council of

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VOA Mandarin: Trump’s new AI policy seeks to loosen regulations, support innovation, defeat China
12/24/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to repeal President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence security, setting the stage for deregulation for AI companies by nominating pro-business, pro-startups Silicon Valley leaders. The nomination of Jacob Helberg, an outspoken China critic, for a key State Department post indicates Trump’s intention to lead over China in

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Albanian PM says TikTok ban was not ‘rushed reaction to a single incident’
12/23/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Tirana, Albania — Albania’s prime minister said Sunday the ban on TikTok his government announced a day earlier was “not a rushed reaction to a single incident.” Edi Rama said Saturday the government will shut down TikTok for one year, accusing the popular video service of inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Authorities have held

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Albania to shut down TikTok for 1 year, says platform promotes violence among children
12/22/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

TIRANA, ALBANIA — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.  Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started

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Trump wants US to dominate AI as industry weighs benefits, risks
12/21/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Generative artificial intelligence companies are racing to build on the popularity of programs like ChatGPT, but AI regulation has not kept pace with the technology. Now, an incoming administration could favor U.S. domination over risk mitigation. Tina Trinh reports. …

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US slow to react to pervasive Chinese hacking, experts say
12/20/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

As new potential threats from Chinese hackers were identified this week, the federal government issued one of its strongest warnings to date about the need for Americans — and in particular government officials and other “highly targeted” individuals — to secure their communications against eavesdropping and interception. The warning came as news was breaking about

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Bluesky could become target of foreign disinformation, experts warn
12/19/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

washington — Experts on cybersecurity and online foreign influence campaigns are urging social media company Bluesky, whose app has exploded in popularity in recent weeks, to step up moderation to counter potential state-sponsored influence efforts. Over the past month, Bluesky, a microblogging platform with its roots in Twitter, has seen one of its biggest increases in

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US cyber watchdog seeks switch to encrypted apps following ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacks
12/18/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

WASHINGTON — The U.S. cybersecurity watchdog CISA is telling senior American government officials and politicians to immediately switch to end-to-end encrypted messaging following intrusions at major American telecoms blamed on Chinese hackers.  In written guidance released on Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said “individuals who are in senior government or senior political positions” should

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US Supreme Court to consider TikTok bid to halt ban
12/18/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.  The justices did not immediately act on an emergency request by

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Senators urge US House to pass Kids Online Safety Act
12/18/2024 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A bipartisan effort to protect children from the harms of social media is running out of time in this session of the U.S. Congress. If passed, the Kids Online Safety Act would institute safeguards for minors’ personal data online. But free speech advocates and some Republicans are concerned the bill could lead to censorship. VOA’s

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