Malicious actors trying to exploit global tech outage for their own gain

As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals about new phishing schemes that involve...

Spending time online may boost your well-being, the results of a large international study revealed May 13. Researchers at the University of Oxford examined 16 years of data from 2.4 million people, tracking things like life satisfaction and sense of purpose. They found that people with access to the web scored 8% higher in measures of well-being compared...

How you address ChatPT can affect your response

“Compose a message to customer service about a lost package”, “Can you rewrite this paragraph to make it more concise?”... It’s not always easy to know how to talk to ChatGPT. However researchers at the University of Southern California have found that conversational robots like ChatGPT perform much better when addressed politely. Abel Salinas and Fred...

LONDON: Instagram says it’s deploying new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages. The social media platform said in a blog post April 11 that it’s testing out the features as part of its campaign to fight sexual scams and other forms of “image...

A school removed bathroom mirrors to keep students from making TikToks. Will it work?

Administrators at Southern Alamance Middle School in Graham, NC, recently removed bathroom mirrors after discovering students were spending copious amounts of classroom time in front of them creating TikTok videos. Some students were asking to use the bathroom five or more times a day and spending upwards of five minutes out of class during each excused...

Chief metaverse officers are out. AI is in

Advertising giant Publicis Groupe SA made an unusual executive hire in mid-2022 – a lion-headed digital avatar named Leon who would serve as “chief metaverse officer”, guiding clients through the virtual realm that had seized real-world attention. His moment in the spotlight didn’t last long. Five months later, ChatGPT debuted, and the buzz that had surrounded the...

China issues draft rules for online game management

BEIJING: China on Dec 22 unveiled new draft rules for online video games, imposing strict rules on players' spending as Beijing continues to tighten regulations for the sector. Online games need to set spending limits and ban daily login rewards, according to the draft rules released by the National Press and Publication Administration on Friday. The draft rules...

China unveils new gaming curbs, sending tech stocks tumbling

SHANGHAI: China on Dec 22 announced new plans to restrict the online gaming industry, sending shares in tech giants including Tencent tumbling. New draft restrictions published online by the regulator are aimed at limiting in-game purchases and compulsive playing behaviour. Following the news, Tencent dropped over 10% in Hong Kong, while rival Netease was down more than 20%. Beijing...

Pornhub owner agrees to pay US$1.8mil and independent monitor to resolve sex trafficking-related charge

NEW YORK: The owner of Pornhub, one of the world’s largest adult content websites, has admitted to profiting from sex trafficking and agreed to make payments to women whose videos were posted without their consent, federal prosecutors in New York announced Dec 21. Aylo Holdings, the website’s parent company, reached a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a...

Report: Over 330K personal identifiable info belonging to Malaysians found on the dark web

PETALING JAYA: Private credit reporting agency CTOS has detected 335,000 pieces of personal identifiable information on the dark web belonging to over 58,000 Malaysian consumers in the last three years. In a statement released on Dec 21, the company said the data detected include credit card and debit card details, passport information, email addresses and phone numbers. Since...