Google has raised a red flag to prominent journalists, professors and scientists with regards to their accounts being under state-sponsored attack. If the multiple reports circulating online are to be believed, then the instances have increased in the past 24 hours, though Google is known to send such warnings since 2012.
The list of people (via Arstechnica) includes Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning New York Times columnist, Michael McFaul who is a Standford University professor and also a former US diplomat, Keith Olbermann of GQ, Foreign Policy columnist Julia Ioffe, YNew York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, among others.
Slowly, many other have started taking to Twitter to reveal the warning. The warning reads: “Google may have detected government-backed attackers trying to steal your password.”
“The warning may be related to a spear-fishing campaign, tied by a security company to the Russian government, that was started soon after Donald Trump won the US presidential election,” Neowin report points out.
Many others believe that Trump is doing exactly what he had planned and cracking down on what he believes is dishonest media.
Google is asking these users to further strengthen their account security with stronger passwords and two-factor authentication. The report, citing Google spokesperson, adds that the recent warnings could be due to the hacking attacks that took place last month. The report adds that Google doesn’t turn on the warning signal instantly as it could alert the attackers of the detection method.
A Bangladesh delegation will visit the Philippines to speed up recovery of the rest of some $81 million stolen from its account in the New York Federal Reserve in February, two officials said on Thursday, after recovering a fifth of the funds.
The five-member team, led by Law Minister Anisul Haq, will hold talks with Philippines authorities on Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. “We are hoping it will help expedite the recovery of the rest of stolen funds,” a member of the team told Reuters, on condition of anonymity. Unknown cyber criminals used stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials to try to transfer nearly $1 billion from its Fed account in early February, one of the biggest bank frauds ever.
They succeeded in transferring some $81 million via an account at the New York Federal Reserve to four accounts in fake names at a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Manila. Most of the money was laundered through casinos in Manila and remains missing. Only $15.25 million has been recovered. It was returned to Bangladesh earlier this month.
A senior central bank official told Reuters the team will also try to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier pledged the stolen money would be returned. The team also included Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir; Attorney General Mahbubey Alam; Abdur Razzaq, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry; and Eunusur Rahman, secretary of the Finance Ministry’s bank and financial institutions division.
This week, an anti-money laundering body in the Philippines filed charges against five officials of RCBC bank and a former treasurer who “wilfully ignored” suspicious activity that led to the money vanishing after the cyber theft. No arrests have been made, despite investigations by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol, Bangladesh police and authorities in the Philippines.
OnePlus has announced the launch of newest update for OxygenOS for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T users. The update for OnePlus 3 has just been launched, and it will be rolling out for all the users in a staged manner in the coming week. One thing to note is that the OxygenOS is still on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and this update is not the stable version of the changes seen and done in OxygenOS Community Build release cycle.
Instead, this update is entirely different and fixes some of the issues being faced by the OnePlus 3 users. The update for OnePlus 3 comes a day later than the update for OnePlus 3T users. The OnePlus 3T update looks more like a bugfix for the users to install on the first day as not many users have received the device. The company has rolled out OxygenOS 3.5.3as the first OTA for the newly launched smartphone which adds emergency calling for India, Motion detection in camera along with enhanced image quality.
Image Credit: subodhsg, OnePlus Forums
OnePlus also added the OnePlus community app, updated and optimised the touch panel firmware for precision and updated GPS library. Also, OnePlus has redesigned the clock and calling UI for OnePlus 3T users along with increased stability. OxygenOS 3.2.8 update for OnePlus 3 will add 1080p video recording at 60fps, emergency calling, increased system stability and bug fixes. One important thing to note is that the company has also added optimisation for Snapchat on the OS level to fix the video calling and lags in scrolling.
The company seems to have followed up with its promise that it will be launched the updates for both OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T at almost the same time. Another massive update is expected to launch somewhere early next month which will bring a whole bunch of features for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T users including features like long screenshot, redesigned interface and other things along with OxygenOS Community Build based on Android Nougat 7.0. This comes right after the company announced that OnePlus 3T will start selling in India from December 2.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
25 Nov 2016 , 10:02
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s biggest contender in next year’s German election campaign may not be a rival party leader but so-called “social bots” – software programmed to sway opinion on social media sites. In her first speech to parliament since announcing plans on Sunday to seek a fourth term as chancellor, Merkel called for a debate on how fake news, bots and trolls can manipulate public opinion.
“In order to reach people, to inspire people, we need to deal with this phenomenon and – where necessary – regulate it,” Merkel told lawmakers on Wednesday. The role social networks Facebook and Twitter play in spreading false and malicious information has shot up Merkel’s agenda after the shock election of U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump as president. Social bots are software programs that mimic human behaviour on social media sites, such as by publishing messages or liking posts. They can be used to spread erroneous information and muddy the debate. Some critics say the proliferation of fake news helped sway the U.S. election in Trump’s favor.
With the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) having chipped away at support for Merkel’s conservatives by attacking her open-door refugee policy, alarm is growing over the influence of bots and fake news on potential voters. In a sign of how seriously Merkel is taking the matter, she invited Simon Hegelich, professor of political data science at the Technical University of Munich, to brief the executive committee of her Christian Democrats (CDU) on Monday.
“Merkel is really interested in the topic of bots and fake news and hate speech on the Internet and she’s very well informed,” said Hegelich. While all of Germany’s political parties have said they will not deploy bots in the campaign, the fact that they are mostly anonymous makes it hard to work out who is behind them. Hegelich does not rule out third parties using them to try to discredit parties or politicians.
The head of the domestic intelligence agency raised concern last week about potential Russian interference in Germany’s election through the use of misleading media stories. Moreover, fake news has become a lucrative business model. In the U.S. election campaign, bloggers without political affiliation realized they could earn money by spreading sensational and false stories. “They act as if they were a news provider, but all the news is fake. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it’s just a business model to get more clicks on advertising,” said Hegelich.
Echo Rooms
Germany’s established parties, the CDU and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), are lagging the AfD in engagement on social media. The AfD has racked up more than 300,000 likes on Facebook, while the CDU and SPD can barely muster 240,000 together. While this may not seem many among Germany’s 62 million voters, many Facebook users share posts with one another, increasing their reach.
Algorithms on Facebook also shape what content appears in a user’s news feed, creating so-called “echo rooms” in which posts only reflect user’s own views. Facing a barrage of criticism for failing to stem a flood of phoney news articles in the run-up to the U.S. election, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed steps to weed out hoaxes and other false information. These include making it easier to report false content, working with third-party verification organizations and journalists on fact-checking efforts, and exploring posting warning labels on content that has been flagged as false.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas said last week Germany would closely monitor how Facebook responds to the challenge of fake news, but said legislative measures were limited. Merkel has raised the idea of a code of conduct for social networks. Thomas Jarzombek, the CDU’s spokesman for digital policy, says more transparency is needed and called on journalists at traditional media companies to debunk fake news and create a more informed debate.
He said with 10 months to go until the election, he believed Germany had time to raise awareness of the issue among voters.
This year has been quite interesting for HTC. The Taiwanese smartphone maker was praised for its flagship, the HTC 10, for its fine design. It is still one of my favourite looking smartphones for 2016. Recently Google launched the new Pixel smartphones, made by HTC. Although there is no branding, it is quite obvious who made it judging by its design and finish. The company also announced a bunch of of mid-range smartphones in the Desire range earlier in the year. Unlike the high-end devices, they didn’t catch much attention and honestly didn’t offer a good value for money.
Now the company has introduced a new Desire smartphone which according to HTC, is the best Desire they have ever made. The new Desire 10 Pro is here and I had a chance to check out the smartphone at the launch. Here is what I think about the smartphone.
Build and Design
I have never had complaints with HTC when it comes to design. The Desire 10 Pro looks similar to the Desire 10 Lifestyle which was launched back in September. Of course there are a few fine changes here and there. It comes with a plastic build with a matte finish at the back that almost feels rubbery. I got to check out the ‘Stone Black’ colour variant which is black on the front and back with gold accents around the edges, antenna bands and the camera lens.
Going in-depth, the volume keys sit on the right edge along with the power button. Fine details matter and HTC knows that. There is a nice differentiation between the power button which is textured and the volume buttons which are flat.
The left side houses the dual SIM card tray, the top has the 3.5mm audio jack and at the bottom is the microUSB for charging and one half of the dual speakers. Moving to the back, the camera sits on the top left corner offering a slight bump, while the LED flash and laser auto-focus system sit below it. The back also houses the barely visible fingerprint sensor. Notably this is the first smartphone from HTC that has the sensor at the back.
The display sits nicely having a dimension of 5.5-inches with plenty of space above and bottom. I wish HTC had trimmed some inches. Oh and the handset comes with capacitive keys that light up when pressed. Sweet. Right above the display is the earpiece which also houses the second half of the stereo speakers and the 13MP front camera on its left.
The Desire 10 Pro will be arriving in four colour including of Stone Black, Polar White, Royal Blue and Valentine Lux.
I was quite happy with the design, although for a 5.5-incher it seemed larger than some recent phones that I’ve tested sporting a similar sized display. Having said that, it didn’t feel all that heavy thanks to the plastic build.
Display
While the dimensions of the display are same as the Desire 10 Lifestyle, the resolution has been bumped up to 1080p which means a pixel density of 401ppi. It is an IPS LCD panel with Gorilla Glass for protection, but we don’t know exactly which version HTC has used. Colours look good on the display and brightness seems sufficient, although I faced a lot of glare and reflections when using the handset under bright indoor lighting.
Hardware and features
At the price of HTC Desire 10 Pro, I expected some quality features since Chinese vendors like OnePlus, Xiaomi and Lenovo offer some promising devices. You get a MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM. The storage is 64GB which sounds sufficient and one can further expand it using a microSD card of up to 256GB.
In the connectivity department, the smartphone offers dual-SIM card slots, Wi-Fi, GPS/A-GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, and 4G LTE. There is also a fingerprint scanner at the back. The battery is rated at 3,000mAh along with fast charge support.
OS and Software
The Desire 10 Pro runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with HTC Sense UI on top. It is similar to the what we saw on the HTC 10. Its a clean and close to stock experience with light skinning and a few apps. In the few minutes of usage, the UI felt smooth and stable. I didn’t notice any hiccups but of course such issues arrive only when one uses a smartphone for a longer period.
Now I expected the new Android 7.0 Nougat update out of the box, but HTC has said it should arrive in the coming months.
Camera
In the photography department, you get a 20MP camera at the back with an f/2.2 aperture lens, laser guided autofocus, auto-HDR and a dual-tone dual-LED flash unit. On the front there is a 13MP camera with a similar f/2.2 aperture. Both the front and back cameras utilise a BSI Sensor which is said to help in low light photography.
The camera is same as the HTC 10 offering a clean and simple interface. As for the image quality, the rear camera capture decently lit photos, although colours seemed a little off balance. Probably it was due to the high contrast lighting I was shooting it. I wasn’t fully impressed with the camera, which is apparently one of the USPs of the device, but a thorough test is required before I can make a judgement. The front camera is touted as the world’s first front facing camera with a 150-degree field of view wide selfies.
Conclusion
I’ll be honest. HTC has made a variety of sub-Rs 30,000 Desire smartphones in the past and somehow they all have been toppled by something that offers a better feature package. Even today there are better devices in the market, no doubt. But this doesn’t seem like a shoddy attempt from the company. The build quality is solid and it feels quite premium. But since most of us today jump to specifications, it might take a beating against smartphones like the Lenovo Z2 Plus or the OnePlus 3.
At Rs 26,490 HTC is again playing a risky bet. I cannot comment about the performance or the day to day experience of the device just yet, but if I only talk about the features that it offers, one will have an option to buy something similar at about Rs 12,000.
