US

Russian Hackers Trick Diplomats With WhatsApp Codes
20Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, Russia, Technology, US

Russian Hackers Trick Diplomats With WhatsApp Codes

A hacking group with Russian ties attempts to convince diplomats to join a WhatsApp group through targeted attacks to take over the entire account. According to a Microsoft Threat Intelligence Report, Russian Star Blizzard, a group operating on behalf of Russia, is attempting to take over users' accounts with a spear phishing campaign. Spear phishing is a highly targeted attack, often targeting high-ranking people. According to Microsoft, this method has been attempted since mid-November. In it, the victim supposedly receives an email from a US government employee inviting them to a WhatsApp group about non-government initiatives to support Ukraine. Microsoft warns that the campaign explicitly targets government or diplomatic employees, including predecessors and successors to...
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Canada is Not for Sale: Canadian Politician Sends Message to Donald Trump
16Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Canada, News, US

Canada is Not for Sale: Canadian Politician Sends Message to Donald Trump

Canadian politician and businessman Doug Ford from Ontario appeared in parliament with "Canada is not for sale" on his cap, a clear message to Donald Trump, who will officially become the new president of the United States on Monday.  Doug Ford previously responded strongly to Trump's statements that Canada would like to 'incorporate' into the US. Now Ford made a splash wearing a navy blue cap with the message "Canada is not for sale." He got the idea from Trump's cap with the iconic message: "Make America Great Again." "We must unite, and we can't let President Trump divide us. He's going to try to destroy our country; he's going to try to divide our country." The 78-year-old Republican had previously threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal and expressed his intention...
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Microsoft Will Pump $80 Billion into Data Centres for AI Applications This Year
6Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, News, Technology, US

Microsoft Will Pump $80 Billion into Data Centres for AI Applications This Year

Microsoft's chairman, Brad Smith, announced that it will invest $80 billion in data centre expansion by 2025. This is necessary to enable the enormous computing power required for AI applications. More than half of the investment is in the United States. "This reflects our confidence in the American economy," Smith said in a blog post. He also called on the new US President, Donald Trump, to support the sector and not to hinder it with "heavy regulations" regarding artificial intelligence. Race for computing powerIn the previous fiscal year, which ended in June 2024, Microsoft spent more than $50 billion on data centres. The major cloud infrastructure providers, such as Microsoft and Amazon, seem to have recently been engaged in a race for the most computing power to meet the g...
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Google is Working on an Anti-Scam Tool for Chrome
23Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Technology, US

Google is Working on an Anti-Scam Tool for Chrome

A new feature in the Chrome browser is supposed to warn users when a site is trying to scam them. The feature, which appears to use AI, is currently being tested.  If you enable the feature, Chrome will automatically scan various web pages for possible scams. It uses a large language model (LLM) for this on your device itself. We say it is because the feature is not usable for the general public yet. A researcher on X/Twitter discovered them in Chrome Canary, a browser's beta version. According to the description, the LLM looks for the brand behind the web page and tries to determine its intentions. That way, it could also identify possible scams.  Interestingly, the LLM appears to be on the user's device, and from there, it analyses your browser traffic. This way, your surf...
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Utah Family(Parents, 3 Children) Found Dead, Teen Son Survives
18Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, US

Utah Family(Parents, 3 Children) Found Dead, Teen Son Survives

In a house in the US state of Utah, the police found the bodies of five family members. They all had gunshot wounds, the police of West Valley City reported on X. Only the 17-year-old son, who also had gunshot wounds, survived the drama. What exactly happened is still unclear. The bodies found are those of the parents and three children aged 11, 9 and 2. The 38-year-old mother had not shown up for work on Tuesday, after which a family member decided to take a look. He found the 17-year-old son with gunshot wounds in the garage and then notified the police.
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TeamViewer Aims to Expand with US Acquisition
10Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, Europe, Germany, News, Technology, US

TeamViewer Aims to Expand with US Acquisition

German TeamViewer is acquiring American 1E for 720 million dollars. In addition to remote support, it also wants to improve the user experience, supplemented with AI. 1E is a 300-person company with $77 million in recurring revenue, 99 percent of which comes from enterprise customers. It is positioned in the market with its digital employee experience (DEX) platform, primarily intended to make the experience more pleasant for end users. TeamViewer sees this as an excellent extension to evolve its remote assistance tool into an end-to-end offering. It will include management of digital workplaces and predictive maintenance, which should reduce irritation for the end user. 1E is an American company (with offices in the UK, India, and Ireland), which gives TeamViewer an extra foo...
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Lego Builds First Factory in the United States
17Apr By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, News, Technology, US

Lego Builds First Factory in the United States

Lego wants to build its first factory in the United States, specifically in Virginia in the east. The toy manufacturer intends to increase its market share in this way. It concerns an investment of 1 billion dollars. “If we look at the potential in the US, we still have a long way to go,” US chief operating officer Carsten Rasmussen told Bloomberg news agency. The popularity of colourful building blocks across the ocean is much lower than in Europe. “We are already strong on the east coast and the north, but there is still much potential elsewhere. We think we can succeed in the coming years.” The Danish company competes globally for first place with American toy giants Mattel and Hasbro. Over the past four years, Lego has doubled its turnover in the US, but there is still much r...
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Chinese Spy Balloon Collected Information About US Military Bases
3Apr By Alan LorenzNo Comments
China, News, US

Chinese Spy Balloon Collected Information About US Military Bases

The Chinese balloon launched over the coast of the US state of South Carolina on February 4 was indeed able to collect sensitive information. Various sources report this to the American channel NBC News. In February of this year, the world was under the spell of suspicious objects over North American skies. On February 4, an American F-22 fighter jet shot down a large white balloon. A Chinese spy balloon, the United States declared. China has always denied that and spoke of a weather balloon. Nevertheless, the discovery of the balloon certainly caused a lot of tension between the two countries. After further investigation, the United States found that the balloon, first spotted over Alaska on January 28, could gather information. China could steer the balloon to fly over some loc...
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Newspaper: US Prosecutors Investigate Bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank
14Mar By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, News, US

Newspaper: US Prosecutors Investigate Bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank

US prosecutors have launched an investigation into the bankrupt Silicon Valley Bank. The US regulator for stock exchange trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is also investigating the California bank that was taken over by US authorities last Friday. The Wall Street Journal reports this based on insiders. According to the business newspaper, the investigation is still in an exploratory phase, and it is far from a foregone conclusion that there will be formal accusations against SVB or its directors. Public prosecutors and the regulator often start an investigation when financial services companies run into problems. The investigation at SVB would focus on, among others, directors who sold shares a few days before the bank collapsed.
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Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China
28Nov By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, China, News, US

Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China

The American technology group Apple was under pressure on the stock exchanges in New York on Monday. The company relies heavily on China to produce its devices, and investors are concerned about the social unrest arising in that country over the strict corona measures. In major Chinese cities, people took to the streets to protest President Xi Jinping's zero-covid policy. Apple lost 1.4 percent. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the unrest at Apple's largest iPhone production site in China may result in a production slump of 6 million devices. However, a lot depends on how quickly Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that operates the factory, can get people back on the assembly line after the violent protests against the corona measures. Electric car manufacturer Tesla, which ha...
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