Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), February 6,2021:: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday directed the officials to come up with an action plan to set up three concept cities near Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, and Bengaluru to house information technology and related industries in the state.
As per an official release, the Chief Minister said that these cities should contribute to the IT progress and help in the development of the state by bringing in as many industries as possible and focus on creating a large number of jobs.
“The Chief Minister has directed officials to focus on ensuring uninterrupted internet service should be provided in every village. He had stressed on the construction of libraries with accessible bandwidth internet connections in every village. Apart from building libraries, the Chief Minister instructed that all the secretariats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) in the village should also be connected to the internet,” it said.
The release said that the Andhra government is also chalking out plans to develop an integrated industrial park in Visakhapatnam, which will includes high-end skill university, incubation centers, labs, departmental offices, data centre and IT towers.
“The government now plans to set up an institute of emerging technology and research university,” it said.
Reddy also directed officials to set up hubs for all e-governance applications in fields of education, health, agriculture and other services of the state.
BEIJING :25,2020: China resolutely opposes India’s measures to ban more Chinese mobile applications over national security concerns, its embassy in the South Asian nation said on Wednesday.
India banned 43 of the apps on Tuesday, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s e-commerce app Aliexpress, in a new wave of web sanctions targeting China after the neighbours’ months-long standoff on their Himalayan border.
Washington, Oct 22,2020: United States national security officials have reported Iran and Russia have obtained some of the country’s voter registration information and held the former responsible for sending threatening emails to Democratic voters.
The emails appeared to come from a far-right pro-Trump group and were meant to “incite unrest”, BBC quoted National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said.
The announcement comes 13 days before the presidential election.
The unusual intelligence briefing this close to the vote is seen as a testament to the government’s concerns over voting interference and disinformation campaigns from foreign actors.
Mr Ratcliffe said Iran’s “spoof emails” claimed to be sent by the Proud Boys in order to “intimidate voters, incite unrest and damage” President Donald Trump.
The emails in question were addressed to registered Democratic voters in several states, including the key battleground of Florida, and urged them to vote for Mr Trump – or else.
“You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you,” the emails said, according to US media.
“Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply,” the message further read.
As of Wednesday, over 40 million Americans have cast early votes in the presidential contest between Mr Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
In many states, voter data is available upon request, though each state has different requirements on who can request voter information, what data is available and how this data might be used, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“If you receive an intimidating or manipulative email in your inbox, don’t be alarmed and do not spread it,” Mr Ratcliffe said, calling the actions to influence US voters “desperate attempts by desperate adversaries”.
This announcement inevitably has shades of the 2016 Russian interference in the US election.
In that election thousands of fake bots were created on social media pretending to be American voters.
Democrat computer systems were also hacked.
From this announcement though it’s unclear how Iran and Russia obtained the information – and exactly what info they have.
London:Oct 14,2020: India is among seven countries to back a UK-led campaign against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook, which they say hinder law enforcement by blocking all access to them.
The UK and India are joined by the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in a joint international statement addressed to all tech companies to ensure they do not blind themselves to illegal activity on their platforms, including child abuse images.
It marks an expansion of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations, a global alliance on intelligence issues, to include India and Japan.
We owe it to all of our citizens, especially our children, to ensure their safety by continuing to unmask sexual predators and terrorists operating online, said UK home secretary Priti Patel, in reference to the statement issued on Sunday.
It is essential that tech companies do not turn a blind eye to this problem and hamper their, as well as law enforcement’s, ability to tackle these sickening criminal acts. Our countries urge all tech companies to work with us to find a solution that puts the public’s safety first, she said.
While directed at all tech firms, the statement does make a reference to the fact that the populations of the seven signatory countries represent a fifth of Facebook’s users across the world and claimed that end-to-end encryption policies such as those employed by the social media giant erode the public’s safety online.
The seven signatories of the international statement have made it clear that when end-to-end encryption is applied with no access to content, it severely undermines the ability of companies to take action against illegal activity on their own platforms, it notes.
It also prevents law enforcement investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes being committed on these services such as online child sexual abuse, grooming and terrorist content, it said.
The statement calls on tech companies to ensure there is no reduction in user safety when designing their encrypted services; to enable law enforcement access to content where it is necessary and proportionate; and work with governments to facilitate this.
The UK and its international partners are clear that they support strong encryption, but not where it is applied in a way that precludes all legal access to content, therefore putting the public at significant risk of harm, the statement notes.
In response, Facebook said it had long argued that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect people’s most private information.
“In all of these countries, people prefer end-to-end encrypted messaging on various apps because it keeps their messages safe from hackers, criminals, and foreign interference,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
Facebook has led the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect, and respond to abuse while maintaining high security and we will continue to do so, the spokesperson said.
Srinagar, Oct 5,2020: Virtual SIM cards pose a new headache for security agencies fighting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir as their use in the valley has seen an increase among terror groups to connect with their handlers in Pakistan, officials said here.
The penetration of this new technology was found in 2019 when a request was sent to the United States to seek details from a service provider of “virtual SIMs” used by suicide bomber of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group involved in the Pulwama attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead.
However, a detailed investigation done by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other security agencies indicated that over 40 virtual SIM cards were used in the Pulwama attack alone, and there are probably more of them floating in the cyberspace of the valley, the officials said.
It is a fairly new modus operandi wherein terrorists across the border are using “virtual SIM” cards, generated by a service provider from a foreign country. In this technology, the computer generates a telephone number and the user downloads an application of the service provider on their smartphone.
The number is linked to social networking sites like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram or Twitter. The verification code for activating the service is generated by these networking sites and received on the smartphone.
The officials said the numbers used were pre-fixed with a country code or Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) number.
They said that, besides telecom companies in the US, Canada, the UK, Israel, numbers of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island being controlled by the US, are doing the rounds in the market.
Every mobile phone instrument is sent for a detailed forensic analysis to have a thorough check to look for any telltale signs of use of virtual SIM cards, the officials said.
Technology has its pros and cons, and while fighting terrorism, the security agencies have to not only keep up the pace but also move a step ahead of those planning to misuse it, says an official.
The risk of forging identities during purchase of virtual SIM cards also runs high.
During investigation of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, it was found that an amount of USD 229 was wired to Callphonex, via Western Union Money Transfer receipt number 8364307716-0, for activating the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) used during the strikes.
The money was received from ‘Madina Trading’ located in Brescia in Italy and sender was claimed to be Javed Iqbal, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
However, after Italian police arrested two Pakistani nationals in 2009, it was alleged that the firm had made nearly 300 transfers in the name of Iqbal, who probably had never set his foot in Italy.
The Italian police, while concluding the probe, had said the Brescia-based company made several transfers using the identity of innocent, unsuspecting persons, whose identity cards or passports might have been stolen.
NEW DELHI,Oct02,2020:India is open to launching its own mobile app store or expanding an existing one if it receives enough demand from domestic firms for an alternative to Apple and Google platforms, a senior government official said on Thursday.
The country has some 500 million smartphone users, most of whom use Google’s Android platform, but Indian start-ups have criticised the company for policies they say stifle their growth.
SoftBank-backed Paytm, one of India’s leading payments firms, protested against the U.S. tech giant’s decision to remove its app for a few hours last month citing violations of gambling policies.
Alphabet-owned Google also said this week that it will strictly enforce a policy which will levy a 30% commission on payments made within apps on its Android store.
In response to an earlier media report, a senior Indian official told Reuters New Delhi hasn’t received any formal request but was willing to consider developing a mobile platform where apps could be downloaded.
“Before we open one we need to know there will be takers for it,” said the government official, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak with media.
India already runs a mobile app store that lists over 1200 mainly government-backed applications, but also Paytm, and the government could also consider expanding that instead of starting from scratch, the official added.
India’s technology ministry, Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google has previously said that fewer than 3% of developers with apps on its Play store sold digital goods over the last 12 months, and nearly 97% comply with its payment system policy.
Nonetheless, several Indian start-up founders are calling for a local app store that doesn’t charge a high service fee.