Page 2 - Internet Technologies

Cheap AI bots rapidly expand across India, transforming tech landscape

Startups may turn India into a proving ground for what could be the next frontier of generative AI products

Susan Wojcicki, internet pioneer at Google, Youtube passes away at 56

She announced plans in February 2023 to leave YouTube to focus on her family, health and personal projects

CrowdStrike sued by fliers after global IT outage disrupted air travel

They said CrowdStrike should pay compensatory and punitive damages to anyone whose flight was disrupted, after technology-related flight groundings for Southwest Airlines and other carriers in 2023

Online misinformation fuels tensions over stabbing attack in Britain

Within hours of a stabbing attack in northwest England that killed three young girls and wounded several more children, a false name of a supposed suspect was circulating on social media. Hours after that, violent protesters were clashing with police outside a nearby mosque the first of several violent protests in across England. Police say the name was fake, as were rumours that the 17-year-old suspect was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in Britain. The suspect charged with murder and attempted murder was named Thursday as Axel Rudakubana, born in the UK to Rwandan parents. By the time a judge said the teen suspect could be identified, rumours already were rife and right-wing influencers had pinned the blame on immigrants and Muslims. There's a parallel universe where what was claimed by these rumours were the actual facts of the case, said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that looks at issues including integration and national identity. And that

Global outage leading to phishing attacks against CrowdStrike user: CERT-In

The Indian cyber security agency has said a phishing attack campaign has targeted users impacted by the recent global computer outage, with attackers impersonating CrowdStrike support staff to trick people by offering to help them with system recovery tools. According to a CERT-In advisory issued on Saturday said, these attack campaigns could "entice an unsuspected user to install unidentified malware, which could lead to sensitive data leakage, system crashes and data leak." The world suffered a major computer systems outage on July 19 due to a faulty update to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor software leading to crash of Microsoft Windows operating system. The event grounded numerous flights, hit business, banking and hospital systems across the globe including in India. The systems have now recovered as both CrowdStrike and Microsoft released official fixes even as some organisations continue to recover from the mega technology meltdown. It has been reported, the advisory said, tha

SpaceX rocket fails, leaves Starlink's internet satellites in wrong orbit

A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company's internet satellites in an orbit so low that they're doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday night, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. Several minutes into the flight, the upper stage engine malfunctioned. SpaceX on Friday blamed a liquid oxygen leak. The company said flight controllers managed to make contact with half of the satellites and attempted to boost them to a higher orbit using onboard ion thrusters. But with the low end of their orbit only 84 miles (135 kilometres) above Earth less than half what was intended our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites, the company said via X. SpaceX said the satellites will reenter the atmosphere and burn up. There was no mention of when they might come down. More than 6,000 orbiting Starlinks currently provide internet service to ...

Not halted any orders of Nvidia's advanced chip in market, says Amazon

The Project Ceiba transition was announced by the two firms in March when Nvidia unveiled the new Blackwell chips

Digital Competition Bill may hinder investments in tech startups: IAMAI

The Digital Competition Bill seeks to further regulate large digital enterprises, including news aggregators, as part of efforts to ensure a fair competition in the digital spaces

Strong solar storm hits Earth, disrupts Musk's Starlink satellites

Starlink owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet

Australian regulator says Musk's X shouldn't set limits of internet law

X, formerly Twitter, is fighting an order by the e-Safety Commissioner to remove 65 posts showing video of an Assyrian Christian bishop being knifed mid-sermon in Sydney last month

CtrlS Datacenters Ltd to ramp up its capacity to over 1 gigawatt in 4 yrs

The ambitious plan includes expansions in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai

Pak faces internet disruption as sea-cables damaged at several points

Less than 10 per cent of internet traffic originates from the east, and Pakistani users have complained about difficulty accessing the internet, especially at night

Internet outage hits several countries in Africa as undersea cables fail

A dozen countries across Africa suffered a major internet outage on Thursday as multiple undersea telecommunication cables reported failures, network operators and internet watch groups said. The MTN Group, one of Africa's largest network providers, said the ongoing disruptions were a result of failures in multiple major undersea cables. Our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths, the South African company said in a statement. Network disruptions caused by cable damage have occurred in Africa in recent years. However, today's disruption points to something larger (and) this is amongst the most severe, said Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, a group that documents internet disruptions around the world. NetBlocks said data transmission and measurement shows a major disruption to international transits, likely at or near the subsea network cable landing points. The cause of the failure was not immediately clear. There were fea

Govt's AI advisory only for large platforms, not for startups: MeitY

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the advisory was aimed at preventing untested AI platforms from deploying on the Indian internet

AI firms face growing list of lawsuits as new tools spark fresh questions

The lawsuit filed Thursday adds to a growing list of legal complaints against the ChatGPT maker in recent months

US shows concern over Sri Lanka's controversial internet regulation law

The United States expressed concerns over Sri Lanka's online regulation bill on Thursday, a day after it passed overwhelmingly in Parliament over protests by the media, opposition and rights activists. The Online Safety bill allows the government to set up a commission with a wide range of powers, including ordering people and internet service providers to remove online posts deemed prohibited statements. It can also legally pursue people who publish such posts. Julie Chung, the US ambassador in Sri Lanka, said the United States has concerns about the potential impact of the legislation and urged Sri Lanka to prioritise transparency and ensure any legislation does not stifle the voices of its people . In addition to jeopardizing democratic values, vague and overly restrictive legislation can hinder investment and the development of a digital economy, undermining the economic growth that Sri Lanka needs, Chung said in a statement posted on her X account. Critics say the law is an ..

Atsuya Technologies wins Genesis Innovator at National Startup Awards 2023

Chennai-based deep tech startup has been recognised for pioneering solutions in IoT and AI

Sachin Tendulkar reacts on his viral deepfake video endorsing mobile app

Sachin Tendulkar is not the first celebrity to have fallen victim to deepfake AI. In November, a deepfake video of actress Rashmika Mandana also surfaced online, raising concerns about privacy rights

Deepfake issue: Govt will keep an eye on platforms' approach, says MoS IT

Terming the menace of deepfakes and misinformation as "a very problematic issue" for the Indian democracy, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said the government will "keep an eye" on the remedial measures taken by the platforms on the advisories. The minister also promised that inaction on their part may prompt amendment to the IT Rules that will be more "prescriptive". In an interview with PTI, Chandrasekhar, who is Minister of State for IT and Electronics, counted the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) legislation, setting up of grievances appellate panels and tighter accountability enforced on digital platforms for user safety as being among the big achievements for 2023. Chandrasekhar, however, said that the Digital India Act (that will supersede the 22-year-old Information Technology Act) despite undergoing extensive pre-consultations "ran out of time" and termed it "an unfinished agenda". "...The Digital India Act which we put a lot of effort into...spent almost a

Govt's advisory to social media portals on IT rules over deepfake concerns

The government has issued an advisory to all platforms to comply with IT rules amid growing concerns around deepfakes and misinformation powered by AI, according to an official release. The advisory mandates that intermediaries (digital and social media platforms) communicate prohibited content specified under IT Rules clearly and precisely to users. "The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has issued an advisory to all intermediaries, ensuring compliance with the existing IT rules," it said. The directive specifically targets growing concerns around misinformation powered by AI-Deepfakes. This advisory is the culmination of discussions held by Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar with intermediaries. "The content not permitted under the IT Rules, in particular those listed under Rule 3(1)(b) must be clearly communicated to the users in clear and precise language including through its terms of service and user agreements and the same must be express