The sudden rush to provide remote access to employees by restructuring network and security systems during the lockdown made India vulnerable to ransomware attacks in the third quarter of current year, according to cyber security firm Check Point Software Technologies.

Due to the immediate push, several IT companies were unable to scale up their cloud security postures which led to increased opportunity for cyber criminals to carry out attacks, Check Point Software Technologies India and SAARC Managing Director Sundar N Balasubramanian told PTI.

According to the company’s research, India was ranked second after the US among the top 5 countries most affected by ransomware attacks in the third quarter.

Sri Lanka, Russia and Turkey were at third, fourth and fifth position, respectively, in the list of most affected countries by ransomware attacks.

In a survey by Check Point, 71 per cent of respondents globally, including in India, reported an increase in cyberattacks during February-March 2020, and 95 per cent said they faced added IT security challenges with provision of large-scale remote access for employees and managing shadow IT usage.

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Microsoft has announced that it has added the ‘Together Mode’ option that debuted in Teams to Skype.

According to a report from zdnet.com, in the latest Skype version (Skype 8.67), Together Mode is one of a handful of new features available to various versions of Skype.

‘Together Mode’ is a viewing option that makes it appear as if all meeting participants are located in the same physically shared space instead of via a traditional grid view.

As per the reports, Microsoft officials have said they believe ‘Together Mode’ will help alleviate virtual-meeting fatigue and make meetings feel more real.

Other new features in Skype 8.67 include the addition of Large Grid Mode, enabling users to see everyone’s video stream simultaneously; an option to add someone to an ongoing Skype call using their phone number, as well as via Skype; more predefined backgrounds and categories and more.

For those wondering when Microsoft will drop Skype and make Teams with consumer functionality enabled its consumer-facing meeting/chat platform, there’s been no official or rumoured word.

Microsoft is continuing to add new features to Skype on a regular basis and seems to be positioning Skype as a simple way to meet and chat, rather than trying to make it an all-encompassing platform like Teams.

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Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week, adding a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies.

The Redmond, Washington company is a user of Orion, the widely deployed networking management software from SolarWinds Corp which was used in the suspected Russian attacks on vital U.S. agencies and others.

Microsoft also had its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The U.S. National Security Agency issued a rare “cybersecurity advisory” Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems.

“Like other SolarWinds customers, we have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we detected malicious Solar Winds binaries in our environment, which we isolated and removed,” a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company had found “no indications that our systems were used to attack others.”

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Twitter India on Friday said that its new verification policy will be implemented from January 20 and the company will begin automatically removing the verified badge from inactive and incomplete accounts.

Under the new policy, Twitter may also remove verification from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of its rules.

“We will continue to evaluate such accounts on a case-by-case basis, and will make improvements in 2021 on the relationship between enforcement of our rules and verification,” Twitter India said in a blog post.

Twitter, which paused its public verification process or that elusive Blue Badge three years ago, last month announced to relaunch verification, including a new public application process, in early 2021.

“If your account is at risk of losing its verified badge, you’ll receive an automated email and an in-app notification informing you of what changes need to avoid automatic removal of your blue verified badge,” the micro-blogging platform stressed.

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India smartphone market grew 42 per cent with shipments of 21 million units in the month of October – the second highest for a month – driven by multiple online sale events, research firm IDC said on Thursday.

IDC said it expects the smartphone market to see a single-digit decline in final consumer sell out in 2020 on a full year basis.

According to IDC, the growth in October was driven by multiple online sale festivals and continuing pent up demand from the third quarter of 2020, IDC said.

“This is the highest ever October shipments and second highest for a month, following 23 million units in September 2020, an all-time high for a single month,” it added.

Online platforms accounted for 51 per cent share of the shipment, and the channel grew 53 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y). Offline channels, especially in smaller towns and cities, also saw a healthy 33 per cent y-o-y growth, IDC said.

The low-mid range segment (USD 100-200) grew by 60 per cent y-o-y and its share increased to 58 per cent of the total market in the said month, it added.

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Xiaomi on Thursday launched in India the Redmi 9 Power, a latest addition to the company’s budget-centric Redmi 9 series. The smartphone boasts a 6,000mAh battery, 48-megapixel based quad-camera set-up, Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor and 6.53-inch FHD+ display.

The Redmi 9 Power is priced at Rs 10,999 and Rs 11,999 for the 4GB + 64GB and 4GB+128GB variants, respectively. It will be available in mighty black, blazing blue, fiery red and electric green colours on Mi.com, Amazon India, Mi Homes and Mi Studios from December 22.

The Redmi 9 Power has a quad cameras on the rear, featuring a 48MP Samsung GM1 sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor of 120-degree field-of-view, a 2MP macro sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the phone has an 8MP camera sensor for videos, selfies and face unlock mechanism.

Powering the smartphone is a 6,000mAh, supported by 18W fast charger. The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, paired with 4GB RAM and up to 128GB on-board storage. The Redmi 9 Power has Hi-Res audio certified stereo speakers.

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Photo-sharing platform Instagram on Wednesday said it is testing ‘Instagram Lite’ app in India that occupies less space on Android phones and consumes lesser data, before it rolls out the offering globally.

Over the past many months, the Facebook-owned company has tested and rolled out a number of features in India first, including its short video offering – Reels.

“India is an important market for us and has been a testing ground for innovation… India was one of the first few countries where we tested Reels, and the first country where we launched the Reels tab…In order to expand the appeal of Instagram to users across the country, today we’re announcing the test of Instagram Lite in India,” Vishal Shah, VP of Product, Instagram at Facebook, said at the Facebook Fuel for India 2020 event.

He added that ‘Instagram Lite’ is less than two megabytes in size, and has been built to provide access and high quality experience to users in India, irrespective of the device, platform and network that they are on.

The experience on the new app is similar to the core Instagram app experience, though there are some features that are not currently supported such as Reels, Shopping and IGTV.

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Chinese short video-making app TikTok will now place warning screens on graphic videos to prevent the users from viewing disturbing content.

Part of its new community guidelines, the warning screen will give two options — either view the clip or skip it entirely.

More extreme content is already being removed from the platform entirely but the new warning labels cover content that might be allowed for “documentary reasons,” scenes from horror movies, or violent scenes of animals hunting. TikTok also announced a new text-to-voice accessibility tool that would read out text as it appears in a video.

The company informed that it is adding vaccine information to its coronavirus resource hub.

“The hub will be updated to include commonly asked questions and answers about COVID-19 vaccines from public health experts like the Centers for Disease Control.

According to the company, the coronavirus resource hub has been viewed over two billion times in the last six months.

TikTok is also planning to allow its users longer, three-minute videos in an apparent bid to take on YouTube.

TikTok currently allows creators to upload videos up to a minute in length.

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Xiaomi on Wednesday expanded its smart TV portfolio in India with the launch of Mi QLED TV 4K. Priced at Rs 54,999, the smart television features Dolby Vision HDR, Dolby Audio, Vivid Picture Engine, Android TV 10, and more. The TV comes in 55-inch screen model with aluminum alloy frame. It boasts an almost bezel-less horizon display for a 96 per cent screen-to-body ratio, according to the Chinese electronics maker. The smart TV supports the commonly available high dynamic range codecs including, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG).

The Mi QLED TV boots Android TV 10 operating system with Google Assistant and Chromecast built-in.

Like other Xiaomi TVs, the Mi QLED TV is powered by company’s Patchwall user interface, which is touted to bringing together content from more than 25 content partners. Additionally, the PatchWall features universal search, user centre, kids mode, smart recommendations and live TV utilities.

The TV comes with three HDMI 2.1 compatible ports. It has a feature named ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), which automatically switches the TV to game mode for low input lag of just 5ms at 4K @60fps — according to the company. The device also supports HDMI e-ARC. Powering the TV is the MediaTek’s 64bit quad-core A55 processor, coupled with Mali G52 graphics.

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A picture-perfect growth story: Instagram has grown by 66% in India

In the last 12 months, the number of Indian users of Facebook’s picture and video sharing app Instagram grew by more than 66 per cent — from 77.4 million to 129 million — according to data from NapoleonCat, a social media management tool, which analyses data on apps globally. Read More

Piramal group plans to merge its financial services business with DHFL

The Piramal group is planning to merge its financial services business with DHFL and has sweetened its Rs 35,550-crore offer for fixed depositors by setting aside an additional Rs 300 crore for them. Read More

DCB Bank, RBL, Federal Bank bosses’ terms to come up for renewal

The tenures of corner-room occupants at three private banks — DCB Bank, RBL Bank, and Federal Bank — will be up for review in 2021, and will make it clear if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will hardcode the maximum tenure for the helmsmen at 15 years.

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