TruBlo Project Update
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Updates this week:
TRUST
Don’t ignore ransomware
The way this happens: Attackers hack the IT system of a company, a police force or a even hospital. Then the only way to regain access to the system is by paying huge amounts of money.
Despite being a thread for some time, the situation around ransomware has not improved. There is a lack of policies and actions for the active prevention of this threat.
From an interview in The New York Times:
What is the United States doing to stop or slow ransomware? We’re not trying very hard. The United States is the most targeted country by cybercriminals and nation-states, but we’re not acting like it. We’re mostly outlining guidelines for companies and government agencies to prevent ransomware attacks and hoping for the best. It’s not working.
LINK($)
Related: How the US United States Lost to Hackers LINK ($)
Newsmax, a conservative news channel, posts an apology
The news outlet had accused an employee of Dominion Voting Systems of manipulating results in the 2020 US presidential election. The person received a wave of insulting messages, including death threats. Now the news outlet published an apology.
Degrees of Uncertainty: Documentary
How sure are scientists about global warming? Why are they coming to current conclusions and predictions?
“Degrees of uncertainty” is a data-driven documentary by Neil Halloran. The video educates about certainty and uncertainty occurring around complex issues.
CONTENT
EU vs. Apple: App store sales fee results in antitrust
The key point is that a competing music service like Spotify has no alternative as to paying a fee of 30% on all transactions, if it wants to offer a music subscription using devices by Apple, such as iPhones, iPads or computers.
From The Guardian:
“By setting strict rules on the App store that disadvantage competing music streaming services, Apple deprives users of cheaper music streaming choices and distorts competition,” Margrethe Vestager said. “This is done by charging high commission fees on each transaction in the App Store for rivals and by forbidding them from informing their customers of alternative subscription options.”
This is the first step of an EU antitrust investigation. It is likely to take years until this issue will go through the courts.
Microsoft planning to reduce fees to 12 per cent
Confidential documents submitted in the ongoing Apple vs. Epic Games case reveal that Microsoft has been planning to cut Microsoft Store on Xbox fees to just 12 per cent.
Microsoft reducing the Microsoft Store on Xbox cut for games to just 12 per cent could be a big deal as this would mean that game developers would get 88 per cent of the revenue share. All other major stores take a 30 per cent cut on game sales, including Sony’s PlayStation Store and Nintendo’s online store.
Clubhouse popular in the Middle East
The social networking app is booming in authoritarian countries, where users are speaking freely about otherwise taboo topics.
LINK($)
NewsBreak app successful with local news
Protocol reports about NewsBreak, a popular news aggregation app that uses Artificial Intelligence to find and display local news for users:
News Break has succeeded using tactics imported from China, where news delivered via algorithm — a practice pioneered by ByteDance’s Toutiao — has flourished.
An “interest-based engine” powered by AI selects articles readers are likely to enjoy based on past engagement.
Content aggregators like News Break aren’t just winning in the U.S. market. Opera News, owned by Beijing Kunlun Tech, and Scooper News, developed by Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings, have both made significant inroads into Africa and Europe.
BLOCKCHAIN
Medici Land Governance partners with Rwanda
Medici Land Governance(MLG) has partnered with the Government of Rwanda to pilot a project that aims to make land transfers a paperless process. For the pilot, MLG has built a land transaction platform on blockchain called Ubutaka, which will be integrated with Rwanda’s existing land registry infrastructure.
Inefficient and inaccurate land registry systems are a common challenge in many developing countries. The loss of paperwork often prevents landowners from proving ownership, making people hesitant to invest in developing properties. Additionally, the lack of standardization and auditing in land management leaves the door open to corruption and fraud.
MLG already has projects in Mexico and Liberia.
Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway is highly critical of Bitcoin
“I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth, nor do I like shuffling out a few extra billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air.”
Blockchain technology simplifying cross-border payments
From the World Economic Forum:
It’s no secret that the cross-border payments landscape using traditional rails is fraught with fees, hurdles and delay.
Individual senders incur outsized fees for the billions of dollars sent in personal remittances every year.
Part of the problem is that systems are not interoperable. To send money to different corners of the world without blockchain, a whole patchwork has been haphazardly knitted together over the decades to achieve some semblance of financial interoperability between financial institutions, correspondent banks and money transfer operators along the value chain.
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This was issue #14 of TruBlo NEWSLETTER • Trustable content on future blockchains.
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TruBlo is an EU funded research project. Contact: info@trublo.eu
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
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