TechBooky

Since its launch in January 2018, the news app —Opera News has experienced a spike in downloads and reached 10 million downloads in Africa in just six months —after its recent update included a FIFA football World Cup channel and other football-related features. According to results from App Annie , Opera News is the most downloaded news app in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. The growth in the download of the app, is prior to the latest update to app’s introduction of new World Cup features —which keep football fans up to date with the results of the largest football competition in the world. They can now follow live scores as well as tables and fixtures of the group stage and the knockout stage. Jørgen Arnesen, Global Head of Marketing and Distribution at Opera “We are extremely excited to see that more than 10 million people across Africa chose Opera News, making it the No. 1 ranking news app on the continent,”, also added ...

The instant messaging app, Telegram has been under fire for its encryption which prevents a third-party from intercepting messages shared on its platform. Iran has joined the list of counties at war with Telegram. The Asian country is disrupting the swapping of videos and images via the service. Iran"s net regulator in an official statement said the sharing images and videos were banned and the move will apparently affect the "quality" of the app in the country. Last month, Russia had banned Telegram app for refusing to submit the encryption keys to the authority to intercept messages. Russia said it was a procedure to ensure safety and after it failed to comply with the power despite the ultimatum, the site was blocked which allegedly knocked out over four million IP addresses, including cloud services from Google and Amazon Like Russia, Iran telecoms official had given Telegram a mandate to move its servers to be routed through Iran"s Iran"s government-contro...

Facebook makes a move to make the UK 2019 elections fake news free Following the controversies that trailed Facebook for weeks after the revelation about the data leak of over 87 million users used to aid president Trump in the last US election, the social network"s chief technology officer will make a promise to ensure that the platform will not be used to compromise the election result in the UK. Fake news thrived in the US, and even though Russia was blamed, the social media firm was reprimanded for not being quick enough to dissolve the divisive ads, remove the fake news created by the Russian propagandists and for allowing its platform to be abused by Russian propagandists. The Russian propagandists were accused of creating counterfeit pages to sew mistrust and influence user behaviour during voting. To prevent a similar occurrence, Mike Schroepfer, the CTO will be pledging to ensure that every ad is authorized before they can go live in the UK and Northern Ireland in the 201...

In an attempt to block the Telegram app in Russia, the media regulator has blocked over 4 million IP addresses. A court in Moscow approved a ban on the instant messaging app after it failed to submit encryption keys to enable the security intercept users" messages. Shortly after the court passed the ban, Durov Pavel, telegram owner assured the users that with the use of a VPN, they could bypass the strict rule to access the app. According to tech reports, Telegram is allegedly using different addresses to stay connected in the country. However, this action has affected millions of web users including another messaging service, Viber, which tweeted a complaint about assessing the app which is seemingly linked to the Telegram app blocking in Russia. Also, businesses have been affected; some business activities have reportedly come to a halt. Some online shops complained about the blocking, as well as some online gaming shops who reported that the users experienced problems with log...

The United States and the United Kingdom have released a joint statement accusing the Russian government of maliciously targeting the global internet infrastructure for espionage purposes. In other words, Russia could be looking to engage in a cyber warfare that would see it divert most of the internet traffic for political and economic reasons. The statement by the U.S. (Homeland Security and the FBI) and the U.K"s. National Cyber Security Centre said the fundamental targets include public and private sector infrastructure. In an AP report , "Victims were identified through a coordinated series of actions between U.S. and international partners," according to a companion technical alert issued by the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT). Both nations have "high confidence" in the finding of Russian-sponsored cyber-meddling, which the alert said has been reported by multiple sources since 2015. The US-CERT said the compromised routers can be exploite...

[caption id="attachment_11004" align="alignnone" width="3000"] Two men pose with smartphones in front of a screen showing the Telegram logo in this picture illustration taken in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina November 18, 2015. Picture taken November 18. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - RTS7W3T [/caption] Russia began legal proceedings to block Telegram app after the firm refused to unlock encrypted messages. A court in Moscow has now permitted the Russian media regulator to prevent the Telegram messaging. The Telegram app has been a threat to the Russian government who has been seeking means to exude control over online communications. While Twitter complied to provide the authorities with the encryption key to decrypt messages, Facebook and telegram refused because both apps employ end-to-end encryption. The popularity of the instant messaging app has grown because of its emphasis on encryption, especially among the members of the Islamic States (IS). The app permit...

Facebook Inc. CEO, Mark Zuckerberg told the Senate during his hearing that the case with Russia continually seeking means to exploit the social media platform is an "arms race" and this has resulted in the never-ending battle with the social network. The crises with Facebook include the issue with Russian agents using Facebook to influence the US 2016 election. While answering the questions about Cambridge Analytica"s exploitation, he revealed that Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigation Russia"s alleged meddling in the last election interviewed a staff member from Facebook. He maintained that his discussion with Mr. Mueller would remain confidential should he be interrogated. He said: " Our work with the special counsel is confidential and I want to make sure that in an open session, I"m not revealing something that"s confidential."    Two months ago, Mueller"s team had charged thirteen Russians of interference with the US electio...

Russia"s state communications watchdog has filed a lawsuit against Telegram messaging app for refusing to collaborate with the country"s state security services. Telegram, like WhatsApp, is famous for its encryption. The service allows users to communicate via encrypted messages such that third-parties, government authorities inclusive cannot read them. The mobile app is currently ranked the world"s ninth most popular messaging app, and its users increased to 200 million in March. This is not the first time that Telegram would have a case with authority. The issue with encrypted messages bothers on security over privacy. Russia"s Federal Security Service said it needs to access some private messages to guard citizens against terrorist attacks, but Pavel Durov, Telegram"s owner, has repeatedly refused, citing a breach of user privacy. Read more:  Russia Threatens To Ban Telegram App Over Terrorism Concerns In 2017, Russia threatened to ban the app for security p...