ICT news

• Tencent Chief Blasts Managers in Fiery Townhall

  23-12-2022 23:00 via slashdot.org
  The founder of Chinese tech giant Tencent told employees many "corruption" issues had been discovered within the company and mismanagement was draining its vitality, Reuters reported Friday, citing employees familiar with the matter. From the report: In a rare show of frustration, Pony Ma said at a year-end meeting with staff on Dec. 15 that internal reviews this year had exposed unspecified corruption within Asia's biggest social media and gaming company, the sources said. He also lambasted sen
  
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• IRS Delays Gig-Tax Filing Rule for Side Hustles of More Than $600

  23-12-2022 22:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The Internal Revenue Service on Friday gave millions of Americans a one-year reprieve on new tax-reporting requirements, delaying implementation of a law that requires e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Etsy and Airbnb to give the tax agency information on users with more than $600 in revenue. From a report: The delay means the platforms won't have to send sellers and the IRS a blizzard of 1099-K tax forms early in 2023, and it gives opponents of the $600 threshold more time to push for a change
  
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• EPA Tightens Rules on Pollution From Vans, Buses and Trucks

  23-12-2022 21:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The Biden administration has strengthened limits on smog-forming pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other trucks, the first time in more than 20 years that tailpipe standards have been tightened for heavy-duty vehicles. From a report: The new rule from the Environmental Protection Agency is designed to cut nitrogen oxide from the vehicles by 48 percent by 2045. Nitrogen dioxide is a poisonous gas that has been linked to cardiovascular problems and respiratory ailments like
  
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• China Estimates Covid Surge Is Infecting 37 Million People a Day

  23-12-2022 19:45 via slashdot.org
  Nearly 37 million people in China may have been infected with Covid-19 on a single day this week, according to estimates from the government's top health authority, making the country's outbreak by far the world's largest. From a report: As many as 248 million people, or nearly 18% of the population, likely contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to minutes from an internal meeting of China's National Health Commission held on Wednesday, confirmed with people involved in
  
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• Seoul: North Korean Hackers Stole $1.2B in Virtual Assets

  23-12-2022 19:01 via it.slashdot.org
  North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it this year alone, South Korea's spy agency said Thursday. From a report: Experts and officials say North Korea has turned to crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities as a source of badly needed foreign currency to support its fragile economy and fund its nuclear program following harsh U.N. sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemi
  
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• No Free PACER as US Lawmakers Exclude Proposal from Spending Bill

  23-12-2022 18:00 via news.slashdot.org
  U.S. lawmakers have left a proposal to make the federal judiciary's PACER online court records system free out of a sprawling, $1.66 trillion spending measure unveiled on Tuesday, a setback for advocates as the current Congress nears its end. From a report: Supporters of the Open Courts Act had been pushing to get the stalled, bipartisan legislation attached to the omnibus spending measure, which boosts overall spending on the judiciary by nearly 6% to $8.461 billion in fiscal year 2023. Current
  
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• Friday Flight Cancellations Top 3,500, Disrupting Holiday Travel

  23-12-2022 17:05 via news.slashdot.org
  Winter weather continues to disrupt holiday travel across the United States on Friday, leaving travelers facing delays and cancellations during one of the busiest times of the year. From a report: More than 3,500 Friday flights have already been canceled as of 10 a.m. ET, after nearly 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. Cancellations are highest at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, New York's LaGuardia and in Chicago and Detroit, according to Fligh
  
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• Watchdog Says 53 VPN Apps Unavailable in Hong Kong Since Security Law Passed, Urges Apple To State Its Policy

  23-12-2022 16:16 via apple.slashdot.org
  Hong Kong Free Press: A total of 53 VPN applications have become unavailable in Apple's Hong Kong App Store since Beijing imposed a national security law (NSL) on the city in June 2020, a report by AppleCensorship has revealed. The digital freedom watchdog urged the US tech giant to clearly state how it would respond if Hong Kong or Beijing requested that apps be taken down.
  In a report released on Thursday entitled "Apps at Risk: Apple's censorship and compromises in Hong Kong," AppleCensorship
  
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• Facebook Parent Meta To Settle Cambridge Analytica Case For $725 Million

  23-12-2022 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Facebook owner Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users' personal information. From a report: The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many a
  
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• Video Gamers Sue Microsoft In US Court To Stop Activision Takeover

  23-12-2022 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Microsoft was hit on Tuesday in U.S. court with a private consumer lawsuit claiming the technology company's $69 billion bid to purchase "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard will unlawfully squelch competition in the video game industry. The complaint filed in federal court in California comes about two weeks after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a case with an administrative law judge seeking to stop Microsoft, owner of the Xbox cons
  
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• Zimbabwe Has Banned the Export of Raw Lithium

  23-12-2022 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Zimbabwe has prohibited the export of raw lithium from its mines so it can cash in on value addition and stop losing billions of dollars in mineral proceeds to foreign companies. Quartz reports: The ministry of Mines and Mining Development on Dec. 20 published a circular under the Base Minerals Export Control Act that seeks to "ensure that the vision of the president to see the country becoming an upper-middle income economy has been realized." The government says it is losing $1.8 billion in mi
  
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• Russian Space Agency May Send Rescue Craft To Space Station

  23-12-2022 08:00 via slashdot.org
  The Russian space agency is deciding whether it needs to send a rescue spacecraft to the International Space Station to bring home two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut after the Soyuz capsule that brought them there suffered a massive coolant leak. The Washington Post reports: Working with their counterparts at NASA, officials at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, are trying to determine if the vehicle is sound enough to bring the crew home, Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of Roscosmos'
  
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• A Modest Robot Levy Could Help Combat Effects of Automation On Income Inequality In US, Study Suggests

  23-12-2022 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT News: What if the U.S. placed a tax on robots? The concept has been publicly discussed by policy analysts, scholars, and Bill Gates (who favors the notion). Because robots can replace jobs, the idea goes, a stiff tax on them would give firms incentive to help retain workers, while also compensating for a dropoff in payroll taxes when robots are used. Thus far, South Korea has reduced incentives for firms to deploy robots; European Union policymakers,
  
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• 'Easily' Replaceable Batteries May Soon Be Required By EU Law

  23-12-2022 03:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  b0s0z0ku writes: The European Union is proposing a law requiring easily replaceable batteries in new appliances and portable electronic devices. The law also sets targets for collection and recycling of those batteries, requiring 73% compliance by 2030. "Companies would get plenty of notice, however, as the requirement would only come into force 3.5 years after the legislation takes effect," adds 9to5Mac. "Companies will also be legally required to accept and recycle old batteries."Additionally,
  
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• LastPass: Hackers Stole Customer Vault Data In Cloud Storage Breach

  23-12-2022 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  LastPass revealed today that attackers stole customer vault data after breaching its cloud storage earlier this year using information stolen during an August 2022 incident. BleepingComputer reports: This follows a previous update issued last month when the company's CEO, Karim Toubba, only said that the threat actor gained access to "certain elements" of customer information. Today, Toubba added that the cloud storage service is used by LastPass to store archived backups of production data. The
  
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• FTX Asks Judge For Help In Fight Over Robinhood Shares Worth About $450 Million

  23-12-2022 01:45 via slashdot.org
  FTX sought a U.S. bankruptcy court's help amid a battle over ownership of about $450 million worth of stock in Robinhood Markets (HOOD), according to a filing (PDF) Thursday. CoinDesk reports: At issue are about 56 million shares of the brokerage owned by Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., a corporate entity organized in Antigua and Barbuda and 90% controlled by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, according to the filing. Three parties, the filing says, have tried to get control of those shares:
  
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• Micron To Cut 10% of Workforce As Demand For Computer Chips Slumps

  23-12-2022 01:02 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Micron Technology Inc., the largest US maker of memory chips, said the worst industry glut in more than a decade will make it difficult to return to profitability in 2023. The company on Wednesday announced a host of cost-cutting measures, including a 10% workforce reduction, aimed at helping it weather a rapid drop in revenue. Micron also projected a steep sales decline and a wider loss than analysts had estimated for the current quarter. The
  
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• Alameda's Caroline Ellison, FTX's Gary Wang Plead Guilty To DOJ Fraud Charges

  23-12-2022 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to charges tied to FTX's collapse, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced Wednesday night. CoinDesk reports: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced (PDF) charges against the two, saying Ellison manipulated the price of FTT, an exchange token issued by FTX, at exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's direction. The duo are cooperating with
  
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