Tag: virus

To prevent potential infections, China turns to artificial intelligence, data to fight coronavirus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A man who had travelled to Wuhan — the central city at the heart of China’s coronavirus crisis — was surprised when police showed up at his door after he returned home, asking to check his temperature.

The man, who had quarantined himself at home in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu province, said he had not told anyone about his recent trip to the city.

But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government.

As Chinese authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus, which has infected more than 34,000 people and killed more than 700 in China, Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence.

Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media.

In Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, robots at one public plaza have even been deployed to scold passersby who are not wearing masks, according to the state-run Global Times.

And in Beijing, one neighbourhood committee responsible for an apartment complex of about 2,400 households said they used flight and train data to keep track of everyone’s recent travel record.

“Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real-time,” China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told local governments in an online statement Tuesday.

“Strengthen the information link between… public security and transportation, and other departments,” it said, urging them to share train, flight, communication, and medical data.

As Chinese authorities search for potential infections, a point of focus has been detecting fevers, a common symptom of the disease.

While neighbourhoods and office buildings rely primarily on hand-held thermometers, public transport hubs are also trialling fever detection systems that use artificial intelligence and infrared cameras.

In Beijing, a system developed by Chinese search giant Baidu screens travellers at the Qinghe railway station using infrared and face detection technology, which automatically photographs each person’s face.

If someone has a body temperature of 37.3 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) or above, the system sets off an alarm — prompting a secondary check by station staff.

On Thursday, railway personnel, clutching red-and-white megaphones, ordered passengers arriving from northern Shanxi province to slow down as they passed by Baidu’s system.

According to the company, its system can check more than 200 people a minute, far faster than the thermal scanners used at airports.

Megvii, an AI firm that was blacklisted by the US in October over alleged rights abuses, has developed a similar system, which is currently being used at a subway station in Beijing.

“Having a team of nearly 100 people working together remotely from home hasn’t been easy,” said a spokesperson at Megvii in an emailed statement.

“All of them are working around the clock during Lunar New Year public holidays,” said the company, adding that the team had to optimise its models to “effectively detect temperature with only the forehead exposed.”

Besides fever detection, Chinese tech firms have raced to develop a wide variety of services to help with epidemic control efforts, from preparing drone deliveries of medical supplies to mapping the spread of the virus from Wuhan.

Although the city has been under effective quarantine since January 23, some five million travellers left Wuhan during the Lunar New Year festival, according to the city mayor — galvanising a nationwide search for recent Wuhan visitors.

Still, the majority of tracking carried out by local authorities in China requires a lot of manpower, though some are entering data online to help with registration, especially as residents return after the holiday.

In Beijing, some neighbourhoods are prompting residents to scan a QR code to fill out personal details, such as their phone number and hometown address.

One form also prompted participants to fill out details on their modes of transport, such as their licence plate or flight number, if they had travelled.

It also asked if they had “recently” visited central Hubei province — where Wuhan is located — or come into contact with anyone from the hard-hit region.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

As death toll mounts, WHO treads carefully on naming new virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Keen to avoid stigmatising the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began, or Chinese people, the World Health Organization is treading carefully on naming the new virus.

The UN health agency’s official temporary name for the disease, which it has designated as a global health emergency, is “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”.

The date refers to when it was first identified on December 31, 2019, and “nCoV” stands for “novel coronavirus” — the family of viruses it belongs to.

“We thought it was very important that we provide an interim name so that no location was associated with the name,” Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s Emerging Diseases unit, told the agency’s executive board on Friday.

“I’m sure you’ve all seen many media reports that are still calling it using Wuhan or China and we wanted to ensure that there was no stigma,” she said.

The final decision on a name is expected within days and is up to the WHO itself as well as coronavirus experts on the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

Meanwhile, China announced Saturday that it would temporarily call the disease, which has killed more than 700 people, Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP). Picking a more specific name is fraught with dangers.

Under a set of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO advises against using place names such as Ebola and Zika — where those diseases were first identified and which are now inevitably linked to them in the public imagination.

Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, said this week that the use of a place name created “an unnecessary burden”.

More general names such as “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome” or “Spanish flu” are also to be avoided as they can stigmatise entire regions or ethnic groups.

“It is the responsibility of us all to ensure that there is no stigma associated with this disease, and the unnecessary and unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity is utterly and completely unacceptable,” said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

The WHO also points out that using animal species in the name can create confusion such as H1N1, which was popularly referred to as “swine flu”. This had a major effect on the pork industry even though the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs.

H1N1 was also sometimes also called Mexican flu “which was not very nice for Mexican people,” Briand said. People’s names — usually the scientists who identified the disease — are also banned, as are “terms that incite undue fear” such as “unknown” or “fatal”, the WHO said.

“We’ve seen certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals,” the WHO said in its guidelines.

Instead, it recommended that any new name should be descriptive and include the causative pathogen if known, as well as being short and easy to pronounce.

“We are really trying to be as neutral as possible, but as helpful as possible as well, because we need to name things with the same name everywhere in the world if we want to tackle the enemy in the same way,” Briand said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus: Here’s how markets fared during virus emergencies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The news flow out of China regarding the coronavirus has added another element of uncertainty for investors. For markets, the worry is about the economic impact regionally and globally. After all, China is a huge consumer and exporter of global goods and services.

While we don’t know just yet how contagious or deadly the virus is, the number of people infected by the Wuhan coronavirus in China has reached 5974, higher than the official cases tallied during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003.

So how do stock markets behave during these virus outbreaks ? We looked at 5 emergencies – SARS in 2003, Avian Influenza in 2004, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014 and the Zika virus outbreak in 2016.

The results are as follows:

As the data shows, except the MERS episode  in 2012, when the Indian market was higher even as the US markets fell, in all other episodes markets in India fell in tandem with global markets. The extent of the falls ranging between 4-9.5%.

The current Wuhan Coronavirus episode is still developing and it is tough to say for how long new infection cases keep popping up. The Nifty meanwhile is down only around 2% from its all-time high a little over a week ago. So there may be more to go. Ofcourse, any news that patients are responding to medicinal treatment, news of a vaccine, or that containment is working, could turn around sentiment very quickly.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

After China virus outbreak, airports taking precautionary measures

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Airports are adding passenger screenings and taking other precautions to prevent a new virus from being spread by Chinese tourists going abroad for the Lunar New Year holidays.

China has imposed an unprecedented, open-ended shutdown of Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the virus first appeared last month. And it began similar measures in nearby cities Friday to try to halt the spread of the newly identified coronavirus that has infected hundreds.

A scattered number of cases have been confirmed in other countries, mainly Asian destinations for Chinese workers and tourists that were quick to screen travelers and isolate anyone with similar symptoms to limit the spread of the virus.

Still, there are fears the virus could spread further during the travel and festivities that accompany Lunar New Year. Chinese are expected to take an estimated 3 billion trips during the 40-day spike in travel.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, said Thursday it would conduct thermal screening of passengers arriving on direct flights from China.

The screening at the airport, home to Emirates airline, will be conducted at secured, closed gates by teams from the Dubai Health Authority and the Airport Medical Center, Dubai Airports said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

The airport authority would not say whether it expected a drop in passengers from China for the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Friday.

Abu Dhabi International Airport, home to Etihad Airways, also started a screening process for all passengers arriving from China. The oil-rich nation of Kuwait and the energy-rich nation of Qatar said Friday they have installed thermal cameras at their main international airports and border crossings, and Bahrain said it was taking unspecified steps.

At dawn on Thursday, Italian Red Cross officials were on hand at Rome’s Fiumicino airport to meet the last flight from Wuhan before the Chinese city’s airport was shut down.

The 202 passengers were taken to a special sterile area for a screening of their body temperature by health workers wearing sanitary suits, goggles and masks, but none were found to be suffering from the virus, Dr. Michele Bonizzi said.

Before flights from Wuhan were grounded, passengers arriving in the U.S. from flights originating in the city were directed to Kennedy Airport in New York, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International, O’Hare Airport in Chicago and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport where facilities were set up for screening.

British authorities said passengers arriving from China to Heathrow Airport in London, Europe’s busiest, and other airports were not being screened but that they were being given information leaflets on what to do if they fall ill.

In Africa, home to hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers, airports in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya have also begun screening arriving passengers.

“Nigerians are advised to remain calm,” the government of Africa’s most populous nation said Wednesday.

But Ethiopian Airlines, which has multiple daily passenger and cargo flights to China and Africa’s busiest airport hub, said Thursday it was waiting for guidance from Ethiopia’s Health Ministry on how to respond.

China is Africa’s top trading partner.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kerala nurse in Saudi Arabia tested positive for coronavirus, 30 more quarantined in hospital

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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According to media reports, a nurse from Ettumannur in Kottayam district, working at the Al Hayat hospital in Saudi Arabia, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, which has killed 17 people in China.

At least 30 nurses from Kerala have also been kept under isolation at the hospital and they had taken care of a Filipino nurse who had tested positive for the virus, reports said.

However, health department sources in Thiruvananthapuram said they have no information about any nurses from the state having been affected. The department has issued an alert in the wake of the virus outbreak in China.

In Kerala, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged union external affairs minister S Jaishankar to take up the matter with the Gulf nation and ensure expert treatment for the nurses.

Vijayan made the request in a letter to Jaishankar in this regard, a statement from the chief minister’s office said in Thiruvananthapuram.

The government should get in touch with its counterpart in Saudi Arabia and take urgent steps including ensuring expert treatment and protection to those affected by the virus. The matter should be viewed seriously, Vijayan said in the letter.

State health minister KK Shyalaja has said those who have returned from China should inform district medical officers besides instructing officials to step up surveillance in all four airports– Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Kannur–in the state.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Gold steadies on central bank policy expectations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Gold was little changed on Wednesday as strong technical support on expected dovish monetary policy from global central banks offset revived appetite for riskier assets and an upbeat dollar.

Spot gold was 0.1 percent firmer at USD 1,558.55 an ounce by 1051 GMT. U.S. gold futures were steady at USD 1,558.50.

“We have good support between USD 1,545 and USD 1,550, prices are rebounding on this level, confirming strong investor appetite for bullion in this range,” said ActivTrades chief analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa, adding that a risk-on scenario in wider markets could stymie gold’s recovery.

“(Gold) Investors are long because central banks are still dovish. We have potential for the Bank of England and the Australian central bank to cut rates. I don’t see the US Federal Reserve or ECB being hawkish in the next six months either.”

Investors will keep a close eye on the European Central Bank’s first policy meeting of the year on Thursday, while the Fed’s first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 28-29.

Lower interest rates reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion and weigh on the dollar.

Global equities rose, buoyed after Chinese authorities raised hopes that the coronavirus outbreak would be contained, while the dollar firmed against other key currencies.

The death toll from the outbreak in China rose to nine on Wednesday with 440 confirmed cases, Chinese health officials said as authorities stepped up countermeasures as millions of Chinese prepare to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

China’s gold consumption fell for the first time in three years in 2019, data showed on Tuesday, as high prices and an economic slowdown hit buying in the world’s biggest gold market.

Elsewhere, palladium slipped 0.1 percent to USD 2,398.84 an ounce, having slid by about 4% in the previous session.

“We attribute this to profit-taking after the price reached a record high the day before yesterday,” Commerzbank analysts said in a note. “However, we would not read too much into yesterday’s price slide. There is no sign as yet of any trend reversal.”

The auto-catalyst metal touched a record high of USD 2,582.19 on Monday, propelled by a prolonged supply deficit.

Silver edged up 0.4 percent to USD 17.85 and platinum was up 0.2% at USD 1,000.61.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

As Coronavirus spreads, anxiety rises in China and overseas

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Face masks sold out and officials at airports and train stations checked passengers for fevers as China on Tuesday sought to control the outbreak of Coronavirus that has reached four other countries and territories and threatens to spread further during the Lunar New Year travel rush.

Anxiety grew both at home and abroad after Chinese government expert Zhong Nanshan confirmed fears on state television late Monday that the new type of coronavirus can spread from human to human.

Six people have died and 291 have been infected in China, the National Health Commission said Tuesday.

The US on Tuesday reported its first case, saying a Washington state resident who returned last week from the outbreak’s epicenter was hospitalized near Seattle.

The stock prices of some companies that sell masks rose Tuesday, but markets fell in much of Asia as investors worried about the potential impact on tourism and the economy.

Concerned about a global outbreak similar to SARS, another coronavirus that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-2003, numerous nations have adopted screening measures for travelers from China, especially those arriving from Wuhan, the central city where the virus appears to have originated.

Guards at Wuhan’s airport pointed electronic thermometers at travelers. Several online retailers were sold out of masks, which were being sold for more than 10 times their original price. Users of the popular Weibo social media platform urged others to wash their hands and stay home.

Outside the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where many of the coronavirus patients are receiving care, several workers were dressed in full-body biohazard suits, supplemented by goggles, masks and plastic wrapped around their shoes.

While many wore masks in Wuhan, streets were far from deserted and people appeared to be carrying on with their regular activities.

“I’m not that worried,” said Helen Cao, a Wuhan resident who was shopping on a downtown avenue lined with stores and full of pedestrians. Like many in the city, she began wearing a mask after hearing Zhong’s assessment of human-to-human transmission.

“Maybe people from other places are more concerned about our health, but (Wuhan) locals actually are continuing to eat, go out and take strolls, go clubbing at night,” Cao said. “Everything’s very normal, everyone’s just wearing masks, nothing more.”

Initial symptoms of the new coronavirus include fever, cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath.

The first cases late last month were connected to a seafood market, and transmission was thought to be occurring from animals to humans. Authorities previously had not confirmed human-to-human transmission.

In addition to 258 cases in Wuhan, more than 20 have been diagnosed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong province in the south and Zhejiang in the east. Four cases have been confirmed overseas among Chinese travelers in South Korea, Japan and Thailand. A Taiwanese businesswoman who just returned from Wuhan tested positive for the virus, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control reported Tuesday.

Fifteen medical workers have also tested positive for the virus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said.

Two cases in Guangdong were people who had not visited Wuhan but fell ill after family members returned from there. Zhong cited those as evidence the disease had spread between humans.

Australia, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. were among the countries increasing airport screenings. Three weekly direct flights from Wuhan to Sydney will be met by border security and biosecurity staff for assessments, chief Australian medical officer Brendan Murphy told reporters.

“Please take every possible precaution,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed the health minister and other government departments.

The coronavirus family includes those that cause the common cold, but some found in bats, camels and other animals have evolved into more severe illnesses like SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, and MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome.

The possibility the virus can be transmitted between people increases the chances it could spread faster and more widely. The Chinese government has estimated people will make around 3 billion trips during the Lunar New Year travel season, but some social media users have said they may stay home due to concern about the virus.

In his first public remarks on the illness, Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed government departments to promptly release information on the virus and deepen international cooperation.

When SARS began infecting people in southern China, the Chinese government initially tried to conceal the severity of the epidemic, which ended up killing nearly 800 people. The cover-up was exposed by a high-ranking physician.

Gabriel Leung, dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said Chinese authorities have responded much more quickly this time.

“Our underlying assumptions are the force of infection is very different now … because so many public health measures have been undertaken and so many interventions have been executed,” Leung told reporters at a briefing.

Leung, who was heavily involved in the response to SARS, said modeling shows that cases will multiply over the coming weeks but the outbreak will gradually lose momentum as precautions take effect.

For the moment, the new coronavirus appears to be far less lethal than SARS.

“Based on current information, an animal source seems the most likely primary source of this outbreak with limited human-to-human transmission occurring between close contacts,” World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said at a briefing.

“Based on current data, some new cases seem to experience milder diseases which is within the milder end of the spectrum of symptoms caused by respiratory illnesses,” Jasarevic said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang pledged rigorous measures to tackle the virus.

“We will resolutely contain the spread of the epidemic,” Geng said.

Surgical masks were mandatory Tuesday at Beijing United Family Hospital, where all visitors had their temperatures taken at the entrance.

At one pharmacy in Shanghai, a shopkeeper named Liu Zhuzhen said more than 100 people had bought masks by midday. They were already sold out despite having recently been restocked.

3M, an American brand popular in China for anti-pollution masks, was sold out of masks on its official online stores on e-commerce platforms Taobao and JD.com as of Tuesday afternoon. Other retailers were selling 3M masks at a markup, including for as much as 40 yuan ($7) a mask. Websites that track online pricing show the same masks used to sell for 3 yuan (53 cents) each.

State broadcaster CCTV quoted Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang urging limitations on travel.

“Unless it’s necessary, people outside should not come to Wuhan, and citizens of Wuhan should not leave the city,” Zhou said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WhatsApp says Israeli spyware used to snoop on several Indian activists, report claims

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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WhatsApp has confirmed that an Israeli spyware was used for snooping on several people in the country, reported The Indian Express. WhatsApp, the report said, had alerted several academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists that their phones had been under state-of-the-art surveillance for a two-week period until May.

“Indian journalists and human rights activists have been the target of surveillance and while I cannot reveal their identities and the exact number, I can say that it is not an insignificant number,” a WhatsApp spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

The development comes after Facebook, who owns WhatsApp sued the Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group on Tuesday in US federal court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with highly sophisticated spyware.

Facebook says NSO Group violated laws including the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with a crafty exploit that took advantage of a flaw in the popular communications program allowing a smartphone to be penetrated through missed calls alone.

The lawsuit alleges that malicious code from NSO was sent from April 29 through May 10 over WhatsApp servers. The aim was to infect some 1,400 devices whose users included attorneys, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats and other government officials.

(With Agency Inputs)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WhatsApp sues Israeli company over hacking claims using spyware

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Facebook sued the Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group on Tuesday in US federal court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with highly sophisticated spyware.

The lawsuit filed in San Francisco is the first legal action of its kind, according to Facebook, involving a nearly totally unregulated realm.

Facebook says NSO Group violated laws including the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with a crafty exploit that took advantage of a flaw in the popular communications program allowing a smartphone to be penetrated through missed calls alone.

“It targeted at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society across the world,” the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathart, wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.

He said that since discovering the malware operation in May, Facebook learned that the attackers were using servers and internet-hosting services previously associated with NSO Group, which has been widely condemned for selling surveillance tools to repressive governments.

NSO Group issued a statement in which it did not directly deny hacking WhatsApp but which said it disputed the allegations and vowed to “vigorously fight them.”

“The sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime,” the company said. “Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists. It has helped to save thousands of lives over recent years.”

It said strongly encrypted platforms are used by paedophile rings, drug traffickers and terrorists and that NSO’s technologies “provide proportionate lawful solutions.”

Facebook demands in the suit that NSO Group be denied access to Facebook’s services and systems and seeks unspecified damages.

Cathart said leaders of tech firms “should join UN (free speech) Special Rapporteur David Kaye’s call for an immediate moratorium on the sale, transfer and use of dangerous spyware.”

“This is huge. I am really glad to see a tech company put their massive litigation team on the field on behalf of users,” tweeted Alex Stamos, a Stanford University researcher and former Facebook chief security officer.

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular communications software, with about 1.5 billion users in 180 countries.

John Scott-Railton, a researcher with the internet watchdog Citizen Lab, called the hack “a very scary vulnerability” when it was discovered. “There’s nothing a user could have done here, short of not having the app.”

Citizen Lab subsequently volunteered to assist Facebook in the investigation.

The lawsuit alleges that malicious code from NSO was sent from April 29 through May 10 over WhatsApp servers. The aim was to infect some 1,400 devices whose users included attorneys, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats and other government officials. It said the targeted phone numbers were in countries including Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Mexico.

NSO’s spyware has repeatedly been found deployed to target such people. Most notably, the spyware was implicated in the gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year and whose body has never been found.

In the lawsuit, Facebook alleges that after it publicly announced that it had identified and closed the vulnerability an NSO employee complained “You just closed our biggest remote for celluar …. It’s on the news all over the world.”

The spyware did not directly affect the end-to-end encryption that makes WhatsApp chats and calls private. It merely used a bug in the WhatsApp software as an infection vehicle.

NSO Group’s flagship malware, called Pegasus, allows spies to effectively take control of a phone — remotely and surreptitiously controlling its cameras and microphones from remote servers and vacuuming up personal and geolocation data.

A European private equity firm, Novalpina Capital LLP, bought a majority stake in NSO Group in February. It claimed in a May statement that “highly targeted interception technologies” of the kind NSO Group produces “play a critical role in protecting the public” and can do so without undermining privacy rights or free speech.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Messaging service Telegram hit by DDoS cyber attack

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Messaging service provider Telegram said on Wednesday it had stabilized its systems after a “powerful” distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

Telegram, which has more than 200 million users, had said earlier users in the United States and other countries may experience connection issues.

“For the moment, things seem to have stabilized”, the company said in another tweet nearly an hour after it acknowledged the attack.

Outage tracking website Downdetector.com showed that users in the United States and Brazil were the most affected.

In DDoS attacks, hijacked or virus-infected computers are used to target websites.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow