United News of Bangladesh

A software bug at a major network provider briefly knocked dozens of financial institutions, airlines and other companies across the globe offline during peak business hours in Asia. Akamai, which runs one of the internet’s main content-delivery systems, said the outage Thursday was not caused by a cyberattack, but rather a software bug on a service that protects customers against denial-of-service attacks. Many of the 500 affected Akamai customers had their traffic rerouted in minutes but it took more than four hours to fully restore the system, the Massachusetts company said. Akamai operates mirrors of customer websites in 135 countries — known as edge servers — designed to speed access to them. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the four largest U.S. airlines were among those impacted. Akamai does not name its customers but says they include more than 300 of the world’s banks, more than 30 airlines, more than 200 national government agencies and 825 retailers. Many of the outages were reported by people in Australia trying to do banking, book flights and access postal services at mid-afternoon. Many services were back up and running after an hour or so. Banking services were severely disrupted, with Westpac, the Commonwealth, ANZ and St George all down, along with the website of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank. The Reserve Bank cancelled a bond-buying operation due to technical difficulties facing several banks that were to participate. The airline Virgin Australia was also affected and cited the Akamai content delivery system. It said flights largely operated as scheduled after it restored access to its website and guest contact center. Outages briefly spiked on American, Delta, United and Southwest airlines. Because the disruptions happened late at night in the U.S. when few planes were taking off, airline representatives said there was little to no effect on flights. Southwest, which has suffered two other, unrelated technology issues this week, said its website and other internet-based tools were briefly disconnected but flights were not affected. United said there were no lingering issues early Thursday. The disruptions occurred only days after many of the world’s top websites went offline briefly due to a software disruption at Fastly, another major web services company. The company blamed the problem on a software bug triggered when a single customer changed a setting. Brief internet service outages are not uncommon and are only rarely the result of hacking or other mischief. However, the recent outages have underscored how vital a small number of behind-the-scenes companies have become to running the internet.

Arab oil producers, alarmed by their economies' dependence on a resource for which demand is set to fall, are focusing on space development in a new strategic turn aimed at both building up new industries for the future and raising national prestige. Taking the lead is the United Arab Emirates, which has already begun an exploration of Mars and will launch a lunar probe next year. Technical experts in their 30s and younger, many of them women, are at the heart of the efforts, and collaboration has started with other Arab countries. The Gulf state has developed its economy on the back of abundant crude oil and gas resources, but Sarah Al Amiri, a computer engineer and the UAE's first minister of state for advanced technology, warns that the end of the road for reliance on these resources is ahead. "We completely understand that demand for oil will decline at a certain point in the future," she said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. The 34-year-old emphasized that fostering the science and technology industries through space development will be "the fuel" for a sustainable economy into the future. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is located in a desert region around 20 minutes by car from the bustling economic hub of Dubai. It manages the "Hope" orbiter, which entered Mars' orbit in February as the first Arab interplanetary probe. According to Omran Sharaf, 36, the project manager of the UAE's mission to Mars, the staff employed at the space center has an average age in their late 20s, with women comprising half of the leadership roles in each department. The UAE, which had little experience in space development until the Hope mission, has positioned Mars exploration as a national project as it celebrates the 50th anniversary this year of the country's founding, proceeding with work at a rapid pace. With cooperation from the United States and Japan, the UAE achieved the difficult mission of launching the Mars probe just six years after announcing the plan in 2014. "There are much bigger strategic objectives for the mission beyond just exploring Mars. It's critical for the future of our economy," said Sharaf, adding that space development will be a big challenge for the future of the Middle East region as a whole. Diversification of industries and job creation for young people are some of the issues that are facing Arabs as a whole. In what appears a clear attempt to break through a sense of being mired in economic stagnation, the UAE has set a bold goal of colonizing Mars in about a century. Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest oil-producing countries, established a space agency in 2018. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman views the space industry as a promising field that can contribute to the economy, with a substantial investment to be made as part of the growth strategy "Vision 2030," which aims to eliminate dependence on oil by 2030. The UAE launched a framework for space development cooperation with 10 other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 2019 and is planning to launch a jointly manufactured artificial satellite within a few years. An Arab space bureau that transcends national boundaries is also rumored to be planned. The UAE lunar rover is scheduled to be mounted on a lander by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace and transported to the moon next year. "Japan has always been a partner for the UAE, especially if we talk about the oil and gas sector," Al Amiri said, adding that she envisions the two governments working closely to build an even stronger relationship through space development into the future.

Youth-focused brand realme Tuesday launched its flagship killer phone realme GT 5G along with three new AIoT products – realme Watch 2 and 2 Pro and realme TechLife Robot Vacuum – in the global market. Realme also revealed its new elevated AIoT strategy and plan to bring in its first laptop and tablet for global consumers within the next few months. With the launch of GT 5G, realme has entered the global mid-to-high-end smartphone segment. Also read: 5G phone: Realme targets 100 million youth customers by 2024 Realme GT 5G, inspired by the core concept of grand tourers (GT) sports cars, is expected to deliver high speed and exceptional performance. The phone features Qualcomm's most sophisticated high-end chipset Snapdragon 888 along with a premium speed-inspired design, a stainless-steel cooling system for sustained performance, a super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 65W super dart charger. Also read: Realme to bring Snapdragon 778G 5G, Android 12 Beta 1-equipped smartphone Also, it is equipped with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. This flagship phone also has dual light sensors, greater connectivity, a flagship camera, immersive audio and exclusive GT mode.  Sky Li, CEO of realme, said: "By offering the maximum number of flagship features for our budget-minded consumers, the global launch of the realme GT reflects our ongoing commitment to making cutting-edge technology more accessible to young consumers around the world and hence empowering them in their daily lives."  Read OPPO partners with Thales for World’s First 5G SA-Compatible eSIM

Huawei organized recently the Asia-Pacific Higher Education Innovation Forum through live streaming with the theme Embracing the New Era of Intelligent Education. The forum invited industry experts from UNESCO ICHEI, NUS, Open University, Thammasat University, National University of Malaysia, and PwC, including 450 informatization directors, partners, and business luminaries. The forum focused on topics such as smart campus, online education, and smart classroom and discussed the development trend of education ICT and the challenges and opportunities for education informatization in the post-pandemic era. READ: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched At the opening ceremony, Nicholas Ma, President of Huawei Asia Pacific Enterprise Business Group, shared Huawei’s understanding of ICT development in higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as its vision of smart higher education in the future. Professor Zhao Jianhua, Senior Specialist of UNESCO ICHEI, shared his insights on the exciting new trends in education. According to Prof. Zhao, today’s education industry is being shaped by five major digital technologies: AR, personalized hybrid learning, gamification, AI, and IoT. What’s more, there will be five new applications in the education industry: a more efficient learning system, mental health monitoring, personalized distant education, automated data processing, and personalized collaborative education. Read Women continue making amazing contributions in STEM fields: US The recent disruptions to the world in the last 18 months have severely affected university education around the world. Many teachers and students can no longer go to school like they used to. During the panel session of this forum, the panellists explored how universities in the Asia-Pacific region use ICT to offset this impact, what plans and visions they have for future teaching and management models, and how to accelerate the digital transformation of universities. Assoc. Professor Dr. Nurhizam Safie (Deputy Dean (Networking & Alumni), IST Faculty Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) stressed that the critical success factor for digital transformation in higher education is to embrace the new online pedagogy and it’s really about effective change management and managing the transition to online learning. Read Huawei brings financial aid, free service for Asia-Pacific SMEs Many universities are facing similar problems, such as a lack of teacher-student-classroom interaction, the insufficient sharing of education resources, difficult management due to scattered school services, high energy consumption, and low decision-making efficiency. It has become a priority for education administrators and teachers to tackle such challenges. At this forum, Shi Ri, Huawei APAC, introduced the Huawei Smart Campus Solution and Smart Classroom Solution designed for higher education. Huawei has been working in collaboration with industry-leading partners and is leveraging its cloud platform to provide E2E smart education solutions that cover smart devices, converged networks, and teaching and management applications for university customers in multiple countries, including South Africa, Italy, and UAE. READ: Huawei joins Responsible Business 2021

A cyberespionage campaign blamed on China was more sweeping than previously known, with suspected state-backed hackers exploiting a device meant to boost internet security to penetrate the computers of critical U.S. entities. The hack of Pulse Connect Secure networking devices came to light in April, but its scope is only now starting to become clear. The Associated Press has learned that the hackers targeted telecommunications giant Verizon and the country’s largest water agency. News broke earlier this month that the New York City subway system, the country’s largest, was also breached. Security researchers say dozens of other high-value entities that have not yet been named were also targeted as part of the breach of Pulse Secure, which is used by many companies and governments for secure remote access to their networks. It’s unclear what sensitive information, if any, was accessed. Some of the targets said they did not see any evidence of data being stolen. That uncertainty is common in cyberespionage and it can take months to determine data loss, if it is ever discovered. Ivanti, the Utah-based owner of Pulse Connect Secure, declined to comment on which customers were affected. Read: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched But even if sensitive information wasn’t compromised, experts say it is worrisome that hackers managed to gain footholds in networks of critical organizations whose secrets could be of interest to China for commercial and national security reasons. “The threat actors were able to get access to some really high-profile organizations, some really well-protected ones,” said Charles Carmakal, the chief technology officer of Mandiant, whose company first publicized the hacking campaign in April. The Pulse Secure hack has largely gone unnoticed while a series of headline-grabbing ransomware attacks have highlighted the cyber vulnerabilities to U.S. critical infrastructure, including one on a major fuels pipeline that prompted widespread shortages at gas stations. The U.S. government is also still investigating the fallout of the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched by Russian cyber spies, which infiltrated dozens of private sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies and went on for most of 2020. China has a long history of using the internet to spy on the U.S. and presents a “prolific and effective cyber-espionage threat,” the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence said in its most recent annual threat assessment. Six years ago Chinese hackers stole millions of background check files of federal government employees from the Office of Personnel Management. And last year the Justice Department charged two hackers it said worked with the Chinese government to target firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world. Read:Attacks on individuals fall as cybercrime shifts tactics The Chinese government has denied any role in the Pulse hacking campaign and the U.S. government has not made any formal attribution. In the Pulse campaign, security experts said sophisticated hackers exploited never-before-seen vulnerabilities to break in and were hyper diligent in trying to cover their tracks once inside. “The capability is very strong and difficult to defend against, and the profile of victims is very significant,” said Adrian Nish, the head of cyber at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. “This is a very targeted attack against a few dozen networks that all have national significance in one way or another.” The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, issued an April alert about the Pulse hack saying it was aware of “compromises affecting a number of U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and other private sector organizations.” The agency has since said that at least five federal agencies have identified indications of potential unauthorized access, but not said which ones. Verizon said it found a Pulse-related compromise in one of its labs but it was quickly isolated from its core networks. The company said no data or customer information was accessed or stolen. Read:Hack against US is 'grave' threat, cybersecurity agency says “We know that bad actors try to compromise our systems,” said Verizon spokesman Rich Young. “That is why internet operators, private companies and all individuals need to be vigilant in this space.” The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people and operates some of the largest treatment plants in the world, said it found a compromised Pulse Secure appliance after CISA issued its alert in April. Spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said the appliance was immediately removed from service and no Metropolitan systems or processes were known to have been affected. She said there was “no known data exfiltration.” The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York also said they’ve not found evidence of valuable data or customer information was stolen. The breach was first reported by The New York Times. Nish, the BAE security expert, said the hackers could have broken into networks but not stolen data right away for any number of operational reasons. He compared it to a criminal breaking into a house but stopping in the hallway. “It’s still pretty bad,” Nish said. Read: UK government sets up cyber unit to fight coronavirus-related fake news Mandiant said it found signs of data extraction from some of the targets. The company and BAE have identified targets of the hacking campaign in several fields, including financial, technology and defense firms, as well as municipal governments. Some targets were in Europe, but most in the U.S. At least one major local government has disputed it was a target of the Pulse Secure hack. Montgomery County, Maryland, said it was advised by CISA that its Pulse Secure devices were attacked. But county spokesman Scott Peterson said the county found no evidence of a compromise and told CISA they had a “false report.” CISA did not directly respond to the county’s statement. The new details of the Pulse Secure hack come at a time of tension between the U.S. and China. Biden has made checking China’s growth a top priority, and said the country’s ambition of becoming the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world is “not going to happen under my watch.”

Global smart device brand Oppo has come up with an activity where the users and fans will have to capture the surprising and funny moments with friends and family with their F19 Pro. After creating both single and dual-view videos, the participants will have to post the video or the link of the video in the comment section with the hashtag #ShareYourFunMoments. Also, they will be able to win a brand new Oppo F19 Pro and other gifts such as Oppo Band Style and OPPO Enco W11 headphones.   Also read: Oppo offers 30% off and lots of surprises for users Interested people can participate in this activity based on three themes – fun moment with a friend, fun moment with friends and family and fun moment with family.  In the first theme, the participants will have to create videos capturing fun moments with friends. This activity will continue from June 8-14. The second theme is meant for friends and families. This will continue from June 15-19.  Also read: Oppo launches swap deal The third theme is dedicated to family. In this category, the users can share fun moments with family from June 20-27.  Oppo F19 Pro is a mid-range phone with Dual-View Video and AI Color Portrait Video, new crystal silver design with Reno Glow Effect, 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 and Game Focus Mode. Owing to a fusion of hardware performance and software capability, F19 Pro offers immersive gaming. Read Tecno Spark 7 review: The entry-level gaming phone of 2021

Global smartphone brand realme is all set to introduce its flagship phone – realme GT 5G – to the global market on June 15. Realme CEO Sky Li will deliver the opening speech at the global launch event whereas Madhav Sheth, VP and CEO of India and Europe, realme, will talk about the company's business strategy.  Also read: 5G phone: Realme targets 100 million youth customers by 2024 The event will come to a close with the unveiling of realme's new AIoT products. Inspired by the slogan "sheer speed flagship," realme GT is an amalgamation of cutting-edge design and technology. The phone has captured the original essence of the Grand Touring (GT) experience for young users.  Also read: Realme to bring Snapdragon 778G 5G, Android 12 Beta 1-equipped smartphone Apart from the flagship launch, realme will also unveil its new AIoT strategy and a new line of products labelled under realme TechLife. After the launch of realme GT 5G in the global market on June 15, the flagship phone will be released in the local markets.

Grameenphone has been recognised as the best organisation for workplace and people development in the Organisational Awards category of Asian Leadership Awards (ALA) 2021. The 19th Edition of the prestigious award ceremony took place Thursday. Grameenphone's efforts to ensure employee wellbeing during Covid-19, focus on nurturing an inclusive workplace, digitalisation of human resource (HR) services, and a unique approach in fostering a learning culture and upskilling effort were commended at the event.   Also read: FinanceAsia Awards: SCB Bangladesh wins Best International Bank The ALA is recognised in the industry for patronising and promoting the value of business leadership in Asia. Since 2011, the award has been inspiring hundreds of organisations and professionals to go the extra mile to ensure the healthy and consistent growth of the workforce. This year, the program was held virtually, where the seasoned jury council of the ALA recognised Grameenphone's effort. Also read: Grameenphone announces 15,500 4G towers in country Syed Tanvir Husain, chief human resource officer of Grameenphone, said: "As a connectivity partner to digitalisation journey of Bangladesh, we have been continuously putting our efforts to innovate and build future-fit skills at Grameenphone while keeping our employees wellbeing, inclusive culture, project automation, digitally-operated HR on the top in our agenda." "We feel honoured to have been the recipient of the Asian Leadership Award 2021, and we dedicate this achievement to all the employees of the Grameenphone family." Read Korvi honoured with "Commonwealth Point of Light Award"

Global smart device brand OPPO has slashed the price of its two phones – Reno5 and A15s. Buyers can now get Oppo Reno5 at Tk32,99 and A15s at Tk12,990. Reno5 has a 64MP quad rear camera with AI Mixed Portrait and Dual-View video. Also, the phone comes in Fantasy Silver, which projects thousands of different colours sparkling distinctively, creating a Reno Glow effect. Also read: Oppo offers 30% off and lots of surprises for users With a 50W flash charge of Reno5, the users can charge 80% of its 4,310mAh battery within just 31 minutes. Powered by an 8nm Snapdragon 720G chipset, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage and 90Hz refresh rate, this phone delivers a smoother performance. A15s has bigger storage (64GB) and a screen (6.52" with a screen ratio of 88.7%). The phone's AI Triple Rear Camera setup enables the user to capture picture-perfect photos with the help of different modes such as AI Beautification, night mode, panorama mode and portrait mode. Also read: Oppo launches swap deal The phone is also powered by a 4230mAh large battery, read a press release.

Chinese telecom giant launched its "largest" Global Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection Transparency Center in South China's Dongguan Wednesday. "Over the past few years, industry digitalisation and new technologies like 5G and AI have made cyberspace more complex than ever, compounded by the fact that people have been spending a greater portion of their lives online throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. These trends have led to a rise in new cybersecurity risks," Huawei's Rotating Chairman Ken Hu said at the opening ceremony. Huawei's Global Cyber Security and Privacy Protection Transparency Center is designed to demonstrate solutions and share experience, facilitate communication and joint innovation, and support security testing and verification. Also read: Huawei joins Responsible Business 2021 It will be open to regulators, independent third-party testing organisations, and standards organisations, as well as Huawei customers, partners, and suppliers. To further a unified approach to cybersecurity in the telecoms industry, organisations like GSMA and 3GPP have also been working with industry stakeholders to promote NESAS Security Assurance Specifications and independent certifications. Mats Granryd, director general of GSMA, said: "The delivery of existing and new services in the 5G era will rely heavily on the connectivity provided by mobile networks and will fundamentally depend on the underlying technology being secure and trusted." Also read: Huawei to invest $220 million in cloud ecosystem for 2021 "Initiatives such as the GSMA 5G Cybersecurity Knowledge Base, designed to help stakeholders understand and mitigate network risks, and NESAS, an industry-wide security assurance framework, are designed to facilitate improvements in network equipment security levels across the sector." At the event, Huawei also released its Product Cyber Security Baseline, the culmination of over a decade of experience in product security management, incorporating a broad range of external regulations, technical standards, and regulatory requirements. "This is the first time we've shared our security baseline framework with the entire industry, not just core suppliers," said Sean Yang, director of Huawei's Global Cyber Security and Privacy Protection Office. "We want to invite all stakeholders, including customers, regulators, standards organizations, technology providers, and testing organisations, to join us in discussing and working on cybersecurity baselines."