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Cyber-Attacks are on the Rise Worldwide- How Internet Users Can Protect their Data?

In today’s technological revolution, our world is facing a new challenge that can affect all of us. It happens now, more often than ever, to hear about cybersecurity dangers, data breaches, and threats to our connected devices.

Cyber-attacks can come in many forms, from cyber-crime, cyber espionage, hacktivist to cyber warfare. According to a study conducted by Norwich University, 89% of breaches in 2016 had a financial or espionage motive behind them.

Who can be targeted by cyber criminals and become a potential victim? The answer is everyone who is using the internet and is part of the online world. The rapid digitization of consumers’ lives and enterprise is the primary reason behind the rise of cyber threats.

What is a cyber-Attack?

A cyber-attack is a strike against a computer system, network, or internet-enabled application or device with the purpose of gaining access or disabling operations. The most common types of cyber-attacks include malware, phishing, denial of service attack, SQL injection, and zero-day exploit.

Cyber attackers use a multitude of tools to hack those systems including malware, ransomware, exploit kits, and many other methods. Hackers often operate with the cyber-attack method called ransomware and by creating malicious code, known as malware, and distribute it into the system through spam email campaigns or phishing campaigns.

While a cyber-attack can rarely target an individual, enterprises from all sectors are the most targeted by hackers. Thus, the data of internet users are still in danger to be exposed by hackers because most of today’s businesses connect with their consumers in the online world. What is truly worrying is the fact that enterprises often fail to protect their consumer data because they are not effectively protected against cyber-attacks.

So, with malicious companies and enterprising hackers on the rise, how can we keep our devices and data secure online? The good news is that the situation is not completely hopeless and that you do have control over your data if you take some precarious steps. Here’s how to improve your privacy online:

Don’t become a victim of identity theft

Online fraudsters will try to gather as much information about you as possible and use it to pose as your persona. The worst scenario that will indeed affect you is if the hacker will access your bank accounts and steal all your money without you even realizing it before it is too late.

Identity theft can certainly affect you and leave you in bankruptcy. Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to protect yourself from it. First of all, under no circumstance, you should give your Social Security number to people that either call you, email you, or message you. no matter how legitimate an email might look like or how trustworthy a person may seem. Secondly, avoid posting private data, including date of birth, on websites such as social media accounts.

Keep main email address and phone number private

There are many websites and services online that require your mobile phone and email address even only to be able to see the content of the page. If you choose to do it, you should know that this is exactly how you end up getting tons of spam in your e-mail inbox and hundreds of nuisance robocalls on your phone. Sometimes you can’t avoid sharing this information with internet services and online stores, but for those where you have a choice, it is better to choose not to. To avoid becoming the victim of marketers and even hackers in case of a cyber-attacks, you should consider creating a separate e-mail address and have an additional phone number for these cases.

If, however, your phone number gets exposed and you become the victim of unwanted and spam calls, trapping the caller is the best way to unmask the caller. Performing a reverse phone lookup is the best solution to find out who is calling you. All you have to do is to search the number and get all the relevant information associated with it such as social media accounts, address history, map location, and even more.

Enable the two-factor authentication feature on social media accounts

Social media accounts are some of the most targeted online services by hackers because of the huge amounts of data they contain about their users. Choosing a strong password that includes small letters, capital letters, numbers, and distinctive signs might help you protect from getting hacked. However, hackers are getting smarter and create new tools and methods for cyber-attacks.

Thus, you should use all the protection tools you have available to avoid becoming a victim of the hackers. To add an extra layer of protection, you should consider enabling the two-factor authentication. This security method requires you to add both your password and will send you a code via a text message to your phone and ask you to introduce it in order to log in.

Optimize your passwords

For every single account that you create in the online world, whether it is for social media accounts or on an online movie website, you are required to set up a password for the account. While before cyber-attacks were not so often and people used to have very simple four-letter or-number passwords, well now times have changed. Thus, having weak and simple passwords for your online accounts is a sure-fire way that you will have your accounts hacked. The best way to protect your accounts, regardless of which service, is to use different passwords for everything and avoid using personal data about you that can be easily guessed such as birthdays or pet names.

Always update cookies

Websites use cookies to gather and store information about your browsing history. This gives the website the ability to analyze your behavior online so that they can display promotional ads of products and services personalized according to the data they have about you. Yet, the worst aspect about the use of cookies is that websites usually sell the analysis to a third party which are often businesses and organizations. If you slightly tweak your settings to get alerted in case a cookie is installed on your computer or device, you will be able to know exactly who is reading your online activity.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP