Hello and good evening everybody!
Welcome to the very first article in the “Notable” category. The notable category exists for the purpose of educating you, the reader of this website about trending and relevant developments in the world of computer science and technology so that you are kept up to date and abreast on matters you should be knowing.
Without further ado, here are the top two notable stories for the day:
Massive Ransomware attack in the European Union
Wannacry and Ransomware, in general, are a form of cryptographic spyware which encrypts a users’ system demanding a certain amount of money, usually to the tune of $300 to be paid in the form of Bitcoin after which the users’ system will be supposedly decrypted. There is report out today that, there has been a massive Ransomware attack in the entirety of the European Union affecting several member states especially Ukraine.
In Ukraine, the Chernobyl Nuclear plant along with the Ukraine Central Bank and Ukraine’s electricity supplier Ukrenego were hit leaving more than 2,30,000 people without any power for more than 6 hours. Other than that, several ATMs, Banks, Airports, Point-of-Sale devices etc. have all been affected with Ransomware. Officials from the Ukrainian government are trying their best to assess the situation by keeping things under control while they work towards eliminating the problem.
Google gets fined 2.4bn Euro from the European Union
The European Commission today finally settled the dust on a two-year inquiry into Google for breaking possible Antitrust guidelines in the EU. Google was supposedly through its own machine learning algorithm in conjunction with “Google Shopping” promoting affiliated links in its search results without even verifying their merits and without giving other non-affiliated parties a chance to showcase their own product on the search giant.
Finally, after two years, the European Commission has announced its finding that Google is guilty of violating Antitrust laws in the European Union and therefore has been accordingly fined 2.4bn Euro with an added interest of 5% of Google’s daily revenue for every day here on out they do not take proper steps to prevent and stop the blatant antitrust violation. Google in this regard has communicated its full intention to pursue on with this litigation before the appellate forum.
And that about does it for today’s notable pieces!
The Nightly Tech 