US investigates 3 Chinese carriers, Microsoft faces big fine, Chrome users infected with malware

The US investigates 3 major Chinese carriers, Microsoft faces a big fine, Chrome users are infected with malware... are the outstanding technology news of the past week.

The logos of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are displayed on a mobile phone. (Source: cgtn.com)

US investigates 3 major Chinese carriers

The Biden administration is investigating three major Chinese telecom carriers over concerns that American citizens and businesses could be exposed to data from their internet and cloud services.

The three carriers under investigation are China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. Although these companies have only a small presence in the US market and have been banned from providing phone hardware or Internet retail services, they still have access to user data in this market.

The investigation is the latest effort by Washington as part of a deepening technology war between the US and China.

The move shows that the US government is trying to block all avenues to access the data of its users.

The regulator could block deals that allow foreign companies to operate data centers and route data for internet providers, the sources said.

Being excluded from important transactions will severely impact the competitive strength of Chinese technology companies in the field of providing Internet and cloud services in the US in particular and globally in general.

Microsoft faces major fine

The European Commission (EC) has accused Microsoft of illegally bundling its Teams chat and video application with its Office 365 suite of products.

According to The Guardian, this is the most serious accusation Microsoft has faced since 2013, when the US technology giant was fined a record 561 million EUR for not promoting competitors on the Internet Explorer browser.

The EC notified Microsoft of the results of its preliminary investigation on June 25. The commission concluded that Microsoft “dominated the world” in the professional “software as a service” (SaaS) market by bundling Teams with its core products to the detriment of competitors such as messaging platform Slack.

Slack was the one who filed the complaint in 2020 and sparked the investigation in July 2023.

Margrethe Vestage, the EC's executive vice-president for competition policy, said that maintaining competition for remote communication and collaboration tools is essential because it also promotes innovation in markets. If confirmed, Microsoft's actions would be in breach of European competition law.

Hundreds of millions of Chrome users infected with malware

Recently, Stanford University and the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security published a study showing that more than 346 million users installed extensions containing malicious code between July 2020 and February 2023.

After subtracting 66 million failed installs due to policy violations and errors, the team estimates that 280 million installations still contained malware.

The researchers collected the data by parsing each extension's *.json declaration file. These files were then broken down into Application Programming Interface (API) access requests such as storage, cookies, and hosts such as URLs or URL patterns.

The report also pointed out that the malware extensions often have an average lifespan of up to 380 days before being detected and removed. According to Forbes, the longer they stay on the browser, the greater the risk of data being stolen, and the greater the quantity.

In addition, the research team said that as of May 2024, nearly 1% of all Chrome extension installations contained malware. According to Google statistics, more than 250,000 extensions are available on the Chrome Web Store.

Nearly half a million US students banned from using smartphones and social networks

Under regulations approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education, public schools in the county may restrict Internet access and block students from using social media on electronic devices, including computers and smartphones.

The ban is expected to take effect in January 2025, affecting more than 429,000 students attending public schools in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

Some exemptions allow students' smartphones to access the internet or electronic devices with more limited functionality such as smartwatches and "brick" phones to make calls.

Administrators say smartphones and social media distract students, hinder the development of social skills and endanger mental health, with symptoms such as increased stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep quality, aggression and even suicidal thoughts.

Pew Research Center, a non-profit research center, cited data showing that 72% of high school teachers in the US consider smartphones a major problem affecting the quality of education.

After Los Angeles voted to ban smartphones and social media during school hours, California Governor Gavin Newsom has also called for a similar ban on smartphones in schools across the state.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tin-cong-nghe-noi-bat-my-dieu-tra-3-nha-mang-trung-quoc-microsoft-doi-mat-an-phat-lon-nguoi-dung-chrome-dinh-ma-doc-276788.html