Category:

Risk Management

Hungry for change: Faulty food systems laid bare by COVID-19 and climate crises

Farmers and poor urban residents have so far borne the brunt of the pandemic, meaning inequality between and within countries could deepen further in 2021, said Ismahane Elouafi, chief scientist at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Even before COVID-19 hit, 135 million people were marching towards the brink of starvation. This could double to 270 million within a few short months,” warned David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), in emailed comments.

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Ransomware 2.0: India and Australia logged the highest number of incidents across APAC region

Vitaly Kamluk, Director of Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) for APAC at Kaspersky, revealed that at least 61 entities from the region were breached by a targeted ransomware group in 2020. India and Australia logged the highest number of incidents across APAC.
Dubbed as “Ransomware 2.0”, this type of attack goes beyond kidnapping a company’s or an organization’s data. These groups are now utilizing the increasingly valued digital reputation to force their preys to pay hefty ransom.

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Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine causing more allergic reactions than expected

On Monday, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official said the US is looking at why some people have suffered severe allergic reactions shortly after Alkis Togias, chief of the NIAID’s Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch, told CNBC that “several hundred people” who have a history of severe allergic reactions will be involved in a study.

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After RBI rap, fintech grouping comes out with code of conduct for industry

The RBI circular cited reports that spoke about excessive rates of interest and additional hidden charges demanded from borrowers, adoption of “unacceptable and high-handed recovery methods” and also misuse of agreements to access data on the mobile phones of the borrowers.
In a statement, FACE, which is formed by EarlySalary, KreditBee, Kissht, CashE, and LoanTap, said maintaining an ethical code of conduct with “larger accountability and transparency is essential for enabling robust financial inclusion in India”.

The code speaks on transparency, disclosure of all costs to customers, pricing and cost of credit, fair treatment, collection, fair treatment, data privacy and resolution of grievances.

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China launches antitrust probe into tech giant Alibaba

It follows China’s dramatic suspension last month of Ant’s planned $37 billion initial public offering, which had been on track to be the world’s largest, just two days before shares were due to begin trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

In a strongly worded editorial, the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily said that if “monopoly is tolerated, and companies are allowed to expand in a disorderly and barbarian manner, the industry won’t develop in a healthy, and sustainable way”.

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1 in 10 gamers have had their ID stolen, $347bn at risk

According to global research by cyber-security firm Kaspersky, a third (33 per cent) of gamers have suffered at the hands of cheats.

According to the 5,031 gamers surveyed across 17 countries, nearly a fifth (19 per cent) have also been bullied while playing.

All of these combined cause stress and anxiety in 31 per cent of the games surveyed.
For companies like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, 2020 has been a record-breaking sales year as millions stayed home during the pandemic.

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Massive cyberattacks that shook the world in 2020

The biggest of them perhaps came to light towards the end of the year when cybersecurity company FireEye earlier this month revealing that it became a target of hackers who accessed tools that the company uses to test its customers’ security.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, suspected Russian hackers installed a malware in the Orion software sold by the IT management company SolarWinds, and accessed sensitive data belonging to several US government agencies, at least one hospital and a university.

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