Google announces $4 million crisis fund battling President Trump"s immigration ban

January 30, 2017

Jan 30: Tech bigwigs across the globe are supporting immigrants stranded outside the US, courtesy President Trump"s immigration ban. Taking the concerns and offering support, Google has today announced its largest humanitarian fund in support for people impacted by this order.

googleThe $4 million crisis fund so announced is a mix of $2 million in donations from employees and the remaining $2 million directly being pooled in by the search giant. Google will be delivering the funds to numerous human rights and liberty organizations of the States, which include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), International Rescue Committee (IRC) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees / UN Refugee Agency (UNHR).

These organizations will channelize the received funds to aid immigrants stuck at airports or those who"re in urgent need of finding an accommodation. Further, the funds will also be utilized towards demonstrating outrage among the 50 states and carry out legal actions that counter the ban.

This fund marks the company"s largest crisis campaign ever and adds to the $16 million donations made by Google. Previously, the company has shown its support towards educational programs, internet access, technology development and poverty alleviation.

The mentioned campaign was initially publicized through an internal memo sent by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and was confirmed by a Google spokeswoman late Sunday to USA Today. It reported that Google has at least 187 staff members who could be affected by the said order relative to Muslim dominant countries like Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.

Exhibiting its concerns over the matter, a Google spokesperson commented,

We"re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the U.S.,We"ll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere.

The news comes just after the company recalled all of its employees abroad, who could potentially be impacted by the new order from the administration. Moreover, company"s co-founder Sergey Brin also participated in a protest at San Francisco International Airport.

Apart from Google, executives from Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb and Tesla Motors have also condemned the immigration order. The action so taken was temporarily postponed by a federal judge in New York Saturday night. The tech community"s steps towards the ban clearly state instability of President Trump"s immigrant order and measures.

So far, Lyft has been the single most vocal tech company to have openly condemned Trump administration"s order. It also donated a Million dollars to the ACLU.

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Agencies
April 4,2020

Kozhikode, Apr 4: In a bid to maintain the lockdown amid COVID-19 outbreak, Police in Kozhikode is monitoring the situation using drone cameras and making sure that people are not breaking the law.

The police have so far arrested 41 persons who were out on a morning walk on Saturday during the lockdown in the backdrop of coronavirus outbreak.

The SHO of Town South Police Station informed that the accused were later released on bail.
At least 295 cases have been reported in the state so far.

Talking about COVID-19 testing, State Health Minister KK Shailaja told media: "Nine labs are conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in Kerala. We've received 2000 rapid test kits and will start rapid tests from tomorrow. If a person tests positive in rapid test, we need to confirm it with PCR test."

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India climbed to 3072 on Saturday, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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Agencies
January 10,2020

Indian enterprises were flooded with a whopping 14.6 crore malware threats in 2019 - a growth of 48 per cent (year-on-year) compared to 2018, a new report said on Friday.

Manufacturing, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), education, healthcare, IT/ITES, and the government were the most at-risk industries in the country, said the report from Seqrite, the enterprise arm of Pune-based IT security firm Quick Heal Technologies.

Interestingly, almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the threats were identified through 'Signatureless behaviour-based' detection by Seqrite, indicating how a growing number of cybercriminals were deploying new or previously unknown threat vectors to compromise enterprise security.

"With the latest Seqrite annual threat report, we want to empower CIOs, CISOs, business leaders and all key public stakeholders with the insights they need to combat the growing complexity of the threat landscape," said Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and CTO, Quick Heal Technologies.

The most prominent trend was the drastic increase in the volume, intensity, and sophistication of cyber-attack campaigns targeting Indian enterprises in 2019.

The rapid integration of IoT devices, BYOD (bring your own device), and third-party APIs into enterprise networks has created newer security vulnerabilities that might go unnoticed until a major breach occurs.

Threat researchers at Seqrite observed several large-scale advanced persistent threats (APT) attacks deployed against organisations in the government sector.

"The entry of nation-states and organised cybercrime cells into the fray is expected to add more complication to this situation and will require Indian government bodies and corporate enterprises to shore up their cyber defence strategies in 2020 and beyond," the report noted.

More alarming, however, was the continued lack of security awareness amongst enterprises and government organisations.

"Unsecured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols continued to be targeted through brute-force attacks," said the report.

Spear phishing attack campaigns leveraging Office exploits and infected macros were also used extensively by cybercriminals to gain access to enterprise networks and steal critical data.

"India's digital journey depends on ensuring robust cybersecurity for all stakeholders within the enterprise ecosystem," said Katkar.

The sharp spike should be a cause of concern for CIOs and CISOs in the country, especially given the growing digital penetration within their enterprise networks.

"With network vulnerabilities and potential entry points increasing at a rapid pace, threat actors are expected to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to power their malware campaigns in the future to capitalise on newer attack vectors," the report added.

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Agencies
February 26,2020

Unnao, Feb 26: Ever heard of someone wishing a 'bright future' for the dead? In a bizarre incident in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, a village head issued a death certificate with the wish for an elderly man who had died last month.

The incident took place in the Sirwariya village in Asoha block where an elderly person Laxmi Shankar died after a prolonged illness on January 22.

His son went to the village head Babulal and requested him to issue a death certificate that he needed for some financial transactions.

Babulal not only issued the death certificate, but also 'wished' 'a bright future for the deceased' on the document.

The village head wrote in the death certificate -- "Main inke ujjwal bhavishya ki kaamna karta hoon (I wish him a bright future)."

The letter went viral on the social media on Monday after which the village head apologised for the error and issued a new death certificate.

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