MTN Users to Send Cash on Ayoba App, Slack Files Antitrust Claim Against Teams, and US Charges Two Chinese Over Covid-19 Research Hack

Africa

MTN’s Ayoba chat app allows MoMo transfers

MTN’s Ayoba messaging app now allows users to make mobile money transfers, it has been revealed. Users will be able to make cash transfers using the chat function. “The activation of the MoMo feature for MTN subscribers on Ayoba will contribute to deepening financial inclusion and further promote the use of digital options for financial transactions”, Dario Bianchi, MTN’s Digital Services Consultant said of the new feature. MTN users can use Ayoba without any data charges. They can also make MoMo transfers of GHS 100 free of charge, while transfers to non-MTN users come at a fee.

Ghana delays DTT switchover due to coronavirus

Ghana has delayed the Digital Terrestrial Television switchover due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has been reported. The country was supposed to switch from its analogue system in June 2020. “We are faced with a pandemic which makes it difficult to complete the switchover process because of the cost implications on broadcasters,” Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said. The Ministry is yet to set a new deadline for the final switchover.

Europe

Slack files anti-competition claims in EU against Microsoft Teams

Slack has filed an antitrust complaint in the EU against Microsoft over its Teams app, the BBC has reported. The work messaging board has said Microsoft’s bundling of Teams as part of its Office 365 software was an illegal anti-competitive practice. Slack said the process made it hard to sell their own services to the market. Slack’s vice president of communications and policy, Jonathan Prince, said, “We want to be the 2% of your software budget that makes the other 98% more valuable; they want 100% of your budget every time.” In their response, Microsoft said, “We created Teams to combine the ability to collaborate with the ability to connect via video, because that’s what people want.” They added that Slack didn’t have the video-conferencing tool that users needed.

England’s tracing app breaks GDPR law

Privacy campaigners have accused England’s coronavirus contact-tracing app of breaking the EU’s GDPR data laws, it has been revealed. The Department of Health has conceded its app didn’t consider the impact on user privacy. As such, Open Rights Group (ORG), the organisation behind the claim, say the practice has been illegal since it was launched. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, meanwhile, says, data haven’t been used unlawfully. “In no way has [there] been a breach of any of the data that has been stored,” he said. ORG has threatened to go to court to force government to include a data protection impact assessment for all projects that collect personal information.

The Americas

US charges two Chinese for COVID-19 research

The United States has charged two Chinese nationals for targeting COVID-19 research in a global hacking campaign, TechCrunch has reported. The two, Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, were said to be working for Beijing in a decade-long hacking campaign that targeted companies and governments around the world. Their most recent crimes were said to involve targeting companies involved in COVID-19 research in the United States. They have also been accused of targeting organisations in the EU, Australia, and South Korea.

Apple cofounder sues YouTube over Bitcoin scam

Apple cofounder, Steve Wozniak, is suing YouTube after his videos were allegedly used to defraud people in a Bitcoin scam, the BBC has reported. The scam asked people to send cryptocurrency with the hope of receiving twice as much in return; this is similar to the Twitter hack. YouTube is being sued by others from the UK, Canada, US, Japan, China, Malaysia, and some parts of Europe. “YouTube, like Google, seems to rely on algorithms and no special effort requiring custom software employed quickly in these cases of criminal activity. If a crime is being committed, you must be able to reach humans capable of stopping it,” Mr Wozniak said, adding that if YouTube had acted early enough, the situation would have been salvaged.

Asia

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars rover leaves earth

China has finally launched its first rover mission to Mars, a BBC report has said. The six-wheeled device lifted off Earth via a Long March 5 rocket. The “Questions to Heaven” will not land on the Red Planet for another few months, allowing engineers to assess atmospheric conditions first. “According to the aerospace control centre, the Long March 5 Y-4 rocket is in normal flight, and the probe to Mars has accurately entered the preset orbit. I now declare the launch of China’s first Mars exploration mission a complete success,” Zhang Xueyu, the Hainan base commander said. The UAE also launched its Hope satellite within the week hoping to learn more about Mars.

Game with secret Morse code removed from China

A mobile game has been removed in China after its music director was discovered to have created a song which included a hidden pro-Hong Kong message, it has been reported. The Cytus II musical rhythm game was produced by Taiwan’s Rayark Games with music by Wilson Lam. Users found that Lam had created a song on his Soundcloud account that had the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times”. The song had been posted in March, but Chinese netizens called for the game to be removed from online stores. Lam has since resigned from Rayark Games, saying the song was his private endeavour and had nothing to do with the game publisher. Rayark Games, meanwhile, condemned the act, adding that “…further collaboration with the artist will be stopped. We apologise for any impact from the incident and strongly condemn the action of the composer.” Morse code was invented in 1837 to send cryptic messages using dots and dashes.