Xiaomi to invest $10bn in electric vehicle race

Chinese phone maker Xiaomi is wading into electric vehicles with a $10bn (£7.3bn) investment over ten years. The Chinese tech giant’s goal is to “offer quality smart electric vehicles,” it said on Tuesday. Xiaomi is the world’s third largest smartphone maker behind Apple and Samsung, according to data firm Canalys. The company will be entering […]

US blacklists seven Chinese supercomputer groups

The US has blacklisted seven Chinese groups it accuses of building supercomputers to help its military. It is the first move by the Biden administration to make it harder for China to obtain US technology On Thursday, three companies and four branches of China’s National Supercomputing Center were added to the US blacklist. This bars […]

US gun violence: Biden takes action on ‘international embarrassment’

US President Joe Biden has issued an order targeting homemade guns, known as “ghost guns” because they are unregistered and untraceable. “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment,” he said on Thursday. The president is enacting new measures through an executive order, meaning he does not need approval from […]

NHS Covid-19 contact tracing app to share QR code venue check-ins

England and Wales’ contact tracing app will soon ask users to share details of venues they have checked in to, if they test positive for the coronavirus. The update to the NHS Covid-19 app will be deployed ahead of shops reopening in both nations on 12 April, as well as outdoor hospitality in England. The […]

Huawei’s business damaged by US sanctions despite success at home

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has admitted that sanctions imposed on it by the US in 2019 have had a major impact on its mobile phone business. The US took action amid claims that the company posed a security risk and last July, the UK said it would exclude the company from building its 5G network. […]

‘Fake’ Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

‘Fake’ accounts claiming to be Amazon workers have been praising their working conditions on Twitter. Votes are currently being counted in Alabama to decide whether Amazon warehouse workers will form a union. But last night, a series of anti-union tweets were sent from accounts claiming to be staff. Twitter has now suspended many of the […]

‘We have your porn collection’: The rise of extortionware

Cyber-security companies are warning about the rise of so-called ‘extortionware’ where hackers embarrass victims into paying a ransom. Experts say the trend towards ransoming sensitive private information could affect companies not just operationally but through reputation damage. It comes as hackers bragged after discovering an IT Director’s secret porn collection. The targeted US firm has […]

Petlog ‘misplaces’ pet owners’ details in database ‘cock-up’

A firm that has the registered details of more than nine million chipped pets across the UK has been accused of losing its customers’ data. Petlog is requesting that all users create a new account, but is not explaining why they need to do so. One dog owner told the BBC he had logged on […]