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San Francisco, Dec 15 (IANS) Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia, media reported on Thursday.

He was sentenced in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, reports NBC News.

Abouammo was found guilty by a US court in August this year for accessing private information in the accounts of certain Twitter users, and providing that information to officials in Saudi Arabia.

Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah -- two Twitter employees -- and Saudi national Ahmed Almutairi, aka Ahmed Aljbreen, were charged in 2019 for acting as illegal agents of the Saudi government in the US.

Abouammo was also charged with destroying, altering, or falsifying records in a federal investigation.

In the trial, the prosecution argued that a prominent member of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's government tapped Abouammo for help investigating his enemies.

"In 2018, Saudi government agents murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, Virginia resident and frequent critic of the regime," The Verge reported.

According to the complaint by the US Department of Justice, between November 2014 and May 2015, Almutairi, 30, of Saudi Arabia, and foreign officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia convinced Abouammo and Alzabarah to use their employee credentials to gain access without authorisation to certain nonpublic information about the individuals behind certain Twitter accounts.

"Specifically, representatives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal Family sought the private information of Twitter users who had been critical of the regime," read the complaint.

Such private user information included their email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and dates of birth.

This information could have been used to identify and locate the Twitter users who published these posts.

The complaint alleged that Abouammo was compensated for his illicit conduct, including through the provision of a luxury watch and cash.

Abouammo was arrested in Seattle, Washington in November 2019, while Alzabarah and Almutairi are believed to be in Saudi Arabia. Federal warrants have been issued for their arrest.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport developers have targeted capital outlay of nearly Rs 98,000 crore in the airport sector in the next five years for expansion and modification of existing terminals, new terminals and strengthening of runways, among other activities, the Parliament was told on Thursday.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen V.K. Singh (retd) told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that upgradation or modernisation of airports' infrastructure is a continuous process and is undertaken by the AAI and other airport developers from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand/willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports.

The reply said that the project costs of nine operationalised Greenfield airports are: Durgapur Rs 670 crore, Shirdi Rs 320 crore, Pakyong Rs 553.53 core, Kannur Rs 2,342 crore, Kalaburagi Rs 175.57 crore, Orvakal (Kurnool) Rs 187 crore, Sindhudurg Rs 520 crore, Kushinagar Rs 448 crore, and Donyi Polo, Itanagar Rs 646 crore.

Moreover, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Guwahati, and Ahmedabad airports have earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 10,550 crore, Rs 13,552 crore, Rs 6,288 crore, Rs 1,383 crore, Rs 567 crore, Rs 1,232 crore and Rs 376 crore, respectively, for the period 2019-25.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued a related Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) to lay down requirements for aerodromes infrastructure. The CAR is based on the International Standards and Recommended Practices for Aerodromes as published in Annexure - 14 to the Convention on Civil Aviation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, he added.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) Amid the FTX collapse saga, customers withdrew $1.14 billion in just 12 hours from leading crypto exchange Binance and according to its CEO, the massive withdrawals were "handled with ease" and "things seem to have stabilised" now.

Customers pulled billions of dollars of funds from the exchange, amid fears about the state of the cryptocurrency industry following the collapse of FTX and arrest of its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), from the Bahamas by the US authorities.

Changpeng Zhao tweeted that this was "not the highest withdrawals we processed, not even top 5".

The CEO said deposits are returning to Binance.

"Things seem to have stabilized. Yesterday was not the highest withdrawal we processed, not even top 5. We processed more during LUNA or FTX crashes. Now deposits are coming back in," he tweeted on Wednesday.

"We saw some withdrawals today (net $1.14b ish). We have seen this before. Some days we have net withdrawals; some days we have net deposits. Business as usual for us. I actually think it is a good idea to 'stress test withdrawals' on each CEX on a rotating basis," he posted.

Since the bankruptcy of FTX, Binance has been seeking to prove it has all of its customers' reserves.

This would differentiate it from FTX, which got into trouble by lending customer funds to its sibling trading firm Alameda Research, reports South China Morning Post.

"In the wake of recent events, it's imperative we develop new systems that allow users to access continuous on-chain verification of their assets in custody to regain user trust and once again prove that crypto is more secure and transparent than traditional finance," the company said in a statement.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last month after its possible merger with leading crypto exchange Binance did not materialise.

Following his arrest in the Bahamas, US authorities have officially charged Bankman-Fried with defrauding equity investors and he faces up to 115 years in prison, if convicted.

The SEC report said that Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically mentioning the platform's sophisticated, automated risk measures to the investors.

However, the complaint claims Bankman-Fried allegedly orchestrated a years-long fraud to conceal from FTX's investors.

"We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto," SEC Chair Gary Gensler had said in a statement.

--IANS
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By Archana Sharma
Melbourne, Dec 15 (IANS) Cyber attacks are only going to increase in volume and as hackers use more sophisticated means to hit organisations, the need of the hour is to build cyber security for mass markets as it is no longer confirmed to niche markets only, Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at Cisco, has said.


In an interaction with IANS on the sidelines of ‘CISCO Live' event organised here recently, he said that cyber attacks have gone bigger as the sophistication of threats has gone higher.

"Sophistication of attackers has gone higher than what it was 5 to 7 years back. As technology seems to be going complex, users are seen making mistakes due to which breaches are happening. In this case, we are playing our part by ensuring that we build technology which is simple," Patel said.

"The disadvantage with attackers is that they have to be right once but you have to be right every single time," he added.

Highlighting the current crisis where cyberattacks and phishing etc have increased significantly, Patel said, "Security needs to be democratised. The entire system needs an overhaul where formal training is required for a user as well. This is because cyber attacks are becoming sophisticated".

"A person receives a packet delivered on Amazon, and that's how phishing attack starts; we need to train administrators, as well as users. Also, software companies need to be trained that they don't make products which have higher friction rate. Instead, simpler products should be made as complexity decreases efficacy while simplification enhances the same," the Cisco executive noted.

Brushing aside the challenges of a slowdown, he said, "We aren't seeing a slowdown, but are busy doing our job by innovating in a better way than we did yesterday. This is the way one can always stay ahead of the market."

"Most companies have to think that it is hard to ignore security spend and it is equally hard to ignore people to stay connected, these are core elements on how companies operate so connectivity and security shall stay in demand," he added.

On current trends, he said, "Right now, we have no plans of trimming, we are actually doing just the opposite, we are investing in businesses and are growing headcount year on year, but these are things hard to predict what will happen, what we can say is that we need to be sure about success, we need to access customer experience and continue to innovate, bring best people on board and make sure they have the opportunities to keep doing innovation."

Patel emphasised the fact that hybrid working seems to be the order of the day.

Speaking on a big transformation being seen from pre-pandemic to post pandemic era, he said, "Hybrid working has emerged as a new order of the day. During the pandemic, we flipped overnight and added 1800 features in the first two years. Our innovation went up during this time."

Now, even as we go hybrid, we continue to innovate, he said, adding that the world will be better if network security, secure connectivity, zero trust, application security and threat detection and response are delivered on time.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena has approved the proposal to convene the first meeting of the newly-elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi on January 6, 2023, an official said on Thursday.

The proposal to this effect was moved by the MCD Commissioner to the Urban Development Department, requesting the LG's approval to convene the first meeting of the MCD.

After the file was approved by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who hold charge of the Urban Development Department, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, it was sent to Raj Niwas on December 14 and the LG accorded his approval on the file on the same day itself.

As per sub-Section (1) of Section 35 of DMC Act, "the Corporation shall at its first meeting in each year, elect one of its members to the Chairperson to be known as the Mayor and another Member to be the Dy. Mayor of the Corporation".

As per Section 77 of the Act, the presiding officer at the meeting for election of Mayor shall be a Councillor who is not a candidate for such election and shall be nominated by the LG.

As per Section (3) of DMC Act, 1957, the Corporation shall consist of the Councillors, Members of Lok Sabha and Members of Rajya Sabha from Delhi, 1/5th of the members of the Delhi Assembly nominated by the Speaker by rotation every year, and 10 persons to be nominated by the Administrator.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) As the Indian digital payments and financial services leader Paytm continues to show strong growth, the company on Monday shared an exchange filing about its operating metrics for October and November.

The company's annualised run rate for the loan distribution business is now Rs 39,000 crore ($4.8 billion.)

In the two months, Paytm has distributed 6.8 million loans (y-o-y growth of 150 per cent), aggregating to loan disbursements of Rs 6,292 Cr ($774 million, y-o-y growth of 374 per cent).

"We see a significant growth runway given low current penetration, while we continue to work with our partners to remain focused on the quality of the book," said the company in its exchange filing.

The company's leadership in offline payments strengthens with merchants paying subscriptions for payment devices exceeding 5.5 million. "With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives higher payment volumes and subscription revenues, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution," said the company.

The usage of Paytm Super App has also hit another high as the company said its average monthly transacting users (MTU) is at 84 million for the two months ended November 2022, up 33 per cent y-o-y .

This consumer and merchant ecosystem has led the company to amass merchant payment volumes (GMV) for the two months ended November 2022 at Rs 2.28 lakh crore ($28 billion), y-o-y growth of 37 per cent.

Paytm has been in the news for its proposed buyback. The company's board will be meeting on December 13 to discuss the plan, and only after an approval will Paytm share more details with the exchanges.

However, the news of a buyback has instilled investor confidence as it shows that the Paytm management is sure of its growth and profitability plans.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a circular related to TDS deduction from salaries has said that any person responsible for paying salary must deduct income tax while paying the amount.

The circular said that the tax should be deducted at the average rate calculated, based on the rates in force for the current financial year, on the estimated salary income of the recipient for that year.

The circular was issued last week by CBDT.

The circular basically explains the obligation of employers with regard to the deduction of tax at source from salaries under section 192 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for Financial Year 2022-23.

As per Section 192, the person responsible for paying salary income must provide the recipient with a statement giving correct and complete particulars of perquisites or profits in lieu of salary provided to him and the value thereof.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) Air India is learnt to be in talks for acquiring 500 aircraft worth a few billions dollars from two major manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, according to reports.

The deal is said to be part of Tata Group's efforts to revive Air India, reports in a section of media said.

As per reports, the orders are learnt to include both narrow-bodied and wide-bodied jets.

The developments though could not be confirmed, they added.

As part of Air India's revival, the Tata group has unveiled "Vihaan.AI", a transformation plan.

The new plan is a comprehensive multi-stage revival roadmap to catapult Air India into a world-class airline and claim at least 30 per cent market share in the domestic market in the next five years.

Vihaan.AI has been developed after extensive feedback from Air India employees and focusses on five key pillars - exceptional customer experience, robust operations, industry-best talent, industry leadership and commercial efficiency and profitability.

As part of its medium to long term strategy, Air India will focus on building for excellence and establishing scale.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Dec 11 (IANS) The US state of Indiana has sued popular social media app TikTok over safety and security breaches.

According to BBC, Todd Rokita, Indiana's attorney general, has accused TikTok's parent company ByteDance of violating the state's consumer protection laws.

The state claims that the app fails to protect young people's privacy.

TikTok says its policies take youth well-being into consideration, and that it is confident that it could satisfy US national security concerns, according to the report.

The state filed two lawsuits claiming that the app exposes young users to inappropriate content and that it does not disclose the Chinese government's ability to access sensitive consumer information.

The court documents revealed that "TikTok is a wolf in sheep's clothing. As long as TikTok is permitted to deceive and mislead Indiana consumers about the risks to their data, those consumers and their privacy are easy prey," said the report.

The complaint says that the app's algorithm promotes a variety of inappropriate content, including "alcohol, tobacco, and drugs; sexual content and nudity; and intense profanity".

A TikTok spokesperson said, "the safety, privacy and security of our community is our top priority".

The app has age-limiting and parental control features, and the company is investing in further content controls, said the company.

Back in October, British filmmaker Emmeline Hartley slammed the Chinese short-form video app TikTok for allowing abusive comments in a video.

The comment section of the video about sexual consent was filled with allegations from men accusing women of assault.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) Hospitality major and IPO-bound OYO on Saturday said it is downsizing 10 per cent of its 3,700-strong workforce, laying off 600 employees while hiring 250 fresh members in the team.

OYO is merging its product and engineering teams for smoother functioning, according to the company.

"OYO is downsizing its product and engineering, corporate headquarters and the OYO vacation homes teams, while it adds people to the partner relationship management and the business development teams," the company said in a statement.

"OYO will downsize 10 per cent of its 3700-employee base, which includes fresh hiring of 250 members and letting go of 600 employees," it added.

According to the hospitality major, "the downsizing in tech is also happening in teams which were developing pilots and proof of concepts such as in-app gaming, social content curation and patron-facilitated content".

"Additionally, members of projects which have now been successfully developed and deployed such as 'Partner SaaS' are being either let go or are being redeployed in core product & tech areas such as AI-driven pricing, ordering and payments," it added.

IPO-bound hospitality tech player OYO has surprised the industry observers by posting a positive EBITDA of Rs 10 crore in the first quarter of FY23 -- against the backdrop of Rs 472 crore EBITDA loss in FY22.

The key drivers of this recovery, according to the information filed by the company, were higher monthly revenue per hotel due to increase in occupancy rates and more homes being added to the platform.

The company said that "it will be adding 250 members primarily in its relationship management teams to ensure better consumer and partner satisfaction and in business development teams to help scale up the number of hotels and homes on its platform".

"Every member of the OYO team and I myself will proactively endorse the strength of each of these employees. It is unfortunate that we are having to part ways with a lot of these talented individuals who have made valuable contributions to the company," said Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, OYO.

As integration of various functions of its European vacation homes business progresses, it is downsizing in some parts of the business to increase efficiency and harness synergies.

The company said it has also reassessed its corporate headquarter base afresh and is merging congruent roles and flattening team structures where needed.

--IANS
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