government services

AppWizard
December 5, 2025
Russia's state internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked Snapchat and imposed restrictions on Apple's FaceTime, accusing both platforms of facilitating terrorist activities and criminal operations. The agency stated that these apps were used to organize terrorist activities, recruit individuals, and commit fraud against citizens. Snapchat has been unavailable in Russia since October 10. This action is part of Russia's broader strategy to restrict digital communications, having already blocked major Western platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, along with messaging services such as Signal and Viber. Telegram's voice and video calls are also facing limitations. The Kremlin is promoting MAX, a state-controlled app that combines messaging, government services, and payments, which is mandatory on new mobile devices. WhatsApp has received warnings of a potential ban if Meta does not comply with law enforcement requests. Additionally, virtual private network services are increasingly being blocked by Russian authorities.
AppWizard
October 30, 2025
Cybersecurity researchers at zLabs have identified over 760 malicious Android applications that exploit Near Field Communication (NFC) and Host Card Emulation (HCE) technologies to steal payment data and facilitate fraudulent transactions. Since April 2024, these applications have evolved into a coordinated global operation targeting financial institutions in countries such as Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Brazil. The threat actors have established around 70 command-and-control servers and use Telegram bots for data exfiltration. The malicious apps impersonate about 20 legitimate entities, focusing on Russian banks and international institutions like Santander and Google Pay. They utilize various strategies to compromise payment credentials, including scanner and tapper tools, and employ simplified interfaces resembling legitimate banking portals. The malware activates a Host Card Emulation service during NFC payment events for real-time data relay. To evade detection, the threat actors use name masquerading, code obfuscation, and software packing techniques. This campaign represents a significant escalation in NFC-based financial fraud, highlighting the risks associated with NFC payment privileges.
AppWizard
October 20, 2025
On October 20, a significant internet disruption occurred due to an outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS), affecting platforms like Reddit, Fortnite, Snapchat, Canva, and Apple TV, as well as global government services. The issues began around midnight ET, peaking at 3 AM ET, with over 13,000 users reporting disruptions between 4 AM and noon ET. The outage was caused by a flaw in an internal system monitoring network load balancers within AWS's EC2 network, leading to increased error rates and latency. This incident has raised concerns about the reliance on a single cloud provider for essential internet functions and prompted discussions on the need for multi-region or multi-cloud strategies. Elon Musk criticized AWS, emphasizing the importance of diversification in cloud service providers.
AppWizard
October 5, 2025
Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Zoho, discussed the technological framework behind Arattai, the company's messaging and calling app, highlighting its extensive research and development. Arattai, launched in 2021, is built on proprietary frameworks developed in-house, enhancing performance, scalability, and security. The app’s real-time communication is powered by a custom-built messaging and audio-visual framework refined over 15 years, alongside a distributed computing framework perfected over two decades. Arattai aims to be a privacy-focused alternative to mainstream messaging apps, constructed entirely on Zoho's indigenous technology stack. Unique features include the Meetings tool for video conferencing, a built-in personal cloud storage space called Pocket, and a Mentions section for tracking tagged messages. Arattai maintains a no-ads policy and does not exploit user data for marketing, distinguishing it from WhatsApp.
AppWizard
September 4, 2025
Russian government minister Maksut Shadayev expressed concerns to President Vladimir Putin about foreign messaging apps like WhatsApp and proposed creating a "fully Russian messenger." Putin supported this idea and signed a law establishing a national messenger service, granting the status to the app Max, developed by VKontakte (VK). Roskomnadzor has begun restricting services like Telegram and WhatsApp due to their involvement in harmful activities, marking a significant effort to limit online freedoms since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Digital rights activists worry Max could facilitate government surveillance as it lacks end-to-end encryption, allowing data storage on VK's servers and sharing with law enforcement. Max's user base grew from 1 million to 30 million following a marketing campaign, and schools are now required to use it for official communications. Putin's administration is working to limit software from countries deemed unfriendly, putting WhatsApp's future in Russia in jeopardy. The status of Telegram remains uncertain, as the state has previously attempted to ban it but now utilizes it for communication. Recent legislation has criminalized searching for "extremist materials" and mandated migrant workers to install a surveillance app.
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