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Morocco‘s social security agency said troves of data were stolen from its systems in a cyberattack this week that resulted in personal information being leaked on the messaging app Telegram. The North African kingdoms social security fund administers pensions and insurance benefits to millions of private sector workers, from assembly line laborers to corporate executives. It said in a statement Wednesday that preliminary investigations suggest the leak resulted from hackers bypassing its security systems. The agency did not say who was thought to be responsible for the leak while also claiming that many of the documents posted were misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete. The hackers who posted the documents on Telegram said the attack was in response to alleged Moroccan harassment of Algeria on social media platforms, pledging additional cyberattacks if Algerian sites were targeted. Moroccan media have attributed the attack to Algerian hackers, describing it as an episode in a larger cyberwar between the two countries. Relations between Algeria and Morocco have recently deteriorated to historic lows. The countries have withdrawn their ambassadors, closed their embassies and respective airspaces. Algeria’s support for the Polisario Front, a pro-independence movement fighting Morocco over the disputed Western Sahara, is among the roots of the tensions. Some of the leaked information touches on deeply sensitive issues in Morocco. Among the leaked documents is salary information that, if accurate, would reflect vast inequalities that continue to plague Morocco despite its strides in economic development. The trove includes unverified financial data on executives of state-owned companies, political parties, figures associated with the royal family’s holding company and charity fund, and the Israeli liaison office in Rabat. Morocco’s National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data said on Thursday that it stood ready to investigate complaints from people targeted in the leak. Mustapha Baitas, Moroccos government spokesperson, linked the attack to what he said was growing support for Morocco in the conflict from the international community something he said disturbs the enemies of our country to the point of attempting to harm it through these hostile actions. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week said he supported Moroccos plan for the disputed territory, a statement Algeria criticized on Thursday. During his first term in office, President Donald Trump shifted Washington’s longstanding position in 2020 to back Moroccos sovereignty over the territory. President Joe Bidens administration neither reversed nor openly supported the policy. Sam Metz, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
African nations that faced some of the steepest reciprocal tariffs from the Trump administration were given a moment of relief Thursday by the suspension of the duties, only for new uncertainties to hang over key businesses sending clothing and textiles, vanilla and fruit to the United States. Lesotho, Madagascar and South Africa were threatened with some of the highest tariff rates under U.S. President Donald Trumps plan. Lesotho, a tiny mountain kingdom, was stunned by the 50% duties that were due to come into effect Wednesday before Trump announced a 90-day pause on the levies. It was the second highest tariff rate after China. This will give us the opportunity to negotiate the reduction of tariffs so that the playing field is levelled, Lesotho Trade and Industry Minister Mokhethi Shelile said in response to the suspension. Its a serious issue for us, but we are tackling it head-on. Many like Lesotho had already sent trade delegations to Washington or were willing to negotiate, with some of their most important industries and tens of thousands of jobs hinging on the outcome. Lesotho makes American clothing brands Nearly half of Lesothos 30,000 clothing and textile workers depend on jobs making apparel for American brands like Levis, Nike, Reebok and others, which are exported to the U.S. Clothing and textiles is the biggest private employer in the country of just 2.3 million people. Lesothos most pressing problem is that regional competitors like Kenya and Eswatini had been assigned much lower tariffs for their exports some as much as 40% lower. Officials warned that the competitive disadvantage would likely shut down more than a dozen Lesotho factories and eliminate more than 12,000 jobs unless they can significantly reduce their 50% tariff rate in negotiations. The problem arises when countries like Eswatini receive a 10% tariff while were hit with 50%. These are the very countries we compete against, Shelile said. Lesothos clothing industry had braced itself for the 50% tariffs this week, with some saying it was the sector’s worst time since the COVID-19 pandemic. I dont fully understand whats happening, but I heard on the radio that our jobs are at risk, said machine operator Mareitumetse Lesia, who was on a lunch break during a nine-hour shift stitching together Levis jeans in one factory. I hope its not true. I know what its like to have nothing to eat. The world’s biggest vanilla producer In Madagascar, which produces 80% of the worlds vanilla, that industry felt better as soon as the tariffs suspension was confirmed, said Georges Geeraerts, the president of the Madagascar Vanilla Exporters Group. Madagascar had faced 47% duties on exports to the U.S. But there were other complications. Exporters were now rushing their vanilla to the U.S. by far Madagascars biggest market in the hope that it would arrive while tariffs are still suspended. Cargo ships take 70-90 days to reach the U.S. from the Indian Ocean island and exporters didnt know what duties might be imposed when the product got there given the abrupt changes in policy by the Trump administration. All our American customers have been asking us since this morning to load the vanilla onto the cargo ships, so that we can meet the deadlines, said one exporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the orders. A 25-year-old trade agreement facing termination South Africas citrus industry said the original 30% tariffs for its country had threatened 35,000 jobs and the economies of entire towns that are geared to exporting oranges and other citrus fruits to the U.S. when they are out of season in North America. The suspension of the reciprocal tariffs gave South Africa’s biggest agricultural export breathing space, said Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa CEO Boisthoko Ntshabele. But they also faced the new reality that the first citrus fruit of the year going to the U.S. this week from South Africa would be taxed at the 10% across the board tariff the U.S. has kept in place still a significant blow, though less severe than the 30% duties initially announced. South African citrus had previously been given tariff-free access to the U.S. under the 25-year-old African Growth and Opportunity Act that benefits dozens of African nations. Many fear that agreement will not be renewed when it expires in September. South African Trade Minister Parks Tau said it would be very difficult to keep AGOA given the Trump administration’s stance. Ntshabele said South Africa’s citrus growers were urging that their product be exempt from tariffs given they worked in tandem with U.S. farmers to provide fruit to American consumers at different times of the year. South African citrus growers do not directly threaten the jobs or incomes of citrus growers in places like California, Florida and Texas, Ntshabele said. Gerald Imray, Associated Press Associated Press writers Keketso Phakela in Maseru, Lesotho; and Sarah Tetaud in Antananarivo, Madagascar, contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Nokia Bell Labs has a long, storied historyproducing Nobel Prize winners, creating innovative new technologies, and bolstering critical infrastructure that underlies most of the devices we all use every day. This week, it held a special event at its Murray Hill, New Jersey campus to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and it featured appearances by politicians like New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, business leaders, and even a robot named Porcupine. The expansive campus houses a number of laboratories where, over the past century, numerous groundbreaking discoveries and inventions have been made or perfected, including cell phones, transistors, and solar cells. Nokia acquired Bell Labs in 2016 when it purchased Alcatel-Lucent. The vast complex is mostly empty now, as it was built for a time when thousands of workers would fill its labs and offices. As a part of the anniversary celebrations, Fast Company was able to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the complex, and several of the projects and laboratories that are working on new and advancing technologieslabs that are typically shut away from the public eye. Despite Bell Labs relatively small in-office workforce, there are still researchers and scientists toiling away on numerous projects, which include augmenting undersea data cable technology, creating real-time AI platforms to increase mining operations, and new tech related to telecommunications devices and arrays. This is all largely tech that flies under the publics radar, but is critical for supporting cell phones and wireless internet works. For example, because of the work thats been done at Bell Labs and other facilities over the past couple of decades, much of our wireless and telecom infrastructure was able to handle the surge in demand due to the pandemic, when much of work and schooling was done remotely. If the pandemic had occurred a decade earlier, one researcher said, it would have crippled us. There was also a demonstration related to Nokias ongoing Industrial GPT research, which includes training robots to understand and react to voice commands. One demonstration even included a robot named Porcupine that has the ability to find specific containers in a warehouse-like setting or figure out if inventory is missing, and how to replace it. The company is also hard at work on quantum computing projects, which have massive potential, if ever fully realized. Michael Eggleston, a physicist and Research Group Leader at Nokia, says that despite what some business leaders say, quantum computers are real, and theyre here. However, there are many different types that can be used for different aims. Whether or not the technology convergesthats the big question, he says. In effect, Eggleston and others are working on perfecting the underlying quantum technology before bringing quantum computing products and services to the market, where they stand to exponentially increase computing power across the boardsomething that could potentially dwarf the changes AI tech has recently brought to the world. The event also served as something of a swan song for the Bell Labs complex, as Nokia is preparing to transplant its labs and researchers to the new HELIX complex in nearby New Brunswick. That move is planned to be completed by 2028.
Category:
E-Commerce
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