Processor manufacturer Intel can be doubly happy. First, an EU court lifted an old billion-dollar fine against Intel, then Intel’s latest quarterly figures show new record sales, albeit with falling profits. MEPs, on the other hand, are calling for stricter action against disinformation and a ban on spyware – a brief overview of the most important reports.
Intel has his sales could increase again both in the fourth quarter of 2021 and in the entire last year. This was mainly due good deals on data center products and on higher revenue from desktop PC products. Increasing demand from corporate customers is bringing more revenue to Intel than ever before. However, profits declined because the Operating expenses increase.
In addition to Intel’s positive financial figures, there is a court decision that is positive for the company, because that Court of the European Union has a twelve years ago by the EU Commission €1.06 billion fine imposed on Intel overturned. In the decision at that time, the EU competition watchdogs did not sufficiently explain how Intel’s discounts for hardware manufacturers or dealers had a negative impact on competition. That is why the EU court has declared the EU billion fine against Intel to be null and void.
the European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference does not call for penalties but raises the alarm: the European public and government officials are aware of the extent of the Threat from foreign autocratic regimes like Russia or China “predominantly” unaware. Insufficient defensive measures made it easier for malicious actors to take over critical infrastructure and launch cyberattacks. That is why MEPs are calling for a strict sanctions regime against disinformation and to ban spyware such as Pegasus.
Polkit regulates the authorizations for communication of software in the user context, for example with privileged services, comparable to the Windows user account control; it is by default on practically all current Linux distributions Installed. One security breach in Polkit allows users to escalate their privileges on the system. Patches against root access under Linux through the Polkit vulnerability are already available for many distributions.
Because of a flawed verification mechanism all apply certificates, created by the Let’s Encrypt project using this particular one as faulty issued. Hence Let’s Encrypt withdraws these certificates from Friday this week. The Let’s Encrypt project provides free TLS certificates for web servers, for example. To do this, the project automates everything, right down to checking whether a domain belongs to the requesting person or organization. But after verification errors, Let’s Encrypt withdraws certain certificates prematurely.
Also important:
- In simple numbers, Google Drive detects copyright infringement. Even a text file with only the number 1 was blocked because Google’s algorithms classify numbers as copyright infringement.
- After Intel, other companies are presenting their financial figures for the last quarter or last year today, including SAP, Samsung, Software AG, Mastercard, STMicroelectronics, Northrop Grumman and LG Electronics. Apple will follow later in the evening.
- The Federal Court of Justice ruled today on the real name requirement on Facebook. In the two cases, users kept their profile under a pseudonym. Then they were blocked. The Munich Higher Regional Court had recently seen Facebook as right.
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