News related to
Fake

By Nantoo Banerjee   The majority government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India’s detailed rebuttal to The Washington Post report claiming that the government directed LIC to invest $3.9 billion in the Adani group seems to lack the punch. A comparison of the lately sprouted Adani Group with some of India’s age-old business conglomerates such as […]

The article Adani Group’s Striking Rise Since 2014 Sparks Global Speculation appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

The Washington-based media outlet Radio Free Asia announced that it will suspend all editorial content production from Friday, citing critical funding shortfalls triggered by the federal government shutdown and delays in appropriations. The decision marks the first full shutdown of its news services since the broadcaster’s founding in 1996.

Chief Executive Bay Fang explained that the organisation is “forced to suspend all remaining news content production … for the first time in its 29 years of existence” and that operations in several overseas bureaus across Asia will close while staff are formally laid off and severance paid. The organisation reported that many employees have been on unpaid leave since March owing to previous funding cuts.

Analysts say the board’s move underscores a precarious moment for U. S.-backed international broadcasting. Radio Free Asia, which has delivered news in Mandarin, Burmese, Khmer, Korean, Vietnamese and Uyghur since the mid-1990s, has come under mounting pressure from a combination of political directives and fiscal constraints. In March the United States Agency for Global Media terminated its grant under a presidential executive order, prompting legal challenges. Over the following months the service slashed language operations, placed staff on extended leave and shrank its footprint.

The trigger for the complete pause is the failure of Congress to pass a full-year funding resolution, resulting in the federal shutdown beginning October 1 and the impasse over the 2026 fiscal year budget. The shutdown left USAGM unable to disburse new funding, forcing Radio Free Asia to exhaust reserves. The suspension leaves fewer than 30 employees in place, according to internal documents.

Supporters of the broadcaster warn that the shutdown of its services will leave a significant information gap in parts of Asia where independent media are scarce and press freedom is under threat. The outlet has been credited with investigative reporting on China’s Uyghur population, coverage of North Korean defectors and analysis of the 2021 Myanmar coup. Its multilingual services have made it one of the few external voices operating inside closed societies.

Critics of U. S. international broadcasting say that the funding model, which ties outlets to federal grants, is inherently unstable when funding is politicised. They argue that the reliance on appropriations makes such organisations vulnerable to shifts in administration priorities and partisan standoffs. The halt in operations at Radio Free Asia has already been welcomed by governments it has criticised, including Cambodia and China, which view the move as a blow to U. S. soft-power broadcasting efforts.

Industry observers note that other USAGM-funded broadcasters are also under strain. The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has retained legal protection via a court injunction but still faces cash-flow challenges. The broader trend suggests that U. S. international media assets may have thoroughly entered a phase of retreat just as global information competition—particularly from China and Russia—is intensifying.

The implications of the suspension extend beyond media-industry metrics. Some Asian governments that had viewed the broadcaster’s presence as adversarial are already reclaiming influence. Beijing had added state-run radio frequencies in regions formerly served by Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin service, and Phnom Penh’s leadership publicly thanked Washington in March for the cuts, calling them “a major contribution to eliminating fake news” in the region.

Genians and RASInfotech are set to showcase a unified cybersecurity stack centred on Network Access Control, Endpoint Detection & Response and Universal Zero Trust Network Access at GITEX 2025, positioning their approach as a path to measurable security outcomes in the Middle East and Africa.

At the heart of their presentation is the proposition that NAC is not just an access control tool but a foundational anchor for Zero Trust adoption. With RASInfotech acting as their MEA distributor, Genians claims to deliver seamless transitions from on-premises NAC systems to cloud-managed deployment models with no operational downtime, while extending enforcement to both IT and OT environments.

Genians’ EDR offering, emphasised as on-premises to satisfy data sovereignty demands, is promoted as a complement to NAC—working together to fortify visibility, threat response, and enforcement. Executives point to deployments in sectors such as government, healthcare and retail across the MEA region to validate their approach.

Cybersecurity demand in the region is rising sharply. The Middle East cyber market is projected to expand significantly in coming years. Observers note that adversaries are increasingly adopting AI-driven techniques such as deepfake phishing, polymorphic malware and supply chain intrusions, making traditional perimeter defences inadequate. At GITEX, solutions built on identity, device context and continuous monitoring are gaining traction.

To that end, Genians intends to demonstrate how NAC and EDR modules integrate into a unified Zero Trust architecture—eschewing fragmented SASE modules in favour of a cohesive platform. Their roadmap emphasises enforcement from the network layer outwards, rather than additive overlays. The company also claims to have identified threat campaigns—such as a North Korean cyber espionage operation leveraging ChatGPT—that its platform is capable of detecting and analysing, reinforcing its real-world efficacy.

Regional support is central to Genians’ strategy. RASInfotech maintains a technical support centre in India to offer 24/7 engineering backup across time zones, while a regional Korean government–backed cybersecurity initiative taps Genians and partner vendors to strengthen regional infrastructure resilience. The collaboration is framed around “regional sovereignty” in data control and local compliance alignment.

Within the channel ecosystem, the role of integrators and resellers is evolving. Traditional resellers are being pushed to become resilience architects—advisors that guide enterprises from legacy infrastructure to Zero Trust, rather than merely deploying point products. Genians and RASInfotech are reportedly investing in partner training, labs, and enablement to support that shift.

By Dr. Gyan Pathak Ban order on caste based political rallies issued by the Uttar Pradesh government on September 21, 2025 has significantly raised the political heat in the state, since it is likely to impact all political parties and political alliances,.. Nevertheless, the BJP led government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has opted for […]

The article Ban On Caste Based Political Rallies Raises Political Heat In Uttar Pradesh appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

Okta Threat Intelligence has uncovered a widespread campaign exploiting malicious online ads to tempt hotel and vacation rental professionals into disclosing access credentials. Attackers have been deploying paid search advertisements on platforms such as Google Search, impersonating familiar hospitality service providers. These deceptive ads lead victims to counterfeit login portals of cloud‑based property management and guest messaging systems, with the goal of harvesting usernames, passwords and one‑time authentication codes.

The adverts specifically mimic legitimate service providers—Okta researchers identified at least thirteen hospitality‑focused brands being spoofed. Rather than redirecting users to authentic company sites, these ads channel them to typosquatted domains that host visually convincing but fraudulent login pages. Through these pages, attackers collect credentials and MFA codes, undercutting security even when multi‑factor authentication is in place.

The phishing sites also incorporate tracking capabilities—collecting geolocation, session data, bot detection metrics and analytics—to better tailor the campaign and measure its effectiveness.

This strategy exemplifies the growing menace of malvertising, where advertisements themselves become vectors for malware distribution or phishing. Malwarebytes data reflects dramatic growth in such campaigns: a 42 per cent month‑on‑month escalation in fall 2023, followed by another rise of 41 per cent between July and September. Malicious ads frequently appear alongside legitimate search results, granting them apparent credibility and increasing the chance of successful deception.

Experts point out the dual advantage these tactics offer to threat actors: extensive reach through ad networks and a veneer of trust derived from the proximity to legitimate search results.

The hospitality sector faces unique vulnerabilities as hotels and rental operators increasingly rely on cloud systems to manage bookings, guest interactions and operational workflows. With projections indicating that by 2028 some 76 per cent of travel and tourism revenues will be generated online, these sectors have become especially tempting targets.

This campaign represents a convergence of two escalating cybersecurity concerns: the explosive growth of malvertising and the rising exposure of hospitality infrastructure to credential-based attacks. While the ads serve as the initial lure, the fraudulent credential capture enables potential downstream compromises across cloud services that manage guest data, reservations and even messaging systems.

For hotel and rental operators, the implications are severe—a breach of access credentials might cascade into broader system intrusions, guest data exposure and operational disruption. Preventive measures should include rigorous verification of URLs before entering credentials, vigilant monitoring of sponsored search results for impostor ads, widespread staff awareness and training, and robust technical controls like domain-based message authentication and behavioural anomaly detection.

Journalistic integrity demands careful cross-verification of details. Okta’s findings were drawn from their threat intelligence and threat detection capabilities tailored to enterprise identity environments. Malvertising trends are substantiated by independent cybersecurity data from industry researchers such as Malwarebytes. The convergence of these findings draws a consistent picture: the hospitality industry must brace for sophisticated phishing campaigns delivered via the same channels they rely on for marketing.

Dubai is poised to welcome a wave of new educational institutions in the 2025–26 academic year, with 25 private schools, early childhood centres, and universities slated to open their doors. This initiative is designed to add more than 11,700 school seats and 2,400 places at early childhood centres, significantly expanding learning options for families across the emirate.

Investors continue to express strong confidence in Dubai’s education sector. The new openings include six private schools offering a diversity of curricula—ranging from British to American and International Baccalaureate styles—16 early childhood centres, and three internationally renowned universities. These developments align closely with Dubai’s Education 33 strategy, which aims to elevate the emirate as a global centre for quality education and to boost its socio-economic growth.

The higher education expansion includes flagship additions: the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the American University of Beirut, and Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences. IIM Ahmedabad stands out with its global presence and reputation for top-tier business and management programmes, AUB holds a strong international ranking, and Fakeeh College brings expertise in medical sciences to the Dubai education landscape.

GEMS Education is also making headlines with the upcoming launch of the GEMS School of Research and Innovation in August 2025. Situated in Dubai Sports City, this school is being billed as Dubai’s most expensive to date, with a build cost of approximately US$100 million. It will follow the British National Curriculum and focus heavily on artificial intelligence, offering world-class facilities including an Olympic‑standard 50‑metre swimming pool and helipad. School fees are expected to be the highest in the country.

Regulatory oversight remains a critical component of Dubai’s educational expansion. The Knowledge and Human Development Authority has approved a 2.35 per cent Education Cost Index for tuition fee adjustments in for-profit private schools for 2025–26, based on audited financials. The ECI covers teacher and staff salaries, support services, and facility rentals. Established institutions—those operating for over three years—may apply for fee increases up to this limit, subject to KHDA review and quality assurance criteria.

This expansion comes amid growing enrolment demands. Sources suggest that student numbers across the UAE’s K‑12 segment are expected to rise sharply, with a forecast of over 150,000 new students by 2027. By 2040, higher education enrollment is also expected to more than double, necessitating an additional 10–15 branch campuses to cater to demand.

Dubai’s private education sector currently encompasses 331 early childhood centres, 233 private schools, and 44 higher education institutions. The forthcoming additions will further diversify program offerings and increase accessibility across the education spectrum.

Beyond capacity, this expansion reinforces strategic priorities. The new institutions are expected to support Dubai’s ambition to scale up educational tourism, foster a generation equipped for future-facing sectors, and reinforce its status as a major global economic and educational hub.