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Time of India
06-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Kaspersky looks to foray into tier-2 cities for expanding presence in India
By Simran Arora Da Nang: Cyber security firm Kaspersky is mulling to expand business partnerships with dealers and enterprises in India and is also looking to foray into tier two cities under its expansion plans for the country, a top official of the company said on Tuesday. Speaking with the media here, Adrian Hia, Kaspersky's Managing Director for Asia Pacific, said, "Definitely want to look into expanding into the tier two cities... We will continue to expand coverage through partners." Currently, the company has operations in three cities -- Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Kaspersky is actively scaling up its presence in India and has been hiring people, especially in research, global capability centres and threat intelligence roles. Over the past two years, Kaspersky has tripled its local workforce, with new hires across sales, pre-sales, technical support, and customer experience roles in India. It has embedded part of its global research teams in India, where experts monitor over 900 advanced persistent threat groups daily, supporting global threat intelligence operations . The company is expanding research resources and hiring analysts locally, especially for Digital Footprint Intelligence (DFI) work such as brand protection and takedowns. Kaspersky has highlighted plans to continue strengthening R&D capabilities in India, positioning it as a key innovation hub within its global operations. Although specific Global Competence Centres (GCCs) in India haven't been explicitly mentioned, the deployment of global research and analytic teams locally effectively serves that function. In the wake of rapid digitisation, he said that the company is looking at sectors like power and oil and gas.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mamdani's social media savvy comes at a cost
NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani's social media savvy helped catapult him to a historic win in the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor. But that same online oeuvre has been a target for critics looking to tarnish his luster ahead of the November general election. The democratic socialist has faced scrutiny for lyrics to a rap song posted online praising an organization convicted of aiding Hamas. He has come under attack for social media posts questioning FBI tactics in the leadup to the Obama-era killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, who was affiliated with al Qaeda. And his previous support for defunding the police — all laid out through statements on X — has also raised considerable hackles. At 33 years old, Mamdani is part of a generation of elected officials who grew up on the internet, a rearing that fosters fluency in the semiotics of TikTok and Instagram. It also often comes at a price: an extensive digital footprint that can, years later, be tracked all the way back to adolescence. And because Mamdani is unique in both his youth and the scale of the job he's seeking, traces of his online persona — and his salad days by extension — have been subjected to a level of scrutiny his older opponents can avoid. 'Every candidate should scrub their social media,' said New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, who was just 23 when he was elected. 'But I think that's very difficult to do. Once something is on the internet, it kind of lasts forever.' Mamdani's chief opponents in the general election, Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Eric Adams, have no such worries. Both are in their 60s and, despite decades of print and television interviews, lack a trail of off-the-cuff posts on Twitter, Facebook or other social media platforms that have bedeviled younger politicians at every level of government, including the vice president. Adams, for example, draws on a seemingly unending supply of unverifiable — and sometimes untrue — yarns about his formative years. Yet the incumbent's strained attempts at meme-dom and Cuomo's decision to launch his campaign with a 17-minute soliloquy show that older candidates lack an inherent feel for the type of digital hyping essential to reaching today's youth — which is tomorrow's median voter. (Case in point: Mamdani's troll of Cuomo's second launch video got 33 times the likes and, according to his campaign, led to its second-best day of fundraising since the primary.) So far, Mamdani is clearly winning online. During the primary, a pro-Cuomo super PAC drew from the state lawmaker's pixelated past in its pricey effort to tear down Mamdani and boost Cuomo. It didn't work: The democratic socialist beat the former governor by nearly 13 points, in part because of Mamdani's engaging online persona as well as the PAC's failure to effectively mine his digital footprint to Cuomo's advantage. More recently, resurfaced social media posts concerning Israel and his thoughts on free-market capitalism have stoked outrage among critics in right-leaning publications. The impact within the New York City electorate has been negligible as Mamdani basks in the afterglow of his win and gains more institutional backing. But the steady drumbeat of stories is helping national Republicans paint the nominee as the new face of a Democratic Party that has strayed too far to the left. 'Like the true Communist he is, Commie Mamdani supports the 'abolition of private property,'' Rep. Elise Stefanik wrote on X in reference to a past Mamdani podcast appearance. 'This is the NY Democrat Party @KathyHochul you lead and you have failed to condemn this dangerous insanity.' Mamdani's team said he's focused on his message and is not sweating previous social media posts. 'Corrupt politicians and political pundits want to keep talking about old tweets,' Communications Director Jeffrey Lerner said in a statement. 'Zohran's going to continue talking about his vision for an affordable New York that received historic support across all five boroughs.' The Queens lawmaker has found unique ways to convey components of that vision. On New Year's Day, a besuited Mamdani flung himself into the frigid ocean waters lapping at Coney Island to promote his promise to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants. After being accused of using artificial intelligence to fake fluency for a Spanish-language spot, he released a blooper reel showing him repeatedly tripping over pronunciations. Mamdani did a series of on-camera interviews with Trump voters in Queens. And he filmed himself on a mock date asking supporters to register as Democrats before a Valentine's Day deadline. The three-term state legislator's skill in crafting quick, effective and relatively cheap digital media spots was key to animating younger voters who mostly consume news and engage in political discourse on social media — and who turned out in record numbers to deliver Mamdani his primary day victory. Some of that success comes from a skill at retail politics that transcends medium. 'Part of the reason those videos are so effective is because he is interacting with people authentically,' Democratic strategist Jon Paul Lupo said. 'It's not enough to have been an online presence for 15 years, you have to have the sort of empathy and warmth that creates that direct connection because the camera is picking it up.' Andrew Epstein, creative director for the campaign, said having a message that resonated with voters was also key. 'His dynamism and his skill as a communicator — it gets you in the door,' he said. 'But then it's about what he's actually saying.' Mamdani's particular knack for virality also seems to stem from his innate comfort with social media. His digital profile is not as extensive as other politicians'. Most of his current social media accounts date back only to shortly before he was elected to state office in 2020. At some point, Mamdani switched his Twitter handle, though the posts under his current account date back to 2011, when he was 19. A POLITICO review of Mamdani's posts across several platforms showed a digital persona hallmarked by evolving, though consistently leftist politics dating back to the upstart candidate's teens. Between Twitter quips and plugs for his rap music as Mr. Cardamom, his online footprint charts the formation of a staunchly socialist politician whose messaging on issues like policing, Israel and capitalism is now coming under the microscope. During the primary, the pro-Cuomo super PAC Fix the City spent $22.4 million boosting Cuomo and attacking Mamdani, according to the latest figures from the city's Campaign Finance Board. The independent expenditure committee created mailers and advertisements that resurfaced press clips from the race as well as social media posts made by Mamdani following his 2020 election to the state Assembly. In one of Mamdani's Twitter posts circulated by the PAC, he writes, 'Defund it. Dismantle it,' in reference to the NYPD. In another post used in the ads, Mamdani shares a photo of himself behind the words, 'We demand: Defund the NYPD.' Mamdani said during the campaign he does not plan to defund the police. Though he does intend to reduce the NYPD's massive overtime budget and create a Department of Community Safety that would take certain functions, such as responding to mental health calls, away from officers. A Democratic consultant who was granted anonymity to frankly discuss campaign strategy said running against a candidate affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America typically entails two strategies: Paint them as too extreme in an effort to limit their support to only the most loyal leftists, or attack their credibility by exposing personal wealth or some other form of privilege. The pro-Cuomo super PAC chose the former. It did not succeed. "Fix the City's negative paid ads against Mamdani could have been more successful if there had been a viable third or fourth candidate in the race to steer anti-Cuomo votes to. But particularly in the final weeks, it was very clearly Mamdani vs. Cuomo,' the consultant said. 'This made the PAC's attacks on Mamdani less impactful, because whatever concerns voters had about him — and a lot of Mamdani voters had concerns — he still wasn't Andrew Cuomo." Epstein, Mamdani's creative director, said the campaign was able to reach vast numbers of voters at a fraction of the cost of broadcast spots, with video shoots typically costing in the low four-figures. In the month before the primary, Mamdani's Instagram content was viewed 236 million times, with 62 percent of those viewers not previously following him. More recently, right-leaning news outfits and influencers have been picking up where Fix the City left off. A 2020 interview with The Far Left Show has spawned multiple reports in the New York Post and other outlets. In the spot, Mamdani told the hosts 'the abolition of private property' would be preferable to the current housing crisis and, when asked whether prisons are obsolete, he responded 'what purpose do they serve?' The Washington Free Beacon cited a separate 2020 interview where Mamdani says police officers shouldn't be the ones to respond to incidents where someone 'is going through domestic violence.' And Fox News reported on an old tweet that showed Mamdani directing his middle finger toward a statue of Christopher Columbus. The efficacy of the latest barrage of negative stories, however, appears limited: They are coming out during the doldrums of summer, just as Mamdani is riding high after his decisive primary win and gaining powerful institutional allies. The articles are appearing in outlets, with the exception of the New York Post, that have little sway in New York City elections. And while Mamdani's past positions have in some cases been expressed more crassly than he would want to convey them as mayor, they are not too far afield of his core ideology to alienate voters. 'This stuff is not running contrary to the message,' the Democratic consultant said. 'Negative material is only useful or valuable if it moves the needle with the relevant people.' The parade of Mamdani stories is having a bigger impact on the national level. The National Republican Congressional Committee — the body preparing to defend the party's slim House margins — took to X to label the presumptive Democratic nominee an 'antisemitic socialist radical' just as Cuomo was conceding the race on June 24. Edited into the NRCC's anti-Mamdani graphic were Reps. Laura Gillen, Tom Suozzi and Josh Riley — three New York House Democrats representing battleground districts near New York City. None of the pictured members of Congress had endorsed Mamdani in the primary, yet the NRCC pounced on the opportunity to associate the swing-district Democrats with the GOP's new-found foil. Vice President JD Vance was so taken by Mamdani's Independence Day post describing America as 'beautiful, contradictory, unfinished' that he read it aloud to a conservative think tank crowd in San Diego. "Who the hell does he think that he is?" Vance said in the speech delivered 2,500 miles from Gracie Mansion. National exposure, however, can cut both ways. Mamdani appears to be rapidly expanding his influence outside the five boroughs. At least two volunteers during the primary flew from abroad to canvas. And in Mamdani's latest fundraising haul, in contrast to the local, small-dollar contributions that fueled his primary run, nearly half his windfall came from donors outside the city. According to the campaign, Mamdani's Instagram followers have jumped from fewer than 20,000 before he started his run to nearly 4 million in the wake of his victory. Ossé, the 20-something city lawmaker, said the benefits of online savviness outweigh the potential downsides. Candidates get to craft their own online persona instead of being characterized by reporters in legacy media. And younger voters who have social accounts themselves are more forgiving of past posts that might land flat. 'The thing the people appreciate the most in this new era is a level of authenticity from the candidate,' he said. 'And if that authenticity while they are campaigning is similar in tone to who that candidate has been in their digital lifespan, then I don't think people care as much as they would if the person were inconsistent or fake.' Solve the daily Crossword
Business Recorder
27-06-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Cybersecurity company identifies over 7mn ‘compromised accounts' belonging to Netflix, Prime, others
ISLAMABAD: A cybersecurity company Kaspersky has identified over 7 million compromised accounts belonging to streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and others. In its latest report issued on Friday, the company said its Digital Footprint Intelligence team had analysed 'compromised credentials' and uncovered 7,035,236 cases in 2024. These weren't stolen directly from the platforms themselves but were collected as part of broader credential theft campaigns, according to report. Netflix to stream French TV content in world first Netflix leads both in popularity and in exposure, with 5,632,694 compromised accounts detected. Brazil had the highest number of exposed Netflix credentials in 2024, followed by Mexico and India. Kaspersky experts detected 680,850 Disney+ accounts in leaked data sets. Again, Brazil stood out as the country with the most breached accounts, followed by Mexico and Germany. Amazon Prime Video, though smaller in volume with 1,607 compromised accounts, still plays a significant role, especially among Gen Z viewers looking for more subversive or edgy narratives. Once a device is infected, cybercriminals don't stop at the streaming app. Malware collects sensitive data — account credentials, cookies, bank card details — which are then sold or leaked on underground forums. Sometimes, attackers give this data away just to build their reputation. These forums are active, fast-moving, and accessible to a wide range of malicious actors. What begins as a compromised Netflix password can quickly snowball into broader digital intrusion, identity theft, or financial fraud, especially if the same credentials are reused across services, the report said. To watch favorite shows safely, Kaspersky recommended changing passwords for the potentially compromised accounts and ensure there has been no suspicious activity associated with these accounts. Netflix signals confidence with upbeat revenue outlook Always use a legitimate, paid subscription when accessing streaming services and ensure you're using apps from official marketplaces or the official websites. Use a reliable security solution, like Kaspersky Premium, to detect malicious attachments that could compromise your data. Ensure secure browsing and safe messaging with Kaspersky VPN, protecting your IP address and preventing data leaks, the report recommended.
