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Cyber attack causes blackouts in Ukraine

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 08 Jan 2016

In this week's worldwide wrap, a power blackout in Ukraine is believed to be the first power outage caused by a cyber attack, and a bug causes "Russia" to be translated from Ukrainian as "Mordor".

Cyber attack causes blackouts in Ukraine

A power blackout which affected large parts of Western Ukraine over Christmas is believed to be the first power outage deliberately caused by a cyber attack.

Symantec says the blackouts were carried out by malware belonging to hacking ground Sandworm.
Via: The Guardian

Google translates Russia to 'Mordor'

Google has just fixed an error in its translating tools which saw "Russian Federation" being translated as "Mordor", "Russians" as "occupiers" and the name of Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as "sad little horse".

The translations appeared when users attempted to translate Ukrainian text into Russian.
Via: The Guardian

Chrome extension helps write assertive e-mails

Free Chrome extension Just Not Sorry taps into Gmail to warn users when they might be diminishing or undermining themselves with words and phrases such as "sorry", "I'm no expert", and "does that make sense?"

Just Not Sorry was created by Cyrus Innovation CEO Tami Reiss, in an effort to help women resist corporate pressure to appear softer and more submissive than men in the workplace.
Via: Fast Company

Facebook removes Denmark's 'Little Mermaid' statue

A Danish politician's photo of Copenhagen's iconic Little Mermaid statue was barred from publication on Facebook due to nudity rules.

Social Democrat MP Mette Gjerskov received a rejection notification from Facebook, telling her the image contained "too much bare skin or sexual undertones", adding that the rules applied even if an image had "artistic or educational purposes".
Via: BBC News

Smart suitcase follows users around

The NUA Robotics suitcase ups the bar for smart luggage by following users around so they do not need to carry it.

The suitcase uses an in-built camera sensor and Bluetooth pairing with the user's smartphone to follow them around on flat surfaces.
Via: Mashable

Smart toilet cleans itself

A toilet that self-cleans with every flush is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Neorest toilet keeps itself clean with a combination of ultraviolet light, electrolised water, and a glaze made from titanium dioxide and zirconium.
Via: BBC

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