The Global Millionaire Population Has Doubled in the Last Decade

There was a time when being a millionaire was seen as an extremely impressive feat, but in the modern age there are actually millions upon millions of millionaires around the world. Back in 2012 there were just over 25 million adults who had a net worth of over a million dollars, or 25.6 million to be precise. A decade later in 2022, this number has doubled to 51.5 million with all things having been considered and taken into account.

One might think that this is the result of population growth, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, millionaires have increased disproportionally to the rest of the world’s population. 0.6% of adults in the world were millionaires in 2012, and by 2022, 1.1% had reached the million dollar mark.

Another way to look at this is by analyzing the total combined value of the assets that they own. As of 2022, millionaires own approximately $208.3 trillion dollars, which accounts for 45.8% of the total wealth in the world. This represents a 138% increase from the $87.5 trillion they owned back in 2011, so their rate of wealth accumulation is outpacing the number of millionaires themselves.

What’s more, Ultra High Net Worth Individuals who have a net worth that is greater than $50 million have seen their numbers triple in the same time period. This seems to suggest that more people are getting wealthier around the world, but it bears mentioning that this wealth is not spread all that evenly.

Apart from the 51.5 million people that have a net worth between $1 million and $5 million, there are 7.9 million who possess net worth of million or more. All told, they comprise 59.4 million adults worldwide in 2022.

42% of these millionaires are located in North America, representing the largest proportion of all. 27% are in Europe, 16% in the Asia Pacific region if you exclude China which itself has 10% of the world’s millionaires. Just 5% of millionaires come from the rest of the world, which reveals the enormous disparity in terms of how wealth is distributed.

H/T: Visual Capitalist
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

X or The Not-So-Superhero in the Fight Against Russian Propaganda

Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) has found itself in hot water, and the European Commission isn't handing out gold stars for its performance in a twist that would make even the best soap opera jealous. We question if our tech superheroes are the bad guys in disguise after learning from a recent European Union (E.U.) investigation that X was instrumental in distributing Russian propaganda over Ukraine.

In contrast to our friends across the pond, the United States and the European Union have adopted a strict stance against disinformation. They even have a flashy law known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), which took effect in August 2023 for significant social media sites. The European Union says, "Hey, tech giants, you've got some explaining to do."

Now, let's dive into the drama. The study reveals that Russian disinformation about Ukraine continued to thrive despite some voluntary promises to tackle Russian propaganda made by the big social media dogs, including Meta (formerly Facebook). If the DSA had been around last year, X would have been in violation, and oh boy, you don't want to be on the wrong side of E.U. social media law.

According to the study, in 2022, the influence of social media accounts aligned with the Kremlin skyrocketed across Europe. The early analysis is quite alarming, indicating that in the first half of 2023, the impact of Kremlin-backed funds continued to expand. This concerning growth can be attributed, at least partially, to X's regrettable decision to significantly lower its safety standards. It's a painful realization indeed.

But wait, there's more! X wasn't the only one failing at superhero duty. Instagram, Telegram, and Facebook (owned by Meta) also got a smack on the wrist for their roles in the propaganda parade. Pro-Kremlin accounts seemed to have quite the party on Meta's platforms. Telegram saw its audience for Kremlin-backed accounts triple in size since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The study highlights the shortcomings of these platforms in effectively addressing the information war. Evidently, they struggled to curb hate speech, inadvertently promoting extremist content and even posing a threat to national security. In essence, they were far from being reliable superheroes in this regard.

And guess what? These tech giants were seemingly clueless when it came to dealing with coordinated campaigns. Russian interests were like a well-oiled machine, coordinating their efforts through volunteer channels and filing false claims to get pro-Ukraine accounts suspended. It's like they had a playbook for being super-villains.

But here's the kicker: In a surprising move, X's CEO Elon Musk made the decision to withdraw from the voluntary code of conduct for combating disinformation in June 2022. This strategic choice involved easing content rules, reducing enforcement staff, and eliminating state-affiliated media labels from Russian-controlled accounts. While some may question these changes, Musk undoubtedly has his reasons and believes it to be the best course of action for X's future success. It's pretty interesting how specific individuals or groups have chosen to invest in promoting their posts on the platform. It seems that propagandists are no exception and have taken advantage of these opportunities to gain more visibility.

So, what have we learned from this tangled web of digital deceit? It seems our tech heroes might need a few more lessons in spotting super-villains. While X and its fellow platforms play catch-up with the ever-evolving world of disinformation, the battle against Russian propaganda rages on. But don't worry, folks; we're all in this together. Just keep an eye on your newsfeed and watch out for those sneaky propagandists – they could be anywhere.

H/T: WP

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by Rubah Usman via Digital Information World

Google is Working on a New Search Snippet That Could Change Everything

Google has long been attempting to advance its primary search engine product because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up keeping it ahead of the curve. Not all of these updates have gone over well with people, but a recent test that was noted by some online revealed a new search snippet that might be enormously useful.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this search snipper will mention which websites a particular webpage has been mentioned in. It is being dubbed the “Mentioned in” section, and it has the potential to make Google’s search results far more useful than might have been the case otherwise.

When you click on the down arrow shown on the bottom right corner of your search result, an expandable snippet will open up. Within this snippet, there will be a carousel of all of the sites that have mentioned the site that you are interacting with, thereby enabling you to figure out if the website is truly an authoritative source of information.

The dropdown carousel was not the only version of the feature that was spotted in the wild. Other tests had the carousel visible by default without a drop down option, although this might make the SERP a tad cluttered which would suggest that the former option might work better.

One of Google’s core strategies these past few years has been to try to clean up its search results. Many SEO professionals had begun using keyword stuffing and other tactics to artificially rise up the rankings, and Google’s been trying to reduce this by prioritizing quality over quantity.

This new update will certainly be a positive step in the right direction, although it remains to be seen when it might get a wider rollout. Whenever that occurs, users will have a great deal more information to work with without having to do any more research. On the other hand, website owners will be distraught that they are losing even more clicks.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

These Scammers Have Defrauded Consumers of $65 Million Worldwide

Russian scammers have been a thorn in people’s sides for years now. Arguably the most successful group of malicious actors hailing from Russia is the one that has launched the Classiscam campaign. They impersonate legitimate businesses because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making their phishing campaigns more effective, and they have defrauded consumers of $65 million all around the world.

This information comes out of Group-IB, and it revealed that around 400 subgroups are involved in the matter at hand. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are hundreds of other groups out there, around 1,366 in total. The 400 analyzed by Group-IB only represent the ones that they were able to collect data for through their telegram channels.

There are around 38,000 scammers active within these groups, which has allowed them to spread far and wide with all things having been considered and taken into account. One thing that bears mentioning is that Classiscam has grown a lot in recent years, beginning in 2019. They used to trick users into purchasing fake goods from them by putting up ads on social media, and it appears that their methods have only grown more sophisticated.

Furthermore, the barrier for entry has decreased tremendously due to the presence of automation thanks to AI. Anyone can join this group of scammers now, posing as either a buyer or a seller, and this is part of a wider AI push in the community of cybercriminals that are responsible for these security and privacy violations.

Creating a phishing scam now only takes a few seconds to accomplish. There is a whole host of chatbots on Telegram that can make it easier than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, there is still no telling when this group will be brought down. It will be interesting to see what efforts are made in terms of preventing the group from causing further harm in the future.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

AI Chatbots Might Be a Security Risk for Business Operations, Here’s Why

AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have the potential to completely and fundamentally alter the shape and face of technology as we know it. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it also has some serious dangers that we must take heed of. The British National Cyber Security Center, or NSCS for short, is now calling on companies to be wary of using AI chatbots or integrating them in any capacity whatsoever.

According to the NSCS, using AI chatbots can be harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up putting servers at risk. These chatbots can be used to create all sorts of malicious codes and algorithms that would make cybersecurity far more challenging than might have been the case otherwise.

The main issue here is that Large Language Models are still a very new form of tech, so there is no telling what hidden dangers might be present within it. There is a definite lack of understanding pertaining to what this tech could potentially end up doing in the near future, and until more knowledge and context is acquired, it would be unreasonably risky to use them in the here and now.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that other AI tools can generate human sounding text as well which can manipulate chatbots. Malicious actors can wreak havoc in this manner, sending out rogue commands to chatbots that could bring the entire infrastructure crumbling down.

If a bank were to use an AI chatbot, malicious actors could feed it commands that would facilitate the conducting of illegal transactions. The chatbots might receive a SQL injection that would lead it to ask a customer to make a transaction, and since the customer would assume that message is coming from the bank, they might not be aware of what is truly going on. It will be interesting to see where this goes from here on out, since AI chatbots are popping up everywhere despite the risks.

Image: Freepik/Rawpixel

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Instagram Is Getting Rid Of Its Cross-App Messaging Feature

The best thing about Meta’s Cross-App messaging rollout that was launched in 2020 was the ability for friends to communicate with one another through different Meta apps.

But now, the company has opted to end support for the feature that once added life to cross-platform chats between Messenger and Instagram.

The news of the launch was achieved with much praise when Adam Mosseri highlighted the benefits that it would bring to users. But little did anyone know that after just three years of its existence, it would be scrapped away.

Friends on Instagram could share posts with those on Facebook and vice versa but that will no longer be the case with the shocking announcement unveiled today.

The news was shared thanks to social media enthusiast and reverse engineering expert Alessandro Paluzzi. People wouldn’t be getting the chance to conduct chats with their friends starting the middle of next month, his screenshots proved. Therefore, any chats remaining would only have the option of being read-only. This is why users are now being urged to shift to either Facebook or Messenger if they wish to continue with their chats on the apps.

For now, we are yet to hear any more details on this front by the company itself so there is no explanation provided as to why the change is actually taking place despite many incorrectly assuming that it was super popular in use.

However, some experts feel that might be linked to the growing increase in regulatory scrutiny because when you partner two leading apps on social media together, it could result in a clear violation of anti-trust rules. This would be applicable in regions like the US that are deemed critical for such companies to function in and the last thing Meta wants is a violation.

However, no news about any antitrust violations or any investigation taking place on this front was spoken about. Therefore, it’s not easy to predict what exactly went wrong or why the company has opted to take on this bold step of de-linking Facebook and Instagram during this stage of the game.

Let’s not forget one more thing about how it’s worth a glance to see how Meta has really worked hard on bringing both apps together through this endeavor. The firm has allowed users to transfer Stories, pictures, and even Reels from one to the other with sheer ease. And people always spoke about how convenient everything was for them too.

Now, it’s going to be interesting to see what other integrations the firm plans on removing.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Community Notes On X Gives Members New Option To Mark Notes About Misleading Images

If you happen to be a contributor on Community Notes that has the honor of having a Writing Impact of 10 or more, you might wish to read on as the X platform is giving its members new options.

The app says that if you happen to come across any Tweet that contains a picture, you can mark your note with the option ‘About This Image’. Therefore, this is great for those circumstances when the member feels the picture might be misleading, no matter which Tweet it gets published in.

These Notes for Images options would be showcased on tweets entailing matching pictures and that’s a major deal for pictures that might be produced through AI, any edited images, and others.

You’ll notice how common it is to match this on dozens and even hundreds as well as thousands of tweets. So you will get the chance to see how many tweets on X are aligning with their pictures by seeing the right side that features all of the details of the note.

But as we mentioned in the past, the app is only opening this up for those contributors having a writing impact score of 10 and above.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World