Reuters

Russian court freezes Volkswagen assets in Russia

March 20 (Reuters) - A Russian court on Monday froze all Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) assets in Russia, in the latest obstacle to the German carmaker's year-long efforts to wind down its Russian operations.

Volkswagen, along with other foreign carmakers, suspended operations in Russia last year after western countries imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.

It has been trying to sell its Russian assets, including its flagship plant in the city of Kaluga, which has production capacity of 225,000 vehicles a year and has been furloughed since March 2022.

Saudi releases US citizen imprisoned for critical tweets: son

A US citizen sentenced to 19 years in a Saudi prison for social media posts criticising the kingdom’s rulers has been released, his son told AFP on Tuesday.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old of Saudi origin, was arrested in 2021 for what his son, Ibrahim, described as “mild” Twitter posts on topics including the war in Yemen and the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Threat actors are experimenting with QR codes

Hackers are diversifying attack methods, including a surge in QR code phishing campaigns, according to HP.

The rise of QR scan scams: Since October 2022, HP has seen almost daily QR code “scan scam” campaigns. These scams trick users into scanning QR codes from their PCs using their mobile devices – potentially to take advantage of weaker phishing protection and detection on such devices. QR codes direct users to malicious websites asking for credit and debit card details. Examples in Q4 included phishing campaigns masquerading as parcel delivery companies seeking payment.

38% rise in malicious PDF attachments: Recent attacks use embedded images that link to encrypted malicious ZIP files, bypassing web gateway scanners. The PDF instructions contain a password that the user is tricked into entering to unpack a ZIP file, deploying QakBot or IcedID malware to gain unauthorized access to systems, which are used as beachheads to deploy ransomware.

42% of malware was delivered inside archive files like ZIP, RAR, and IMG: The popularity of archives has risen 20% since Q1 2022, as threat actors switch to scripts to run their payloads. This is compared to 38% of malware delivered through Office files such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The U.S. Federal Reserve recently announced that its FedNow payments system would launch in July 2023.


Widely believed to be a precursor to a programmable CBDC, FedNow will aim to settle payments quickly between merchants, consumers, and banks. The settlements do not use blockchain technology.
Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said in May last year that FedNow performs almost the same function as a CBDC. However, a CBDC would be legal tender rather than a real-time payments system.

CBDC Ban Proposed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in New Bill

DeSantis has called upon like-minded governors to combat “surveillance and control” from the federal government and adopt similar legislation under its commercial codes.

Saudi Arabia invites Iranian President Raisi for visit after restoring diplomatic ties.

Further details of a possible meeting between the two country’s leaders remain unclear. The development comes less than two weeks after Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore diplomatic ties and reopen embassies after more than seven years of hostility.

Polish Ambassador to France: Poland will be forced to enter war if Ukraine fails to defend itself.


Poland’s Ambassador to France said in an interview that a situation could arise in which Poland would have to enter the war. The embassy urged audiences to refrain from sensationalising his words.