Freedom House has evaluated that Sri Lanka’s internet freedom reduced in 2022, compared to 2021, “as the government sought to repress historic protests.” An independent research and watchdog organization on democracy and freedom, Freedom House recently published its ‘Freedom on the Net 2022’ report which saw Sri Lanka’s overall internet freedom receiving a score of 48/100, a decline from last ...
Calcey Technologies has introduced a new scholarship program, one that aims to bring more people into Sri Lanka’s tech industry. Dubbed “Calcey Springboard”, it’s an open-for-all initiative that will train deserving students and help kickstart their careers as software engineers. ” In doing so, we also aim to eliminate the barriers students face in choosing computer science as a career path,” ...
Recently State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage talked about the possibility of bringing Disneyland to Sri Lanka. The minister stated that Disney management has talked with her and that the ministry is hoping to bring Disneyland to Sri Lanka. She further mentioned that she will inform the media when those talks materialize/when the officials visit Sri Lanka. The minister is ...
It seems to be that time of the year when a major global tech platform goes offline for many people around the world. So, if you’ve tried using WhatsApp you might have been greeted with the “connecting” message. Don’t worry it wasn’t just you. For almost two hours, WhatsApp services were down for a lot of users. As per Downdetector ...
Minerva Lithium, a startup co-founded by Hemali Rathnayake (CTO) and Sheeba Dawood (CEO) has won the top prize at TechCrunch Disrupt‘s annual Startup Battlefield. The startup, which was among the five finalists won this year’s competition for its innovative Nano Mosaic, a coordinated polymer framework that’s capable of extracting critical materials from brine in three days. Helping curb the all-electric ...
The goal of this list is two things. One is to keep track of all the notable security incidents and concise them into one place. The other is to highlight the growing need to ramp up security amidst the ever-so-digitalizing environment. It should be noted that this is not a complete list of all cybersecurity incidents in Sri Lanka, but ...
Leading recruitment platform XpressJobs has acquired MyJobs.lk and is now united as one company, marking a significant turning point in the recruitment platforms in Sri Lanka. The acquisition has effectively made XpressJobs one of the biggest players in the online recruitment field. The merger has an interesting and uplifting backstory. Somewhere in 2018, Dr. Oshadie Korale, COO of XpressJobs picks ...
The Committee on Ethics and Privileges is set to summon the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on 18 October over allegations of tapping Opposition MP Patali Champika Ranawaka’s WhatsApp calls. Back in October 2021, Ranawaka accused the CID of listening to his WhatsApp calls made between 2018 and 2019. He claims that the CID has done so without ...
The official Twitter account of Sri Lankan Airlines has been hijacked in what appears to be the latest round of crypto scams running rampant on social media. Though crypto scams have been around for some time, these types of attacks have been occurring at an increasing frequency over the past couple of years. The latest iteration of these crypto scams ...
Dialog Axiata recently announced that it has entered two supplementary agreements with the Board of Investments (BOI) amounting to a whopping USD 152.4 million (~LKR 56.7 billion) investment in building the company’s telecommunications infrastructure in Sri Lanka. This investment comes in the form of USD 112.8 million from Dialog Axiata PLC and USD 39.6 million from Dialog Broadband Networks (Private) ...
You read that right, Uber has been hacked. Reportedly over 1.11 petabytes worth of data could be leaked. At the time of writing the company is still working on fixing it. So how did the Uber hack happen and what does it mean for you? Well, imagine someone messaged you on Slack claiming that your company has been hacked. You ...
As the internet continues to grow in its ambitions, so does its need for better standards and infrastructure. This is one of the reasons why generational standards like 5G and WiFi 7 are in the regular conversation now. But as the world prepares for an internet upgrade, where does Sri Lanka stand in the digital space? Here’s a look at ...
The world might have only started adopting WiFi 6 and 6E for mainstream use, but the WiFi 7 standard is already making its way and is expected to officially debut in 2023. Recently Intel and Broadcom held a demo that showed WiFi 7 in action between an Intel laptop and a Broadcom access point. Here, speeds reportedly hit 5Gbps though ...
As its nearing three months since its launch, the QR-based National Fuel Pass system has now crossed six million registrations according to the ICTA. That’s a little over 74% of the vehicle population in Sri Lanka (as per 2019 data). Back in July, the system was introduced as a means of rationing fuel supply and mitigating the queuing problem at ...
Microsoft’s publication of the second edition of Cyber Signals, a quarterly cyber threat intelligence brief based on the latest Microsoft threat data and research, focused on the evolution of the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. This edition of Cyber Signals identifies the rise of RaaS and the fueling of ransomware attacks as part of the evolving cyber threat landscape, where ransomware ...
There might be no Macbook announcements from Apple for a while, but the much-anticipated iPhone 14 is finally hitting the shelves. The latest entry in Apple’s flagship product lineup was unveiled at the recently concluded “Far Out” event, hosted at the company’s iconic Steve Jobs Theater. Expectations were already set when Apple announced the September event. Now, the company has ...
The human-elephant conflict has been ongoing for many years in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, despite the elephant’s cultural significance to the island, this struggle continues to claim lives on both sides even today. Amplified by the current situation, the Sri Lankan elephant population is facing serious threats over its future as a species. In fact, in 2021 alone about 375 elephants ...
Kumar Sangakkara and metaverse aren’t two things I thought would be in a sentence together. But that’s exactly what happened. It’s been years since Kumar Sangakkara put down his bat and gloves, but Sri Lanka’s former wicketkeeper-batsman continues to be active behind the scenes in the cricketing arena. Almost a couple of years ago, Sangakkara was appointed as the President ...
Sex education has often been a murky area in Sri Lanka, particularly when it comes to reliable, easily accessible services and information for the youth. Despite the growing need for safe and accurately informative spaces that encourage conversations around sexual and reproductive health, the actual availability is lacking across the board. With the aim of tackling this very problem, the ...
One of the issues with government announcements has often been the lack of document availability in English, Sinhala, and Tamil across the board. Even in 2022, the lack of a consistent policy over offering important public information in all three languages is problematic, to say the least. With the aim of tackling this very problem, the University of Moratuwa is ...
