In response to disinformation and propaganda from Russian online media following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian outlets including Russia Today and Sputnik News were banned throughout Europe. To maintain viewership, many of these Russian outlets began to heavily promote their content on messaging services like Telegram. In this work, we study how 16 Russian media outlets interacted with and utilized 732 Telegram channels throughout 2022. Leveraging the foundational model MPNet, DP-means clustering, and Hawkes Processes, we trace how narratives spread between news sites and Telegram channels. We show that news outlets not only propagate existing narratives through Telegram, but that they source material from the messaging platform. Across the sites in our study, between 2.3% (ura.news) and 26.7% (ukraina.ru) of articles discuss content that originated/resulted from activity on Telegram. Finally, tracking the spread of individual topics, we measure the rate at which news websites and their Telegram channels disseminate content within the Russian media ecosystem.

Financial firms are working to identify potential fraud by analyzing how customers hold their phones, how fast they type and other information about mobile interactions--and the strategy is yielding results. Using artificial-intelligence tools to crunch behavioral data is often a more secure way to verify customers than traditional means such as passcodes, experts say. The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned companies last month that cybercriminals can circumvent typical multifactor-authentication techniques. One way is by calling a telecommunications company, posing as a customer and getting a service agent to switch that person's phone number to the criminal's device. The fraudster can then have the individual's bank send a one-time passcode to the phone and gain access to the target's bank account.

Anyone looking for an industry to illustrate the implications of digital disruption need look no further than financial services. High-street branches continue to close at an alarming rate as many services go online, while the traditional banks face stiff competition from online rivals who don't have to worry about bricks-and-mortar at all – plus a horde of fintech startups touting new options like cryptocurrencies and more. Such is the potential for change that Gartner estimates as many as 80% of traditional banks will go out of business by 2030. The analyst says established financial services providers will have to move faster by building digital platforms or finding niche products. SEE: Digital transformation: A CXO's guide (ZDNet special report) Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic) Royal Bank of Scotland Group is one financial services giant that claims to be taking a proactive approach, rather than the reactive response to IT and business change that tends to characterise big-name banks.

LONDON (Reuters) - A life-like avatar called Cora is being put through her paces by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), helping customers with basic queries and giving its digital banking drive a more human face. RBS, which recently axed a quarter of its branches and has announced thousands of job cuts in the past year alone as it reduces costs, will only deploy Cora to NatWest customers if the bank's female avatar passes her probation period. The digital teller, who wears a NatWest branded uniform and has an ear piercing and sparkling teeth, answers simple questions on getting a mortgage or what to do if a customer loses their card. "It could create another way for our customers to bank with us on top of the usual services we offer and be used to help answer questions round the clock, whilst cutting queuing times," Kevin Hanley, director of innovation at NatWest, said. Cora, which is undergoing advanced testing as part of a pilot program at RBS, could even be used to train members of staff, Hanley said on Wednesday.

National Westminster Bank in London is tracking every movement customers make on its website or mobile app, looking for behavior that doesn't match past actions or clues that users are not who they purport to be. Behavioral biometric software is catching on in the industry, typically as one of an array of measures to prevent digital banking fraud. The recent cybertheft at Tesco Bank in Edinburgh, Scotland, in which about $3 million was stolen from 9,000 customer accounts, has brought the need for such defenses to the forefront. "I've seen banks in the U.K. use behavioral biometrics and I've seen a lot of interest amongst major U.S. banks," said Avivah Litan, a vice president at Gartner. "Behavioral biometrics has proven to reduce false positives."

Superfast quantum computers could transform the world of finance, advocates say. In a world where how fast you can assimilate and analyse data then act on it, makes the difference between profit and loss, computing speed is key. This is why banks, insurance firms, and hedge funds invest millions on technology to give them an edge when trading, and to offset human error. Quantum computers, that owe more to nuclear quantum mechanics than electronics, promise to be exponentially more powerful than traditional computers, holding out the tantalising prospect of near-perfect trading strategies and highly accurate forecasting and risk assessments. "Financial services is a data-rich environment," says Kevin Hanley, director of design at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).