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Earth Intelligence

29 Jun 2024 — 5 min read

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Amazons Budget Friendly Section
KT Corporation Malware

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Amazons Budget Friendly Section:

Amazon is preparing to launch a new section on its website dedicated to low-priced fashion and lifestyle items, enabling Chinese sellers to ship directly to U.S. consumers. This new storefront, revealed at an exclusive conference for Chinese sellers on Wednesday, marks Amazon's most aggressive effort yet to counter growing competition from e-commerce newcomers Temu and Shein, which are linked to China, the world's second-largest economy.
In recent years, Temu and Shein have expanded their foothold in the U.S. market, attracting more American shoppers with their extremely low prices on clothing, electronics, home goods, and other products. To compete, Amazon's new section will feature a variety of unbranded items, many priced under $20. A presentation to Amazon sellers, included a mock-up showcasing products such as a gua sha facial massaging tool, arm weights, and phone cases.
The new storefront aims to deliver products from China to U.S. customers within nine to eleven days, bypassing the traditional Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) model, where Chinese sellers shipped goods to U.S. warehouses before dispatching them to customers. By enabling direct shipping from China, Amazon hopes to streamline the process, offer competitive delivery times, and better compete with Temu and Shein.

KT Corporation Malware:

Korean news organization JTBC recently discovered that KT Corporation, a major telecom provider in South Korea, deliberately infected over 600,000 users with malware because they were using torrent services. Torrent services, use a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol called BitTorrent. This allows users to download pieces of a file from multiple sources, speeding up the process and reducing the load on any single server. The issue began in May 2020 when Webhard started receiving numerous complaints about unexplained errors. They found that their Grid Program, which uses BitTorrent, had been compromised, and further investigation revealed that only users with KT as their internet provider were affected.
KT's malware caused significant problems, such as creating strange folders, making files invisible, and disabling both the Webhard program and some users' PCs. Police traced the source of the malware to KT's data center south of Seoul. Authorities believe KT may have broken South Korean laws, including the Protection of Communications Secrets Act and the Information and Communications Network Act. Thirteen people, including KT employees and subcontractors, were charged in connection with the malware attack, but investigations are still ongoing. KT admitted to planting the malware, saying it was necessary to control what they saw as a malicious program. However, the main issue was that KT installed malware on customer computers without their consent.
The conflict between Webhard and KT is rooted in Webhard’s use of peer-to-peer services, which KT argued strained their network. The court ruled in favor of KT, saying Webhard did not pay network usage fees or explain the Grid Service to users. Despite this ruling, KT's choice to use malware instead of simply blocking IP addresses caused significant inconvenience and damage to customers' computers. This led to lost files and various technical issues, showing how serious the impact of KT's actions was on individual users.

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