IT news November 22: Microsoft has assessed IT specialists from Russia, Google offers $1.5 million for hacking a phone, Tinkov complains about “triple salaries” of developers

Today in the news selection:

• Microsoft assessed the qualifications of IT specialists from Russia and Eastern Europe;
• Google promises to pay $1.5 million for the found vulnerability;
• Belarusian programmers are offered to earn money remotely;
• The State Duma increased fines for IT companies;
• Twitter has made some important changes to its code;
• Oleg Tinkov accused Sberbank of luring developers for “triple salaries.”

Microsoft assessed the qualifications of IT specialists from Russia and Eastern Europe

Microsoft has published the results of a study on the level of qualifications of IT specialists in Russia and Eastern European countries. It turned out that in Hungary, Greece, Poland, Russia, Romania and the Czech Republic there is a shortage of highly qualified programmers. This is especially noticeable in the field of cloud technologies. According to the study, only 3.5% of specialists fully meet the modern requirements set by Microsoft. The majority (54.7%) have average qualifications. The professional skills of another 28.6% of programmers meet the requirements “for the most part.” 12% of IT specialists from the listed countries have a low level of qualifications. Source: Microsoft

Google promises to pay $1.5 million for found vulnerability in Android

Google has increased the reward for hacking its Pixel smartphone to a million dollars. If anyone can find a vulnerability in a pre-build of the Android OS, they will receive $1.5 million. Also, anyone is offered a reward of up to $500 thousand for a successful attack that can lead to data theft. If the hacker manages to bypass the lock screen, he can count on a prize of $100 thousand. Offer valid on Pixel 4, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones running the latest Android version only. Source: Google

Belarusian programmers are offered not to leave the country, but to earn money remotely

At the “IT Country” forum held yesterday in Minsk, the head of the Republican Confederation of Entrepreneurs, Igor Mamonenko, called on Belarusian programmers not to leave the country, but to work remotely. According to him, this is beneficial not only for the state, but also for IT specialists. “The average salary in America is approximately $4,000, which means remote workers are applying for a salary of $3,000. If a person works from abroad and meets all the employer’s criteria, he has the right to count on $2,000,” said Igor Mamonenko. The official pointed to survey results showing that, given a choice, 92% of Americans would prefer remote work to office work. At the same time, Mamonenko suggests focusing not on freelancing in its pure form, but on the export of remote labor services through concluding agreements with Belarusian companies. “Our plans are to create about 100 thousand companies throughout Belarus with an average staff of 25 people,” he said. Source: UDF.by

The State Duma increased fines for IT companies for refusing to store user data in Russia

At yesterday's meeting, State Duma deputies almost unanimously (314 in favor, 2 abstained) approved bill No. 729516-7, which provides for increased liability for failure to comply with requirements for the collection and storage of personal data of Russians using databases located on the territory of the Russian Federation. According to the adopted law, for refusing to store data of Russian users on the territory of the Russian Federation, IT companies can receive a fine of significantly larger amounts than before. For the first violation - from 1 to 6 million rubles, for a repeated violation - from 6 to 18 million rubles. Fines for companies that refuse to hand over keys for decrypting user correspondence to the FSB have also noticeably increased. For this, a legal entity can be fined up to 6 million rubles. Source: Duma.gov.ru

Twitter has made some important changes to its code.

Today it became known that important changes have been made to the program code of the social network Twitter. In particular, for the first time, users are given the ability to hide replies to their tweets. In a statement on the corporate blog, they noted that updating Twitter’s functionality is aimed at enhancing the security and comfort of platform participants. Now a special gray icon has appeared next to tweets, when clicked, the “hide” function is activated. If desired, the author of the post can view hidden comments and respond to them. Source: Twitter

Oleg Tinkov accused Sberbank of luring developers for “triple salaries”

Well-known entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov, founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of Tinkoff Bank, accused Sberbank of poaching developers. He wrote about this today on his Instagram page. According to Tinkov, engineers and developers of his mobile bank are lured to Sberbank, promising them “triple salaries.” The banker also said that competitors are copying his ideas: “We came up with stories, they made postcards in two months, we came up with the idea of ​​delivering cards to the client on the day of the order, now they are repeating this, we gave leather cardholders a long time ago, so they faked us,” wrote Oleg Tinkov. Source: Instagram