The Daily Data: Monday, February 10, 2020

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The Daily Data sums up the numbers making headlines.
Here are the figures for Monday, February 10, 2020.

4 Charged

Four Chinese military officials have been charged for hacking into Equifax and stealing personal data. Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei are accused of conspiring to hack into Equifax’s computer networks, and stealing the private information of over 140 million American consumers. The data that was stolen includes sensitive information like social security numbers, credit card numbers, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and more. In documents that were unsealed today, U.S. prosecutors allege that the men belong to the 54th Research Institute, a unit of the Chinese military. Learn more here.

23.6 Million

Last night, the number of people watching the 2020 Oscars reached an all-time low. 23.6 million viewers watched the show on live TV, down from 29.5 million in 2019. Even so, Janelle Monet and Cynthia Erivo gave epic performances; while Parasite (a South Korean film) garnered historic wins. Watch the highlights now.

March 31st

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be operational by March 31, 2020. Today, South Africa’s Wamkele Mene was announced as the organization’s first-ever Secretary General. The AfCFTA is a new single market where 90% of goods will have tariffs removed, boosting intra-African trade. It will also make the continent more competitive with other countries and markets with their own similar agreements (like the European Union). The trade bloc represents 1.2 billion people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of almost US$3 trillion. Get more details here.