Explained | Why has the government withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019?
What did the Bill say on data localisation?
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Lightweight, no-frills laptop
The newHP Pavilion Plus 14 comes with a 2.2K resolution LED-backlit IPS display with an aspect ratio of 16:10
Weekly Crypto Roundup: new rules, severe report cards, and yet more hacks
Mainstream companies and regulators are feeling the ripples coming from the crypto industry
Global spending on cloud jumps 33%, report says
Global spending on cloud services surged in the June-ending quarter, report said
Greek Government Rocked by Resignations Amid Long-Simmering Surveillance Scandal
Greece's intelligence chief and a close aide to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis resigned in the space of an hour on Friday, as the country's conservative government battles a surveillance scandal. While the government has consistently denied any state involvement, saying it had not bought software of that type, complaints from the opposition and journalists have sp...
Can AI design better streets for pedestrians? You be the judge
Link to the Source [ExampleSource]The USAs love affair with the automobile hasnt been kind to pedestrians. In 2020, more than 6,500 people were struck and killed while walking in the country. A new report by Smart Growth America lays most of the blame on roadways. Our nations streets are dangerous by design, designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe, the study authors wrote. The campaigners want streets to be redesigned for pedestrian safety. A new AI experiment imagines the outcomes. US-19, he deadliest road in America (New Port Richey, Florida) pic.twitter.com/dZRsaALn83 AI-generated This story continues at The Next Web
WhatsApp Working on Login Approval Feature to Improve Account Security: Report
WhatsApp is adding a new security feature called Login Approval to the instant messaging platform, according to a report. The feature is said to be currently under development. It could be reportedly seen with future WhatsApp updates.
Amazon to Acquire Roomba-Maker iRobot for About $1.7 Billion
Amazonwill acquire iRobot, the maker of popular vacuum cleaners, about $1.7 billion (roughly Rs. 13,500) as part of the company's attempts to bolster its smart phone devices. Roomba vacuums that cost as much as $1,000 (roughly Rs.79,500)collect spatial data on households that could prove valuable to companies developing so-called smart home technology.
MIT Researchers Say All Network Congestion Algorithms Are Unfair
Legitimate network management has to go beyond penalizing people for using more data, but researchers from MIT say the algorithms that are supposed to do that don't work as well as we thought. The post MIT Researchers Say All Network Congestion Algorithms Are Unfair appeared first on ExtremeTech .
Meta Said to Curtail Election Misinformation Efforts as US Midterm Vote Approaches: Details
Meta is said to have silently curtailed its efforts to thwart voting misinformation or foreign interference in US elections, ahead of the upcoming November midterm vote. The Facebook parent company previously spent several billions of dollars to enhance the accuracy of posts about elections in the US after outrage following the exploitation of user data and falsehoods...
Thai Central Bank Digital Currency to Enter Testing This Year, Bank of Thailand Says
Thailand will begin testing its retail digital currency from late this year to the middle of 2023, the Bank of Thailand said on Friday. The retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be used in conducting cash-like transactions within limited areas, among about 10,000 retail users as part of the limited testing. Benefits and risks from the pilot project will be ...
GitLab reverses its decision to delete dormant projects
Following an outcry, it now plans to move unused repos to object storage GitLab has apparently abandoned its plan to automatically erase projects that have been inactive for more than a year and which belong to its free-tier users. Users voiced their worries about the proposed new policy, and yesterday GitLab released a statement saying that it would no longer remove dormant projects and instead would shift them to object storage, making them slower to access. We discussed internally what to do with inactive repositories, GitLab stated on Twitter. We reached a decision to move unused repos to object storage. Once implemented, they will still be accessible but take a bit longer to access after a long period of inactivity. We discussed internally what to do with inactive repositories. We reached a decision to move unused repos to object storage. Once implemented, they will still be accessible but take a bit longer to access after a long period of inactivity. GitLab (@gitlab) August 4, 2022 The policy to delete inactive projects was set to take effect in September 2022, and the business anticipated saving up to $1 million a year with this move. Staff were reportedly to be informed of the upcoming internal meeting on August 9. After 2022-09-22 we will be rolling out the Data Retention Policy For Free Users, the notice stated, according to The Register . This sub-program will impose limits on the number of months a free project can remain inactive before we automatically delete it and data therein. Additionally, internal discussions suggested that the code to be used to automatically remove dormant projects was ready by the end of July after months of development work. However, the news was poorly received, sparking fury on Reddit and Twitter, which seems to have forced a rethink. A user asked if inactive projects refer to epositories that have no new commits, or only those without new commits AND without read access by cloning / fetching? CEO Sid Sijbrandij's response was less than clear. All write operations would keep a project active, creating an issue, a merge request, pushing changes to a branch, etc, he said in a Tweet, adding: We might also keep it active as long as people are doing read operations such as cloning, forking, etc. We're not sure yet. Probably all write operations would keep a project active, creating an issue, a merge request, pushing changes to a branch, etc. We might also keep it active as long as people are doing read operations such as cloning, forking, etc. Sid Sijbrandij (@sytses) August 5, 2022 Another user sought clarification on whether non-owners of a repo that had been pushed to object storage will be able to access it. Sijbrandij replied that their current plan for object storagewould keep the repos visible to everyone. The Register noted that owing to the need for multiple backups, transferring inactive repos to object storage could actually raise GitLab's costs for project maintenance. GitLab has yet to release a public statement on the matter. About 20% of GitLab users, 6 million accounts, use the free tier, which offers five users per namespace, 5 GB of storage, 10 GB of data transfers, and 400 CI/CD minutes per month. Paid plans range from $19 - $99 a month.
Google Search for Web Testing a Row of Cards on Homepage: Report
Google Search for Web is reportedly testing a row of square cards on its homepage to show the stocks and markets, trending, weather, what to watch, among others. Few users tweeted regarding the change saying that logging back into Google.com after clearing browsing history showed the homepage with the square cards.
Xbox Game Pass Family Plan Testing Begins in Columbia and Ireland
Xbox Game Pass family plan preview testing has begun in select countries. Gamers in Columbia and Ireland can now apply for an Insider preview to share their Game Pass account benefits with friends and family. There is no word on an India preview test yet.
Paytm Working to Fix Issues After Several Users Report Glitches on App
Paytm issued a statement on Friday to inform that it is fixing the reported glitches on the application after several users were unable to make transactions using the app. Many even asked Paytm to compensate for the loss they suffered as the crash took place during the market time.
Simplifying navigation by breaking down the world into three-by-three metre-sized squares
what3words simplifies latitudes and longitudes by cutting down the world into three-by-three metre squares
'Massive' cyberattack targets the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce
The impact of the attack is widespread across Germany The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has become the target of a massive cyberattack forcing it to shut down all of its IT systems as well as telephones, email servers and digital services. The DIHK is a coalition of 79 chambers that represents commercial, industrial, and service-related businesses in Germany. More than three million companies, from small stores to major enterprises, are among its members. In addition to providing its members with a variety of general support services, DIHK is responsible for advocating on behalf of the business sector's interests at the national and European levels. In a message posted on LinkedIn, the DIHK itself confirmed the attack. The General Manager of the IHK Mittleres Ruhrgebiet, Michael Bergmann, said that the cyberattack occurred on Wednesday. He described the incident as massive and said that due to the countermeasures, communication by phone and email was now not possible. At this stage, we cannot predict how long the (urgent shutdown) measures will be necessary, Bergmann added. The IHK Wrzburg-Schweinfurt stated on Twitter that he websites of the IHKs and related services as well as accessibility via email are currently affected by a disruption. Emails sent to the IHKs from outside are currently not being delivered, it added. Zurzeit sind die Internetseiten der IHKs und damit verbundene Services sowie die Erreichbarkeit via E-Mail von einer Strung betroffen. An die IHKs von auen gesendete E-Mails werden aktuell zwar nicht zugestellt, gehen jedoch nicht verloren. IHK Wrzburg-Schweinfurt (@IHK_Mainfranken) August 4, 2022 According to a statement posted on the DIHK website , the shutdown was implemented as a precautionary measure for security reasons to allow IT personnel time to come up with a solution to boost defences. It added that IT experts are presently working to resolve the issue and that IT systems will be gradually turned on after testing. Some services for businesses have been resumed after ensuring that they are safe to use, although complete restoration will take more time. While the security incident carries the signs of ransomware, this has not been officially confirmed yet. According to the German tech news site Heise , individual divisions in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have all been experiencing issues , suggesting that the attack's effects are widespread and not exclusive to any one area. In recent years, the number of cyberattacks has steadily increased in Germany. Two German fuel and oil distributors, Oiltanking GmbH Group and Mabanaft GmbH, experienced business disruption earlier this year as a result of a cyberattack . Following the attack, Oiltanking GmbH declared force majeure for most of its supply activities, while Mabanaft GmbH announced force majeure for the majority of its inland supply business in Germany. In June, Microsoft warned of rising Russian cyberattacks targeting countries that have supported Ukraine in its war against Russia. The company said Russian hackers are not only going after government systems, but also targeting other sectors that may have crucial information related to the war, such as think tanks and humanitarian groups, as well as defence, telecommunications and energy firms. Microsoft has identified more than 100 organisations in 42 countries that have been impacted by the attacks since the start of the war.
Twitter responds to Musk's claims, calls them 'excuses'
In an unexpected twist, Twitter was able to file its response to Musk before Musk's own counterclaims have surfaced in public
Taiwan Plagued by Cyberattacks on Convenience Stores, Train Stations Over Nancy Pelosi Visit
Taiwan faced unprecedented cyberattacks on Wednesday, after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a brief visit to the country. Some branches of 7-11 convenience stores in Taiwan displayed the words: Warmonger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan! on television screens behind the counters. The convenience store was affected as part of cyberattacks on government...
Meta Announces First-Ever Bond Offering Amid Push to Invest in Virtual Reality Projects
Meta, Facebook's parent company, said on Thursday that the firm would make bond offering, the first in the company's history. The move comes when Meta is set to make massive investments into its virtual reality projects.It is the only firm among Big Tech companies which does not have any debt on its books. Meta is selling four tranches of bonds with maturities rangi...
Twitter on Thursday announced a new Location Spotlight feature for businesses. The feature will enable users to display the location of their business, contact information, and hours of operation of the profile. Twitter is reportedly also working on updating its audio chat rooms feature called Spaces, according to a report.
Stanford AI experts call BS on claims that Googles LaMDA chatbot is sentient
Two Stanford heavyweights have weighed in on the fiery AI sentience debate and the duo is firmly in the BS corner. The wrangle recently rose to a crescendo over arguments about Googles LaMDA system. Developer Blake Lemoine sparked the controversy. Lemoine, who worked for Googles Responsible AI team, had been testing whether the large-language model (LLM) used harmful speech. The 41-year-old told The Washington Post that his conversations with the AI convinced him that it had a sentient mind. I know a person when I talk to it, he said. It doesnt matter whether they have a brain made This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google
WhatsApp May Let Users View Past Group Participants, Feature Seen in Latest Beta for iOS: Report
WhatsApp is reportedly including the ability to view past group participants in its latest beta update. The WhatsApp for iOS 22.16.0.75 is being released for a limited number of beta users via TestFlight.
Pokmon Scarlet and Violet to Feature Three Unique Campaigns, New Legendaries, and More
Pokmon Scarlet & Violet will feature three unique campaign modes that can be tackled in any order. Players have no set path, and can randomly challenge the numerous gym leaders present in-game. The newest legendary Pokmon Koraidon and Miraidon can morph into vehicles at will, allowing for easy traversal across the Paldea region.
CCPA Fines Amazon Rs. 1 Lakh Over Sale of Substandard Pressure Cookers: All Details
Amazon has been fined Rs. 1 lakh by theCentral Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) for the sale of 2,265 pressure cookers that failed to meet quality standards, according to theDepartment of Consumer Affairs. The CCPAhad issued notices to major e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, ShopClues and Snapdeal as well as the sellers registered...
Amazon Workers at UK Warehouse Walk Out Over Pay Discontent, Says Union
Amazon workers at a warehouse in Tilbury in southeast England have walked out in protest over pay, the trade union GMB said. The rising cost-of-living sparks strikes across sectors. GMB said 800 workers walked out of the warehouse on Wednesday and Thursday over a 35 pence per hour pay increase, with the union seeking a $2.44 (nearly Rs. 195) rise.
GitLab to erase projects not updated for a year
The business aims to make annual savings of up to $1 million, but users have called it wild GitLab intends to automatically erase projects from its free tier users' accounts if they have not been touched for a year. The policy, slated to go into effect in September 2022 , could save the coding collaboration service up to $1 million annually, according to information obtained by The Register . The expenditures associated with such projects make up as much as a quarter of GitLab's total hosting expenses. GitLab is aware users could be slightly peeved by its plan, and says it will provide a notice that could come weeks or months before deleting their work. A project will need just a single new comment, commit, or new issue during a 12-month period to keep it alive. Without any activity, though, it will be killed off. Some GitLab members are concerned the new policy could see projects deleted before users can back up their code. Given the widespread use of several open-source projects, the decision could have a considerable negative impact. Open-source supporter and member of the open.Net community Geoff Huntley called the policy absolutely wild. He argued that source code does not consume a significant amount of disk space. For someone to delete all that code is destruction of the community. They are going to destroy their brand and goodwill. Huntley questioned whether a repository could be regarded as dormant. Software gets written and then it ' s done. When you get to a point of perfection, does that make it inactive? GitLab was founded in 2011 by Ukrainian developers Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov. From day one, its primary function has been to serve as both a code repository service and a set of collaboration tools. GitLab's free tier includes five users per namespace, 5GB of storage, 10GB of data transfers, and 400 CI/CD minutes per month. About 20% of GitLab users, 6 million accounts , use the free tier. Paid plans range from $19 - $99 a month. GitLab publicly advertises its free tier as a means of attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. 'As a commercial organisation, we always want to grow the number of paying customers, therefore we are focused on increasing the free to paid conversion rate. However, GitLab offers a free product, and our free users bring tremendous value to the company beyond just the likelihood of converting to a paid customer one day,' the company says on its pricing model . 'Happy loyal free users become advocates of GitLab, which brings more users and strengthens our brand,' it adds. Despite that, the business intends to discourage some use of its free product in order to achieve its primary objective of cost cutting - a decision that is surely going to annoy a large number of GitLab users.
Beautiful, striking content fuelled by real-time data unlocks the power of ABM
Eye-catching content that piques the interest of your prospects is one of the most persuasive and powerful aspects of Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Today's IT leaders are bombarded with newsletters, emails, and social posts that are often mediocre and irrelevant. High-quality content that stands out from the crowd is vital for technology companies to demonstrate thought leadership in their specialism - and persuade IT decision-makers to consider their products. Producing strong content that sticks in the reader's mind requires a deep understanding of their day-to-day challenges and information needs. And it means serving up razor-sharp analysis, irresistible headlines, and striking design. Here are some pointers for creating unputdownable content. Visit us online at Nexus to find out more about creating content for ABM campaigns. How do you create strong content? ABM content works best when the messages the business is trying to push - its strengths and unique selling points - coincide with the needs of decision-makers. Look for those persistent problems that keep IT personnel awake at night. Some of the best ABM content draws on bespoke research findings about these issues and offers analysis and possible solutions. If your content can help resolve some of those challenges and make their lives a little easier, they are more likely to read on. Framing your solutions alongside objective research also allows the findings to do the heavy lifting. Get it right and the unbiased insights do the selling for you. What works? Emotive themes that touch on the human issues behind the technology are more likely to attract interest than detailed technical pieces. Issues such as skills shortages, the cultural challenges of adopting the cloud and digital transformation, and the shift to remote working are likely to get a response. Ask an intriguing question, such as: how often are businesses really paying out to ransomware attackers each year? Or create a webinar discussion featuring leading industry figures debating one of the hot-button issues identified by a survey. How to pace a content campaign Attracting the interest of IT decision-makers is a gradual process. Begin with quick-fire social media posts and digital display ads, leading to short-form articles offering sharp insights into the big issues of the day. Once your audience engage with these, they will be attracted to more involved content provided by your brand. Move them along the marketing funnel to more in-depth features, video, and native content on the company website. They will then respond to longer-form content such as research studies and white papers. These can also take the form of webinars or interactive in-browser digital content, featuring animation and embedded videos. This digital content experience is effectively a modern interpretation of the traditional white paper. At the apex of ABM content could be a study or report which is presented at a breakfast briefing or physical event, where a dozen or so companies from a client's ABM list are happy to spend part of their working day chatting with the vendor and other industry experts on the relevant subjects. Keep the content coming. It's not enough to drip out the odd article or white paper every now and then. A steady stream of always-on' content is vital, keeping the sponsor's name in the target audience's eye and showing a long-term commitment maintaining mindshare in your sector. A research report based on an industry survey offers rich pickings as the insights can be posted on social media and used for blogs and articles for several weeks. Creating a content hub where decision-makers can go to find all the content you produce is a powerful way to keep them engaged. They may be pressed for time, but they need all the information they can get before making a significant decision to deploy a new cybersecurity or cloud product. A content hub can house all your articles, webinars, surveys and white papers, allowing them to dive in and out at their own pace, or be tempted back in by supporting programmatic ads, newsletters, and social promotions. Go it alone or work with an industry partner? Great content requires real-time industry knowledge about the issues that excite IT leaders. These themes constantly change as new technologies come on stream and new challenges arise. Working with a partner with deep industry knowledge can offer the real-time insights needed to create must-read content. Nexus brings ABM clients key data about the interests of IT leaders. As part of The Channel Company, Nexus can track the articles IT decision-makers read in industry publications such as Computing and CRN. This will give a good indication of their latest concerns and interests. Meanwhile, The Channel Company's relationships with thousands of IT leaders and staff through subscriptions to these titles, and their attendance at our conferences and awards shows, offers a strong set of contacts for running regular surveys. Data is the key to creating good content So much ABM content is weak, not because it is poorly written or badly laid out. It's weak because it is irrelevant to the needs of the decision-makers or doesn't speak to them at their level. Marketers often lack insights into what their prospects are interested in. Working with Nexus gives you those real-time nuggets based on The Channel Company's relationships with IT executives at end-user organisations. This data is like gold dust when it comes to creating content that is targeted, relevant, and urgent. Every engagement we see from the target company on a client's ABM contact list helps us create better content. For instance, our data may show that four IT staff from a financial institution have read articles on cybersecurity or cloud architecture in industry publications. Perhaps they have shared those articles with colleagues and have gone on to open emails on those issues. This shows that their journey is taking them towards longer-form content and that they are seriously interested in these areas. That is a trigger for a technology provider to offer them a white paper or digital report and eventually to invite them to a live event. Relevant, targeted, and beautifully produced content provides prospects with the analysis and information they need to make informed decisions while promoting the proposition and industry authority of the content sponsor. A win-win for both parties. To find out more about successful content for ABM, visit Nexus In summary: Take the target audience on a journey from short tweets and articles to long-form content such as white papers and webinars Make sure the content is relevant by conducting surveys of industry decision-makers and using real-time data about their concerns Work with an industry partner to obtain that data and insight Create a content hub to house all your content, as part of an evergreen content marketing strategy, and drive engagement to it with a multi-channel approach
Episode 383: Meet Insteons new CEO
Last week, we kicked off the podcast with a discussion on the Helium peer-to-peer IoT network, and this week we did the same thing. This time we dug into the disclosures that Helium didnt actually have Lime or Salesforce.com as current customers, despite having listed them prominently on its web site. Nova Labs CEO Amir Continue reading Episode 383: Meet Insteons new CEO The post Episode 383: Meet Insteons new CEO appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things .
UK Parliament shuts TikTok account over China concerns
The account only lasted a week. The UK Parliament has closed its TikTok account, after a group of MPs and peers voiced concerns about the platform's links to the Chinese Communist Party and its treatment of user data. TikTok , owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has repeatedly faced scrutiny in different countries over alleged links to the Chinese government. Based on Member [of Parliament] feedback, we are closing the pilot UK Parliament TikTok account earlier than we had planned, a spokesperson said, adding that it was a pilot initiative to test TikTok as tool to engage younger audiences with relevant content about parliament. We're live on TikTok! Follow @UKParliament for news and behind-the-scenes content from the Elizabeth Tower. For starters, where's the best spot to get your best selfie with the famous Tower? https://t.co/z8F5MMIrJp pic.twitter.com/x7dOZxMz3y UK Parliament (@UKParliament) July 27, 2022 The move comes after senior parliamentarians warned the speakers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in a letter late last month about the serious data security risks posed by ByteDance. They raised worries about a regulation China approved in 2017 pertaining to national intelligence, which requires companies to provide data to the Government if requested. The concerned parliamentarians are part of a group of politicians, lawyers and academics who have been sanctioned by China for speaking out against alleged human rights violations in the country. The signatories included Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee, and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative party leader. We cannot and should not legitimise the use of an app which has been described by tech experts as 'essentially Chinese government spyware', the letter said. The prospect of Xi Jinping's government having access to personal data on our children's phones ought to be a cause for major concern, they continued. Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, and Lord McFall, the Lord Speaker, said the Parliament's TikTok account was an effort to interact with younger audiences, who are often not as active on other social media platforms, regarding the work of Parliament. However, after receiving feedback on the issue, they have decided that the account should be closed with immediate effect. One of the Tory MPs, Nus Ghani, thanked the House of Lords and Commons speakers for intervening on the issue and standing up for our values. Duncan Smith also welcomed the decision. We need to start talking to people about not using TikTok, he said. He went further, urging Prime Minister and top Ministers to close their TikTok accounts. TikTok said it was disappointed with the decision. The platform offered to talk to concerned MPs to ease their worries about how it handles user data. While it is disappointing that Parliament will no longer be able to connect with the millions of people who use TikTok in the UK, we reiterate the offer to reassure those Members of Parliament who raised concerns and clarify any inaccuracies about our platform, a spokesperson said . In June, US FCC commissioner Brendan Carr urged Apple and Google to stop offering TikTok in their app stores. He said the Chinese app poses a serious national security risk and may send sensitive personal data to Beijing.
Peter Cochrane: Technology - threat or promise?
Dispelling fear of new technology is challenging, particularly in today's intellectual landscape When exposed to any novel technology, people tend to react with a degree of caution, and, in extreme cases, with a bias toward the dystopian. In this respect, Hollywood and the sensationalism of the mainstream media are major contributors, along with social networks. Covid-19 being spread by 5G is a prime example! Dispelling deep-seated assertions that technology is inherently evil and obviously a direct threat to humanity is difficult. And if rational thinking could put this to bed, it would have done so long ago, based on history and described by just three axioms: Without technology we would not have progressed as a species, and we would know and understand almost nothing The greatest threat to humanity is humanity If technological progress stalls, civilisations collapse Industrial revolutions have successively improved mankind's lot with better housing, clothing, food, healthcare and education. There has never been a malevolent technology or machine And there has never been a malevolent technology or machine, the beneficial upside has always far outweighed any consequential negatives. Further, a continuous stream of advanced technologies have allowed us to see further, understand more, and produce ever more impressive solutions to our problems and condition. So, how come we have people (in the West) destroying mobile phone towers, refusing to accept proven medicines, and generally reverting to unfounded belief systems promoted by Mary on Facebook'? It seems that the deterioration in the general level of Western educational attainment, compounded by a growing distrust of politics and capitalism, are three key elements. But this has also been amplified by a falling interest in science, technology, and engineering, with a growing inability to rationalise situations and a general bias toward panic and hysteria. Recently, robotics has been cited as the future creator of mass unemployment, whilst AI has been identified as the biggest existential threat to mankind. By whom, you might ask? Well, how about several well known celebrities who never built a robot or designed an AI system! Sadly, it would appear that rational public debate is a distant memory, and these prognostications lit up Twitter, WhatsApp et al. as ill-informed focus groups got to work, and all orchestrated by self-appointed gurus on all things technical and philosophical. There appears to be no limit to the craziness, and it is costing lives as the blue light services now depend upon mobile networks, and those refusing modern medicine congest the health system in their dying, or extended ailing, days. No matter what evidence you present, people appear unable to rationalise the known facts. They seem to inhabit wells of ignorance, continually reinforced by thousands of like-minded social media souls. Paradoxically, they all communicate over the internet using mobile devices that are, at once, miracles of modernity whilst allegedly cooking your brains! What these people have failed to realise is that robots and AI are not technologies of the future, they are the here and now, and we are wholly dependent on them for our heat, light, power, water, gas, communication, logistics and the supply of our food, products, and artefacts! Sadly, it is also apparent from the many public debates between politicians, scholars and philosophers outside the sphere of technology that they don't get it either! Reality strikes: humans can no longer cope with the degree of complexity and non-linearity inherent in the problem sets that confront them, but machines can. In design, industrial production, supply, materials and energy management, medicine and services, machines are now largely in control. And there is no going back! Peter Cochrane OBE is professor of sentient systems at the University of Suffolk, UK
UK's CMA approves Norton/Avast merger
The deal is unlikely to hurt competition due to the thriving market for security products The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given its provisional blessing to NortonLifeLock's anticipated purchase of Avast, concluding that the deal is unlikely to stifle cybersecurity competition. The United States, Spain, and Germany have already given their approval for the deal. Millions of people across the UK rely on cyber safety services to keep them safe online, said Kirstin Baker , chair of the CMA inquiry group. After gathering further information from the companies involved and other industry players, we are currently satisfied that this deal won't worsen the options available to consumers. In August 2021 NortonLifeLock announced it had agreed to pay over $8 billion in a cash-and-stock deal to acquire rival Avast, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and headquarted in Prague. The firms said at that time that the merger would create a 'mega' IT security firm, devoted to protecting 500 million consumers from both companies. Avast has been offering both free and paid antivirus software for years, and has about 435 million 'freemium' subscribers. It offers a free, basic product and tries to turn users into paying customers with more advanced software. NortonLifeLock sells paid anti-identity theft and security products to consumers. The company was previously known as Symantec, before it sold its enterprise-security business to Broadcom in 2019. The CMA opened a Phase 2 inquiry into the acquisition earlier this year after identifying competition concerns during an initial Phase 1 investigation. The regulator said at the time that the deal could hurt competition and result in British consumers receiving inferior offers when seeking for security software. However, the CMA's latest inquiry has found that the merged companies would continue to face 'substantial competition' after the deal is completed. Consumer access to cybersecurity software is evolving quickly, the CMA said, and providers of both free and paid services are improving their products to satisfy different and changing customer needs. The regulator observed that the combined business will face intense competition from McAfee and other smaller companies, while software giant Microsoft would be strengthened as a rival. The CMA noted that security software offered by Microsoft, which has a distinct competitive advantage as the owner of the Windows operating system, is becoming a more and more important alternative for customers. Microsoft has made significant improvements to its free built-in security applications in recent years, to the point that they now provide protection roughly on par with the tools managed by dedicated cybersecurity firms. The CMA has asked interested parties to respond to its preliminary findings by the 24th August, and is due to release its final report on the 8th September. Based on this timeline, NortonLifeLock said on Wednesday it expects to complete the takeover deal by early next month.
Elon Musks Response to Twitters Lawsuit to Be Made Public by Friday
Elon Musks answer to Twitters lawsuit over backing out of their $44 billion deal will be made public latest by Friday, ruled a Delaware court judge. While Musks attorneys wanted to file a public version of their answer on Wednesday, Twitter requested the court for more time to review the sealed filing, stating that it extensively contains internal Twitt...
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued 24 notices against e-commerce companies for unfair trade practices, according to Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
CHIPS Bill: US President Joe Biden to Sign Bill to Boost US Semiconductor Industry on August 9
Biden will sign a bill to subsidize the US semiconductor industry next Tuesday, in an attempt to ease the ongoign chip crisis and boost efforts to make the United States more competitive with China. The CHIPS bill provides about $52 billion (roughly Rs.4,11,400crore)in government subsidies for research and USproduction of semiconductors.
Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 11 Updated With Improvements for Gamers: All Details
Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 11 has been released for all Windows Insider channels in the US. The update version is 2206.40000.15.0. and the Microsoft has added compatibility for joysticks in games, sliding in games with arrow keys, and more gamer-centric features. Microsoft has also highlighted a known issue with the new update.
Intel to Unveil Wi-Fi 7 in 2024, Will Double the Speed of Wi-Fi 6E
A lot of people aren't even using Wi-Fi 6E yet (aka 80211.ax), but Intel is already testing its successor; Wi-Fi 7. The post Intel to Unveil Wi-Fi 7 in 2024, Will Double the Speed of Wi-Fi 6E appeared first on ExtremeTech .
The central government said it will introduce a new framework in place of the withdrawn Personal Data Protection Bill that covers all aspects of digital economy with dedicated rules for data privacy, emerging technologies, and data governance framework, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. The next version of the bill along with IT Act amendment, nat...
The government on Wednesday withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021 from parliament, stating that it would be replaced with a comprehensive framework of Global standard laws including Digital Privacy laws for contemporary and future challenges. The legislation, which had alarmed big tech firms, has been under consideration for several years in the country.
NortonLifeLock Gets UK Regulators Nod for $8.6 Billion Avast Takeover Deal: All Details
NortonLifeLock has received a provisional nod from the UK competition regulator, for its $8.6 billion (roughly Rs. 68,070 crore) purchase of Avast. The US based cyber security firm is looking to purchase its Czech rival, a move that faced an in-depth probe from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog, which previously warned that the deal could harm compe...
Breaking America? It's all about the people, says Egress CEO
Passionate leadership from the founder team combined with local knowledge on the ground was key to Egress' overseas success. Cracking America is the long-term goal for many UK companies. And why wouldn't it be? It's a huge market with a shared language, and a natural port of call for firms - especially in IT - who are starting to scale internationally. But those positive points mask stumbling blocks that can and have tripped up many an aspiring founder. Tony Pepper, CEO of Egress Software - which expanded to the USA in 2020 -told Computing 's Stuart Sumner that if he had to do it again, there's a lot he would change. The challenge is that many founders of growth businesses feel that, because it's such an obvious market, they'll be able to take what they've done in the UK and just do it in the United States. But in reality it is much, much more difficult than that. The size and location of the US market are some of the first and most obvious challenges. Cutting through the noise is much more difficult than it is in the UK, which makes it hard to gain traction. You also need to decide where you want to be based - East coast, West coast, or somewhere else. Figure out where you would logically land, said Pepper. Egress wanted to keep the time difference as short as possible and so chose to aim for the East coast, and then also had to consider access to local talent and the accessibility for its home team, who of course had to be able to visit the new office frequently. Very basic logistical stuff, in other words. Businesses where founders can relocate have an advantage, because here's no-one better placed to understand the market than the one who had that dream in the first place. But Egress' founders couldn't do this; instead they hired locally and made frequent visits, every two or three weeks, to work with the new team very intensely. In reality, Pepper found hat doesn't work. When seeking to grow outside your home borders, he said, you need a member of your founding team, your best and most trusted individual(s), or at least someone you've worked with before and have a relationship with. Egress didn't do that and probably lost somewhere between six and 12 months [of growth]. That is not to say you should just relocate your entire UK team; local knowledge is absolutely key. Having one or more company founders around to give advice and leadership is important, but it is equally critical to bring in people on the ground who have knowledge of the market, and - this is the important bit - listen to their feedback . So many businesses grow at a seemingly unstoppable pace domestically, only to fall over when they reach a new market. For an example, look to Egress. It has three offices in North America: Toronto, Boston and New York. On paper, that just wouldn't have been a thing we would have done, we would have wanted it all in one place - but in reality, that was the thing that allowed us to really gain traction. Why did Egress do it that way? Because there were local experts in each place with their own skills, and building traction means uilding around people and leaders. Tony has much more to say on the topic - watch the video for the rest of his insights.
Google Removed Over 1.11 Lakh Harmful Content in June Under New India IT Rules
Google has acted on 1,11,493 harmful pieces of content in June of this year in accordance with the new India IT Rules, 2021. The removed content included categories like copyright infringement, trademarks, court orders, explicit sexual material, fraud, and others. The actions were taken as a result of automated detection mechanisms used by Google's SSMI platforms.
Hacking concerns delay Tory leadership contest ballot distribution
The National Cyber Security Centre has warned that cyber actors could alter the votes of scores of party members The distribution of ballots to Conservative party members for the party's leadership election has been delayed due to security concerns. The party said it changed its plan for the contest following a consultation with the security agency GCHQ , who warned that hackers could alter the votes. Postal ballot forms were scheduled to be mailed out starting Monday to around 160,000 Conservative Party members to vote for Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as the next Prime Minister of the nation. However, in an email sent to members, the head of membership for the Conservative Party said that postal ballots will arrive by Thursday, August 11, because of measures o provide some extra security to the process. The winner of the leadership contest is still expected to be announced on September 5th. Under the original plan, Tory members were supposed to get a postal vote with a specific code and then cast their votes either online or by mail. Additionally, the original plan would have given members the option of changing their mind and voting again, using the alternative method, which would have cancelled out their previous vote. However, on the recommendation of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of intelligence agency GCHQ , the Conservative Party has made the decision to scrap the option for members to amend their vote. After casting their ballot, each participant's unique code will be rendered inactive, making it impossible for them to change their mind later on in the competition. To vote online, simply input the unique one-use codes printed on your ballot paper and fill in the security questions. Once used, your codes are invalid and you won't be able to re-enter the site, the email says. If you decide to vote by post once received by the ballot company we will deactivate your online codes. It is understood that there was no explicit threat from an adversary state and that the advice was about general vulnerabilities in the voting process. Russia, China and Iran have all been accused of trying to influence opinion surveys in the past, and a US intelligence head recently accused those states of trying to meddle in the 2020 US presidential election . Defending UK democratic and electoral processes is a priority for the NCSC and we work closely with all Parliamentary political parties, local authorities and MPs to provide cyber security guidance and support, a NCSC spokesperson said. As you would expect from the UK's national cyber security authority we provided advice to the Conservative Party on security considerations for online leadership voting. In its email, the Conservative Party advises members to get in touch if they haven't received their ballot packet by August 11th.
Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Ban to Be Temporary, Will Make a Comeback, Claims Skyesports CEO
Shiva Nandy, CEO and Founder of Skyesports, claims that the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) ban is temporary. He is seemingly positive that the game would soon make a comeback in India. Nandy added that TikTok could also return to India soon.
Are We in a Recession? Don't Ask Wikipedia
Wikipedia has suspended edits to entries for ecession and business cycle, after a furious editing duel of partisans. Locking Wikipedia pages to prevent partisan edits is nothing new, and several other pages have been partially locked, including US President Joe Biden, former US President Donald Trump, and Hilary Clinton. Stephen L. Carter reader should be g...
Post-quantum cryptography candidate cracked in hours using simple CPU
Researchers claim to have cracked SIKE using a single-core Xeon processor - a far cry from the exotic world of quantum computers One of the algorithms advanced by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to the fourth round of its post-quantum cryptography (PQC) competition has been successfully cracked by researchers at the Catholic University if Leuven in Belgium using a simple CPU. Last month, NIST announced four candidates that will be standardised as recommended public key post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms: CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON and SPHINCS+. These algorithms are recommended to replace asymmetric cryptosystems based on elliptic curves and prime factorisation which are theoretically vulnerable to quantum computers, which can effectively guess a huge number of possibilities at once. In addition to the winning cryptosystems, four alternative key-establishment candidate algorithms were entered into a fourth round of evaluation for possible future standardisation: Classic McEliece , HQC, BIKE and SIKE . SIKE (Supersingular Isogeny Key Encapsulation) is an implementation of Supersingular Isogeny Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol (SIDH). It was developed by cryptographers at Microsoft, Amazon and a number of universities around the world. It consists of two algorithms: a public key encryption algorithm and a key encapsulation mechanism. Like all asymmetric cryptosystems, it uses different keys to encrypt and decrypt data. Communications between two parties, Alice and Bob, are protected because it is extremely hard to calculate the private key (used for decryption) from the associated public key (encryption). With SIKE, security relies on the difficulty in finding a specific relationship (isogeny) between two elliptic curves. The Belgian researchers, Wouter Castryck and Thomas Decru, developed an attack to recover message recipient Bob's private key, solving two challenges set by Microsoft and also cracking tests based on NIST's quantum security classifications using a system they call Magma. In a preliminary paper , Catryk and Decru say they solved Microsoft's '$IKEp182' challenge in about 4 minutes. They also claim to have solved a harder test called $IKEp217 in 6 minutes. Microsoft has offered a reward of $50,000 for solving the latter challenge. Furthermore, the researchers managed to crack SIKE using parameters believed to correspond to four different NIST levels of quantum security, each time using a single-core Intel Xeon E5-2630v2 CPU, a processor that can be bought from a computer retailer less than 100 - a far cry from the exotic world of quantum computers. Ran on a single core, the appended Magma code breaks the Microsoft SIKE challenges $IKEp182 and $IKEp217 in about 4 minutes and 6 minutes, respectively, say the researchers. A run on the SIKEp434 parameters, previously believed to meet NIST's quantum security level 1, took about 62 minutes, again on a single core. We also ran the code on random instances of SIKEp503 (level 2), SIKEp610 (level 3) and SIKEp751 (level 5), which took about 2h19m, 8h15m and 20h37m, respectively. The researchers claim their attack can also be used to recover Alice's secret key. The successful attack will likely mark the end of the road for SIKE in the NIST process. In February, another PQ algorithm, a signature scheme called Rainbow, was cracked in 53 hours using a standard laptop. Rainbow did not make it to the next round.
Malicious 'typosquat' Python packages with ransomware scripts discovered
Victims are offered the decryption key without payment, but the prank demonstrates how easy such an attack can be Researchers at software supply chain management firm Sonatype have identified many malicious Python packages with ransomware scripts. In a blog post detailing their findings, Sonatype researcher Ax Sharma said these packages are named after a legitimate library called 'requests' which is well-known among developers. 'Typosquatting' is a kind of phishing attack in which subtle changes are made to the names of files, emails or website addresses to make it look like a legitimate service or content. The goal of malicious typosquatting packages is to trick an unsuspecting user or a developer into downloading the malicious package rather than the one they meant to install. Sonatype researchers claim to have discovered three malicious PyPI (Python Package Index) packages with names similar to the legitimate 'requests' library, all of which contain ransomware scripts. These malicious packages are: requesrs requesys requesr These packages have been assigned identifier sonatype-2022-4350 by the company. Any developer who accidentally misspells the equests library while trying to install or include it in their package is at risk of receiving one of the malicious packages and being infected with ransomware as a result. The 'requesys' package, in all of its versions, includes scripts that, when run, navigate a Windows user's directories, like Documents, Pictures, and Downloads, and start encrypting items. If the package runs successfully, the user will get a pop-up message urging them to get in touch with the package author OHR (Only Hope Remains) via their Discord server. The 'requesys' package has been downloaded around 258 times, according to Sonatype, although researchers only found about 15 such messages (victims) in the Discord channel. The package author OHR (or b8ff) is offering the victims the decryption key without demanding any money in return. b8ff told Sonatype that their package is part of a project that was developed for fun and that the ransomware script used in package is completely open source. The author thinks the package is technically harmless because no payment is sought from victims after encryption. The Verona, Italy-based learning developer b8ff describes himself as a student who lately developed an interest in exploits as they are very easy to create. I was surprised to see how easy it was to 'create' this exploit and how interesting it was, said b8ff. I'm still in school and as of right now I know Python, Lua, HTML and a bit of CPP and that's it. b8ff renamed the 'requesys' package after Sonatype contacted the author. The other two packages were also removed from PyPI, either by the registry admins or by authors. Public open source code repositories play a crucial role in the software supply chain that many organisations use to create applications. As a result, they have become an attractive target for hackers looking to spread malware widely. As a result, researchers believe more inspection and mitigation measures should be put in place. In May, researchers found a malicious package that was submitted to the popular PyPI repository for Python application developers and was used to distribute Cobalt Strike on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. In March, more than 200 malicious packages that attempted to target Azure developers to steal personal identifiable information were removed from npm JavaScript repository.
Announcing Deskflix Season 4: The Future of Cloud Automation
Join us on 21st September for a cloud automation deep-dive. We are delighted to announce our fourth season of Deskflix for 2022. This exclusive digital event on Wednesday 21st September will explore the future of cloud automation. Cloud comes in many flavours - public, private, hybrid, multi, native and more. What these models all share is their colossal ability to automate manual tasks. With the cloud model, you can spin up a huge number of identical VMs in a tiny fraction of the time and cost of provisioning their physical equivalents. Cloud-based monitoring tools can crunch petabytes of data from thousands of different sources to provide an unparalleled systems overview; and of course, this data can also feed the machine learning models that power AI in security, event response, automated service provision, NLP, predictive analytics and much more. Register now Cloud is automation writ large, only restricted by our imaginations. Join us on 21st September for Deskflix: The Future of Cloud Automation, where we'll be taking a look at what's coming in areas including cyber security, operational technology, robotic process automation, automated service management and the IoT. We'll announce the full agenda and speakers in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to hear who'll be joining the discussion. Deskflix is Computing 's bespoke virtual events platform, where you can connect with hundreds of other UK IT leaders from around the country - for free. Deskflix gives you the opportunity to put your burning questions to industry professionals as well as network with your peers and key vendors in the industry. You can also earn accreditation through CPD. Click here to visit the website and here to secure your free place.
Taiwan Website Attacks Likely Caused by Chinese 'Hacktivists', Researchers Say
Taiwanese government websites, including the website of Taiwan's presidential office, was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday, ahead of USHouse of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's arrival in Tapei. According to researchers, these attacks were likely launched by Chinese hacktivists.
Unity Said to Spin Off China Unit in Bid to Fuel Expansion in Largest Games Market
Unity Software is saiid to be in talks to spin off its China unit to help it expand in the world's biggest games market.The company, which develops the gaming engine used by several popular games, is said to be looking for strategic investors to join it in a business valued at over $1 billion (roughly Rs.7,800crore)during talks. The development is said to take...
Industry Voice: What is an iPaaS and how can I choose one?
Choosing the right application and data integration platform for your business can often feel like an uphill battle. With a plethora of options and tools available even the most tech-savvy decision-makers can find themselves overwhelmed. In the modern world there is however a clear place to start - an ideal solution that provides intuitive, scalable, and cloud-based tools to enable businesses to glue together applications and data with ease. This is known as an integration platform as a service, or iPaaS for short. But what is an iPaaS and what should it offer your business? An iPaaS solution enables application integration and data deployment, management and governance across both on-premise and cloud environments. This allows different parts of your business to be connected with minimal disruption, breaking down silos within a business and encouraging easy flow of communication and information between employees and teams. Unfortunately, in a highly competitive market, choosing the iPaaS solution that is best for your business is not easy. Using these five top features as a checklist will help you select the best solution for your business; showing you which solutions are iPaaS and which are I'll pass! The top five iPaaS features to look for 1. One platform for your data As the number of applications proliferate and the quantity of data continues to grow, businesses are recognising the benefits of a single, scalable and modern integration platform that can span both apps and data, as well as legacy and cloud environments. This means that integration technology can be adopted without overhauling the entire infrastructure, with a smooth transition of data between on-premise and the cloud in one single platform. 2. Flexible Modern Architecture The best modern architecture is able to handle vast amounts of data from virtually any source, giving your business infrastructure a layer of flexibility and agility. This means a quick transfer between any data stores, no matter the quantity, no matter the time - to wherever it needs to go. Allowing your entire infrastructure to flex with your data. Think of an iPaaS solution as the nervous system of your business. It needs to react and transfer information across in real-time and as your business grows, develops and changes. Your iPaaS must be able to adapt with your business. Your architecture also should provide a seamless solution for achieving API management (APIM), letting you expose integrations as APIs and creating shiny new integrations for your business and external consumers to benefit from. This also comes hand-in-hand with automation technologies that can cut down IT staff workload. Whether it's application integration, APIM or data integration, an iPaaS provider should have automation tools to free up staff to perform more value-add tasks and make the employees themselves more flexible and productive. 3. Availability Perhaps as important as the flexible nature of iPaaS infrastructure is the availability of data that the solution can provide. The best iPaaS solutions will have minimal downtime - keeping the data accessible, and the user productive, at all times. For the data-hungry execs, this availability also means that insights and analysis can take place in real-time with readily available data for analytics. This means that the decision-making of the business can be improved, allowing an organisation to step ahead of its competition. Availability also comes hand-in-hand with ease of access. Integration and API management should be easy and code-free, empowering staff with powerful tools to accelerate themselves and their teams. Ultimately when thinking about iPaaS solutions, only those which ensure your data is always online and accessible will meet the needs of your business. 4. Security When thinking of your data, it is important to remember that your data is your data, not your iPaaS provider's. This means that the best solutions should not collect any personal information on behalf of their customers or monitor the content that its integration pipelines processes. The iPaaS provider should be reputable and security certified, maintaining industry-standard security protocols and practices, giving you and your business peace of mind. 5. Provider Readiness This leads us nicely to the final checklist point when choosing an iPaaS solution - the reputation and expertise of the vendor. Just as you would when choosing any service, you must consider whether a vendor has proven expertise, an excellent track record and a reputation for innovation. An iPaaS provider should always be looking to innovate to further empower its customers. The integration industry is always evolving and the best providers are those that always remain one step ahead of the curve. Finally, consider customer service. What happens if there is a problem, can the provider support you all the way, no matter where you are? Ticking the boxes Only when you can ensure that an iPaaS solution can provide all five of the features outlined above, can it truly be considered as an answer to your application integration and data integration needs. These criteria can ensure that you not only partner with the most effective iPaaS provider, but more importantly, that you get the most from your applications and data. This post was funded by SnapLogic.
Microsoft Outlook Lite for Android Released in India, Several Other Countries: Details
Microsoft Outlook Lite for Android was released in multiple countries, including India, on Tuesday. The app is said to be aimed at low-end Android smartphone users. It offers all the core features of Outlook, like access to email, calendar, contacts, and more. The app includes support for Hotmail, Live, MSN, and Microsoft 365.
We need to talk about space junk
This week farmers found big chunks of metal from a SpaceX Crew-1 Trunk in a remote paddock in rural Australia. While its not an everyday occurrence, rocket body reentries (parts of space debris returning to Earth) are a trend thats likely to increase. The body of a Crew-1 trunk before it burned and landed back on earth. Dr. Brad Tucker, Astrophysicist, and Cosmologist at Mt Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University, went to check it out. He found that the pieces of rocket debris were 3 meters long and weighed 20-30kg each. While it sounds like something cool to This story continues at The Next Web
Chip Manufacturer Stocks Fall Globally as Taiwan Tensions Mount Ahead of Expected Nancy Pelosi Visit
Chip manufacturer stocks fell in global markets on Tuesday, in a fresh escalation of tensions between the US and China, ahead of an expected visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. Semiconductor stocks globally felt the heat, including TSMC, United Microelectronics, Infineon, Intel, Qualcomm, Micron, and Nvidia.
BlackCat ransomware gang hits Luxembourg energy supplier Creos
Gang is threatening to publish 150 GB of stolen data The BlackCat ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for hacking Creos, a gas and electricity supplier in Luxembourg. Parent company Encevo Group published a notice on July 25th saying that various entities of the Group had been attacked on July 22nd and that a number of data were exfiltrated from computer systems or made inaccessible by hackers. Customer supplies of gas and electricity should not be affected, the company said, and the matter has been reported to the Luxembourg police. However, it admitted that personal data may have been stolen. This investigation is still ongoing and we'll actively contact data subjects that are concerned of a data breach, Encevo said. The company's customer portal was still showing a 403 error today. The attack has been claimed by the BlackCat ransomware gang, which said it had exfiltrated 150Gb of data from Encevo including company contracts, agreements, passports, bills, and emails, and would be publishing it shortly. First seen in November 2021, BlackCat, also known as AlphV and Noberus, is thought by the FBI to be linked to the DarkSide (aka BlackMatter) gang, indicating they have extensive networks and experience with ransomware operations. DarkSide is the group responsible for the infamous Colonial Pipeline hack in the US last year. The group is thought to be mainly based in Russia. Typically, the BlackCat group uses previously compromised user credentials to gain access to a victim's system, after which malware compromises Active Directory user and administrator accounts. It then uses Windows Task Scheduler to configure malicious Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to deploy the ransomware. According to ransomware remediation company Coveware, BlackCat was the most active ransomware organisation in the second quarter of 2022, with 16.9% of the publicised attacks, followed by LockBit (13.1%), Hive (6.3%), Quantum (5.6%) and Conti V2 (5.6%).
Microsoft raises cloud server lifespan from four to six years
The move will help the company save $3.7 billion next year Microsoft is increasing the lifespan of server and networking equipment assets in its cloud infrastructure from four to six years, joining other cloud giants. Chief financial officer Amy Hood announced the news last week during Microsoft's Q4 2022 earnings call . She said technological advancements, new software tools, and more efficient operation of servers and network equipment will enable the longer lifespans. Extending the infrastructure's depreciable useful life should save Microsoft $1.1 billion in Q1'23, which started last month. The firm anticipates savings of $3.7 billion for the whole fiscal year. Both Google and Amazon Web Services have already announced longer lifespans for their cloud infrastructure. Google announced it was extending server lifecycles from three to four years in February. In the same month, AWS revealed its intent to boost the lifespan of servers and networking equipment by a year, to five and six years respectively. When managing millions of servers and storage devices, small changes to their price and lifespan can have a significant impact on associated costs. Customers usually react to such decisions with mixed feelings. On one hand, by prolonging server life Microsoft should be able to withstand challenging macroeconomic circumstances without having to raise prices for customers. It could even cut rates, although it remains to be seen whether this price cut will actually occur. On the other hand, extending hardware life also raises the possibility of failures and breakdowns. Microsoft claims it has software that improves hardware performance and monitors for faults. If Microsoft can actually take preventative measures before the hardware fails, there's not much for customers to worry about. Microsoft reported profits of $51.9 billion in Q4'22, with revenue from Azure, Intelligent Cloud and cloud services driving an increase in net income of 2%. The global macroeconomic environment, the conflict in Ukraine and extended manufacturing shutdowns in China, however, had a significant impact on earnings. Despite these setbacks, Microsoft's public cloud offerings seem to be expanding well. According to a Gartner survey in June , Microsoft ranks second after AWS in the worldwide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) public cloud market. AWS has a 39% market share, compared to Microsoft's 21%. When asked about how macroeconomic circumstances were influencing Azure, CEO Satya Nadella described how the firm was focused on convincing organisations that Azure can help them cut costs. Moving to the cloud is the best way to shape your spend with demand uncertainty, he said. He added that Microsoft was working to reduce the costs of customers' bills.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK A senior executive with more than 20 years IT experience in some of the world's most innovative organisations, Andy has held senior positions in both centralised and geographically diverse businesses across America, Asia and Europe. He is focused on achieving value through the appropriate implementation and use of technology. Andy has a proven track record of delivering results from concept to conclusion, with an ability to quickly understand true business requirement, unify teams and drive broad digital transformation agendas. Before joining Currys in June 2020, he was CIO for Dyson, Essentra and Sony.
Microsoft develops 3MW-capable hydrogen fuel cells
The hydrogen generator is a part of a larger effort to make data centres more sustainable and slash emissions Microsoft claims to have created a 3MW hydrogen fuel cell system that it wants to install at a research data centre, to see whether it is feasible to do away with diesel backup generators. Sean James, Microsoft's director of data centre research, referred to the development as a moon landing moment for the data centre industry. We have a generator that produces no emissions. It's mind-blowing. Microsoft tested the system, which pushes the limits of scalability for hydrogen fuel cells, with its equipment partner Plug Partner, a US company researching hydrogen fuel cell technology. The system uses a fuel cell technology called a proton exchange membrane (PEM), which produces power by facilitating a chemical interaction between hydrogen and oxygen that emits zero carbon. The tests were conducted over a period of several weeks in June at Plug Power's facility in New York State. Two fuel cells, housed in two 40-feet-long shipping containers, powered the backup generator system. Each container held 18 125-kilowatt fuel cells, the largest Plug has created so far. The system is capable of producing up to 3 megawatts of electricity, which could power 1,800 households. Microsoft says it wants to install one of these systems at a research data centre, where its engineers can acquire the skills to deploy the technology safely. The successful test represents a significant advancement since it is the first demonstration of a hydrogen fuel cell system that can run on a par with standard backup diesel generators. Microsoft doesn't yet have a scheduled date for its first operational deployment in a production data centre; but when it does, it will probably be at a new facility in an area where diesel generators are not permitted due to air quality rules. The company is moving cautiously, however, since there are many moving parts in the system that must all work together for the roll-out to go ahead smoothly. Microsoft has researching fuel cell technology since 2013 and has made a commitment to be carbon negative by 2030. I'm excited about the idea of working on something that can make a difference in the world, and hydrogen has a ton of potential to be a huge game changer, James said. When a lot of people think of renewable energy, they think of wind turbines and solar panels, and they don't necessarily think of hydrogen. I know I didn't. I think that will definitely change. Microsoft is making huge investments into fighting climate change; we ranked it as the top cloud company in the world for innovating - and actually performing - in the field.
UPI Clocks Over 6 Billion Transactions in July, Highest Ever Since 2016
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has clocked over 6 billion transactions in July, the highest ever since its inception in 2016. PM Narendra Modi lauded the outstanding accomplishment. Month-on-month, the volume of transactions was up 7.16 per cent and the value increased by 4.76 percent. Over the past four years, digital payment transactions have grown from Rs. 3,134 ...
Big Tech May Have to Share Europe Network Costs Amid Pressure From EU Countries, Reveals Document
EU regulators are being pushed by France, Italy and Spain to draft a legislation ensuring Big Tech firms partly finance telecoms infrastructure in the bloc, reveals a document. In May, Eu regulators were analysing whether Alphabet's Google, Meta and Netflix should share the cost. However, digital rights activists fear that making Big Tech pay for networks could threat...
Google forced to switch off London data centre to save it during heatwave
Redundant cooling systems packed up, forcing the shutdown The UK's recent heatwave, where temperatures hit 40C, was behind the outage that affected Google's services in its London-based europe-west2-a zone last month. The company's was forced to shut its London data centre during the record-breaking temperatures to prevent further downtime, as its cooling systems had failed. Although the incident report doesn't specify why the cooling systems malfunctioned, it says Google first learned of problems with two cooling systems on Tuesday 19th July. On that day temperatures in several regions of the UK reached record highs of 40C, with London hitting 39C in the late afternoon. Due to the simultaneous failure of several redundant cooling systems and the very high outdoor temperatures, one of the data centres was unable to maintain a safe operating temperature. Google engineers worked to fix the failed system, but were unsuccessful. With temperatures remaining above 35C into the evening, Google decided to shut part of the europe-west2-a zone to avoid an even longer outage or equipment damage. From that point on, a number of services were essentially inaccessible across the Europe West 2 zone. All virtual machines running on Google's Compute Engine, Persistent Disk (PD) and Google Cloud Storage were affected, which led to instance terminations, networking problems and service degradation. Google also appears to have botched its attempt to provide redundancy. It unintentionally changed routing for internal services at the beginning of the problem such that traffic avoided all three zones in the europe-west2 region, rather than just the impacted europe-west2-a zone. That meant users were no longer able to access data from regional storage services like GCS and BigQuery. Google managed to bring the cooling system came back online at about 10PM. The total impact on cloud services was estimated at 18 hours and 23 minutes. The company has vowed to take measures to insure against this type of failure again, which include fixing and re-testing failover automation to ensure stronger resilience. Google was not the only company that was forced to close its data centre during the UK heatwave;Oracle servers also experienced cooling-related failures as a result of the record-breaking temperatures. Modern data centres are designed to avert potent disasters, but existing infrastructure in the UK has not been built to withstand such intense temperatures . In 2020, Microsoft tested an undersea data centre near the Orkney Islands in the North Sea as part of an experiment to use natural resources as passive cooling solutions. Scientists have warned that intense heatwaves could occur more often, so tech firms are scrambling to discover greener alternatives that use less energy and produce less heat. Computing says: Google is doing what it can to protect its data centres in the short term - but as temperatures continue to climb around the world due to climate change, the existing tech will only go so far. New data centre innovations (like Microsoft's sunken facility in Orkney) will be necessary to insulate - both literally and metaphorically - against the rising heat.
Intel could give us Wi-Fi 7 devices long before Apple gets around to it
Intel is planning to introduce Wi-Fi 7 sometime in 2024 just as Apple turns to Wi-Fi 6E for its upcoming devices.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK A respected tech thought-leader, Anne-Marie is renowned for her work championing and inspiring women looking to find a role in the STEM world. As CEO and founder of Stemmetes, she heads an award-winning team that run workshops, public events and incubators for girls across the UK, introducing them to STEM role models, concepts and careers in fun, informal and relevant ways. Anne-Marie is a frequent speaker at conferences and roundtables, an adviser and a consultant for organisations wishing to work towards opening the tech field to women. She also hosts the popular Women Tech Charge podcast.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Jasper has led The Gym Group's technology operation since 2011. An experienced technology director, he has previously delivered high profile projects for GlaxoSmithKline, Global Fund, the NHS and the French Presidential Palace. Whilst at The Gym Group, Jasper has overseen a major programme of digital transformation and growth. The business has scaled from just 15 sites to more than 175, with a membership of nearly 800,000. At the same time Jasper and his team have introduced significant new digital experiences and data and analytics capabilities to drive change across the business.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK A technology leader with more than 20 years' experience delivering business-led technology and operational transformation, Charlotte is the Global CIO for Costa Coffee, where she is responsible for all the technology and digital solutions that enable the business. Before joining Costa, Charlotte held roles at Bupa, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Pearson, among others. They included Divisional CIO, CTO, Chief Digital & Tech Officer and Tech Strategy Leader positions. She has always focused on strategy development, digital leadership, building technology leadership and operating model optimisation, as well as architecture and complex legacy transformation.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Working withmajor international companies, Emer has helped them improve their operations by developing innovative and sustainable IT strategies, adopting the right technology solutions and building teams that deliver outstanding results. The results speak for themselves: Emer has used tech - including mobile, web and in-store kiosks - to reach out to customers in a way that is both convenient and fun, driving both sales and higher customer satisfaction. Just a few of Emer's former roles include CIO positions at Meggitt, McDonald's Europe and Laing O'Rourke, as well as National Grid. Since March 2021, however, she has worked as National Grid's Global Head of Transformation and Digital Adoption.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK After gaining insight and experience in the food production sector in the UK, US and European markets as CIO of Cargill, Garry has provided IT leadership to fuel distribution firm Greenergy, home delivery network Yodel, and airports group MAG. Apart from his current CIO role at legal firm Irwin Mitchell, he also serves as a non-executive director for the University of Salford.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK David is an experienced public sector IT leader, working in various London boroughs before joining the Greater London Authority, where he leads information and communication technology. He has overall responsibility for the GLA's IT service, including programme delivery; operations; support; voice and data networks; back-office services; systems integration; and development. He is also in charge of modernising the way the organisation works. Despite enjoying and being excited by new technology, David acknowledges that all the tech in the world is useless without the passion of people. His team and the GLA's customers remain at the heart of his work.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Phil is passionate about the combination of people and technology to make amazing things happen. Conveniently, he has plenty of opportunity to see that in action as the Group CIO of global warranty and appliance aftercare business Domestic and General, as well as in his past senior IT roles at Virgin Active, Royal Mail and Sainsbury's, among others. Phil has worked in IT since the '90s, through periods of great change like the dot com boom, growth of eCommerce and now digital transformation. But at all times, he has kept people at the heart of his work.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK A CIO with over 20 years' experience in FTSE 100/250 companies, Fiona is a member of the UK&I Board at E.ON. She works with senior executives to deliver technology-enabled business transformation in support of the overall business strategy. Having worked across the IT stack, and led on complex and multi-disciplined technology and digital initiatives, she is an expert critical thinker in a commercial environment. Fiona has led IT at E.ON since January 2021, but has also worked in theFMCG, hospitality and retail industries, including Compass Group, RICS and Britvic.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans Instagram account was hacked on Monday, after which a promotional tweet related to cryptocurrency was shared on his account. The profile of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman was also updated with a link to a fake crypto account of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Pakistan government officials claimed that the account was hac...
Aeva will sell its sensors for industrial uses to a German firm as part of a new deal, the company said on Monday. The Silicon Valley-based firm will sell its sensors to German company Sick AG for industrial purposes such as automating manufacturing lines with machines and self-driving mining trucks. Other firms like Nikon also use Aeva sensors to scan manufactured it...
US Said to Consider Crackdown on Chinese Memory Chip Manufacturers: All Details
The US is considering limiting American chipmaking equipment to China-based chip makers like Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC) in a move that is said to be aimed at halting China's semiconductor sector advances and protect US companies Western Digital and Micron, which together represent about a quarter of the NAND chips market.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Howard has plenty of experience in the retail sector, starting as a general manager at Asda in the '90s. From there he has worked at companies including IBM, Asda (again), New Look, the Co-operative and JD Williams. Since 2015 he has led IT at Matalan as the company's CIO. Through his time in the retail sector Howard has learned how to run and support complex, large-scale integrations; to manage business change programmes both locally and remotely; and to work with board members to construct an IT strategy that will support business growth.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK With more than 35 years' experience in IT, Ray a reliable professional with experience working in global, enterprise-scale firms. Some key achievements have included the integration of Lloyds TSB and HBOS; building a new IT leadership team at MS Amlin; and both establishing and running the largest Pega Centre of Excellence in Europe. As CIO of MS Amlin, Ray is responsible for setting IT strategies in alignment with business strategies; ensuring high levels of cyber security throughout the organisation, and maintaining regulatory compliance and auditing.
Best home internet deals for August 2022: AT&T, Spectrum, Optimum and more
Spend a little time to nail down the right internet service provider for you. These internet deals and bundles from top ISPs will have you enjoying faster network speeds (and saving some money) in no time.
TSMC Head Warns Invasion Would Devastate Global Supply Ahead of Potential Nancy Pelosi Visit
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said in an interview on CNN on Monday that an invasion of the island would render the TSMC factory not operable and obody can control TSMC by force. Lius comments come amid increasing tensions surrounding a potential visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island. The possibility of an invasion by China which considers self-ru...
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Seyi is Director of Digital Business Services Programmes at HSBC: a recent promotion in the company, where has worked since 2005 and has held roles ranging from Programmer to Head of End User Technology. As a leader, Seyi focuses on acting as a role model and mentor, focussing on colleagues' career development and progression. His work outside HSBC is just as important, where hecampaigns to advance the conversation and engagement of UK industry in relation to diversity and inclusion. Seyi is passionate about diverse leadership - he has championed initiatives focused on attraction, retention and progression of diverse candidates to leadership positions.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK With more than 25 years' experience in IT infrastructure, Jason's first speciality was in in data networks, after which he moved into management and leadership roles. He is currently responsible for cyber security across Newcastle University. His responsibility doesn't end at the UK's borders. One of Jason's most significant achievements was managing the IT design and implementation at the University's Medical School campus in Malaysia, which opened in 2011, with involvement in wider project management for the campus fit-out and ongoing development.
Facebook received support from Kenyan ministers after the countrys watchdog, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) accused the service of failing to tackle hate speech and incitement on the platform ahead of the national elections and gave it 7 days to comply with rules on hate speech. Kenyas ICT minister Joe Mucheru said the country had no int...
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Kate has had a diverse career, starting in advertising and marketing before moving into computer science in her early 20s. She describes herself as an architect - but instead of buildings, she designs technology systems. In particular, she looks after the data landscape at HSBC. In her role as Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Kate oversees four key areas of HSBC's IT: the physical infrastructure, applications, cybersecurity and data. While data is her own key specialism - previously she was HSBC's CDO - Kate also considers soft skills like communication an important part of any technologist's repertoire.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Helen is passionate about data: it is her job to use data to help companies make more effective decisions, remove the noise and show them how they can develop and improve. She is a specialist in interpreting and converting raw data into intelligence. Helen is Specsavers' global data officer, a role she has held since 2019. There, she oversees the design and development of data management systems like data warehouses, data stores and business intelligence systems. Although there are about 100 people at the company doing detailed analytics today, she expects a big uptick over the next two and a half years.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Caroline is a CIO with a wealth of experiencesetting up, transforming and running IT organisations in multi-billion global organisations and SMEs, worldwide. Although she is currently in financial services, she has also worked in the pharmaceuticals and not-for-profit sectors. As CIO at British International Investment (previously CDC Group), Caroline runs the technology team and provides strategic leadership to develop and implement IT initiatives to support the business. For this she pulls on her past experience in transforming and leading IT organisations, where she has developed and implemented group-wide IT strategies, as well as delivered change and govered worldwide teams.
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK With a background in product development, ops and consulting, Simon is an experienced IT leader who has mainly worked with IT teams and systems in the financial sector. Simon rejoined PayPoint as CTO in 2017, having previously managed the company's IT team at its Mobile and Online subsidiary prior to its sale in 2016. He has worked in both the payments and retail wealth management sectors for over 30 years as an engineer, manager, consultant and IT executive. He has launched and managed card processing systems for several banks and consulted on payments in the UK, USA, and Australia. Before joining PayPoint Simon was a management consultant for several years, and has delivered significant IT programmes for several banks, wealth managers and insurance firms
Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK Andy has extensive international experience driving technology innovation and digital transformation.He has a track record of success leading technology functions, setting strategic vision and managing infrastructure, systems development, data management and security. He is skilled in aligning IT investment with the needs of the business and has worked across many sectors, including technology, hospitality & retail, financial services, space and aviation. Some of Andy's career highlights include: migrating a global organisation to the public cloud, enabling scale whilst reducing complexity and cost; building a technology business in the City of London; and being part of the team involved in the first use of modern object-based software design and programming for the main flight programme of the Ariane 5 heavy launch space vehicle.
China Corruption Watchdog Probing Head of State-Backed Chip-Focused Big Fund: Details
Chinas Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is investigating Ding Wenwu, the head of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund, according to the corruption watchdog. The state-backed chip-focused fund was launched to accelerate the countrys semiconductor industry, and Wenwu is suspected of serious violations of ...
Elon Musk Claims Engagement on Twitter Dropped in Recent Weeks, Ahead of Upcoming Court Battle
Elon Musk on Saturday claimed that engagement on Twitter had dropped in recent weeks and days, prompting several responses on the microblogging site. The comments from the Tesla CEO come after a Delaware court set an October 17 date for Twitters lawsuit against Musk, asking the court to direct Musk to complete the $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) take...
Apple Pay Said to Work on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox on iOS 16 Beta 4 Ahead of EU Antitrust Rules
Apple Pay may soon support payments on third-party browsers, with the arrival of iOS 16 later this year. On the latest iOS 16 beta 4, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox can display the Continue with Apple Pay option on Apple's checkout page. As if iOS 15, users can only use Apple Pay on the companys Safari browser, but the changes to support other...
PayPal Access in Indonesia Temporarily Restored After Blocking Over Licensing Rules Sparks Backlash
Indonesia has temporarily opened access to PayPal to allow users to access their money, after a block on online services triggered a backlash in the country. The government blocked PayPal, Yahoo, and several gaming services for failing to meet a deadline under the countrys licencing rules, introduced in 2020. Users in Indonesia will have access to PayPal for five d...
Large language models cant plan, even if they write fancy essays
This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. Large language models like GPT-3 have advanced to the point that it has become difficult to measure the limits of their capabilities. When you have a very large neural network that can generate articles, write software code, and engage in conversations about sentience and life, you should expect it to be able to reason about tasks and plan as a human does, right? Wrong. A study by researchers at Arizona State University, Tempe, shows that when it comes to planning and thinking methodically, LLMs perform very poorly, This story continues at The Next Web