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Category: business – Page 123

The mother of all ‘zero-days’ — immortal flaws in semiconductor chips

The CHIPS Act of 2022 was signed into law on Aug. 9. It provides tens of billions of dollars in public support for revitalization of domestic semiconductor manufacturing, workforce training, and “leap ahead” wireless technology. Because we outsource most of our device fabrication — including the chips that go into the Navy’s submarines and ships, the Army’s jeeps and tanks, military drones and satellites — our industrial base has become weak and shallow. The first order of business for the CHIPS Act is to address a serious deficit in our domestic production capacity.

Notoriously absent from the language of the bill is any mention of chip security. Consequently, the U.S. is about to make the same mistake with microelectronics that we made with digital networks and software applications: Unless and until the government demands in-device security, our competitors will have an easy time of manipulating how chips function and behave. Nowhere is this more dangerous than our national security infrastructure.

Why your org should plan for deepfake fraud before it happens

In the years ahead, technology will continue to evolve, and it will become harder to identify deepfakes. Indeed, as people and businesses take to the metaverse and the Web3, it’s likely that avatars will be used to access and consume a broad range of services. Unless adequate protections are put in place, these digitally native avatars will likely prove easier to fake than human beings.

However, just as technology will advance to exploit this, it will also advance to detect it. For their part, security teams should look to stay up to date on new advances in detection and other innovative technologies to help combat this threat. The direction of travel for deepfakes is clear, businesses should start preparing now.

David Fairman is the chief information officer and chief security officer of APAC at Netskope.

Solve the problem of unstructured data with machine learning

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

We’re in the midst of a data revolution. The volume of digital data created within the next five years will total twice the amount produced so far — and unstructured data will define this new era of digital experiences.

Unstructured data — information that doesn’t follow conventional models or fit into structured database formats — represents more than 80% of all new enterprise data. To prepare for this shift, companies are finding innovative ways to manage, analyze and maximize the use of data in everything from business analytics to artificial intelligence (AI). But decision-makers are also running into an age-old problem: How do you maintain and improve the quality of massive, unwieldy datasets?

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Recognizing the need for technology in terms of starting a business and financial process management, Workhy is an all-in-one platform that enables the establishment of companies and the digital tracking of all taxable transactions.

It is so easy to start a company in the U.S. with Workhy! Complete your online registration now, your establishment process will be completed quickly.

Elon Musk subpoenas Jack Dorsey amid Twitter legal fight

Lawyers representing Elon Musk in his battle with Twitter have former CEO Jack Dorsey. The filing is the latest development as Musk and Twitter prepare for the October trial over Musk’s attempt to bail on his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

It’s not yet clear how Dorsey factors in to Musk’s legal strategy. As noted by the y Twitter account, the subpoena refers to “documents and communications reflecting, referring to, or relating to the impact or effect of false or spam accounts on Twitter’s business operations.” It also references documents related to how Twitter uses mDAU or monetizable daily active users as a “key metric.” Interestingly, it “documents relating to incorporating mDAU into executive or director compensation.”

Dorsey isn’t the only former Twitter executive subpoenaed by Musk. Twitter’s product chief and former head of revenue Bruce Falck have also received subpoenas.

Microsoft shuts down over 1,400 email accounts and 531,000 URLs used by ransomware gang that collected stolen customer credentials

Microsoft has shut down more than 1,400 malicious email accounts used by cybercriminals to collect stolen customer passwords via ransomware in the past year. The technology company has presented the second edition of ‘Cyber Signals’, a report that it produces periodically on cyber threats and that shows trends in security and cybercrime. In this issue, it offers insight into the evolution of extortion in cybercrime.

In this analysis, the company highlights that the specialization and consolidation of cybercrime have driven ransomware as a service (RaaS), which has become a dominant business model. RaaS programs, such as Conti or REvil, offer cybercriminals the opportunity to buy access to both ransomware payloads, leaked data and payment infrastructure.

These are used by different malicious actors, among which are the so-called access ‘brokers’, who sell the possibility of accessing the networks. In this way, those cybercriminals who do not have the necessary knowledge to execute the attacks can pay for these techniques and use them.

Why composability is key to scaling digital twins

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

Digital twins enable enterprises to model and simulate buildings, products, manufacturing lines, facilities and processes. This can improve performance, quickly flag quality errors and support better decision-making. Today, most digital twin projects are one-off efforts. A team may create one digital twin for a new gearbox and start all over when modeling a wind turbine that includes this part or the business process that repairs this part.

Ideally, engineers would like to quickly assemble more complex digital twins to represent turbines, wind farms, power grids and energy businesses. This is complicated by the different components that go into digital twins beyond the physical models, such as data management, semantic labels, security and the user interface (UI). New approaches for composing digital elements into larger assemblies and models could help simplify this process.

SKY Perfect JSAT signed Launch Service Contract for Superbird-9 satellite with SpaceX

The fully reusable Starship could launch as soon as next month.

Another private customer has signed up to use SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship rocket. Sky Perfect JSat penned a contract with SpaceX to launch its Superbird-9 communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit in 2024, the company announced in a press release.

The Tokyo-based firm revealed little about the specifics of the deal. However, according to Sky Perfect JSAT, Superbird-9 is a high-throughput satellite that “will deliver broadcast and broadband missions in Ku band primarily over Japan and Eastern Asia, in response to mobility and broadband demands.”

Starship: SpaceX’s next-generation launch vehicle.

This is the SKY Perfect JSAT Group SKY Perfect JSAT signed Launch Service Contract for Superbird-9 satellite with SpaceX page. SKY Perfect JSAT Group commands the largest communication satellite business in Asia and is the only in Japan to offer the multichannel pay TV broadcast service SKY PerfecTV!

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3D-Printed Homes Get Boost From Montana

Montana this month gave a City of Billings contractor approval to build homes using 3D-printed walls for new construction in the state. The technology Tim Stark, the contractor, is using comes from Apis Cor, a Florida-based technology company that emphatically states on its website, “We print 3D buildings.”

The first time I encountered Apis Cor was when I wrote about the state of 3D-printed buildings back in 2016. Then Apis Cor was Russia-based and was working with a U.S. company. The website links in my posting back then for both the Russian and U.S. company no longer work. So I am guessing that the Apis Cor of today represents the evolution of both the technology platform as well as the business.

The current version of Apis Cor has constructed a number of pilot homes in the U.S. and the biggest 3D-printed building in the world in the United Arab Emirates. The technology has complied with some international building code standards but not yet in the U.S. Getting regulatory approval from the state of Montana, however, will likely open the door to seeing 3D printers being used more extensively here in North America, and can help lower the cost of home builds and solve growing demand.

Can We Adapt Old Power Plants to Run on Green Hydrogen?

Star Scientific invents a catalyst that in the presence of hydrogen and oxygen heats to 700 Celsius. That’s enough heat to drive a steam turbine for power generation.

Star Scientific is a 25-year-old research laboratory north of Sydney, Australia. The company is one of many trying to make existing power plants carbon-free. This includes old coal-fired thermal power stations which remain among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Star has invented a patented non-polluting catalyst which it calls HERO® which is an acronym for Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer. It uses hydrogen without producing combustion.

Mars Food Australia, the subsidiary of the global food giant, is using HERO® to help decarbonize its processes. The 18-month pilot project is the first step in developing alternative heat sources for the food industry. Bill Heague who is General Manager of Mars in Australia states, “Thermal energy is crucial to the business of cooking food and this technology has the capability to create limitless heat without any combustion and zero emissions.”

But this is only the beginning because Star has plans to introduce the technology into legacy coal-fired power plants to retrofit existing generators to run on green hydrogen. In an interview with Bloomberg Green, Andrew Horvath, Chairman of Star Scientific states, “We think there are a lot of opportunities in existing steam turbines that have some longevity…Why would you throw them away? They’re already connected to the grid.” He cites the example of Japan where 70% of its existing turbines still have 40 years of life left.

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