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Behavioral biometrics and continuous authentication advance as business adapts to remote everything

Even as dramatic social change has been imposed by COVID-19, the kinds of fraud attacks companies experience and the biometric authentication technologies they use to prevent them have remained basically the same. What has changed is that online volumes of traffic, transactions and authentications have reached levels they were expected to years in the future, BehavioSec VP of Products Jordan Blake told Biometric Update in an interview.

As a result, he says, “timelines are getting advanced.”

Demand is coming from new verticals, according to Blake, as numerous people begin using the online channel to interact with many organizations they never have dealt with that way before.

Universities last in line as Europe eases coronavirus lockdown

“In one sense, universities have become victims of their own success at teaching online, but some academics are concerned that continued closures could hurt poorer students without access to computers or study space, while others mourn the loss of face-to-face connection while teaching.” Universities have become bloated cliques. Has Covid shown we don’t need mini-towns and fat fees? Poorer students might welcome online courses at 10% of the cost surely and shorter completion time, surely?


Governments are prioritising reopening schools and businesses over campuses. But some academics fear the impact on disadvantaged students – and on their teaching.

Understanding The Recognition Pattern Of AI

Of the seven patterns of AI that represent the ways in which AI is being implemented, one of the most common is the recognition pattern. The main idea of the recognition pattern of AI is that we’re using machine learning and cognitive technology to help identify and categorize unstructured data into specific classifications. This unstructured data could be images, video, text, or even quantitative data. The power of this pattern is that we’re enabling machines to do the thing that our brains seem to do so easily: identify what we’re perceiving in the real world around us.

The recognition pattern is notable in that it was primarily the attempts to solve image recognition challenges that brought about heightened interest in deep learning approaches to AI, and helped to kick off this latest wave of AI investment and interest. The recognition pattern however is broader than just image recognition In fact, we can use machine learning to recognize and understand images, sound, handwriting, items, face, and gestures. The objective of this pattern is to have machines recognize and understand unstructured data. This pattern of AI is such a huge component of AI solutions because of its wide variety of applications.

The difference between structured and unstructured data is that structured data is already labelled and easy to interpret. However unstructured data is where most entities struggle. Up to 90% of an organization’s data is unstructured data. It becomes necessary for businesses to be able to understand and interpret this data and that’s where AI steps in. Whereas we can use existing query technology and informatics systems to gather analytic value from structured data, it is almost impossible to use those approaches with unstructured data. This is what makes machine learning such a potent tool when applied to these classes of problems.

Chinese Kennel Owner Caught Stealing Electricity to Power Underground Bitcoin Mining Farm

The largest oil field in the People’s Republic of China has been a target for individuals and organizations attempting to mine bitcoins with free electricity. After a bunch of mining farm operators allegedly got caught last summer, a dog kennel owner was recently busted for running cable lines in order to siphon free electricity from China’s Daqing Oil Field. The mining farm owner was arrested, as police found 54 ASIC miners stored in an underground bunker with dog kennels on top making it seem like a legitimate operation.

Electrical costs in China are cheaper than most places around the world, and that is why there is a high concentration of China-based bitcoin mining operations. To this day, it is estimated that more than 60% of today’s bitcoin miners operate in China. On April 26, the regional publication dbw.cn/heilongjiang published a report that explained a bitcoin miner was just arrested for allegedly stealing free electricity from the Daqing Oil Field. The report notes that the mining farm operator got away with the free electricity for months in order to power 54 mining rigs underground.

Further investigation shows that the mining farm owner also operated a K-9 kennel housed with dogs above the bunker. The cover made it seem like he was operating a legitimate business, while he had long cables running into China’s largest oil field. The oil field in Daqing is located between the Songhua river and Nen River. Estimates show that Daqing Oil Field has produced well over 10 billion barrels since the operation started. The man who was busted running cable lines into the oil field is not the only entrepreneur who has tried that specific method. Daqing Oil Field has been a target for many bitcoin mining operators who have attempted to run cables into the plant.

Israeli masks designed with unique anti-pathogen fabric enter US market

I shared about this startup in January, now it’s hitting US Markets. The Israeli startup Sonovia, which sped up efforts to manufacture masks using its anti-pathogen fabric at the start of the coronavirus crisis in Israel, has launched commercial sales.


“When coronavirus started, we were an Israeli startup,” Dr. Jason Migdal, a research scientist with Sonovia, told The Jerusalem Post. “Now, we are a commercial business that is having success internationally.”

Sonovia developed an almost-permanent, ultrasonic, fabric-finishing technology for mechanical impregnation of zinc oxide nanoparticles into textiles.

“The technology is based upon a physical phenomenon called cavitation,” said Migdal. “Sound waves are used to physically infuse desired chemicals onto the structure area of materials, enhancing them with clinically proven antiviral and antibacterial properties.”

Migdal explained that the novel coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, is spread via aerosol and direct contact. Therefore, antiviral personal protective equipment is “of crucial importance to combat the transmission of this viral epidemic.”

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