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Category: government – Page 30

A new facility will be able to produce battery capacity to power 130,000 homes on a daily basis using renewable energy.

Zinc halide batteries touted as a low-cost alternative to battery energy storage system (BESS) have received a significant boost in the US after the Department of Energy (DOE) offered a $400 million loan to help scale production and reduce manufacturing costs, a press release said. The offer will cover setting up of four production lines at battery maker Eos’ facility in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.

Lithium-ion batteries are a crucial component of our attempts to switch to a greener economy powered by renewable energy. Although the technology is ubiquitous these days and powers everyday devices like smartphones and even electric vehicles (EVs), it is still very expensive.

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China plans to broaden a ban on the use of iPhones in sensitive departments to state companies and government-backed agencies. Tom Mackenzie reports on Bloomberg Television.
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The United States government said today that a multinational law enforcement operation has destroyed Qakbot, also known as QBot, an infamous botnet and malware loader that was responsible for losses that amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars all over the globe, and that they have confiscated more than $8.6 million in illegal cryptocurrencies.

During a news conference held on Tuesday to announce the takedown of the botnet, United States Attorney Martin Estrada referred to the investigation as “the most significant technological and financial operation ever led by the Department of Justice against a botnet.” Duck Hunt was headed by the FBI. For one thing, the federal government developed some software that, when installed on computers that were infected with Qbot, would make the virus useless.

Law enforcement agencies in the United States and other countries have worked together over the last three days to confiscate 52 servers that were being used to sustain the QBot network. With assistance from France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Romania, and Latvia, these agencies were successful in “preventing Qakbot from resurrecting to cause further additional harm,” as stated in the report.

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Finally approved for public release, Baidu’s Ernie Bot app now needs to make itself valuable for new users.

As I reported last week, Baidu became the first Chinese tech company to roll out its large language model—called Ernie Bot—to the general public, following a regulatory approval from the Chinese government. Previously, access required an application or was limited to corporate clients.

I have to admit the Chinese public has reacted more passionately than I had expected.

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Sending an email with a forged address is easier than previously thought, due to flaws in the process that allows email forwarding, according to a research team led by computer scientists at the University of California San Diego.

The issues researchers uncovered have a broad impact, affecting the integrity of sent from tens of thousands of domains, including those representing organizations in the U.S. government—such as the majority of U.S. cabinet email domains, including state.gov, as well as . Key financial service companies, such as Mastercard, and major news organizations, such as The Washington Post and the Associated Press, are also vulnerable.

It’s called forwarding-based spoofing and researchers found that they can send impersonating these organizations, bypassing the safeguards deployed by email providers such as Gmail and Outlook. Once recipients get the spoofed email, they are more likely to open attachments that deploy malware, or to click on links that install spyware on their machine.

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Ensuring security in the software market is undeniably crucial, but it is important to strike a balance that avoids excessive government regulation and the burdens associated with government-mandated legal responsibility, also called a liability regime. While there’s no question the market is broken with regards to security, and intervention is necessary, there is a less intrusive approach that enables the market to find the right level of security while minimizing the need for heavy-handed government involvement.

Imposing a liability regime on software companies may go too far and create unintended consequences. The downsides of liability, such as increased costs, potential legal battles, and disincentives to innovation, can hinder the development of secure software without necessarily guaranteeing improved security outcomes. A liability regime could also burden smaller companies disproportionately and stifle the diversity and innovation present in the software industry.

Instead, a more effective approach involves influencing the software market through measures that encourage transparency and informed decision-making. By requiring companies to be fully transparent about their security practices, consumers and businesses can make informed choices based on their risk preferences. Transparency allows the market to drive the demand for secure software, enabling companies with robust security measures to potentially gain a competitive edge.

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Every seven minutes a cyber-attack is reported in Australia.

Millions of Australians have had their data stolen in malicious attacks, costing some businesses tens of millions of dollars in ransom. The federal government is warning the country must brace for even more strikes as cyber gangs become more sophisticated and ruthless.

Four Corners investigates the cyber gangs behind these assaults, cracking open their inner operations and speaking to a hacker who says he targets Australians and shows no remorse.

The program travels all the way to Ukraine and discovers we share a common enemy in the battle for cyber security.

Continue reading “How cyber-crime has become organised warfare | Four Corners” | >

X, formerly known as Twitter, will begin collecting users’ biometric data, according to its new privacy policy that was first spotted by Bloomberg. The policy also says the company wants to collect users’ job and education history. The policy page indicates that the change will go into effect on September 29.

“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the updated policy reads. Although X hasn’t specified what it means by biometric information, it is usually used to describe a person’s physical characteristics, such as their face or fingerprints. X also hasn’t provided any details about how it plans to collect it.

The company told Bloomberg that the biometrics are for premium users and will give them the option to submit their government ID and an image in order to add a verification layer. Biometric data may be extracted from both the ID and image for matching purposes, Bloomberg reports.

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The GhostSec cybergang claims to have breached the FANAP Behnama software, exposing 20GB of data including face recognition and motion detection systems it says are used by the Iranian government to monitor and track its people.

Now the group says it intends to make the data public, “in the interests of the Iranian people, but also in the interests of protecting the privacy of each and every one of us.” Cybersecurity analyst Cyberint commented on the group’s statement, saying that while GhostSec’s actions align with hacktivist principles, they also position themselves as advocates for human rights.

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NBC News Global Security Reporter Dan De Luce joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss the latest cyberattack hitting U.S. government agencies.

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Continue reading “U.S. hit by cyberattack: ‘Once you plug the dam one place, hackers find some other weakness’” | >