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Category: government – Page 76

Olivia Zetter — Head of Government Affairs and AI Strategy — National Resilience, Inc.

Making the future of medicine possible by rethinking how medicines are made — olivia zetter, head of government affairs & AI strategy, resilience.

Olivia Zetter is Head of Government Affairs and AI Strategy at National Resilience, Inc. (https://resilience.com/) a first-of-its-kind manufacturing and technology company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines and protecting bio-pharmaceutical supply chains against disruption.

Founded in 2020, National Resilience, Inc. is building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today, and tomorrow, can be made quickly, safely, and at scale.

Olivia brings extensive experience in national security spanning diplomacy, defense, and development, along with emerging technology issues. Olivia has held multiple positions in government, most recently as a Director of Research and Analysis at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, an independent federal commission established by Congress to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on national security and defense.

Olivia previously served at the Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, where her work spanned a diverse range of cyber policy areas. She also served as the Special Advisor on Trans-Regional Issues to the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, where she coordinated efforts to counter the terrorist organization’s financing, foreign terrorist fighter flows, and external operations.

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A self-driving revolution? We’re barely out of second gear

“Britain moves closer to a self-driving revolution,” said a perky message from the Department for Transport that popped into my inbox on Wednesday morning. The purpose of the message was to let us know that the government is changing the Highway Code to “ensure the first self-driving vehicles are introduced safely on UK roads” and to “clarify drivers’ responsibilities in self-driving vehicles, including when a driver must be ready to take back control”.

The changes will specify that while travelling in self-driving mode, motorists must be ready to resume control in a timely way if they are prompted to, such as when they approach motorway exits. They also signal a puzzling change to current regulations, allowing drivers “to view content that is not related to driving on built-in display screens while the self-driving vehicle is in control”. So you could watch Gardeners’ World on iPlayer, but not YouTube videos of F1 races? Reassuringly, though, it will still be illegal to use mobile phones in self-driving mode, “given the greater risk they pose in distracting drivers as shown in research”.

NASA enlists SpaceX and Amazon to help develop next-gen space communications

NASA has picked SpaceX, Amazon and four other American companies to develop the next generation of near-Earth space communication services meant to support its future missions. The agency started looking for partners under the Communication Services Project (CSP) in mid-2021, explaining that the use of commercially provided SATCOM will reduce costs and allow it to focus its efforts on deep space exploration and science missions.

“Adopting commercial SATCOM capabilities will empower missions to leverage private sector investment that far exceeds what government can do,” NASA wrote in the official project page. By using technology developed by commercial companies, the agency will have continued access to any innovation they incorporate into the system. At the moment, NASA relies on its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system for near-Earth space communications. Many of its satellites were launched in the 80’s and 90’s, though, and it’s set to be decommissioned in the coming years.

The funded agreements under NASA’s Communication Services Project has a combined value of $278.5 million, with SpaceX getting the highest cut. NASA expects the companies to match and exceed its contribution during the five-year development period. SpaceX, which proposed a “commercial optical low-Earth orbiting relay network for high-rate SATCOM services,” has been awarded $69.95 million. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is getting the second-highest cut and has been awarded $67 million, while Viasat Incorporated has been awarded $53.3 million. The other three awardees are Telesat US Services ($30.65 million), SES Government Solutions ($28.96 million) and Inmarsat Government Inc. ($28.6 million).

FBI warning: These hackers are targeting developers and DevOps teams to break into crypto firms

The US government has detailed how North Korean state-sponsored attackers have been hacking cryptocurrency firms using phishing, malware and exploits to steal funds and initiate fraudulent blockchain transactions.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory to warn all businesses in cryptocurrency to watch out for attacks from North Korean state-sponsored hackers.

Engineer born with one hand makes a prosthetic one out of plastic bottles for $800

The Force was strong in him. One of Enzo Romero’s favorite activities is playing the guitar, which he effortlessly does with his bright blue hand. Initially, it used to hurt, as he used his handless right arm to press down on chords. But now, with fingers on the end, he can play music painlessly.

Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, marketed as simply The Empire Strikes Back, is a 1980 film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan from a story by George Lucas. It is the second part of the Star Wars original trilogy.

The film concerns the continuing struggles of the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire. During the film, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia Organa are being pursued across space by Darth Vader and his elite forces. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker begins his major Jedi training with Yoda, after an instruction from Obi-Wan Kenobi’s spirit. In an emotional and near-fatal confrontation with Vader, Luke is presented with a horrific revelation and must face his destiny.

Though controversial upon release, the film has proved to be the most popular film in the series among fans and critics and is now widely regarded as one of the best sequel films of all time, as well as one of the greatest films of all time. It was re-released with changes in 1997 and on DVD in 2004. The film was re-released on Blu-ray format in September of 2011. A radio adaptation was broadcast on National Public Radio in the U.S.A. in 1983. The film was selected in 2010 to be preserved by the Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry.

Feds Uncover a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ for Hacking Industrial Systems

“This is the most expansive industrial control system attack tool that anyone has ever documented,” says Sergio Caltagirone, the vice president of threat intelligence at industrial-focused cybersecurity firm Dragos, which contributed research to the advisory and published its own report about the malware. Researchers at Mandiant, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric also contributed to the advisory. “It’s like a Swiss Army knife with a huge number of pieces to it.”

Dragos says the malware has the ability to hijack target devices, disrupt or prevent operators from accessing them, permanently brick them, or even use them as a foothold to give hackers access to other parts of an industrial control system network. He notes that while the toolkit, which Dragos calls “Pipedream,” appears to specifically target Schneider Electric and OMRON PLCs, it does so by exploiting underlying software in those PLCs known as Codesys, which is used far more broadly across hundreds of other types of PLCs. This means that the malware could easily be adapted to work in almost any industrial environment. “This toolset is so big that it’s basically a free-for-all,” Caltagirone says. “There’s enough in here for everyone to worry about.”

The CISA advisory refers to an unnamed “APT actor” that developed the malware toolkit, using the common acronym APT to mean advanced persistent threat, a term for state-sponsored hacker groups. It’s far from clear where the government agencies found the malware, or which country’s hackers created it—though the timing of the advisory follows warnings from the Biden administration about the Russian government making preparatory moves to carry out disruptive cyberattacks in the midst of its invasion of Ukraine.

Maxar eager to launch new satellites amid soaring demand for imagery over Ukraine

WASHINGTON – As Maxar Technologies’ satellites continue to collect images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company is working with customers so it can allocate more capacity to meet U.S. government needs, said Maxar’s CEO Daniel Jablonsky.

With four satellites in orbit, “a lot of times we don’t have a lot of spare capacity,” Jablonsky said in an interview last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

“But we made accommodations with some of our other customers to be able to surge capacity for the U.S. and allies,” he said. The company also gets about 200 requests a day for imagery from news media organizations.

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