Lifeboat Foundation

The jury may still be out on the usefulness of the Internet of Things, but payments giant Visa is 100 percent sure that it doesn’t want to miss out. Today, it announced plans to push Visa payments into numerous fields. We’re talking “wearables, automobiles, appliances, public transportation services, clothing, and almost any other connected device” — basically anything that can or will soon connect to the internet.

Visa imagines a future where you’ll be able to pay for parking from your car dashboard or order a grocery delivery from your fridge. It makes sense, then, that Samsung is one of the first companies to sign up to the Visa Ready Program, alongside Accenture, universal payment card company Coin and Fit Pay. Chronos and Pebble are also working to integrate secure payments inside their devices.

To show off the technology, which works with any credit card, Visa or otherwise, the company has teamed up with Honda to develop an in-car app that helps automate payments. Right now they have two demos, the first of which concerns refueling. It warns the driver when their fuel level is low and directs them to the nearest gas station. Once the car arrives at the pump, the app calculates the expected cost and allows the driver to pay for the fuel without having to leave the vehicle.

Does the connected self driving car, mean a connected work car as well?

SAN FRANCISCO — In the balancing act between business and pleasure, the modern connected car is mostly about pleasure. Drivers can easily stream music from the Internet and dictate text messages to friends, but staying connected to the office is still cumbersome, as anyone who has tried to join a teleconference while driving can attest.

People tired of checking corporate email around the clock may prefer it that way. After all, a request from the boss can still be reasonably deflected with a simple: “Sorry, I’m driving.”

Continue reading “Challenge for Microsoft: Could we get more work done in our cars? (Should we?)” »

Meet the opponents of BMIs & their report.

*This article only represents a very small fraction of the research regarding the dangers associated with these devices. We encourage you to further your own research, and just wanted to provide a base to let you know that it’s something more of us need to pay attention to.

Continue reading “This Is What WIFI, Cell Phones, iPads & More Are Doing Your Child’s Brain – 100 + Scientists Are Now Petitioning The UN” »

5G in 2016 — Nokia CEO says it is.

5G mobile technology will start to get defined “in real terms” by the end of this year, Suri said at a press briefing Sunday on the eve of Mobile World Congress.

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The advent of 5G is likely to bring another splurge of investment, just as orders for 4G equipment are peaking. The goal is to be able to offer users no less than the “perception of infinite capacity”, says Rahim Tafazolli, director of the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey. Rare will be the device that is not wirelessly connected, from self-driving cars and drones to the sensors, industrial machines and household appliances that together constitute the “internet of things” (IoT).

It is easy to dismiss all this as “a lot of hype”, in the words of Kester Mann of CCS Insight, a research firm. When it comes to 5G, much is still up in the air: not only which band of radio spectrum and which wireless technologies will be used, but what standards makers of network gear and handsets will have to comply with. Telecoms firms have reached consensus only on a set of rough “requirements”. The most important are connection speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second and response times (“latency”) of below 1 millisecond (see chart).

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Rep. David Lifferth, R-Eagle Mountain, has introduced legislation to increase punishment for those who engage in Internet crimes. HB225, Cybercrime Amendments, specifically targets crimes known as “doxing” and “swatting.” The bill has been assigned to be heard by a House committee.

Doxing is the act of releasing personal information about a person publicly online. Oftentimes, these releases are accompanied by intimidating threats toward the targets of doxing. Releasing personal information online while encouraging others to commit crimes against the victim is understandably dangerous. However, issues have been raised concerning First Amendment rights.

Originally, HB225 included criminal charges against those who release personal information with the intent to “annoy, offend, and frighten.” Lifferth is removing these phrases particularly as they don’t necessarily indicate malicious intent. Critics have expressed that HB225 would be a violation of freedom of speech.

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I hate to break the news to the UN’s CITO — has she ever heard of “Quantum Technology?” After AI flood into the scene; the next innovation that I and others are working on is Quantum Computing which will make AI, Internet, Cyber Security, devices, platforms, medical technology more advance with incredible performance.

The United Nations Chief Information Technology Officer spoke with TechRepublic about the future of cybersecurity, social media, and how to fix the internet and build global technology for social good.

Artificial intelligence, said United Nations chief information technology officer Atefeh Riazi, might be the last innovation humans create.

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Richard Branson wants Virgin Galactic involved in everything from orbital flights to internet from space.

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US Navy fighting the real war that is ramping up by unpluging from certain networks. Well, that is an option; but also very limiting to “sneaker net” information file transfers. Definitely not uncommon across other areas of government.

SAN DIEGO — For the Navy, the best defense against a high-tech enemy may be a low-tech strategy.

After decades of building equipment, aircraft and ships designed to communicate with each other and back to shore, the Navy is now looking to “selectively disconnect” its systems to minimize vulnerability to cyberattacks, said Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

Continue reading “Navy Wants to Unplug From Some Networks to Stay Ahead of Cyberattacks” »