Coding interviews are terrible. Can we make them better?
A typical coding interview will involve presenting a candidate with a technical
problem, which they'll have to solve in real time and in front of the
interviewing panel. While these typically vary from one company to another, one
common format is whiteboard coding, whereby a candidate might be asked to
provide a solution to a problem involving a binary tree. It was a binary tree
task that drew the ire of Howell in his now-famous tweet. These are a fairly
typical part of technical interviews, designed to assess a candidate's ability
to solve a programming problem and show their thinking 'out loud'. Still, most
programmers say this isn't representative of anything they'd have to do in their
day-to-day job, and say it's an outdated means of assessing candidates that
doesn't reflect their skill level. "These little challenges don't show the
greater skill sets, which for me are the ability to construct large programs,"
says Howell. "It's not about small algorithms. It's about the design of larger
systems, and that's way more important." Howell also sees traditional coding
interviews as being reflective of an industry that focuses too much on building
at speed. "It's partly because the software industry moves so fast," he says.
How Augmented Reality Strengthens Biotech Manufacturing
Factories where engineers or scientists are using smart glasses to obtain
virtual guidance, operators working with remote vendors to detect equipment
failures in real-time, or interactive training sessions planned by directors
located in another continent, are already here. “The barriers to adoption are
decreasing as the AR industry becomes more robust,” notes Stracquatanio.
Probably, the biggest advantage of AR is it enables seeing the production
process virtually, without the need to be there. “It’s a game-changer for the
industry. Individuals can have eyes and ears on site at a moment’s notice to
address an emerging issue, or to host routine remote collaboration sessions,”
Stracquatanio highlights. AR can also increase control over the manufacturing
process. Pharma and biotech companies cannot afford mistakes during the
production phase. A little oversight might lead to serious consequences such as
having to start from scratch, which can be very expensive and time-consuming. A
recent example is that of Johnson & Johnson’s manufacturing partner Emergent
BioSolutions, whose workers erroneously mixed ingredients from two different
Covid-19 vaccines; this led to wasting around 15 million vaccine doses.
Fileless Malware, Endpoint Attacks on the Rise
Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging fileless malware, cryptominers and
encrypted attacks, targeting users both at remote locations as well as corporate
assets behind the traditional network perimeter. These were among the findings
of WatchGuard Technologies’ Internet Security Report for Q4 2020, which found
fileless malware and cryptominer attack rates grew by nearly 900% and 25%,
respectively, while unique ransomware payloads plummeted by 48% in 2020 compared
to 2019. The report also found botnet malware targeting IoT devices and routers
became a top strain, among them the Linux.Generic virus (also known as “The
Moon”), malware which is part of a network of servers that directly targets IoT
devices and consumer-grade network devices, like routers, to exploit any open
vulnerabilities. Total network attack detections grew by 5% in Q4, reaching
their highest level in more than two years, while total unique network attack
signatures showed steady growth as well, with a 4% increase compared with the
third quarter of 2020. “We believe the increase in endpoint attacks between 2019
and 2020 is largely due to the widespread rise of remote work in response to the
global pandemic,” Corey Nachreiner, WatchGuard CTO, explained.
Could social media networks pave the way towards stronger authentication?
Passwords are still the most common form of user authentication, “protecting”
accounts, devices and systems, but alone, they don’t provide strong security.
Not only that, they don’t offer the best user experience. Many passwords don’t
even meet the minimum criteria of being unique and complex. People reuse
passwords across accounts because they simply can’t keep track of all the logins
they have. They choose passwords that are easy to remember to ease the burden,
but that makes them easy to guess too. In fact, our research shows that people
reuse their passwords across an average of ten personal accounts, while ‘123456’
still topped the list for the most common password in 2020. Even when they have
chosen well, their unique and complex password can still fall victim to a modern
phishing attack. After all, even an exemplary password can’t protect an account
if the holder has been tricked into providing the information. From a user
experience perspective, you have the stress and strain of choosing a unique,
complex password each time that also meets the criteria demanded by the platform
or service provider.
Nation-state cyber attacks double in three years
“Cyber crime economies are shaping the character of nation-state conflicts,”
said McGuire. “There is also a ‘second generation’ of cyber weaponry in
development that draws upon enhanced capabilities in computing power, AI
[artificial intelligence] and cyber/physical integrations. One such example is
‘Boomerang’ malware, which is ‘captured’ malware that can be turned inward to
operate against its owners. “Nation states are also developing weaponised
chatbots to deliver more persuasive phishing messages, react to new events and
send messages via social media sites. In the future, we can also expect to see
the use of deepfakes on the digital battlefield, drone swarms capable of
disrupting communications or engaging in surveillance, and quantum computing
devices with the ability to break almost any encrypted system.” To ease rising
tensions and prevent nation states from being drawn into more hostile cyber
attacks, 70% of the expert panel said they thought some kind of international
treaty would ultimately be necessary – this is by no means a new idea – but just
15% of them thought a cyber convention would be agreed on this decade, 37% said
it was more likely to come in the 2030s, and 30% said it would probably never
happen.
Quantum computer based on shuttling ions is built by Honeywell
Trapped-ion qubits were used to implement the first quantum logic gates in 1995,
and the proposal for a quantum charged coupled device (QCCD) – a type of quantum
computer with actions controlled by shuffling the ions around – was first made
in 2002 by researchers led by David Wineland of the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology, who went on to win the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics
for his work. Quantum gates have subsequently been demonstrated in multiple
platforms, from Rydberg atoms to defects in diamond. The quantum computing
technology first used by IT giants, however, was solid state qubits. In these,
the qubits are superconducting circuits, which can be mounted directly on to a
chip. These rapidly surpassed the benchmarks set by trapped ions, and are used
in record-breaking machines from IBM and Google: “Working with trapped ions, I
would be asked by people, ‘Why aren’t you working with superconducting qubits?
Isn’t that race pretty much already settled?’,” says Winfried Hensinger of the
UK’s University of Sussex. Recently, however, the progress made using
superconducting circuits appears to be slowing as quantum computers integrate
more and more qubits.
How MPC can solve blockchain’s data privacy conundrum
MPC, or multi-party computation, solves for confidentiality by utilizing a
network of computation nodes that compute directly on encrypted data while
maintaining zero knowledge about the data. For example, an employer may want to
find out the average age of each of their employees. For privacy reasons, these
employees may not be willing to share their ages, so through secret sharing, the
employees can share their age without their age being publicly identifiable to
them. The possibilities this technology enables are endless, and one must only
think of the benefits such technology could bring to industries such as banking
and insurance. While MPC solves for privacy, blockchain itself can protect the
individual data against data breaches via the decentralization of sensitive
information. Alone, blockchain lacks the infrastructure required to ensure data
remains private. ... Not only is the pairing of MPC technology and blockchain a
better solution to safeguarding consumer data to those currently in existence,
it is one of the most viable solutions that effectively deals with the
monumental problem of data security.
How Do Large Firms Train ML Models At Scale?
GPipe is a distributed machine learning library that uses synchronous stochastic
gradient descent apart from pipeline parallelism to train any DNN containing
multiple sequential layers. GPipe partitions a model across various accelerators
and spins small batches of training examples to even smaller batches. Hence,
GPipe’s accelerators can operate parallelly and maximise the scalability of the
training process. It allows easy deployment of more accelerators to train large
models and further scale the performance without tuning hyperparameters. GPipe
is a distributed machine learning library that uses synchronous stochastic
gradient descent apart from pipeline parallelism to train any DNN containing
multiple sequential layers. GPipe partitions a model across various accelerators
and spins small batches of training examples to even smaller batches. Hence,
GPipe’s accelerators can operate parallelly and maximise the scalability of the
training process. It allows easy deployment of more accelerators to train large
models and further scale the performance without tuning hyperparameters.
Data validates future of work looks quite different than pre-pandemic
Both private and professional lives are slowly readopting former practices, such
as eating inside a restaurant. As we cautiously return to normal, road warriors
are ready to get back on the road, but we're also excited to keep some of the
improved healthcare, restaurant and retail experiences we've discovered over the
last year. Respondents cited the top four things they said they missed while
working remotely: Spontaneous interactions with colleagues I wouldn't have
talked to otherwise; Simply being around other people; Exposure to a
diversity of perspectives and ideas; and Productivity. Qualtrics discovered
that respondents found improved productivity (51%) and well-being—two times more
likely than those who say it declined—during the pandemic lockdown. Managers
concur: 55% said their direct reports have been more productive. Generationally,
54% of millennials said they're more productive, 53% of Gen Z, 48% of Gen X and
34% of boomers agree. Productivity has improved due to flexible schedules (31%),
no commute (26%), more control over workspace (24%), ability to focus with fewer
work interruptions (24%) and more privacy and personal space (23%).
The benefits of cyber threat intelligence
All of this saves time and helps them be more effective at mitigating threats
and reducing risks. CTI allows the SOC to see beyond the perimeter, so they are
aware of threats before they hit their infrastructure. That allows the SOC time
to prepare, tweak defenses, such as deploying specific monitoring rules or
knowing what to be on the lookout for. And when dealing with incidents or
alerts, having this additional context allows them to place the individual
alert, or maybe alerts they are dealing with, in the wider context of who is
behind it, what their aims are, while typical next steps would be, or maybe even
what must have gone before for this to occur. All of that makes it easier to
determine how to respond. And when dealing with multiple alerts or incidents, as
SOCs do, having this context allows you to prioritize, separating the wheat from
the chaff as it were. And that’s critical as many SOCs are resource strained,
and so knowing which items to focus on can help with making the most effective
use of limited resources.
Quote for the day:
"It's good to trust others but, not to
do so is much better." -- Benito Mussolini
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