Technology, Regulations Can't Save Orgs From Deepfake Harm
Deepfakes have already become a tool for attackers behind business-leader impersonation fraud — in the past referred to as business email compromise (BEC) — where AI-generated audio and video of a corporate executive are used to fool lower-level employees into transferring money or taking other sensitive actions. In an incident disclosed in February, for example, a Hong Kong-based employee of a multinational corporation transferred about $25.5 million after attackers used deepfakes during a conference call to instruct the worker to make the transfers. ... Creating trusted channels of communication should be a priority for all companies, and not just for sensitive processes — such as initiating a payment or transfer — but also for communications to the public, says Deep Instinct's Froggett. "The best companies are already preparing, trying to think of the eventualities. ... You need legal, regulatory, and compliance groups — obviously, marketing and communication — to be able to mobilize to combat any misinformation," he says.
Juniper Networks brings industry’s first and only AIOps to WAN routing, delivering AI-native insight for exceptional experiences
Juniper is introducing a new security insights Mist dashboard within its Premium Analytics product to provide comprehensive security event visibility and persona-based policy activation and threat responses. This increased visibility provides actionable intelligence to security teams, enabling them to quickly identify incidents and respond to threats in real-time—thereby improving the user experience. The security insights dashboard in Premium Analytics also helps break down siloed network and security management. ... Another innovation announced by Juniper, Routing Assurance, brings the company’s high performance, sustainable and versatile enterprise edge routing platforms under the Mist AI and cloud umbrella. ... In addition, Marvis, the industry’s first and only AI-Native VNA with a conversational interface built on more than seven years of learning, has been expanded to cover enterprise WAN edge routing. With Marvis’ conversational interface, IT teams can use simple language queries to identify and fix routing issues, including knowledge base queries powered by Generative AI.
How Sprinting Slows You Down: A Better Way to Build Software
First, start by killing the deadlines. In our model, engineers determine when a
feature is ready to ship. They are thus able to make principled engineering
decisions about what to implement now versus later, delivering better code than
they would when making decisions driven by a two-week deadline. Second, assign
smaller teams to features and give them greater scope. Because the teams are
smaller (often just one engineer!), many new features are developed in parallel.
These solo programmers or small teams own the entirety of implementation from
back to front. There are no daily standups and needless communication is
eliminated. And because the engineers control the implementation across the
stack, they can make principled engineering decisions about how to build their
functionality, rather than decisions constrained by the sliver of the codebase
they happen to own, delivering a more cohesive implementation. The common thread
between these two ideas is that they institutionally support making principled
decisions, because good decisions today lead to better outcomes
tomorrow.
Why is site selection so important for the data center industry?
Climate considerations are paramount, with weather conditions impacting hazard
exposure and vulnerability. Mitigating natural hazards such as floods,
earthquakes, and hurricanes through engineered solutions is essential. Access to
major highways and airports ensures logistical efficiency, particularly during
construction and operation. The air quality surrounding a site affects equipment
performance and employee health, necessitating measures to mitigate pollution.
Historical data on natural disasters informs risk management strategies and
facility design. Ground conditions must undergo thorough geotechnical
investigation to assess structural stability and suitability for construction.
The availability of robust communications infrastructure, particularly
fiber-optic networks, is critical for seamless connectivity. Low latency,
enabled by proximity to subsea cable landing sites and dense fiber networks, is
imperative for high-performance applications. Geopolitical stability, regulatory
environments, and taxation policies influence site selection decisions.
Electrical power availability and cost significantly impact operational
expenses, with renewable resources offering sustainability benefits.
Maximizing SaaS application analytics value with AI
AI analytics tools offer businesses the opportunity to optimize conversion
rates, whether through form submissions, purchases, sign-ups or subscriptions.
AI-based analytics programs can automate funnel analyses (which identify where
in the conversion funnel users drop off), A/B tests (where developers test
multiple design elements, features or conversion paths to see which performs
better) and call-to-action button optimization to increase conversions. Data
insights from AI and ML also help improve product marketing and increase overall
app profitability, both vital components to maintaining SaaS applications.
Companies can use AI to automate tedious marketing tasks (such as lead
generation and ad targeting), maximizing both advertising ROI and conversation
rates. And with ML features, developers can track user activity to more
accurately segment and sell products to the user base. ... Managing IT
infrastructure can be an expensive undertaking, especially for an enterprise
running a large network of cloud-native applications. AI and ML features help
minimize cloud expenditures by automating SaaS process responsibilities and
streamlining workflows.
Inside the 'Secure By Design' Revolution
While not legally binding, the pledge encourages those that sign up to show
demonstrable progress in each of the seven goals within a year. “One thing that
we like, and I think a lot of industry likes, is it allows for flexibility in
showing how you meet those goals,” Charley Snyder, head of security policy at
Google, tells InformationWeek. If pledge signers are unable to show progress
within a year, CISA encourages them to communicate what steps they did take and
share what challenges they faced. The agency plans to offer its support
throughout the year. “We are going to be working very closely with the pledge
signers to help make progress on these pledge goals,” Zabierek explains. “We
worked collaboratively with industry to develop the actions, and we're going to
maintain that collaboration.” ... Tidelift, a company that partners with
open-source maintainers, is not only applying the principles outlined in the
pledge to its own software, but it also published an update on the ways it is
working to help open-source maintainers achieve the pledge goals.
The next frontier: AI, VR, and the future of educational assessment
One of the most promising applications of AI in assessment is its ability to
analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and trends in student
performance, enabling educators to gain valuable insights into student
progress and learning outcomes. By harnessing AI-powered analytics, educators
can track student achievement over time, identify areas for improvement, and
tailor instruction to address individual learning needs more effectively. ...
In addition to AI, Virtual Reality (VR) is revolutionising the assessment
landscape by offering immersive and interactive experiences that allows
students to engage with content in three-dimensional, multisensory
environments, providing opportunities for experiential learning and authentic
assessment experiences. Furthermore, VR technology enables educators to assess
higher-order thinking skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and
creativity in ways that are not feasible with traditional assessment methods.
Through VR-based scenarios and simulations, students can engage in complex,
real-world challenges, make decisions, and experience the consequences of
their actions
Cyber insurance isn’t the answer for ransom payments
Contrary to the belief that having cyber insurance increases the likelihood of
ransom payments, Veeam’s research indicates otherwise. Despite only a minority
of organizations possessing a policy to pay, 81% opted to do so.
Interestingly, 65% paid with insurance and another 21% had insurance but chose
to pay without making a claim. This implies that in 2023, 86% of organizations
had insurance coverage that could have been utilized for a cyber event. The
ransoms paid averages to be only 32% of the overall financial impact to an
organization post-attack. Moreover, cyber insurance will not cover the
entirety of the total costs associated with an attack. Only 62% of the overall
impact is in some way reclaimable through insurance or other means, with
everything else going against the organization’s bottom-dollar budget. ...
Alarmingly, 63% of organizations are at risk of reintroducing infections while
recovering from ransomware attacks or significant IT disasters. Pressured to
restore IT operations quickly and influenced by executives, many organizations
skip vital steps, such as rescanning data in quarantine, causing the
likelihood of IT teams to inadvertently restore infected data or malware.
Generative AI agents will revolutionize AI architecture
AI agents possess advanced natural language processing (NLP) capabilities.
They can comprehend, interpret, and generate human language, facilitating easy
interaction and communication with users and other systems. These agents also
work alongside other AI agents or human operators in collaborative and
iterative workflows. Through continuous learning and feedback, they refine
their outputs and improve overall performance. On paper, AI agents should be
in wide use today. Look at all the pros I’ve listed. The downsides are much
more difficult to understand. Even though you need tools to build AI agents,
the tools are all over the place regarding what they are and how to use them.
Don’t let vendors tell you otherwise. First, these are complex beasties to
write and deploy. Architects who can design AI agents and developers who can
effectively build AI agents are few and far between. I’ve witnessed teams
announce they will use agent-based technology and then build something that
falls far short of a solution for the proposed business case. Second, you
can’t put much into these AI agents or they are no longer agents. You missed
the point if your AI agents are vast clusters of GPUs.
AI in Healthcare: Bridging the Gap Between Proof and Practice
“We see huge social impacts from AI in healthcare – in the data we’ve
collected regionally in Pennsylvania, for example,” Dr. Sadeghian added. “Many
rural areas have insufficient access to medical procedures. AI will impact
society through both safety and convenience. Everybody has smartphones now;
why not have the doctor in your hand? A cultural shift is underway.” AI can
give a preliminary screening and keep people out of cities and congested
areas, bringing access to more rural areas and saving office visits for people
who need them. This also impacts transportation, walkability, and other
aspects of civic planning – even pollution mitigation. Inviting the black box
of AI into healthcare isn’t some hazy dream. It’s happening today. Younger
generations are the most scientifically engaged ever, though, which means
consensus-building on tech policy could move faster going forward. Politicians
have noticed the social, cultural, and economic value of investing in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
Quote for the day:
"If you don't value your time, neither
will others. Stop giving away your time and talents- start charging for it."
-- Kim Garst
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