Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

Daily Tech Digest - February 03, 2017

These 10 cities have the worst malware infection rates in the US

Malware attacks are on the rise across the US, but some cities are more susceptible than others, according to a recent report from Enigma Software Group (ESG). In 2016, Tampa, Orlando, and St. Louis each had malware infection rates per capita more than five times the national average—the highest in the US, the report found. ... "The important thing is that people in these cities, and everywhere else for that matter, need to always remain vigilant against malware, spyware, and other nefarious online activity." ESG compiled malware detection data from its SpyHunter anti-spyware software in the 100 largest cities in the US in all of 2016. Enterprises should be on the lookout for ransomware attacks in particular: Nearly half of businesses report that they were the subject of a cyber-ransom campaign in 2016, according to a recent Radware report.

Global Application and Network Security report finds ransom is top motivation for cyber attacks

“The intent of today’s threat actor is to develop the best tools possible to either disable an organisation or steal its data,” said Geenens. “While businesses focus on delivering the highest value to their customers, they will also have to stay vigilant and ensure they are able to meet the security challenges they will likely face. Security must be woven into the customer experience for a company to truly succeed. Without this change in thinking, organisations will remain vulnerable.” Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), which actively monitors and mitigates attacks in real-time, creates this annual report for use by the security community. The ERT team compiles this report using a combination of data from a vendor-neutral survey of organisations, Radware’s in-the-trenches experience fighting cyber-attacks, as well as the perspective of third-party service providers.

IT execs: Most sought-after skills aren't IT-focused

There are lots of technologies that are developing, but coding, to my mind, is primarily syntax. [I try to] find somebody who's a good problem solver, who knows how to take a problem, break it down into pieces and get to a solution. Whether they're doing that in Java code or in Python or in CSS or in whatever the next JavaScript technology we're going to roll out to market is going to be, that's syntax that smart people can learn. If I can find people who are great problem solvers and who are really aggressive learners [that] constantly want to be playing and learning with new things, [those] are the [people] that are going to be the best to build into my team. That's a team that I can point at any problem, even one that I can't anticipate, and any technology -- even one that I haven't seen -- and know that they're going to be able to pick it up and carry it to a new place.

Attention to cyber-security is becoming daily routine in the C-suite

Nearly half (45 percent) said the responsibility for monitoring “immediate risks to cyber-security” rests with those who are directly in charge of cyber-security (meaning cyber teams). Thirty-three percent picked either C-suite or both (meaning cyber teams and C-suite). When asked about responsibility for “emergent risks to cyber-security”, responsibility resting solely with the cyber team fell to 30 percent and the portion of respondents who picked C-suite or both jumped to 46 percent. Widespread social issues present business risk for companies around the world. Whatever the underlying causes of insecurity may be, they manifest themselves in many ways, physical and cyber-threats among them. Executives are confident in political authorities' ability to mitigate the causes of insecurity, but there remain opportunities for companies to address their exposure to the threats motivated by insecurities.

A value stream mapping process is best under a DevOps approach

Value stream mapping usually starts with the product person or team as they are the direct line to the customer, Alley said. The process moves through the development lifecycle, QA testing, release and operations, and how the IT team monitors and manages this product or feature after release. The value stream doesn't end there; it looks down through deployment and up at the customer to see if the project achieves its goals. The value stream mapping process assembles everyone involved with a workflow into the same room at the same time, to clarify their roles in this product delivery process and identify bottlenecks, friction points and handoff concerns. Value stream mapping reveals steps in development, test, release and operations support that waste time or are needlessly complicated.

Convert your big data into beautiful graphics with Google’s Data Studio tool

Part of the Analytics 360 suite that Google Inc. revealed earlier this year, Data Studio provides enterprises and small businesses alike with a simple, user-friendly interface that lets them build living charts and graphs using their analytics data. “One of the fundamental ideas behind Data Studio is that data should be easily accessible to anyone in an organization,” developers Nick Mihailovski and Nathan Moon wrote in a May 25 blog post announcing the American version of Data Studio. “We believe that as more people have access to data, better decisions will be made.” In addition to the main subscription-based program, American users can access a free version of Data Studio that limits each account to five reports, though both versions allow access to unlimited data and report viewing, editing and collaboration. A Canadian beta version has since been released.

RSA 2017: The Internet of Things security threat

IoT gear doesn’t exist in isolation, so attackers will seek ways to compromise other devices that they interact with in an effort to affect their usefulness, according to Anthony Gambacorta, the vice president of operations at Synack, who is speaking at the conference. He’ll present specific examples to look out for including products such as IoT’s relationships with cloud servers and mobile applications. Using data that IoT devices gather as legal evidence poses its own set of problems, which include preserving the data and its integrity, and analyzing it for incident investigations and to present as evidence in court. The nuances of these emerging needs will be examined by attorney Erik Laykin of Duff & Phelps LLC. Security luminary Bruce Schneier will offer up two sessions about regulating IoT devices, which are woefully insecure, some say because they are not held to any set of security standards.

Mesh networking: Why it's coming to a home or office near you

Increasing your range is only one advantage to mesh networking. You also increase your network stability. With a mesh, even if one node goes down, you still have a working Wi-Fi network. In addition, a mesh can deliver more bandwidth on average to each device and deal better with heavy-traffic congestion. Setting up a mesh network used to require either high-end equipment or considerable networking skill. Today, you just need to buy the gear, plug it in, and run a simple setup routine. Unlike ordinary routers, though, you're more likely to set up mesh gear from an Android or iOS program instead of a web page. Most mesh networking packages comes in sets of three nodes. 802.11s enables you to expand to dozens. But there are limits. The more nodes you have, the more hops are needed to send messages between devices. The result is increased latency and poorer bandwidth

New Chrome Beta Feature Looks To Make Web Apps As Powerful as Native Ones

This could be the future of Mobile: Apps on Android are changing. A couple weeks ago, Google began testing its new Instant Apps that let users interact with aps without needing to download them in the Play Store, but Progressive Web Apps takes that concept one step further. Not only do they eliminate the Play Store middleman altogether, they let developers build powerful apps right in Chrome and deliver them quickly without the hassle of downloads and updates, or concern about compatibility. Native apps have served us well (and likely will for years to comes), but Google is already thinking beyond the present implementation of apps to a future where everything is instant and connected.

Protecting your critical digital assets: Not all systems and data are created equal

In determining the priority assets to protect, organizations will confront external and internal challenges. Businesses, IT groups, and risk functions often have conflicting agendas and unclear working relationships. As a result, many organizations attempt to apply the same cyber-risk controls everywhere and equally, often wasting time and money but in some places not spending enough. Others apply sectional protections that leave some vital information assets vulnerable while focusing too closely on less critical ones. Cybersecurity budgets, meanwhile, compete for limited funds with technology investments intended to make the organization more competitive. The new tech investments, furthermore, can bring additional vulnerabilities.

Quote for the day:

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." -- Abraham Lincoln

Daily Tech Digest - February 02, 2017

These are the threats that keep me awake at night

The concept of threat intelligence is sound: Use another organization’s discoveries about potential threats to augment your own security. The problem is that the quality of threat intelligence data is highly variable. Those who rely on it without the proper vetting may make matters worse and not better. As an example, many organizations applied the indicators of compromise provided by the U.S. government as part of the Grizzly Steppe investigation to their own monitoring systems. Burlington Electric was one such organization, and it quickly identified a PC with activity matching information in the government alert, causing a media storm related to the U.S. electrical grid being "hacked." Sadly, some of the information in the alert turned out to be inaccurate, and much time was expended investigating an employee who had innocently checked his Yahoo email.

Data from pacemaker used to arrest man for arson, insurance fraud

A man has been charged for arson and fraud after law enforcement used data gleaned from his pacemaker to uncover an alleged plot to cheat his insurance company. ... Suspicions were aroused when Compton's statements did not seem to match up with how the blaze begun, especially after he told a 911 dispatcher that after spotting the fire, he packed a number of suitcases and threw them out of his bedroom window after breaking the glass with a walking stick. Compton has medical conditions which include an artificial heart linked to an external pump. According to court documents, a cardiologist said that "it is highly improbable Mr. Compton would have been able to collect, pack and remove the number of items from the house, exit his bedroom window and carry numerous large and heavy items to the front of his residence during the short period of time he has indicated due to his medical conditions."

How Machine Learning Can Improve Healthcare Cybersecurity

Currently SIEM technology is considered one of the most advanced types of infrastructure cybersecurity. SIEM aggregates event data from all solutions across an IT infrastructure and applies security analytics in real-time for the earliest possible security threat detection. Introducing machine learning into enterprise cybersecurity will separate and integrate SIEM log-based methods with other UEBA. Machine learning will allow this process to be unsupervised, eliminating breaches caused by human error. Machine learning has proved useful in healthcare analytics, with providers and vendors looking to apply the technology to security solutions to protect clinical health data store on-premise and in the cloud. ... "This radical transformation is already underway and is occurring as a response to the increasingly menacing nature of unknown threats and multiplicity of threat agents," Pavlakis concluded.

Why You’re Doing Cybersecurity Risk Measurement Wrong

Broadly speaking, cybersecurity is risk identification and risk mitigation in the cyber domain. Measuring risk quantitatively is good because it helps security teams measure their capabilities somewhat objectively, which helps everyone make better decisions. For example, when deciding whether to upgrade all your firewalls or invest in organization-wide two-factor authentication, that decision should be based, in part, on what risk exists now and what risk will be after you implement a change. It may surprise you but people are generally pretty bad at this, resulting in things like transportation disasters, major breaches, economic bubbles, wars, and bad movies. ... Here’s where it gets more complicated: evaluating current and future risk requires accounting for people … and people make everything harder. A good risk analysis should account for risky behaviors by users, administrators, and security personnel, both before and after you make the change.

EVGA splashes into CPU chilling with new closed-loop liquid coolers

EVGA's venture into CPU cooling is further evidence that the enthusiast sector of PCs is thriving. Indeed, the AIO coolers are just the tip of the iceberg for EVGA, which is poised to meet the cooling needs of more sophisticated users, as well. While all-in-one coolers are designed for simple, straightforward installation, EVGA will soon expand its selection into something much more ambitious. EVGA’s QRC, or quick-release cooling, system will mix the ease of AIOs with the flexibility of custom water-cooling setups by offering a variety of prefilled liquid-cooled components with snap-on quick-release connections at their ends. The idea is you can buy these separate AIO parts and expand the cooling system to fit the needs of your particular system.

The digital workplace - IT’s biggest challenge?

The opportunity is huge. A successful digital workplace is not only a means of attracting talent it also maximizes the creative potential of the workforce and enables new ways of working that deliver better business outcomes. So much so that Gartner predicts that by 2020 the greatest source of competitive advantage for 30 percent of organizations will come from the workforce’s ability to creatively exploit digital technology. I also see the digital workplace as a foundation stone for any organization that is approaching artificial intelligence and automation as an opportunity to empower employees to create value in new ways. It puts people, and what they need to be more collaborative and creative when administrative tasks are automated, in the spotlight. At its simplest, the digital workplace is one that offers employees anytime, anywhere access to technology devices and services in a way that boosts engagement, creative thinking and agility.

How security can directly impact the bottom line at banks, financial institutions

Financial organizations certainly recognize that these technologies impact their bottom line, but calculating the precise ROI of preventive solutions can be difficult. As a result, security is often viewed simply as a cost center. However, security has a valuable and untapped role to play that can deliver immediate tangible results across the entire organization – while using many of the security technologies already deployed. The transformation and expanded role of security can best be seen in its potential to contribute via technology to four additional key business operations: reducing inefficiencies in processes and procedures, predictive analysis, delivering actionable data and reports and achieving compliance. These tasks are often performed with time-consuming, costly and error-prone manual processes.

How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism

In one initiative, Facebook has been partnering with universities to set up challenges for teams of students to develop counter-messaging campaigns. ... "The campaigns have reached tens of millions of people," she said. "Some of the campaigns are just absolutely amazing in terms of how many people they reach." Google has been backing other efforts to counter extremist propaganda online, including offering up tailored ads to users who might be recruitment targets. Last September, Google launched the "Creators for change" campaign, through which the company identifies potentially influential YouTube users and works to "resource them up and help them understand how to utilize their audience, which is really millennials around the globe, to kind of convey messages that push back on hate and extremis and violence and xenophobia," Walden said.

Vespa team creates Gita, a robot for lugging your stuff

Introducing Gita -- a little round robot that will carry up to 40 pounds of your stuff. It is the first offering from Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF), a new company from the folks who created Vespa, the iconic Italian scooter. Michele Colaninno, Chairman of the Board of PFF tells us that the company is part of a 21st century revolution on mobility. He says, "... The way forward is that robotics engineering must help people and not substitute people." We spoke with Colaninno and members of the Boston-based team that developed Gita. The team isn't developing a self-driving car. Instead, they envision a future where cities are filled with active pedestrians and their robot assistants. In a closed environment, Gita can navigate entirely on its own. But it can also head outside to tag along with a person, following the human operator's wearable device and avoiding obstacles along the way.

Businesses are at a database crossroads

As the SQL monolith splinters, developers are ending up with increasingly more data handling options; programmer website DB-Engines counts more than 300 different options. That’s a great array of choices, and choice is good. But it’s a number that also shows the complexity of the problems organisations are looking to solve in the information age. However, it can’t continue in this vein – that’s not how markets work, so consolidation and market transformation are clearly coming. However, the question for the CIO, who needs to make the largest bets on technology, is who will emerge as the Oracle or DB2 of tomorrow. By 2020 there’ll be a fragmentation of the database world into three parts.

Quote for the day:

"You can have anything in the world you want if you'll just help enough other people get what they want." -- Zig Ziglar

Daily Tech Digest - February 01, 2017

Experts explain why microservices are overhyped

In reality, granular software applets add unnecessary complexity that stymies growth, increases overhead, and is at odds with how most contemporary cloud systems operate. This is "because [microservice] applications must be refactored to realize their value," Sweet said. "It's easy to get containerization mixed up with microservices," he said. "But where a traditionally monolithic application can be delivered in a large container model, moving an application from a traditional monolithic architecture to microservices requires complete refactoring. And as many enterprises learned when they tried to build private clouds, just because a new technology is hot doesn't mean there's enough engineering talent to go around." Microservice systems also demand a skilled employment ecosystem. Market demand and interest in microservices currently exceeds the pool of available, trained workers.

The Industrial Internet of Things is full of transformational potential

Zhang observes that IIoT is not a new concept for manufacturing as most production facilities have had process control systems, SCADA data and historians for decades. However, with the advent of IIoT the next wave of manufacturing productivity is at the doorstep (or on the loading dock). The application of analytics to volumes of data produced by instrumented, connected assets can deliver quantifiable savings and benefits across supply chain and manufacturing processes. However, one of the immediate challenges frequently voiced by manufacturers undertaking an IIoT initiative is acknowledgement that much of the data generated by their assets is never captured, particularly “unstructured” data. And this is where IBM’s Watson IoT cognitive capabilities can transform that data, once captured, into meaningful insight.

The Data Science Puzzle, Explained

Several concepts central to data science will be examined. Or, at least, central in my opinion. I will do my best to put forth how they relate to one another and how they fit together as individual pieces of a larger puzzle. As an example of somewhat divergent opinions, and prior to considering any of the concepts individually, KDnuggets' Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro has put together the following Venn diagram which outlines the relationship between the very same data science terminology we will be considering herein. The reader is encouraged to compare this Venn diagram with Drew Conway's now famous data science Venn diagram, as well as my own discussion below and modified process/relationship diagram near the bottom of the post.

Harnessing the value of big data with MDM

Big data can act as an external source of master information for the MDM hub and can help enrich internal Master Data in the context of the external world. MDM can help aggregate the required and useful information coming from big data sources with internal master records. An aggregated view and profile of master information can help link the customer correctly and in turn help perform effective analytics and campaign. MDM can act as a hub between the system of records and system of engagement. However, not all data coming from big data sources will be relevant for MDM. There should be a mechanism to process the unstructured data and distinguish the relevant master information and the associated context. NoSQL offering, Natural Language Processing, and other semantic technologies can be leveraged towards distilling the relevant master information from a pool of unstructured/semi-structured data.

AI Isn't Just For The Good Guys Anymore

Security providers are increasingly using machine learning to tell good software from bad, good domains from bad. Now, there are signs that the bad guys are using machine learning themselves to figure out what patterns the defending systems are looking for, said Evan Wright, principal data scientist at Anomali. "They'll test a lot of good software and bad software through anti-virus, and see the patterns in what the [antivirus] engines spot," he said. Similarly, security systems look for patterns in domain generation algorithms, so that they can better spot malicious domains. "They try to model what the good guys are doing, and have their machine learning model generate exceptions to those rules," he said. Again, there's little hard evidence that this is actually happening.

How to practice cybersecurity (and why it's different from IT security)

In cybersecurity, the defenders acknowledge that highly motivated and creative adversaries are launching sophisticated attacks. There’s also the realization that when software is used as a weapon, building a stronger or taller wall may not necessarily keep out the bad guys. To them, more defensive measures provide them with additional opportunities to find weak spots and gain access to a network. This mentality goes against the fundamental principle in IT security of erecting multiple defensive layers around what you’re trying to protect. By separating what you’re trying to protect from the outside world, you’re keeping it safe—at least in theory. While this works in physical security, where IT security has its roots, it doesn’t really work when you’re facing enemies who need to be successful just once to carry out their mission.

Security is the categorical imperative of the Internet of Things

Security is the categorical imperative of the IoT. Many companies have always understood this and have never abdicated their responsibilities. But that understanding needs to be made absolute. Security must be baked directly into every IoT solution; incorporated into the development process of all devices and systems and suppliers; normalized across every application. All stakeholders need to be on a common ground — and education is the first step. Efforts like those of the Internet of Things Consortium (IoTC) Privacy and Security Committee seek to establish and disseminate guidelines for minimum viable products and policies to strengthen privacy and security. There is no such thing as infallible security and there will always be people looking for ways to exploit and subvert IoT technologies. But we don’t have to make it so easy for them.

Business Transformation Demands Modern Data Integration

Vital data needed by organizations frequently is found not only outside the enterprise data warehouse, but outside the enterprise. Businesses are pressed to recognize the value that can come from integrating data from a variety of sources. Data management and data integration solutions have been strongly challenged to handle continuous changes in data and how it's used, increasingly in real-time. Modern data integration builds on technologies and processes that long have been part of the bigger world of data integration, beyond basic ETL functions. Practices like data quality, data profiling and data governance (also highly relevant to business users) comprise important capabilities that are central to reliable up-to-date data, no matter the source or structure. Modern data integration offerings encompass interoperating multi-platform solutions (iPaaS and on-premises), as well as pure-play cloud and SaaS solutions, where the lines continue to blur between application and data integration.

Rise of the 'accidental' cybersecurity professional

Cybersecurity is inherently interdisciplinary, Hurley said. "One thing I've done over and over is bring people from different disciplines into a room, to create a common vocabulary and work through a particular issue or problem that needs to be resolved," she said. Depending on your background, you may be able to make the leap to security within your own company, Hurley said. "There are tons of opportunities in cyber and many doors of entry," Hurley said. "Whatever doorway you come through, you will be working with colleagues from many disciplines, and becoming more expert." Shelley Westman, senior vice president of alliances and field operations at Protegrity, started her career as a lawyer. She left the field and went to work at IBM in a number of different roles ranging from procurement to product management. Eventually, she was assigned a role in hardware security.

The Misaligned Middle and Getting off the Hamster Wheel Using Kanban

So optimizing in one area can cause problems downstream in another area, and we don't recognize that if we're not looking at the big picture. Getting people to see and understand the big picture, and then having that help bring previously maybe even warring tribes together to have a conversation about how to fix it. Secondly, DevOps has a lot to do with culture. It's not just about automation and how can we change culture from a top-down command and control approach to a more distributed power to give people autonomy to do the work that they need. So some of the models that we're looking at is the Western behavior model which is the elements for a pathological kind of organization that's run by fear, versus a bureaucratic organization that's usually run by rules, versus a really agile organization to work with that's run by high cooperation and diversity

Quote for the day:

"Don't let today's opportunities become tomorrow's what ifs." -- Pat Flynn

Daily Tech Digest - January 31, 2017

Agile Is King, But Continuous Integration Is An Elusive Goal

Continuous integration with an ability to deploy hourly, often described as an end goal of adopting an agile development process, was cited by 28% as the destination they were shooting for. However, only 14% were actually doing so. Hourly continuous integration a year ago was a goal for only 18%. The added 10% a year late shows how quickly continuous integration is rising in the consciousness of development staffs. It's rising faster than the actual ability to deploy, currently at 14%, but a year ago a similar Dimension Labs survey showed it to be 10%. On the other hand, everyone is trying to practice the meshing of a software update into a production system. Thirty-five percent of respodents said they could integrate updates daily and 17% said weekly. Another 20% do updates on a "less than weekly basis" but still more frequently than the six-month or annual update periods practiced by development staffs of yore.

A human capital challenge in information technology

Leaving IT jobs unfilled can have serious consequences. For instance, with the rise of the IoT, the number of connected devices is estimated to increase to 200 billion by 2020, from 2 billion in 2006.5 Cyberattacks—crimes ranging from data theft to malware—are also on the rise. In 2015, the number of breaches involving the exposure of more than 10 million identities increased by 125 percent and new mobile vulnerabilities increased by 214 percent.6 Without the right IT talent in cybersecurity, the proliferation of the IoT could give cyber criminals increased opportunity to attack and breach businesses. Moreover, IT skills such as cybersecurity and data analytics span all industries from manufacturing and retail to financial services and government. In fact, IT skills in general span several industries, and therefore, filling IT job openings with the right talent is important to the overall performance of the economy.

Smart Cities of the Future: An Innovation or Intrusion?

An interconnected city grid of traffic and pedestrian cameras offers a wealth of actionable Big Data. As an example, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, “the traffic authority monitors about 22,000 vehicle movements every morning, while the regional environment agency produces hourly data about air quality from sensors across greater Rotterdam resulting in over 175,000 observations per year.” In addition to better managing traffic and public transit, as well as controlling pollution, proponents highlight the ability of such data to enable enhanced policing, crowd control, and even public sentiment monitoring. However, others express grave concerns about the potential for abuse in such systems, especially given the integration of smartphones into connected apps utilized by many smart cities. Although ostensibly “anonymous,” smartphones contain personal markers, and a wealth of information that represents great value to marketers, government agencies, and fraudsters.

Why open source helps you build your applications that much faster

The ability to create new applications quickly, reliably and economically is drawing businesses to open source and inspiring them to use it for ever-larger projects. When developers think of open source, they think "free." And with good cause: it’s technology you can get at no cost and use with few licensing restrictions. However, the association I prefer is to business agility. According to the Forrester Research report "Development Landscape: 2013, 76% of developers have used open-source technology at some level. Open-source technologies offer a variety of benefits to that makes it easier to build your apps, be it bringing innovative ideas to market fast with reduced development costs, creating scalable and portable apps and services, or continuously building, testing and delivering high quality production code.

VR + AI: the very real reality of virtual artificial intelligence

By layering in aspects of natural artificial intelligence, experiences are developing that lose the feeling of being so “unreal;” distinct memories, interactions and relationships are being created that cause the user to question — well, if it happens in real life, but inside of a headset, does that not make it real? Of our five senses, Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) handle vision, a solid pair of 3D headphones like OSSIC handle sound; AxonVR and others are working on haptics and touch…next up is smell and taste, those should be, well…interesting. But beyond our five senses which create the feeling of physical “presence” in a virtual space, is the “immersion” of having a real experience, experiencing the unexpected and having the opportunity to create very real memories. As opposed to playing a pre-programmed “AI” game experience, natural social interaction is the key to this.

Who owns the data from the IoT?

There are two major classes of parties in this space. The first category includes corporations, data brokers and marketplaces, which exchange data among themselves. This is not typically exposed to tight government regulation. The second category is composed of consumers who submit data to a vendor in exchange for a product or service. Agreements in the consumer space may be subject to government oversight. The result is that certain industries such as healthcare must comply with a network of statutes and agency rules. On the other end of the spectrum is the give-and-take approach. Under this approach, the vendor may collect in-depth data from a sensor platform to optimize the user's experience. Here, the contract allows all data to be exchanged in return for incentives such as a curated service or discount. This approach conveys all data usage rights and data title once the end user opts in.

Linux: The 10 best privacy and security distributions

The awesome operating system Linux is free and open source. As such, there are thousands of different ‘flavours’ available – and some types of Linux such as Ubuntu are generic and meant for many different uses. But security-conscious users will be pleased to know that there are also a number of Linux distributions (distros) specifically designed for privacy. They can help to keep your data safe through encryption and operating in a ‘live’ mode where no data is written to your hard drive in use. Other distros focus on penetration testing (pen-testing) – these come with tools actually used by hackers which you can use to test your network’s security. In this article, we’re going to highlight 10 of the best offerings when it comes to both privacy and security.

No silver bullet for business IoT security

One way to sabotage IoT deployments is to replace trusted devices with rogue ones. Existing technologies can help here. SSL/TLS encryption not only ensures that data transmitted by devices is secure, it also confirms a device’s identity. To this end, there has also been renewed interest in PKI (public key encryption). This means more encryption certificates as devices proliferate, which may mean upgrading certificate management capabilities. The encryption suppliers all have new messages around IoT security, including Symantec, Gemalto, Thales, Entrust Datacard, Vormetric and Venafi. Other approaches are being developed to help with IoT device identification. Third-party registries are gaining popularity. These can be referred to for identifying devices and their expected location and function. DNS service providers such as Neustar list known devices and there are specialist databases such as Xively.

Security Automation Isn’t Artificial Intelligence Security

What is confusing many security technology buyers at the moment lies with the inclusion of AI buzzwords around products and services that are essentially delivering “automation.” Many of the heavily marketed value propositions have to do with automating many of the manual tasks that a threat analyst or incident responder would undertake in their day-to-day activities, such as sifting through critical alerts, correlating them with other lesser alerts and log entries, pulling packet captures (PCAPs) and host activity logs, overlaying external threat intelligence and data feeds, and presenting an analytics package for a human analyst to determine the next actions. All these linked actions can of course be easily automated using scripting languages if the organization was so inclined.

Introduction to Machine Learning with Python

Machine learning at a high level has been covered in previous InfoQ articles (see, for example, Getting Started with Machine Learning in the Getting a Handle on Data Science series), and in this article and the ones that follow it we’ll elaborate on many of the concepts and methods discussed earlier, emphasizing concrete examples, and venture into some new areas, including neural networks and deep learning. We’ll begin, in this article, with an extended “case study” in Python: how can we build a machine learning model to detect credit card fraud? (While we’ll use the language of fraud detection, much of what we do will be applicable with little modification to other classification problems—for example, ad-click prediction.) Along the way, we’ll encounter many of the key ideas and terms in machine learning, including logistic regression, decision trees, and random forests, true positive and false positive rate, cross-validation, and ROC and AUC curves.

Quote for the day:

“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” --@LarryEllison

Daily Tech Digest - January 30, 2017

10 new UI features coming to Windows 10

An addition to the Windows Hello security feature would automatically send your Windows 10 desktop to its lock screen when you step away from it. (You can go to the lock screen by hitting the Windows logo and “L” keys at once.) An official name has not been released, but possibilities include Proximity Lock, Dynamic Lock and Windows Goodbye. Microsoft has not revealed how Windows 10 would sense that you have stepped away. The simplest method would be to use your computer’s webcam, but this feature could also pair your smartphone with your Windows 10 computer or device through Bluetooth. When you step away, taking your smartphone out of Bluetooth range, Windows 10 would then go to its lock screen.

Cyber Security : Why It Belongs In The Board Room

Given the present state of cyberspace, no longer can organizations afford their departments to work in silos when it comes to cyber security. What is required is cultural shift from the bottom to the top of the organizational pyramid covering every nook and corner of all echelons and stratums wherein every individual employee of the organization maintains an optimum cyber hygiene. It is the job of every employee from the CEO to the newly hired apprentice to inculcate an optimum security hygiene and develop a level of vigilance and awareness. It is the cumulative impact of individual cyber hygiene that can effectively deter and prevent the belligerent and bellicose cyber criminals from raiding the organizational networks and stealing the data. It is the shared level of vigilance and cyber awareness on which the organization’s cybersecurity posture is dependent.

The changing face of business - and the part artificial intelligence has to play

While many believe that AI will supplant humans, we think it will instead mostly enable people to do more exceptional work. Certainly, AI will cause displacement of jobs, but it may also significantly boost the productivity of labor. Innovative AI technologies will enable people to make more efficient use of their time and do what humans do best – create, imagine and innovate new things. With technology overall and AI in particular, the key ingredient for success and creating value is taking a “people first” approach. But to make this transition means both companies and governments must acknowledge the challenges and change how they behave. They must be thoroughly prepared—intellectually, technologically, politically, ethically and socially. Governments and businesses will need to take several steps, many of which are not easy

The bank of the future: AI technology a driving force in banking

Future-focused banking institutions need to get on board with AI sooner rather than later, as the industry moves to embrace smart technologies and customer bases become more familiar with these tools. Many banks are already heading in that direction, with a great deal of success. According to Banking Technology, as of June 2016, Sweden's national bank utilized an application that handled more than 30,000 customer conversations per month, with the ability to understand more than 350 different queries – and it resolved issues 78 percent of the time. Co-publisher of The Financial Brand Jim Marous noted in early January 2017 that artificial intelligence was set to explode in the coming year, and the numbers seem to corroborate that claim. A survey conducted by Narrative Science and the National Business Research Institute found that 32 percent of financial services executives were using AI technologies within their operations

7 Tips For Getting Your Security Budget Approved

'This the season for building budgets, and security managers are under pressure to get the funds they need to protect their organizations. Of course this is easier said than done. The road to budget approval is paved with difficult conversations between infosec professionals and business executives. If security leaders don't convey their needs in an understandable way, they risk disapproval from decision-makers and, as a result, less security spend. Businesses' risk of cyberattack will only grow higher in 2017. As they create their security budgets, managers need to consider a few points that will help prepare them for productive conversations with executives. Here, experts share their advice for security leaders creating and discussing their budgets for this year. Bear these in mind while navigating the budget approval process. Are there any tips you would add to this list? Let's keep the conversation going.

What the AI? Trends in Artificial Intelligence, and What’s to Come

“Imagine a world where every app could talk to every other app, and those conversations were animated by a deep and contextual intelligence…That’s exactly the experience Viv wants to enable, and in its tantalizing demos, it seems to conjure that world from the thin air of our current infrastructure — ask it to send $20 to your friend Adam for the drinks last night and Viv parses and then executes your request.” ... “In order for Viv to utilize the incredible scale Samsung offers, and in order to achieve our ultimate goal of redefining the way people interact with the digital landscape, it would be essential for Viv to be available across more than just Samsung devices. Our vision requires that Viv be everywhere. Samsung is with us. We share a mutual vision to leapfrog the current state-of-the-art in AI, ushering in a new era.”

Protecting Health IT infrastructure from DDoS Attacks

“An attacker may be able to deter patients or healthcare personnel from accessing critical healthcare assets such as payroll systems, electronic health record databases, and software-based medical equipment (MRI, EKGs, infusion pumps, etc.),” said the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in a recent cybersecurity newsletter. “The attacker may hijack or take control of a computer, forcing the computer to send out huge amounts of illegitimate data traffic to particular websites or send spam to particular email addresses,” OCR continued. “The attacker can also control multiple computers with malicious software (also known as botnets) to launch a DoS attack.” According to Akamai’s quarterly State of the Internet: Security Report published in May 2016, DDoS attacks increased by almost 40 percent over the previous year, making them one of the most serious threats to healthcare data.

How financial-services firms can become more agile by bringing IT out of the back office

A better solution is available: integrating technology directly into business units, through a model we call capabilities-driven IT. In this model, teams combine business, operations, and technology skills to deliver a specific capability. These teams — called capability pods — contain all the talent and tools necessary to deliver the capability and are responsible for all its aspects, including product ideation, product management, operations, technology design, and development. The pods contain technology specialists, but they also leverage IT’s evolution to SaaS, service-based architectures, and increasing user-friendliness to permit team members without formal technology backgrounds to contribute to IT development. The technology specialists also provide insight to and receive feedback from business and operations.

How to Digitally Transform the Wealth Management Experience

Wealth management is undergoing enormous changes. As new technologies and business models transform the investment experience, emerging generations have different needs and requirements. Tech-savvy users are demanding increased access to information and resources. Artificial Intelligence, or AI-enhanced applications are becoming more commonplace, and robo-advisors have emerged as an alternative strategy competing for high net worth investor attention and share of wallet. Investment management firms that have embraced digital solutions are better able to support their client engagement efforts. Leaders in this space are increasing assets under management and reducing costs, while offering higher levels of service and expanded offerings for valued customers.

If You Want To Do Something Disruptive In A Changing Industry, You Need New Blood

What is also radically different about Kiran’s approach is that he has left the medical professionals to focus on providing treatment, while not being bogged down by the day-to-day administration. Conventionally, in India, the doctor runs his own practice, so has to be an entrepreneur in the sense of promoting his or her own practice. With the daily hassles of managing eye care centres taken care of, the doctors are free to focus on what they know best – provide care and top quality treatment. This has really helped to make an impact. He is now working on a revolutionary idea that would take the hospital to the people instead of the other way around through a mobile eye clinic. “I feel I am answerable to my investors, so I must show them results.” In the future, this model can extend beyond eye care to other aspects of healthcare as well.

Quote for the day:

"Man is a slow, sloppy and brilliant thinker; the machine is fast, accurate and stupid." -- William M. Kelly

Daily Tech Digest - January 29, 2017

The Number 1 Mistake Most Founders Make

The trick here is to learn focus -- think of a compelling book you recently picked up. More often than not, you might find a handful of great ideas covered in just a few paragraphs. It's time consuming for the reader and a waste of paper for the author. Founders should find the core parts of their mission that matter and weave out the things that don't Figure out precisely what you’re going to do for two weeks to be productive and change behaviors. By identifying existing strengths and targeting these pillars, founders can make a bigger impact in the appropriate areas. Albert Einstein said it best when he defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you keep doing the same thing, don’t expect a different outcome. Focus on things that can add substantial growth opportunities to the business.

Meet the chief architect of Aadhaar, Pramod Varma

Pramod recollects a rather worrisome conversation with a professor in the US who specialised in biometrics, having worked in the area for a long time (he volunteered for Aadhaar). He said, ... Pramod then spoke to Google and Facebook and studied their architecture. He realised that in Aadhaar, one identity deduplication has to do nothing with another person’s ID deduplication of data. They realised that it's a very parallelisable problem. Pramod then took a personal bet and decided to go with an open source, commodity computing. They didn’t use any proprietary chipset or computers because they couldn’t have a (architectural) lock-in situation of national critical infrastructure like this (if it succeeds).

Making a Difference with FinTech – Three Examples

There is enough said about the scale of the FinTech industry, its inclusive agenda and massive surrounding ecosystem, but the real value of this industry is not in millions that are moving around in funding, expansion and acquisition deals. The value is measured in micro-processes, in the real, everyday difference FinTech startups make for small businesses and individuals. One of the most important hallmarks of the FinTech community is its focus on solving cumbersome operational problems, allowing business leaders to recalibrate resource allocation (talent, financial resources) to deliver value to their clients rather than to simply remain afloat in a highly competitive market. Let’s look at three illustrative examples of FinTech companies that make a real difference

The Power of Artificial Intelligence is to Make Better Decisions

Reese notes that there is no consistent definition of AI. There is no consistent agreement on the meaning of intelligence. There is also a debate on the word ‘artificial’. That said, the power of AI for augmenting humanity intelligence, improving productivity, and delivering large scale insights is real and in place today. “The power of AI is the power to make better decisions. It is the ability to analyze data, learn and gain new insights in order to make better decisions,” said Reese. ... The power of AI is all about the data. AI that does something based on your data, which Reese calls transferred learning. More importantly is when AI can help businesses make more informed decisions and actions on data sets that you may not have. Reese believes that AI use in business will be ubiquitous.

How enterprise architects can raise their profile within the business – and earn a seat at the table

IT teams have long fought for a seat at the executive table. They have longed to be heard, and be regarded as trusted advisors to the CEO. Now that digitisation is widely recognised as being essential to innovation, growth and the capacity to readily compete, IT is well on its way to becoming firmly embedded in charting the direction of the business, as are the enterprise architects (EAs) that work alongside them. ... Respected for their technical savvy, and for bringing key technology information into strategic planning, capacity planning and project execution, EAs have typically been key players in the IT team, fighting alongside CIOs to have their strategic insights heard and their version of innovation understood. In order to earn a seat at the business strategy table, and further show how they are driving business transformation, EAs must increase their visibility within the business.

With tech skills but not enough electricity, meet Gaza's first startup accelerator

"In a crunch, we charge our phones and laptops with car batteries, but such methods are unreliable and not scalable and the problem is chronic. So that startup founders and freelancers can compete at an international level, we need to reliably power up our laptops and mobile phones and access internet and light for at least 12 hours each day, every day of the week." Access to power may be something that many of us take for granted, but it's not a given for Gaza's young, tech-literate population. GSG director Ryan Sturgill tells ZDNet that with unemployment for people aged under 30 years at over 50 percent, technology can help to address vital socio-economic issues. "Increasing coding skills and access to in-demand technologies boosts Gazans ability to build products that can be competitive around the world," he says.

6 Benefits of Coworking With Strangers

Freelancers and contractor writers operate as independent entrepreneurs, but that arrangement doesn't have to mean creating entirely in a vacuum. Gathering with other freelancers in a coworking environment can benefit professionals as well as their products. Coworking provides opportunities to observe and learn from colleagues who value their autonomy and often share other values, too. From this perspective, it's natural that freelancers would appreciate the synergy of a place where numerous, talented people converge in a similar space. The technology age has made it easier than ever for contractors to bring their tools with them. This enables them to work with other like-minded individuals from virtually anywhere. If you're thinking about moving your one-person shop to a coworking atmosphere, consider how these perks could infuse you with new ideas and elevate your current projects.

IT Service Providers Prepare For Potential H1-B Visa Changes

The chief executive of number two Infosys, which earns about 60 percent of revenues from U.S. clients, acknowledged in a press conference two weeks ago that there were likely changes coming to the H-1B program but said he was not “overly concerned” because the company had already increased local hiring. “This is something that I have been focusing on since I started,” said CEO Vishal Sikka, himself a U.S. citizen. “So, we are absolutely committed to creating U.S. jobs, similarly in Australia, in Europe and other geographies where we operate in... Regardless of visa policy, the right thing to do for innovation is to have a lot of rich local talent.” Likewise, HCL Technologies CEO C. Vijayakumar told reporters this week that the company has already been increasing campus and entry-level hiring in the U.S. to support future growth.

Russia Arrests Cybersecurity Official

Kaspersky Lab says that the work of its computer incidents investigations team has continued despite Stoyanov's arrest.According to Stoyanov's LinkedIn profile, he joined Kaspersky Lab in July 2012. Prior to that, he worked as deputy director at a firm called Indrik ... What's also not clear is if Gerasimov's potential dismissal might relate to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The U.S. intelligence community accused the Russian government of attempting to influence the election. As part of that alleged campaign, Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, according to a report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security"

Deleted Versus Destroyed: The Critical Difference In Dealing With Data

“The majority of data breach victims surveyed, 81 percent, report they had neither a system nor a managed security service in place to ensure they could self-detect data breaches, relying instead on notification from an external party. This was the case despite the fact that self-detected breaches take just 14.5 days to contain from their intrusion date, whereas breaches detected by an external party take an average of 154 days to contain.” These statistics underscore the importance of having a military-grade solution for corporations, data centers, governmental agencies and organizations with the strictest data destruction standards. ... The act itself happens at a client’s site, so those in attendance can see the most advanced resources of their kind—including the deployment of shredding trucks to remove all destroyed materials—guarantee that data are no more

Quote for the day:

"Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion." -- Bill Hybels

Daily Tech Digest - January 28, 2017

IoT and business model transformation: We're not there yet

One thing is clear: IoT integration should be at the top of your agenda — and, in fact, at the top of your entire C-suite’s agenda. Because prying open the IoT treasure chest isn't a matter of technical prowess — it's a matter of organizational prowess. Sure, the technical challenges are formidable in their own right. With the promise of near-endless data comes the requirement to store and analyze that near-endless data. And when our data lakes become so vast, how can we make sure that our data is secure and the quality is up to par. Tough nuts to crack, but with the help of advances in storage technology, machine learning and cybersecurity, we’re definitely making good progress. That’s why most of my conversations with the C-suite take on a different focus: “Hypothesize these challenges solved, how do you get it to actually work? And what does it mean for my organization?”

Hydraulic muscle makes for tougher, stronger disaster-site robots

The Tokyo Tech/Bridgestone artificial muscle is a very simple device based on the human muscle, only instead of using contracting muscle tissue it uses a rubber tube bound by woven high-tensile fibers, which contracts in length as its pressurized with hydraulic fluid. The combination of rubber and fabric gives it a structure like that of the human artery, so it responds dynamically as pressure is applied and released, allowing it to move smoothly and precisely. ... According to the team, producing the muscle required the development of a new oil-resistant rubber that also has excellent deformation characteristics. The sheath needed a new technique for weaving high-tension chemical fibers, and the tube ends required special tightening to resist high pressure without leaking. The result was an actuator five to ten times the strength-to-weight of electric motors or solid hydraulic cylinders.

The Great Digital Identity Debate

For optimal management of digital identity, Madhu said, the process “begins at the business endpoint, which represents the edge that the consumer interacts with. That could be a private or public business.” A consumer could be challenged for credentials at one business and, across transactions, might not have to be challenged at subsequent interactions with other firms, as they intrinsically trust the credentials already presented and “accept you and can personalize content knowing who you are.” That has been established by XAML. But there are no hard and fast guidelines in the U.S. governing the attributes that a business should check for risk beyond typically confirming one’s name, date of birth or Social Security number. Other avenues of technology tied to digital identity, said Webster, include biometrics. But, said Madhu, biometrics exist primarily to avoid using passwords, where there is nothing wrong with passwords per se in establishing identity.

Big Data Leadership: CIO, CAO, Or Maybe The Big Dog

The common theme in the analytics community is along the lines of "We have to get buy-in from the CEO and the board." Buy-in means giving an OK or allocating funds. What a big data strategy really needs is for the big boss to say, "We're going to do this. If it changes people's jobs, the products we offer, or the way business gets done, we still have to do it." It's about delivering a mandate and providing leadership. Someone on the analytics or IT team can come up with great ideas for the use of data and how it can change the company, but they have no authority over the business units and too often they have only a marginal understanding of a line manager's job in the field. The CEO may have even less of an understanding of what really happens in the field, but what they do have are the authority and the responsibility. A big data initiative -- in fact the broader adoption of analytics -- is a multi-departmental effort.

Black market medical record prices drop to under $10, criminals switch to ransomware

The black market value of stolen medical records dropped dramatically this year, and criminals shifted their efforts from stealing data to spreading ransom ware, according to a report released this morning. Hackers are now offering stolen records at between $1.50 and $10 each, said Anthony James, CMO at San Mateo, Calif.-based security firm TrapX, the company that produced the report. That's a big drop from 2012, when the World Privacy Forum put the street value of medical records at around $50 each. That's because the average profit per record was about $20,000. The information in medical records can be used for medical billing fraud as well as identity theft and other big-money scams. But the market has become saturated, said James. With about 112 million records stolen in 2015 alone, the medical info of nearly half all Americans is already out there.

Zuckerberg defends immigrants threatened by Trump

While the country will have to come to grips with how to deal with the coming unemployment crisis fueled by globalization and automation, and Zuckerberg doesn’t claim to have an answer here, he’s brave to stick up for inclusive values that underpin the modern American spirit. Even if that means sparring with the other most powerful man in the world. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg today announced he’s dropping his Hawaiian land lawsuits that were part of him securing land on the island to build a home, calling the suits “a mistake” and planning a different route forward. The CEO has learned a lot about listening to the public since the early days of Facebook’s privacy missteps. In other Facebook-Trump news, COO Sheryl Sandberg yesterday posted her stern disagreement with Trump signing an executive order that will pull funding from foreign aid organizations that provide counseling about family planning options including abortion.

Here's how robots are going to change employment

"We are seeing the emergence of a Skills Revolution — where helping people upskill and adapt to a fast-changing world of work will be the defining challenge of our time. Those with the right skills will increasingly call the shots, create opportunities and choose how, where and when they work," said Jonas Prising, Chairman & CEO at ManpowerGroup. "Those without will look to the future and not be able to see how their circumstances will improve. This polarization of the population that is playing out in front of our eyes is no good for society or for business. ... "Now is the time for leaders to be responsive and responsible: we cannot slow the rate of technological advance or globalisation, but we can invest in employees’ skills to increase the resilience of our people and organisations. Individuals also need to nurture their learnability: their desire and ability to learn new skills to stay relevant and remain employable."

Banking on Bots: The Move towards Digital Labor in Financial Services

It’s no exaggeration to say that nearly every major process in the world of financial services will present candidates for bots, from the front, middle and back-office to enterprise services such as finance, compliance, and risk management, across all business units including investment banking, wealth and asset management, retail and commercial banking and insurance. At one bank, for example, bots are being used in trade settlement. According to an article in American Banker, the bank has programmed bots with rules that let them perform research on the orders, resolve discrepancies and clear the trades. While it takes a human five to ten minutes to reconcile a failed trade, the bot can do the same task in a quarter of a second.

Vanishing point: the rise of the invisible computer

Technologies such as gesture tracking and gaze tracking, currently being pioneered for virtual-reality video games, may also prove useful. Augmented reality (AR), a close cousin of virtual reality that involves laying computer-generated information over the top of the real world, will begin to blend the virtual and the real. Google may have sent its Glass AR headset back to the drawing board, but something very like it will probably find a use one day. And the firm is working on electronic contact lenses that could perform similar functions while being much less intrusive. Moore’s law cannot go on for ever. But as it fades, it will fade in importance. It mattered a lot when your computer was confined to a box on your desk, and when computers were too slow to perform many desirable tasks. It gave a gigantic global industry a master metronome, and a future without it will see computing progress become harder, more fitful and more irregular.

From insular US firms to spammy marketers: Who will GDPR hit the hardest?

“The upcoming GDPR will be especially demanding for SMEs that aim to collect large amounts of personal data for disruptive applications. For instance, GDPR requires that a data protection impact assessment should be carried out prior to processing personal data. GDPR provides some leeway to SMEs in terms of assigning a data protection officer, or in their record keeping activities. However, this holds true only if the processing is not likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of the data subjects, or the processing is not the core activity of the business.  “GDPR demands that consumers should be able to review when their personal data is collected and how it is used, and be able to give or withdraw consent. ...”

Quote for the day:

"Pride is concerned with WHO is right. Humility is concerned with WHAT is right." -- Ezra T. Benson

Daily Tech Digest - January 27, 2017

‘Security and fraud risks drive merchant payment decisions’

Despite the increased merchant focus on security, in almost all companies there’s one aspect of a business which represents a potential vulnerability that goes unnoticed from the security perspective. It’s a part of the fraud management team. One reason that this weakness is usually undiscussed is precisely that it is a part of the fraud team’s structure and method, and in general the fraud department is not a usual subject of infosecurity concern. Since their purpose is to protect the company and prevent loss, their goals seem to fit in naturally with the wider security concerns of the company. The potential vulnerability is a function of a method typically used by fraud departments rather than anything integral to the nature of the fraud prevention effort itself.

IoT hits pay dirt where needs and capabilities align

"Manufacturing is seeing huge returns from IoT," said Isaac Brown, analyst with Boston-based Lux Research. "Both from improving operations [within factories] and from producing and selling IoT-enabled products." Jabil, a contract manufacturer, takes an innovative approach to smart manufacturing, going beyond using networked vibration or heat sensors to track equipment health. For example, by taking precise weight measurements of the components produced by an injection molding machine, and using Microsoft's Azure IoT software to analyze that output, it gets clues into whether that machine is running optimally, and can move toward preventative rather than reactive maintenance. "We've seen 10-20% improvements in metrics we track, such as scrap reduction," said Gary Cantrell, Jabil's director of enterprise production and quality.

6 areas of AI and machine learning to watch closely

Given that AI will impact the entire economy, actors in these conversations represent the entire distribution of intents, levels of understanding and degrees of experience with building or using AI systems. As such, it’s crucial for a discussion on AI — including the questions, conclusions and recommendations derived therefrom — to be grounded in data and reality, not conjecture. It’s far too easy (and sometimes exciting!) to wildly extrapolate the implications of results from published research or tech press announcements, speculative commentary and thought experiments. Here are six areas of AI that are particularly noteworthy in their ability to impact the future of digital products and services. I describe what they are, why they are important, how they are being used today and include a list (by no means exhaustive) of companies and researchers working on these technologies.

Robots and the Future of Work

Whoever makes the best robots owns the future of work. There will be so many kinds of robots, there are already quite a few. Will it be China, Japan or can we too make useful, adorable and importantly, robots able to learn? It's more important than everything else, it's how AI, IoT, Big Data and 3D-printing reach the next level of sophistication. Robots like Ethan, from the show Extant. Robots will enable us to understand the human condition in new ways, and help us take greater custodianship over the material world, we have so unconditionally exploited. Robots will be our children, but also our slaves and we'll learn to love our robots until robots themselves can become something else.

Choosing optimized technology for the Internet of Things

To optimize for IoT, companies need to transition from traditional architecture to a more optimized architecture. Elements of the current technology stacks may need to be redesigned so they can support billions of interdependent processing events per year from millions of products, devices, and applications. Since networked devices are always on, companies must be able to react to customer and system requests in real-time; agile software development and delivery will therefore become a critical competency. Seamless connectivity will also become a must-have, as well as collaboration across IT and business units, which have traditionally been siloed. Moreover, companies must be able to securely and efficiently collect, analyze, and store the data emerging from these refined IT architectures.

Why Smart Machines Will Boost Emotional Intelligence

We will not flourish along with smart machines by ourselves. It is going to be an otherness game. It is not going to be a competitive game. It’s going to be a collaboration game. New Smart is a new way of thinking, to define yourself not by what [you] know or how much [you] know, but by the quality of [your] thinking, listening, relating and collaborating. It has four other principles. I am not my ideas; I must de-couple my beliefs, but not my values from my ego. My mental models are not reality; they’re only my generalized stories of how the world works. I must be open-minded and treat my beliefs — not my values — as hypotheses to be constantly tested and subject to modification by better data. My mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn. Those are the five new smart principles, and the new way of thinking that will help us humans complement, augment, and thrive, in the smart machine revolution.

Israeli Cybersecurity Industry Grows as Global Threats Multiply

According to figures based on the non-profit’s data platform and tech industry database PitchBook, 365 Israeli cybersecurity companies raised a total of $581 million in 2016, about 15 percent of all capital raised by the industry globally. About a quarter of the 65 Israeli cyber start-ups founded last year have already succeeded in raising funds, the report said. The report was released ahead of next week’s Cybertech Tel Aviv 2017 conference. ... The new research suggests the country’s cyber industry is maintaining its status as a global leader, drawing on expertise and experience gleaned from the country’s elite military intelligence forces. “Israel is at the forefront of innovation in cybersecurity” as entrepreneurs who completed their mandatory military service “uniquely bring their cyberwarfare and cyberintelligence expertise to the commercial sector,” said Avivah Litan, a vice president and analyst at Gartner Research.

The shifting role of the IT professional In 2017

The ability to quickly learn new IT concepts and skills will soon become one of the most important attributes of an IT pro. With the workplace becoming more interconnected, the traditional structure and boundaries of IT roles are beginning to blur. Being an expert in one technology won’t be enough anymore. Employees who are a jack-of-all-trades, solution-focused, and can communicate the impact of technology to the organisation will see their demand grow. More specifically, the introduction of new machine-based technologies, alongside the continued adoption of a DevOps culture, will require IT pros to focus on developing new skill sets and certifications to operate and manage next-generation data centers. In 2017, two things will impact the role of the IT pro: the rise of the machines and an increase in the adoption of DevOps.

Growing UK's tech skills base will make or break prime minister's industrial strategy

“The industrial strategy says very clearly that we must become a more innovative economy and do more to commercialise our world-leading science base to drive growth across the UK, and that really runs through the entire document.” According to the prime minister, this work will form a “critical part” of the government’s plans for a “post-Brexit Britain”, and ensure the country is in a strong economic position for many years to come, once its extrication from the European Union (EU) takes place. ... “If we’re going to have the kind of science, innovation and economy we need, we must make sure we are attracting people of all genders and from all backgrounds into science and innovation, and I see very little in this paper to give us confidence of that.”

Might the Blockchain Outlive Bitcoin?

On the regulatory front, the reviews remain mixed, but lawmakers seemed to err on the side of caution in 2015. For example, the state of New York enacted legislation to open up the crypto-currency market for Bitcoin banking licensure. Unfortunately, the bill attached draconian requirements, including a separate license for each exchange service offered and complicated registration requirements. ... Based on strong entrepreneurial movements fueled by aggressive venture capitalists, some speculate that the G7 nations will tend to eventually pave the regulatory way for digital crypto-currencies. If not, others speculate that developing nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia will benefit, if the more developed nations exact too much restriction. Clearly, many of the world’s regulatory bodies still remain in deliberation with regard to managing crypto-currency.

Quote for the day:

"We're all passionate about something, the secret is to figure out what it is, then pursue it with all our hearts" -- Gordon Tredgold