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Category: security – Page 54

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology have recently created new solution-processed perovskite photodetectors that exhibit remarkable efficiencies and response times. These photodetectors, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, have a unique design that prevents the formation of defects between its different layers.

“There is growing interest in 3D range imaging for autonomous driving and consumer electronics,” Edward H. Sargent told TechXplore. “We have worked as a team for years on finding new materials that enable light sensing technologies such as next-generation image sensors and striving to take these in a direction that could have a commercial and societal impact.”

Photodetectors, sensing devices that detect or respond to light, can have numerous highly valuable applications. For instance, they can be integrated in robotic systems, autonomous vehicles, , environmental sensing technology, fiber optic communication systems and security systems.

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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning investors that cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting security vulnerabilities in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms to steal cryptocurrency.

“The FBI has observed cyber criminals exploiting vulnerabilities in the smart contracts governing DeFi platforms to steal investors’ cryptocurrency,” the federal law enforcement agency said.

“The FBI encourages investors who suspect cyber criminals have stolen their DeFi investments to contact the FBI via the Internet Crime Complaint Center or their local FBI field office.”

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In the years ahead, technology will continue to evolve, and it will become harder to identify deepfakes. Indeed, as people and businesses take to the metaverse and the Web3, it’s likely that avatars will be used to access and consume a broad range of services. Unless adequate protections are put in place, these digitally native avatars will likely prove easier to fake than human beings.

However, just as technology will advance to exploit this, it will also advance to detect it. For their part, security teams should look to stay up to date on new advances in detection and other innovative technologies to help combat this threat. The direction of travel for deepfakes is clear, businesses should start preparing now.

David Fairman is the chief information officer and chief security officer of APAC at Netskope.

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Given the potential scope and capabilities of quantum technology, it is absolutely crucial not to repeat the mistakes made with AI—where regulatory failure has given the world algorithmic bias that hypercharges human prejudices, social media that favors conspiracy theories, and attacks on the institutions of democracy fueled by AI-generated fake news and social media posts. The dangers lie in the machine’s ability to make decisions autonomously, with flaws in the computer code resulting in unanticipated, often detrimental, outcomes. In 2021, the quantum community issued a call for action to urgently address these concerns. In addition, critical public and private intellectual property on quantum-enabling technologies must be protected from theft and abuse by the United States’ adversaries.

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There are national defense issues involved as well. In security technology circles, the holy grail is what’s called a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer —a system capable of breaking much of the public-key cryptography that digital systems around the world use, which would enable blockchain cracking, for example. That’s a very dangerous capability to have in the hands of an adversarial regime.

Experts warn that China appears to have a lead in various areas of quantum technology, such as quantum networks and quantum processors. Two of the world’s most powerful quantum computers were been built in China, and as far back as 2017, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei built the world’s first quantum communication network using advanced satellites. To be sure, these publicly disclosed projects are scientific machines to prove the concept, with relatively little bearing on the future viability of quantum computing. However, knowing that all governments are pursuing the technology simply to prevent an adversary from being first, these Chinese successes could well indicate an advantage over the United States and the rest of the West.

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The number of vulnerability disclosures impacting extended internet of things (XIoT) devices increased by 57% in the first half of 2022 compared to the previous six months, according to a new report by Team82, the research team of cyber-physical systems (CPS) security firm Claroty.

The research also found that vendor self-disclosures increased by 69%. This would be a first for the industry, which usually relies more for disclosures on independent research teams. According to Team82, the trend indicates that more operational technology (OT), IoT, and internet of medical things (IoMT) vendors are establishing vulnerability disclosure programs and dedicating more resources to them.

Additionally, fully or partially remediated firmware vulnerabilities increased by 79% over the same time period, a significant improvement considering the relative challenges in patching firmware versus software vulnerabilities.

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Twitter executives misled federal regulators and the company’s own board about “extreme and egregious shortcomings” in its defenses against hackers and its meager efforts to combat bots, said a former chief security officer Peiter Zatko.

What happens inside Twitter?

The document describes Twitter as a chaotic and aimless company beset by infighting, unable to adequately protect its 238 million daily users, which include government agencies, heads of state and other influential public figures.

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Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

Digital twins enable enterprises to model and simulate buildings, products, manufacturing lines, facilities and processes. This can improve performance, quickly flag quality errors and support better decision-making. Today, most digital twin projects are one-off efforts. A team may create one digital twin for a new gearbox and start all over when modeling a wind turbine that includes this part or the business process that repairs this part.

Ideally, engineers would like to quickly assemble more complex digital twins to represent turbines, wind farms, power grids and energy businesses. This is complicated by the different components that go into digital twins beyond the physical models, such as data management, semantic labels, security and the user interface (UI). New approaches for composing digital elements into larger assemblies and models could help simplify this process.

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DARPA has launched a competition to find AI solutions that can help with sourcing critical minerals.

Critical minerals are raw, non-fuel materials that are vital for manufacturing products that are essential to national security.

DARPA is teaming up with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to explore how machine learning and AI can accelerate critical mineral assessments.

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Asteroid Bennu was in the news recently for an astonishing discovery. NASA scientists revealed that the asteroid has a surface that appears similar to plastic balls. The discovery dates back to October 2020, when NASA successfully collected a sample from the asteroid.

During the sampling event, the sampling head of the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft had sunk by 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) into the surface of the asteroid. The space agency found that Bennu’s exterior is made of loosely packed particles that are haphazardly packed together. The spacecraft would have sunk right into the asteroid if it hadn’t fired its thruster to back away after collecting dust and rocks.

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