Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: government

The widespread and monthslong hack of the U.S. government and some of America’s biggest corporations was enabled by an unlikely source: a little-known Austin, Texas, software company called SolarWinds Corp. that until this week was a household name only to computer network administrators.

Security investigators say the company that boasts more than 400 of the Fortune 500 corporations and many government agencies as clients provided the perfect delivery mechanism for a carefully executed intrusion attributed to Russia’s foreign-intelligence service.

SolarWinds provides the tools many companies use to manage their computer networks. That’s what made the hack of U.S. government agencies and some of America’s biggest corporations so pernicious.

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The US government has confirmed that a massive hack had occurred in at least two federal departments, including the US Treasury and the Department of Commerce.

Hackers were able to monitor internal emails at US federal departments, including the Treasury, for months. There is concern officials have only scratched the surface of understanding the hack’s effects.

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Elon Musk has been a vocal critic of artificial intelligence, calling it an “existential threat to humanity”. He is wrong, right?

Musk is heavily invested in AI research himself through his OpenAI and NeuroLink ventures, and believes that the only safe road to AI involves planning, oversight & regulation. He recently summarized this, saying:

“My recommendation for the longest time has been consistent. I think we ought to have a government committee that starts off with insight, gaining insight… Then, based on that insight, comes up with rules in consultation with industry that give the highest probability for a safe advent of AI.”

Across dozens of media appearances, Musk’s message about AI has indeed been remarkably consistent. He says it’s dangerous, and says it needs regulation, or else “AI could turn humans into an endangered species”.

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Potential, And Possibilities is off to a great start — Three weeks in and 25 awesome guests from academia, industry, and government, all focused on building a better tomorrow — Please come subscribe and enjoy all our current and future guests — Much more to come! — #Health #Longevity #Biotech #SpaceExploration #ArtificialIntelligence #NeuroTechnology #RegenerativeMedicine #Sports #Environment #Sustainability #Food #NationalSecurity #Innovation #Future #Futurism #AnimalWelfare #Equity

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**2021 Space Renaissance [Webinar Series “SPACE SAFETY”](https://spacerenaissance.space/event/webconference-on-space-safety-space-renaissance-congress-2021-civilian-space-development/)**

Sunday December 13th 16:00 UTC

Live streaming on [Facebook Space Renaissance Initiative Group](https://www.facebook.com/events/3842711565750385/)

**With**:

- tommaso sgobba, IAASS — space safety.

- jonathan tate, spaceguard UK — dangerous asteroids monitoring & defense.

- Joe Pelton, GALIX, former Director at International Space University — Space Weather.

- Luigina Feretti, INAF Italy — Protection from Cosmic Radiations.

- stefano antonetti, D-ORBIT italy — space debris.

**Moderates**: Adriano V. Autino, SRI, President.

**Call for Papers**

[Register for free to the Congress](https://2021.spacerenaissance.space/index.php/registration/), and [submit a paper abstract](https://2021.spacerenaissance.space/index.php/call-for-papers-abstract-submission/).

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Japan’s government to join forces with industry to supercharge development.

TOKYO — A trip of 500 km on one charge. A recharge from zero to full in 10 minutes. All with minimal safety concerns. The solid-state battery being introduced by Toyota promises to be a game changer not just for electric vehicles but for an entire industry.

The technology is a potential cure-all for the drawbacks facing electric vehicles that run on conventional lithium-ion batteries, including the relatively short distance traveled on a single charge as well as charging times. Toyota plans to be the first company to sell an electric vehicle equipped with a solid-state battery in the early 2020s. The world’s largest automaker will unveil a prototype next year.

The electric vehicles being developed by Toyota will have a range more than twice the distance of a vehicle running on a conventional lithium-ion battery under the same conditions. All accomplished without sacrificing interior space in even the most compact vehicle.

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Today we are going to discuss the topic drug enforcement from a very interesting technological angle.

Brian Drake, is the Director of Artificial Intelligence for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Directorate of Science and Technology. Mr. Drake works with the DIA’s Future Capabilities and Innovation Office, and he also leads an initiative to test the effectiveness of different applications of artificial intelligence at solving various mission problems, including using AI to combat the opioid crisis with a DIA program known as SABLE SPEAR.

Previous to this role Brian was a Senior Intelligence Analyst and Branch Chief in the DIA’s Americas and Transregional Threats Center (ATTC) and prior to joining ATTC, Mr. Drake was a Management Analyst with DIA’s Chief of Staff.

For DIA’s intelligence analysis mission, he has worked worldwide targets in narcotics, emerging and disruptive technologies, and weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Drake was stationed in the Pentagon as an Intelligence Briefer in the Executive Support Office, served on the Information Review Task Force, and has led several interagency technical and counterterrorism intelligence teams.

Prior to his time in DIA, Mr. Drake was a management consultant at Deloitte and Toffler Associates where he served commercial clients in various industries and government clients at the ODNI, FBI, CIA, NSA, and the US State Department.

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FireEye, normally the first company that cyberattack victims will call, has now admitted it too has fallen victim to hackers, which the company called a “sophisticated threat actor” that was likely backed by a nation-state.

In a blog post confirming the breach, the company’s chief executive Kevin Mandia said the nation-backed hackers have “top-tier offensive capabilities,” but did not attribute blame or say which government was behind the attack.

Mandia, who founded Mandiant, the incident response firm acquired by FireEye in 2014, said the hackers used a “novel combination of techniques not witnessed by us or our partners in the past” to steal hacking tools used typically by red teams, which are tasked with launching authorized but offensive hacking campaigns against customers in order to find weaknesses or vulnerabilities before malicious hackers do.

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