China has already largely moved away from coin and paper currency; Chinese consumers have racked up more than $41 trillion in mobile transactions, according to a recent research paper from the Brookings Institution, with the lion’s share (92%) going through digital payment processors WeChat Pay and Alipay.
“The reason you could say the U.S. is behind in the digital currency race is I don’t think the U.S. is aware there is a race,” Yaya Fanusie, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and a former CIA analyst, tells TIME in an interview. “A lot of policymakers are looking at it and concerned…but even with that I just don’t think there’s this sense of urgency because the risk from China is not an immediate threat.”
Altana AI, a startup building a database for global supply chain networks, today announced that it raised $15 million in a series A funding round led by GV with participation from Floating Point, Ridgeline Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Schematic Ventures. The proceeds, which bring the company’s total raised to $22 million to date, will be used to further develop Altana’s data and AI systems and launch new machine learning and network analysis tools, according to CEO Evan Smith.
Trade wars, the rise of ecommerce, pandemic supply chain shocks, and sustainability concerns are driving fundamental changes to supply chain networks and global trade flows. Nearly 75% of companies report supply chain disruptions in some capacity due to pandemic-related transportation restrictions. And in a recent IBM survey, 40% of executives stressed the need for spare capacity to weather future crises.
Altana’s product aims to solve these challenges with a platform that connects and learns from billions of supply chain data points. It answers questions about products, shipments, companies, and networks, filtering out illicit trade and targeting bad actors and security threats across global commerce networks.
The TV show “Star Trek: The Next Generation” introduced millions of people to the idea of a holodeck: an immersive, realistic 3D holographic projection of a complete environment that you could interact with and even touch.
In the 21st century, holograms are already being used in a variety of ways such as medical systems, education, art, security and defense. Scientists are still developing ways to use lasers, modern digital processors, and motion-sensing technologies to create several different types of holograms which could change the way we interact.
My colleagues and I working in the University of Glasgow’s bendable electronics and sensing technologies research group have now developed a system of holograms of people using “aerohaptics,” creating feelings of touch with jets of air. Those jets of air deliver a sensation of touch on people’s fingers, hands and wrists.
GM Defense, a subsidiary of General Motors, was recently awarded a contract to develop next-generation SUVs for the government’s fleet.
This specific contract was awarded by the US Department of State, and the vehicles will be built to support the Diplomatic Security Service. Diplomatic Security is a federal law enforcement agency charged with securing diplomatic assets and personnel. In 2,020 GM Defense also got the contract to build the army’s new infantry squad vehicle based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. That particular contract was more extensive and, at the time of writing, valued at $213.4 million. The eventual goal was 2,065 vehicles.
Microsoft on Wednesday announced a new passwordless mechanism that allows users to access their accounts without a password by using Microsoft Authenticator, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code sent via SMS or email.
The change is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
“Except for auto-generated passwords that are nearly impossible to remember, we largely create our own passwords,” said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Security, Compliance, and Identity. “But, given the vulnerability of passwords, requirements for them have gotten increasingly complex in recent years, including multiple symbols, numbers, case sensitivity, and disallowing previous passwords.”
“With a single packet, an attacker can become root on a remote machine by simply removing the authentication header.” ‘ Unfortunately, Microsoft can’t fix it for you. Users affected by these vulnerabilities must manually update the OMI agent to the patched versions.
Microsoft on Tuesday addressed a quartet of security flaws as part of its Patch Tuesday updates that could be abused by adversaries to target Azure cloud customers and elevate privileges as well as allow for remote takeover of vulnerable systems.
The list of flaws, collectively called OMIGOD by researchers from Wiz, affect a little-known software agent called Open Management Infrastructure that’s automatically deployed in many Azure services
Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) is an open-source analogous equivalent of Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) but designed for Linux and UNIX systems such as CentOS, Debian, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server, SUSE Linux, and Ubuntu that allows for monitoring, inventory management, and syncing configurations across IT environments.
Critical flaws discovered in an Azure app that Microsoft secretly installed on Linux virtual machines.
Ending the global sanitation crisis — jack sim, founder world toilet organization.
Around 2 billion people worldwide still lack access to the basic tools of improved sanitation (toilets and latrines). One billion people still have to defecate in the open, and at least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by raw wastewater. An estimated 800,000 children, younger than 5 years of age, perish from diarrhea each year, including conditions related to cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio.
Mr. Jack Sim is the Founder of the World Toilet Organization (https://www.worldtoilet.org/), an organization established with the aim to break the taboo around toilets and this global sanitation crisis.
Mr. Sim is also the founder of the Restroom Association of Singapore, the World Toilet Day initiative, and Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) Hub.
In 2,001 for “creating good will and bringing the subject into the open” and “mobilizing national support in providing on-the-ground expertise”, Mr. Sim received the Schwab Foundation award for Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
In 2,004 he was awarded the Singapore Green Plan Award 2012 by Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) for his contribution to Environment. In 2,006 he was invited to launch The German Toilet Organization in Berlin. He is also a founding member of American Restroom Association.
In 2,007 Mr. Sim became one of the key members to convene the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) comprised of over 130 organizations active in the sanitation sector. He is also an Ashoka Global Fellow and in 2008 was named Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine.
Mr. Sim also sits in the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils (GAC) for Water Security and also the GAC for Social Entrepreneurship.
The 36th Space Symposium began with an opening ceremony honoring outstanding individuals and organizations in the space community.
Among the honorees, the team behind NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter received the John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration. The annual award recognizes extraordinary accomplishments by a company, space agency, or consortium of organizations in the realm of space exploration and discovery.
Also, Bill Ingalls, a senior contract photographer at NASA received the 2021 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award. For over three decades Ingalls has been capturing NASA’s most spectacular moments through his camera lens. His iconic photos have captured Neil Armstrong’s burial at sea, Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final landing in 2,011 and the first launch of a US citizen on a Russian rocket.
The Space Symposium brings together space leaders from around the world to discuss, address and plan for the future of space. It runs from Aug. 23 to 26 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Contents:
0:00 Introduction. 9:40 2020 Awardees. 12:31 Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award. 17:21 John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration. 20:49 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award. 24:39 Space Achievement Award. 29:26 Blake Bullock, Vice President of Security Space Northrop Grumman. 35:45 General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.
The rapid commercialization of space and the establishment of the U.S. Space Force have created ideal conditions for change in the national security space business, says Steve Isakowitz, CEO of the Aerospace Corp. and former president of Virgin Galactic.
Aerospace, based in El Segundo, California, is a federally funded research and development center focused on analysis and assessment of space programs for the Defense Department, NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office.
In an interview with SpaceNews, Isakowitz says unprecedented opportunities are emerging for national security space organizations to capture commercial innovation. Defense programs won’t transform overnight, he says, but change is definitely in the air.
Arizona, and Georgia will introduce the system first, with Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah also signed up.
The “first locations” to use the system will be airport security checkpoints run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Apple says.
Americans usually need some form of state ID only to travel by air domestically, unlike other countries, in which a passport is widely used.
Tapping a phone at an identity reader at supported airports will prompt passengers to use their Face ID or fingerprint to authorise sending information to the machine.
“Users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID,” Apple said.
Apple’s new ID system for its Wallet will be rolled out at airports to start.
