Hollywood star Bruce Willis has licensed his image to a technology company that has made a digital twin of him to be used in future movies.

Engineers at Deepcake have created an ultra-realistic version of the Die Hard actor who sold his rights to the Delaware-based company.

I liked the precision with which my character turned out. Its a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time, Willis says in a statement on the companys website.

With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming. Its a very new and interesting experience, and I thank our entire team.

Willis twin has already debuted in the below advert for Russian telecoms giant Megafon where understudy Konstantin Solovyov was the reference for the stars face to be masked on.

The 67-year-old announced his retirement from acting in March this year after he was diagnosed with aphasia, which affects a persons speech and language. He appeared in over 70 films including Die Hard, Armageddon, and Pulp Fiction.

Deepcake has said that it is under discussion to strike similar deals with others actors, alive and dead. It hopes to be the biggest talent agency of its kind, bringing iconic players back to the silver screen.

We create digital twins of celebrities and the actual production process doesnt require the physical presence of a celebrity on stage, Deepcake CEO Maria Chmir says.

It means comics like Charlie Chaplin and Kevin Hart can interact in one frame now.

While Willis is the first Hollywood actor to announce his digital twin publicly, it is alleged that other celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carey, and Michelle Pfeiffer have virtual versions of themselves.

As the Telegraph notes, while deepfakes are a potential danger to society, for Hollywood actors it opens up the possibility to star in films even after they are dead.

At the 2012 Coachella Festival dead rapper Tupac Shakur performed alongside Dr. Dre, and similarly living and dead actors could theoretically appear in the same movie together.

See the original post here:

Deepfake Technology Will Allow Bruce Willis to Return to Cinema - PetaPixel

A consortium involving Strathclyde researchers that will deliver what will be the UKs first medical distribution network using drones has triumphed in the Scottish Transport Awards.

The Project CAELUS (Care & Equity Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland) consortium led by AGS Airports in partnership with NHS Scotland scooped the Excellence in Technology and Innovation accolade at industry awards in Glasgow on Thursday 29 September.

The project, which brings together 16 partners including Strathclyde, is working to deliver what will be the first national drone network that can transport essential medicines, bloods and other medical supplies throughout Scotland including to remote communities.

CAELUS was praised by Scottish Transport Award judges at the event where Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth MSP and host Grant Stott welcomed 450 industry professionals to celebrate the people and organisations that make a real difference to transport across Scotland.

Principal Investigator Dr Marco Fossati, of the Aerospace Centre of Excellence at the University of Strathclyde, said:

This award recognises innovation and dedication of the Project CAELUS team and the potentially transformative impact we can have on Scotlands healthcare system.

The consortiums work aims to revolutionises the accessibility of the medical supply chain through investment and research in technology.

Fiona Smith, AGS Airports Group Head of Aerodrome Strategy and CAELUS Project Director, said: We were delighted when we heard we had been shortlisted in the Scottish Transport Awards earlier this year, so to win is a fantastic achievement.

The CAELUS project is set to revolutionise the way in which healthcare services are delivered in Scotland. A drone network can ensure critical medical supplies can be delivered more efficiently, it can reduce waiting times for test results and, more importantly, it can provide equity of care between urban and remote rural communities.

This award is testament to the hard work by all the partners involved in this consortium and I thank them all as we continue onto the next phase of work.

Since securing 1.5 million in January 2020, the consortium has designed drone landing stations for NHS sites across Scotland and developed a virtual model (digital twin) of the proposed delivery network which connects hospitals, pathology laboratories, distribution centres and GP surgeries across Scotland.

CAELUS secured 10.1 million funding from the Future Flight Challenge at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in July launch its next phase, which will involve live flight trials and removing remaining barriers to safely using drones at scale within Scotlands airspace.

See the article here:

Pioneering medical drone project wins award for Excellence in Technology and Innovation - University of Strathclyde

India has the third-largest number of Twitter users in the world. Considering the long-standing geopolitical tensions between India and China, plus the relative lack of knowledge that average Indians likely have about Chinese politics and how to discern Falun Gongbacked media accounts, its not necessarily surprising that they fell for and spread the rumor.

Despite several recent reports on the rise of bot activity originating in India, theres not yet enough evidence to determine whether this was a coordinated effort to push the coup rumor. There are suspicious signs, like a lot of new accounts as well as the fact some of the key influencers now [are] suspended, Jones told me. This does not necessarily point to it being state-backedjust a lot of inauthentic activities.

Of course, since this is Twitter, many other accounts are capitalizing on the popularity of this discourse and in turn further amplifying the story. This includes people intentionally trolling unsuspecting users by pairing old videos with the new rumor, and some users in Africa are hijacking the hashtag to gain visibility for their own contentapparently a long-practiced trick among users in Nigeria and Kenya.

By Monday, the rumor had mostly died down. While Xi still hadnt shown up, recent documents reaffirmed his participation and influence in the coming party congress, demonstrating that hes very much still in power.

The fact that a completely unsubstantiated rumor, one that basically happens every other month in Chinese Twitter circles, could grow so big and have tricked so many people is both funny and depressing. The bottom line: Social media is still a mess full of misinformationbut you may not notice that mess if you are not familiar with the issue being discussed.

Read the original post:

How the false rumor of a Chinese coup went viral - MIT Technology Review

An Australian government research fund has granted $1.7 million (US$1.1 million) to target three major cardiovascular diseases using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, accelerating the use of gene therapys treatment of diseases beyond COVID-19.

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, one of Australias oldest medical research organisations focused on heart disease, welcomed the grant from Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

We are grateful to the MRFF for funding us to advance this important research, Baker Institutes head of molecular imaging and theranostics Xiaowei Wang said in a statement on Sep. 28.

Associate Prof. Wang said that the mRNA-based therapies will directly reduce inflammation and blockages for three major heart diseasesatherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, and abdominal aortic aneurysmwhich currently have limited cures and all start with inflammation.

For each of these cardiovascular diseases, we will design a unique delivery system using novel nanoparticles, target the disease, then trigger the release of the mRNA, Wang said.

She says that these therapies require smaller doses because they are targeted.

Current drug therapies require high doses because they are not delivered specifically to the disease area and have harmful systemic side effects, Wang said.

The mRNA-based targeted strategies that we are investigating can stop the progression of inflammation, providing the opportunities of preventing cardiovascular disease events like heart attack, stroke, and heart failure without the unwanted side effects.

The rapid development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 has made mRNA companies hopeful about developing therapies for other targets such as heart disease, cancer, liver disease, and multiple sclerosis.

However, an increased rate of diseases, including cancer, has been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID-19 vaccinations, of which the majority have been mRNA vaccines.

In the VAERS database, 284 cases of breast cancer were reported after COVID-19 vaccination, while just 350 cases have been reported in the history of VAERS.

There have also been concerning reports of shingles. VAERS data shows that 7,559 cases of shingles have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination.

Over the entire history of VAERS, 28,180 cases of shingles have been reported following any vaccination, meaning that around a quarter of shingles cases occurred after COVID-19 vaccination.

A pre-study recently observed that nanoparticles used to transport mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines inhibited and altered the immune response, shedding light on the adverse events.

The nanoparticles, claimed to be non-toxic and safe, were also found in a 2021 University of Philadelphia study to be highly inflammatory.

In Australia, a fifth dose has been recommended for people who are severely immunocompromised or have an underlying medical condition or disability.

View post:

Messenger RNA Technology Fast-Tracked for Treating for Heart Conditions - The Epoch Times

Download a PDF of this Backgrounder.

George Fishman is a senior legal fellow at the Center.

The Peoples Republic of China under Xi Jinping believes that war with the United States is inevitable. Depending on the outcome of Russias invasion of Ukraine, the risk of armed conflict might come sooner rather than later. A Russian victory might entice the PRC to invade Taiwan, which could very well draw in U.S. troops.

The Chinese Communist Party is intently focused on modernizing its military to close the gap between U.S. and Chinese military power, embracing critical and emerging technologies to serve as assassins mace or silver bullet technologies. A RAND Corporation analyst has testified that should it succeed:

[This would] represent perhaps the most destabilizing geostrategic development of the 21st century. [S]teep advances in the [Peoples Liberation Armys] PLAs conventional capabilities ... could, for the first time in modern history, pit the United States against a militarily superior adversary.

At the same time, the number of students from the PRC at U.S. universities has skyrocketed in recent years to 317,299, representing more than one-third of all foreign students. As recently as 2008/09, they accounted for only 14.6 percent of all foreign students, in 1994/95 only 8.7 percent, and in 1984/85 only 3.0 percent.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that:

[N]o country poses a broader, more severe intelligence collection threat than China. China has pioneered a societal approach to stealing innovation any way it can [including] ... through graduate students and researchers. ... Nation-state actors are ... targeting academia including professors, research scientists, and graduate students [seeking] our cutting-edge research, our advanced technology, and our world-class equipment and expertise.

In 2018, the Department of Justice set up the China Initiative to deal with these threats. The Biden administration has shut it down.

Given the paucity of effective mechanisms to prevent students from the PRC once in the U.S. from engaging in espionage and otherwise bringing the fruits of our scientific research back home, it may be time to consider barring the entry of all students from the PRC, or at least those who will be studying in STEM or other fields likely to give them access to information and research of value to the PLA.

While of course not every such student will engage in deleterious activities while in the U.S. (or after they return home), a sufficiently large number will that, given the impossibility of the U.S. government conducting sufficiently in-depth background checks on each of them (as a result of a lack of resources or access to the necessary information), a blanket ban might be the only effective alternative. And, in many instances, students are only approached for intelligence-gathering purposes by the PRC after they have arrived in the U.S. or after they have returned home to China. In such cases, pre-vetting would be ineffectual.

Such a blanket ban would be advisable only for so long as the PRC seeks to undermine around the world the values we hold dear, considers America an enemy, conducts (and solicits Chinese students in the U.S. to conduct) massive amounts of espionage against us, pilfers our nations intellectual property, and prepares for future armed conflict against us. However, it is impossible to say when the PRC will cease and desist.

A staff report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (ESRC), which was established by Congress to review the national security implications of trade and economic ties between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC),1 notes that:

National rejuvenation, or the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, is the [Chinese Communist Partys] CCPs broad goal to restore China to what its leaders perceive as its rightful position as the most powerful country in the world, a status it lost as a result of what is now called the century of humiliation beginning in the mid-19th century. This aspiration involves transforming China into a modern, wealthy, powerful country that ... excels across all aspects of its society, including military strength, cultural influence, scientific advancement, and economic prosperity.2

The latest annual report by ESRC notes that Chinas leadership is increasingly uninterested in compromise and willing to engage in destabilizing and aggressive actions in its efforts to insulate itself from perceived threats or to press perceived advantages.3 And just one year ago, the PRCs Central Military Commission (CMC) made an unprecedented public statement:

Chinas CMC Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang made a provocative statement about the likelihood of war with the United States. The top uniformed soldier in China, chairman of Chinas [CMC], stated that war with the United States is inevitable, [Maj. General Richard] Coffman [director of the Armys Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team] said. That is the first time China has made that statement publicly. [Emphasis added.]4

At around the same time, Bloomberg reported that:

China must boost military spending to prepare for a possible confrontation with the U.S., top [PRC] generals said, in an unusual acknowledgment of the risk of a clash between the worlds two largest economies. ... Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang, Chinas top uniformed officer, said the country needed to brace for a Thucydides Trap, an inevitable conflict between a rising power and an established one. [Emphasis added.]5

How is China preparing for its self-perceived future of conflict with the U.S.? Recently, the South China Morning Post reported that:

Chinasmilitary modernisationand efforts to leverage technology in warfare have so far been directed to reduce th[e] gap [in U.S. and Chinese military power]. Thus, Beijing is working to incorporate modern technology into the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). ... Chinas armed forces have started to embrace critical and emerging technologies. ... [leading] to the creation of theStrategic Support Force, a branch of the PLA dedicated to cyber warfare, electronic warfare and using other technology for military operations.

Shashoujianrefers to the Chinese strategic concept focused on creating assassins mace or silver bullet technologies that can reduce the gap between US and Chinese military power. These efforts have manifested themselves in policies, directions and plans that push for the development ofdual-use technologies [for use both in military and civilian fields].

. . .

The use of emerging technologies such as AI [artificial intelligence] and big data in the military has also been incorporated into the14th five-year plan. ... Beijing is now exploring next-generation operational concepts for intelligentised warfare[, including] attrition warfare by intelligent robotic swarms, cross-domain mobile warfare, AI-based space confrontation and cognitive control operations.

. . .

It is clear to the Chinese military apparatus that Beijing will have to rely on emerging technologies to close the gap to US military power. This is evident in thereorganisation of the PLAunder President Xi Jinping. At the heart of this effort lies the focus on critical and emerging technologies. As the world moves further into the digital age, the emphasis on dual-use applications of emerging technologies will keep growing. Thus, Beijing sees the need to develop military competency in critical and emerging technologies to gain an advantage over its adversaries. [Emphasis added.]6

Derek Grossman of the RAND Corporation has testified as to the alarming implications this holds for the U.S.:

Xis pursuit of a world-class PLA, if realized by 2050 ... will represent perhaps the most destabilizing geostrategic development of the 21st century. [S]teep advances in the PLAs conventional capabilities, along with additional boosts to power projection and offsetting technologies, could, for the first time in modern history, pit the United States against a militarily superior adversary. The impact of this development will only be magnified if Washington allows its current technological and military edge over China to decline further. [Emphasis added.]7

Grossman urges that we [e]nsure the U.S. military retains the scientific, mathematical, and technological edge in growing U.S.-China competition. Losing the edge may result in China achieving the next offset, not the United States.8 What he means by offset:

[President] Xi appears to be ... interested in leapfrogging the U.S. military by 2050 through the development of disruptive military technologies. In other words, Beijing probably plans to achieve the Third Offset strategy [a Pentagon military strategy to invest in key innovative technologies ... to gain asymmetric advantages in great power competition] before the U.S. military can do so, thereby enabling Xis world-class PLA to defeat the United States in a conventional regional conflict and to protect Chinese interests worldwide.

Xi has also prioritized the acceleration of programs to develop disruptive military technologies that offer China asymmetric advantages against the United States. These technologies are being indigenously researched and developed to advance the construction of next-generation weapon systems, with the intent of leapfrogging Washington by midcentury. ... [I]t is the component of the PRCs military strategy that Xi hopes will put the PLA over the edge in terms of becoming world-class that is, eclipsing U.S. battlefield capabilities. [Emphasis added.]9

There are many different examples of disruptive military technologies, and China is developing virtually anything that might come to mind. Retired Senior Colonel Fan Gaoyue, who served as a director and chief specialist at Chinas Academy of Military Science, noted that Beijing might be researching offsetting capabilities in aerospace, cyberspace, unmanned systems, and underwater warfare. Other areas, at a minimum, include robotics, autonomous weapons, nanotechnology, 3-D printing, big data analytics, advanced manufacturing, AI, quantum computing, biotechnology, human-machine cooperation, cloud computing, and hypersonics. Beijing seeks to leverage its growing expertise in one or more of these or other areas to develop next-generation weapon systems that will challenge U.S. military capabilities by the 2050s. Xi, along with other senior Chinese leaders, believes that the next five to ten years will be the decisive period in U.S.-China technological competition. Beijing almost certainly believes that the PLA successful intelligentization of warfare and system-of-systems construct will better position it to prevail in future armed conflicts. [Emphasis added.]10

Conflict might actually occur sooner rather than later. Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, states that:

China is either going to side with Russia and reinforce the sense that it has joined an axis of autocracy, or it is going to put significant space between Moscow and Beijing and demonstrate that it genuinely cares about preserving even a basic relationship with the rest of the world. If it turns down this opportunity, its not clear to me there will be a next time to meet and set aside differences. The ball is entirely in Beijings court.11

And German Lopez warns in the New York Times that:

China has laid claim to Taiwan since the island split off from the mainland in 1949 and has threatened to forcibly reunite the two. It views the issue as a top priority: Days after Russias invasion [of Ukraine], Chinese officials reiterated that they were committed to resolving the Taiwan question. ... [W]hat happens in Taiwan will likely be influenced by what happens in Ukraine. If Russia succeeds in overtaking Ukraine, it increases the danger for Taiwan. If Russia ultimately retreats, or suffers lasting, damaging consequences, that could be good news for the island. ... The Wests resolve could go even further in Taiwan [than regarding Ukraine], with the possibility of U.S. forces directly intervening against an invasion. Biden has said American troops will not fight in Ukraine, but the U.S. keeps a deliberately vague lineon Taiwan. [Emphasis added.]12

ESRCs 2021 annual report concludes that:

The Chinese government sees itself as competing directly with the United States for global economic leadership, a rivalry in which technological prowess will play a central role. ... Chinas economic policy blueprint issued in March 2021, emphasizes innovation and development not only for economic growth but more importantly for technological self-sufficiency, national security, and international influence.13

As the ESRC noted, for the PRC, economic dominance is as much a military as a commercial goal, because so many emerging technologies now are dual-use and because of the CCPs belief in military-civilian fusion, with which it seeks to mobilize civilian technological advances in support of Chinas military modernization and spur broader economic growth and innovation by eliminating barriers between the commercial and defense sectors.14 Thus, for the PRC, espionage and intellectual property theft of both military and civilian technology are necessary for its military.

I should note that industrial espionage between China and the West has been a two-way street. Professor Mark Button,director of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, has written that [i]n one of the most significant acts of industrial espionage ever, in the 1800s the British East India Company hired the botanist, Richard Fortune, to smuggle out of China tea cuttings, seeds, etc., which were usedto help grow a tea industry in India which eclipsed the Chinese in a few decades.15

However, the stakes involved in todays espionage are immense. And the PRC is unrivaled in the world in its efforts to abscond with American technology. This was true in 2005 when my then-boss John Hostettler stated, when chairing a hearing of the House Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on economic and military espionage, that:16

Nationals of many nations come to the United States to engage in espionage. Our closest allies are not excluded from this list. However, all evidence indicates that certain nations are the most egregious violators. There is no nation that engages in surreptitious illegal technology acquisition for purposes of both commercial piracy and military advancement on a scale that approaches that of the Peoples Republic of China. [Emphasis added.]17

And it is even more true today. Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times that:

For the past five years ... the United States and China have been stumbling down a path of de-integration and maybe toward outright confrontation. ... [i]t is Chinas increasingly bullying leadership style at home and abroad, its heads-we-win-tails-you-lose trade policies and the changing makeup of its economy that are largely responsible for this reversal. ... [Factors including] Xis determination that China must never again be dependent on America for advanced technologies, and Beijings willingness to do whatever it takes buy, steal, copy, invent or intimidate to guarantee that, and you have a much more aggressive China. ... The level of technology theft and penetration of U.S. institutions has become intolerable. [Emphasis added.]18

In February, Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for National Security, stated that:

We see nations such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea becoming more aggressive and more capable in their nefarious activity than ever before. These nations seek to undermine our core democratic, economic and scientific institutions. And they employ a growing range of tactics to advance their interests and to harm the United States. Defending American institutions and values against these threats is a national security imperative.

...

[T]here is no one threat that is unique to a single adversary. At the same time, it is clear that the government of China stands apart. ... As the FBI Director publicly noted a few weeks ago, the threats from the PRC government are more brazen [and] more damaging than ever before. He is absolutely right: the PRC government threatens our security through its concerted use of espionage, theft of trade secrets, malicious cyber activity, transnational repression, and other tactics to advance its interests all to the detriment of the United States and other democratic nations and their citizens around the world. [Emphasis added.]19

John Demers, assistant attorney general, National Security Division, DOJ, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2018 that:

In 2015, Chinas State Council released the Made in China 2025 Notice, a ten-year plan for targeting ten strategic advanced technology manufacturing industries for promotion and development. ... The program leverages the Chinese governments power and central role in economic planning to alter competitive dynamics in global markets and acquire technologies in these industries. To achieve the programs benchmarks, China aims to localize research and development, control segments of global supply chains, prioritize domestic production of technology, and capture global market share across these industries. In so doing so, China has committed to pursuing an innovation-driven development strategy and prioritizing breakthroughs in higher-end innovation. But that is only part of the story: Made in China 2025 is as much roadmap to theft as it is guidance to innovate.

No one begrudges a nation that generates the most innovative ideas and from them develops the best technology. But we cannot tolerate a nation that steals our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. And this is just what China is doing to achieve its development goals[,] ... pursuing [them] through malign behaviors that exploit features of a free-market economy and an open society like ours ... using a variety of means, ranging from the facially legal to the illicit, including various forms of economic espionage, forced technology transfer, strategic acquisitions, and other, less obvious tactics to advance its economic development at our expense. [Emphasis added.]20

From 2011-2018, more than 90 percent of the Departments cases alleging economic espionage by or to benefit a state involve China, and more than two-thirds of the Departments theft of trade secrets cases have had a nexus to China.

...

In all of these cases, Chinas strategy is the same: rob, replicate, and replace. Rob the American company of its intellectual property, replicate the technology, and replace the American company in the Chinese market and, one day, the global market.21

It should be noted that not all of the PRCs activities violate federal law, even as they threaten national security. As the ESRC staff report explains:

While the transfer of information and processes associated with fundamental research conducted in the United States is legal, the Chinese government vigorously seeks to acquire such research precisely because it recognizes its strategic value, and by extension, the advantages it confers in the emerging competition with the United States.22

The Institute of International Educations (IIE) annual census of international students23 in the United States (which began in 1919), is viewed as the comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars in the United States and on U.S. students studying abroad.24 It reports that in the 2019/2020 academic year, 372,532 foreign students from the PRC were attending school in the United States on student visas, representing more than one-third (34.6 percent) of the entire foreign student population and 1.9 percent of all students at U.S. institutions of higher education. As a consequence of the Covid pandemic, in the 2020/2021 academic year the number of students from the PRC dropped to 317,299, but still represented more than one-third (34.7 percent) of all foreign students and 1.6 percent of all students.25

In the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic years, 39.8/39.6 percent of Chinese students were undergraduates, 36.8/37.5 percent were graduate students, and 19.2/20.6 percent were taking advantage of Optional Practical Training (largely with U.S. corporations).26 In those academic years, 17.5/17.5 percent of PRC students were studying engineering, 21.2/22.2 percent math or computer science, and 8.4/9.1 percent the physical or life sciences.27

The predominance of students from the PRC is a relatively new development. As recently as the 2008/2009 academic year, there were fewer than 100,000 students from the PRC; in 1994/1995, fewer than 34,000, and in 1984/1985, barely 10,000.28 Lest one think this is simply reflective of a growing overall population of foreign students, PRC students represented 14.6 percent of all foreign students in 2008/2009, 8.7 percent in 1994/1995, and 3.0 percent in 1984/1985.29

What has accounted for the great escalation in the number of students from the PRC? The ESRC staff report concludes that [t]his growth ... was driven by several important [visa policy] changes during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, which reflected an assumption in U.S. policy that China would gradually liberalize as the result of increased engagement.30

Unfortunately, China has most assuredly not liberalized. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that the PRC has been rapidly deliberalizing. Thomas Friedman finds that the leadership strategy of President Xi Jinping ... has been to extend the control of the Communist Party into every pore of Chinese society, culture and commerce. This has reversed a trajectory of gradually opening China to the world since 1979.31 And the ESRC itself concluded in 2020 that:

Chinas view of the United States is based on the ideology of the ruling CCP, which regards the liberal democratic values championed by the United States as a fundamental impediment to its external ambitions and an existential threat to its domestic rule.

Beijings view of the United States as a dangerous and firmly committed opponent has informed nearly every facet of Chinas diplomatic strategy, economic policy, and military planning in the post Cold War era.32

Xi oversaw the publication of Document Number 9, an internal Party communique ordering heightened vigilance against seven false ideological trends, positions, and activities purportedly inspired by U.S. ideals. Proscribed beliefs included constitutional democracy, universal values, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civil society, pro-market neoliberalism, nihilistic views of the CCPs history, and the questioning [of] ... the socialist nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The document further described Chinas ideological situation as a complicated, intense struggle and framed the proponents of its proscribed ideals as enemies.33

The ESRC staff report found that:

Xi Jinping, has ... [made] clear that overseas Chinese students and scholars are key to his plans to transform China into an innovative and militarily formidable world power. As early as 2013, he argued publicly that Western countries leadership of the world depended on their mastery of advanced technologies and that China must adopt an asymmetrical strategy of catching up. Of particular importance were the key fields and areas in which General Secretary Xi perceived a [Western] stranglehold and in which it would be impossible for [China] to catch up [by itself] by 2050.[Emphasis added.]34

As John Hostettler stated in 2005, [m]any ... visitors [from the PRC], even when they are visiting for legitimate purposes, are tasked with obtaining whatever technological information they can.35

FBI Director Christopher Wray stated on April 26, 2019, that:

[N]o country poses a broader, more severe intelligence collection threat than China. China has pioneered a societal approach to stealing innovation any way it can, from a wide array of businesses, universities, and organizations. Theyre doing this through Chinese intelligence services, through state-owned enterprises, through ostensibly private companies, through graduate students and researchers, and through a variety of actors working on behalf of China. At the FBI, we have economic espionage investigations that almost invariably lead back to China in nearly all of our 56 field offices, and they span almost every industry or sector. The activity Im talking about goes way beyond fair-market competition. Its illegal. Its a threat to our economic security. And by extension, its a threat to our national security. ... Put plainly, China seems determined to steal its way up the economic ladder, at our expense. ... Theyre strategic in their approach they actually have a formal plan, set out in five-year increments, to achieve dominance in critical areas. To get there, theyre using an expanding set of non-traditional methods both lawful and unlawful weaving together things like foreign investment and corporate acquisitions with cyber intrusions and supply chain threats.

...

Nation-state actors are also targeting academia including professors, research scientists, and graduate students. They seek our cutting-edge research, our advanced technology, and our world-class equipment and expertise. [Emphasis added.]36

It is not necessarily that students come here from the PRC intending to engage in espionage. Rather, many are inevitably pressured to do so by the PRC. Edward Ramotowski, deputy assistant secretary of State, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 6, 2018, that foreign students, often with no nefarious intent in their planof study in the United States, are later co-opted to work for their government.37 And former CIA officer Joe Augustyn states that [w]e know without a doubt that anytime a graduate student from China comes to the US, they are briefed when they go, and briefed when they come back.38

E.W. Priestap, assistant director, Counterintelligence Division, FBI, also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2018 that:

In many cases, foreign intelligence services do not necessarily pre-task or pre-position [foreign students and scholars]. Instead, the services allow the[m] toconduct their U.S.-based academic pursuits, waiting to leverage them once they return to their home countries either during an academic break or at the end of their studies. Many of those whom they target are young, inexperienced, andimpressionable. [Emphasis added.]39

As Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has pointed out:

In China, only the government can grant someone permission to leave the country to study or work in the United States and we have seen the Chinese governmentuse their power over their citizens to, in some cases, encourage those citizens tocommit acts of scientific or industrial espionage to the benefit of the Chinese government. [Emphasis added.]40

Warner has also stated that:

China uses all of the traditional tools of the state to exert influence [including] the aggressive deployment of espionage to steal military, and industrial secrets. But its also using more creative mechanisms that take advantage of its authoritarian model to force Chinese companies, researchers, and others to act on behalf of Chinas national interests. In 2015 and 2016, China enactednew laws requiring all Chinese citizens and companies to act in support of national security and the Chinese government. All of this has set the stage for China to aggressively deploy every lever of power in service to the state and, at the same time, exploit the openness ofoursociety to gain geopolitical and economic advantage. ... Through strategic collaboration with Western companies and universities, China is able to gain access and transfer emerging technologies. [Emphasis added.]41

What are the mechanisms that the PRC is using to transform China into an innovative and militarily formidable world power? E.W. Priestap testified in December 2018 before the Senate Judiciary Committee that:

The Chinese government ... has created comprehensive programs to identify, develop, and retain their most talented citizens. These talent recruitment and brain gain programs ... also encourage theft of intellectual property from U.S. institutions. For example, Chinas talent recruitment plans, such as the Thousand Talents Program, offer competitive salaries, state-of-the-art research facilities, and honorific titles, luring both Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts alike to bring their knowledge and experience to China, even if that means stealing proprietary information or violating export controls to do so. [Emphasis added.]42

The ESRC staff report stated that:

While many countries institute preferential policies to attract highly skilled personnel to their economies, no country in the world employs an S&T transfer system that is remotely comparable to Chinas in terms of scale, comprehensiveness, or determination to leverage its overseas nationals. Chinas S&T transfer ecosystem exploits overseas Chinese students and scholars for technology and know-how that can be commercialized or militarized in China ... directly contributing to a strategic competitors technological advances. [Emphasis added.]43

How does the PRC do it?

The PLA also actively targets returning overseas students in its recruitment efforts to ensure the technical proficiency of its personnel. [The PLA has written that] the 2.6 million overseas Chinese students and scholars studying abroad provide fertile soil for the PLAs efforts to recruit capable civilian personnel [and it] has worked to boost its recruitment of returning overseas students since at least 2013 to make up for insufficient expertise in key technical areas. [Emphasis added.]46

Many of these talent programs focus not only on foreign education and training for their talents, but also on the transfer of fundamental research.47

To take one example, the Hundred Talents Program ... offers academic appointments to overseas Chinese students and scholars aged 50 or younger who have received their doctorates and have a distinguished record of research. ... [T]he Program seeks to attract researchers who can contribute to projects furthering military-civil fusion. [Emphasis added.]48

Chinas government runs myriad programs to bring Chinese students and scholars living in the United States back to China temporarily to engage in scientific activities relevant to its economic and military modernization. One prominent program targets high-profile Chinese scholars appointed to teaching positions at prominent universities [by] recruit[ing] overseas Chinese talents who have been appointed as assistant professors or above at famous foreign universities in emerging technologies and other areas important to national development. The program provides funding, housing, and medical insurance to overseas Chinese scholars in exchange for a commitment to travel back to China over school breaks to lecture and conduct research at domestic universities for three months to a year at a time.49

When Chinese students and scholars trained at U.S. universities return to China to commercialize the ideas and technologies they developed while abroad ... this U.S.-funded research can ultimately benefit Chinese state-owned or defense enterprises that are competing with the United States. Even when overseas Chinese students and scholars do stay in the United States after graduation, Chinas transnational technology transfer organizations and talent recruitment plans provide a means to contribute to Chinas national rejuvenation by transferring technology and know-how without requiring physical return.

Because Chinas leaders have promoted a military-civil fusion strategy and dictated that those with S&T expertise serve the cause of national rejuvenation, state-affiliated institutions absorb the knowledge of overseas Chinese students and scholars and then leverage it to improve Chinas military capabilities. [Emphasis added.]50

The PRC has even been able to send its military scientists to American universities:

At least 500 Chinese military scientists have been sent to study at U.S. universities since 2007 ... an outflow coupled with efforts by PLA universities to establish cooperative arrangements with U.S. institutions. While these military scientists and engineers sometimes disclose their affiliations with the PLA, others deliberately obscure them. ... The United States July 2020 decision to close the Chinese Consulate in Houston reportedly stemmed in part from U.S. officials assessment that diplomats posted there facilitated technology transfer by Chinese postgraduate researchers in areas such as artificial intelligence and biology who had hidden their active-duty status with the PLA.

...

The recent case of Wang Xin, a PLA officer and scientist arrested in June 2020 for alleged visa fraud, illustrates how Beijing sends military personnel to U.S. universities to collect information that advances its military capabilities. According to DOJ, Wang allegedly lied about his ongoing employment as a PLA technician in order to gain admission to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2019. Once at UCSF, Wangs PLA supervisor tasked him with observing the layout of UCSFs lab ... and bringing back information to help his military university replicate the lab in China. ... Wang had emailed research to his lab in China and had in his possession UCSF studies he was intending to share with PLA colleagues when he was apprehended. ... Wang also allegedly told his supervisor at UCSF that he had already succeeded in duplicating some of the UCSF labs research in China. [Emphasis added.]51

The report concludes that:

In effect, U.S. universities are training scientists and engineers who will work in a range of organizations antithetical to U.S. national security interests, including the PLA.52

DHS has provided other examples:

In September 2019 ... the FBI charged Chinese government official Liu Zhongsan with conspiracy to fraudulently procure U.S. research scholar visas for Chinese officials whose actual purpose was to recruit U.S. scientists for high technology development programs within China. Additionally, in December 2019, a 29-year-old graduate student in J1 status participating in an exchange visitor program at Harvard University was stopped at Boston Logan International Airport. Federal agents determined he was a high risk for possibly exporting undeclared biological material after finding 21 vials of brown liquid wrapped in a plastic bag inside a sock in his checked luggage; typed and handwritten notes indicated that [the exchange visitor] ... was knowingly gathering and collecting intellectual property ... possibly on behalf of the Chinese government.53

In November 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched the China Initiative to better counter economic espionage by the PRC. Assistant Attorney General John Demers testified in 2018 that:

Broadly speaking, the China Initiative aims to raise awareness of the threats we face, to focus the Departments resources in confronting them, and to improve the Departments response, particularly to newer challenges. ... Investigating and prosecuting economic espionage and other federal crimes will remain at the heart of our work. ... But ... we must broaden our approach.

But the Biden administration has already reversed course. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen stated on February 23 that:

[The China Initiative] effectively focused attention on the multi-faceted threat from the PRC. But it has also engendered growing concerns that we must take seriously. ... We have heard concerns from the civil rights community that the China Initiative fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias. To many, that narrative suggests that the Justice Department treats people from China or of Chinese descent differently. The rise in anti-Asian hate crime and hate incidents only heightens these concerns. ... There are also increasing concerns from the academic and scientific community about the departments pursuit of certain research grant fraud cases. We have heard that these prosecutions and the public narrative they create can lead to a chilling atmosphere for scientists and scholars that damages the scientific enterprise in this country. Safeguarding the integrity and transparency of research institutions is a matter of national security. But so is ensuring that we continue to attract the best and the brightest researchers and scholars to our country from all around the world and that we all continue to honor our tradition of academic openness and collaboration.55

Read more here:

Science, Technology, Espionage, and Math - Immigration Blog

New technology that fixes the problems of the EHR is the best way to reduce physician burnout

Its time to admit that health care technology has largely failed to deliver on its promise to make the management of patient care simpler, easier, and less stressful for clinicians.

Two decades ago, technology was presented as the solution to so many of the U.S. health care systems ills. EHRs and other tools were going to streamline recordkeeping, allow seamless communication between providers and payers, and, most importantly, free up clinicians to spend more time on patient care and less on administration and paperwork.

Unfortunately, EHRs are sticky in that everyone uses one, but they lack in driving clinical outcomes as a standalone solution - which just makes things worse and detracts from payer/provider alignment. This is in direct contrast to what I encountered growing up in Israel, where patients, physicians, and the national insurer are all fully integrated, both in terms of interoperability and alignment of interests.

Technology hasnt improved efficiency to the extent promised or inserted more caring into health care. It hasnt driven down costs for patients and payers, and it hasnt saved practices money. As a result, providers at all levels are still working below their licenses.

Tech-driven burnout

Nowhere is techs failure clearer than its role in clinician burnout, a long-smoldering problem that has burst into flames since the introduction of the meaningful use incentive program.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm on clinician burnout in an advisory this May. The report detailed how an already serious problem has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing providers to leave medicine in record numbers at a time when theyre needed more than ever before.

The advisory concluded that the country needs 1.1 million new registered nurses and faces a projected national shortage of more than 3 million low-wage health workers. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of as many as 139,000 physicians by 2033, with the greatest gaps in primary care.

The Surgeon Generals report is only the latest piece of research to cite administrative demands and EHRs as leading causes of burnout. It found that, on average, for every one hour of direct patient care, a primary care provider will spend two hours a day on administrative tasks. That not only frustrates clinicians, but it also contributes to poorer health outcomes for patients.

Tech is the answer

So, whats the solution to technology-caused burnout? Technology.

It seems counterintuitive to prescribe technology to treat burnout caused by technology, but the answer is not simply more tech, but better tech tech that will finally deliver on those 20-year-old promises.

Of course, theres no turning back the clock. Were not going back to paper records and manila folders. The American health care system will not be streamlined and simplified anytime soon; it will remain a thicket of incompatible systems and competing priorities.

Only tech whose design and processes are informed by the failures of previous systems can solve these problems. Unlike current systems, these tools will need to increase the efficiency of clinicians using them and drive down costs.

The good news is the problems arent insurmountable. In fact, theyre being addressed right now.

Fixing EHRs

And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wasnt referring to health tech when he wrote this, but any provider who has spent hours staring at a poorly designed EHR interface can relate.

Its not surprising that a 2020 study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that EHRs scored in the bottom 9th percentile of technologies when evaluated for usability. They were supposed to package multiple streams of patient and payer information into simple, easy-to-manage bundles. That hasnt happened.

But EHR experiences can be improved, primarily in two ways. The first is by investing in local provider organizations to improve workflows, implement user feedback loops, etc. The second is to deploy complementary tech solutions that improve the user experience, such as robotic process automation, integrated workflows, and EHR overlays.

These solutions can make health workers more efficient by reducing the need for them to manage disparate workflows, thereby lowering labor costs, and making it easier to manage the health worker shortage. EHRs are here to stay. Technology that understands this and mitigates their shortcomings for clinicians are indispensable in combating rising health care costs and reducing burnout.

Ending non-productive work

Tech is simultaneously overwhelming and underperforming.

Clinicians and others must use too many tools and click too many times only to be delivered insufficient results.

Too many tech tools and non-integrated data sources result in information silos; obtaining a comprehensive picture of a patients care can require assembling data from emails, paper notes, EHRs, portals, and even faxes.

That sort of copy-and-paste recordkeeping wastes time and leads to lost data, compromised patient information, and poor patient experience. Health workers need a way to assemble all the information from multiple sources into a user-friendly interface.

Tech can consolidate touchpoints and tools and implement interoperability standards. Automation of routine tasks, such as checking authorizations, handling referrals, and entering ICD codes, reduces the number of tech touchpoints and frees providers to focus on the far more crucial lifesaving work we ask of them.

Turning technology around

Everyone from patients to payers has an interest in keeping clinicians happy, engaged, and, most importantly, on the job and operating at peak efficiency.

Independent practitioners often suffer the most from tech burnout because they have fewer resources and less time to manage administration. As a result, many surrender and sell their practices to health care systems just to free themselves from drawing under administrative demands. However, that can result in higher costs for society and poorer care, while also carrying its own stresses for clinicians.

Tech that empowers smaller, independent practices to not only stay viable but to succeed in shared initiatives, such as value-based care models, can help preserve the dwindling ranks of independent practices and general practitioners.

Poor technology got us into this mess; good technology can get us out. In fact, its the only thing that can.

Oron Afek is the CEO of Vim, a technology company building digital infrastructure for U.S. health care.

Read more from the original source:

Can Technology Solve the Burnout It Helped Cause? - Medical Economics

As technology becomes more and more embedded in transportation, Skip Descant, writing in Governing, investigates how road infrastructure might change to accommodate new technologies. With more vehicles requiring electric charging, Converged and coordinated sectors like energy and transportation are the prerequisite to effectively growing the widescale adoption of EVs, experts say.

According to Allie Kelly, executive director of The Ray, a technology testbed in Georgia, We cant support electrified transportation without building at-scale EV charging hubs. And we cant support functionality like platooning or functionality like Level 5 autonomy without building the digital and the physical infrastructure to support more connectivity, and to leverage data and transportation with connected and autonomous vehicles.

To prepare for the future of transportation, Energy, transportation and charging hubs are coming together in the form of initiatives like using roadway rights of way for the installation of solar fields to generate electric power. Descant adds that some cities and states are experimenting with new road building materials, such as recycled car tires.

There are challenges on the regulatory side,too. Urban Movement Labs, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit transportation and urbanism think tank, is working to develop an integration manual to help cities understand the regulatory landscape, and other concerns, for systems like these.

As the article points out, new technologies, such as delivery drones and robots and autonomous vehicles, are already proliferating. Meanwhile, pedestrian death rates keep growing. For everything else we do, safetys got to be an imperative. And we use this moment to advance safety, said Mark Rosekind, former administrator with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and chief safety innovation officer at mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) company Zoox. But while technology makes lofty promises for speed and efficiency, cities continue to lag behind on low-tech improvements that could reduce traffic deaths and limit the impact of humanand, in the future, autonomous vehicleerror behind the wheel.

Read more from the original source:

The Marriage of Technology and Road Infrastructure - Planetizen

Cement is a key component of concrete, the world's second mostconsumed material, and it is widely used in modern infrastructure.Cement production is also one of the largest single CO2emitting industries, making it subject to increasing environmentalpressure as more net-zero pledges are announced.

About half of the CO2 emissions in cement productionare due to the inevitable chemical process of calcination while theremaining comes from the energy-intensive heat needed for theprocess. A recent report by Clean Energy Technology at IHS Markitbenchmarked multiple decarbonization pathways currently availablefor the cement industry. Results show that, from all availableoptions, CCUS is by far the solution with the highest mitigationpotential since this technology significantly and directly reducesCO2 from the calcination process.

However, adding CCUS to cement production currently more thandoubles the cost of cement; hence, a wide range of capturetechnologies, with different degrees of technology readiness, arebeing tested globally with the objective to reduce capture cost.Currently, multiple CO2 capture technologies are plannedto start operations in large-scale projects, including therelatively developed post-combustion amine scrubbing, oxy-fuelcombustion, and other emerging CCUS options, such as cryogenic,solid sorbent, membranes. Despite the cost reduction the newtechnologies could bring, policy support will still be required toincentivize these projects. Thus, there is no surprise to see thatregions with defined policy support like Europe are leading thepipeline of CCUS projects in the cement industry globally.

Europe emerges as a leader for first CCUS projects inthe cement industry

The CCUS pipeline of projects for the cement industry is mainlya story of European cement manufacturers. Europe not only accountsfor 56% of the CCUS projects in the cement industry, but also twoEuropean players - LafargeHolcim and Heidelberg cement -are leading 73% of the CCUS projects for the industryglobally.

These companies are leading efforts to decarbonize the industry,anticipating the critical role that CCUS can play in the industry,and the potential costs associated with untackled emissions thatcould lie ahead if they don't decarbonize their operations. Infact, the European emissions trading system (EU-ETS) will start thephase-out of free allowances in 2026 through 2030, which willrepresent a significant cost for cement manufacturers goingforward. However, if decarbonization solutions are in place,producers could significantly reduce the emission cost of theiroperation.

An analysis from IHS Markit shows that the investment in capturetechnologies such as oxy-fuel combustion, calcium looping and aminescrubbing in Europe could offset the emission costs from EU-ETSbeyond 2035, which could be a significant incentive for cementmanufacturers to implement decarbonization technologies such asCCUS in their operations.

There is no doubt that policy support is needed to decarbonizethe cement industry, and although Europe seems to be moving in theright direction, the region only accounts for 4% of the globalcement production. If we want to see a significant change, mainlandChina - the main cement producer globally with more than 50% of theglobal cement production- will have to put the right policy inplace to accelerate the decarbonization of the Chinese cementindustry.

To learn more on this topic, request freeaccess to our Global Clean Energy Technology service on the Climateand Sustainability Hub here.

Posted 26 July 2022 by Edurne zoco, Executive Director, Clean Technology & Renewables, S&P Global Commodity Insights and

Paola Perez Pena, Principal Research Analyst, Gas Power and Climate Solutions, S&P Global Commodity Insights and

Yufei Li, Sr. Research Analyst, Global Clean Energy Technology (CET), IHS Markit

This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.

Excerpt from:

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is the technology with the highest mitigation potential to decarbonize the cement industry - IHS Markit

Photo credit: Weiquan Lin/Getty Images

Our annual partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, just concluded. The conversations I had with Microsofts partner community echo those I have had recently with leaders from both established organizations and earlier-stage enterprises. Leaders across industries share a commitment to innovation as the only path forward through uncertainty in global markets, especially as they continue to strengthen their security posture, reduce their carbon footprint, inject more visibility into their supply chains, and promote more inclusive prosperity in the communities where they operate.

I see this shared commitment as part of a trend I call digital perseverance. It is the ability oforganizations to thrive despite risk when they harness and wield digital technology to achieve their business goals and do more with less. Here are examples of organizations that have embraced digital capabilities to persevere in collaboration with Microsoft.

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Last week, Oracle and Microsoft announced the availability of Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure. Earlier this month, we completed the acquisition of Miburo to boost threat intelligence research into new foreign cyber threats, and Netflix announced Microsoft as technology and sales partner for its new consumer subscription plan. P&G has selected Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider to enable scalable predictive maintenance, controlled release, touchless operations and manufacturing sustainability optimization from diapers to paper towels. American Airlines has chosen Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform, applying AI, machine learning and data analytics to reduce time waiting on the runway, saving thousands of gallons of jet fuel per year and giving connecting customers extra time to make their next flights.

The industrial metaverse has the potential to simultaneously improve supply chain resiliency, business efficiency and sustainability.When organizations make or move goods, they leave a carbon footprint.With the industrial metaverse, they can simulate manufacturing processes and supply chain scenarios infinitely in the cloud before a product is made or moved. The result: less waste, water consumption and carbon emissions all while creating better products more efficiently and sustainably.

Manufacturers set new quality standards with digital twins and mixed realityBelgium-based AB Inbev, the worlds largest brewery, is creating a digital model of their breweries and supply chain with Azure Digital Twins, enabling brew masters to make the highest quality beer and front-line operators to remotely monitor quality and traceability data. Bosch is using an Integrated Asset Performance Management (IAPM) solution powered by a digital twin on Azure that enables rotating machines, like turbines and electric motors, to indicate when they need maintenance to run with optimal costs and maximum efficiency. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a global leader in industrial robots, is building a digital environment for robotics, which enables collaboration in the industrial metaverse and remote operations of robots utilizing Microsoft technologies like Azure IoT and Azure Digital Twins. Hyundai Motor Group is establishing an electric vehicle battery asset management platform with Azure Digital Twins to increase battery management efficiency. Denmark-based Novo Nordisk, a leader in the global production of diabetes medicine, is using technologies like HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 to make production processes more efficient while maintaining the highest quality standards and complying with authority requirements and regulations.

AI and supercomputing technologies unlock mobility innovations across the value chainCroatian automotive company Rimac Technology is combining its high-performance engineering with Azure high-performance computing to build powerful electric vehicles through virtual prototyping. Automotive supplier thyssenkrupp Automotive Technology is standardizing its complex customer relationship management with Dynamics 365, reducing the time-to-quote by 75 percent. U.K.-based Wayve is scaling the development of AI-based models for autonomous vehicles with Azure supercomputing technologies. Germany-based Volocopter is working with Microsoft to develop an aerospace cloud system on Azure to address the cloud computing requirements of urban air mobility and autonomous aviation. With Azure OpenAI Service, CarMax is imagining new ways to make the process of buying a pre-owned vehicle hassle-free, bringing integrity, trust and transparency to the used car industry. With HoloLens 2, Volkswagen and Microsoft are putting augmented reality glasses in motion, unlocking new entertainment experiences for passengers.

Sustainability is todays differentiator across industries for a better futureNorway-based energy company Equinor is establishing a Microsoft Power Platform Center for Enablement to nurture greater innovation through low-code development, helping the company achieve its sustainability goals as it transitions toward renewables. Czech Republics energy supply company innogy is using Microsoft Power Apps to create detailed proposals for custom home photovoltaic systems 25 percent faster. Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico-based producer of baked goods and snack foods, is rolling out Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to all its global operations to collect, track and analyze strategic metrics of its sustainability strategy, working toward zero waste and zero carbon emissions. French start-up Metroscope is working with Azure Kubernetes Service and Microsoft security services to develop digital twin solutions for energy production plants which improve monitoring and efficiency with the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 900,000 tons per year. With Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability capabilities, the Las Vegas Raiders, a U.S. National Football League team, can monitor energy, water and waste metrics and usage and keep track of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) electrical usage. For example, its sustainability metrics dashboard helps analyze weather data and regulate the temperature within its stadium.

Cybersecurity solutions empower hybrid work and drive customer trustThe Food Standards Agency is overseeing food safety in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, keeping the U.K.s food supply safe and secure with Microsoft Purview. The City of Marion in Australia is also using Purview to provide residents with secure government services. Adobeis giving Acrobat users the ability to apply Purview Information Protection labels and policies to their most important documents. The global exam provider Pearson VUE aces data safety with Microsoft Sentinel across a multicloud and hybrid cloud environment. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is shaping the future of work for state employees eight years ahead of schedule, enabling its 40,000 employees to work securely from anywhere with the help of Defender for Office 365, Microsoft 365 and Surface tablets. With Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Sentinel, iHeartMedia is delivering a more streamlined user experience and lower licensing costs in the audio media world where security is non-negotiable. Tower in New Zealand is enhancing its employees remote work experience with Microsoft Endpoint Manager. With attack simulation training in Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Malaysia-based telecommunications company Celcom has reduced the time spent on creating attack simulations by 70 percent, improving awareness for its workers to recognize cyberthreats and phishing attempts.

Access to digital technology connects communities and helps people in needU.K.-based nonprofit Barnardos is connecting hundreds of thousands of families and children in need to valuable social services each year, deploying Microsoft Cloud services and Microsoft Surface devices to help employees be more effective. Part of the United Nations, Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration is moving to the Microsoft Cloud to focus on its humanitarian mission of supporting end-to-end migrant journeys, helping 30 million people every year with practical solutions to migration issues stemming from social, cultural, environmental and economic causes. The Housing and Urban Development Company of So Paulo in Brazil is working with Dynamics 365, Power Apps and Microsoft 365 to identify community needs and create housing projects through a centralized customer relationship management system. Singapore-based Nanyang Polytechnic is working with Microsoft to open the Centre for Applied AI to nurture AI talent for the workforce of the future and empower small- and medium-sized enterprises with the tools and expertise they need to embark on their digitalization journey. Thanks to broadband access provided through the Airband initiative and local broadcasting partner Telecaribe, 650 children from eight schools around Ovejas, Colombia have been able to experience internet connectivity for the first time.

With digital perseverance as an imperative, companies have continued to deliver outsize business value and outcomes, despite significant challenges in recent years. We remain incredibly inspired by what they have achieved and how they are positioned to navigate the landscape ahead. Further, we are committed to serving as their digital technology partner of choice on that journey.

Tags: AI, Azure, Digital Twins, Dynamics 365, HoloLens 2, metaverse, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Teams, Security, Surface, sustainability

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From resilience to digital perseverance: How organizations are using digital technology to turn the corner in unprecedented times - The Official...

by Ty Trumbull Jul 26, 2022

Australian managed IT company Efex has acquired hardware and IT support provider In Touch Office Technology for an undisclosed amount.

This is technology M&A deal number 675 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.

Efex, founded in 2013, is based in Balmain, Australia. The company has 160 employees listed on LinkedIn. Efexs areas of expertise include IT services and IT consulting

In Touch, founded in approximately 2007, is based in Albury, Australia. The company has at least eight employees, according to its website. In Touchs areas of expertise include IT services, remote management and network implementation, as well as a range of PCs, laptops, software solutions and peripherals, with local support and maintenance.

The acquisition will strengthen Efexs foothold in the Albury region with all In Touch employees will join the efex team, according to the company. In Touch Manager, Nathan Dick, will continue in his management role as Albury Branch Manager, Efex said.

In 2021, private equity firm Alceon announced that it had acquired a 50 percent stake in Efex.

Nick Sheehan, CEO, Efex

Nick Sheehan, CEO, Efex, commented:

Our In Touch team will be able to support businesses with a broader range of products, services and skills that are the best fit to help teams work securely and productively in the office or remotely. The acquisition makes sense for us, combining the overlapping services and customers while expanding the product offerings for our regional clients was an organic step towards growth.

In Touchs Nathan Dick added:

This is great news for our customers. We understand the nuances of running a business in regional Australia and we know the types of services that will make life easier for them. We are looking forward to expanding our offering through efex.

Ken Dick, director of In Touch Office Technology, said:

Nothing will change for our valued customers. We will continue to be run by the same capable local team who understand local businesses best. We will continue to operate out of the same building and ensure our customers are looked after in the way they are accustomed to. We look forward to extending our offering to include voice and data capabilities, powering the growth of regional businesses.

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Australian IT Company Efex Acquires In Touch Office Technology - ChannelE2E

Today, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) announced the upcoming appointment of Camille Stewart Gloster as Deputy National Cyber Director for Technology and Ecosystem Security. Stewart Gloster will lead ONCDs ongoing efforts to strengthen the security and development of our Nations cyber ecosystem across people, processes, and technology.

We need top talent in the government to meet the dynamic and complex cyber challenges we face as a nation. We are excited to welcome Camille to ONCD. She is a pioneer who has led on cyber issues for more than a decade at the highest levels of government and industry. The depth and breadth of her experiences will help the Biden-Harris Administration advance key priorities, including promoting the resilience of our software and hardware supply chain, building a more diverse cyber workforce, and strengthening cyber education for all Americans, said National Cyber Director Chris Inglis. Principal Deputy National Cyber Director Kemba Walden said, In the field of cybersecurity, Camille is regarded as not only an expert but also as an inspiration, especially to women and underrepresented minorities. She will be an asset to our team as we seek to strengthen the cybersecurity of our Nation, its citizens, and its technology.

More on Stewart Gloster:

Camille Stewart Gloster is a cyber and technology attorney whose career has spanned the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She joins ONCD from Google, where she most recently served as Global Head of Product Security Strategy, and before that as Head of Security Policy and Election Integrity for Google Play and Android. Stewart Gloster also served in the Obama-Biden Administration at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She is the co-founder of #ShareTheMicInCyber, which aims to highlight the need for increased diversity in the cyber field. She holds a B.S. from Miami University and a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

###

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Office of the National Cyber Director Announces Camille Stewart Gloster as Deputy National Cyber Director for Technology and Ecosystem Security - The...

Information Technology stocks were trading in the negative zone, with the S&P BSE IT Sector index falling 653.14 points or 2.27% at 28073.22 at 13:46 IST.

Among the components of the S&P BSE IT Sector index, Tanla Platforms Ltd (down 20%), Ramco Systems Ltd (down 9.78%),Mphasis Ltd (down 5.74%),Sonata Software Ltd (down 5.46%),Intellect Design Arena Ltd (down 5.32%), were the top losers. Among the other losers were Persistent Systems Ltd (down 4.94%), Brightcom Group Ltd (down 4.94%), L&T Technology Services Ltd (down 4.71%), Aurionpro Solutions Ltd (down 3.92%), and Birlasoft Ltd (down 3.74%).

On the other hand, Cerebra Integrated Technologies Ltd (up 17.18%), D-Link India Ltd (up 5.99%), and NIIT Ltd (up 3.82%) moved up.

At 13:46 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 270.77 or 0.49% at 55495.45.

The Nifty 50 index was down 90 points or 0.54% at 16541.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 194.88 points or 0.73% at 26544.26.

The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was down 72.36 points or 0.87% at 8271.6.

On BSE,1244 shares were trading in green, 1995 were trading in red and 139 were unchanged.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Information Technology shares fall - Business Standard

NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. (OTC QB: BNET), a developer of advanced livestock waste treatment technology that dramatically reduces environmental impacts and recovers valuable resources, announced a letter of intent with Ribbonwire Ranch to build a 15,000 head sustainable beef cattle feeding operation in Dalhart, Texas. The facility will include innovative barn systems, anaerobic digesters and Bion's cutting edge waste treatment technology.

Bion and Ribbonwire will work together to create a definitive Joint Venture this Fall, allowing plans to move forward to commence construction of the Dalhart sustainable beef facility during 2023. The LOI contains a provision to allow expansion of the project to four phases, representing 60,000 head capacity or annual production of 180,000 head. Bion expects formal agreements with foodservice and retail customers over the next few months.

The Dalhart facility will be developed to produce blockchain-verified sustainable beef, reduce the stress on cattle caused by extreme weather and temperatures, while remediating the environmental impacts associated with cattle Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Bion's patented technology will refine the waste stream into valuable coproducts that include clean water, renewable natural gas (RNG), and organic fertilizer products. The revenues generated from these new product lines will transform a cattle feeder from a marginally profitable business into a lucrative one.

Chad Schoonover co-founder of Ribbonwire Ranch said "We are excited to be partnered with Bion for this initial system. This could change the industry. This new approach allows us to capture what has otherwise been lost, while still providing a humane environment that doesn't pollute the air, water or land." Doug Lathem, co-founder of Ribbonwire, said "I am proud that we are working on a better way to feed cattle, one that will allow our kids and grandchildren to live and work in this area for generations to come."

Bill O'Neill, Bion's CEO, expressed his appreciation to Ribbonwire for recognizing this opportunity and wanting to be part of it. "We are fortunate to be working with a forward-thinker like Ribbonwire Ranch. We realize that this announcement is just a first step in making sustainable beef a reality. However, it is an important step to giving the consumer the sustainable beef they want and helping cattle feeders and producers create more value for their cattle. And equally important is the fact we are keeping the waste stream from polluting the air, land, and water, and verifying those improvements in the process."

About Ribbonwire Ranch: Ribbonwire is a cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle that operates on approximately 40,000 acres of grazing lands that is certified organic; its affiliated entity, Lathem Farms, operates +/- 10,000 acres of farmland, of which approximately 70% is certified organic.It is considered the largest organic cow/calf operation in the State of Texas. The principals of Ribbonwire and Lathem have over 50 years of combined knowledge and experience growing feed and producing organic cattle.

About Bion: Bion's patented third generation technology was designed to largely mitigate the environmental impacts of large-scale livestock production and deliver a USDA-certified sustainable product to the consumer. The platform simultaneously recovers high-value environmentally friendly fertilizer coproducts and renewable energy that increase revenues. Bion's 3G Tech platform can create a pathway to economic and environmental sustainability with 'win-win' benefits for at least a premium sector of the $175 billion U.S. livestock industry and the consumer. For more information, see Bion's website at https://bionenviro.com.

This material includes forward-looking statements based on management's current reasonable business expectations. In this document, the words 'intent', 'expect', 'can', 'will', and similar expressions identify certain forward-looking statements. These statements are made in reliance on the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Section 27A of the Securities act of 1933, as amended. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could result in actual results differing materially from expected outcomes.

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bions-new-technology-will-make-beef-sustainable-and-profitable-for-cattle-feeders--ranchers-301592443.html

SOURCE Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc.

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Bion's New Technology Will Make Beef Sustainable and Profitable for Cattle Feeders & Ranchers - Yahoo Finance

Image: KARL STORZ integrated OR with CanaryBox intelligent volume automation technology (Photo courtesy of KARL STORZ)

While some studies suggest there are benefits to music in the operating room, such as reduced stress, increased focus, and perceived calming effects, there have also been studies that show music can interfere with communication during critical situations. Now, a new operating room integration technology is designed to help clinicians keep the benefits of music while also allowing for the clearest communication during critical patient events in the operating room. If a patients vital signs deteriorate, data exported in real-time from a patient monitoring system allows the integrated operating room to dim or even completely mute the music volume automatically.

KARL STORZ (Tuttlingen, Germany) has debuted the new CanaryBox that syncs with the patient vital signs monitor in real-time and automatically lowers or mutes music volume in the operating room to make sure that critical patient alarms are heard if conditions warrant. While music may help cover up the whirls, clangs and hums from life-saving equipment in the operating room, CanaryBox prevents the music from drowning out critical patient monitor alarms.

Many surgeons appreciate the benefits of music for the operating room environment. The enhanced focus and sense of calm is good for patient care, said Glenn Jarrett, MD, an orthopedic surgeon. A system that allows for immediate control of sound in an urgent situation makes perfect sense.

Related Links:KARL STORZ

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Integrated OR with Intelligent Volume Automation Technology Improves Safety of Clinical Alarm Systems - HospiMedica

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. The announcement Wednesday (July 20) by SkyWater Technology that it plans to open a $1.8 billion state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility in Discovery Park District at Purdue University marks a huge step forward for the American semiconductor industry, Purdues thriving innovation district and the universitys continued emergence as one of the principal drivers of the Indiana economy.

SkyWater (NASDAQ:SKYT), which expects to create 750 new direct jobs within five years after it opens, joins the likes of Saab, Rolls-Royce, major facilities and partnerships in hypersonics, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Wabash, MediaTek and others in Discovery Park District, one of the most attractive and innovative environments in the Midwest.

Todays announcement marks a dramatic advance toward multiple strategic goals of Purdues last decade: enriched academic and career opportunities for our students; new research possibilities for our faculty; a transformed, more attractive environment on and adjacent to our campus; and the latest demonstration that Purdue and Greater Lafayette are now the hot new tech hub of a growing, diversifying Indiana economy, said Purdue President Mitch Daniels.Even for the place that specializes in them, this constitutes a genuine giant leap.

Discovery Park District, a 400-acre, mixed-use development adjacent to Purdue University's West Lafayette campus, provides investing companies access to Purdue faculty experts in the semiconductor field, highly sought-after graduates prepared to work in the industry and vast Purdue research resources. In just its fourth year of existence, Discovery Park District offers proximity and access to interstate and state highways, and all the advantages of Indianas highly ranked business climate. Hundreds of jobs have been added to the local and regional economy, with companies choosing to locate next to the universitys cutting-edge research facilities, collaborators and primary investigators; a large-scale, high-quality talent pipeline; excellent cost of living; and business operations with access to the Wabash Rivers strong water supply.

The unique town-gown collaboration that resulted in the redevelopment of West Lafayettes State Street corridor was the key first step in creating Discovery Park District. With this new investment from SkyWater, the funds needed to pay off the obligations to the 231 Purdue TIF district, created as part of the State Street project, will be in hand more than a decade in advance.

Doing its part to address the global semiconductor shortage has been a priority at Purdue. In May, Purdue launched a comprehensive set of interdisciplinary degrees and credentials in semiconductors and microelectronics. The Semiconductor Degrees Program (SDP), the suite of innovative Purdue degrees and credentials, will educate both graduate and undergraduate students, in residence and online, enabling a quick ramp-up of skilled talent. In late June, Purdue began a partnership with MediaTek Inc., a leading global fabless chipmaker, to open the company's first semiconductor chip design center in the Midwest, to be housed in Discovery Park District.

The United States developed microchip technology in the 1950s, and its manufacturing output was 37% of the total global output in 1990. However, as manufacturing moved to East Asia countries including China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan the U.S. global output of semiconductor manufacturing fell to 12% in 2021. The shift could lead to problems in the digital economy if the supply chain is disrupted.

As a solution, the U.S. Congress introduced the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act, or CHIPS for America Act, on June 11, 2020. It supports the nation's research and development, manufacturing and supply chain security of semiconductors.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb praised the introduction of the CHIPS for America Act and urged Congress to fund it. He has noted the state's strength in advanced manufacturing, the strategic partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane to assure trusted microelectronics, and a Department of Defense initiative led by Purdue University to develop workforce talent in the semiconductors industry.

Building the new 600,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility, which includes 100,000 square feet of cleanroom space, will depend on SkyWater receiving funds from the CHIPS Act. American jobs created will focus on research and design engineering, technology development, operations engineering, maintenance and technical support, and technicians.

What they're saying

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb: Days like today prove that Indianas investments in the economy of the future, infrastructure and talent development are cultivating an environment that enables innovators such as SkyWater to choose Indiana. Our success and our mission to support industries of the future would not be possible without the incredible partnerships with our globally ranked universities, like Purdue University, helping us attract and retain quality, innovative talent.

Thomas Sonderman, president and CEO, SkyWater Technology:

This endeavor to bolster our chip fabrication facilities will rely on funding from the CHIPS Act. Federal investment will enable SkyWater to more quickly expand our efforts to address the need for strategic reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing. Through our alliance with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Purdue Research Foundation, we have a unique opportunity to increase domestic production, shore up our supply chains and lay the groundwork for manufacturing technologies that will support growing demand for microelectronics.

Dr. Devanand Shenoy, principal director of microelectronics, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering: SkyWaters investment in a new state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility at Purdues Discovery Park District, represents a major step forward and highlights the importance of public-private partnerships in fostering a robust and thriving domestic microelectronics industry.

Dr. Angie Lewis, (SES), NSWC Crane technical director: Trusted microelectronics are a centerpiece of NSWC Cranes mission and absolutely essential to Department of Defense sensor and weapon systems. Creating domestic capability for fabrication of trusted microelectronics such as the SkyWater presence in the Purdue Discovery Park offers great opportunity to secure trusted microelectronics.

Scott Walker, president and CEO, Greater Lafayette Commerce: We are excited to see Greater Lafayette win the site selection process for this investment from SkyWater Technologies. It demonstrates the power of collaboration between our county, our cities, Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation and the state of Indiana.It also demonstrates our regions strengths in working with industries of tomorrow.We are excited to work with them through the next phases of their process and work with our partners at Purdue University and Ivy Tech to develop the needed semiconductor workforce.

U.S. Sen. Todd Young (Indiana): For months, state leaders, including Gov. Holcomb, Secretary Chambers,President Daniels and private enterprise have partnered to create a semiconductor corridor here in the Heartland. Todays announcement is a direct result of those efforts. In Washington, we are on the verge of passing a major investment in next-generation technologies that is vital for the success of this and future projects, and that will ensure Indiana remains at the center of our high-tech national security economy.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu.

About Purdue Research Foundation

Purdue Research Foundation supports Purdue University's land-grant mission by helping the university improve the world through its technologies and graduates. Established in 1930, PRF is a private, nonprofit foundation. The foundation helps patent and commercialize Purdue technologies; builds places to encourage innovation, invention, investment, commercialization and entrepreneurship; and makes equity available to students to finance their Purdue education. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

About SkyWater Technology

SkyWater (NASDAQ: SKYT) is a U.S.-owned semiconductor manufacturer and a DMEA-accredited Trusted supplier. SkyWaters Technology as a ServiceSMmodel streamlines the path to production for customerswith development services, volume production and heterogeneous integration solutions in its world-class U.S. facilities. This pioneering model enables innovators to co-create the next wave of technology with diverse categories including mixed-signal CMOS, ROICs, rad-hard ICs, power management, MEMS, superconducting ICs, photonics, carbon nanotubes and interposers. SkyWater serves growing markets including aerospace & defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial and IoT. For more information, visitwww.skywatertechnology.com.

SkyWater Technology Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements that are based on the companys current expectations or forecasts of future events, rather than past events and outcomes, and such statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which may cause the companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Key factors that could cause the companys actual results to be different than expected or anticipated include, but are not limited to, factors discussed in the Risk Factors section of its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in other documents that the company files with the SEC, which are available athttps://www.sec.gov. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

Writer: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

Purdue Media contact: Tim Doty, doty2@purdue.edu

SkyWater media contact: Lauri Julian, media@skywatertechnology.com

IEDC media contact: Melissa Thomas (IEDC) 317-750-4792 or mthomas@iedc.in.gov

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SkyWater Technology chooses Discovery Park District at Purdue for $1.8B semiconductor fabrication facility, to create 750 jobs in 5 years - Purdue...

The news: Last month, Stanfords Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, or SCAN, added monkeypox to the suite of viruses it checks wastewater for daily. Since then, the virus has been detected in 10 of the 11 sewer systems that SCAN tests, including those in Sacramento, Palo Alto, and several other cities in Californias Bay Area.

Why it matters: The World Health Organization declared the spread of monkeypox a global health emergency over the weekend, following weeks of indecision over whether the situation was severe enough to be considered an international threat. While the US has recorded 2,891 confirmed cases of the virus as of 22 July, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SCANs wastewater analysis methods could reveal higher case numbers, much more swiftly.

How it works: SCANs researchers are using the data to estimate the actual number of people with monkeypox in the communities they monitor by modeling how wastewater data and monkeypox cases from the past month correlate. This estimate, which can be updated daily, would be a much faster way to track community spread than waiting for symptomatic patients to go to a doctor and get tested, and help to catch infections much earlier. Read the full story.

Read next:Homophobic misinformation is making it harder to contain the spread of monkeypox. Read the full story.

Hana Kiros

The must-reads

Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 China has its native tech tycoons in a chokeholdCompanies that promised to disrupt the status quo have ended up katowing to power. (The Guardian)+ Its working on a system to help Chinese firms comply with US rules. (FT $)+ How Chinas biggest online influencers fell from their thrones. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Joe Bidens semiconductor bill is making unlikely political alliesBernie Sanders and Republicans claim the legislation would simply line the pockets of the already-wealthy. (ABC)+ Meanwhile,China is forging ahead making its own chips. (WSJ $)

3 South Carolina has outlawed websites explaining how to get an abortionThe chilling legislation could set a precedent for conservative states. (WP $)+ Abortion surveillance could trigger a refugee crisis across the US. (Fast Company $)+ Big Tech remains silent on questions about data privacy in a post-Roe US. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Parisian internet cables were sabotaged in a mysterious attackThree months on, we still dont know why. (Wired $)

5 Europe isnt built to withstand extreme heatBut what used to be considered freak weather events are becoming scarily common. (Slate)+ Do these heat waves mean climate change is happening faster than expected? (MIT Technology Review)

6 Google is selling advanced surveillance AI to IsraelWhich would give its government even greater power over its people. (The Intercept)+Why business is booming for military AI startups. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Erotica has been outsourced to the gig economyBut while it helps budding writers to find an audience, readers fear their favorite steamy authors are being exploited. (Rest of World)

8 We shouldnt forget about Hubble The James Webb Space Telescope may have been making headlines recently, but Hubble still has an important role to play. (CNET)+ Why Hubble is unlike any other satellite in history. (MIT Technology Review)+ The Wentian module is on its way to the Tiangong space station. (The Verge)+ NASA-branded clothing is everywhere, because we all want to be astronauts. (CNN)

9 Influencers dont want followers any morethey want communitiesCreating groups of like-minded members breaks down the boundaries between creator and fan. (WP $)+ Instagrams meme creators are fed up with being deplatformed. (Buzzfeed)+ Its also getting even harder to make a living on TikTok these days. (The Information $)

10 Dont mess with this chess-playing robot Or you may come away with a broken finger. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

Youve always had people who sell snake oil. But they had to go door to door, and now with social media they can sit at home and be amplified to every corner of the world.

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The Download: monkeypox detection in wastewater, and Chinas tycoon control - MIT Technology Review

Issue Brief

July 25, 2022

ByEmma Schroeder, Gavin Wilde, Justin Sherman, and Trey Herr

The first time Russia invaded Ukraine in the twenty-first century, the Wagner Group was born. The now widely profiled private military company (PMC) played an important role in exercising Russian national power over the Crimea and portions of the Donbaswhile giving Moscow a semblance of plausible deniability. In the near decade since, the Russian PMC sector has grown considerably, and is active in more than a dozen countries around the world. PMCs are paramilitary organizations established and run as private companiesthough they often operate in contract with one or more states. They are profit-motivated, expeditionary groups that make a business of the conduct of war. PMCs are in no way a uniquely Russian phenomenon, yet the expanding footprint of Russian PMCs and their links to state interests call for a particularly Russian-focused analysis of the industry. The growth of these firms and their direct links to the Kremlins oligarch network as well as Moscows foreign media, industrial, and cyber activities present a challenge to the United States and its allies as they seek to counter Russian malicious activities abroad.

As signals intelligence and offensive cyber capabilities, drones and counter-drone systems, and encrypted communications become more accessible,these technologies will prove ever more decisive to both battlefield outcomes and statecraft. More exhaustive research on these issues is necessary. The ongoing conflict resulting from Russias second invasion of Ukraine in this young century seems likely to shape the conduct of Russian foreign policy and security behavior for years to comeand these firms will play a part.

The activities of these PMCs include high-intensity combat operations, as evidenced in Syria in 2018 and Ukraine in 2022, and a mix of population control, escort and close protection, and local direct-action activities, as seen in Libya, Mali, and elsewhere. Given the sourcing and dependence of Russian PMCs on Russian military service personnel and no small influence of Russian doctrine, the questions to reasonably ask include: How do changes in the Russian conduct of war and adoption of new technologies influence these PMCs? Moreover, how might these technological changes influence the role these PMCs play in Russian strategic goals and activity abroad?The accelerating frequency of PMCs found operating around the world and the proliferation of private hacking, surveillance, and social media manipulation tools suggest that Russian PMCs will pose diverse policy challenges to the United States and allies going forward. This issue brief seeks to offer an initial exploration ofthese questions in the context of how these PMCs came about and how they are employed today. The section below addresses the origin and operations of PMCs in Russian international security strategy, and also profiles the changing role of technology in conflict and the activities of these PMCs. The last section closes with a set of open research questions.

Historically, Moscow has benefited from using mercenaries to advance its aims abroad. Imperial Russia extensively deployed Cossack brigades in the Napoleonic wars and, domestically, to quell peasant uprisings. Tsar Aleksandr II used them as a tool to balance pan-Slavic fervor against the imperial policy of nonintervention in the burgeoning Balkan-Ottoman conflict of the 1870s. Joseph Stalin rallied sympathetic brigades in support of the Republican faction in the late 1930s Spanish Civil War. More recent conflicts demonstrate the abiding imperatives which make PMCs an attractive tool of Russian statecraft.

The number and prevalence of Russian PMCs as a turnkey model deployed in service of Moscows niche foreign objectives have increased over the past decade. Russian PMCs provide the Russian government and, if applicable, their overseas clients (foreign governments and/or companies) with a range of capabilities to augment or mimic Russian military and intelligence activity. This includes training foreign armed forces and groups, providing armed security/protection, conducting political warfare (from assassinations to running drones), and performing military-style functions. It also potentially includes surveillance and cyber(ed) activities that could be reliant on industry capabilities or further built out in the future. Moscow exercises control and provides support for these capabilities to varying degrees, and each of these capabilities feeds into benefits for the PMCs and for the oligarchs at their helm.

Russian PMCs train foreign armed forces and groups. In the early 1990s, for instance, Rubikon, a security firm based in St. Petersburg and supervised by Russian security services, helped organize volunteers to fight for the Serbs in then-Yugoslavia. This trend has continued through to recent times, with Russias Vladimir Putin even publicly stating in 2012 thatRussian private military companies could be used to train foreign military personnel. Recently, it appears that Russian PMC ENOT Corp has run military-type training camps for right-wing activists from foreign countries. Russian PMCs in Libya have trained Libyan National Army (LNA) forces and even repaired their military equipment. And a July 2021 assessment from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that some Russian private paramilitary groups that are trying to recruit and train Western RMVEs [racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists] to expand their reach into the West, increase membership, and raise money.

These organizations also provide armed security/protection to government, corporate, and individual clients. Indeed, part of the Russian PMC industry outgrowth stems from the chaos in the post-Soviet period of the 1990s, when former Soviet soldiers, intelligence personnel, and other members of the security apparatus formed companies to provide security for businesses. In the early days of Gazprom, Rosatom, Rosneft, and Russian Railwaysall state-owned enterprisesRussian PMCs protected their assets overseas. Years later, then-Prime Minister Putin noted that PMCs could act as extensions of Russian influence in conducting such protection operations at important facilities abroad, outside of Russian enterprises. Russian PMCs have provided protective services in the Central African Republic, in Mali, and to energy fields in Syria, in addition to other countries.

The Wagner Group deployed to Mali in December 2021, following the withdrawal of French forces from the country, to train the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and provide protection for senior officials. At the time, the French government attempted to stop the reportedly $10.8 million deal, but the Malian government defended the prospect of closer cooperation with Russia. Immediately upon the Wagner Groups arrival, it began to construct a base near a Malian air force installation at Bamakos Modibo Keita International Airport. FAMa, according to a Mali army spokesperson, had new acquisitions of planes and equipment from [the Russians] . . . It costs a lot less to train us on site than for us to go over there. Less than a month after the Wagner Groups arrival, French reporting indicated that at least one Wagner member was injured when a FAMa convoy was attacked in the center of the countrywhere insurgents ambushed the convoy and employed an improvised explosive device against one of the armored vehicles, leading to a firefight. Though the Wagner Groups mission in Mali is training local forces for direct combat, not engaging in it itself, the mission is clearly one that requires it to work in parallel with local forces and thus consistently places Wagner forces in combat situations.

While the Kremlin realizes strategic benefits from PMC operations worldwide, the PMCs themselves and PMC proprietorsoften members of Putins inner circle of oligarchsreap financial windfalls. Through opaque ownership structures and cutouts, the model essentially provides paramilitary muscle and political support in exchange for preferential access toif not control overmineral rights and other sources of rent extraction for Moscow and its oligarch class. Particularly in areas where the main sources of Russian economic mightarms and energyare already prevalent like in Syria, PMCs act as a force multiplier and reinforce Moscow as an indispensable partner for regime stability. For instance, in Africawhere Russian arms comprise half the continents market, and Moscow looks to invest big in oil, gas, and nuclear projectsPMCs act as an insurance policy.

In the Central African Republic, the Wagner Group has been used to bolster support for President Faustin-Archange Touadras governmenttraining local soldiers, protecting leaders, and providing security services at the countrys diamond minesfollowing the exit of French peacekeeping forces in 2017. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch known as Putins Chef, runs the Wagner group, a military force that is neither a single entity nor truly private or independent. The group also has close ties with the GRU and its direction appears dictated by the state, which aids in the procurement of contracts internationally. The group is funded partially through Prigozhin, but Wagner also receives direct foreign funding through its contracts. The Touadra contract is a prime example. Many of the Central African Republics diamond mines have passed back and forth between government and rebel handsa key source of funding for both the Touadra government and the rebel groups. These mines, back in government hands, now fund Wagner. A portion of Wagners payment is provided in diamonds, avoiding formal financial systems and therefore international sanctions, and in resource extraction permits to Russian companies linked to Prigozhin. and Wagner, however, does not just deal with the government: it also has made deals with the rebels themselves to obtain illegally mined diamonds, cashing in on and likely exacerbating the conflict. Kimberley Marten, a scholar studying the Wagner Group, has suggested that Prigozhin may also use these connections and contracts to engage in money-laundering or other criminal activity like smuggling, with the full knowledge and support of the Kremlin.

It is quite possible, as the Russian government outsources more activities to PMCs, that it increasingly does so with cyber and information operations. For the PMCs, especially those with foreign government and foreign corporate clients, it is likely that market demands for these capabilitiesas part of protective services, military combat augmentation, or something elsewill drive them to increasingly develop or procure newer surveillance and cyber capabilities as well.

In operations less closely tied to Russian forces, PMCs may pursue or build on technical capabilities in a different manner, likely focusing on expanding their political warfare tool kit rather than combat adjacent capabilities. Security deployments to resource extraction sites are already profitable for the PMCs, but they also provide a wealth of strategic opportunities. PMCs in Africa, for instance, already conduct or work in tandem with Russian influence operations and the integration of additional technological capabilities may heighten their effects. More advanced capabilities, such as cyber intrusion, represent an opportunity for PMCs to add or strengthen the political warfare layer of their operations while reaping profit.

In Ukraine in 2014, soldiers without insignia, dubbed little green men, illegally invaded, attacked, and occupied territory, laying the path for a full-on Russian invasion of the country in 2022. This incursion into Crimea and the Donbas region of Ukraine leveraged a loose confederation of militia members and nonuniformed volunteers in mostly ancillary roles like diversion and sabotage. Ukraines Security Service accused the Wagner Group of assassinating Luhanskrebel leaders who disobeyed Russian orders. The conflict served, in many ways, as a proving ground for PMCs that would later deploy to other theaters like Syria and Libyawhere their combat and support roles would become far more substantial and integrated with the Russian military. And where Wagner would prove the more professional, capable, and better equipped.

PMCs like the Wagner Group perform military-style functions, engaging in armed combat, sometimes alongside the Russian military. In the fall of 2015, the Putin regime formally began its own intervention in Syria; by then, it had already sent hundreds of Wagner fighters into the country. Wagner forces have fought repeatedly in battles in Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assads regime, both in the course of providing protection services and, in at least one instance, while Wagner fighters stayed at a GRU base in the country. Former Wagner fighters have described the PMCs equipment in Syria as including mortars, howitzers, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers as well as man-portable surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank systems, and grenade launchersconventional military equipment for the battlefield. Wagner took part in training and equipping Syrian regime forces alongsidebut distinct fromuniformed Russian soldiers.

As part of these operations, Russian PMCs leverage a range of surveillance-, cyber-, and intelligence-related capabilitieswhich appear to be growing in number. RSB Group set up a cyber attachment in 2016 that was reportedly capable of both defensive and offensive activities. Russian PMCs in Syria have placed intelligence specialists on the front lines of armed combat to better direct Russian airstrikes and enable pro-regime ground maneuvers. Other PMC units recruit human intelligence sources, guide [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] platforms and systems, collect signals intelligence, and analyze intelligence and open-source information, according to a Center for Strategic & International Studies report (citing a presentation by Kiril Avramov, a nonresident fellow at the Intelligence Studies Project at University of Texas at Austin).

The widening adoption of surveillance and other technologies also poses a challenge to traditional PMC staffing and their own training, which may further pull companies in toward the Russian state. The classic pipeline for Russian service members to many PMCs begins in elite military units such as the VDV (abbreviation for Vozdushno-desantnye voyska, Russian Airborne Forces), Russian special forces, and various Spetsnaz formationsenabling them to serve a broad range of familiar functions, both embedded within and alongside Russian military forces. While these groups may provide a range of useful kinetic skills and small unit combat training, they are more likely to lead to specialized combat and maneuver skills like parachuting, covert insertion, and marksmanship rather than electronic warfare or cyber operations. The pipeline then for PMCs to support the acquisition and use of these technologies must look appreciably different, and source from new communities across the Russian armed forces.

In Syria, Wagner has also taken contracts to secure resource extraction, specifically oil and gas. However, the presence of Western forces in the many-front conflict has complicated the mission, and members of the group have engaged in direct combat with the intention of protecting and preserving oil and gas access for the Assad regime. Wagners presence in Syria is perhaps best known for a 2018 incident near a Conoco gas plant in the eastern part of the country. A pro-Assad group that included Wagner forces launched an attack on a US-supported Kurdish outpost where US soldiers were present, resulting in the death of hundreds of pro-Assad fighters. The Pentagon later reported that in the hours leading up to the assault, US officials were in contact with their Russian counterparts and alerted them to an impending counterattack, but that the Russian command asserted that there were no Russians present. There is no evidence of Russian attempts to warn or interdict the Wagner forces on the ground. In the aftermath, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that about five people who were presumably Russian citizens may have been killed. Yet, other reports pointed to substantial losses. Despite expectations that Wagner would lessen its presence in the region following the incident, companies linked to Prigozhin have gained contracts to develop and guard new oil and gas fields in Syria, including in the same region where the firefight with US forces took place. The additional contracts with the Assad regime followsin no small partthe fact that Wagner receives payment at least partially in oil and gas, enabling it to skirt sanctions and financial regulations with its profit.

Building on battlefield successes in both countries, Wagner emerged as Moscows premier PMC, as evidenced by Prigozhins appearance alongside Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu in deliberations with the LNA commander, Khalifa Haftar, in 2018. Reported tensions between Shoygus defense ministry and Wagner notwithstanding, by the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the integration of PMCsparticularly Wagnerin Russian military operations had matured significantly. The Digital Forensics Research Lab has monitored Wagner activity across Ukraine, including in Zaporizhzhia, Volodymyrivka, and Klynove. Wagner activities in Ukraine appear to be intertwined with the Russian military, including Spetsnaz special forces. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the Wagner Group was engaged in direct combat in Ukraine to reinforce front-line Russian military forces in the capture of Popasna and Lysyschansk. Wagner is seeing heavy casualties in combat, and increasingly, lost Wagner troops are being replaced with minimally qualified and trained recruits, including convicts. Indeed, Wagners experience in the comparatively permissive Syrian and Libyan theaters has proven insufficient to repeat their battlefield success, as they face far better trained and equipped Ukrainian forces.

To the extent plausible deniability was ever a motivation for the Kremlin to rely on PMCs, their notoriety since 2014Wagners in particularreveals an equally likely imperative: expendability. Contracted mercenaries simply require less accountability from the state, cost far less than training and outfitting conscripts, and entail fewer potential domestic constraints.

Moscow has long had to contend with the mothers of soldiers lost to war, and has a poor track record of transparency regarding conflict casualties. In Donbas earlier this year, Ukrainian officials allege that Russia deployed mobile crematoria to dispose of its fallen soldiers, rather than sending them home. The Kremlin was slow to acknowledge any casualties whatsoever, and the Defense Ministry has sought to classify the notification process for families. While he is unlikely to face substantial public backlash for the Russian militarys catastrophic performance in Ukraine, Putins continued insistence on characterizing the war as a special military operation, and his apparent reticence to call for a general mobilization to support it, signal some wariness of the wars political ramifications. Meanwhile, as the war in Ukraine looks to grind further on, the demand for expendable forces is likely to increase.

Against that backdrop, PMCs like Wagner are an attractive option because they shift at least some of the burden of war away from the stateparticularly as they cast combat operations as a commercial enterprise, versus a political one. As Putin stated in late 2018, We can ban the private security business altogether, but once we do that, I think you will get a lot of petitions to protect this labor market. As for their presence somewhere abroad, if, I repeat again, they do not violate Russian law, they have the right to work and push their business interests anywhere in the world.

Russian PMCs are also increasingly involved in conducting political warfare activities, ranging from subversive activities to assassination, reminiscent of the kinds of active measures that Soviet intelligence services deployed throughout the Cold War. In Syria in 2015, the Russian government spread propaganda prior to its involvement and used PMCs on the ground to augment its forces once in the country. In the Central African Republic in 2018, three Russian journalists who were investigating Wagners activities in Africa were killed, and while there is no conclusive documentation of the killer(s), the journalists driver that day was in contact with a police officer working with a member of the Wagner Group. Other reports describe PMCs as conducting political warfare activities such as kidnapping, sabotage, subversion, and blackmail. Moscow is increasingly placing cyber and information proxies overseas, to launch operations from within other countries and ostensibly to create deniabilitysuch as establishing Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) facilities in Ghana, Nigeria, and Mexico. In the Central African Republic, Prigozhins profit-seeking activities do not end with the Wagner Group. The oligarch has also built hospitals through his mining companies, created a Russian radio station with a wider reach than the state station, and created a childrens cartoon featuring a Russian bear saving its animal friends in Africa. Such activities exemplify the duality of PMCs role in expanding Russian influencepairing profit with propaganda.

Prigozhin, in addition to heading the Wagner Group, is also at least partially responsible for the activities of the IRA, better known within the United States as the Russian Troll Factory. The US government has both sanctioned and indicted Prigozhin and associated companies in connection with IRA support of the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Though this agency and the Wagner Group are not officially aligned, IRA activity has been uncovered in tandem with Wagner operations. A 2022 Twitter disclosure, for example, exposed a coordinated campaign within the Central African Republic of pro-Russian propaganda from both real and fake Twitter accounts linked to the IRA. In addition, Wagners activities in Mali appear closely buttressed by IRA efforts. In preparation for Wagners deployment to the country, a coordinated network of Facebook pages in Mali promoted Russia as a viable partner and alternative to the West, encouraged postponement of democratic elections, and attempted to create local support for Wagner. This disinformation machine also deployed earlier this year to deny and deflect responsibilities for massacres tied to the Wagner Group in Mali, such as those in Mourah and Gossi.

The fusion of several quasi-state models of digital subversion with the paramilitary prowess of Russian PMCs should also not be ruled out. One dimension of Russian PMCs acquiring these capabilities is the possibility that they might access existing public/private relationships established by organs of Russian intelligence or even the commercial market. The commercial development, sale, and support of offensive cyber capabilities and electronic surveillance services includes dozens of firms, some of whom have access to the latest security vulnerabilities and considerable technical design and development talent. With the addition of boutique cyber-surveillance tools, like those developed by commercial outfits like NSO Group and DarkMatter, to disruptive attacks-as-a-service brokered by ransomware collectives, like REvil, PMCs could vastly expand their clientele among global autocrats and oligarchsthus substantially enhancing their utility to the Kremlin. These latter companies could provide access to technologysystems and are well-positioned to provide PMCs with intelligence gathering and ongoing high-value target surveillance capacity across the world.

An alternative, especially in the case of offensive cyber capabilities, may be for these PMCs to partner with Russian private companies or state labs working as proxies for Russian military and intelligence organizations. In 2018, FireEye Intelligence pointed to Russias Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics as likely supporting the deployment of Triton, an operational technology-focused malware, and the US government later sanctioned the lab. The US government claims that a private Russian firm, Positive Technologieswhich the US Treasury identified as supporting the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and sanctionedcontinues to develop offensive cyber capabilities on behalf of the Russian government. Leveraging the capabilities of such organizations would prevent PMCs from needing to develop significant and costly new in-house talent or drawing the added scrutiny of Russian government authorities.

Major course corrections in Russias geopolitical trajectory seem unlikely so long as Putin remains in power, and the trajectory of Moscows war effort in Ukraine remains speculative at best. Importantly, the driving forces for Russian PMC involvement in locations like Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Mali, and the Central African Republic appear diverse. In some instances, PMCs act alongside or immediately in lieu of still uniformed Russian forces. In other cases, these firms appear to be operating with greater independence, often with clear profit motive.

Putins inner circle of oligarchs control and have interest in a wide range of industries, and often they and their close relatives are involved in various companies. These companies have several lines of revenue: thinly veiled authorized theft from the state, direct business revenue, and unofficially sanctioned criminal activity. In the oil and gas, entertainment, finance, and similar industries, this breakdown of oligarch profit is fairly straightforward. However, private military companies and those at their helm have a more complicated relationship with the workings of the Kremlin.

The involvement of Russian PMCs in extractive and more purely profit-seeking activities raises questions about how their incentive structure will change in the aftermath of the ongoing war in Ukraine and in the face of the adoption and employment of new technologies in conflict. These include:

These quasi-private military forces are a useful tool that Russia can deploy to manage risk, foment instability, and exploit geopolitical and economic opportunities around the world in advance of, in addition to, or instead of Russian state capabilities. These groups, often run by Russian oligarchs, are employed in a wide range of operations that support, sometimes directly and sometimes more opaquely, Russian strategic objectives. The Russian state benefits from having a nominally independent additional reserve that can project force in places where state-tied operations may carry additional riskfrom conflict zones where the states forces require additional support to areas of insecurity where PMCs can enrich themselves while projecting Russian power and influence abroad.

The technological capabilities that these companies develop may serve as an indication of Russian strategic priority and perhaps its points of perceived weakness in the years to come. The wide remit of operations under the PMC umbrella means that there exists a foundation for these companies to develop in myriad ways. A more combat-focused PMC, for example, will not pursue the same technologies as a PMC focused on political warfare in non-warfare zones. The unique position of Russian PMCsmotivated both by profit and policyexemplify the ongoing tension in Russias kleptocratic leadership and thus may be an effective way for the United States and its allies to understand Russian priorities and engage with them in a more persistent manner.

About the authors

Emma Schroeder is an assistant director with the Atlantic Councils Cyber Statecraft Initiative within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Her focus in this role is on developing statecraft and strategy for cyberspace that are useful for both policymakers and practitioners.

Gavin Wilde a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace and a nonresident fellow at Defense Priorities. He previously served as director for Russia, Baltic, and Caucasus affairs at the National Security Council, where his focus areas included election security and countering foreign malign influence and disinformation.

Justin Sherman is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Cyber Statecraft Initiative, where his workfocuses on the geopolitics, governance, and security of the global Internet. He is also a research fellow at the Tech, Law & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law, a fellow at Duke Universitys Sanford School of Public Policy, and a contributor at WIRED magazine.

Dr. Trey Herr is the director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative under the Scowcroft Center for Strategy andSecurity at the Atlantic Council. His team works on the role of the technology industry in geopolitics, cyber conflict, the security of the internet, cyber safety, and growing a more capable cybersecurity policy workforce.

Related Experts: Emma Schroeder, Justin Sherman, and Trey Herr

Image: "Moth (pt. 1)" by Mariah Jochai is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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Hackers, Hoodies, and Helmets: Technology and the Changing Face of Russian Private Military Contractors - Atlantic Council

Kmart and Bunnings have paused the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, amid an investigation from Australias privacy regulator.

Consumer group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart were using the technology which captures images of peoples faces from video cameras as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints in what the companies say is a move to protect customers and staff and reduce theft in select stores.

The two companies are now being investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over their use of the technology and whether it is consistent with privacy laws.

Bunnings managing director Mike Schneider confirmed an AFR report that the company had informed the OAIC that Bunnings had stopped using the technology.

Schneider accused Choice of mischaracterising the issue, stating that the technology was used only to detect when a person who has been banned from Bunnings stores enters a store.

When we have customers berate our team, pull weapons, spit, or throw punches we ban them from our stores. But a ban isnt effective if its hard to enforce, he said.

Facial recognition gives us a chance to identify when a banned person enters a store so we can support our team to handle the situation before it escalates.

Schneider said regular customers did not have their images retained in the system. The technology, however, needs to scan the face of every customer entering the store to check against the database of banned customers.

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The technology was already temporarily switched off in Bunnings stores as the company moves to a new system.

A spokesperson for Kmart also confirmed it had also ceased using the technology.

We have temporarily stopped the use of this technology in our small number of trial stores given the commencement of the OAIC investigation, the spokesperson said.

Kmart believes the use of the technology for preventing criminal activity such as refund fraud is appropriate and subject to strict controls, the spokesperson said.

Choices consumer data advocate, Kate Bower, welcomed the decisions but said the technology should be stopped permanently.

Choice eagerly awaits the information commissioners decision on whether Kmart and Bunnings have breached the Privacy Act in their use of facial recognition technology. This will be a landmark decision that will guide the use of controversial facial recognition technology in Australia.

It comes as 17 retail chains have told Choice this week they dont use the technology in their stores, and have no plans to introduce it. Those retailers include Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Target, Big W, Myer, David Jones, Dan Murphys, BWS, Vintage Cellars, Liquorland, Rebel and Officeworks.

The Good Guys earlier paused its use of the technology after preliminary inquiries from the OAIC and said at the time: The Good Guys take the confidentiality of personal information extremely seriously and remains confident that the trial complied with all applicable laws.

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Bunnings and Kmart halt use of facial recognition technology in stores as privacy watchdog investigates - The Guardian

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You're asked about the biggest cybersecurity threats faced by business which ones spring to mind first?

Maybe it's relentlessransomwareattacks, with cyber criminals encrypting networks and demanding vast sums for a decryption key even from hospitals. Or maybe it's a sneaky malware attack, which lets hackers hide inside the network for months on end, stealing everything from usernames and passwords to bank details.

Both of these are on the list, for sure. These are awful attacks to experience and can cause terrible damage. But there's another much simpler form of cyber crime that makes scammers the most money by far and doesn't get much attention.

The scale of business email compromise (BEC) attacks is clear: according to the FBI, the combined total lost to BEC attacks is $43 billion and counting, with attacks reported in at least 177 countries.

SEE:The next big security threat is staring us in the face. Tackling it is going to be tough

What makes BEC such a rich opportunity for scammers is there's rarely a need to be a highly skilled hacker. All someone really needs is a laptop, an internet connection, a bit of patience and some nefarious intent.

At the most basic level, all scammers need to do is find out who the boss of a company is and set up a spoofed, fake email address. From here, they send a request to an employee saying they need a financial transaction to be carried out quickly and quietly.

It's a very basic social-engineering attack, but often, it works. An employee keen to do as their boss demands could be quick to approve the transfer, which could be tens of thousands of dollars or more particularly if they think they'll be chastised for delaying an important transaction.

In more advanced cases, the attackers will break into the email of a colleague, your boss or a client and use their actual email address to request a transfer. Not only are staff more inclined to believe something that really does come from the account of someone they know, scammers can watch inboxes, wait for a real financial transaction to be requested, then send an email from the hacked account that contains their own bank details.

By the time the victim realises something is wrong, the scammers have made off with the money and are long gone.

What's most challenging about BEC attacks is that while it's a cyber crime that is based around abusing technology, there's actually very little that technology or software can do to help stop attacks because it's fundamentally a human issue.

Anti-virus software and a good email spam filter can prevent emails containing malicious links or malware from arriving in your inbox. But if a legitimate hacked account is being used to send out requests to victims using messages in emails, that's a problem because as far as the software is concerned, there's nothing nefarious to detect, and it's just another email from your boss or your colleague.

And the money isn't stolen by clicking a link or using malware to drain an account it's transferred by the victim to an account they've been told is legitimate. No wonder it's so hard for people to realise they're making a mistake.

SEE: Brazen crooks are now posing as cybersecurity companies to trick you into installing malware

But victim blaming isn't the answer and isn't going to help if anything, it will make the problem worse.

What's important in the battle against BEC attacks is ensuring that people understand what these attacks are and to have processes in place that can prevent money being transferred.

It should be explained that it's very unlikely that your boss will email you out of the blue asking for a very urgent transfer to be made with no questions asked. And if you do have concerns, ask a colleague or even talk to your boss to ask if the request is legitimate or not. It might seem counterintuitive, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Businesses should also have procedures in place around financial transactions, particularly large ones. Should a single employee be able to authorise a business transaction valued at tens of thousands of dollars? Probably not.

Businesses should ensure multiple people have to approve the process yes, it might mean transferring finances takes a little longer, but it will help ensure that money isn't being sent to scammers and cyber criminals. That business deal can wait a few more minutes.

Technology can help to a certain extent, but the reality is these attacks exploit human nature.

ZDNet's Monday Opener is our opening take on the week in tech, written by members of our editorial team.

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Your biggest cyber-crime threat has almost nothing to do with technology - ZDNet

Limeade Appoints Global Software, Technology, and Finance Executive Lisa Nelson to its Board of Directors

"We are delighted to welcome Lisa to the Limeade Board of Directors," says Henry Albrecht, CEO of Limeade. "Lisa has an outstanding track-record, matched by her passion for driving growth, accelerating the digital transformation of work, and managing risk. Lisa's extensive experience will be a tremendous asset as we continue to pioneer well-being and listening as essential to positive employee experiences across industries and geographies."

"Well-being at work is now a baseline expectation of employees," said Lisa Nelson. "Limeade is a true frontrunner in this industry and continues to pave the path forward. I look forward to partnering with Limeade to transform work into a source of positivity, energy, and purpose worldwide."

Nelson currently serves as board director at Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR), Seattle Bank, and DNA Seattle. She brings over 25 years of executive leadership excellence in the software, technology, and financial services sectors. Her experience includes various executive roles at Microsoft, including Co-Founder and Managing Director at M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, and Chief Operating Officer, Global Business Development, as well as roles at Willis Towers Watson in London and Ernst & Young in Australia. Nelson holds a Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration from the University of Washington.

For more information about Limeade, visit http://www.Limeade.com

About Limeade

Limeade is an immersive employee well-being company that creates healthy employee experiences. Limeade Institute science guides its industry-leading software and its own award-winning culture. Today, millions of users in over 100 countries use Limeade solutions to navigate the future of work. By putting well-being at the heart of the employee experience, Limeade reduces burnout and turnover while increasing well-being and engagement ultimately elevating business performance. To learn more, visit http://www.limeade.com(ASX listing: LME).

SOURCE Limeade

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Limeade Appoints Global Software, Technology, and Finance Executive Lisa Nelson to its Board of Directors - PR Newswire