Monthly Archives: April 2020

How Technology Has Already Begun Using Your Biometric Data And Why its Trustworthy

No one denies that something needs to be done to protect our online data. From January to March of 2019, over 1.9 billion records have been exposed. While businesses were the most commonly hacked, educational and medical institutions were also victims of fraudsters.

Besides including sensitive medical information, the stolen data included names, passwords, addresses, and credit card numbers. Those wanting to wreak havoc on your accounts had plenty of information available to let them succeed.

Three years ago, it was estimated that one in 15 people would be a victim to identity theft. Of course, this is expected to increase.

What can be done to curtail this growth of online fraud? Some companies, institutions, and agencies are turning to biometric authentication to identify people. Over the last several years, companies have been scrambling to improve the technology behind biometric authentication. We are now at the point where such authentication can be trusted.

First, lets discuss the types of biometric authentication. Then, lets discuss why this type of security can be trusted, even with the most sensitive of information. Finally, we will explain how companies are turning to biometric authentication to allow online users to open accounts.

Biometric identification can include a whole host of technologies. It can consist of iris or fingerprint scans that we have seen on James Bond movies for decades. But it can also voice recognition and facial recognition software similar to what is used on iPhones. As technology improves, such forms of identification become more sophisticated.

If you are a sci-fi fan, you may have concerns regarding biometric identification. You may think of those novels you read in high school English class where the government gained control of all aspects of life and was not to be trusted. Perhaps, in part, because of these works of fiction, users still struggle with trusting this type of technology.

The reality is that we cant afford not to trust biometric identification. As technology advances, it is becoming clear that biometrics are safer than the old system of log-ins and passwords.

We say that biometric identification is a safer alternative, but caution must be given. Companies need to be able to share how this data is stored. They also need to be able to communicate what it is used for, so people can make informed decisions. This educational process is necessary anytime new technology is initiated.

For example, some fingerprint scanning software may not store all of the data points of the fingerprint. This means that even if that fingerprint data is somehow breached, the criminal would not be able to replicate the print for nefarious intent.

Other times, biometric information is only stored on the owners device. Think about how the facial recognition on your iPhone works. Apple does not save a scan of your face. It is only used to unlock your phone and its apps.

To return to our first point, we must learn to trust biometric data. Traditional logins and passwords have not proven effective. They are discovered by criminal elements sometimes because of a users error, but more often than not, even careful users may become victim to such data breaches.

We never know when a worldwide global pandemic will alter the way companies have to do business. More than ever before, companies must have a secure online presence in order to serve their customers. How can companies promise that they will be careful with their customers data when we have all been victims in the past?

One way that companies can better serve their customers is by using biometric data to make sure they know who their customer is.

To open an account, the customer must submit a quality scan of a government-issued photo ID. This photo will be compared with a database of thousands of IDs to see whether any red-flags appear on the validity of the document.

Next, the customer must take a selfie and submit it to the company. Technology is in place to ensure that the selfie is that of a live person and not of a photograph of a person. Facial recognition software scans the persons face to make sure it matches the image on the ID.

After the company is confident that the customer is who she says she is, they can then continue with whatever background and credit checks they deem necessary for their industry. The company wins because they have found a new client. The client wins because they know they are working with a company that values online security.

Like working with any technology, it is ever-evolving. Policies are written and rewritten to change with the times. It should be considered a work in progress.

Even though customers may still find a way to open accounts in other peoples names, no matter if biometric identification is used or not, we have still come a long way to improve digital security.

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How Technology Has Already Begun Using Your Biometric Data - And Why it's Trustworthy - Analytics Insight

Friday, April 10, 2020

GoLocalProv News Team

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Governor Gina Raimondo

Unemployment claim filings are hitting record highs nationally, and in Rhode Island, the latest numbers show that more than 175,000 in Rhode Island are out of work.

That outdated system is slowing down the processing of claims and delaying payments to out of work Rhode Islanders.

Rhode Islanders are filing more claims in a day than the state has ever received in a month -- Rhode Islands technology is obsolete, using what is termed obscure COBOL computer language ,which was developed in 1959.

Wanted urgently: People who know a half-century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims, wrote CNN on Thursday.

Obsolete 1950s computer code is causing unemployment chaos amid huge lines: Appeal for retired programmers who know obscure COBOL language to fix outdated computer system in states across U.S, reported the Daily Mail, who wrote that officials in New Jersey,Kansas,Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Mississippi, and Oklahomahave "all admitted struggling to [process] growing applications."

Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training spokesperson Angelika Pellegrino told GoLocal on Thursday,Rhode Islands system does currently require programmers with COBOL proficiency,"

"We currently have 4 COBOL programmers, and are looking to increase capacity," she added.

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Grace Hopper, PHOTO: USN

According to Wikipedia:

COBOL was designed in 1959 byCODASYLand was partly based on previous programming language design work byGrace Hopper, commonly referred to as "the (grand)mother of COBOL." It was created as part of aUS Department of Defenseeffort to create aportableprogramming language for data processing.

It was originally seen as a stopgap, but the Department of Defense promptly forced computer manufacturers to provide it, resulting in its widespread adoption

2018 Flood Nearly Destroyed DLT's Tech Infrastructure

For years DLT officials knew their system was decades outdated, non-scalable and failed to have basic backup.

While the state continues to upgrade its IT systems to modern, cloud-based environments over time, there are numerous legacy systems that still exist. The Department of Labor & Training IT system is one of those legacy systems. We continue to evaluate all options for hosting, management and disaster recovery to ensure cost-efficient, safe and secure protection of the states data," Brenna McCabe of the Raimondo administration told GoLocal in 2018.

The disclosure unveiled that Rhode Island has been operating an outdated and highly vulnerable technology infrastructure in many agencies.

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1981 PC, PHOTO: Brandon Ziga Cortez

As GoLocal reported in 2018:

Flooding from the overnight storm has put key customer-facing websites including the Teleserve system that provides telephone and Internet access to Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims temporarily offline," the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT).

"Rainwater seeped into DLTs data center at 1511 Pontiac Avenue in Cranston, powering off computer systems automatically. The state Department of Administration is working with DLT to assess the full impact and restore power as soon as possible, said the agency.

According to multiple sources, DLT officials were panicked that critical data was lost. The backup protocols are outdated and incomplete.

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Rhode Island's 1950s Technology is Slowing Processing and Payment of Unemployment Claims - GoLocalProv

WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $38 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, Submarine Hydrokinetic And Riverine Kilo-megawatt Systems (SHARKS). The program seeks to design economically attractive Hydrokinetic Turbines (HKT) for tidal and riverine currents.

Americas tidal and riverine currents remain a valuable resource for the generation of clean and reliable electricity, said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. Developing efficient, economically attractive hydrokinetic turbine technologies will enable the United States to utilize those resources and continue to diversify our energy generation infrastructure and increase grid resiliency.

The SHARKS program builds upon the foundation of previous ARPA-E programs focused on utilizing our nations natural resources to explore new ways to generate renewable power, said ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski. We view this program as a great opportunity to further diversify Americas energy needs, and provide new and efficient energy generation sources for the nations grid.

Tidal and riverine energy resources are renewable, have the advantage of being highly reliable and predictable, and are often co-located with demand centers, while HKT devices can be designed with low visual profiles and minimal environmental impact. These energy-producing devices are also uniquely suited for micro-grid applications, supplying energy to remote communities and other blue economy and utility-scale applications.

The SHARKS program will develop HKT system designs while encouraging the application of Control Co-Design (CCD), Co-Design (CD) and Designing-for-OpEx (DFO) methodologies. These approaches require a wide range of disciplines to work concurrently during the concept design stage, as opposed to sequentially, and teams will require expertise from various scientific and engineering fields to optimize simultaneously. SHARKS will fund the development of new HKT designs that represent this challenge; including the development of new solutions for hydrodynamics, mechanical structures, materials, hydro-structural interactions, electrical energy conversion systems, control systems, numerical simulations and experimental validations. SHARKS projects will work towards a reduction in Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of up to 61.5% compared to current state-of-the-art HKT systems.

For more information on ARPA-Es SHARKS program, click here. To apply for funding, visit ARPA-E eXCHANGE here.

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Department of Energy Announces $38 Million to Support Hydrokinetic Turbine Technology Development - Energy.gov

During the last week of February, as it was becoming clear that a novel coronavirus was spreading quickly around the world, University officials started preparing a contingency plan for the remainder of the semester that involved evacuation and turning Harvard into a virtual campus, one that could run without students, faculty, and staff on University grounds.

The whole scenario was unprecedented. There was no playbook for how to move approximately 5,000 classes online and keep the Universitys operations running remotely without interruption. Anne Margulies, University chief information officer and head of the Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT), would be facing one of most complex, difficult challenges of her career.

After the Universitys decision on March 10 to send students home for the remainder of the semester and later to close down the rest of campus, HUIT staff worked feverishly to execute the plans key steps. It was no small feat.

We were planning with a lot of things changing rapidly and without knowing exactly what our target was, said Margulies of the first few days in the process. Rapid planning amid so much uncertainty was one of the hardest things I had to do.

As difficult as it was, that the University had experience with online learning helped. The Extension School had been offering online courses since 1997, and the free online learning initiative HarvardX launched the first of its Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in 2012. In addition, recent IT investments within the University, from improving information security to moving some systems to the cloud to implementing the learning management system Canvas at every School, played a major role in the shift.

Still, the task was daunting. Harvard has more than 36,000 undergrads, graduate students, and fellows, along with 18,000 employees, including faculty and staff.

The first week that Harvard went online went as smoothly as we could have hoped for. We felt genuinely relieved.

Anne Margulies

HUITs strategy consisted of three steps: increase the Universitys IT infrastructure; prepare training resources; and set up contingency plans and all of it had to be executed within two weeks. To ensure that the business of the University would proceed seamlessly, HUIT staff quadrupled the virtual private network (VPN), rolled out the instant-messaging platform Slack to give faculty, staff, and students an additional way to communicate with each other in real time, and secured with vendors the continuity of services. To sustain thousands of classes and meetings, the University scaled up its capacity on the online-meeting service Zoom, as well its service desk systems. To help the community make the online shift, HUIT trained 600 people in Zoom, and, with the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, created online training resources for students, faculty, and staff and posted them on the site Teach Remotely. The Extension School also helped produce training material.

Bharat Anand, vice provost for advances in learning, said the work has been a collective effort: Each School set up its own command-and-control center, but they leaned on each other for ideas and shared best practices on technology and pedagogical resources.

Its been Harvard indeed, One Harvard at its best, not just in terms of communication and coordination, but also in the level of skill, resourcefulness, and generosity, said Anand, who is also the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Faculty are leaning into the technology rather than simply living with it. The learning curve around Zoom has been steep. Student attendance rates and engagement are high, and perhaps most interesting, faculty members are discovering and sharing new pedagogical approaches that leverage technology.

A key aspect of the process was to integrate Zoom into Canvas to ensure that all classes could move online, said Margulies. Students and professors were already using Canvas to post things like calendars, grade books, assignments, and course materials, and to even host chats and discussions. March 23, the first day of online learning, was called Super Bowl Day, and HUIT staff were at the ready to offer real-time support, but they were unsure of what might happen.

Harvard wasnt the only school that was going fully online. said Margulies. There were many major employers and universities making the same shift at the same time Harvard was. People were understandably concerned that the whole internet was going to break up or that the Zoom platform couldnt possibly support the load. There were big unknowns.

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Harvard University Information Technology helps shift to online - Harvard Gazette

SAN DIEGO, April 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Trac Solutions, Inc. (OTCPink: PSYC) (Global or the Company) is announcing that they have terminated the MOU and rescinded their offer to acquire World Innovation Technologies, LLC. (WIT).

From a capitalization perspective, once we took a deep look at the business, it wasnt justifiable for our business model. We are very impressed with their technology and product offerings but believe a better avenue will be to explore potential business initiative partnerships and synergies outside of an acquisition. While this is regrettable, I am convinced it is in the long-term best interests of the Company, said Vanessa Luna, CEO.

About Global Trac Solutions, Inc.(OTC Pink:PSYC)

Global Trac Solutions is a diversified holding company dedicated to identifying new and emerging technologies specific to a variety of industry verticals ranging from Branding and Marketing, Fintech, Business Development, Sales and Distribution, High-Risk, Nutraceuticals, and more. We focus and leverage our teams diverse experience to effectively execute go-to-market strategies in order to position the companies we engage with for rapid growth and a structure to enhance profitability potential. We believe in a forward-thinking approach that embraces groundbreaking new technology and innovations while providing our partners with the infrastructure and vision necessary to evolve into the industry leaders of the future. We truly are the right TRAC to follow.

Formerly, Global Payout Inc. (GOHE): From 2014-2019 Global was focused on the payments and financial industry sectors with an emphasis in high-risk.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release should be considered in light of all filings of the Company that are disclosed on the OTC Markets.com website.

Corporate Contact:

Global Trac Solutions, Inc.www.globaltracsolutions.com (619) 925-3202info@globaltracsolutions.com

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Global Terminates MOU with World Innovation Technologies Other OTC:PSYC - GlobeNewswire

A Cheetah sprints across a black background illustrating the concept of speed.

Research in animal communications conjures up images of Jane Goodall studying the great apes in Tanzania. Indeed, a great deal of research in the field is on higher level functions such as social interactions, animal cognition, or even emotional life. However, underneath all the higher level functions, there is a much more basic elemental aspect of intelligence consisting of simply surviving in the physical world. This capability seems to be so innate that there is little research on its basic functionality. What are the key characteristics of this capability ?

First, there is a large class of intelligence which is connected to perception of the physical future behaviour of other actors in the environment. Key ideas include:

Second, there is a basic calculation of physics. No, animals are not solving Newtons equations of motion. However, animals innately maintain balance, calculate interception trajectories, and manage the potential for threats to physically harm them.

Third, animals maintain a basic virtual mental model of their surrounding environment, and this model seems to generate an expectation which drives perception. The difference between perception and expectation combined with absolute distance seems to be central concept to drive behavior. For example, a surprise awareness of an unknown object in close proximity drives a highly visceral response.

With this range of perception, mental modeling and non-verbal cross species communication, animals do threat assessment(Autonomous Technology Term), and path planning(Autonomous Technology Term). Of course, humans have exactly the same capabilities in the lower levels of the human brain. Something like the Ellen Scares Guests video effectively demonstrates this principle.

What does all of this have to do with Autonomous Vehicles in a well regulated transportation network ?

Research on all the accidents to date with AVs has shown that the vast majority of them are caused by humans hitting AVs in low-speed rear-end collisions. Why do humans hit AVs at a higher rate than other humans ? It appears the answer is a miscalculation of the AVs future behaviour.

It is the nature of human beings to anthropomorphize and we also do so with automobiles. Humans interpret the micro-breaking, micro-accelerations, drift in the lane, and other factors in our own threat assessment of the situation. All of these nonverbal movements are a source of active communications for human beings. In addition, layered on top of this interpretation is more explicit non-verbal communication through eye-contact or hand gestures. Overall, this creates a non-verbal language-of-driving which effectively makes the whole cooperative transportation system work.

When autonomous vehicles do not participate in this communication, they create a danger to the overall system. AV researchers are just starting to look at aspects of this problem with a focus on the near term problems such as interpreting the potential movements of pedestrians at intersections. However, the fundamentals seem to be much deeper and broader. To be effective, it is likely that AVs will have to be able to interpret a broader language and this analysis may well have to extend to the behaviour of animals (deer, cats, dogs, etc) as well.After all, they share the road in residential settings. Note, this language-of-driving may well have regional dialects. The language of a Boston and Cincinnati driver has some variation.

"The primary and under appreciated challengein the application of autonomy is understanding & exploiting human/machine teaming, says Ken Ford, CEO of the Institute for Human Machine Cognition (IHMC).

With the world of Natural Language Processing (Alexa, etc), researchers have built a reasonable understanding for spoken and written language. However, this much more basic form of communication and perception is just at its beginning stages of understanding.

It seems the capability is so innate that we didnt know we did it, until we had to recreate it in autonomous systems.

Note: There is a companion article How Safe Is Safe For An AV ? The Answer (Expectation And Communication) which maybe of interest to the reader.

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Is Progress In Autonomous Technology Gated By Research In Animal Communication? - Forbes

A cutting-edge ventilator, backed by the family of Stephen Hawking, is due to be trialled in the fight against coronavirus.

The new model, named Exovent, is a reinvention of the 'iron lung, a Negative Pressure Ventilator which saved the lives ofthousands of polio victims inthe 20th century.

While traditional ventilators require patients to be sedated and sometimes paralysed, Exoventis non-invasive and can be used on a normal ward, reducing the strain on intensive care units.

The device also allowspatients to remain conscious during treatment and it is not reliant on oxygen - which has become a precious resource for hospitals treating large numbers of coronavirus patients.

The collaborative task force behind the technology is made up of Cambridge-based engineers, Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, the Warwick Manufacturing Group alongside the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear hospital and Imperial NHS Trust.

Representatives from the Exovent task force told the Telegraph that the technology is at the "detailed planning stage of development", and that the task force is"currently in talks with NHS teams to expand the use of the technology on patients hospitalised with coronavirus."

In the first instance, the device will be trialled at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, in collaboration with teams from other centres.

According to Dr Malcolm Coulthard, a paediatrician at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary who isworking with the taskforce, once trials are completed the technology could be swiftly rolled out across the UK.

He said: Once the trials are undertaken, it is a quick and easy product for manufacturers to produce, it is a fairly robust product with few moving parts, it is something that can be quickly rolled out

The actual prototypes that will be used in patients are still being built at the moment by Marshall Aerospace and Defence. We are hoping that that product will be ready for us to test in patients with Covid-19 disease in about 2 weeks time.

The team hasestimated that 5,000 unitscould be produced each week.

Patrick Wood, Chief Technical Officer for Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group said: This is one of a number of projects we are involved in following the governments call to industry for support in the battle against Covid-19 and we are incredibly proud that our engineering talent is being put to such important use.

The Exoventtechnology has also been backed by the family of Stephen Hawking. In a statement the family said: As the family of a ventilated man, we know the life and death difference that access to this kind of medical technology makes.

The Covid-19 epidemic has caused worldwide demand for ventilators to vastly outstrip supply.

We are so proud to support the technological and manufacturing innovation involved in producing low cost, effective ventilators swiftly and in large numbers and hope the combined efforts of everyone who has answered this call will mean the NHS receives the equipment it needs to save lives at this terrible time.

However, as the product remains in its testing stage, there are no immediate plans by the government to introduce the device within hospitals.

A government spokesman from the Department of Health and Social Care said: We are leading a coordinated effort to rapidly increase ventilator capacity and ensure these vital pieces of equipment are delivered to the frontline, and currently have 10,000 mechanical ventilators available to NHS patients.

Safety of those who need this vital equipment is our absolute priority and new orders are all dependent on machines passing regulatory tests to ensure they meet the necessary safety and regulatory standards.

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'Iron lung' backed by Stephen Hawking's family to be trialled on Covid-19 patients - Telegraph.co.uk

Etihad Airways has partnered with Elenium Automation, an Australian company, to trial technology which allows self-service devices at airports to be used to help identify travellers with symptoms of illness.

Etihad will be the first airline to trial the technology, which can monitor the temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate of any person using an airport touchpoint such as a check-in or information kiosk, a bag drop facility, a security point or immigration gate.

The Elenium system will automatically suspend the self-service check-in or bag drop process if a passengers vital signs indicate potential symptoms of illness, such as a very high temperature. It will then divert to a teleconference or alert qualified staff on site, who can make further assessments.

Etihad will trial the monitoring technology at its hub airport in Abu Dhabi at the end of April and throughout May 2020, initially with a range of volunteers, and, as flights resume, outbound passengers.

Jorg Oppermann, Vice President Hub and Midfield Operations, Etihad Airways, said, This technology is not designed or intended to diagnose medical conditions. It is an early warning indicator which will help to identify people with general symptoms, so that they can be further assessed by medical experts, potentially preventing the spread of some conditions to others preparing to board flights to multiple destinations. It has long been the case that aircraft, with their highly sophisticated air-recycling systems and standards of hygiene are not the transmission vehicle for illnesses.

"We are testing this technology because we believe it will not only help in the current COVID19 outbreak, but also into the future, with assessing a passengers suitability to travel and thus minimising disruptions. At Etihad we see this is another step towards ensuring that future viral outbreaks do not have the same devastating effect on the global aviation industry as is currently the case.

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Etihad to trial technology designed to identify passengers with symptoms of illness - Japan Today