An international team of researchers has, for the first time, demonstrated that by fixing a common glitch in photosynthesis, a crop’s yield could be improved by around 40 percent. The landmark study suggests optimizing a plant’s photosynthetic efficiency could significantly increase worldwide food productivity.
Just like last year, this year’s 60 predictions reveal the state-of-mind of key participants in the cybersecurity industry (on the defense team, of course) and cover all that’s hot today. Topics include the use and misuse of data; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as a double-edge sword helping both attackers and defenders; whether we are going to finally “get over privacy” or see our data finally being treated as a private and protected asset; how the cloud changes everything and how connected and moving devices add numerous security risks; the emerging global cyber war conducted by terrorists, criminals, and countries; and the changing skills and landscape of cybersecurity.
https://paper.li/e-1437691924#/
A team of researchers from Austria, Italy and Sweden has successfully demonstrated teleportation using on-demand photons from quantum dots. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group explains how they accomplished this feat and how it applies to future quantum communications networks.
Scientists and many others are very interested in developing truly quantum communications networks—it is believed that such networks will be safe from hacking or eavesdropping due to their very nature. But, as the researchers with this new effort point out, there are still some problems standing in the way. One of these is the difficulty in amplifying quantum signals. One way to get around this problem, they note, is to generate photons on-demand as part of a quantum repeater—this helps to effectively handle the high clock rates. In this new effort, they have done just that, using semiconductor quantum dots.
Prior work surrounding the possibility of using semiconductor quantum dots has shown that it is a feasible way to demonstrate teleportation, but only under certain conditions, none of which allowed for on-demand applications. Because of that, they have not been considered a push-button technology. In this new effort, the researchers overcame this problem by creating quantum dots that were highly symmetrical using an etching method to create the hole pairs in which the quantum dots develop. The process they used was called a XX (biexciton)–X (exciton) cascade. They then employed a dual-pulsed excitation scheme to populate the desired XX state (after two pairs shed photons, they retained their entanglement). Doing so allowed for the production of on-demand single photons suitable for use in teleportation. The dual pulsed excitation scheme was critical to the process, the team notes, because it minimized re-excitation.
“We’re sorry this happened,” Facebook said in a statement after disclosing yet another privacy failing.
Facebook said on Friday in a developer-focused blog post that it had discovered a nasty bug in its photo software.
The bug allowed authorized app programmers to access photos that people had uploaded to Facebook but not publicly shared, as well as those posted on Facebook’s Marketplace software or Facebook Stories, the post said.
There are several cases in which someone might have uploaded a photo but didn’t share it, Facebook explained.
Recent studies show that 1 out of every 100 emails sent globally has malicious intent.
This is one of the many statistics that illustrate the rise in hacking and phishing. The subject of phishing, in particular, has played big roles and some of the largest data breaches recently.
An example of this would be the 2014 Sony Pictures breach perpetrated is to be believed by North Korea per the US Department of Justice. in this instance, it only took one email being opened by an employee to provide malicious actors a way to take control of Sony’s network.
A common thing we see among phishing attacks is impersonating an actual employee inside of the business. Some Phishing messages have even been reported as coming from the CEO of the company and play off of existing relationships to convince the victim to part with confidential information.
Phishing attacks don’t just happen on traditional computers but also mobile devices as well.
Even more modern security measures such as two-factor authentication can also be targeted by phishing. The hackers of today are able to create fake login pages to get the information of a target and then use that information to access the actual website.
The promise of quantum computing brings with it some mind-blowing potential, but it also carries a new set of risks, scientists are warning.
Specifically, the enormous power of the tech could be used to crack the best cyber security we currently have in place.
A new report on the “progress and prospects” of quantum computing put together by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in the US says that work should start now on putting together algorithms to beat the bad guys.
Not cool, China.
(Reuters) — Hackers behind a massive breach at hotel group Marriott International left clues suggesting they were working for a Chinese government intelligence gathering operation, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Marriott said last week that a hack that began four years ago had exposed the records of up to 500 million customers in its Starwood hotels reservation system.
Private investigators looking into the breach have found hacking tools, techniques and procedures previously used in attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, said three sources who were not authorized to discuss the company’s private probe into the attack.
If you’re paranoid about your cyber security, you may not be so crazy after all.
The cybersecurity industry is experiencing a growth that is almost unparalleled across any other industry even taking into account historical figures. Some people say that the growth in the need of cybersecurity is going to create the biggest wealth transfer we have seen in our lifetime.
With every aspect of our life being fine-tuned with the use of data, making sure that data is secure is becoming a top priority around the globe. This is being reflected in the massive growth of the cybersecurity industry and the massive demand for individuals who have been trained to keep data safe.
The Growth of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is the fastest growing technology sector out there. And with cybercrime at an all-time high, the cybersecurity niche is set for massive growth over the next 5 years.
The amount of money that individuals and businesses spend on cybersecurity is growing and is expected to be over $1 trillion cumulatively over the next five years, from 2017 to 2021.
Cybercrime and security breaches are continuing to cost businesses and individuals more and more money. The amount of damage done is expected to be $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015 according to Robert Herjavec, the founder and CEO of Herjavec Group, a Managed Security Services Provider.
There is an expectation that there will be 1.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2019, a huge increase from just 1 million in 2016. By 2019, the demand is expected to increase to somewhere around 6 million globally according to Cybersecurity Ventures.