Monthly Archives: August 2020

How We Could Wind Up Banned From Discussing An October Surprise On Social Media This Election – Scoop.co.nz

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In what it calls an effort to make itself "a morereliable source for election-related news and information,"YouTube hasannounced that it will be removing "content thatcontains hacked information, the disclosure of which mayinterfere with democratic processes, such as elections andcensuses."

"For example, videos that contain hackedinformation about a political candidate shared with theintent to interfere in an election," adds the Google-ownedvideo sharingplatform.

IMPORTANT

YOUTUBEjust quietly announced they'll REMOVE "videos that containhacked information about a political candidate with theintent to interfere in an election" https://t.co/vum1y5c9ER

Rememberhow Wikileaks changed the game in 2016? Yeah, that's notallowed anymore. pic.twitter.com/dzt7WsOHKe

Memelord (@dailydigger19) August13, 2020

This by itself is analarming assault on human communication and press freedom.If there is authentic information out there about either ofthe candidates who are up for the most powerful electedposition on the planet, the world is entitled to know aboutit, regardless of how that information was acquired.Monopolistic tech oligarchs have no business barring us fromlearning about and discussing thatinformation.

Immensely powerful people should not bepermitted to have secrets from the public anyway. The amountof power one has should be directly inverse to the amount ofsecrecy they are permitted to have. If you're anywhere nearthe presidency of the United States of America, the secrecyyou are entitled to should be zero.

If a hacker isable to get a hold of accurate information about DonaldTrump or Joe Biden, that information is ours. We're entitledto it. Anyone who tries to obstruct our access to thatinformation is stealing from us. It's absolutely ridiculousthat we have a society where people are permitted to bothrule over us and keep secrets from us as it is without government-alignedtech plutocrats silencing our attempts to learn what thosesecrets might be.

Moreover, no YouTube moderator willbe in any position to definitively say whether mostinformation that comes out is hacked. They'd only be able todo what the mass media did with the 2016 WikiLeaks drops andcite unproven assertions by opaque intelligence agencies whohave a proven track record of lying, assertions which turnedout to be far more dubious than most Americans realize.Documents or video could be leaked about a candidate and USintelligence agencies could just declare it a "hack" andhave any YouTube videos about it immediatelycensored.

As Alan MacLeod explainsfor MintPress News:

"[T]hegreat majority of leaked information the lifeblood ofinvestigative journalism is anonymous. Often, like inthe cases of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning or RealityWinner, whistleblowers face serious consequences if theirnames become attached to documents exposing government orcorporate malfeasance. But without a name to go with adocument, the difference between leaked data and hacked datais impossible to define. Thus, powerful people andorganizations could claim data was hacked, rather thanleaked, and simply block all discussion of the matter on theplatform."

'Discussionof Wikileaks or any Hacked Information Banned UnderNew YouTube Rules' | @AlanRMacLeodfor @MintPressNewshttps://t.co/IXt8oFImPy

Courage Foundation (@couragefound) August14, 2020

So this in and of itselfis an outrage. But the way things are playing out it couldwind up being a lot worse if damning information about acandidate surfaces prior to the November election.

Wealready know from experience that social media giants tendto follow in each other's footsteps whenever there's asignificant step in the direction of censorship, like theircoordinated cross-platform removals of alternativemedia outlets, accountsfrom US-targeted nations, and peoplewho have been labeled "conspiracytheorists".

So there's already reason to beconcerned that YouTube's new attack on press freedoms willspread to social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.Add in the fact that these platforms are openly coordinatingwith each other and with the US government to silence speechdeemed "online meddling" and "election interference" and itlooks a lot more likely.

The New York Times published an article onWednesday titled "Google, Facebook and Others Form TechCoalition to Secure U.S. Election", laterchanged to "Google, Facebook and Others Broaden Group toSecure U.S. Election".

"Facebook, Google and othermajor tech companies said on Wednesday that they had addednew partners and met with government agencies in theirefforts to secure the November election," NYT reports. "Thegroup, which is seeking to prevent the kind of onlinemeddling and foreign interference that sullied the 2016presidential election, previously consisted of some of thelarge social media firms, including Twitter and Microsoft inaddition to Facebook and Google. Among the new participantsis the WikimediaFoundation."

Monopolistic techcompanies which collaborate in unison with governmentagencies to prevent unauthorized narratives from circulatingon the internet are conducting state censorship. Own it.pic.twitter.com/mhtuENkeyx

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) August13, 2020

So if informationemerges about a candidate in an "October surprise" in a waythat can be credibly spun as a "hack" like the 2016WikiLeaks drops were, it's entirely likely that we will seesome interference in people's ability to communicate aboutit on not just one but multiple social media platforms. Howmuch communication interference we'd be subjected to isunknown at this time, but it certainly looks like there aremeasures in place to at least implement some under certaincircumstances.

Imagine if documents or video footagewere posted online somewhere and we'd get blocked fromsharing its URLs on Facebook or suspended for postingscreenshots of it on Twitter. The way iron-fisted censorshippractices are already unfolding, it's a possibility thatlooks not at all remote.

Anyway, something to be onalertfor.

Scoop Media

Rogue journalist

Caitlin Johnstone is a 100 percent crowdfunded rogue journalist, bogan socialist, anarcho-psychonaut, guerilla poet and utopia prepper living in Australia with her American husband and two kids. She writes about politics, economics, media, feminism and the nature of consciousness. She is the author of the illustrated poetry book "Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers."

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How We Could Wind Up Banned From Discussing An October Surprise On Social Media This Election - Scoop.co.nz

US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange astonishing and potentially abusive – ComputerWeekly.com

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A decision by the US government to lodge new charges against Julian Assange was slammed as astonishing and potentially abusive by the WikiLeaks founders lawyer today.

Assange, 48, is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to expose military secrets between January and May 2010.

A US grand jury has indicted him on 18 charges 17 of which fall under the Espionage Act including conspiracy to receive, obtain and disclose classified diplomatic and military documents.

Assange will be re-arrested on the first day of his hearing at the Old Bailey on 7 September under a new indictment drawn up on 12 August.

The charge sheet contains further allegations that he conspired with others to obtain US government information by encouraging computer hacking.

The Australians psychiatric condition may have declined over the course of the last few weeks, according to a report described to Westminster Magistrates Court.

Assange, wearing a cream shirt and dark grey trousers, sat cross-legged on a red prison bench and confirmed his name and date of birth via video link from Belmarsh Prison.

He has been held on remand at the maximum security jail since April 2019 and has missed several recent hearings because of respiratory problems.

The case was delayed this morning as Assanges lawyers initially struggled to contact him at the prison in Woolwich, southeast London.

The court scrambled to find a US government prosecutor after wrongly listed the 10am hearing for this afternoon.

Florence Iveson, representing Assange, told the court that the WikiLeaks founder had not seen new material submitted by the US, including a 33-page affidavit.

We think it is astonishing and potentially abusive, abuse of conduct, to add a new requirement at the 11th hour seeking to expand the case while we have spent a year preparing, she said.

Iveson said the new material added a considerable amount of narrative background and collateral conduct to the earlier indictment against Assange.

She said the US had served evidence far too late, after the defence had already served its entire case.

The US government started assembling its case before December 2017. It delivered an opening note in July 2019 and opened its full case in detail on 24 February this year.

We strongly oppose them being given a third opportunity to open this case and expand it, said Iveson. Our position is that the new material could and should have been provided at a much earlier stage and the only just way forward is to exclude it.

Clair Dobbin, barrister representing the US government, said it was common practice for US prosecutors to continue investigating a defendants criminal conduct even after he has been arrested and charged.

They continued to investigate Mr Assanges criminal conduct, including conduct that was not originally alleged, she said. We respectfully disagree that it does not fundamentally alter the basis on which extradition is sought.

US prosecutors have added some further allegations that set out conduct that expands to some degree Mr Assange and WikiLeaks alleged conduct in relation to other hackers. It extends the group of people beyond Ms Manning that Mr Assange is alleged to have conspired with.

Dobbin added: It does go beyond adding mere narrative background to the extradition request. The court doesnt have the power to dismiss aspects of the conducts alleged.

Assanges lawyer, Iveson, said much of the new conduct in the superseding indictment was based on evidence of contemporaneous, publicly available material from 2010/11, including evidence on the WikiLeaks website available from 2010.

Its difficult to see how this could be the fruit of an ongoing investigation, she said.

District judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled: Whatever the reasons for this new request, this resumed final hearing is only a few weeks away and the part two request was served the day before yesterday and Mr Assange has not even been arrested for that request. This will take place on the first day of the resumed hearing.

The defence submits that fairness can be achieved by the court refusing to allow the government to rely on new evidence.

Whether the new evidence is mere narrative background cannot be decided without seeing the conduct as a whole and how it relates to the equivalent offences.

This court has no jurisdiction to reject the request.

The judge added: Ms Iveson argues that it was brought about in bad faith and is an abuse of the court process.

A number of issues regarding the abuse of process have been raised by the defence and any suggestion that this too constitutes abuse will have to be dealt with when all the other abuse questions are dealt with.

I offer the defence more time, knowing that the consequences of delay are extremely unattractive.

Iveson said: We will need further time to consider that and our wider legal response to that request.

Dobbin told the court that a psychiatric report received by the defence showed that Assanges condition may have declined over the last few weeks.

Obviously the US may wish to take that into consideration, she said.

The judge said that, in principle, the extradition hearing could use live-streaming video for specific individuals outside the jurisdiction who cannot come to court because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In principle, there is no objection to the use of the cloud video platform, but there are limited licences to use that platform and it is not generally something the court is involved in, she said. Applications must be made to the Old Bailey.

Addressing the defendant, she added: Mr Assange, if the defence do not apply for more time or to vacate the hearing, the resumed hearing will begin on 7 September this year. This will be the last administrative-type hearing of this kind and you will be physically produced on that date at 10am. Until then, you remain in custody for the reasons Ive given you before. Do you understand what Ive said today?

Assange replied slowly: I have heard most of your words.

Responding to a request from his legal team to talk with their client, the judge asked the defendant: Do you still have a jailer in the room with you, Mr Assange? Is it possible to arrange a post-court conference today?

The prison guard responded: Unfortunately not, because youve overrun by 35 minutes. It would impact on other cases due to lunch breaks.

Earlier in the hearing, Dobbin, representing the US, dialled in to the court, was cut off, accidentally connected to a different courtroom and re-connected back.

She said: I intended to appear in person at 3.30pm, according to the listing.

The judge replied: That may be the explanation, but nevertheless it was announced for 10am.

All right, now the most pressing issue is in relation to the defendants position to the new request.

Assange was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid onward extradition to the US from Sweden for sexual offence allegations dating back to 2010, which he has always denied.

In November, Swedish authorities dropped the rape allegations, but he was jailed for 50 weeks last April after breaching his bail conditions when the asylum period granted to him expired.

Assanges defence team have until 21 August to decide whether to apply to postpone his extradition hearing.

If they do not, Assange will remain in custody until 7 September, when he will appear in person at the Old Bailey.

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US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange astonishing and potentially abusive - ComputerWeekly.com

Despite all that is wrong, there is sweet soul music – Dothan Eagle

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* 1948 Arabs blew up Latrun pumping station in Jerusalem

* 1954 Sports Illustrated was first published

* 1961 Martin Luther King Jr. protested for black voting rights in Miami

* 1962 Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as Beatles drummer

* 1969 Woodstock (NY) Music and Art Festivals second day

* 1988 IBM introduced software for artificial intelligence

* 2008 American swimmer Michael Phelps won the seventh of his eight Beijing Olympics gold medals

* 2012 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange granted political asylum by Ecuador

Now then, since we wont be watching or listening to the EHS Wildcats Friday, Aug. 21, what is there to do?

Wish Greg Walls a belated 70th birthday, celebrate Hawaii becoming the 50th state in 1959, opening day of the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Grace Slick getting maced after calling police pigs in 1972, and the 1987 U.S. debut of the movie, Dirty Dancing, featuring one favorite song of Jimmy Carroll and the late Charles Henry DeJarnette, Cry to Me, by the incomparable Solomon Burke?

There were other fine tunes in Dirty Dancing, i.e. Be My Baby, Big Girls Dont Cry, Do You Love Me, Stay, These Arms of Mine, Hey Baby, etc.

Hey Baby first reached your scribes ears via a juke box in the old catfish camp on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in 1962.

A few years later, in the New Brockton home of 1968 EHS classmate Hamp Hogg, he and two more of our classmates, Burns Whittaker and Joe Bynum, and Joes younger brother, Dan, then-dba The Swingin Souls played the tune very well!

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Despite all that is wrong, there is sweet soul music - Dothan Eagle

$1.5+ Billion Worldwide Quantum Cryptography Industry to 2027 – Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Threats – ResearchAndMarkets.com – The Baytown…

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 14, 2020--

The "Quantum Cryptography - Global Market Outlook (2019-2027)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Quantum Cryptography market accounted for $137.16 million in 2019 and is expected to reach $1,586.42 million by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 35.8% during the forecast period.

Some of the key factors propelling market growth include growing incidents of cyber-attacks in the era of digitalization, increasing cybersecurity funding, rising demand of next-generation security solutions for cloud and IoT technologies and evolving next-generation wireless network technologies. However, the high implementation cost and lack of expertise are identified as key factors hindering market growth.

Quantum cryptography is a science of exploiting the quantum and using current physics knowledge in order to implement a cryptography system that is able to prevent any types of attacks on data. It is used to securely send data over network, wherein if quantum cryptography is applied to a particular data that needs to be being transferred, then only sender and receiver of data are able to access that data with the help of special key. Quantum cryptography is different as compared to traditional cryptography method, as quantum cryptography is more dependent on physics, instead of mathematics.

Companies Mentioned

What the report offers:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

2 Preface

3 Market Trend Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Drivers

3.3 Restraints

3.4 Opportunities

3.5 Threats

3.6 End User Analysis

3.7 Application Analysis

3.8 Emerging Markets

3.9 Impact of Covid-19

4 Porters Five Force Analysis

4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

4.3 Threat of substitutes

4.4 Threat of new entrants

4.5 Competitive rivalry

5 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Component

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Services

5.2.1 Deployment and Integration

5.2.2 Support and Maintenance

5.2.3 Consulting and Advisory

5.3 Hardware

5.3.1 Blade

5.3.2 Server

5.3.3 Random Number Generator

5.3.4 R&D Platform

5.4 Software

5.4.1 Transmission

5.4.2 Crypto Libraries

5.4.3 Encryption

5.4.4 Post-Quantum Cryptography

5.4.5 SDKs/APIs

5.4.6 Key & Policy Management Software

5.5 Quantum Cryptography Appliances

5.5.1 Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) Appliance

5.5.2 Quantum Key Generation Appliance

5.5.3 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Appliance

6 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Security Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Application Security

6.3 Network Security

6.4 Database Encryption

6.5 Cloud Encryption

7 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By End User

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Commercial

7.3 Healthcare and Life Sciences

7.4 Government and Defense

7.5 Automotive

7.6 Retail & E-Commerce

7.7 Manufacturing

7.8 Medical

7.9 Commercial

7.10 Residential

7.11 Industrial

7.12 Aerospace

7.13 Other End Users

7.13.1 Logistics

7.13.2 IT and Telecom

7.13.3 Education

7.13.4 Energy and Utilities

8 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Organization Size

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Large Enterprises

8.3 Small and Medium Enterprises

8.4 Governing and Regulatory Bodies

9 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Algorithm Type

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Asymmetric key

9.3 Symmetric key

10 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Deployment Protocol

10.1 Introduction

10.2 BB84 protocol

10.3 TSL/SSL protocol

11 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Application

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Optimization

11.3 Sampling

11.4 Simulation

12 Global Quantum Cryptography Market, By Geography

12.1 Introduction

12.2 North America

12.3 Europe

12.4 Asia Pacific

12.5 South America

12.6 Middle East & Africa

13 Key Developments

13.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures

13.2 Acquisitions & Mergers

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$1.5+ Billion Worldwide Quantum Cryptography Industry to 2027 - Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Threats - ResearchAndMarkets.com - The Baytown...

What Toshiba’s Investment In AI And Quantum Cryptography Means For The Company – Analytics India Magazine

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Having given up the nuclear project in the US, the Japanese multinational conglomerate reported an operating profit for fiscal 2019, which tripled in the year to 130.5 billion yen. At the same time, the group has dropped some core operations, including the memory chip business and emphasised back to its core strength of industrial applications using state-of-the-art technology research and development.

AI and quantum cryptography seem to be the main highlight as it is aiming to spend about 34 billion yen ($321 million) on a new R&D unit in Japan. As part of this new building complex, a part of the present R&D centre in Kawasaki, near Tokyo will be renovated for the first time after, since its inception sixty years ago.

The new unit aims to accommodate 3000 staff members who will work on various AI projects and quantum cryptography to find business applications. The construction will commence in January 2022 as per a Nikkei report and will be inaugurated in 2023. The new facility will consolidate existing projects and functions as a centre for innovation in AI.

Toshiba Corporation is the key member of a joint project of 12 Japanese organisations which aims to advance Japans quantum cryptography communication technology to the highest level globally. The project has a planned budget of 1.44 billion yen ($13 million), and Toshiba will be leading the research.

The project, commissioned and supported by Japans Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), will soon begin research and development of a Global Quantum Cryptography Communications Network. The partner ecosystem is expected to develop the quantum cryptographic communication technology for practical use over a large scale network consisting of 100 quantum cryptographic devices by the year 2024.

Toshiba has been working on cryptographic research for three decades, beginning in 1991 when the company built a research laboratory at Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The company has achieved feats such worlds first quantum cryptography communication at one-month-average key distribution speeds, exceeding 10 Mbps over installed optical fibre lines.

According to Toshiba, the company will develop on its recent effort to improve technologies that will enhance quantum key distribution rates by around three times. Along with that, the company is working on completing storage system security technologies that assure safe and secure maintenance and management of cryptographic key data in a distributed communication environment.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a cryptographic communications innovation that applies the principles of quantum mechanics to achieve completely secure communications that are almost impossible to intercept by any hackers. As a POC, the company became the first to digitally transmit complete Genome Sequence Data in a trial demonstration in Japan using quantum cryptography.

Also, Toshiba is now executing field tests with partner companies around the globe toward achieving practical use cases for the technology. It is also working to advance the integration of 5G and networking technology with quantum cryptography.

Toshiba has been carrying extensive research for various AI applications. It began with the creation of the first OCR (optical character recognition) postal code reading and sorting device which the company built in 1967. Since then, it has explored areas such as image recognition, voice recognition, translation, speech synthesis, chatbots, etc. Toshiba is currently ranked third around the world and first in Japan for a cumulative number of AI-based patent applications.

Recently, Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation launched its Distributed Co-Simulation Platform, which included model-based development for automakers and vehicle parts suppliers. The system, VenetDCP powers digital prototyping of automotive control systems and vehicular components using AI models in a simulated environment.

The focus today is moving in the direction of fusion between the cyber and the physical. To address increasingly complex issues, we need to shift towards digital transformation. So, we need to take real-world data, analyse it in cyberspace, and utilise the results to generate new value in the real world, said Hironobu Nishikori, Executive Officer & Corporate Senior Vice President, Toshiba Corporation recently.

Toshiba has begun an AI engineering training program in collaboration with the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. The program provides in-depth education on AI systems from classical machine learning to the state of the art advancements in deep learning. It also utilises Toshibas real-world big data, so that trainees acquire more practical skills in AI technologies. The company currently has over 700 AI engineers, but with the latest investment, the goal is to triple this number.

Toshiba aims to become a cyber-physical systems (CPS) company. One of Toshibas Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Technology projects is the Digital Twin-based Train Planning Project with UK train company Greater Anglia. Toshiba partnered to build a more effective train timetable and enhance customer convenience. It achieved this by developing the Digital Twin of the train and accurately reproducing a real-world train environment for the digital world by embedding it with an AI system. Then the company analysed and conducted simulations under various conditions to improve the operations.

Toshiba recently built Lag-aware Multivariate Time-series Segmentation (LAMTSS), an AI that enhances the accuracy of anomaly prediction/detection and motion analysis for infrastructure and manufacturing equipment. This technology automatically corrects time lag among multiple time-series datasets obtained from sensors installed in equipment or devices.

In another instance, Toshiba created a PC-based, high-speed, high accuracy image analysis artificial intelligence system which monitors crowds by analysing the number of people in camera images by leveraging its proprietary deep learning algorithm. On the consumer side, Toshiba is researching voice and language applications for the Japanese market.

The above developments suggest that Toshiba has set an ambitious plan for AI and cryptography projects, which are going to get a significant boost with the inflow of hundreds of millions of money into these sectors.

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Vishal Chawla is a senior tech journalist at Analytics India Magazine and writes about AI, data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and blockchain. Vishal also hosts AIM's video podcast called Simulated Reality- featuring tech leaders, AI experts, and innovative startups of India. Reach out at vishal.chawla@analyticsindiamag.com

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What Toshiba's Investment In AI And Quantum Cryptography Means For The Company - Analytics India Magazine

Here’s the Theme Driving the US Army’s New Communications Tech – Defense One

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A common theme emerges from the U.S. Army's efforts to field several new communications technologies: for the foreseeable future, the service's comms programs are about pushing more data to and from the front lines in the face of increasingly aggressive electronic-warfare activities.

Two Army pilot programs aim to bring cloud storage closer to the front lines by fiscal 2023, say Maj. Gen. Peter A. Gallagher, the director of the Network Cross-Functional Team and Brig. Gen. Robert M. Collins, program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical. But the two pilots approach the problem in different ways, they said Tuesday at a virtual event hosted by the Potomac Officers Club.

The goal of the first pilot, which operators have just finished testing, was to move training software from a fixed location into a cloud for use anywhere. That will come in handy as the Army deploys its new Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS: augmented-reality goggles that will allow soldiers to review and retrain on different operations theyve experienced.

The second pilot looks at virtual and container clouds basically, smaller cloud environments within larger clouds. Gallagher said the objective is to sideline data that operators use only rarely, and prioritize access to more valuable data in environments where there is a lot of jamming and hacking.

The Army has built several prototype communication tools using rapid innovation funding. Gallagher and Collins highlighted new prototypes in cryptography alternatives, as in methods for sending secure coms beyond traditional encryption, for tracking friendly military units (also in electronic warfare-heavy environments) and satellite communications tools that rely less on commercial, wideband satellite signals. Theyre also working with the services Future Vertical Lift team manned and unmanned helicopters to build wideband satellite communications gear that can operate on our platforms through rotor blades.

The Army is working with industry on prototypes for multi-orbit and multi-path (meaning in low-earth orbit, geo earth orbit, etc.) satellite communication tools, software-defined radio programs for the CMOSS standard, which refers to the modular open suite of software standards that allows for different military vehicles to share the same software platform, unified network operations, identity management, data transfer thats less hackable or jammable, and techniques for converging disparate data sources into a common fabric.

Finally, they highlighted eight technologies that have come out of the Combat Capabilities Development Command, that they described as ready for wider, experimental use in the field. Those areas include cyber situational understanding, application security, integrated tactical network operations, canceling interference for the TSM waveform, which is commonly used in tactical settings, and greater spectrum awareness so we can see what our signature looks like and take actions to mitigate against that signature.

Back in 2017, Army leaders listed communications as a top-five modernization priority. Its arguably No. 1 as it will provide the basis for sharing data between a wider array of Army robotic vehicles and device-carrying soldiers. It remains to be seen how well all of those Army pieces will connect to other services as part of the Pentagons nascent Joint All-Domain Command and Control networks.

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Here's the Theme Driving the US Army's New Communications Tech - Defense One

PR.com – TRECIG Executive, Jim West, Named Among the 2020 American Cyber Awards Finalists – IT News Online

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PR.com2020-08-16

Dallas, TX, August 16, 2020 --(PR.com)-- TRECIG is pleased to announce that their Chief Information Officer and Cyber Security Expert, Jim West, has been selected as a finalist in the Personality of the Year award for the 2020 American Cyber Awards. The American Cyber Awards were established to shine a spotlight on the most innovative and successful people, teams and products in cybersecurity in America. The American Cyber Awards reviews the industry, searching for those who are pushing the boundaries in the fight against cyber-crime. Mr. West was particularly recognized for his commitment to progressing the industry.

Jim West possesses over 25 years experience in the Information Technology field with over 15 years focused within Cyber Security. He has worked in the IT and Security industry across many sectors of commercial, space, federal, and defense with expertise in Biometrics, Risk Management, Security Analysis, and Network and Systems Auditing. Jim holds multiple certifications which include: CISSP-ISSEP, ISSMP, CAP, GSLC, GCIH, GSNA, GCWN, G2700, PMP, CIPP, C-CISO, CEH, and many others.

Jim was scheduled this year to speak and panel at events in Dubai, Kuwait, South Korea, Las Vegas, DC, Honolulu, Phoenix, and Tampa but unfortunately all events were cancelled this year due to COVID-19 related issues. His presentation topics included Quantum Computing, Cryptography, Defense in Depth, and Training Cyber Warriors. Besides being an excellent speaker, Jim is also an Award-Winning author and writer with over 50 publications. Recently Jims Cyber Security Test Tips & Methods ebook placed in the 100 Best Cyber Security Books of All-Time list by Bookauthority.org.

Awards Organiser Christina Price said, This is the inaugural year for these awards and we have been overwhelmed with the number, and quality of entrants. Those companies and individuals who have made the shortlist, should be pleased with their achievement as the competition to do so was tough. I know the judges are going to have a hard time selecting the overall winners.

TRECIG Chief Executive Officer, Roy Rucker, said, TRECIG could not be more pleased with the news of Jim being a finalist in the American Cyber Awards. He exemplifies the company values that sets TRECIG apart in this evolving and rapidly growing industry.

TRECIG is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that provides a wide range of IT specialization, to include business development, human resource, program and project management, systems and software integration, enterprise-wide and cloud security, network engineering, penetration testing and product procurement, and more.

Contact Information:

TRECIG

Roy Rucker

832-266-4440

Contact via Email

trecig.com

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/819113

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PR.com - TRECIG Executive, Jim West, Named Among the 2020 American Cyber Awards Finalists - IT News Online

Researchers at UNO and the University of Missouri create CHAOSS for open source communities (in a good way) – Silicon Prairie News

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Over $1.6 million in grant funding has been awarded to a project started by researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Missouri.

Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Mozilla, the Community Health Analytics Open Source Software (CHAOSS) project seeks to ensure a healthy future for open source software.

Open source software is built on source code that anyone can observe and modify, allowing developers to alter the function of a given program or application to better suit the needs of users and programmers. Examples include Linux, the Apache HTTP Server and the Firefox web browser.

Much of the technology people use everyday is built on open source software. Communities of dedicated open source developers ensure the usability, security and sustainability of open source software. The health of these development communities is, therefore, a concern for businesses, governments, schools, nonprofits and individual tech usersin other words, almost everyone.

Worst case scenario, without open source software, say goodbye to the internet, said Sean Goggins, a professor at the University of Missouri. Goggins co-founded the CHAOSS project with Professor Matt Germonprez of the UNO College of Information Science and Technology.

The ubiquity and necessity of open source software is difficult to understate, according to the projects founders.

If youre a tech company, youre using open source software, said Germonprez. So many companies rely on open source software in their products and services. These organizations need to understand the health of the software they use.

According to a 2018 study by the Linux Foundation, 72 percent of companies use open source software for non-commercial or internal reasons. And 65 percent of companies surveyed in the Future of Open Source Study are contributors to open source projects.

Given the near-universal nature of the projects they support, open source developer communities face unique challenges. Attracting new talent, ensuring consistent code quality and recognizing key contributors are three chief concerns, Germonprez said.

The CHAOSS project establishes metrics to gauge the health of an open source software development community, such as diversity, evolution, risk and value. These metrics make evaluation of an open source software communitys health more transparent. As a result, threats to a communitys sustainability can be more immediately identified, and stakeholders can manage open source projects more effectively.

We wanted to make it so that (open source software) community health failures are actionable, Germonprez said. Establishing consistent language and metrics for evaluating OSS project health provides tools which people can use to reflect on their own OSS community health.

As part of CHAOSS, an open source tool called Augur has been developed to centralize key metrics. Augur helps open source project communities compare their health to the health of other communities and establish common standards.

The CHAOSS project is hosted at the Linux Foundation, a supporter of open source ecosystems. To learn more, visit the projects website.

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Researchers at UNO and the University of Missouri create CHAOSS for open source communities (in a good way) - Silicon Prairie News

Are We Witnessing the Fall of Far-Right Figurehead ‘Tommy Robinson’? – VICE

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Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, AKA Tommy Robinson, reporting for The Rebel media on a Football Lads Alliance demonstration in London in 2017. Photo: Guy Corbishley / Alamy Stock Photo

In the autumn of 2009, a little-known figure named Stephen Yaxley-Lennon made his first appearance on Newsnight, using the pseudonym Tommy Robinson.

Yaxley-Lennon appeared on the BBCs flagship news programme as the founder and leader of the English Defence League (EDL). In a clip, he wore a balaclava and burned a Nazi flag in a disused warehouse in his home town of Luton, in the hope this would reassure viewers that the EDL was not a far-right group an impression they may have had because of the aggressive anti-Muslim protests it organised.

Yaxley-Lennon, a former British National Party (BNP) member, would go on to dominate the British far-right for the following decade. Hes been wined and dined at the House of Lords, invited to address the US Congress, frequently appeared on British TV, been invited to Russia to give a speech after being backed by the countrys foreign ministry and made a small fortune through soliciting donations and book sales. First as the leader of the EDL, then as a vlogger, he was capable of pulling thousands of his supporters onto the streets for often violent protests.

But the days of Yaxley-Lennon dominating the British far-right appear to be over, and his political career is on the wane. A recent protest backed by Yaxley-Lennon saw only a couple of hundred people show up for an event.

It has been a steep decline since his peak in the summer of 2018. After his Twitter account which had 431,000 followers was banned, Robinsons team organised a protest called Day for Freedom. This was supported by a number of prominent hard-right figures, such as former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, then-UKIP leader Gerard Batten, and then-Breitbart News London Editor-in-Chief, Raheem Kassam. Donations were flooding in from supporters, bringing in hundreds of thousands of pounds. When Yaxley-Lennon was jailed for disrupting a trial at Leeds Crown Court later that summer, these figures all backed him once again.

Yaxley-Lennons success as a YouTuber was largely down to the team of technologically savvy middle class graduates he had started working with in March of 2017 while employed by the hard-right Canadian YouTube channel Rebel Media. This team stuck with him as he left Rebel Media and became an independent YouTuber, but the summer of 2018 also saw the team break up. Camerawoman Lucy Brown was sacked after a falling out following the Day for Freedom event. Assistants Caolan Robertson and George Llewelyn-John left to work with hard-right Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern.

Yaxley-Lennon built a new team around him, with seemingly less digitally competent individuals. The production values on Yaxley-Lennons videos fell and his output became less polished. Prominent figures in the new team included former Israeli soldier Avi Yemini, who was convicted of assaulting his ex-wife while working for Yaxley-Lennon, and Daniel Thomas, who was convicted of attempted kidnapping in 2016 and now appears to have drifted away from far-right politics after encountering some legal issues.

In early 2019, Yaxley-Lennon was banned from Facebook and Instagram, losing access to a million followers. Several months later, his YouTube account was restricted and his videos are now not as easy for casual users to find.

Joe Mulhall, senior researcher for anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate, told VICE News: The deplatforming of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has had a huge impact on his ability to spread his hateful politics. Hundreds of thousands of fewer people now see his content every month, which is a huge step forward. It also played into the severely reduced numbers we have seen at pro-Lennon events since.

The deplatforming and changes in who surrounded him was happening at a time when Yaxley-Lennons behaviour was becoming more erratic, with people close to him at the time describing him to VICE News as a self-sabotaging mess.

In May of 2018 he was due to visit Iceland to give a speech, but pulled out at the last minute, leaving the Icelandic organisers $10,000 out of pocket. Rumours circulating among the far-right at the time alleged that Yaxley-Lennon texted an associate saying he couldnt be bothered to go. This was not the only time Yaxley-Lennon pulled out of a public engagement at the last minute; this type of behaviour continued during his ill-fated MEP campaign in 2019. There are now a growing number of videos online made by former supporters expressing dissatisfaction at Yaxley-Lennon failing to show up for appearances they had arranged.

When Yaxley-Lennon emerged from prison on bail in August of 2018, he was an international celebrity. Protests calling for his release had mobilised thousands, and he was invited to address the US Congress. By the summer of 2019, Yaxley-Lennons behaviour had alienated a number of former supporters, including several of the big names who had been supporting him after his ban from Twitter and his first jail sentence for disrupting the trial at Leeds Crown Court.

When he returned to the Old Bailey in 2019 to begin a retrial for that offence, the protests outside the court were significantly smaller than the protests demanding his freedom the previous year. During a protest at this retrial, Yaxley-Lennon revealed his latest film, Shalom, about a Jewish man in east London, rather than a film his supporters had been expecting, about Muslim grooming gangs the kind of subject matter they were used to, and which was the basis for his popularity.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson speaking via video to a less-than-packed recent rally in central London. Stfan Weil

This high profile backing of a Jewish person by Yaxley-Lennon was fuel for an emerging split on the far-right, between ethno-nationalists (ethnats), who tend to be virulently anti-Semitic and believe you only belong to nations if youre from certain races for example, thinking you can only be English if you are white and civic nationalists (civnats), who dont think theres a connection between nationality and race. Yaxley-Lennon is on the civnat side of this divide, while many of his far-right critics now identify as ethnats.

As Yaxley-Lennon was serving his second sentence for the Leeds Crown Court incident, this split reached a fever pitch, with his former assistant Lucy Brown appearing on an ethnat YouTube channel and alleging that Yaxley-Lennon was using money hed received in donations from supporters to buy cocaine.

Yaxley-Lennons team hit back in a video attacking one of the leading figures on the ethnat side of the split. This ethnat/civnat divide has always existed on the far-right, but its become more pronounced over the past year, and several far-right YouTubers who had previously been vocal supporters of Yaxley-Lennon have drifted towards the ethnat side of the split, coalescing around former BNP youth leader Mark Collet and his new far-right party, Patriotic Alternative.

The deplatforming, far-right infighting and Yaxley-Lennons self-destructive behaviour have all led to our Tommy losing support. He recently announced that he would be moving to Spain for the safety of his family, but quickly backtracked, telling snowflakes that they had not gotten rid of him.

The evidence shows that he is not the figure he was two years ago. That said, Robinson has returned from the brink of obscurity before. Joe Mulhall told VICE News, None of this means his threat has gone away. While severely reduced, he has managed to amass tens of thousands of followers on smaller social media platforms such as Telegram.

@jdpoulter

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Are We Witnessing the Fall of Far-Right Figurehead 'Tommy Robinson'? - VICE

Queensland Government withdraws bill banning reporting of corruption allegations during elections – ABC News

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A day after introducing laws that would ban journalists from reporting corruption allegations during elections, the State Government has withdrawn the proposal in a spectacular backflip.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath proposed changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) Act in state parliament yesterday that would carry a six-month jail term for people who published CCC allegations about political candidates during an election period.

But this morning, Ms D'Ath released a statement announcing the laws would be withdrawn.

"The Government respects the recommendations of the CCC," she said in a statement.

"However, given the limited time for the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee to consider the law changes the CCC seeks, the CCC Bill introduced yesterday in state parliament is withdrawn."

The proposed laws came under fire from journalists and transparency advocates, who argued the laws would stifle free speech.

But Ms D'Ath argued it would improve the integrity of the state's election process by not allowing the publication of potentially baseless allegations.

Under the failed changes, any complaints made to the CCC would have been shielded from the public until they became a fully fledged investigation.

The only exception would be if the CCC had been notified of the allegations and at least three months had elapsed.

The bill would have also allowed a candidate or the corruption watchdog to seek an injunction to restrain any further publication of allegations during the relevant election period.

Local Government Association of Queensland, which represents 77 councils, said the bill should be amended to protect journalists and then passed to discourage the malicious use of the watchdog.

"The focus of the bill should be on providing a disincentive to those who make baseless complaints to the CCC during election campaigns in order to denigrate their political opponents," chief executive Greg Hallam said.

"The CCC's figures show complaints regularly spike in the months leading up to the council elections.

"[Complaints are] jumping from an average of 12 per month to 27 per month the 12 months leading up to polling day, with just 6 per cent of those allegations substantiated.

"By the time the CCC is able to assess and dismiss the baseless allegations, the damage to the elected members who were the subject of those complaints and the institution of local government has already been done."

Ms D'Ath had argued that any public perception that the CCC was being used to score political points eroded the public's trust in the corruption watchdog.

"The offences contained in this bill are designed to ensure that public debate in an election period is not hijacked by the publication of baseless allegations and complaints that are politically motivated and designed to do nothing more than inflict reputational damage on political opponents," she said.

Shadow attorney-general David Janetzki argued the amendments eroded public transparency and accountability.

"This is another attempt to cover up the Government's appalling integrity record and silence whistleblowers," Mr Janetzki said.

Michelle Rae, from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said the proposed changes were designed to reduce accountability.

"It's a process of what feels like battening down the hatches in a pre-election period," Ms Rae said.

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Queensland Government withdraws bill banning reporting of corruption allegations during elections - ABC News