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Has the Time Come to Trust Machines more than Humans? – Analytics Insight

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

Its stunning what innovation can do nowadaysnow and again, taking on jobs and decisions that once required human thought. Think about the capability of artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics, and the effect that these advances could have on humans.

Theoretically, you would already be able to do a lot of things and much more utilizing technology. Yet, are the decisions that algorithms can make dependent on predictive analytics and big data fundamentally any better than decisions seasoned managers may make, taking into considerations their years of experience?

Not every person fears our machine overlords. Truth be told, as indicated by Penn State scientists, with regards to private data and access to financial data, individuals will trust machines more than humans, which could prompt both positive and negative online practices.

The study showed that individuals who trusted machines were essentially bound to surrender their Mastercard numbers to a computerized travel planner than a human travel planner. Experts in both innovation and business are united in accepting that AI isnt yet prepared to overtake the human components of decision-making identified with different business choicesif it actually will be. It is, they state, a balance.

Technology, and the data it very well may be programmed to capture, is a massively important tool for quick decision-making or to carry business activities to a set of conclusions. However, these should be placed into context by a human, indeed, more than one human. Human decision-making is vulnerable to predisposition thus, in light of a legitimate concern for fairness, more than one individuals instinct should be thought of.

In a car accident, individuals judge the action of a self-driving vehicle as more destructive and corrupt, despite the fact that the action performed by the human was actually the equivalent. In another situation, we consider an emergency response system responding to a tidal wave. A few people were informed that the town was effectively evacuated. Others were informed that the evacuation effort failed.

Studies demonstrate that for this situation machines additionally got the worst part of the deal. Truth be told, if the rescue effort failed, individuals assessed the action of the machine adversely and that of the human positively. The data demonstrated that individuals appraised the action of the machine as essentially more hurtful and less good, and furthermore revealed needing to hire the human, yet not the machine.

That confidence in machines might be set off in light of the fact that individuals accept that machines dont talk, or have unlawful plans on their private data. In any case, while machines probably wont have ulterior intentions in their data, individuals creating and running those computers could prey on this gullibility to harness personal data from clueless users, for instance, through phishing tricks, which are endeavors by criminals to get client names, passwords, credit card numbers and different bits of private data by acting like trustworthy sources.

Another study supported by Oracle and Future Workplace sullen that individuals have more trust in robots than their managers. The study of 8,370 employees, directors and managers across 10 nations found that AI has changed the relationship among individuals and technology at work, and is reshaping the job HR teams and leaders need to play in pulling in, holding and creating talent.

The most recent headways in AI and machine learning are quickly arriving at standard, bringing about a huge shift in the way individuals across the world interface with technology and their teams, said Emily He, senior VP of the Human Capital Management Cloud Business Group at Oracle. As this study shows, the connection between humans and machines is being reimagined at work, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to deal with effectively dealing with this change. All things considered, companies need to band together with their HR companies to customize the way to implement AI at work to meet the changing expectations for their teams the world over.

Individuals surely dont care for one-sided humans or machines, yet when we test their repudiation experimentally, individuals rate human bias as marginally more destructive and less good than those of machines.

We are moving from a time of imposing standards on machine behavior to one of finding laws which dont reveal to us how machines should act, however, how we judge them. Furthermore, the primary principle is incredible and straightforward: individuals judge people by their intentions and machines by their results.

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Has the Time Come to Trust Machines more than Humans? - Analytics Insight

CERC plans to embrace AI, machine learning to improve functioning – Business Standard

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

The apex power sector regulator, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), is planning to set up an artificial intelligence (AI)-based regulatory expert system tool (REST) for improving access to information and assist the commission in discharge of its duties. So far, only the Supreme Court (SC) has an electronic filing (e-filing) system and is in the process of building an AI-based back-end service.

The CERC will be the first such quasi-judicial regulatory body to embrace AI and machine learning (ML). The decision comes at a time when the CERC has been shut for four ...

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First Published: Fri, January 15 2021. 06:10 IST

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CERC plans to embrace AI, machine learning to improve functioning - Business Standard

New research project will use machine learning to advance metal alloys for aerospace – Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

Ian Brooks, AM Technical Fellow, AMRC North West with Renishaws RenAM 500Q metal Additive Manufacturing machine (Courtesy Renishaw/ AMRC North West)

UK-based Intellegens, a University of Cambridge spin-out specialising in artificial intelligence; the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) North West, Preston, Lancashire, UK; and Boeing will collaborate on Project MEDAL: Machine Learning for Additive Manufacturing Experimental Design.

The project aims to accelerate the product development lifecycle of aerospace components by using a machine learning model to optimise Additive Manufacturing processing parameters for new metal alloys at a lower cost and faster rate. The research will focus on metal Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB), specifically on key parameter variables required to manufacture high density, high strength parts.

Project MEDAL is part of the National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP), a 10 million initiative for UK SMEs to develop innovative aerospace technologies funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and delivered in partnership with the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Innovate UK. Intellegens was a startup in the first group of companies to complete the ATI Boeing Accelerator last year.

We are very excited to be launching this project in conjunction with the AMRC, stated Ben Pellegrini, CEO of Intellegens. The intersection of machine learning, design of experiments and Additive Manufacturing holds enormous potential to rapidly develop and deploy custom parts not only in aerospace, as proven by the involvement of Boeing, but in medical, transport and consumer product applications.

James Hughes, Research Director for University of Sheffield AMRC North West, explained that the project will build the AMRCs knowledge and expertise in alloy development so it can help other UK manufacturers.

Hughes commented, At the AMRC we have experienced first-hand, and through our partner network, how onerous it is to develop a robust set of process parameters for AM. It relies on a multi-disciplinary team of engineers and scientists and comes at great expense in both time and capital equipment.

It is our intention to develop a robust, end-to-end methodology for process parameter development that encompasses how we operate our machinery right through to how we generate response variables quickly and efficiently. Intellegens AI-embedded platform Alchemite will be at the heart of all of this.

There are many barriers to the adoption of metallic AM but by providing users, and maybe more importantly new users, with the tools they need to process a required material should not be one of them, Hughes continued. With the AMRCs knowledge in AM, and Intellegens AI tools, all the required experience and expertise is in place in order to deliver a rapid, data-driven software toolset for developing parameters for metallic AM processes to make them cheaper and faster.

Sir Martin Donnelly, president of Boeing Europe and managing director of Boeing in the UK and Ireland, reported that the project shows how industry can successfully partner with government and academia to spur UK innovation.

Donnelly noted, We are proud to see this project move forward because of what it promises aviation and manufacturing, and because of what it represents for the UKs innovation ecosystem. We helped found the AMRC two decades ago, Intellegens was one of the companies we invested in as part of the ATI Boeing Accelerator and we have longstanding research partnerships with Cambridge University and the University of Sheffield.

He added, We are excited to see what comes from this continued collaboration and how we might replicate this formula in other ways within the UK and beyond.

Aerospace components have to withstand certain loads and temperature resistances, and some materials are limited in what they can offer. There is also simultaneous push for lower weight and higher temperature resistance for better fuel efficiency, bringing new or previously impractical-to-machine metals into the aerospace material mix.

One of the main drawbacks of AM is the limited material selection currently available and the design of new materials, particularly in the aerospace industry, requires expensive and extensive testing and certification cycles which can take longer than a year to complete and cost as much as 1 million to undertake.

Pellegrini explained that experimental design techniques are extremely important to develop new products and processes in a cost-effective and confident manner. The most common approach is Design of Experiments (DOE), a statistical method that builds a mathematical model of a system by simultaneously investigating the effects of various factors.

Pellegrini added, DOE is a more efficient, systematic way of choosing and carrying out experiments compared to the Change One Separate variable at a Time (COST) approach. However, the high number of experiments required to obtain a reliable covering of the search space means that DOE can still be a lengthy and costly process, which can be improved.

The machine learning solution in this project can significantly reduce the need for many experimental cycles by around 80%. The software platform will be able to suggest the most important experiments needed to optimise AM processing parameters, in order to manufacture parts that meet specific target properties. The platform will make the development process for AM metal alloys more time and cost-efficient. This will in turn accelerate the production of more lightweight and integrated aerospace components, leading to more efficient aircrafts and improved environmental impact, concluded Pellegrini.

Intellegens will produce a software platform with an underlying machine learning algorithm based on its Alchemite platform. It has reportedly already been used successfully to overcome material design problems in a University of Cambridge research project with a leading OEM where a new alloy was designed, developed and verified in eighteen months rather than the expected twenty-year timeline, saving approximately $10 million.

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New research project will use machine learning to advance metal alloys for aerospace - Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine

Ether, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency, is closing in on an all-time high – CNBC

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Ether is closing in on an all-time high. The cryptocurrency, one of many alternatives to bitcoin, rallied as much as 17% on Tuesday to an intraday high of $1,439, according to data from industry site CoinDesk.

That's just shy of the $1,448 record ether hit in early 2018, when major cryptocurrencies led by bitcoin climbed to new heights before slumping sharply later in the year. Ether, the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, has almost doubled year to date.

Bitcoin has been in the spotlight for several months now, thanks to a blistering rally that saw it notch fresh highs. The cryptocurrency shot up close to $42,000 a couple weeks ago, but has declined since and was last trading at $36,980.

It's still up almost 30% so far this year, and has surged more than 800% from its 2020 low in March. Bitcoin bulls say its rise has been helped by increased institutional buying and the perception that it is an uncorrelated safe haven asset akin to gold.

On the other hand, skeptics in the traditional financial world like economist Nouriel Roubini and strategist David Rosenberg view it as a speculative bubble.

Bitcoin was the original cryptocurrency, created in 2009 as a peer-to-peer payment system that doesn't require a central authority to maintain. Alternative digital coins that were created after bitcoin, like ether and XRP, are known as "altcoins."

Ethereum, the network that underpins ether, is touted by its proponents as potential infrastructure for a decentralized internet. That's because developers can build applications on Ethereum, known as "decentralized apps."

The Ethereum blockchain a digital ledger of transactions in the cryptocurrency began a major upgrade late last year called Ethereum 2.0. Ether investors say it will make the network faster and more secure.

"The Ethereum technology has undergone a tremendous amount of development since reaching it's 2017 high," Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at crypto firm NEM, told CNBC. "At that time, the new capital investment in the space was largely speculative and for functionalities that were still in development."

"Now, a lot of these functionalities exist and more cutting edge functionalities are to be released, yet the speculative interest in Ethereum is still quite low. This raises the question that now Ethereum is crossing its all time high, what price will it reach in this current bull cycle? I believe that number is a lot higher than the current price."

Detractors have complained of sky-high transaction fees on Ethereum. The average transaction cost for ether surged to a record high of $16.53 on Jan. 11, according to data from BitInfoCharts, triple the peak average transaction fee in 2018.

By comparison, bitcoin transaction fees are rising but are nowhere near a late-2017 peak. They climbed as high as $17.09 on Jan. 12, which is still down 69% from an all-time high of $55.16 on Dec. 22, 2017.

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Ether, the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency, is closing in on an all-time high - CNBC

Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Near $1,440 – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

The price of ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, soared to record levels earlier on Tuesday.

Prices hit $1,439.33 around 12:00 UTC thats a little over the previous all-time high of $1,432.88 registered on CoinDesks price index on Jan. 13, 2018. The digital asset rallied nearly 12% Tuesday to reach the new peak.

Ether first hinted at a coming rally to previously unseen levels earlier this month, but fell victim to a brief market correction triggered by bitcoins pullback from $40,000 to $30,000 last week.

The cryptocurrency has topped its previous bull market peak nearly two months after bitcoin surpassed its December 2017 record price to hit a new high above $41,900 earlier this month.

While ether has trailed bitcoin in its journey to new lifetime highs, it has outpaced the top cryptocurrency on a year-to-date basis with a 92% gain. Bitcoin has risen 27% so far this year.

Ether is also up well over 1000% since the initial public sale of ETH in 2015, according to Messari.

Ethereum is a blockchain for decentralized applications (dapps) such as prediction markets or trading venues. Dapps operate similarly to regular applications, but inherit features of blockchain-based technologies such as censorship resistance.

The Ethereum blockchain was co-founded and originally described by Russian-Canadian developer Vitalik Buterin, who remains the projects most well-known personality.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is widely regarded as the best Ethereum use case to date. DeFi markets enable permissionless and automated lending, trading and borrowing to anyone with an internet connection. The market recently surpassed some $22 billion in total value locked (TVL) a metric similar to assets under management (AUM).

DeFi applications typically have their own tokens as well, generally based on Ethereum. That market has enjoyed a second bull run of its own following surging popularity this past summer.

In the long run, Ethereum proponents are positioning the blockchain project to be a censorship-resistant base layer operating in the background of tomorrows internet. This concept is generally referred to as Web 3.0, and will knit todays social networks with integral money systems.

Ethereum took a significant step towards this goal on Dec. 1 with the release of a new blockchain, the Beacon Chain, which brought in staking pledging funds to support the network, rather than mining. That upgrade is part one of three in a series of transitions to upgrade the current Ethereum network towards a blockchain capable of handling an entire financial system.

EDIT (15:30 UTC, Jan. 19 2021): Corrected the figure for CoinDesks previous all-time high for ether and removed some other price references in the second paragraph.

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Ethereum's Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Near $1,440 - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Five New Year’s Resolutions For Cryptocurrency – Forbes

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

Fintech experts discuss the future of cryptocurrency in the Biden Administration. Panelists include ... [+] Rep. Patrick McHenry, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Prof. J.W. Verret, author David DesRosiers, and Roslyn Layton, PhD.

With a new President, Congress, and SEC Chair, the US can reset its approach and win the cryptocurrency race against China. Here are five resolutions to achieve those goals.

1.The Senate should confirm an SEC Chair who is open or at least neutral to cryptocurrency and financial innovation.

After Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton (who made no secret of his animus for cryptocurrency with barrage of lawsuits, enforcements, and declarations to crush upstarts), the Senate can improve policy for cryptocurrency just by confirming a new Chair who is friendlier to financial innovation. Reports suggest that the incoming Biden Administration has in mind Gary Gensler who, in addition to his prior regulatory experience, runs MITs financial technology laboratory and its Digital Currency Initiative. Gensler has calledcryptocurrency "a catalyst for change in the world of finance and the broader economy." If confirmed, the SEC would gain another crypto ally along with GOP commissioner Hester Peirce, called the crypto mom for advocating policies to ensure US leadership in cryptocurrency. In the process, the Senate Banking Committee should ask Gensler probing questions about whether hell continue Claytons hostile approach, or whether he supports disruptive fintechs that seek to democratize financial services for Americans.

2.Stop the turf wars between financial regulatory agencies.

Regulation is not an unambiguous good. The US has accumulated over a century of financial regulation and spawned almost a dozen federal financial regulators (in addition to state level actors)many in the last decade alonebut no one can claim that the policy for the US financial industry is optimal. Indeed, the layers of regulation and labyrinth of federal offices and departments may have worsened the financial environment for consumers and innovators. As SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce argued in Reframing Financial Regulation: Enhancing Stability and Protecting Consumers, the more important regulation becomes, the more banks serve regulators, not customers. The notion that regulation increases the power of established financial institutions at the expense of small banks and financial innovators is well-documented. Regulators generally prefer to oversee a market a handful of giants than a dynamic market of emergent, innovative players. It stands to reason that the SEC as a securities regulator has no business overseeing all cryptocurrencies in all use cases. Already digital and cryptocurrencies are regulated by the Treasury Departments Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Justice on anti-money laundering requirements.

3.Congress should work in a bipartisan fashion to adopt a rational, common sense approach to cryptocurrency.

It takes courage and fortitude to resist the urge to solve a problem through regulation, without first examining the larger issues at play. The first step is to determine whether government intervention would create greater harm. At RealClearPolicys event U.S. Crypto Policy in a Biden Administration, Congressman Patrick McHenry explained how for the last 15 years his job has been to stop the adoption of knee-jerk laws which would have killed cryptocurrency in the cradle.

However, having no regulation is not a substitute for thoughtful policy to help cryptocurrency flourish while respecting the measures that protect consumers and deter fraud. Moreover, if Congress doesnt clarify the boundaries, regulators will find new things to regulate to keep themselves relevant. McHenrys approach, which he laid out in a 2020 podcast with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), is that blockchain is a new technology that needs a framework of its own.With Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) poised to chair the Senate Banking Committee, it is time to take a fresh look.

4.The SEC should withdraw its lawsuit against Ripple.

Just hours before he left the building, former SEC Chair Clayton lobbed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, operator of the global settlement system using XRP, the worlds 3rd largest cryptocurrency. The suit alleges that Ripple, after 7 years, has been transacting with a security, not a currency, and thus seeks to punish the company for failing to register and to bar its founder and executive from participating in the crypto market. Such a question could have been answered with notice and comment rather than a lawsuit.

In any event, the SECs case has a fatal flaw in relying on the Howey Test from SEC v. H.J. Howey Co in 1946. According to law professor J.W. Verret of George Mason University in the RealClearPolicy discussion, a security is an investment contract where the holder participates in a common enterprise with the seller.But former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo argues XRP is not an investment, and there is no commonality between its holders and Ripple. XRP is a medium of exchange and settlement.However, even if Ripple wins in court, and the company has asserted it will fight vociferously, the SEC will have already done its damage to the open source XRP ledger and every developer using it. The lawsuit has chilled other crypto enterprises, not to mention Ripple itself. Most defendants in regulatory enforcements never go to court because of the cost; instead they settle. Apparently Ripple tried to settle the question for years, but it appears that getting a headline was more important to Clayton. This abuse demonstrates what many legal scholars observe as the fundamental unconstitutionality of an administrative agency like the SEC, combining in one body an administrator, rulemaker, and judge and thus violating the separation of powers clause.

5.Congress should mitigate Chinas growing threat on digital assets.

China has laid the groundwork to capture the fruits of U.S. innovation and use its own digital currency to unseat the dollar on top of their de facto control of mining Bitcoin and Ether. As a key part of Chinas concerted efforts, its central bank has already begun distributing digital yuan to be used at thousands of retailers with nearly a fifth of residents in Shenzhen city testing the technology today. China aims to control global value of traded coins and are scaling their enormous domestic marketplace for mass adoption of their fintech applications. Yet again, on a technological breakthrough they had nothing to do with inventing, China is determined to make it their own. It is only a matter of time before Chinas digital currency is offered to billions across the globe, coupled with Chinese payment solutions copied from U.S. innovators.The U.S. wont be able to block the proliferation of digital yuan; it can only win by making a better solution and getting to market first. Moving quickly on a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency is essential to ensure US leadership and counter Chinas aggressive approach.

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Five New Year's Resolutions For Cryptocurrency - Forbes

Panelists at CES 2021 Agree Widespread Adoption of Cryptocurrency Is Imminent – BroadbandBreakfast.com

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

January 19, 2021Leaders in cryptocurrency and digital assets alike agreed that it is only a matter of time before widespread adoption begins, during a Wednesday panel that aired as part of the Consumer Technology Associations Consumer Electronics Show.

According to Catherine Coley, CEO of BinanceUS, individuals who have yet to adopt cryptocurrency face two main barriers: the high cost to enter the market and the technical learning curve. Coley is hoping to change that as her company lowered entry fees and boosted its support services to all.

Coley believes that Bitcoin and other digital currencies reputation of being risk-fraught investments is invalid, yet has resulted in a slow, but continual, rise in adoption.

Being forced to work with antiquated or even non-existent laws and regulations is a challenge the industry faces. Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Avanti Bank & Trust, said that Bitcoin has a hard time fitting with current laws since there arent currently any laws to guide it, as there are for traditional financial issues.

Long believes that creating more backward-compatible legal structures will help the two forms of currency coexist better.

Despite a lack of rules for its regulation, the laws that exist can make it difficult for crypto firms to operate in, including dinging their camel score, an international rating system used by regulatory banking authorities, causing a high-risk reputation to remain.

Crypto should be merged with the traditional world of coins and recognized as an equally competent player, said Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto, CEO at Atomyze LLC. Building blockchain-based platforms to improve efficiency, allowing titled ownership in cryptocurrency, and having scalable investors systems is critical, she added.

Matthew Roszak, chairman and co-founder at Bloq, Inc., says that despite being told cryptocurrency was pseudo currency, he still sees 2021 as a year be a massive rush into bitcoin. The infrastructure and narrative for it must improve, though.

Public acceptance and integration of cryptocurrency could get a huge head start if big banks and financial institutions mix crypto offerings with traditional financial products and services. Every central bank and institution has a dedicated blockchain group working on how best to handle cryptocurrency, but few want to be the pioneer at the forefront, panelists said.

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Panelists at CES 2021 Agree Widespread Adoption of Cryptocurrency Is Imminent - BroadbandBreakfast.com

‘Most scam investments will come looking for you’ – cryptocurrency expert – RNZ

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin

A cryptocurrency expert is warning people if an investment opportunity looks too good to be true, it might be a scam.

File photo. Photo: 123RF

This comes as the Commerce Commission has issued a 'Stop Now' letter to Shelly Cullen, a promoter of Lion's Share - a suspected pyramid scheme.

Lions Share encourages people to pay hundreds of dollars to join the scheme, in the hopes of being rewarded in cryptocurrencies from each new person they sign up.

On receiving the letter, Cullen told the Commission she had stopped promoting the scheme.

Janine Grainger, a bitcoin and cryptocurrency retailer, said that while this type of scheme had always been around, cryptocurrency was providing a new vehicle for them to take place.

"Most of this will spread through word of mouth and network marketing, so it seems to work very strongly within particular communities," she said. "The work Shelley's been doing is a really good example of that, the large number of followers she has on Facebook, people getting their friends and whnau to sign up and join in and it moves by that network effect."

Grainger said Lion Share lacked genuine value creation or sales of a product or service.

"The money that is in the system and the money that you get from being in the system is purely funds put in by new recruits."

She said people should watch out for investment opportunities that land in their lap and seemed too good to be true.

This could include a cold call or email inviting someone to join a scheme, or an article about a celebrity making a lot of money.

"In my experience, most scam investments will come looking for you," she said. "Those sorts of things are scams, whereas a really good investment, you need to go out and do your research to find it."

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'Most scam investments will come looking for you' - cryptocurrency expert - RNZ

Why Developers Shun Security and What You Can Do about It – Security Boulevard

Posted on January 14, 2021 by admin

The Linux Foundation and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard recently released a Report on the 2020 Free/Open-Source Software Contributor Survey. One of the primary conclusions of this report was the fact that free/open-source software developers often have a very negative approach to security. They spend very little time resolving security issues (an average of 2.27% of their total time spent) and they express no willingness to spend more.

Some of the quotes from the survey were simply disturbing. For example, I find the enterprise of security a soul-withering chore and a subject best left for the lawyers and process freaks. I am an application developer. Another example: I find security an insufferably boring procedural hindrance.

While the report contains the authors strategic recommendations, here are our thoughts about what this situation means for application security and what you can do about it.

The original report focuses only on free/open-source software (FOSS) but we believe it is important to consider whether this is only a FOSS problem or a problem with all developers.

Based on the survey, most FOSS developers (74.87%) are employed full-time and more than half (51.65%) are specifically paid to develop FOSS. This means that FOSS is often developed by the same people that develop commercial software. We do not believe that the developers change attitude depending on whether the software they work with is free or commercial. Therefore, we believe that this bad attitude towards security extends to all developers.

We also believe that the underlying cause of this attitude is the fact that developers are either taught badly or not taught at all. Most online resources that teach programming completely skip the issue of secure coding practices. Books about programming languages rarely even mention secure coding. Schools also often treat security as an optional subject instead of a core course that should be a prerequisite to all other programming classes.

Therefore, we conclude that the results of this survey may be assumed to apply to all software developers. While in the case of commercial software some security measures may be added by the presence of dedicated security teams, the root is still rotten.

While 86.3% of the respondents of the survey received formal development training, only 39.8% stated that they have formal training in developing secure software. This means that half the developers were taught badly.

Another shock comes from the response to the following question: When developing software, what are your main sources for security best practices?. It turns out that only 10.73% learned such best practices from formal classes and courses and 15.51% from corporate training. Nearly half the developers use online articles/blogs (46.54%) and forums (50.66%) as their primary source of information on best practices, which again shows the horrid state of education and the lack of resources about secure coding. And while we at Acunetix pride ourselves on filling the gap and being the teachers (thanks to our articles that explain how vulnerabilities work and how to avoid them), we would much rather have developers learn first from sources that are more reliable than a search engine.

Last but not least, survey results prove that free/open-source software is usually released with no security testing at all. While 36.63% use a SAST tool to scan FOSS source code, only 15.87% use a DAST to test applications. This situation is probably better in the case of commercial software because security teams usually introduce SAST/DAST into the SDLC.

If your application developers have a bad attitude towards security, it is not only due to their education. It may also be because of your business organization, which causes them to feel that theyre not involved in security at all.

Developers dont feel responsible for security primarily due to the existence of dedicated security teams. If security personnel work in separate organizational units, the developers think that security is not their problem and expect the security researchers to take care of it instead.

Developers also dont feel responsible because in a traditional organization they rarely are expected to fix their own security-related mistakes. A typical developer writes a piece of code, gets a code review from another developer (probably just as clueless about security), and then forgets about it. Later, a security researcher finds a vulnerability and creates a ticket to fix it. This ticket is assigned to the first available developer usually not the one who originally introduced the vulnerability.

Such an organization promotes the lack of responsibility for security and fuels negative feelings between developers and security teams. They may view one another as the ones that cause problems and this is what you must aim to change first.

Automating the process of finding and reporting security vulnerabilities as early as possible solves this problem. First of all, errors are reported by a piece of software, not a human therefore there is no other person to blame. Secondly, the error is reported immediately, usually after the first build attempt, and the build fails, so the developer must fix their own mistake right away. And thirdly, every time the developer is forced to fix their own error, they learn a little more about how to write secure code and how important it is.

The only problem that remains is finding software that can be trusted with this task. Unfortunately, limited capabilities of SAST/DAST software have been the cause of many failures in the past and this is why many developers do not want to use a SAST or a DAST tool.

SAST tools point to potential problems but they report quite a few false positives the developer spends a lot of time researching something that turns out not to be a vulnerability at all. In the end, developers stop trusting the tool and start hating it. On the other hand, DAST tools report fewer false positives but often dont provide enough information for the developer to be sure where the vulnerability is and what it can lead to.

Acunetix helps solve such problems. The advantage is that, in the case of the most serious vulnerabilities, Acunetix provides proof of the vulnerability. For example, the developer may receive a report that their code exposed sensitive files from the server including the content of these sensitive files as evidence.

The most worrying conclusion from this article is that most free/open-source software is inherently insecure and if you want to feel safe using it, you need to do regular security testing yourself.

Another worrying conclusion is that people who should be your first line of defense in IT security are not educated about security and have a bad attitude toward it. This is not something that is going to be easy or quick to change.

Long-term strategic resolutions are needed to solve these major problems and simply implementing an automated solution cannot be perceived as a magic wand. However, if you introduce a reliable automated testing solution such as Acunetix into your DevSecOps SDLC at the earliest stage possible, you will ensure that your software is safe and you will teach your own developers that they need to take responsibility for the security of their code.

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Tomasz Andrzej NideckiTechnical Content Writer

Tomasz Andrzej Nidecki (also known as tonid) is a Technical Content Writer working for Acunetix. A journalist, translator, and technical writer with 25 years of IT experience, Tomasz has been the Managing Editor of the hakin9 IT Security magazine in its early years and used to run a major technical blog dedicated to email security.