Today's Tech Digest - Mar 25, 2020

Windows has a zero-day that won’t be patched for weeks

For now, there are no CVE identifiers and the only confirmed details are in Microsoft’s warning: Microsoft is aware of limited targeted attacks that could leverage un-patched vulnerabilities in the Adobe Type Manager Library and is providing the following guidance to help reduce customer risk until the security update is released. Attackers could exploit the flaw by persuading users to open a malicious document. Importantly, however, the same danger would arise even if users viewed that document using the Windows Explorer file manager preview pane. The latter is significant because, for now, there’s no software fix, which could be as far away as the next Patch Tuesday update, scheduled for 14 April 2020: Microsoft is aware of this vulnerability and working on a fix. Updates that address security vulnerabilities in Microsoft software are typically released on Update Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month. Until then, the only countermeasure is to use one of the recommended workarounds, which involves disabling Explorer’s preview and details pane.

Six industries that need to hire a data protection officer

The fintech sector encompasses banking, investments, trading, payments and other related areas. It involves applying technology for improved decision-making, better transparency, enhanced security and more. Companies that deal with matters like stock trading and investments should strongly consider hiring data protection officers to help maintain best practices for security. Doing so is particularly important considering the amount of evaluation that a person or company typically goes through before making such investments. For example, some databases contain complete historical records of end-of-day data for exchange-traded and equity options in the United States. Clients need continual and reliable access to such data so that they can decide when to invest and which companies on the stock exchange deserve their attention. The fintech sector assists everyday people who are not investors, too. Many banks and financial apps track a consumer’s spending habits.

The Evolution of Data – What’s Happening at the Edge?

Historically, security systems often simply used a low-resolution camera to passively capture video. This trend held whether at private residences, commercial properties, or on-board public transportation. Now, smart security systems are being purpose-built to capture, store, and analyze continuous video streams. On top of the 4K video captured by high-resolution cameras, these systems can use an analytics layer with machine learning software to carry out pattern recognition and motion detection. ... Today’s factories are using IoT-enabled machines to work smarter, not harder. By equipping machines with sensors, factory managers can more accurately map machine workloads, inputs, and outputs. They can also more closely track machine wear-and-tear, which leads to maintenance that is predictive rather than reactive and improves lifespan. With these features, factories are increasingly becoming automated, thanks to the wave of Industry 4.0. Machine-to-machine (M2M) devices typically use embedded and removable flash solutions to aggregate data into a single stream at the edge.

COVID-19 stress tests cloud services

Amazon Web Services has included pandemic response in its resiliency planning and regularly scales to handle spikes in demand, such as on Black Friday. Pandemic response policies and procedures have been incorporated into disaster recovery planning. Measures have been taken to ensure ample capacity and service continuity. Google Cloud has formed an internal working group to plan for and mitigate against business impacts resulting from COVID-19. The company expressed confidence its systems can continue to support customers during this time. Microsoft Azure has seen a 500 percent increase in meetings, calling, and conferences on its Teams remote collaboration platform since January 31. In the same time frame, it has seen a 200 percent increase in Teams usage on mobile devices. The company maintains cloud service availability by running multiple instances in geographically dispersed locations. Forrester advises cloud users not to panic about cloud capacity, given the past decade of massive cloud buildouts. While the long-term impact of how people will work in the future is unclear, the pandemic offers a powerful case study and a first look at the promise of cloud computing.

How Microsoft is building new tech to bring precision agriculture to the world’s poorest farmers

While the team could innovate their way to recreate a drone’s functionality, there was no replacement for sensors that provide critical soil-level data for insights. To capture data, one needs multiple sensors spread across the field, which costs hundreds of dollars. The technology is too expensive for small farmers. “That technology does not exist. It has to be built,” Chandra says. So they built it. The FarmBeats team has come up with a solution that can provide soil level data without requiring expensive sensors on the ground. “While it might not be possible for these farmers to buy multiple sensors, we realized they already have a sensor that they use—their Android smartphones,” Chandra says as his eyes light up. Instead of using a network of sensors, the solution uses a smartphone’s Wi-Fi chipset to beam signals to the ground. By analyzing the “time of flight” of the Wi-Fi signal, they can detect the soil moisture and conductivity, which provides insights about watering the field and fertilizer input.

Read more here ...