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The top 10 apps on the Apple Store for week ending10/09/2022
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Tag: Computing and information technology
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Commerce tightens export controls on high end chips to China
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The Commerce Department is tightening export controls to limit China’s ability to get advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and make advanced semiconductors
The Commerce Department is tightening export controls to limit China‘s ability to get advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and make advanced semiconductors.
The department said Friday that its updated export controls are focusing on these areas because China can use the chips, supercomputers and semiconductors to create advanced military systems including weapons of mass destruction; commit human rights abuses and improve the speed and accuracy of its military decision making, planning, and logistics.
Commerce said the updates are part of ongoing efforts to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.
“The threat environment is always changing, and we are updating our policies today to make sure we’re addressing the challenges posed by (China) while we continue our outreach and coordination with allies and partners,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a statement.
Commerce said it consulted with close allies and partners on its control efforts.
Thursday, at an event in upstate New York, President Biden predicted a $20 billion investment by IBM in New York’s Hudson River Valley will help give the United States a technological edge against China. The investment is spurred by this summer’s passage of a $280 billion measure intended to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research. That legislation was needed for national and economic security, Biden said in Poughkeepsie, adding that “the Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied against” it.
Tensions have been rising between the U.S. and China over technology and security. Last month the Chinese government called on Washington to repeal its technology export curbs after California-based chip designer Nvidia said a new product might be delayed and some work might be moved out of China.
Washington has tightened controls and lobbied allies to limit Chinese access to the most advanced chips and tools to develop its own. China is spending heavily to develop its fledgling producers but so far cannot make high-end chips used in the most advanced smartphones and other devices.
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Binance crypto exchange hit by latest digital currency hack
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FILE – Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao answers a question during a Zoom meeting interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, says more than $100 million was possibly taken illegally following a hack of its Binance Smart Chain blockchain network. “The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly,” CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo)
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Former Uber security chief guilty of data breach coverup
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SAN FRANCISCO — The former chief security officer for Uber was convicted Wednesday of trying to cover up a 2016 data breach in which hackers accessed tens of millions of customer records from the ride-hailing service.
A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Joseph Sullivan of obstructing justice and concealing knowledge that a federal felony had been committed, federal prosecutors said.
Sullivan remains free on bond pending sentencing and could face a total of eight years in prison on the two charges when he is sentenced, prosecutors said.
“Technology companies in the Northern District of California collect and store vast amounts of data from users,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said in a statement. “We will not tolerate concealment of important information from the public by corporate executives more interested in protecting their reputation and that of their employers than in protecting users.”
It was believed to be the first criminal prosecution of a company executive over a data breach.
A lawyer for Sullivan, David Angeli, took issue with the verdict.
“Mr. Sullivan’s sole focus — in this incident and throughout his distinguished career — has been ensuring the safety of people’s personal data on the internet,” Angeli told the New York Times.
An email to Uber seeking comment on the conviction wasn’t immediately returned.
Sullivan was hired as Uber’s chief security officer in 2015. In November 2016, Sullivan was emailed by hackers, and employees quickly confirmed that they had stolen records on about 57 million users and also 600,000 driver’s license numbers, prosecutors said.
After learning of the breach, Sullivan began a scheme to hide it from the public and the Federal Trade Commission, which had been investigating a smaller 2014 hack, authorities said.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Sullivan told subordinates that “the story outside of the security group was to be that ‘this investigation does not exist,’” and arranged to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in exchange for them signing non-disclosure agreements promising not to reveal the hack. He also never mentioned the breach to Uber lawyers who were involved with the FTC’s inquiry, prosecutors said.
“Sullivan orchestrated these acts despite knowing that the hackers were hacking and extorting other companies as well as Uber,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Uber’s new management began investigating the breach in the fall of 2017. Despite Sullivan lying to the new chief executive officer and others, the truth was uncovered and the breach was made public, prosecutors said.
Sullivan was fired along with Craig Clark, an Uber lawyer he had told about the breach. Clark was given immunity by prosecutors and testified against Sullivan.
No other Uber executives were charged in the case.
The hackers pleaded guilty in 2019 to computer fraud conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Sullivan was convicted of of obstruction of proceedings of the Federal Trade Commission and misprision of felony, meaning concealing knowledge of a felony from authorities.
Meanwhile, some experts have questioned how much cybersecurity has improved at Uber since the breach.
The company announced last month that all its services were operational following what security professionals called a major data breach, claiming there was no evidence the hacker got access to sensitive user data.
The lone hacker apparently gained access posing as a colleague, tricking an Uber employee into surrendering their credentials. Screenshots the hacker shared with security researchers indicate they obtained full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data.
It is not known how much data the hacker stole or how long they were inside Uber’s network. There was no indication they destroyed data.
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Former Uber security chief guilty of data breach coverup
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SAN FRANCISCO — The former chief security officer for Uber was convicted Wednesday of trying to cover up a 2016 data breach in which hackers accessed tens of millions of customer records from the ride-hailing service.
A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Joseph Sullivan of obstructing justice and concealing knowledge that a federal felony had been committed, federal prosecutors said.
Sullivan remains free on bond pending sentencing and could face a total of eight years in prison on the two charges when he is sentenced, prosecutors said.
“Technology companies in the Northern District of California collect and store vast amounts of data from users,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said in a statement. “We will not tolerate concealment of important information from the public by corporate executives more interested in protecting their reputation and that of their employers than in protecting users.”
Sullivan was hired as Uber’s chief security officer in 2015. In November 2016, Sullivan was emailed by hackers, and employees quickly confirmed that they had stolen records on about 57 million users and also 600,000 driver’s license numbers, prosecutors said.
After learning of the breach, Sullivan began a scheme to hide it from the public and the Federal Trade Commission, which had been investigating a smaller 2014 hack, authorities said.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Sullivan told subordinates that “the story outside of the security group was to be that ‘this investigation does not exist,’” and arranged to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in exchange for them signing non-disclosure agreements promising not to reveal the hack. He also never mentioned the breach to Uber lawyers who were involved with the FTC’s inquiry, prosecutors said.
“Sullivan orchestrated these acts despite knowing that the hackers were hacking and extorting other companies as well as Uber,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Uber’s new management began investigating the breach in the fall of 2017. Despite Sullivan lying to the chief executive officer and others, the truth was uncovered and the breach was made public, prosecutors said.
Sullivan was fired. The hackers pleaded guilty in 2019 to computer fraud conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing.
An email to Uber seeking comment on the conviction wasn’t immediately returned.
Some experts have questioned how much cybersecurity has improved at Uber since the breach.
The company announced last month that all its services were operational following what security professionals called a major data breach, claiming there was no evidence the hacker got access to sensitive user data.
The lone hacker apparently gained access posing as a colleague, tricking an Uber employee into surrendering their credentials. Screenshots the hacker shared with security researchers indicate they obtained full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data.
It is not known how much data the hacker stole or how long they were inside Uber’s network. There was no indication they destroyed data.
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Viewers flock to Weather Channel for Hurricane Ian coverage
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NEW YORK — The Weather Channel reached its biggest audience in five years last week when Hurricane Ian made its destructive landfall in western Florida.
The average audience of 3.4 million people last Wednesday was more than any other day for the network since Hurricane Harvey deluged Texas with record amounts of rainfall in 2017, the Nielsen company said.
The network’s peak day came despite other cable news and broadcast networks also devoting resources to the storm, and a myriad of streaming options that gave people many different ways to follow Ian and its aftermath.
For example, the free streaming service Local Now, which is owned alongside The Weather Channel by the Allen Media Group, had a record-setting day for usage last Wednesday, the company said. Through the service, people could watch local news coverage of Ian from markets in Tampa, Fort Myers and Orlando in Florida.
Allen would not give precise figures on how many people used the service.
Another new wrinkle from the Weather Channel app were screen views that allowed users to watch the storm’s progress through fixed cameras placed in Ian’s path, in Fort Myers Beach, Punta Gorda and Venice, Florida, for example.
The average consumer who used the app spent a staggering four hours there on the day the storm hit, the Weather Channel said.
Fox Weather, a streaming service that debuted a year ago, easily had its most-used day ever last Wednesday, although Fox also wouldn’t provide specific details. During three overnight hours after the storm hit, Fox News Channel simulcast the coverage on the Fox Weather stream.
NBC was the winner again during the second week of the new television season, averaging 6.1 million viewers in prime time, Nielsen said. CBS averaged 5.7 million, ABC had 4 million, Fox had 2.2 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Ion Television had 900,000 and Telemundo had 820,000.
ESPN was the most-watched cable network, averaging 2.15 million viewers in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.12 million, MSNBC had 1.15 million, HGTV had 796,00 and CNN had 756,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.4 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5 million.
For the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, the 20 most-watched programs in prime time, their networks and viewerships:
1. NFL Football: Kansas City at Tampa Bay, NBC, 20.85 million.
2. “NFL Pregame Show” (Sunday), NBC, 15.74 million.
3. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 11.04 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.27 million.
5. NFL Football: Dallas at N.Y. Giants, ABC, 10.18 million.
6. NFL Football: Dallas at N.Y. Giants, ESPN, 7.73 million.
7. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 7.09 million.
8. “FBI,” CBS, 7.08 million.
9. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.88 million.
10. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 6.73 million.
11. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.6 million.
12. “Ghosts,” CBS, 6.46 million.
13. “NFL Pregame Show” (Monday), ABC, 6.28 million.
14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.111 million.
15. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.107 million.
16. “FBI: International,” CBS, 5.88 million.
17. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 5.87 million.
18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.41 million.
19. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.4 million.
20. “East New York,” CBS, 5.27 million.
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This story corrects the name of Fox Weather and Local New. A previous version of this story referred to the streaming services as Fox News Weather and Local News Now.
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Tesla robot walks, waves, but doesn’t show off complex tasks
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DETROIT — An early prototype of Tesla Inc.’s proposed Optimus humanoid robot slowly and awkwardly walked onto a stage, turned, and waved to a cheering crowd at the company’s artificial intelligence event Friday.
But the basic tasks by the robot with exposed wires and electronics — as well as a later, next generation version that had to be carried onstage by three men — was a long way from CEO Elon Musk’s vision of a human-like robot that can change the world.
Musk told the crowd, many of whom might be hired by Tesla, that the robot can do much more than the audience saw Friday. He said it is also delicate and “we just didn’t want it to fall on its face.”
Musk suggested that the problem with flashy robot demonstrations is that the robots are “missing a brain” and don’t have the intelligence to navigate themselves, but he gave little evidence Friday that Optimus was any more intelligent than robots developed by other companies and researchers.
The demo didn’t impress AI researcher Filip Piekniewski, who tweeted it was “next level cringeworthy” and a “complete and utter scam.” He said it would be “good to test falling, as this thing will be falling a lot.”
“None of this is cutting edge,” tweeted robotics expert Cynthia Yeung. “Hire some PhDs and go to some robotics conferences @Tesla.”
Yeung also questioned why Tesla opted for its robot to have a human-like hand with five fingers, noting “there’s a reason why” warehouse robots developed by startup firms use pinchers with two or three fingers.
Musk said that Friday night was the first time the early robot walked onstage without a tether. Tesla’s goal, he said, is to make an “extremely capable” robot in high volumes — possibly millions of them — at a cost that could be less than a car, that he guessed would be less than $20,000.
Tesla showed a video of the robot, which uses artificial intelligence that Tesla is testing in its “Full Self-Driving” vehicles, carrying boxes and placing a metal bar into what appeared to be a factory machine. But there was no live demonstration of the robot completing the tasks.
Employees told the crowd in Palo Alto, California, as well as those watching via livestream, that they have been working on Optimus for six to eight months. People can probably buy an Optimus “within three to five years,” Musk said.
Employees said Optimus robots would have four fingers and a thumb with a tendon-like system so they could have the dexterity of humans.
The robot is backed by giant artificial intelligence computers that track millions of video frames from “Full Self-Driving” autos. Similar computers would be used to teach tasks to the robots, they said.
Experts in the robotics field were skeptical that Tesla is anywhere near close to rolling out legions of human-like home robots that can do the “useful things” Musk wants them to do – say, make dinner, mow the lawn, keep watch on an aging grandmother.
“When you’re trying to develop a robot that is both affordable and useful, a humanoid kind of shape and size is not necessarily the best way,” said Tom Ryden, executive director of the nonprofit startup incubator Mass Robotics.
Tesla isn’t the first car company to experiment with humanoid robots.
Honda more than two decades ago unveiled Asimo, which resembled a life-size space suit and was shown in a carefully-orchestrated demonstration to be able to pour liquid into a cup. Hyundai also owns a collection of humanoid and animal-like robots through its 2021 acquisition of robotics firm Boston Dynamics. Ford has partnered with Oregon startup Agility Robotics, which makes robots with two legs and two arms that can walk and lift packages.
Ryden said carmakers’ research into humanoid robotics can potentially lead to machines that can walk, climb and get over obstacles, but impressive demos of the past haven’t led to an “actual use scenario” that lives up to the hype.
“There’s a lot of learning that they’re getting from understanding the way humanoids function,” he said. “But in terms of directly having a humanoid as a product, I’m not sure that that’s going to be coming out anytime soon.”
Critics also said years ago that Musk and Tesla wouldn’t be able to build a profitable new car company that used batteries for power rather than gasoline.
Tesla is testing “Full Self-Driving” vehicles on public roads, but they have to be monitored by selected owners who must be ready to intervene at all times. The company says it has about 160,000 vehicles equipped with the test software on the road today.
Critics have said the Teslas, which rely on cameras and powerful computers to drive by themselves, don’t have enough sensors to drive safely. Tesla’s less capable Autopilot driver-assist system, with the same camera sensors, is under investigation by U.S. safety regulators for braking for no reason and repeatedly running into emergency vehicles with flashing lights parked along freeways.
In 2019, Musk promised a fleet of autonomous robotaxis would be in use by the end of 2020. They are still being tested.
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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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Japan to pay up to $320M for US company’s chip production
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TOKYO — Japan is providing a major U.S. chipmaker a subsidy of up to 46.6 billion yen ($322 million) to support its plan to produce advanced memory chips at a Hiroshima factory, the Japanese trade minister said Friday.
The announcement to subsidize Micron Technology comes on the heels of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit in Japan as the two countries step up cooperation on expanding manufacturing and supply chains for critical materials.
“I hope the deal will contribute to further expansion of cooperation between Japan and the United States in the area of semiconductors,” Japan’s Economy and Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.
He said the government approved the deal Friday under a law related to economic security.
Japan has set up its own fund to support semiconductor production, and Friday’s agreement is its third deal.
During her trip to Asia this week, Harris met with Japanese officials and semiconductor company executives to seek greater cooperation in strengthening semiconductor development and production amid China’s growing influence.
Micron was among the companies that participated in the meeting with Harris, along with Tokyo Electron, Nikon, Hitachi High-Tech Group, Fujitsu Ltd.
Micron said in a statement it will use the subsidy to strengthen production capacity and speed up development of the company’s 1-beta DRAM — memory chips that are key to advanced data facilities — as well as technology for a 5G network upgrade and artificial intelligence.
The United States is working to solidify its technology cooperation with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, while trying to increase its domestic semiconductor manufacturing, amid China’s own investment in computer chips.
The deal Friday “symbolizes the investment and integration of our two economies and supply chains,” said U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who has been promoting economic security between the two allies. “And that will only accelerate from here forward.”
Nishimura has stressed the U.S.-Japan alliance on semiconductors, energy and other areas.
Japan was once a world leader in computer chip manufacturing, but its status has eroded over the last two decades, and the country is increasingly worried about falling behind.
Japan has allocated 476 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in subsidies for a new factory in Japan’s southern prefecture of Kumamoto being built in a partnership between the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Sony Group and Denso Corp.
Japan is also providing up to 92.9 billion yen ($644 million) to another facility in central Japan’s Mie prefecture jointly built by Western Digital Corp. and Kioxia Corp.
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