Uber is looking at adding benefits and insurance for drivers

At the Code Conference tonight, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi spoke about the company’s relationship with drivers, autonomous driving, uberEATS having a $6 billion bookings run rate, taking over as CEO and flying taxis, obviously.

Just this week, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent subpoenas to Uber and Lyft seeking information on driver pay, benefits and classification info. Uber wasn’t available for comment at the time, but now it seems that the company is looking at ways to offer benefits and insurance to drivers. Specifically, Uber is looking at an economically-sound way to offer drivers a benefits and insurance package so that “this can be a safer way of living,” Khosrowshahi said.

And despite what former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in the past about needing to get rid of the driver, Khosrowshahi said he disagrees.

“The face of Uber is the person sitting in the front seat,” Khosrowshahi said. He added that it usually is a man driving, but that he would “love to have more women sitting in the front seat” because it’s a “great form of employment.”

Still, Uber is moving ahead with autonomous driving. That’s in light of the fatal car accident in Tempe, Arizona involving one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles.

“We will get back on the road over the summer,” Khosrowshahi said.

Uber also envisions licensing its technology — once it’s safe enough — to third-parties and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Despite the high-profile lawsuit between Uber and Waymo over self-driving car technology, Khosrowshahi said he’d welcome Waymo to put its cars into its network. Regarding Uber’s relationship with Waymo, Khosrowshahi said it’s “getting better.”

In addition to Uber’s core driver business and autonomous driving, it has several other things going on for it. One of those is uberEATS, which Khosrowshahi said has a $6 billion run rate, is growing 200 percent and is the biggest food delivery company in the world, with the exception of those in China.

Uber also recently acquired JUMP Bikes for about $200 million, launched UberRENT, announced a public transportation partnership with Masabi and is working on flying cars via its Elevate program.

Just like residential and buildings have gone three-dimensional, Khosrowshahi said, “you’re going to have to build a third-dimension in terms of transportation.”

For Uber, Elevate is its “big bet” on that third-dimension of transportation, he said. The big plan with all of these modes of transportations — whether that’s bike-sharing, ride-sharing, flight-sharing or whatnot — is to become a multi-modal transportation service.

“We want to be the Amazon for transportation,” Khosrowshahi said.

Earlier in the conversation, Khosrowshahi shed some light into how he had no idea he’d get the chief executive officer job at Uber. In fact, he said that while his wife thought he would get the job, he wasn’t as optimistic.

He also spoke about his relationship with Kalanick and how, early on, Khosrowshahi asked for space and Kalanick respected that.

“I consult with him the way I consult with the board,” Khosrowshahi said.

Moving forward, Khosrowshahi still has his eyes set on the second half of 2019 to go public.

“We’re on track,” he said.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/uber-is-looking-at-adding-benefits-and-insurance-for-drivers/
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Here's why Twitter's locking people out of their accounts

It's been just a few days since Europe's GDPR rules went into effect and the regulations have already had a pretty disastrous effect on a large number of Twitter users. 

Over the past week, the company's been suspending the accounts of people who joined Twitter before they were 13 — even if they're now older — due to new European privacy laws.

SEE ALSO: The mute button is Twitter's most underrated feature

It's not clear just how many accounts have been affected, but a look at the r/Twitter subreddit and the #TwitterLockout hashtag shows a substantial number of users have reported suspensions in recent days. VentureBeat also reports that at least one business account, which had listed a "birthdate" as the company's founding date, had also been suspended.  Read more...

More about Tech, Twitter, Privacy, Social Media Companies, and Gdpr

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MoviePass parent company gets into the film production business

Helios and Matheson Analytics, the parent company of movie ticket subscription service MoviePass, is trying to vertically integrate its business with a new acquisition. It has an "exclusive option" to acquire the library and production slate of Emmet...

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/30/moviepass-films-efo-films/
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Duchess of Sussex and Ruth Davidson named on influential women list

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/31/duchess-sussex-ruth-davidson-named-influential-women-list/
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China’s SenseTime, the world’s highest-valued AI startup, closes $620M follow-on round

SenseTime, the world’s highest-valued AI company with a valuation of over $4.5 billion, is back in the money again.

The company raised $600 million in an Alibaba-led financing round announced last month, and now it has added a further $620 million to that with a “Series C+” round announced today.

Alibaba led the previous deal, and this time around the investors include more traditional names such as Fidelity International, Hopu Capital, Silver Lake and Tiger Global. Qualcomm, which previously backed the firm, was also in this round, SenseTime confirmed.

The new money takes SenseTime to $1.6 billion from investors to date. The valuation has remained “over” $4.5 billion across both of these recent rounds, according to the company. It was previously valued at $1.5 billion when it raised a $410 million Series B last year.

Alibaba said at the time of its investment last month that it had become the largest-single investor in SenseTime. Given this fresh injection, it isn’t clear whether that has changed. A SenseTime spokesperson told TechCrunch that “Alibaba and other lead investors have similar status.”

SenseTime said it has more than 700 customers across a range of verticals including fintech, automotive, fintech, smartphones, smart city development and more that include Honda, Nvidia, China’s UnionPay, Weibo, China Merchants Bank, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.

Perhaps its most visible partner is the Chinese government, which uses its systems for its national surveillance system. SenseTime process data captured by China’s 170 million CCTV cameras and newer systems which include smart glasses worn by police offers on the street.

Former Google China head targets AI opportunities with new $900M Sinovation fund

China has placed vast emphasis on tech development, with AI one of its key flagposts.

A government program aims to make the country the world leader in AI technology by 2030, the New York Times reported, by which time it is estimated that the industry could be worth some $150 billion per year. SenseTime’s continued development fees directly into that ambition.

SenseTime has been busy extending its presence lately. It became the first company to join the MIT Intelligence Quest and, alongside Alibaba, it is launching an AI lab in Hong Kong. The firm said, too, it has formulated an AI textbook for secondary students in China which will make its way to 40 schools soon.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/even-more-money-for-senstime-ai-china/
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Kim Kardashian West meets Donald Trump at the White House

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/kim-kardashian-west-meets-donald-trump-white-house/
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Google brings its FilesGo Android device management app to China

Google has continued its slow and steady China strategy after it launched Files Go, a files management service for Android devices. The app launched to global markets last year but today it landed in China via four third-party app stores.

Named ‘Google 文件极客’ in China, the app helps users keep within the storage limits of their device by suggesting files to delete if they need to free up space. It also includes feature for finding files and sharing them to local devices without an internet connection. Like a solid internet connection, keeping enough free space on a device is critical to it running efficiently and quickly which is Files Go aims to help.

Files Go was designed for India, where budget Android phones are mainstream, but interest in the app was so widespread that it was later launched worldwide. Indeed, the U.S. is now the third-largest market for the app, Josh Woodward, a product manager within Google’s ‘Next Billion’ team, told TechCrunch in an interview.

Google is quietly formulating a new strategy for China

Given that global demand, bringing the app to China, where Google is testing out new strategies, makes plenty of sense. The launch also allows Google to work with third-party app stores for distribution since the Google Play Store is banned in China. It selected Tencent, Xiaomi, Huawei and Baidu and the experience is sure to help Google figure out the lay of the land.

Google’s services remain banned in the country, but this is the third product launch it has made in China following the return of Google Translate last year and this week’s launch of ARCore.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/google-brings-its-filesgo-android-device-management-app-to-china/
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Google is quietly formulating a new strategy for China

Google is slowing piecing together a strategy for China to ensure that it doesn’t miss out on the growth of technology in the world’s largest country. It’s been months in the making through a series of gradual plays, but further evidence of those plans comes today via a product launch.

Files Go — a file manager for Android devices released last year — has made its way to China today. Not a huge launch, for sure, but the mechanisms behind it provide insight into how Google may be thinking about the country, where it has been absent since 2010 after redirecting its Chinese search service to Hong Kong in the face of government pressure.

For Files Go, Google is taking a partner-led approach to distribution because the Google Play Store does not operate in China. The company is working with Tencent, Huawei, Xiaomi and Baidu, each of which will stock the app in their independent app stores, which are among the country’s most prominent third-party stores.

Let that sink in a little: the creator of Android is using third-party Android app stores to distribute one of its products.

On the outside that’s quite the scenario, but in China it makes perfect sense.

There’s been regular media speculation in recent about Google’s desire to return to China which, during its absence, has become the largest single market for smartphone users, and the country with the most app downloads and highest app revenue per year. Mostly the rumors have centered around audacious strategies such as the return of the Google Play Store or the restoration of Google’s Chinese search business, both of which would mean complying with demands from the Chinese government.

Then there’s the politics. The U.S. and China are currently in an ongoing trade standoff that has spilled into tech, impacting deals, while Chinese premier Xi Jinping has taken a protectionist approach to promoting local business and industries, in particular AI. XI’s more controversial policies, including the banning of VPNs, have put heat on Apple, which stands accused of colluding with authorities and preventing free speech in China.

Political tension between the U.S. and China is affecting tech companies. [Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Even when you remove the political issues, a full return is a tough challenge. Google would be starting businesses almost from scratch in a highly competitive market where it has little brand recognition.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that it hasn’t made big moves… yet at least.

Instead, it appears that the company is exploring more nimble approaches. There have been opportunistic product launches using established platforms, and generally Google seems intent at building relationships and growing a local presence that allows its global business to tap into the talent and technology that China offers.

Files Go is the latest example, but already we’ve seen Google relaunch its Translate app in 2017 and more recently it brought its ARCore technology for augmented and virtual reality to China using partners, which include Xiaomi and Huawei.

Bouquets of flowers lie on the Google logo outside the company’s China head office in Beijing on March 23, 2010 after the US web giant said it would no longer filter results and was redirecting mainland Chinese users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong — effectively closing down the mainland site. Google’s decision to effectively shut down its Chinese-language search engine is likely to stunt the development of the Internet in China and isolate local web users, analysts say. (Photo credit: xin/AFP/Getty Images)

Beyond products, Google is cultivating relationships, too.

It inked a wide-ranging patent deal with Tencent, China’s $500 billion tech giant which operates WeChat and more, and has made strategic investments to back AI startup XtalPi (alongside Tencent), live-streaming platform Chushou, and AI and hardware company Mobvoi. There have been events, too, including AlphaGo’s three-game battle with Chinese grandmaster Ke Jie in Wuzhen, developer events in China and the forthcoming first Google Asia Demo Day, which takes places in Shanghai in September.

In addition to making friends in the right places, Google is also increasing its own presence on Chinese soil. The company opened an AI lab in Beijing to help access China-based talent, while it also unveiled a more modest presence in Shenzhen, China’s hardware capital, where it has a serviced office for staff. That hardware move ties into Google’s acquisition of a chunk of HTC’s smartphone division for $1.1 billion.

The strategy is no doubt in its early days, so now is a good time to keep a keen eye on Google’s moves in this part of the world.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/google-is-quietly-formulating-a-new-strategy-for-china/
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3 reasons why Microsoft's more valuable than Google

Microsoft just earned some serious bragging rights.

The company surpassed Google owner Alphabet to become the third-most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of more than $760 billion — about $15 billion more than Alphabet.

SEE ALSO: Here's how Amazon's Alexa will work with Microsoft's Cortana

It's not the first time the two companies have traded places on the most valuable companies list (the first two spots belong to Apple and Amazon, respectively), but, as CNBC notes, it's the first time Microsoft's taken the lead over Google in a number of years. 

What's more, the latest milestone is a noteworthy moment for Microsoft, which is finally starting to see some of its long-term bets pay off in significant ways.  Read more...

More about Tech, Google, Microsoft, Windows 10, and Tech

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Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump talked about prison reform, because 2018 is off the rails

This year has been a pretty wild one already, but it just got stranger. 

Kim Kardashian West — like, beauty mogul and reigning queen of reality TV Kim Kardashian West — visited the White House on Wednesday to talk about prison reform with President Donald Trump. 

SEE ALSO: Trump thanks MAGA-hat-wearing Kanye and we're just done with this

Trump tweeted this painful photo after the meeting: 

Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencingpic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018

Naturally, the photo quickly became a meme on Twitter, because how were there two reality TV stars in the Oval Office? Read more...

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Foursquare puts check-in data to greater use in apps like Snapchat

Foursquare might not be as big as it was in its heyday, but it has a clever strategy for remaining important: it's making itself indispensable to the apps you use every day. On top of its recent Tinder Places deal, it's becoming the main point-of-in...

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/30/foursquare-mapbox-deal/
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North Korean 'spymaster' Kim Jong-chol meets Mike Pompeo in New York ahead of planned Trump summit

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/north-korean-spymaster-arrives-new-york-talks-donald-trump-ahead/
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Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee says enough with favoring the ‘good guys’

Diversity and inclusion is a trash fire in Silicon Valley and in the business world at large. But let’s just focus on tech for now. At the Code Conference this evening, All Raise and Cowboy Ventures Partner Aileen Lee, shift7 CEO Megan Smith and Stubhub President Sukhinder Singh Cassidy talked about the state of diversity and inclusion in tech. Lee kicked things off with how the idea and statement that someone is such a “good guy” bothers her.

Often times, she said, that’s the qualification for how many of these men get the opportunity to invest in companies or work at certain companies. Meanwhile, if someone suggests a woman or person of color, Lee said, the questions are totally different and focused on qualifications.

“Good guys have hired and funded good guys,” Lee said.

Moving forward, “we need to systematically map out our industry and business processes and try to take the biases out of them,” Lee said. She added, “people have not been given a fair shot and we need to kind of re-engineer our business.”

“Last year it was like every month there was a new story where you just could no longer ignore it,” Lee said. “We have a lot of work to do but I’m pretty optimistic.”

She pointed to how she’s sat at a board meeting where the male CEO pointed out, unprompted, that he sees the company is all male and is at risk of becoming a company no one would want to work for.

The panel also touched on the importance of diversity at the board level and some backlash. For example, some firms have suggested men don’t have one-on-one meetings with women. But Lee says, “we’re definitely not going to solve this problem by men saying they’re afraid to meet with women.”

Toward the end of the panel, Smith pointed out that “the people who are most left out are women of color.”

While there were women of color on stage at the Code Conference this week, Smith’s assertion was especially notable given the absence of black men and women.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/cowboy-ventures-aileen-lee-says-enough-with-favoring-the-good-guys/
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'Murdered' journalist Arkady Babchenko turns up alive after death staged to 'expose Russian plot'

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/arkady-babchenko-still-alive-staged-assassination/
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Monster headphones grasps at relevancy with planned $300 million ICO

If at first you don't succeed, maybe try launching a $300 million initial coin offering. 

That appears to be the thinking of headphone manufacturer Monster Products, Inc., which last week filed a statement with the SEC laying out its plans to sell "Monster Money Tokens" in what could charitably be described as a last grasp at relevance. 

SEE ALSO: Our favorite blockchain pitches of 2017

Coindesk spotted the SEC filing in question and noted that the company perhaps most famous for losing control of Beats just so happens to have also been "losing money for years." Monster Products is the same manufacturer that, according to an in-depth Gizmodo report, developed Beats headphones but then signed away the technology rights to Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Read more...

More about Headphones, Cryptocurrency, Initial Coin Offering, Tech, and Other

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Is Apple ready to take on Netflix?

This super creepy Tom Waits number pops into my head every time I read about another Apple content acquisition. For a billion-dollar project from one of the world’s biggest companies, the company’s upcoming streaming service is shaping up to be a strange collection of original content. 

Of course, I’m not really sure what I expected after Apple unleashed Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps on the world. Neither were the kind of thing that imbues you with confidence in a company’s programming choices.

I wrote a review of sorts of the former here, but was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt that it just wasn’t for me, like cilantro, cats or late-era Radiohead. But clearly I wasn’t alone on this one. And Planet of the Apps — the less said about that one the better, probably. Neither particularly jibe with Eddy Cue’s whole, “We’re not after quantity, we’re after quality” spiel.

Announcements have picked up considerably, even in the few months following that appearance at SXSW, but Apple’s got a lot of catching up to do against content juggernauts like Netflix, Hulu and even Amazon. Of course, the company’s got a long, proud history of showing up a bit late to the party and still blowing the competition out of the water in the hardware space.

And while Apple Music is still far from overtaking Spotify, the music streaming service has been adding subscribers at a steady clip, courtesy of, among other things, being built directly into the company’s software offerings — a fringe benefit that Apple’s eventual video streaming service will no doubt share. It’s true, of course, that users are more likely to subscribe to multiple video streaming services than music ones, but the company’s going to have to offer more than ecosystem accessibility. At this point, however, it’s hard not to side with Fox CEO James Murdoch’s comments on the matter from earlier today.

“Going piece by piece, one by one, show by show, etc., is gonna take a long time to really move the dial and having something mega,” the exec told a crowd at the Code Conference. “I do think that’s gonna be very challenging.”

And this first round of programming is a bit of a mixed bag. Among the current crop of offerings, Amazing Stories feels like close to a slam dunk, because if the combination of Spielberg and nostalgia can make Ready Player One a box office success story, then, well, surely it can work on anything, right?

Perhaps it’s the dribs and drabs with which the company has been revealing its content play over a matter of months. When Apple wanted to launch a streaming music service, the company went ahead and bought Beats in 2014. Sure, the headphone business was a nice bonus, but it was pretty clear from the outset that Beats Music was the real meat of that deal. A year later, Apple Music was unleashed on the world. 

The latest rumors have the company’s video streaming service “launching as early as March 2019.” That gives the company a little less than a year to really wow us with original content announcements, if it really wants to hit the ground running — assuming, of course, that many or most of the titles are already in production.

More likely, the company will ultimately ease into it. Apple Music, after all, didn’t exactly light the world on fire at launch, and Apple’s got no shortage or revenue streams at the moment, so it certainly won’t go bust if its billion-dollar investment fails to pay off overnight. But the competition is fierce for this one, extending beyond obvious competitors like Netflix and Hulu to longstanding networks like HBO, which are all vying to lock you in to monthly fees.

This battle won’t be easily won. The company has been mostly tight-lipped in all of this (as is its custom), but success is going to take a long-term commitment, with the understanding that it will most likely require a long runway to reap its own investment.

That projected $4 billion annual investment looks like a good place to start, but with Netflix planning to spend double that amount this year and Amazon potentially on target to pass it, Apple’s in for a bloody and expensive fight. 

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/is-apple-ready-to-take-on-netflix/
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Kim Jong-un's right-hand man Kim Yong-chol holds talks with Mike Pompeo in New York

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/29/kim-jong-uns-right-hand-man-reportedly-way-washington-talks/
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Scientists have 3D printed the most advanced artificial cornea ever using human cells

Scientists have 3D printed the thin protective film over the eye, called the cornea, using human cells — and it’s the most advanced version of an artificial cornea yet. Should the technology improve, it could help millions of people see again.

It was tricky to find the right recipe for an ink that’s thin enough to squirt through a 3D printer’s nozzle, says Che Connon, a tissue engineer at Newcastle University who was one of the creators of the artificial cornea. This bio-ink didn’t just have to be thin — it also had to be stiff enough that it could hold its shape as a 3D structure. To get the right consistency, the researchers added a jelly-like goo called alginate and stem cells extracted from donor corneas, along with some ropy...

Continue reading…

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/30/17411268/cornea-transplants-3d-printing-human-cells-eyes-science
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Hulu’s live TV service surpasses 800,000 subscribers

During an interview with CNBC today, Hulu CEO Randy Freer said that the company's live TV service had surpassed 800,000 subscribers, with April being the best month yet for gaining new customers. The live service launched just over a year ago and in...

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/30/hulu-live-tv-surpasses-800-000-subscribers/
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Mischievous puppy gets its head stuck in dryer vent on the side of a house

Curious dogs will get themselves into situations you never could even imagine. 

Take this 5-month-old puppy named Teagan, who managed to get her cute little doofy head stuck in a dryer vent while her owner was out. And by stuck, we mean really stuck.

How you ask? Well, Teagan's owner explains in the YouTube video description that the little rascal chewed out a portion of the wall and insulation behind the dryer before getting her head stuck. 

After her owner moved the dryer and the outside vent, Teagan's head was still stuck. So, she ended up rubbing vegetable oil on her, which eventually did the trick, but not before giving her owner one last scare. Read more...

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Government investigation finds federal agencies failing at cybersecurity basics

The Office of Management and Budget reports that the federal government is a shambles — cybersecurity-wise, anyway. Finding little situational awareness, few standard processes for reporting or managing attacks and almost no agencies adequately performing even basic encryption, the OMB concluded that “the current situation is untenable.”

All told, nearly three quarters of federal agencies have cybersecurity programs that qualified as either “at risk” (significant gaps in security) or “high risk” (fundamental processes not in place).

The report, which you can read here, lists four major findings, each of which with its own pitiful statistics and recommendations that occasionally amount to a complete about-face or overhaul of existing policies.

1. “Agencies do not understand and do not have the resources to combat the current threat environment.”

The simple truth and perhaps origin of all these problems is that the federal government is a slow-moving beast that can’t keep up with the nimble threat of state-sponsored hackers and the rapid pace of technology. The simplest indicator of this problem is perhaps this: of the 30,899 (!) known successful compromises of federal systems in FY 2016, 11,802 of them never even had their threat vector identified.

DHS and FBI detail how Russia is hacking into U.S. nuclear facilities and other critical infrastructure

38 percent of attacks had no identified method or attacker.

So for 38 percent of successful attacks, they don’t have a clue who did it or how!

This lack of situational awareness means that even if they have budgets in the billions, these agencies don’t have the capability to deploy them effectively.

While cyber spending increases year-over-year, OMB found that agencies are not effectively using available information, such as threat intelligence, incident data, and network traffic flow data to determine the extent that assets are at risk, or inform how they to prioritize resource allocations.

To this end, the OMB will be working with agencies on a threat-based budget model, looking at what is actually possible to affect the agency, what is in place to prevent it and what specifically needs to be improved.

2. “Agencies do not have standardized cybersecurity processes and IT capabilities.”

There’s immense variety in the tasks and capabilities of our many federal agencies, but you would think that some basics would have been established along the lines of best practices for reporting, standard security measures to lock down secure systems and so on. Nope!

For example, one agency lists no fewer than 62 separately managed email services in its environment, making it virtually impossible to track and inspect inbound and outbound communications across the agency.

51 percent of agencies can’t detect or whitelist software running on their systems

Only half of the agencies the OMB looked at said they have the ability to detect and whitelist software running on their systems. Now, while it may only be needed on a case by case basis for IT to manage users’ apps and watch for troubling processes, well, the capability should at least be there!

When something happens, things are little better: 59 percent of agencies have some kind of standard process for communicating cyber threats to their users. So, for example, if one of their 62 email systems has been compromised, the agency as likely as not has no good way to notify everyone about it.

And only 30 percent have “predictable, enterprise-wide incident response processes in place,” meaning once the threat has been detected, only one in three has some kind of standard procedure for who to tell and what to tell them.

Establishing standard processes for cybersecurity and general harmony in computing resources is something the OMB has been working on for a long time. Too bad the position of cyber coordinator just got eliminated.

White House sheds cyber coordinator role

3. “Agencies lack visibility into what is occurring on their networks, and especially lack the ability to detect data exfiltration.”

Monitoring your organization’s data and traffic, both internal and external, is a critical part of any cybersecurity plan. Time and again federal agencies have proven susceptible to all kinds of exfiltration schemes, from USB keys to phishing for login details.

73 percent can’t detect attempts to access large volumes of data.

Turns out that only 27 percent of the agencies even “have the ability to detect and investigate attempts to access large volumes of data.”

Simply put, agencies cannot detect when large amounts of information leave their networks, which is particularly alarming in the wake of some of the high-profile incidents across government and industry in recent years.

Hard to secure your data if you can’t see where it’s going. After the “high-profile incidents” to which the OMB report alludes, one would think that detection and lockdown of data repositories would be one of the first efforts these agencies would make.

Perhaps it’s the total lack of insight into how and why these things occur. Only 17 percent of agencies analyzed incident response data after the fact, so maybe they just filed the incidents away, never to be looked at again.

The OMB has a smart way to start addressing this: one agency that has its act together will be designated a “SOC [Secure Operations Center] Center of Excellence.” (Yes, “Center” is there twice.) This SOC will offer secure storage and access as a service to other agencies while the latter improve or establish their own facilities.

4. “Agencies lack standardized and enterprise-wide processes for managing cybersecurity risks”

There’s a bit of overlap with 2 here, but redundancy is the name of the game when it comes to the U.S. government. This one is a bit more focused on the leadership itself.

While most agencies noted… that their leadership was actively engaged in cybersecurity risk management, many did not, or could not, elaborate in detail on leadership engagement above the CIO level.

Federal agencies possess neither robust risk management programs nor consistent methods for notifying leadership of cybersecurity risks across the agency.

84 percent of agencies failed to meet goals for encrypting data at rest.

In other words, cyber is being left to the cyber-guys, with little guidance or clout offered by the higher-ups at the agencies. That’s important because, as the OMB notes, many decisions or requests can only be made by those higher-ups. For example, budgetary concerns.

Despite “repeated calls from industry leaders, GAO [the Government Accountability Office], and privacy advocates” to utilize encryption wherever possible, less than 16 percent of agencies achieved their targets for encrypting data at rest. Sixteen percent! Encrypting at rest isn’t even that hard!

Turns out this is an example of under-investment by the powers that be. Non-defense agencies budgeted a total between them of under $51 million on encrypting data in FY 2017, which is extremely little even before you consider that half of that came from two agencies. How are even motivated IT departments supposed to migrate to encrypted storage when they have no money to hire the experts or get the equipment necessary to do so?

“Agencies have demonstrated that this is a low priority…it is easy to see government’s priorities must be realigned,” the OMB remarked.

While the conclusion of the report isn’t as gloomy as the body, it’s clear that the OMB’s researchers are deeply disappointed by what they found. This is hardly a new issue, despite the current president’s designation of it as a key issue — the previous presidents did as well, but movement has been slow and halting, punctuated by disastrous breaches and embarrassing leaks.

The report declines to name and shame the offending agencies, perhaps because their failings and successes were diverse and no one deserved worse treatment than another, but it seems highly likely that in less public channels those agencies are not being spared. Hopefully this damning report will put spurs to the efforts that have been limping along for the last decade.

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/government-investigation-finds-federal-agencies-failing-at-cybersecurity-basics/
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Activists launch nationwide day of action for #WhereAreTheChildren

Over the weekend, #WhereAreTheChildren became a viral hashtag of horror. 

Initial reports that the federal government "lost" nearly 1,500 immigrant children gave way to outraged tweets, calls to action, and reflections on what it'd be like to have a child torn from your arms.  

SEE ALSO: Russia stole these activists' causes — but they're not backing down

While the preliminary coverage reportedly mischaracterized the children's whereabouts, it quickly drew attention to a new Trump administration policy that separates children from their immigrant parents once they attempt to enter the United States, particularly at the Mexican border. Read more...

More about Kids, Social Good, Immigration, Trump Administration, and Social Good

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/G2xwJ4Wk6yg/
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MoD's housing plan is 'short on detail' and risks driving personnel out of the military

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/mods-housing-plan-short-detail-risks-driving-personnel-military/
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Harvey Weinstein indicted on rape charges by New York grand jury

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/harvey-weinstein-indicted-rape-charges-new-york-grand-jury/
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Wind turbine catches fire during thunderstorm in Cambridgeshire

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/wind-turbine-catches-fire-thunderstorm-cambridgeshire/
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Tesla's Autopilot keeps crashing into parked cars. Here's why.

Another week, another Tesla crashing into a stationary vehicle that just came out of nowhere.

But that's the thing. The electric car's semi-autonomous driving assistance feature, known as Autopilot, has this very situation — parked cars seemingly coming out of nowhere — written into the manual. It's a known limitation of the driver assistance tool.

SEE ALSO: Pro-tip: Tesla's autopilot doesn't mean you can sit in the passenger seat

This week it was a Tesla driver in Laguna Beach, Calif., that hit a parked police car. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt (and no one was in the police vehicle), but it was another ding for Tesla's Autopilot reputation. It keeps crashing.  Read more...

More about Tesla, Autopilot, Self Driving Cars, Semi Autonomous, and Tech

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/HTo-ZcxGblA/
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California Senate passes net neutrality bill

California just edged closer to establishing its own net neutrality law in the wake of the FCC's decision to kill federal measures. The state Senate has passed a bill that would not only institute rules like those the FCC implemented in 2015, but wo...

from TV Aerial Installation Services Warrington https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/30/california-senate-passes-net-neutrality-bill/
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Patient will need surgery to correct work left incomplete by orthodontist

A PATIENT will require surgery to correct dental work left incomplete by an orthodontist who is believed to have fled the country.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16257881.Patient_will_need_surgery_to_correct_work_left_incomplete_by_orthodontist/?ref=rss
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Greedy fundraiser jailed for stealing money from Cancer Research UK

A 'GREEDY' fraudster who stole money intended for Cancer Research and forged a letter from the charity has been jailed.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258183.Greedy_fundraiser_jailed_for_stealing_money_from_Cancer_Research_UK/?ref=rss
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Footballer ties the knot in Gary Barlow's former mansion

FORMER Birchwood High pupil James Chester has tied the knot in Gary Barlow's former mansion.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258096.Footballer_ties_the_knot_in_Gary_Barlow_s_former_mansion/?ref=rss
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Police probe into 'targeted' shooting in Orford

A POLICE investigation is ongoing after a gun was fired at a parked car in Orford during a 'targeted attack'.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258174.Police_probe_into___39_targeted__39__shooting_in_Orford/?ref=rss
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The dad who was diagnosed with cancer after only being able to eat two chocolates and a breadstick on Christmas Day

WHEN Robert Kershaw was able to eat only two chocolates and a breadstick on Christmas Day in 2015, he knew he needed to go to the doctor’s.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16256634.The_dad_who_was_diagnosed_with_cancer_after_only_being_able_to_eat_two_chocolates_and_a_breadstick_on_Christmas_Day/?ref=rss
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WATCH: Stockton Heath Primary pay tribute to Viola Beach with 'We're the Wolves' song

PUPILS from Stockton Heath Primary School have been working with the Warrington Wolves Charitable Foundation to write and perform a song for the team.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16256261.WATCH__Stockton_Heath_Primary_pay_tribute_to_Viola_Beach_with__We_re_the_Wolves__song/?ref=rss
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Neighbourhood Weekender hailed as 'part of legacy' of City of Culture bid

THE councillor responsible for the town's culture believes Neighbourhood Weekender is 'one part of the legacy' of Warrington's failed City of Culture bid.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16259335.Neighbourhood_Weekender_hailed_as__part_of_legacy__of_City_of_Culture_bid/?ref=rss
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Long delays on M6 as vehicle breaks down

THERE are long delays on the M6 in Warrington after two lanes were closed by a broken down vehicle.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16259380.Long_delays_on_M6_as_vehicle_breaks_down/?ref=rss
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Pupils at Culcheth Community Primary celebrate annual Arts Week

PUPILS from Culcheth Community Primary School took part in an African drumming class as part of an annual celebration of the arts.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16256172.Pupils_at_Culcheth_Community_Primary_celebrate_annual_Arts_Week/?ref=rss
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New shares issued in bank council invested £30m in ‘not weakened’ its position

WARRINGTON Borough Council insists new shares issued in a bank it has invested £30 million in has 'not weakened' its position.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16259130.New_shares_issued_in_bank_council_invested___30m_in____not_weakened____its_position/?ref=rss
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6 Warrington town centre stores appear on high street's worst shops list

SIX stores in Warrington town centre have been named in a worst high street shops poll conducted by Which?

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16259132.6_Warrington_town_centre_stores_appear_on_high_street_s_worst_shops_list/?ref=rss
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Burglar who thought he was untouchable jailed for crime spree

A PROLIFIC burglar who went to great lengths to conceal his crimes and thought he was untouchable has been jailed.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258974.Burglar_who_thought_he_was_untouchable_jailed_for_crime_spree/?ref=rss
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Morrisons launches 19-piece full English breakfast

HOW do you like to start the day?

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258815.Morrisons_launches_19-piece_full_English_breakfast/?ref=rss
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1,000 residents object to plans to build £7.83m waste transfer station

ALMOST 1,000 residents have signed a petition objecting to the council's proposals to build a £7.83 million waste transfer station on Winwick Road.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258658.1_000_residents_object_to_plans_to_build___7_83m_waste_transfer_station/?ref=rss
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The Beast from ITV's The Chase set to host quiz in Culcheth

THE Chase’s Mark Labbett is coming to Culcheth in August.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258606.The_Beast_from_ITV_s_The_Chase_set_to_host_quiz_in_Culcheth/?ref=rss
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Train passengers set for major disruption due to work on Warrington West station

TRAIN passengers are set for major disruption next month as work on the £19 million Warrington West railway station takes place.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258493.Train_passengers_set_for_major_disruption_due_to_work_on_Warrington_West_station/?ref=rss
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John Bishop heads up charity comedy night for Warrington Wolves Foundation

GET ready to howl with laughter for Warrington Wolves Foundation.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258330.John_Bishop_heads_up_charity_comedy_night_for_Warrington_Wolves_Foundation/?ref=rss
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Police hunt motorist who drove off after causing crash that closed Manchester Road

POLICE are hunting a motorist who drove off after being involved in a crash that closed Manchester Road last night.

from Warrington Guardian | News http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/16258304.Police_hunt_motorist_who_drove_off_after_causing_crash_that_closed_Manchester_Road/?ref=rss
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AR Madness — our open source ARKit game tutorial! Part One — Game Design and First ARKit app

This post is part one of an epic five part tutorial on how to make a fun Augmented Reality game that we really enjoyed making and that we…

Continue reading on LibertyIT »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/libertyit/ar-madness-our-open-source-arkit-game-tutorial-part-one-game-design-and-first-arkit-app-1ba35bea136d?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Mind Control

By Josh Wolfe

Continue reading on Lux Capital »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/lux-capital/mind-control-343b5d5f148f?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Which hardware should I use as a Remote Machine Learning Engineer?

The premise of Digital Nomadism is great: As a coder, you can take your slim MacBook to a beach in Bali and just work from there. But what…

Continue reading on Towards Data Science »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://towardsdatascience.com/which-hardware-should-i-use-as-a-remote-machine-learning-engineer-35af52301d3c?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Dawn of the AR Cloud

Why Google’s Cloud Anchors validate the importance of AR Cloud services and why being first doesn’t mean all that much.

Continue reading on 6D.ai »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/6d-ai/dawn-of-the-ar-cloud-1b31eb4b52ac?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Tech Lessons from Amazon’s Battle in Seattle

The digital giant looks like it is indifferent to the costs created by its success

Continue reading on Financial Times »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/financial-times/tech-lessons-from-amazons-battle-in-seattle-bbafdf09cea5?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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WTF is quantum computing?

How we are solving the previously unsolvable

Continue reading on The Zip Files »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/the-zip-files/wtf-is-quantum-computing-bfa09fb51fad?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Bitcoin’s Need For Electricity Is Its ‘Achilles Heel’

By Frances Coppola

Continue reading on Forbes »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/forbes/bitcoins-need-for-electricity-is-its-achilles-heel-ac8e11ac784e?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Artificial Intelligence Can Take Your Bad Whistling and Make It Sound like Mozart

Facebook researchers used AI to create a universal music translator.

Continue reading on Popular Science »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/popular-science/artificial-intelligence-can-take-your-bad-whistling-and-make-it-sound-like-mozart-f6cc4b60227c?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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Europe Is Reining in Big Tech. Here’s Why America Won’t

Fear of ‘big government’ may outweigh voters’ more abstract concerns about privacy

Continue reading on Financial Times »

from Handpicked stories about Technology on Medium https://medium.com/financial-times/europe-is-reining-in-big-tech-heres-why-america-won-t-aec1660bc17e?source=rss-------8-----------------technology
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How to Talk About Valuation When a VC Asks

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have…

Continue reading on Both Sides of the Table »

from Handpicked stories about Entrepreneurship on Medium https://bothsidesofthetable.com/how-to-talk-about-valuation-when-a-vc-asks-7376f5721226?source=rss-------8-----------------entrepreneurship
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Essential Tips That Will Help You Raise Cash & Grow Your Startup

Daily Blog #52

Continue reading on The Startup »

from Handpicked stories about Entrepreneurship on Medium https://medium.com/swlh/essential-tips-that-will-help-you-raise-cash-grow-your-startup-3b3a372a0764?source=rss-------8-----------------entrepreneurship
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