Category: News

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What’s new this week

CIB lends C$8.1 million to bring broadband infrastructure online to Indigenous and rural communities in Alberta

Source: CIB

Government-based infrastructure investor, Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) will lend C$8.1 billion towards new broadband infrastructure aimed at serving Indigenous and rural communities in Alberta.

Alberta-based network provider Arrow Technology Group (ATG) will be responsible for all aspects of construction, installation, operations, and maintenance of the new broadband service. 

“New broadband access will address the digital divide, create new economic opportunities and support public services like health and education while strengthening communities,” said Ehren Cory, chief executive officer of Canada Infrastructure Bank.

This new broadband service seeks to connect underserved households in 20 Indigenous and four rural communities. The Indigenous communities benefiting from the broadband include First Nations from Treaty 8 and Treaty 6, as well as Métis Settlements. 

CIB’s funding is supported by the government of Canada’s Universal Broadband Fund Rapid Response Stream, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) Broadband Fund and Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada’s Connect to Innovate.

The broadband service will offer internet speeds of 50-300 Mbps and unlimited data, enhancing telecommunications services for residents, businesses and public service delivery.

TELUS appoints chief product officer and president for newly launched Consumer Solutions business unit

Source: Telus

TELUS has appointed Jim Senko as chief product officer and Zainul Mawji as president to lead the company’s newly announced TELUS Consumer Solutions, designed to meet changing customer demands. 

TELUS Consumer Solutions brings together the company’s Mobility Solutions and Home Solutions and Customer Excellence into one unified consumer team, to streamline customer service processes.

According to the company, Senko and Mawji, both TELUS executive vice presidents, will spearhead product innovation to enable it to deliver the best solutions for its customers.

“We are very pleased to establish these new roles for Zainul and Jim, both of whom are exceptionally talented leaders with proven track records of success.” said chief executive officer of TELUS, Darren Entwistle. “Together, they will drive the integration of our wireless, wireline and security solutions organizations through our differentiated service offerings and world-leading execution, enabling positive outcomes for our customers and communities, our investors and our team members in Canada’s dynamic marketplace.”

Senko, who plans to retire from TELUS at the end of this year, will establish the long-term vision and strategy for the chief product officer role, Entwistle noted, while Mawji will oversee the end-to-end design and delivery of TELUS products and services.

UWindsor partners with TELUS to advance 5G research, innovation in agriculture, manufacturing and EVs

Source: UWindsor

Telecommunications company TELUS has invested C$5 million as part of a multi-year collaboration that started in 2020, to enhance teaching, innovation and collaboration on University of Windsor campuses. This investment will also support research in 5G, agriculture, advanced manufacturing and electric vehicles.

Additionally, it will support the launch of a new 5G commercial lab, and the central innovation atrium in the university’s Ed Lumley Centre will be named the TELUS Atrium, where students and researchers will collaborate on projects including:

Working with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and policy makers to better equip connected vehicles to solve cross border challenges, including congestion and supply chain obstacles, using 5G.
Identify vulnerabilities in connected and autonomous vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, in collaboration with non-profit organization Mitacs.
Launch a two-acre, fully operational connected research greenhouse in Harrow, Ontario, using 5G network technology, in collaboration with local greenhouse operation, Horteca.

“This investment will help to grow the local economy of Windsor-Essex and its position in the region as an automobility and technology leader, and will provide UWindsor students with an enhanced academic experience,” said Ibrahim Gedeon, chief technology officer at Telus.

Dell technologies launches next cohort of program to help women in STEM fields thrive

Source: Dell

Dell has launched the fifth cohort of its SOAR with MENTOR (SwM) program to help support young women in post-secondary schools across Canada through skill-building and mentorship aimed at preparing them to thrive in STEM and business fields.

“I’ve built trust, experienced growth, and explored opportunities through their consistent mentoring to help me in any way they saw possible,” said Candy Tang, former mentee of the SwM program, current UBC student, and a Dell employee. “I’ve learned new things in the tech industry; had meetings, answers, and solutions for everything that mattered. They also gave me introductions, internal referrals, and various mock interviews.”

The program’s Cohort 5 will have three virtual meetings, including onboarding on Feb. 15, mid-point social (session for social networking) on Mar. 29 and final celebration on May 4. Participants from previous cohorts 1-4 have the opportunity to continue the program in a 1:1 hybrid model.

auticon Canada celebrates successes in helping Canadians with autism thrive in tech

Source: auticon

auticon Canada, an organization that recruits and trains Canadians with autism to have long and fulfilling careers in technology, is celebrating key 2022 achievements including:

a 10 per cent year-over-year (YOY) increase in new client engagements
an expanded presence within key clients such as Canadian Tire and TELUS Agriculture
a 10 per cent YOY growth in the number of consultants placed
the release of the first of its kind market study on the employment challenges facing Canadians with autism
A redesigned website to help clients and consultants access information more easily

Furthermore, the company awarded the following recognition to clients/consultants who were instrumental to advancing auticon’s mission:

Client of the Year: Marc Wachmann, director of information services, decisive farming at TELUS Agriculture, for his commitment to support neurodivergent employees
Consultant of the Year: Matthew Donovan, recognized for his many contributions to auticon Canada 
Partner of the Year: Ready, Willing & Able, recognized to improve employment outcomes and career development of autistic Canadians across the country.

In 2023, auticon Canada seeks to launch new programs to enable organizations to build their capabilities and capacity to attract and retain neurodivergent talent, through education and training, ongoing coaching and support, and talent acquisition advisory services.

More to explore

Rogers-Shaw merger deadline extended to Feb. 17

Rogers, Shaw, and Québecor announced in a joint statement this morning that the deadline to complete the proposed Rogers – Shaw merger and the sale of Freedom Mobile to Québecor has been extended to Feb. 17, as they await the approval of the Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

Breaking News: Free cybersecurity resources for Canadian retailers now available

Retailers across Canada now have access to a free online and bilingual cybersecurity program.

Quantum Days 2023 poll examines salary compensation issues

At the recent Quantum Days 2023 panel that explored the inner workings of The Expert Panel on Quantum Technologies, a series of poll questions were sent to the audience following its completion that revolved around everything from what sectors are most likely to be early adopters to how Canada stacks up when it comes to salary compensation.

Quantum Days 2023: CCA Expert Panel examining quantum through multitude of different lenses

There was no shortage of advice, updates and points to ponder for upwards of 200 attendees at a panel discussion held earlier this month at a virtual three-day conference called Quantum Days 2023.

Critics face ‘scripted answers’ and conspiracy allegations from Rogers, Shaw and Québecor at House of Commons hearings

Tensions were running high in the House of Commons Wednesday, as the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU) conducted hearings examining the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger. Academics and representatives from independent internet service providers (ISPs) TekSavvy and Globalive lambasted the C$26 billion merger deal, while the merging parties attacked rivals and mechanically parroted their own ideas of public interest and competition.

Data Privacy Week: Build privacy and usability into products, says Telus exec

Data Privacy Week should be a time when IT and business leaders discuss how to support the inclusion of privacy engineering in their products, services, and solutions, says the chief data and trust officer at one of Canada’s biggest telecommunications providers.

Data Privacy Week: Consumers, companies differ on privacy priorities, says study

Consumers and business leaders have different priorities when it comes to data privacy, according to recent studies by Cisco Systems.

B.C. college says info of students, employees at risk following cyber attack

A British Columbia community college says personal information of some students and employees may have been copied by a cyber attacker earlier this month.

Quiet purchase of Cloudify by Dell appears to have edge written all over it

As far as acquisitions go, the recent purchase of cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation vendor Cloudify by Dell Technologies for an estimated US$100 million was devoid of any real detail, since both organizations opted to impose a virtual gag order.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

Hashtag Trending January 31st- Philips layoffs, Chinese ChatGPT, foldable iPad

Listen to the latest episode of Cybersecurity Today

Cyber Security Today, Jan, 30, 2023 – A new data wiper discovered, patches for Lexmark printers and BIND are issued and more

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances

If you live in Québec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.

The post Coffee Briefing Jan. 31 – CIB partners with Arrow; TELUS appoints new chief product officer; Dell launches new cohort of mentorship program; and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

Imagine an adult in front of you talking in an unintelligible foreign language.

That, says Jeffrey Wheatman, is how most chief information security officers (CISOs) sound to their boards and senior management.

Wheatman, the cyber evangelist for U.S.-based IT supply chain security ratings service Black Kite, gave that analogy during his presentation Monday to the annual siberX CISO Forum Canada. In fact, to get his point across he began speaking in … something. It might have been a language. It might have been gibberish. It was certainly unintelligible. It puzzled the audience of infosec pros.

This was his point: Something unintelligible is what directors and senior management hear when most infosec leaders talk.

The solution, he said, is that infosec leaders have to learn to communicate much better to non-IT people.

A former Gartner analyst who has spoken to boards and advised CISOs on how to speak to boards, he offered infosec leaders these four tips to be more effective:

1 – Learn to speak the language of business: “They’re not going to learn our language; we must learn theirs. For us to expect them to learn ours is a failed, doomed exercise.”

One example: Don’t explain the possible impact of ransomware as, ‘It would bring the network down.’ Management doesn’t know what the network is. Instead say, ‘You won’t be able to send invoices, people can’t pay us, we won’t be able to get product out.’ Management, Wheatman said, cares about three things: Money coming in, money going out and “if stuff goes sideways who’s getting in trouble.” What should infosec pros do? Take business classes, many of which are free; learn how to read a general ledger and how accounting is done.

2 – Create stories: Don’t tell boards and management everything you know about cybersecurity. Convey your message in words and imagery to educate, influence a decision or change behaviour. How? Get inspiration from media that tell quick stories as movies, TV shows and commercials do. Build analogies, which are comparisons. Distill your message into a one-page story, which will force you to get to the point. Then practice your pitch, perhaps to a friend, child or spouse. When making that presentation, don’t forget to pause at critical points and wait for a response — is your pitch resonating? Never ask your audience, ‘Does this make sense to you?’ But you can ask, ‘Is this helpful?’

3 – Focus on emotions, “not the ones and zeros in the data and the information,” Wheatman said. Data may persuade people but it doesn’t inspire action. “People remember how they felt after your presentation more than what you told them.” Think about how you want executives to feel when you’re done, he said. If you don’t know what you want them to feel, your message may not land properly. (Hint: It’s okay to want them to feel a little scared, but confident you know what you’re doing.) You can use data — carefully. Too many data points overwhelm audiences. Find some kernels and build around them. Look for hot buttons: Know what’s important to your audience — the CEO wants to hear the impact of cybersecurity on their pet project, the chief operating officer wants to hear about the operational impact, and the sales department wants to hear if it will help/hinder their ability to meet sales goals. You can refer to something that happened to a competitor (“Let’s talk about how we can avoid that.”) Part of this, by the way, also includes scenario-planning: ‘What might happen if (there’s a recession, a virus sweeps the world, we lose internet connectivity …. ).

4 – Understand the organization’s appetite for risk. You don’t want to tell them what their risk is, you want to hear their view of risk by telling stories and asking questions. But everyone should understand and agree on terms like “risk”, “threat” and “operations.” Then create tools to prioritize those risks. Finally, make sure the risk appetite is linked to the organization’s objectives. For example, don’t say employees should be forbidden from installing their own software because the computers will crash. Instead say, ‘We need to keep the computers up so they can support customers.’

The CISO Forum continues Tuesday.

Related content: How boards should talk to CISOs — and how they should talk to boards

The post Why boards tune out CISOs, and 4 ways to get them to listen first appeared on IT World Canada.

Phillips cut 6000 jobs, China’s Baidu to launch its own version of ChatGPT in March and a foldable iPad in the works.

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday, January 31st and I am your host, Ashee Pamma.

Dutch electronics giant Philips is cutting 6000 jobs as it looks to restore its profitability and improve the safety of its products, following a recall of millions of its ventilators. Used to treat sleep apnea, the ventilators were recalled after worries emerged that the foam used in the machines could become toxic. The new reorganisation brings the total number of job cuts announced by new CEO Roy Jakobs in recent months to 10,000, or around 13 per cent of Philips’ current workforce. The company said yesterday that half of the job cuts will be made this year and the other half will be realised next year. Philips shares traded up 5.5 per cent yesterday morning, helped by fourth-quarter earnings which were much better than expected.

Source: Reuters

Chinese internet search major Baidu Inc is planning to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT in March, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The technology firm plans to launch the service as a standalone application and gradually integrate it into its search engine, said the person, who declined to be identified as the information is confidential. Baidu plans to incorporate chatbot-generated results when users make search requests, instead of only links, the person said.  Baidu has already been investing heavily in AI and last month, unveiled three AI-powered creators whose technology allows them to assume the roles of screenwriter, illustrator, editor or animator.

Source: Reuters

According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple could be on track to release a foldable iPad as early as next year. This new model is expected to boost shipments and improve product mix, Kuo tweeted early yesterday. Kuo added that the rumoured foldable iPad will feature a “carbon fiber” kickstand produced by Chinese component manufacturer Anjie Technology. The launch of the foldable iPad will be joined by an improved iPad Mini, due to enter mass production in early 2024, Kuo said. The Verge pointed out that this isn’t the first time Kuo has put a date on an Apple foldable prediction after he said a foldable iPhone might be released in 2023, two years ago. In the more immediate future, Kuo is predicting a drop in iPad shipments of between 10 and 15 percent year-over-year in 2023.

Source: The Verge

Kristin Maczko, Google’s former head of mental health and wellbeing said, in a LinkedIn Post that she was laid off after nearly 15 years working for the company. Maczko added that “many people” in Google’s mental health and wellbeing team had been impacted by the round of layoffs announced on January 20. Explaining the layoffs, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a memo to remaining staff that the company had overhired. The Insider spoke to several current and former Google employees who said they could not understand the rationale behind the decisions. 12,000 workers were slashed in total. 

Source: Insider

Scientists have created an AI system capable of generating artificial enzymes from scratch. Salesforce Research developed the AI program, called ProGen, which uses next-token prediction to assemble amino acid sequences into artificial proteins. Some of these enzymes worked as well as those found in nature, even when their artificially generated amino acid sequences diverged significantly from any known natural protein, University of California reported. Scientists say that this technology will boost the 50-year-old field of protein engineering by speeding the development of new proteins that can be used for almost anything from therapeutics to degrading plastic.

Source: University of California

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Ashee Pamma.

The post Hashtag Trending January 31st- Philips layoffs, Chinese ChatGPT, foldable iPad first appeared on IT World Canada.

As far as acquisitions go, the recent purchase of cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation vendor Cloudify by Dell Technologies for an estimated US$100 million was devoid of any real detail, since both organizations opted to impose a virtual gag order.

In fact, news of the purchase only came to light after published reports revealed that a form known as  S-8 had been filed by Dell with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that outlined shares of its Class C common stock being issued to Cloudify employees.

As of this morning, there had not been a peep from either Cloudify or its new owner. Cloudify is an Israeli-based company that explains on its web site what it specializes in by stating that “organizations scaling their cloud operations are realizing that current DevOps tooling is slowing them down significantly.

“Cloudify removes such blockers by integrating and enriching existing automation and DevOps tools while keeping the infrastructure future-proof, featuring limitless integration to API-based DevOps tools and built-in support for cloud native services.”

Confirmation of the purchase came late last week, when a Dell spokesperson confirmed the acquisition and said, “this transaction allows Dell to continue to innovate our edge offerings.”

According to an article on TechCrunch, the up to US$100 million price tag “would make it a solid exit for Cloudify.”

The story goes on to say that the startup was spun out from GigaSpaces in 2017 and that Nati Shalom, the founder and chief technology officer of Cloudify, was also a co-founder of GigaSpaces. “Since then, the start-up has raised less than US$8 million, according to PitchBook data. It has all several strategic backers on its cap table: VMware, KPN, and Intel were all investors in the company,” the story noted.

Scott Young, director of infrastructure research with Info-Tech Research Group, said in an interview that at this point, the purchase was made in order for Dell to target further edge growth on its APEX as-a-service platform.”

Cloudify, he added, has traditionally been viewed by the research firm as specifically a cloud platform and “what we are seeing out of Dell says that they’re targeting their edge growth for that. The story that we see evolving is effectively the edge – assuming that they’re talking about the APEX platform – is meant to be more cloud on-prem. Buy your hardware on-prem and pay for it in a cloud-like fashion.

“If that’s what they’re looking at doing, and targeting things like, say, manufacturing, they could deploy little clusters of effectively VxRail at different manufacturing sites and potentially a central colocation hosted Dell data centre that is APEX as well, and that would tie into the other cloud services. Cloudify could then be used to build building blocks across that whole unified platform and orchestrate everything in a clean way.

“That would be the play I would see them coming into in saying they are looking to enhance their edge platform with this, presuming again that I am right, that it is APEX they are targeting, and they are tying into the broader cloud services that we also see Cloudify traditionally playing in.”

The post Quiet purchase of Cloudify by Dell appears to have edge written all over it first appeared on IT World Canada.

Retailers across Canada now have access to a free online and bilingual cybersecurity program.

Called the Retail CyberSecure program, it’s an effort of the Retail Council of Canada, IT and loss prevention professionals, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Ontario government’s Ministry of the Solicitor General.

Screen shot of the Retail Council of Canada’s CyberSecure website

The site currently links to previously published cybersecurity awareness articles by the Retail Council, Statistics Canada’s most recent report on the impact of cybercrime, and the U.S. National Institute of Standards in Technology’s Small Business Cybersecurity Corner.

It will be joined by six free webinars, the first of which will arrive next week:

Cybersecurity awareness: February 8. Registration is open now for this webinar.
Current cyber threat: March 8
Threat reaction plans: April 5
Defensive procedures: May 3
Ransomware training for technical teams: June 7
Brute force attacks: July 5 

Ultimately, the site will have links to the latest industry resources on reducing retail cybercrime, downloadable guidebooks, and videos on phishing, pharming, and threat identity, as well as e-learning modules to train retail employees on the best practices in preventing cybercrime.

“With the changes in how consumers shop and buy, retailers and shoppers alike are becoming increasingly targeted by cyber criminals who are not easy to identify, and can be anywhere,” Rui Rodrigues, the Retail Council’s executive advisor for loss prevention and risk management, said in a statement.

“We’re excited to work together with the broad range of experts to develop tools and strategies we can use to better protect against this unfortunately growing nefarious activity.”

The Retail Council of Canada says it represents more than 45,000 storefronts in all retail formats, including department, grocery, specialty, discount, independent retailers, and online merchants.

The post Breaking News: Free cybersecurity resources for Canadian retailers now available first appeared on IT World Canada.

Rogers, Shaw, and Québecor announced in a joint statement this morning that the deadline to complete the proposed Rogers – Shaw merger and the sale of Freedom Mobile to Québecor has been extended to Feb. 17, as they await the approval of the Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

This announcement comes after Minister Champagne told the Star on Friday that he is in no hurry to close the deal and that he needs to “fully understand” the decision of the federal court to approve the merger, and to ensure that the pre-conditional transfer of spectrum licenses from Shaw to Vidéotron would lead to lower wireless prices.

Rogers would have faced heavy financial penalties and risked lawsuits from investors and Shaw if no decision was reached before the initial closing date of Jan. 31.

Minister Champagne is set to lead the telcos to the finish line after the Competition Bureau’s motion to block the merger was rejected by the Competition Tribunal late December, and by the Federal Court of Appeal last week.

The key debate in the latter round of hearings was whether, if the merger had been examined independent of its remedy (sale of Freedom Mobile to Vidéotron to appease competition concerns), the decision around competition would have been the same.

Critics also weighed in on the merger last week during the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU) hearings, with several witnesses, including Anthony Lacavera, founder of Globalive and Andy Kaplan-Myrth, vice-president of independent ISP, TekSavvy, calling on the Minister to block the merger.

The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) is also being called on by TekSavvy and other critics to review the preferential lower rates (illegal according to critics) offered by Rogers to Vidéotron to enable the Quebec-based carrier to appear as a fierce competitor.

The CRTC has, however, been silent since it approved the merger last year and it is uncertain whether the INDU hearings would have any influence on either the Minister or the CRTC’s stance.

The post Rogers-Shaw merger deadline extended to Feb. 17 first appeared on IT World Canada.

A new data wiper is discovered, patches for Lexmark printers and BIND are issued and more.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Monday, January 30th, 2023. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com and TechNewsday.com in the U.S.

Attention Windows administrators: If you aren’t already doing so, make sure your Active Directory is completely locked down. Hackers believed to be from Russia’s Sandworm group have a new data-wiping malware that gets distributed through Active Directory’s Group Policy. Researchers at ESET discovered this new strain after a cyber attack last week against a target in Ukraine. ESET calls this destructive malware SwiftSlicer. Among the ways to protect Active Directory are to limit the number of people who can access it, and make sure those who do have access use strong passwords, multifactor authentication and if possible hardware keys. Make sure these people are reminded not to fall for phishing scams claiming to be from the IT or support staff checking their credentials. Domain controllers also need to be secured the same way. For more advice from Microsoft on securing AD click here.

Attention network administrators using the open-source BIND 9 suite for domain controllers. The Internet Systems Consortium has issued advisories for four high severity vulnerabilities. They need to be addressed by installing the latest versions of the suite.

More on patches: Lexmark has warned a server-side request forgery vulnerability has been discovered in over 100 newer models of its printers. Patches are available for certain models of CX, XC, MX, MB and other printers.

Attention VMware administrators: Make sure the four fixes issued last week for the vRealize log analysis tool are installed fast. That’s because security researchers at Horizon3 are about to release an exploit showing how three of the vulnerabilities can be chained together to get into vRealize. Once hackers see a possible exploit they are fast to create a working one.

Last week’s dismantling of the IT infrastructure supporting the Hive ransomware gang was cheered by infosec pros. It shows the effective work of law enforcement around the world. Here’s another possible sign: The number of exchanges threat actors use to cash out ransomed or stolen cryptocurrency is dropping. Reporters at Wired noticed this fact in the annual crime report by researchers at Chainlysis. It counted only 915 cash-out services last year. That sound huge. But 68 per cent of all black market cash-outs are going through just five cryptocurrency exchanges. Chainalysis thinks this shows the international crackdown on money laundering is having an effect.

Here’s another reminder that hackers don’t necessarily strike fast if they get past your initial security controls. The Los Angeles Unified School District has revised the timeline for the ransomware attack it suffered last September. Initially the district said the attack took place over the Labor Day weekend. Now it says the intrusion started as early as July 31st and ended on September 3rd. This is another example of why constant monitoring and scanning for suspicious network activity is vital.

Finally, periodically cybersecurity companies issue warnings about vulnerabilities in internet-connected industrial control systems, or ICS. But the head of one vendor that sells ICS solutions warns patching vulnerabilities in this gear should be prioritized in the same way fixes for IT equipment are installed: Ask if the vulnerability is currently being used in an attack, and if the vulnerability could cause the company damage. If the answer to both questions is yes, address those vulnerabilities first. “There have been zero known ICS vulnerabilities leveraged in any ICS cyberattack,” says Robert Lee, chief executive of Dragos. There’s too much pressure on companies to patch everything fast, he said. Then there’s this memorable quote: “I have responded to more IT people taking down plants through patching than Russia, China and Iran combined.” Think about it.

Remember links to details about podcast stories are in the text version at ITWorldCanada.com. U.S. listeners can also find my stories on TechNewsDay.com.

Follow Cyber Security Today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker.

The post Cyber Security Today, Jan. 30, 2023 – A new data wiper discovered, patches for Lexmark printers and BIND are issued and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

Big Tech forced to react and ignore safety as ChatGPT gains foothold, Intel reports historically bleak earnings and China’s top nuclear weapons uses American chips.

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday, January 30, and I am your host, Ashee Pamma.

According to a report by the Washington Post, ChatGPT’s growing popularity is forcing Big Tech to move faster and potentially ignore safety concerns with new AI technologies. At Meta, employees have recently shared internal memos urging the company to speed up its AI approval process to take advantage of the latest technology. Google, which helped pioneer some of the technology underpinning ChatGPT, recently issued a “code red” around launching AI products and proposed a “green lane” to shorten the process of assessing and mitigating potential harms, according to a report in the New York Times. A Google employee said that people feel like OpenAI is newer and fresher, more exciting and has fewer sins to pay for and they can get away with this now. Meta’s Blenderbot and Galactica and Microsoft’s Tay either folded or gained low public interest after their launch. Microsoft seemingly has resorted to  embracing ChatGPT with its recent 10 billion investment in OpenAI and announcements to integrate the AI into its services.

Source: Washington Post

Intel saw $8 billion wiped off its market value on Friday after the U.S. chipmaker reported historic dismal earnings projections, as the personal-computer market faces an unprecedented slump. Its revenue forecast was also $3 billion below estimates as it struggled with slowing growth in the data center business. Intel shares closed 6.4% lower, while rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O) ended the session up 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively. Reuters reported that Intel has been losing market share to rivals which have used contract chipmakers such as Taiwan-based TSMC to make chips that outpace Intel’s technology. Analysts also claim that AMD data center chips have a strong price-performance advantage compared to Intel’s processors which would further drive down its share gains.

Source: Reuters

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, China’s top nuclear weapons research institute has bought sophisticated U.S. computer chips, despite long standing export restrictions aimed at limiting the use of any U.S. products for atomic-weapons research by foreign powers. A Journal review of research papers published by the China Academy of Engineering Physics  CAEP, one of the first Chinese institutions put on the U.S. blacklist, found that at least 34 over the past decade referenced using American semiconductors in the research. Most of the chips procured by the academy ranged in size from 7 nanometers to 14 nanometers, many of which are difficult for China to mass produce. They are widely available on the open market. Versions of Intel’s Xeon Gold and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX chips purchased by CAEP can be bought off Taobao, one of China’s largest e-commerce marketplaces.

Source: WSJ

Decreased advertising spend and revenue is driving the mass layoffs, a report by The Conversation revealed. Advertising revenue decreased last year – in part due to fears over a global recession triggered by the pandemic, leading to decreased expenditure on staffing. Large numbers of employees have been laid off from major tech companies, since the end of the pandemic hiring spree,  including Alphabet (12,000 employees), Amazon (18,000), Meta (11,000), Twitter (4,000), Microsoft (10,000) and Salesforce (8,000). The report reveals that these figures don’t include the downstream layoffs, such as advertising agencies laying off staff as ad spend reduces, or manufacturers downsizing as tech product orders decrease– or even potential layoffs yet to come. This does not mean much for consumers or the overall economy as work on tech products and services is still expanding, and layoffs, though striking, still represent a fraction of the total tech workforce.

Source: The Conversation

Microsoft is seeking to redesign and introduce a more touch-friendly navigation interface to the File Explorer app in Windows 11, according to a report from Windows Central. The new Explorer will reportedly have better photo viewing with larger previews, keyword and color tagging for organizing files as well as tighter integration with Microsoft 365 and OneDrive. An internal mock-up of the new interface features a new “recommended” section of files alongside the existing areas for pinned and recent files, with large previews of various documents and information about where the files are located (OneDrive, SharePoint, and the local Downloads folder are all listed). The new look will also come with “more modern code” under the hood, Ars Technica wrote.

Source: Ars Technica

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Ashee Pamma.

The post Hashtag Trending January 30- Big Tech face pressure over AI; Intel’s devastating earnings call; American computer chips for China’s nuclear weapons first appeared on IT World Canada.

The idea of whether human like intelligence can be achieved using a compute simulation or Artificial Intelligence is not a new question. But how would we know when a computer had achieved human-like intelligence? Alan Turing, the man many consider to be the father of modern digital computing posited a solution to this question decades before digital computing became ubiquitous in our world. Turing created the machines that cracked the German codes in World War II. He died in 1954, two years before I was born. Turing posed a test to determine if a computer could be classed as intelligent. It came to be known as the Turing test

“At it’s essence, the Turing test is test for intelligence in a computer, requiring that a human being should be unable to distinguish the machine from another human being by using the replies to questions put to both.”

We know computers excel at calculations. But can they reason?

In 1997, an IBM computer called Deep Blue beat the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. In 2013, another IBM computer, named Watson, beat two Jeopardy champions Despite those accomplishments, no-one claimed that they had passed the Turing test.

But in 2014 it was reported that a chatbot passed the test at an event held at the university of Reading, it was developed by 3 Russian programmers and was called “Eugene Goostman”.

We all saw a demo a few years back where’s Google’s AI ran a chat where it carried on a realistic conversation. Reportedly, Google’s Deep Mind later fooled at least one of its engineers who declared it “sentient”.

For the past few weeks, our imagination has been captivated by an artificial intelligence bot called ChatGPT. It’s a surprisingly realistic AI that can write write computer programs, answer questions and even write poetry and songs. There has been the requisite hysteria – will humans be replaced by it?

To sort out the hype and to figure out where things go from here, I invited Josh Tyson, co-author of the Age of Invisible Machines to talk about ChatGPT and the future of AI in business.

We covered serious topics and Josh had a unique view of how we should see Artificial Intelligence, but we also had some fun with this using ChatGPT to write parts of the script for this episode.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions for guests and topics, we’d love to hear from you.

The post Hashtag Trending Weekend Edition, January 27, 2023 – Josh Tyson, co-author of bestseller, “Age of Invisible Machines” first appeared on IT World Canada.

At the recent Quantum Days 2023 panel that explored the inner workings of The Expert Panel on Quantum Technologies, a series of poll questions were sent to the audience following its completion that revolved around everything from what sectors are most likely to be early adopters to how Canada stacks up when it comes to salary compensation.

In terms of early adopters, respondents indicated that the top four would be Scientific Research, Defence/Space, Chemistry and Materials Science, and Telecommunications.

The compensation question, which asked for a true/false answer, read: “In Canada, but outside of academia, compensation for jobs requiring quantum expertise is keeping pace with other nations.” Upwards of 56 per cent of respondents said that statement was false, with the remainder saying it was true.

Expert Panel member Dr. Jacqueline Bartlett, an associate professor from Memorial University, described the response as an “early wake-up call. Over half of the people do not think that we are keeping up with the compensation that other countries are offering. I think that is an important indicator of things to come if we don’t change that.”

Mauritz Kop, a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School, who is also a member of the panel, warned that “you want to avoid a brain drain at all costs, so staying competitive is really important.”

And Prof. Raymond Laflamme, a leading Canadian theoretical physicist who currently teaches at the University of Waterloo and is chair of the panel, warned that “Canada is not the only country with a national strategy.

“In the last six or seven years it has become to lot harder, even in academia, to recruit people. For start-ups and the industry as a whole, it will be the same thing. As Jacqueline said, this is a red flag and it is something that we need to think about carefully and plan for the future to ensure that the ‘false’ answers don’t grow.”

The post Quantum Days 2023 poll examines salary compensation issues first appeared on IT World Canada.