The Telegram text and video messaging service has become a “thriving ecosystem” for cybercrime and will likely continue to be a major challenge for security researchers and law enforcement, says a new report.

It is largely used by individuals for legitimate messaging and purchases — including digital equipment, consumer loans, apparel and shoes –who appreciate that it’s free and supposedly encrypted.

But researchers at Israel-based Kela say in a report released Wednesday that Telegram Messenger is also a hub for cybercrime activities, including the sale and leakage of stolen personal and corporate data, the organization of cybercrime gangs, the distribution of hacking tutorials, hacktivism and the sale of illegal physical products such as counterfeits and drugs.

Among the groups using the platform are

-the Lapsus$ data extortion gang. As of December 2022, it had over 55,800 subscribers. However the group has been quiet since March, 2022, when several alleged members were arrested in England;

-the pro-Russian Killnet group. Its main Telegram channel is followed by more than 90,000 users, says the report, and its campaigns are joined by many other influential hacking groups, including XakNet and NoName057;

-the Eternity Project, a malware-as-a-service operation, which uses Telegram bots to sell stolen information to actors who bought access to the service and to provide them with
an opportunity to build the binary. The stealer doesn’t have an administrator panel to manage the malware and attacks — everything is done via Telegram;

–“CHECKS GRUB SHOP” is a popular group for selling credit card information, counterfeit and stolen valid cheques, packages of full personal identification of individuals (known as  fullz) and stolen bank logs;

Messaging services including Discord, Jabber, Tox and Wickr are also used by some cybercrooks, but many favour Telegram.

“One reason why Telegram is attractive to cybercriminals is its alleged built-in encryption
and the ability to create channels and large, private groups,” says the report. “These features make it difficult for law enforcement and security researchers to monitor and track criminal activity on the platform.

“In addition, cybercriminals often use coded language and alternative spellings to communicate on Telegram, making it even more challenging to decipher their conversations.”

The reason Kela is skeptical about the encryption is the company doesn’t disclose the code of the application so there’s no way to know how secure it is.

As of November, 2022 there were an estimated 700 million monthly active users on the platform.

Telegram allows users to register accounts without disclosing personal information, the report notes, making it simple to set up many identities and use them to converse without revealing one’s genuine identity. “Because of this anonymity, law enforcement organizations have a tough time tracking down and identifying individuals who are using the program for illicit activities,” says the report.

While Telegram’s privacy policy states that it may disclose a user’s IP address and phone
number to authorities if presented with a court order on terrorism-related charges, the
company claims it hasn’t done so yet. However, the report says, recent investigations in Germany have revealed that the platform is sharing user data with government agencies and censoring content, despite its promise to keep users’ data secure and private.

Kela recommends infosec teams

–use threat intelligence monitoring solutions to continuously monitor for potential
threats on Telegram and take proactive measures to prevent them;
–regularly train and educate employees on how to identify and respond to cyber
threats on Telegram;
–implement technical controls, such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems,
to prevent cybercriminals from accessing sensitive data;
–increase collaboration and information sharing with law enforcement agencies and
other organizations to improve the ability to detect and disrupt cybercrime on the
platform;
–and conduct regular audits and assessments to identify any vulnerabilities or areas
for improvement in the organization’s defenses against cyber threats on Telegram.

The post Why cybercrooks love Telegram Messenger first appeared on IT World Canada.

OpenAI releases tool to detect machine-written text, Paypal lays off 2000 workers, Canadian team discovers power draining flaw in laptops and phones batteries.

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Wednesday, February 1st and I am your host, Ashee Pamma.

OpenAI, the force behind popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT, released a free web-based tool, designed to detect machine-written text. The technology emerged after several educational institutions banned the use of the chatbot following risks of AI plagiarism and impact on students’ learning. The AI system offers a five-point scale of results: Very unlikely to have been AI-generated, unlikely, unclear, possible or likely. It works best on text samples greater than 1,000 words and in English, with performance significantly worse in other languages. However, OpenAI told news site Axios that the tool is imperfect and performance varies based on how similar the text being analyzed is to the types of writing OpenAI’s tool was trained on.  

Source: Axios

PayPal announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, or around 7 per cent of its workforce. President and CEO Dan Schulman wrote in the release that PayPal is working to address the “challenging macroeconomic environment.” He added that the company has made progress focusing resources on core priorities and rightsizing its cost structure, but that there is more work to be done. Following the announcement, Paypal’s stock bumped up more than 2 per cent.  The company’s layoffs announcement marks the latest round of job cuts in the tech industry, after Google, Microsoft and Salesforce also  announced layoff plans last month

Source: CNBC News

Researchers in Dalhousie University, Halifax discovered the widespread manufacturing flaw that causes the power from phone, tablet or laptop devices to slowly drain. The problem lies in the tiny pieces of tape that hold the battery components together, made, according to the researchers, from the wrong type of plastic. When cables are connected to each end of the battery, electrons flow through the cables to provide power to devices.  The problem occurs when the electrons do not follow the cables, causing the battery to deplete internally without sending out electrical current and your device loses charge even when off. To find the perfect battery, the researchers tested out different types of batteries. One had a substance, with a similar structure as plastic that shuttles electrons within the battery, rather than having them flow outside through cables and generate electricity. Shuttling electrons internally depletes the battery’s charge, even if it isn’t connected to a circuit or electrical device. Realizing that the tape, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was not inert was massive for the researchers as many companies use PET plastic. 

Source: CBC News

Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are back with a new venture to explore ideas for next-generation social apps. Their first product is Artifact, a personalized news feed that uses machine learning to understand your interests and will soon let you discuss those articles with friends. The app opens to a feed of popular articles chosen from a curated list of publishers ranging from bigger publishers like the New York Times to small-scale blogs about niche topics. When you tap on articles that interest you, Artifact serves you similar posts and stories in the future, like watching videos on TikTok. Tap on articles that interest you and Artifact will serve you similar posts and stories in the future, just as watching videos on TikTok. The app opened its waiting list to the public yesterday.

Source: The Verge

The Internet Archive announced The Calculator Drawer, a collection of 14 emulated old-school calculators. Most are from Texas Instruments, while there are some options from HP as well. The oldest calculator is 1989’s VTech Electronic Number Muncher toy. The calculators support keyboard input, and let you click on-screen buttons for input, which makes for an even more realistic experience when using the emulation on a touchscreen. Some of the calculators even have power buttons and sound effects. Math nerds can relive some memorable gadgets with the Calculator Drawer and use highly capable calculators, which can cost around $100 or more.

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 Feb.1- ; OpenAI releases tool to detect machine-written text, Paypal lays off 2000 workers, Canadians discover power draining flaw first appeared on IT World Canada.

A Canadian-based provider of identity verification services for banks and e-commerce sites has merged its individual products into a cloud platform, promising to make it easier for organizations to build their own workflow solutions.

Trulioo said Tuesday that the integrated platform, also called Trulioo, will help corporate customers deploy, modify and maintain identity verification services at a lower cost than before.

“Trulioo customers can design, build, deploy and maintain identity solutions in the platform with a single contract [with us] to help onboard new users and businesses, scale globally and adapt to evolving compliance challenges and broad problems,” Michael Ramsbacker, the company’s chief product officer, said in an interview.

Trulioo provides two services: By linking to over 400 identity data sources such as credit rating bureaus and government driver’s licence databases, businesses can verify that a new individual customer is who they say they are, and they can verify who the real owner of a business is.

Its previous way of offering services was through individual products, which were also cloud-based. Trulioo provided an application programming interface (API) for each point solution. After that, business customers were on their own for building the business logic and infrastructure needed to turn the offerings into combined practical services.

The new platform gives business customers no-code workflow building and low-code integration capabilities for Trulioo’s services. This comes from merging the capabilities Trulioo got from its 2022 acquisition of Denmark-based HelloFlow, a drag-and-drop solution for client onboarding monitoring and digital workflow.

The new Trulioo Portal provides single sign-on access to all verification services. It includes Workflow Studio, a no-code workflow builder allowing users to rapidly build, configure and deploy logic-driven identity workflows; API Direct, the ability to connect any Trulioo service to an existing system through a single low-code API; and Navigator, an online education hub making solution and industry expertise accessible with guided workshops and training on best practices.

Ramsbacker wouldn’t estimate how much the new platform could save customers.

He did say that next on the company’s roadmap for the platform are fraud and risk management solutions.

The company has around 425 employees, roughly 200 of whom are based in Canada. There’s a large research and development staff in San Diego and an engineering team in Romania. It is about to move into a new headquarters in Vancouver.

The post Trulioo deploys unified platform for its identity verification solutions first appeared on IT World Canada.

Following approval from Transport Canada, government-owned electricity generating company Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will deploy drones to monitor the resiliency of its power grid infrastructure and to quickly detect problems and restore power after storms and natural disasters.

The unmanned drone operations are currently in trial at the OPG facility at the McConnell Lake Control Dam in north-west Quebec.

Israel-based developer of autonomous drone technology Percepto will provide OPG with its drone-in-a-box solution, Percepto Air Max. Percepto’s autonomous drone solution seeks to provide OPG with the benefits of a remote, high frequency visual inspection, eliminating the need for human intervention.

Automated drone inspections can also be conducted faster and more frequently, enabling the creation of baselines and trend monitoring over time that make comparisons and measurements simpler and more accurate, according to Percepto’s co-founder and chief commercial officer Ariel Avitan.

“We look forward to gaining new operational and infrastructure insights at McConnell Lake Control Dam,” said Ontario Power Generation senior information system specialist, Tim Trebilcock. “Our hope is that this technology will help our efforts to ensure asset integrity and reliable electricity generation for Ontarians.”

Ontario Power Generation is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in Ontario.

Transport Canada approved Percepto’s Air Max Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations (operation of unmanned aerial vehicles and drones at distances outside the normal visual range of the pilot), following an assessment of potential risks to people and aircraft sharing that airspace.

Percepto uses an autonomous detect and avoid cycle that enables drones to automatically avoid other flying objects, said Avitan. He added that the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the U.S, where Percepto has been operating for four years, allowed the company to fly its drones 200 feet above ground (double the altitude of any previously approved drone operation in the U.S.) without a pilot or visual observer on site. 

Percepto drone operations will be controlled remotely on the company’s AI-powered Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) platform that translates key data gathered into immediately actionable insights on mission-critical maintenance issues, said Avitan.

Percepto’s drone-in-a-box systems have been “thoroughly stress-tested for 10 years”, and have built-in safety mechanisms within both their hardware and software, affirmed Avitan. “For example, our battery safety precautions include software closely monitoring drone power levels and proper usage and charging. Safety landing routines are also in place in the event of battery errors, including the automatic deployment of a parachute.”

Percepto also has a built-in weather monitoring system and site mapping software to ensure that the drones can safely navigate throughout any facility or weather conditions. In 2020, Percepto’s on-site drone was the first to pass level 5 hurricane testing at the Florida International University Wall of Wind, where it withstood winds of up to 150 mph (about 240 km/h).

Furthermore, the drones are capable of monitoring hard-to-access and hazardous assets, hence eliminating the need for staff to risk their safety to climb towers and equipment, especially during dangerous weather conditions.

An automated drone system also expands the eligibility for people to become infrastructure inspectors, stated Avitan. “A remote drone pilot can be any certified person with a drone license, opening up the job market to people with disabilities, for example.”

The post Ontario Power Generation to deploy drones for remote monitoring of the power grid infrastructure first appeared on IT World Canada.

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!

Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

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.