Page 1,121«..1020..1,1201,1211,1221,123..1,1301,140..»

What You Need To Know About The Endeavour Mining plc (TSE:EDV) Analyst Downgrade Today – Simply Wall St

Today is shaping up negative for Endeavour Mining plc (TSE:EDV) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a substantial negative revision to this year's forecasts. This report focused on revenue estimates, and it looks as though the consensus view of the business has become substantially more conservative.

Following the downgrade, the consensus from seven analysts covering Endeavour Mining is for revenues of US$2.3b in 2023, implying a perceptible 4.1% decline in sales compared to the last 12 months. The losses are expected to disappear over the next year or so, with forecasts for a profit of US$1.07 per share this year. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$2.6b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.30 in 2023. Indeed, we can see that the analysts are a lot more bearish about Endeavour Mining's prospects, administering a measurable cut to revenue estimates and slashing their EPS estimates to boot.

See our latest analysis for Endeavour Mining

Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the CA$44.46 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Endeavour Mining, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at CA$56.50 and the most bearish at CA$36.00 per share. This shows there is still some diversity in estimates, but analysts don't appear to be totally split on the stock as though it might be a success or failure situation.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with a forecast 5.5% annualised revenue decline to the end of 2023. That is a notable change from historical growth of 34% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 15% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Endeavour Mining is expected to lag the wider industry.

The biggest issue in the new estimates is that analysts have reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds lay ahead for Endeavour Mining. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Endeavour Mining's revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given the stark change in sentiment, we'd understand if investors became more cautious on Endeavour Mining after today.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. We have estimates - from multiple Endeavour Mining analysts - going out to 2025, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

Find out whether Endeavour Mining is potentially over or undervalued by checking out our comprehensive analysis, which includes fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider transactions and financial health.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Go here to read the rest:

What You Need To Know About The Endeavour Mining plc (TSE:EDV) Analyst Downgrade Today - Simply Wall St

Read More..

People, Partnerships and Technology Are Key for Pekoske As He … – HSToday

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator David Pekoske has published the third Administrators Intent, which outlines the agencys near-term actions to achieve the vision and key strategic objectives in TSAs Strategy.

The Administrators Intent 3.0 focuses on people, partnerships and technology and outlines the agencys operational and mission support goals for the next two years.

I am proud of the hard work and outstanding achievements the TSA workforce has made in response to objectives outlined in prior editions of the Administrators Intent, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. In this new iteration of the Administrators Intent, we remain steadfast in our focus on people, partnerships and technology so we can build on previous successes and provide flexibility and resiliency. We will invest in our workforce, maintain and strengthen our partnerships with transportation stakeholders, and continue to drive innovation to remain ahead of emerging threats.

Transportation systems, be they air, land or sea, face threats from a broad spectrum of adversaries, including nation states and their proxies, foreign terrorist organizations, domestic terrorist actors, and transnational criminal organizations. TSA notes that some threats in this environment are well-established, such as terrorists who continue to target aviation with improvised explosive devices. Other threats are still emerging, the agency says, such as 3D printed non-metallic weapons and weaponized unmanned aircraft systems. Cyber threats from a range of potential actors also pose a risk to both the information systems and operational technology commonly used in transportation systems.

The Administrators Intent 3.0 will rally the focus and commitment of TSAs talented workforce and the vigilance of the agencys partners across the transportation sector to safeguard the traveling public. Developed with input and insight from government and industry partners, it provides near term actions to achieve TSAs three strategic priorities:

The Administrators Intent 3.0. lists 20 objectives to be implemented from fiscal years 2023-2025, which each align with TSAs three strategic priorities. These are:

Threat detection: Develop and assess security screening detection capabilities through consistent collaboration with stakeholders on training, technology, and use of covert testing data and other evaluation methods to capitalize on knowledge-based performance and innovative solutions.

Threat forecasting: Improve TSAs ability to anticipate cyber risks and other emerging threats through greater understanding of their impacts on the TSA mission.

Customer experience or CX: Develop an integrated plan to organize, align, and communicate activities that positively influence the customer experience.

Air cargo security: Enhance air cargo security by collaborating with industry and the interagency to align policies and activities to the air cargo supply chain, encourage the testing and use of innovative screening technologies, and explore potential security gains in areas such as domestic all-cargo flights and additional classes of U.S. mail.

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM): Establish a framework to guide TSA and its partners to integrate security by design into emerging AAM systems and operating environments.

One-Stop Security (OSS): Establish OSS operations between the United States and select last point of departure airports to exempt the rescreening of transfer passengers and baggage arriving at a designated U.S. airport from designated international airports.

Business intelligence: Develop systems, tools, and processes to provide the capability to use analytics, data mining, data visualization, and other capabilities to improve agency decision-making.

Open architecture: Develop and define common and accessible technical standards, capabilities, and processes to enable an open, streamlined, and secure infrastructure for transportation security screening.

Risk-based, outcome-focused security: Collaborate with stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of security policy and compliance activities, including the examination of security data, to proactively identify opportunities for security improvement.

Positive security culture: Define standards for a system of shared accountability for a duty of performance, in which employees strive to self-correct and voluntarily disclose performance issues.

Insider threat: Implement and enhance capabilities and technologies within the transportation systems sector to better identify unusual behaviors, support proactive threat assessment, identify investigative follow-up, and share relevant information with industry.

Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS): Enhance the capabilities of law enforcement and FAMSs own field-based law enforcement across the transportation systems sector.

Organizational governance: Assess TSAs organizational roles and responsibilities related to policy making, international engagement, acquisitions, and law enforcement functions to identify opportunities for improvement.

Drive resourcing higher: Communicate TSAs risk-based requirements for, and non-traditional approaches to, resourcing to external partners to support mission priorities and long-term goals.

Recruitment and hiring: Improve recruitment and hiring processes by implementing strategies to assess national and regional job markets, forecast workforce requirements, and decrease time-to-hire, thereby mitigating a significant enterprise risk.

Outcome-driven contracting: Assess TSAs current approach and methodology to contracting for services to determine appropriate courses of action to effectively and efficiently meet mission needs.

Communications: Enhance communications with the TSA workforce with an emphasis on field staff. This is intended to increase overall awareness of key issues, decisions, priorities and initiatives, and inspire positive agency advocacy.

People and culture: Nurture TSA culture to encourage innovation and collaboration, and to learn from and celebrate differences. Provide transparent communication of workforce culture attributes, activities, and improvements.

Workforce retention: Improve workforce retention by proactively monitoring and analyzing separations and implementing people-first strategies that cultivate employee perceptions of TSA as a career of choice. Assess TSA employment policies and practices and implement strategies to remove barriers and close gaps.

Human Capital (HC) Information Technology (IT) performance: Modernize TSAs HC IT systems to provide an improved interface for candidates, hiring managers, TSA human resources specialists, and employees.

The Administrators Intent 3.0 includes potential outcomes for each of these objectives. For example, TSA could fully fund mission-critical requirements through additional Aviation Security Passenger Fee allocations and other nontraditional resourcing opportunities such as the Reimbursable Screening Services Program, gifting, cost sharing and public-private ventures.

Some of the objectives will be helped by recent developments such as rollouts of new screening and identity verification technology, and the TSA workforce pay increase included in the fiscal year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which is already reducing attrition rates by as much as 40-50 percent. But Pekoske recently testified that the pay increase must apply to all TSA staff. I want to be clear that pay initiatives must include all TSA employees. Oftentimes many of our TSA employees who are not customer-facing are overlooked. We must acknowledge and recognize their impact and contributions to our overall mission, the Administrator told the House Homeland Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security in June.

TSA will now assign a lead executive for each objective to provide a measure of transparency and accountability. Each executive will be responsible for managing their objectives, including developing and maintaining implementation plans. The plans will identify the specific initiatives, activities, milestones, funding requirements, and risks and provide a measurable end state. Lead executives will also be responsible for providing regular updates on the status of their objectives and complying with all dashboard reporting requirements. Information in the dashboard will be used to brief key executives on the status of implementation.

Since Administrator Pekoske published the Administrators Intent 2.0 in June 2020, the agency has accomplished key objectives that modernize and advance transportation security. Among those accomplishments, TSA:

The new Administrators Intent 3.0 aligns with the Department of Homeland Security 2023 Priorities, national strategies and directives, including the National Cybersecurity Strategy and the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government.

Read the full Administrators Intent 3.0 as TSA

See the original post here:

People, Partnerships and Technology Are Key for Pekoske As He ... - HSToday

Read More..

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to disrupt Elon Musk, but maybe he canta new paper on the social media space breaks down 5 key challenges – Fortune

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg might not be in a cage match anytime soon, but a battle for users is rumbling this Thursday with the release of Threads, a Twitter clone that is a text-based social media platform from Meta.

Tensions are running hot as Musk deals with overpaying for the now-struggling Twitter and Zuckerberg seeks to broaden his reach in the social media space and enter Twitters direct line of competition. But a new Montclair University study from March finds the social media industry entering a new stage with the potential to grow and be highly profitable, but it will take an effort in five significant areas for these CEOs to keep their companies afloat.

The study finds that winning the social media wars wont be straightforward. A.I. has emerged as an existential threat to the space, along with various plans and promises to create the everything app. Musk is attempting many of these, and the ball is in Zuckerbergs court, but its possible neither can pull it off.

The future of the industry overall remains bright, yet which companies will continue or emerge as future winners depends on how well they can deal with these challenges, the authors of the study write.

The report uses publicly available key performance metrics, company reports and press reports.

Its nothing new. Content is and always has been king. All of these social media platforms are successful, in many ways, because theyve been able to understand the value of content. But there is a growing trend toward visual content, according to the study.

Providing these visuals is what Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest have excelled in. Photos are interesting, and videos are better. Quick videos are one of the best tools for the fastest-growing social media model both in terms of attracting users and advertising revenue. TikTok has become the trendsetter for other social media platforms because of this, as Instagram models Instagram Reels content after the beloved short-form videos.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and images and videos have huge advantages in social interactions and casual communication, especially in a world with many distractions and short attention spans, the authors of the study write.

Those who swim will be able to pivot to having primarily visual content.

TikTok is a clear forerunner with its addictive short-form content built, but its how that content is chosen that makes it special. Theres a reason that in 2022, the average daily time spent on the TikTok mobile app by users worldwide was almost equal to that of Facebook and Instagram combined, according to Statista.

TikToks A.I. has a magic that goes beyond being a recommendation system. Not only is it highly accurate and efficient in gauging users interests, thoughts, and emotions based on their past behavior, but it can also deliver videos that users do not know they want to see, write the authors of the study.

A.I. is the beating heart of successful social media platforms. It adds value to users to be matched with what they want to see and people they want to talk with. But it also helps the company gain insights from user footprints and build sophisticated mechanisms for advertisers to efficiently reach their target audience.

Those who master A.I. can wield the power of both user attention and advertising revenue.

It might seem obvious that social media platforms benefit from being connected socially. The network effect of social media is a cascading effect of the more, the better. One friend joins to interact with the others then more join, building a network of connected users and an abundance of data.

Its the fuel of Metas empire, write the authors of the study, but new platforms have embraced it too. It takes innovation to do it differently, though. Instagram innovated by focusing more on photos. Twitter had a limited word count in posts, and Snapchat has disappearing posts.

Their successes show that even a small tweak in the business model or platform design can have a huge impact on success in the social media industry, the authors of the study write.

Revenue is crucial to social media platforms, and in a changing technological landscape, advertising may not be the revenue stream of the future.

Snapchat, for example, has witnessed a sharp increase in users since its inception and reached over 500 million monthly active users in 2022, but the app has never turned an annual net profit. Its adding Snapchat Plus, a subscription service, while Twitter added Twitter Blue.

Options like these are promising directions and could significantly enhance the monetization of social media platforms, the authors of the study write.

The platform that manages to become the everything app will hold the keys to the social media kingdom.

The more areas and functions that a social media app ventures into, the more it can leverage such ecosystems for cross-data mining and advertising targeting, write the authors of the study.

But its not an easy thing to do. Managing a company brand and becoming a generalized everything app makes it hard to be distinctive and differentiate.

The future of Twitter, and Threads for that matter, depends on whether Musk can make the envisioned everything app.

Twitter has about 330 million monthly active users in 2023, according to BankMyCell.com. Its revenue and user base both have faced ups and downs since 2021. And while the study sees some of Musks changes as noteworthy initiatives, Twitters profitability is complicated and has significant content issues.

Musk has long stated his intention to turn Twitter into an everything app. It remains to be seen how the actions taken by the new leadership will impact Twitter and whether Twitter can truly become an everything app while improving profitability and content issues, write the authors of the Montclair study.

Read more here:

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to disrupt Elon Musk, but maybe he canta new paper on the social media space breaks down 5 key challenges - Fortune

Read More..

National fraud initiative (NFI) creditors claim, vet and match – Open Access Government

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) matches data from 1,300 public sector and 77 private sector organisations, including police authorities, local probation boards, fire and rescue authorities as well as local councils, NHS Trusts and other agencies. It flags up inconsistencies in data that may indicate fraud, errors, and potential overpayments, signalling the need for participating organisations to further review those findings, conduct internal investigation with Accounts Payable Recovery Audits and implement any necessary corrective actions which is no small task.

The main NFI matching exercise takes place every two years, whilst Council Tax and Electoral Register matching takes place annually. Participating organisations submit data to a secure website.

The NFI system matches data within and between bodies to identify potential anomalies, referred to as matches. Matches are made available to participating organisations for them to review, investigate and record outcomes from those investigations.

Good motives underpin NFI match reports, and this article places the spotlight firmly on NFI Creditor and Duplicate Payment reports.

They help prevent or detect fraud, support good governance, provide transparency, and essentially assist provide greater scrutiny of Tax-Payer spends.

Theoretically the NFI reports are a WIN-WIN for participant organisations; they deliver the identification of potential errors and positive reassurance no errors exist. The issue or NFI dilemma arises with the sheer size of some reports.

These may contain matches that are false positives or potential duplicate payments which may have already been corrected. Despite this internal staff are compelled to vet and address each matched line item.

Accounts Payable teams are frequently under time pressures and resources stretched to maximum working capacity.

Few if any, have the desire or wish to divert valuable and often expensive resources to the rather mundane task of investigating data matches and potential duplicate payments which may prove to be false positives. The match reports are simply the first step in a process of queries.

Those yards get even harder when valuable time is absorbed verifying and validating if a duplicate or overpayment has taken place and organisations find themselves under time pressure to report back their findings to the NFI. This is before any recovery, claims fromsuppliers can even commence which in of itself, can often be measured in months rather than weeks.

To help provide an indication of scale participating organisations are compelled to investigate NFI matches and where Rockford delivers regular risk-free Accounts Payable Recovery Audits, it provides an ideal opportunity to lighten that load and assign the mundane task to us.

Over 2 months, we analysed and reported on over 12,000 NFI line matches for a single client mapping their NFI matches with our Accounts Payable Recovery Audit.

This enabled the update and reporting of findings to the NFI within project timescale. Moreover, it provided time to deliver the day job and apply corrective actions to their respective payable ledgers.

From an Accounts Payable and duplicated payments perspective, NFI creditor reports are similar to Rockfords Pathfinder data mining outputs. Potential duplicated supplier reports also mirror our Electronic Data Analysis Reports. Dual vetting provides a belt and braces approach with errors highly unlikely to escape the scrutiny of two systems.

Rockford can match the relevant NFI duplicate payment reports to the Pathfinder outputs; and we can validate each item establishing the action to be taken (essentially: not a duplicate, already cleared by a matching credit, duplicate but not paid, still to be investigated, Etc).

Thereafter we can advise on the response to each item. Rockford regularly performs such exercises whilst undertaking risk-free Accounts Payable Recovery Audits and there is generally no cost incurred.

Rockford Associates Accounts Payable Recovery Audits include a ready-made resolution for NFI duplicate payment reports, save organisations time and monies by the release of valuable internal resources enabling them to focus on higher priority tasks. The benefits include:

Duplicate / incorrect payments

Wrong Supplier / Currency

Paid Credit Notes

Missed Credit Notes

Overpayments (E.g., unused deposits, incorrect invoice values)

The National Fraud Initiative, based in the Cabinet Office, has enabled participating organisations to prevent and detect/recover 443 million fraud and error across the UK in the period April 2020 to March 2022.

This takes the NFI programme cumulative savings to 2.4 billion since its creation in 1996. These outcomes exclude the non-financial benefits also experienced by participants, such as improvements in the accuracy of records, or a greater knowledge of the extent and types of risks their organisations might face.

Recommended Next Steps?

Rockford encouraged long standing Clients to transition away from undertaking accounts payable recovery audits on an ad-hoc basis. The need for vigilance in respect of overpayments never ceases. We pioneered an on-going multi-year audit programme, enabling regular delivery pre-planned Accounts Payable Recovery Audits on an Annual, Biennial or Triennial basis.

The benefits of ongoing Accounts Payable Recovery Audits are abundantly clear and proved popular with Clients now requesting we schedule them to coincide or dovetail directly with the timescales of the NFI match reports enabling them to meet the challenge of NFI reporting requirements in a timely manner.

To discover how we can assist you with NFI match reports and Accounts Payable Recovery Audits, or if you would like to see some case studies of how we have assisted others please feel welcome to get in touch.

Editor's Recommended Articles

More:

National fraud initiative (NFI) creditors claim, vet and match - Open Access Government

Read More..

Scientists Have Been Recommending Changes to Science … – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Gary Smith describes the problems with todays science in his new book Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science. He recounts endless examples of disinformation, data torture, and data mining, much of which we already knew. Taken together, however, and as I described in this review, they are mind-blowing.

He argues that many of these problems come from things scientists do such as p-hacking during statistical analysis, too little emphasis on impact in statistical analyses, outright data falsification, and the creation of the Internet, which can be a huge disinformation machine in addition to a valuable resource. In the last chapter, he also offers some solutions such as ending the artificial thresholds for p-values such as 0.05, requiring online publication of data, and restricting some of the most egregious examples of disinformation.

He also recommends a better science education. A paragraph in the last chapter says:

Memorizing the names of the parts of cells and then forgetting the names after a test is not scientific understanding. Nor is deciphering the periodic table or memorizing trigonometric formulas. Science is fundamentally about being curious-about how things work and why they sometimes dont work. Richard Feynmans journey to Nobel laureate began with a boyhood curiosity about how radios work. He tinkered with them, took them apart, and put them back together. He fixed other peoples radios. He loved it.

He quotes Richard Feynman because Feynman often talked of science education in the later years of his life (he died in 1988), including what we should know and understand about the natural world. In one video he says:

See that bird? Its a brown-throated thrush, but in Germany its called a halzenfugel, and in Chinese they call it a chung ling and even if you know all those names for it, you still know nothing about the bird. You only know something about people; what they call the bird. Now that thrush sings, and teaches its young to fly, and flies so many miles away during the summer across the country, and nobody knows how it finds its way.

In another video, he distinguishes between knowing and understanding. Using several examples, he says that knowing is being able to do calculations that agree with experiments. Understanding is being able to explain the underlying phenomena.

For instance, the Mayans knew positions of the moon and could predict eclipses, but they didnt understand the reasons for their correct calculations. That understanding did not come until Newton and others explained gravity and its impact on rotating bodies. And the lack of understanding allowed the Mayans to falsely attribute things to gods, and not to physical laws.

Feynman also understood that good explanations are difficult to provide because so many explanations emphasize technical jargon. He says: When we speak without jargon, it frees us from hiding behind knowledge we dont have. Big words and fluffy business speak cripples us from getting to the point and passing knowledge to others. Feynman understood that his expertise would prove to be a barrier to his students learning and that as such he would need to take actions to ensure his knowledge was accessible; something all educators should do.

Feynman was also very critical of exams:

You cannot get educated by this self-propagating system in which people study to pass exams, and teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything. You learn something by doing it yourself, by asking questions, by thinking, and by experimenting.

Todays educational systems, in most every developed country, focus almost entirely on knowing, not understanding, and mostly knowing names of something, from birds to parts of cells. Exams ask students to repeat names of things ad nauseum, and then the students who perform well are given high grades and accepted at top universities. Whether the students understand science or not is peripheral, they are able to regurgitate information better than other students, so they are the ones who graduate from the top universities and are given the best paying jobs in consulting companies, scientific laboratories, and engineering companies.

Parents know this so they focus their childrens efforts on knowing the names of things. If their children cant remember them, send them to after-school classes where they will learn to recite more of these names, and forget the old adage about trying to expand their minds or build character.

The impact on kids has been known for decades. Carl Sagan, another well-known scientist whose 13-part PBS television seriesCosmos: A Personal Voyage was watched by at least 500 million people across 60 countries beginning in the 1980s, once said:

[W]hen you talk to kindergartners or first-grade kids, you find a class full of science enthusiasts. They ask deep questions. They ask, What is a dream, why do we have toes, why is the moon round, what is the birthday of the world, why is grass green? These are profound, important questions. They just bubble right out of them. You go talk to 12th graders and theres none of that. Theyve become incurious. Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade.

These problems extend far beyond Americas borders. In Singapore, where I live, the curiosity is gone by third or fourth grade because there are few if any open question-and-answer sessions. Instead, there are weekly or biweekly tests beginning in third grade that go on for years and that drum out any curiosity. When my 10-year old son (fifth grade in 2023) has told teachers he has read this book or that book about some type of science that has yet to be covered (or I have told teachers outside of his school about books he has read such as Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive), teachers always tell him or me that the school doesnt cover that topic until secondary school. There is no attempt to increase my sons interest in the topic, and my son no longer attempts to converse with his teachers and much of his excitement about science (and school) is gone.

Gary Smith knows that some of the problems with scientific research begin with science education. He rightfully begins his book with what scientists do in their jobs today, showing the over emphasis on p-values and the reverse engineering of these p-values to get published. He describes increases in the number and magnitude of these problems as scientists do more reverse engineering through data mining, and correctly points out the artificial intelligence will likely make this worse.

He only mentions science education at the end of the book, arguing that some of todays distrust of science indirectly comes from a poor education in science, not only for scientists, but for everyone. In the last chapter, Restoring the Lustre of Science,' he recommends changes in the way this science is done, and there will be much resistance to his proposed changes. But we also need changes in science education because the public at large, and perhaps even scientists themselves, are woefully mis-educated at an early age, and discouraged from ever understanding science, a prerequisite to making significant scientific advances.

See the rest here:

Scientists Have Been Recommending Changes to Science ... - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Read More..

Virgin pips Qantas on major cities, mining towns keep demand strong – The Australian Financial Review

And he said the mix of passengers reveals around 10 per cent less people visiting east coast capital cities, with monthly passenger numbers declining 1.5 per cent in Sydney and 3.8 per cent in Melbourne in May, compared with April. They were higher, however, in a year-on-year comparison with May 2022.

Airline Regional Express, known as Rex, which has started flying golden triangle routes between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, issued a profit downgrade last month saying corporate travel demand softened dramatically in May and June as travel budgets were exhausted.

The data also showed that Virgin Australia has overtaken Qantas in major cities, growing to 37.7 per cent market share versus 35.3 per cent for Qantas. In December 2019, Qantas held 38.3 per cent to Virgins 32.1 per cent. Qantas low-cost airline Jetstar picked up some ground, however, to 22.2 per cent from 19.8 per cent in 2019.

Mr Seow said the dip in Qantas market share appears to be largely corporate/premium demand particularly in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, where it was forecasting a rebound in capacity by December.

On face value this presents an interesting question: does the corporate recovery continue as implied by forward schedules? Or is there downside risk to capacity in the fourth quarter with potentially softer business conditions? Mr Seow speculated.

Regardless of the outlook, he said Qantas was offsetting capital city share losses by operating above pre-COVID-19 capacity in and out of key mining towns like Rockhampton, Olympic Dam, Mount Isa, Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie.

We estimate these routes have longer stage lengths/higher ASKs per trip, and interestingly this demand appears to be propping up the headline ASK recovery, Mr Seow said, referring to available seat kilometres.

And after airlines reiterated that demand for travel has held firm during the winter school holidays, Mr Seow said flights to leisure hot spots like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ballina, Hamilton Island and Port Macquarie are filling the gap in lower capital city flying.

When we look at website traffic to assess the recovery in domestic demand (data as of June 30) we see no signs of softening, Mr Seow said.

We find this particularly interesting given the soft macro, but also in general leisure customers are more likely to book online/direct and generally book further in advance versus corporate.

Citi warned that the downturn may not yet have hit flights but said it was hard to know why, speculating that the lack of availability of international long haul fares might be creating a domestic substitution effect.

Separately, the Australian Bureau of Statistics put out travel data showing that inbound travellers or overseas tourists again outpaced the number of Aussies flying overseas in May. The number of outbound Australians fell compared with April, the data showed.

See more here:

Virgin pips Qantas on major cities, mining towns keep demand strong - The Australian Financial Review

Read More..

UAE now accounts for 3.7% of the global bitcoin mining activity By … – Investing.com

Crypto.news - Recent data published by Hashrateindex indicates that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is carving out market share from the global bitcoin mining sector. This development can be attributed to the their proactive adoption of web3 technologies and increasing access to renewable energy sources.

The UAE is known for its support of innovative technologies. With heavily subsidized electricity tariffs for specific sectors, the country has seen widespread home-based crypto mining and small-scale amateur mining setups.

The report highlights that UAEs innovative approach to bitcoin mining, fueled by ambitious projects and abundant renewable energy, positions the country as a leader in the global industry.

With its expansion in electricity supply, partnerships with established players, and favorable access to capital, the UAE is paving the way for the future of bitcoin mining.

Further collaboration with government entities provide bitcoin miners with reasonable electricity rates in a scalable and sustainable manner, notes Hashrateindex.

Access to capital is excellent in the UAE, attracting wealthy investors who want to mine bitcoin within its borders.

While smaller-scale miners may face challenges finding hosting options within the UAE, mining-as-a-service companies like Phoenix Store and Blockfarms have emerged to meet the growing demand for bitcoin mining services in the region.

These companies offer hosting solutions abroad, bridging the gap for those interested in mining bitcoin but unable to establish operations within the UAEs borders.

The UAEs dominance in the Middle Easts bitcoin mining sector has significant implications for the global cryptocurrency landscape, according to the researchers. However, challenges remain regarding sustainable bitcoin mining growth in the UAE.

According to the report, the current tariff regime, with varying electricity rates across sectors, requires careful consideration to ensure a fair and equitable environment for all participants.

The report shows that the UAE supports global bitcoin mining by trying to balance subsidies, reasonable electricity rates, and long-term sustainability.

The UAEs approach, access to capital, and business environment have made it a leader in the Middle East and a potential influencer in shaping the future of bitcoin mining worldwide.

By prioritizing sustainability and flexibility in meeting electricity demands, the UAE shows that mining can work alongside renewable energy initiatives, paving the way for a greener and more efficient cryptocurrency ecosystem.

The UAEs advancements position it to have a part to play in the future of bitcoin mining as other countries strive to innovate and adopt the new technology.

Per the report, there is assumed average energy efficiency of 30 joules per terahash (J/TH). UAEs bitcoin miners are estimated to generate 13 exahashes per second (EH/s). This translates to approximately 3.7% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, surpassing neighboring countries like Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar.

While these energy-rich nations possess the potential for bitcoin mining, the UAEs innovative approach and partnership-driven strategy have positioned it at the forefront of the industry, showcasing its leadership in the region.

, the issuer of the tether (USDT) stablecoin, recently announced its entry into bitcoin mining. Tethers decision to start mining bitcoin in Uruguay is a great move that aims to make cryptocurrencies more accessible to people in the region. It also shows that big institutions are becoming more interested in the bitcoin mining industry.

Last month, Texas lawmakers approved several bills to make the state a hotbed for cryptocurrency mining activities. A favorable regulatory environment in Texas will help the growing demand for bitcoin mining.

As Bitcoin network transaction fees surge due to increased congestion, the emergence of BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals inscriptions has ignited a debate within the crypto community. The discussion revolves around whether Bitcoin should limit or ban these new use cases, despite increased demand for these new digital collectibles.

In addition to making BTC legal tender, president Nayib Bukeles El Salvador is poised to become a giant in the bitcoin mining sector. The country is set to establish a renewable energy power generation park, reaffirming the countrys commitment to web3 and crypto adoption.

This article was originally published on Crypto.news

View post:

UAE now accounts for 3.7% of the global bitcoin mining activity By ... - Investing.com

Read More..

How to safeguard your personal information from doxing – Philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines Taking a screenshot of a private message and sharing it with others is as easy as a single click. This, however, does not grant them a free pass to the consequences of doxing.

The escalating incidence of doxing has sparked significant concern among digital rights and safety advocates, given the heightened vulnerability individuals face such as scams, online gender-based violence and identity fraud.

A 2021 survey conducted by cybersecurity company Kaspersky revealed that one in six users had experienced doxing globally while using online dating platforms. In Asia Pacific alone, the survey found that 22% of the respondents had fallen victim to doxing while engaging in online dating.

Advocates emphasize educating diverse communities about the significance of safeguarding against doxing and the crucial role they play in protecting others.

By prioritizing education, digital rights and safety organizations empower individuals with the necessary tools and information to navigate the internet safely and mitigate the risks associated with doxing.

Derived from the word "documents," Kaspersky defined doxing as the act of leaking private or personal information about an individual online without their consent. This is often done with malicious intent with the aim of intimidating or threatening individuals.

Advertising

Scroll to continue

Common examples of doxing are when online users share screenshots of private conversations on social media platforms. These are often observed on Facebook, Twitter, Messenger and Telegram, a 2019 study by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University found.

Doxing often exposes a persons name, social details, and private information, including contact numbers, email addresses, intimate photos or videos and private conversations.

The 2021 study ofKaspersky discovered that nearly half of the Asia Pacific respondents either have or had online partners who leaked their intimate photos, disseminated screenshots of their conversations online, threatened them with personal information or stalked them in real life.

While doxing often involves users with malicious intent, there are also users who have a more profound motive behind sharing private information online, such as victim-survivors of online gender-based violence.

Driven by their personal experiences, some peopleexpose the identities of their abusers to warn others of the potential risks of interacting with them. At the same time, victim-survivors unintentionally commit doxing hoping to hold their perpetrators accountable.

In the Philippines, no law details how cases like this should be treated by the justice system. Similarly, no law has defined the term doxing.

However, existing laws have been implemented that stipulate the concept of doxing as a digital safety issue. Among these are the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA) and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (CPA).

The DPA states in Chapter VIII, Section 32 that an individual who discloses personal information to a third party without the consent of the data subject should be penalized with one to three years of imprisonment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1 million.

Filipino users may file a complaint to the National Privacy Commission for digital safety violations.

For instance, Jover Laurio (Pinoy Ako Blog) filed a civil complaint against Rey Joseph Nieto (Thinking Pinoy) in 2018 for revealing Laurio as the author of Pinoy Ako Blog in one of Thinking Pinoys entries, including their full name and school.

In a decision on March 31, Laurio won their data privacy case against Nieto, who now has to pay the blogger a total of P300,000 in damages and P50,000 in attorneys fees and litigation expenses.

Besides pressing charges, tweaking privacy settings and carefully selecting followers on social media can also limit the number of people who may have access to information posts.

Advocates also suggest establishing distinct email accounts and usernames for different platforms and refraining from using ones complete name when creating online accounts.

Using multi-factor authentication is another security measure that prevents others from accessing an account with just an email address and a password. It will require a user to either input a code randomly generated by the social media platform or a one-time pin (OTP) usually sent through text.

Cybersecurity firms also suggest utilizing a virtual private network (VPN) to protect IP addresses which describe ones location from being exposed, allowing users to browse the internet anonymously.

Most of all, combating digital safety issues like doxing will only be effective when users value their data and respect that of others.

Media organizations regularly conduct workshops and trainings on digital rights and safety for various sectors of society. They seek to not only raise awareness on these issues but also to equip them with the necessary knowledge and tools to become more resistant to doxing.

EngageMedia, a nonprofit organization advocating for digital rights and safety, organized the three-day Asia Pacific Digital Rights Forum in 2023, aiming to further discuss and collaborate on solutions for each regions pressing digital safety issues.

Out of The Box Media Literacy Initiative (OOTB) has also conducted such trainings for college students and mothers in early 2023. To improve their campaigns for the latter half of 2023, they held a digital rights and safety co-learning session with civil society organizations.

Diving deeper into the digital issues of doxing and data mining, OOTB will be conducting Training on Digital Rights and Security, a workshop under its Take Ctrl ? Shift Habits campaign on July 11 at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

Out of The Box is a non-profit organization in the Philippines promoting media literacy practices with educational resources, campaigns and workshops.

See original here:

How to safeguard your personal information from doxing - Philstar.com

Read More..

OpenAI Hit with Proposed Class Action Lawsuit, Accused of … – ReadWrite

OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT app, is being accused of stealing and misappropriating vast amounts of data from internet users to train its artificial intelligence algorithms, leading to a proposed class action lawsuit. The lawsuit, which was filed in a California federal court, claims that OpenAI improperly obtained extensive user data without permission, approval, or pay. In this article, well take a closer look at the lawsuit and its potential outcomes, including the allegations made against OpenAI.

A lawsuit of around 160 pages alleges that OpenAI scraped massive amounts of personal data from the internet. The complaint alleges that OpenAI illegally spied on practically all internet traffic without the knowledge or consent of its users. Hundreds of millions of people, including children, who use the internet have accused a large firm of illegally harvesting their personal data through a process called data mining.

OpenAI put everyone in an incalculable risk zone by misappropriating personal data of millions and using it to develop an unstable, untested technology, according to Timothy K. Giordano, a partner at Clarkson, the law firm behind the suit.

It is made clear throughout the case how extensive OpenAIs claimed data theft actually was. The company has been accused of stealing sensitive information from individuals across the internet without their knowledge or consent, and then selling or giving away that information. Concerns have been raised about OpenAIs dedication to data protection and use given the possibility that the business used this data to train its artificial intelligence technology.

In the planned class action case, the plaintiffs are asking for an injunction barring any further sales of OpenAI software. As a kind of monetary recompense, the lawsuit requests data dividends for everybody whose data was used in the training and development of OpenAIs technology. The lawsuit was brought to ensure that the victims be adequately reimbursed by OpenAI for the stolen data.

Microsoft, a major funder of OpenAI, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The IT behemoth has not yet responded to the allegations. Some in the IT community are worried about Microsofts image because of the companys close relationship with OpenAI, which has been tied to data harvesting allegations.

Media and user curiosity were piqued by the debut of OpenAIs ChatGPT tool. The tools popularity stems from the AI arms race that ensued when its capacity to mimic human behavior attracted users. The class action lawsuit threatens OpenAIs reputation and calls into question the companys data security practices. The outcome of this case could have far-reaching implications for OpenAIs future intentions.

The case brought against OpenAI shows how vitally important it is to conduct AI research and development in an ethical manner. As AI matures, it will become increasingly important for companies to prioritize the ethical collection of data and the safeguarding of customers personal information. This could serve as a model for future cases involving data theft and exploitation by AI companies.

First reported onCNN

Brad is the editor overseeing contributed content at ReadWrite.com. He previously worked as an editor at PayPal and Crunchbase. You can reach him at brad at readwrite.com.

The rest is here:

OpenAI Hit with Proposed Class Action Lawsuit, Accused of ... - ReadWrite

Read More..

Darknet bad actors work together to steal your crypto, heres how Binance CSO – Cointelegraph

Lurking in the shadiest corners of the dark web is a well-established ecosystem of hackers that target cryptocurrency users with poor security hygiene, according to Binances chief security officer, Jimmy Su.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Su said that hackers had shifted their gaze toward crypto end-users in recent years.

Su noted when Binance first opened in July 2017, the team saw plenty of hacking attempts on its internal network. However, the focus has shifted as crypto exchanges continued to beef up their security.

Hackers always choose the lowest bar to achieve their goals because, for them, its a business as well. The hacker community is a well-established ecosystem.

According to Su, this ecosystem comprises four distinct layers: intelligence gatherers, data refiners, hackers and money launderers.

The most upstream layer is what Su described as threat intelligence. Here, bad actors collect and collate ill-gotten intel about crypto users, creating entire spreadsheets filled with details about different users.

This could include crypto websites a user frequents, what emails they use, their name, and whether theyre on Telegram or social media.

There is a market for this on the dark web where this information is sold [...] that describes the user, explained Su in a May interview.

Su noted this information is usually gathered in bulk, such as previous customer information leaks, or hacks targeting other vendors or platforms.

In April, a research paper by Privacy Affairs revealed cybercriminals have been selling hacked crypto accounts for as little as $30 a pop. Forged documentation, often used by hackers to open accounts on crypto trading sites, can also be bought on the dark web.

According to Su, the data gathered is then sold downstream to another group usually made up of data engineers specializing in refining data.

For example, there was a data set last year for Twitter users. [...] Based on the information there, they can further refine it to see, based on the tweets to see which ones are actually crypto-related.

These data engineers will then use scripts and bots to figure out which exchanges the crypto enthusiast may be registered with.

They do this by attempting to create an account with the users email address. If they get an error that says the address is already in use, theyll know if they use the exchange, which could be valuable information that more targeted scams could use, said Su.

The third layer is usually what creates headlines. Phishing scammers or hackers will take the previously refined data to create targeted phishing attacks.

Because now they know Tommy is a user of exchange X, they can just send an SMS saying, Hey Tommy, we detected someone withdrew $5,000 from your account; please click this link and reach customer service if it wasnt you.

In March, hardware wallet provider Trezor warned its users about a phishing attack designed to steal investors money by making them enter the wallets recovery phrase on a fake Trezor website.

The phishing campaign involved attackers posing as Trezor and contacting victims via phone calls, texts, or emails, claiming that there has been a security breach or suspicious activity on their Trezor account.

Once the funds are stolen, the final step is getting away with the heist. Su explained this could involve leaving the funds dormant for years and then moving them to a crypto mixer such as Tornado Cash.

Related: Arbitrum-based Jimbos Protocol hacked, losing $7.5M in Ether

There are groups that we know that may sit on their stolen gains for two, three years without any movement, added Su.

While not much can stop crypto hackers, Su urges crypto users to practice better security hygiene.

This could involve revoking permissions for decentralized finance projects if they no longer use them, or ensuring communication channels, such as email or SMS used for two-factor authentication, are kept private.

Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0 The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

See original here:

Darknet bad actors work together to steal your crypto, heres how Binance CSO - Cointelegraph

Read More..