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Libby Meyrick

My friend and colleague Colin Ledsome, who has died aged 79, was an engineering designer, an educationist and a sharer of knowledge.

Born in Birkenhead, Colin went to Wirral grammar school and studied civil engineering at the University of Liverpool where, in 1964, he designed and helped build the stage for the newly conceived Everyman Theatre.

After university, Colin worked at Hawker Siddeley on the final stages of the Blue Streak satellite launch vehicle, his first foray into aerospace design. He left there to study for a masters in engineering from 1965 until 1967 at the University of Liverpool, researching the structure of toroidal spacecraft fuel tanks, on completion of which he moved to the US to work for a Nasa contractor on the design of the Apollo Skylab. On one occasion there, on entering a roadside diner, declaring himself a vegetarian and asking what he could get, he was told by a waitress: Out of Alabama!

On completion of the Skylab project in 1970, Colin moved back to the UK and took a role as a design engineer for British Rail in Derby, working on the design of the Advanced Passenger Train. This design pioneered the concept of active tilting to address curved train lines, a feature that has since been copied around the world.

Colin moved from industry into education, first working for the Design Council from 1980 until 1994. There, he focused on improving the design content of engineering education and training, initiating a project with the Engineering Council that led to the report Attaining Competence in Engineering Design, which set the parameters for the design content of chartered engineering-level qualifications. In 1996, he went to Imperial College London, where he fostered and developed students industrial placements and taught, led and managed final-year projects.

In retirement, Colin worked with the British Standards Institute, focusing on design for the manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end of life of products. He was also active as a fellow and past chair of the Institution of Engineering Designers, where he and I worked together for 19 years, as a volunteer at the Science Museum, an external examiner on university design courses and a residential tutor on Open University courses, in addition to being an accomplished archer and qualified archery coach.

His friends will remember him for his expertise and enthusiasm and the joy he found in engineering.

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Colin Ledsome obituary - The Guardian

Welcome to the latest edition of The Week in Security, which brings you the newest headlines from both the world and our team across the full stack of security: application security, cybersecurity, and beyond. This week: New research points to a trend in the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT with an increase in social engineering attacks. Also: Genesis Market, a stolen credentials warehouse, is seized by the FBI.

While the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT has proven to be beneficial in some cases, it has also been found to be harmful in others. Cyber defense company Darktrace recently published a blog post summarizing new data collected from their customer base, which points out a correlation between increasing social engineering attacks with the rising use of AI tooling. Social engineering attacks, such as targeted phishing (also known as spear-phishing) pose a serious threat to organizations and are a common entry point for cyber attacks like ransomware.

The companys chief product officer, Max Heinemeyer, said Darktrace saw a 135% increase in these novel social engineering attacks among their customers from January to February 2023. Heinemeyer also notes that this same timeframe aligns with the widespread adoption of ChatGPT. Heinemeyer doesnt think that this similar timeline is a coincidence: The trend suggests that generative AI, such as ChatGPT, is providing an avenue for threat actors to craft sophisticated and targeted attacks at speed and scale, he wrote in the companys blog post.

Its important for organizations to take a step back and review the threat of social engineering in this new age of easy-access AI tooling. Organizations will not only need to bolster their threat detection and mitigation operations, but also their efforts around training and teaching their staff about social engineering attacks, as well as AIs impact on this threat.

Here are the stories were paying attention to this week

A notorious source of stolen credentials, genesis.market, has had its website seized by the FBI. Genesis.market specialized in lifting credentials, cookies, and digital fingerprints and not only sold that data but offered a subscription service to provide up-to-date information on individuals it tracked.

The threat actor behind the information-stealing malware known as Typhon Reborn has resurfaced with an updated version (V2) that packs in improved capabilities to evade detection and resist analysis.

A new ransomware known as Rorschach is targeting entities in the U.S., and abuses a signed component of a legitimate security product in its attacks, along with the threat actors encryptor and injector tools.

Less than a month after electronics giant Samsung introduced ChatGPT for its employees, the AI model has been linked to an alleged leak of confidential information. Sensitive information about the companys semiconductor equipment measurement data is among the content that has now become part of ChatGPTs learning database.

Cybersecurity researchers in Belgium and the US recently published a paper scheduled for presentation later this year at the USENIX 2023 conference. In their research, they discovered that active adversaries might be able to shake loose at least some queued-up data from at least least some access points via Wi-Fi connection.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ReversingLabs Blog authored by Carolynn van Arsdale. Read the original post at: https://www.reversinglabs.com/blog/the-week-in-security-ai-tools-could-be-increasing-social-engineering-attacks-genesis-market-seized

More:

The Week in Security: Social engineering-attacks up with the rise of AI tools, Genesis Market seized - Security Boulevard

MADISON Madhushalini Madhu Balaji, a junior at James Clemens High School, has advanced with her project from state competition to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas, Texas on May 13-19.

On April 1, Balaji entered the Alabama State Science and Engineering Fair or ASEF at Auburn University, after qualifying at the regional science fair at the University of Alabama in Huntsville earlier this year. ASEF is an affiliate of the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the worlds largest international pre-college science competition.

ASEF officials selected the top four projects across Alabama to advance to the Regeneron fair at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. Contestants will compete against the top 1,500 students in the world for approximately $4 million in prizes and scholarships.

At the state fair, Balaji won second place in her category for her project, Development of a Simulated Platform that Replicates the Visual System Using Large Scale Neural Modeling and Performs Deep Brain Stimulation Using the Virtual Brain to Produce Synthetic Sight for the Visually Impaired.

In addition, Balajis work has received special awards:

* Regeneron Biomedical Science Award Sponsor, Society for Science. Given to an exceptional student scientist who not only demonstrates impressive command of biomedical science and research but also embodies Regenerons core values and behaviors, known as The Regeneron Way.

* HudsonAlpha Creative Computation Award Sponsor, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Celebrates a project that illustrates a students knowledge of computational tools in science research.

* Innovation in Science Research Award Sponsor, Associate Dean for Research, College of Sciences & Mathematics. Recognizes innovative topic or approaches in research methodologies for a science project.

* Provost Award Honoring ISEF Finalists at ASEF Sponsor, Office of the Provost at Auburn University. This office is proud to support the four ISEF Finalists from Alabama Science and Engineering Fair.

Madhushalini was ecstatic upon learning that she had been chosen to represent James Clemens School and the State of Alabama in a prestigious event, her mother Subashini Gopalakrishnan said. Madhushalini has been actively involved in projects related to visual impairments. She developed a sensory substitution device that she presented at a GenCyber Summer Camp for visually impaired students; she received valuable feedback.

Madhushalini eagerly looks forward to international competition and building meaningful connections. She also expressed deep gratitude towards her teachers, who have supported and encouraged her throughout her academic journey, Gopalakrishnan said.

Madhushalinis father, Balaji Purushothaman, works as a Principal Product Manager at ADTRAN. Her mother, Subashini Gopalakrishnan, is employed by Siemens as a Software Engineer.

Undecided about which college, Madhushalini does know her major computer science and a minor in neuroscience.

Read more:

Madhushalini Balaji selected for Regeneron International Science ... - themadisonrecord.com

Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' So it seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We can see that Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering Company Limited (HKG:8189) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. Of course, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering

You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of December 2022 Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering had CN56.8m of debt, an increase on CN47.4m, over one year. However, it does have CN7.21m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about CN49.6m.

Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering had liabilities of CN218.2m due within 12 months and liabilities of CN35.2m due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of CN7.21m as well as receivables valued at CN31.9m due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling CN214.4m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.

This is a mountain of leverage relative to its market capitalization of CN215.8m. Should its lenders demand that it shore up the balance sheet, shareholders would likely face severe dilution. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering's earnings that will influence how the balance sheet holds up in the future. So when considering debt, it's definitely worth looking at the earnings trend. Click here for an interactive snapshot.

In the last year Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering had a loss before interest and tax, and actually shrunk its revenue by 5.6%, to CN450m. That's not what we would hope to see.

Over the last twelve months Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering produced an earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) loss. Its EBIT loss was a whopping CN27m. When we look at that and recall the liabilities on its balance sheet, relative to cash, it seems unwise to us for the company to have any debt. Quite frankly we think the balance sheet is far from match-fit, although it could be improved with time. We would feel better if it turned its trailing twelve month loss of CN28m into a profit. So to be blunt we do think it is risky. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering that you should be aware of.

If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.

Find out whether Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering 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.

Read more from the original source:

Is Tianjin TEDA Biomedical Engineering (HKG:8189) A Risky Investment? - Simply Wall St