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Phone numbers of 1,900 users of encrypted messaging service Signal may have been revealed in phishing attack – WION

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

In a phishing attack on Signal's verification services provider, the phone numbers of 1,900 users could have been revealed, according to the company.

Signal said in a blog post that the attacker could also have accessed the SMS verification code used to register with the company.

It released a statement saying, "An attacker could have attempted to re-register number to another device or learned that their number was registered to Signal."

The attack is being investigated by Signal and Twilio Inc which counts over 256,000 businesses among its customers.

Also read |Elon Musk asks people to use Signal app instead of WhatsApp and Facebook over privacy issues

Following the change in WhatsApp's privacy policy, Signal saw huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Googles app stores.

Signal gained thousands of users after it was touted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk for its end-to-end encryption that prevents any third party from viewing conversation content or listening in on calls.

In a bid to tightly control the flow of information, the Chinese Communist Party blocked the messaging app in the country last year.

Since 2014, Signal has been installed about 58.6 million times globally, according to mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

(With inputs from agencies)

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X-Force 2022 Insights: An Expanding OT Threat Landscape – Security Intelligence

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

This post was written with contributions from Dave McMillen.

So far 2022 has seen international cyber security agencies issuing multiple alerts about malicious Russian cyber operations and potential attacks on critical infrastructure, the discovery of two new OT-specific pieces of malware,Industroyer2andInController/PipeDream, and the disclosure of many operational technology (OT) vulnerabilities. The OT cyber threat landscape is expanding dramatically and OT asset owners and operators, all of whom understand the need to keep critical infrastructures running safely, need to be aware of the shifting landscape and what they should be doing to secure their operations.

IBM Security X-Force analysts looked at X-Force Incident Response (IR) and Managed Security Services (MSS) data to provide OT defenders with the intelligence necessary to protect their assets.

The manufacturing industry was the most-attacked industry in 2021, according to the 2021 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. So far in 2022, manufacturing remains in the lead across both metrics at 23% of total IR cases and 65% among OT-related industries. This is just ahead of where manufacturing stood throughout 2021, victimized in 61% of incidents in OT-related industries to which X-Force responded. Of the other OT-heavy industries so far in 2022, electric utilities place a distant second at 13% and oil and gas and transportation tied for third at 8%, all three of which are similar to their proportion of attacks through 2021. Heavy and civil engineering accounts for about 3% and mining just shy of 2%.

Figure 1: Proportion of IR cases by OT-related industry, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.

Incident Response Data

Looking at identified initial infection vectors, phishing served as the initial infection vector in 78% of incidents X-Force responded to across these industries so far in 2022. This tracks with phishings position as the lead infection vector across all incidents in 2021. This also highlights the importance of layered phishing defenses, including regular user education and training, software solutions to filter malicious email, email sandboxing solutions to analyze any attachments or linked payloads, web proxies to analyze linked domains and attachment downloads, and application allow listing and Attack Surface Reduction rules to limit which extensions and payloads can be executed by end users. Solutions such as EDR and XDR can help detect post-compromise actions on endpoints if Command and Control is established. This should also be combined with strong network and user behavior analytic detections and defenses in the event that a phish is ultimately successful.

Scanning and exploitation of vulnerabilities on external attack surfaces made up 11% of initial infection vectors in incidents. Proactively identifying and managing the external attack surface of IT and OT networks is essential to understanding what ports, services, and applications may be exposed to attackers externally and may require further hardening, patching, or isolation. Once the external attack surface is identified, focused vulnerability management can help address IT vulnerabilities, though such patching is notoriously difficult in OT environments where downtime is difficult to schedule and system refresh timelines can stretch over many years. Because of this, one might expect successful compromise through vulnerability exploitation to be observed more frequently, but typically OT equipment itself is not exposed directly to the internet and is typically targeted via IT network access. Therefore, proper network security isolation is key to reducing attack paths for threat actors seeking to pivot from IT to OT networks. The use of removable media tied for second at 11% of incidents, underscoring the long-standing threat that such media poses to OT networks, often by end users using infected USB media drives between operator workstations and personal laptops while in the field.

Proper segmentation, proactive testing of security controls, knowing your environment, and hardening systems are just a few of the steps available to secure these assets. As for removable media, ideally, USB flash drives should be prohibited when possible. If absolutely necessary, strictly control the number of portable devices approved for use in your environment and disable autorun features for any removable media.

Figure 2: Identified infection vectors for incidents against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.

Network Attack Data

In addition to analyzing data from our incident response engagements, X-Force analysts also reviewed OT-related industries network attack data to determine how attackers are most often attempting to infiltrate those networks. Widespread vulnerability scanning, mostly broad spraying with some more targeted attempts, accounts for most of the observed network attacks on X-Force clients in OT-related industries. Weak encryption implementation and brute force attempts make up the majority of alerts in client environments with OT monitoring devices.

Vulnerability Scanning

In most cases, the scanning attempts revealed in the data are not directly targeting OT or ICS, rather they are looking for any of a large number of vulnerabilities in an unspecified environment whether internally and externally. The fact that many of the OT-specific signatures triggered also appear against clients in industries without OT environments supports our assessment that much of this activity is indiscriminate scanning. When we analyzed network traffic related to ports commonly associated with OT, we found port scanning and Shodan scanner activity made up 47% and 36% of activity, respectively. These types of scanning can ultimately be used to identify vulnerable or accessible IT or OT environments.

Figure 3: Attack activity against ports commonly associated with OT, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.

The vulnerabilities X-Force sees being scanned for include ones from 2016, 2018, and 2021. Within network attack alerts from the subset of clients in OT-related industries, a filter bypass vulnerability in Trihedrals VTScada application (CVE-2016-4510) that could allow unauthenticated users to send http requests to access files was most common. Other vulnerabilities scanned include cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in Advantechs R-SeeNet devices platform (CVE-2021-21801, -21802, and -21803) and a vulnerability in CirCarLife SCADA software (CVE-2018-12634) that could lead to information disclosure. The CirCarLife CVE ranks 9.8/10 in CVSS, followed closely by Trihedrals at 9.1, and the others at 6.1.

Figure 4: OT-related vulnerability scanning activity against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.

Refining and maturing your vulnerability management program can help protect your assets from threat actors seeking to identify vulnerabilities in your systems via such scanning. This should include dedicating a well-resourced and supported team to the task and prioritizing the CVEs below for OT networks. Overall, it is important to bear in mind that your specific environment does not need to be directly targeted to be compromisedif your network is vulnerable or misconfigured, it can be compromised.

Weak Encryption and Brute Force

Weak encryption and brute force alerts were the two most significant network attack alerts that clients with OT monitoring devices experienced. Almost 60% of the alerts concerned the continued use of TLS 1.0, an outdated and insecure encryption method deprecated in March 2021. Though the US Governmentrecommendsreconfiguration to use TLS 1.2 or 1.3, NISTguidelinesaddress in more depth the more common reality that older systems may need to continue using weaker versions of encryption to ensure continued functionality.

X-Force strongly recommends that organizations inventory and understand their environments; the types of encryption deployed should certainly be on those lists. We also recommend clients weigh the security risks with the possible benefits of continuing use of older encryption methods based on the sensitivity of the communications being secured.

Figure 5: Network alerts from OT monitoring devices, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.

Another 42% of alerts concerned brute force, both attempted and successful events. Among the small percentage of other alerts were a variety of network enumeration alerts including Modbus function code, illegal parameter, and suspect variables scans, and things like weak or default passwords found on devices, a basic but necessary vulnerability to address that makes brute force attacks easier for attackers. Other mitigations to reduce your networks susceptibility to brute force attacks include ensuring multi-factor authentication is deployed and regular re-authentication is required for as many logins as technically feasible, keeping applications and operating systems updated, and implementing lockout policies.

Top Threat: Malspam Delivering Emotet

So far this year, malspam ranks as the top threat across OT-related industries at 44% of incident response engagements. Notably, the majority of malspam incidents involved the delivery of the Emotet Trojan, which is reflective of a cross-industrytrendnot just in the OT space, and aligns with our data indicating phishing as the leading infection vector. Many of those incidents involved Emotet infections, receipt of thousands of infected emails, and infection from unauthorized downloads that sometimes led to system identifying information being stolen. In some of the cases, victims emails were hijacked to send Emotet-infected spam, probably to make the emails look more legitimate and get more clicks. Remote access trojans (RATs) come in second at 19%, ransomware accounts for 13% of incidents responded to, and business email compromise (BEC) and server access attacks account for about 6% each.

These numbers so far reflect a shift from 2021, when ransomware accounted for 36% of all attacks across these industries. Most of those ransomware events affected IT networks directly, with some having an indirect impact on OT networks. This trend is currently being observed across all industries, not just those with OT environments. Although new and existing ransomware groups continue to plague many organizations, X-Force assesses that fewer ransomware IR cases this year compared to last may be the result of defenders improving their own ransomware response plans or security posture to detect malicious behaviors in their environment before attackers have an opportunity to strike.

Figure 6: Identified threats for incidents against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.

Government and private institutions around the world have been turning their focus to mitigating risks to OT in recent years. Cybercriminals are developing new threats on a daily basis that can potentially result in catastrophic utility and manufacturing outages.

The threat to OT permeates across a nations entire economy and infrastructure. Organizations across all verticals must take full responsibility for protecting their own assets and consumers. The best way to keep adversaries out of an ICS is to implement simple safeguards, best practices, and risk management solutions. You can download ICS specific resources from government entities like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which also offers network protection advice for connected things within industrial realms.

For more information on protecting ICS from rising threats while continuing to enable technological advancements, read X-Forces recent blog, Where Everything Old is New Again: Operational Technology and Ghosts of Malware Past. The report looks at the history of ICS, the susceptibility of these systems to certain attacks, and ways to defend those systems.

Strategic Cyber Threat Analyst, IBM Security X-Force

Mike Worley is a Strategic Cyber Threat Analyst on the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Production Team. He joined the team in 2021 with 8 years of experience...

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Bringing lessons from cybersecurity to the fight against disinformation – MIT News

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Mary Ellen Zurko remembers the feeling of disappointment. Not long after earning her bachelors degree from MIT, she was working her first job of evaluating secure computer systems for the U.S. government. The goal was to determine whether systems were compliant with the Orange Book, the governments authoritative manual on cybersecurity at the time. Were the systems technically secure? Yes. In practice? Not so much.

There was no concern whatsoever for whether the security demands on end users were at all realistic, says Zurko. The notion of a secure system was about the technology, and it assumed perfect, obedient humans.

That discomfort started her on a track that would define Zurkos career. In 1996, after a return to MIT for a masters in computer science, she published an influential paper introducing the term user-centered security. It grew into a field of its own, concerned with making sure that cybersecurity is balanced with usability, or else humans might circumvent security protocols and give attackers a foot in the door. Lessons from usable security now surround us, influencing the design of phishing warnings when we visit an insecure site or the invention of the strength bar when we type a desired password.

Now a cybersecurity researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Zurko is still enmeshed in humans relationship with computers. Her focus has shifted toward technology to counter influence operations, or attempts by foreign adversaries to deliberately spread false information (disinformation) on social media, with the intent of disrupting U.S. ideals.

In a recent editorial published in IEEE Security & Privacy, Zurko argues that many of the human problems within the usable security field have similarities to the problems of tackling disinformation. To some extent, she is facing a similar undertaking as that in her early career: convincing peers that such human issues are cybersecurity issues, too.

In cybersecurity, attackers use humans as one means to subvert a technical system. Disinformation campaigns are meant to impact human decision-making; theyre sort of the ultimate use of cyber technology to subvert humans, she says. Both use computer technology and humans to get to a goal. It's only the goal that's different.

Getting ahead of influence operations

Research in counteracting online influence operations is still young. Three years ago, Lincoln Laboratory initiated a study on the topic to understand its implications for national security. The field has since ballooned, notably since the spread of dangerous, misleading Covid-19 claims online, perpetuated in some cases by China and Russia, as one RAND study found. There is now dedicated funding through the laboratorys Technology Office toward developing influence operations countermeasures.

It's important for us to strengthen our democracy and make all our citizens resilient to the kinds of disinformation campaigns targeted at them by international adversaries, who seek to disrupt our internal processes, Zurko says.

Like cyberattacks, influence operations often follow a multistep path, called a kill chain, to exploit predictable weaknesses. Studying and reinforcing those weaknesses can work in fighting influence operations, just as they do in cyber defense. Lincoln Laboratorys efforts are in developing technology to support source tending, or reinforcing early stages in the kill chain when adversaries begin to find opportunities for a divisive or misleading narrative and build accounts to amplify it. Source tending helps cue U.S. information-operations personnel of a brewing disinformation campaign.

A couple of approaches at the laboratory are aimed at source tending. One approach is leveraging machine learning to study digital personas, with the intent of identifying when the same person is behind multiple, malicious accounts. Another area is focusing on building computational models that can identify deepfakes, or AI-generated videos and photos created to mislead viewers. Researchers are also developing tools to automatically identify which accounts hold the most influence over a narrative. First, the tools identify a narrative (in one paper, the researchers studied the disinformation campaign against French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron) and gather data related to that narrative, such as keywords, retweets, and likes. Then, they use an analytical technique called causal network analysis to define and rank the influence of specific accounts which accounts often generate posts that go viral?

These technologies are feeding into the work that Zurko is leading to develop a counter-influence operations test bed. The goal is to create a safe space to simulate social media environments and test counter-technologies. Most importantly, the test bed will allow human operators to be put into the loop to see how well new technologies help them do their jobs.

Our militarys information-operations personnel are lacking a way to measure impact. By standing up a test bed, we can use multiple different technologies, in a repeatable fashion, to grow metrics that let us see if these technologies actually make operators more effective in identifying a disinformation campaign and the actors behind it.

This vision is still aspirational as the team builds up the test bed environment. Simulating social media users and what Zurko calls the grey cell, the unwitting participants to online influence, is one of the greatest challenges to emulating real-world conditions. Reconstructing social media platforms is also a challenge; each platform has its own policies for dealing with disinformation and proprietary algorithms that influence disinformations reach. For example, The Washington Post reported that Facebooks algorithm gave extra value to news that received anger reactions, making it five times more likely to appear on a users news feed and such content is disproportionately likely to include misinformation. These often-hidden dynamics are important to replicate in a test bed, both to study the spread of fake news and understand the impact of interventions.

Taking a full-system approach

In addition to building a test bed to combine new ideas, Zurko is also advocating for a unified space that disinformation researchers can call their own. Such a space would allow researchers in sociology, psychology, policy, and law to come together and share cross-cutting aspects of their work alongside cybersecurity experts. The best defenses against disinformation will require this diversity of expertise, Zurko says, and a full-system approach of both human-centered and technical defenses.

Though this space doesnt yet exist, its likely on the horizon as the field continues to grow. Influence operations research is gaining traction in the cybersecurity world. Just recently, the top conferences have begun putting disinformation research in their call for papers, which is a real indicator of where things are going, Zurko says. But, some people still hold on to the old-school idea that messy humans dont have anything to do with cybersecurity.

Despite those sentiments, Zurko still trusts her early observation as a researcher what cyber technology can do effectively is moderated by how people use it. She wants to continue to design technology, and approach problem-solving, in a way that places humans center-frame. From the very start, what I loved about cybersecurity is that its partly mathematical rigor and partly sitting around the campfire telling stories and learning from one another, Zurko reflects. Disinformation gets its power from humans ability to influence each other; that ability may also just be the most powerful defense we have.

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UCF-led Research Team to Play Key Role in National $26M NSF-funded Effort to Develop Smart Streetscapes – UCF

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

A team of researchers led by UCF Trustee Chair Professor Mubarak Shah, professor of computer science in the UCF Center for Research in Computer Vision, will play a key role in a newly funded national effort to forge livable, safe and inclusive communities with technologies built on advances in wireless communications.

This month the U.S. National Science Foundation announced its five-year award of $26 million to fund a new Gen-4 NSF Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3).

CS3 is spearheaded by Columbia Engineering in partnership with the University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University, Rutgers University and Lehman College.

The grant, which supports high-risk, high-payoff research centers focused on advancing engineered systems technology and education with high-societal impact, will fund the development of streetscape applications to forge livable, safe and inclusive communities.

More than 80% of Americans and more than half the worlds population live in urban areas. High-density cities are transforming how people live, work, travel and manage urban infrastructure. With the nations urban areas facing challenges that threaten livability, safety and inclusion, it is streetscapes neighborhood streets, sidewalks and public spaces that are the center of public and commercial activities, where data can be harnessed for the public good.

Understanding complex streetscapes in real time requires progress in fundamental engineering knowledge and enables exciting opportunities for deploying public interest technology: a smart streetscape of the future can instantly sense human behavior and guide disabled pedestrians, collect refuse, control pests, amplify emergency services, and protect people against environmental and health threats. It can address unmet needs in road and public safety, traffic efficiency, assistive technologies, outdoor work and hyper-local environmental sensing. The CS3 project is focused on doing all that with the active, ongoing collaboration of its many diverse stakeholders.

The Center for Smart Streetscapes will unite diverse research communities through a convergent research model that delivers innovations across five areas: Wi-Edge (high-speed wireless-optical networking); Situational Awareness; Security, Privacy and Fairness; Public Interest Technology; and Streetscape Applications.

The UCF-led team will address CS3s Situational Awareness research thrust a critical piece of the smart streetscape puzzle to develop computationally efficient and privacy-preserving computer vision and machine-learning algorithms to understand in real-time highly complex streetscape scenes, such as positions of people and things, context, people and objects in motion, and more, at scale with multiple cameras and fusion with other sensor types such as lidar.

The Situational Awareness team, led by Shah, director of the UCF Center for Research in Computer Vision and expert in advanced computer vision technologies, includes Mohamed Abdel-Aty, chair of the UCF Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and expert in transportation safety and related technologies. Aty leads UCFs Future City initiative that provides research and educational opportunities in smart city technologies. The Situational Awareness team also includes seven researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University with research expertise in civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering and statistics.

Building upon many years of research collaboration between UCF and Columbia University, we are pleased to be the part of this NSF Engineering Research Center, where we will leverage our world class research in Computer Vision to solve real-world problems related to smart, secureand private cities, Shah says.

Our partnership provides an unprecedented opportunity to pool the strengths of our institutions, embedded in cities that can serve as models for other urban areas around the world, says Mary Boyce, provost, Columbia University. By improving life at hyperlocal scales, we will unlock transformative innovation for communities where it matters most.

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Microsoft and Amazon tease US relocation to African developers – Quartz

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

One month after graduating from the University of Lagos in November 2017, Timi Bolaji received an offer to become a software engineer at Microsoft after scaling through a process that was focused on hiring computer science graduates from African universities. He joined the companys team in Seattle a year later and has been there since, working on the Xbox Cloud Gaming team.

Microsoft is returning to Africa to hire more developers like Bolaji, with the same tantalizing promise of relocating them to offices in the US and Canada.

The company is interested in people still enrolled in or who have recently completed a bachelors or masters degree in engineering, computer science or related fields, and have one year of programming experience in languages like Java, Python and PHP. Being able to show an understanding of data structures and algorithms is also required.

Microsoft isnt the only Big Tech company directly fishing for new talent in Africa. Amazon is currently interviewing Nigerian developers for roles that promise relocation to Ireland and Canada. These moves coincide with the growth of software engineering talent in Africa in the last decade thanks in part to the work of companies like Andela that have helped produce the continents estimated 716,000 developers. Some of them have become startup founders who then hire developers, creating a ripple effect that inspires young students to consider careers in software engineering.

Microsoft and Amazon may simply be seeking a slice of an already globalizing African software engineering workforce since four out of ten developers in Africa work for at least one company based outside of the continent.

With the so-called Great Resignation of the last two years, theres a global shortage of talent and people are recognizing Africa as a source of talent, says Chika Nwobi, founder and CEO of Decagon, a Nigerian company that runs cohort-based software engineering training programs. He is certain that Big Tech companies will find the quality of talent they need in Nigeria because of the growth in expertise that has led to a vibrant tech-driven financial services ecosystem.

We may not have that many engineers who can operate at the scale of these large companies, but thats just an implementation hurdle thats easy to hop over, at the risk of trivializing it, says Justin Irabor, a developer who works remotely in Nigeria for a European company. As with all kinds of professions, there is a wide variation of talent quality, but I strongly believe we have good engineers here.

By going directly to universities for candidates that do not necessarily have years of experience, Microsofts betting on the diffusion of the innovation buzz from African tech companies and communities typically based in cities like Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali to other parts of each country. The Windows maker may have to thank its competitor, Google, whose developer groups on campuses have become a key channel introducing young African undergraduates to the world of software development.

Many of the students that may apply to join Microsoft from Nigeria are probably at home due to a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the union for lecturers in government-owned universities, now in its seventh month. Theres no end in sight.

Still, it is a sign of the maturing computer science programs in some schools in Africa that one of the worlds biggest companies is seeking students or recent graduates. Africas top universities for engineering and computer science are in Egypt and Tunisia, according to the US News and World Reports 2022 ranking. Greater Big Tech interest could be the catalyst for schools in other parts of the continent to compete for places on such rankings in the future.

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Nancy Parra-Quinlan Named AFA’s 2022 Teacher of the Year | Air & Space Forces Association – Air Force Magazine

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Nancy Parra-Quinlan of Kino Junior High School in Mesa, Ariz. is AFA's 2022 Teacher of the Year.

The Air & Space Forces Association is proud to announce Nancy Parra-Quinlan of Kino Junior High School in Mesa, Ariz., as our 2022 Teacher of the Year (TOY). She was originally nominated for the award by AFAs AZ-151 Frank Luke Chapter.

AFAs Teacher of the Year award is an annual recognition of exceptional teachers who are invigorating their students passion and promoting innovative STEM education. The award is sponsored by Rolls-Royce North America Defense.

Our Teacher of the Year program not only serves to recognize the education talent we have in the U.S., but also to acknowledge the importance of educators in our society, said Stephen Gourley, AFA Vice Chairman of the Board for Aerospace Education. Mrs P-Q rightfully joins a long list of exceptional teachers. We are proud know her and provide this well-deserved recognition.

Parra-Quinlan is a 7th and 8th grade science, STEM, and Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher at Kino Junior High, a Title I school in an economically disadvantaged area of Mesa. Since offering the schools first STEM class in 2011, she has grown the program to include elective courses on robotic programming, 3D modeling and design, DNA comparison, and aeronautic engineering. Parra-Quinlan is also the sponsor of Kino Junior Highs STEM club and has arranged for the clubs members to visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Space Academy in Huntsville, Ala., and Astro Camp in Idyllwild, Calif., during the summer.

Outside of class time, Parra-Quinlan coaches the RoboKolts, Kino Junior Highs after-school robotics team in the FIRST LEGO League. She also plans, markets, and runs the Aerospace Academy, a two-week summer camp that gives students from around the Phoenix metropolitan area exposure to STEM careers through tours and guest speakers. Her campers have visited Boeings AH-64 Apache helicopter factory and a Southwest Airlines maintenance hangar, and they have met air traffic controllers and other Federal Aviation Administration staff at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Parra-Quinlan is also a captain in the Civil Air Patrol and an Aerospace Education Officer. In these roles she helps cadets pursue their aerospace career goals and supplies local teachers with resources to cultivate thriving STEM programs at their schools.

Congratulations to Nancy for this well-deserved recognition as AFAs National Teacher of the Year! said Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson (Ret.), Senior Vice President of Business Development at Rolls-Royce North America Defense. [We are] proud to support Nancy and the Air & Space Forces Association as we all work together to develop and support todays STEM studentsthe science and technology specialists of tomorrow."

AFA also congratulates Robbie Ferguson, the 2022 TOY award first runner-up. Ferguson, who was nominated by AFAs CO #127 Mile High Chapter, teaches aerospace engineering and computer science to 9th-12th grade students at Westminister High School in Westminister, Colo. He has partnered with organizations like NASA and the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology to provide his students with the opportunity to earn college credits and industry certifications that will set them up early for future careers in STEM.

The second runner-up winner of 2022s TOY award is Dr. Marina Mosneaguta, who was nominated by AFAs SC Swamp Fox Chapter 298. A math teacher and the STEM lead at Alice Drive Middle School in Sumter, S.C., Mosneaguta gives her students hands-on experience conducting scientific research through the Students Spaceflight Experiments Program. She also organizes virtual meetings between her students and STEM professionals, including aerospace engineers, astronauts, and even Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson.

AFA proudly honors all of these teachers whose commitments, achievements, and contributions to STEM education are shaping Americas youth and future.

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Congress Urged to Meet Budget Targets in CHIPS and Science Act – American Institute of Physics

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Image credit Evan Vucci / AP

President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law on Aug. 9 at a ceremony on the White House lawn, hailing it as a once-in-a-generation investment in America.

The law will provide $52 billion to support the domestic semiconductor sector, which Biden said will coax companies to invest much more, citing commitments from Micron, GlobalFoundries, and Qualcomm that coincided with the signing, as well as plans previously announced by Intel.

Biden also highlighted the ambitious spending targets the bill sets for the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institute of Standards and Technology, saying, This increased research and development funding is going to ensure the United States leads the world in the industries of the future: from quantum computing to artificial intelligence to advanced biotechnology.

However, unlike with the semiconductor funding, meeting those targets will depend on future appropriations. Aware that spending has fallen well short of such targets in the past, advocates are already lining up to push Biden and Congress to follow through.

While the CHIPS and Science Act makes extensive revisions to policy across NSF, DOE, and NIST, the ultimate impact of the law will hinge on how much funding its initiatives receive in the years ahead.

In his remarks, Biden noted that federal R&D spending as a fraction of gross domestic product is now at less than half its peak of nearly 2% in the 1960s, when the Apollo lunar exploration program was underway. Pointing to competition from China and other countries, he said, This law gets us moving up once again. It authorizes funding to boost our research and development funding closer to 1% of the GDP, the fastest single-year percentage increase in 70 years.

Legislative authorizations set funding targets for actual appropriations, but they are not binding. A similar wave of concern over national competitiveness earlier this century led Congress to pass two major R&D laws, the America COMPETES Acts of 2007 and 2010, which likewise authorized major funding increases for NSF, DOE, and NIST. However, those plans were quickly overwhelmed by the politics of deficit control that followed the 2008 economic downturn and the Republican takeover of the House in 2011.

Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, reflected on that experience in an op-ed published the same day as the bill signing, writing, Weve been here before: in 2007, Congress authorized tens of billions of dollars of new investments in federal research only to fail to deliver on funding at great cost to American innovation.

He pointed to an analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science that estimates Congress has cumulatively spent $77 billion less on R&D than if it had met the 2007 COMPETES Acts aim of doubling the agency budgets over seven years and then provided increases in line with inflation thereafter.

The National Science Board, a body of external experts that oversees NSF, is gearing up to press for the funding authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act. At a board meeting on Aug. 4, its chair Dan Reed referred to the task at hand as turning the poetry of authorization into the prose of appropriation.

The law recommends that Congress roughly double NSFs budget over five years, with a significant portion of the money going to its new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) for efforts to spur key industries and craft research-driven responses to societal challenges such as climate change.

Board member Dario Gil, IBMs director of research, explained at the board meeting that to recruit advocates he and others are looking beyond NSFs traditional academic constituency. He noted for instance the regional economic development focus of the new TIP Directorate could broaden the agencys usual base of support. He also argued that NSF plays a significant but underappreciated role in funding fields that are important for industry, such as computer science.

It's important to activate those constituencies, where key business leaders of the most critical sectors in our economy or key leaders of our national security establishment [are] saying, 'I need that future. I need it today. I need a lot more of it. And the agency that can carry that out and can make it happen is the National Science Foundation.' Those are words that today are not coming out of those leaders, he said.

Gil was among the semiconductor industry representatives who intensively lobbied Congress to appropriate the CHIPS funding. He currently chairs NSB'sexternal engagement committee, which leads its communications with government, industry, universities, and the public.

Assuring the board that the advocacy push does not imply a lack of interest in the agencys broader mission, he remarked, I just want to state for the record that even though we will pick very select things that we need to communicate for very specific audiences to drive the maximum impact, it in no way [means] the board does not appreciate the full range of activities that happen in NSF.

Advocates first goal will be to convince Congress to meet the CHIPS and Science Acts spending targets for fiscal year 2023, which begins on Oct. 1 but will probably not receive a final appropriation until late this year or even early next year.

Proposals already advanced by the Biden administration, the House, and Senate all undershoot those targets by billions of dollars. Moreover, the House and Senate proposals were assembled by Democratic appropriators without the input of Republicans, who will have a significant influence on the final outcome and have argued that proposed spending on non-defense programs is too high.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Science Committee are looking ahead to the administrations budget request for fiscal year 2024, which is being assembled now and is due for release in February.

In a letter to DOE and the White House on Aug. 11, they argue the administrations fiscal year 2023 request for the DOE Office of Science is insufficient to cover the needs of its research facility construction projects, reiterating points they and Republican committee members made at a hearing in April. While those projects are in line to receive a funding boost through the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed yesterday, the amounts will not be enough to see most projects through to their completion.

The Democrats also assert the request is inconsistent with Bidens commitment to increasing R&D spending overall. They argue the administration has not given a convincing reason for why it requested a significantly smaller proportional increase for the Office of Science relative to its requests for DOEs applied R&D programs and other science agencies.

They urge the administration to embrace the fiscal year 2024 target in the CHIPS and Science Act, which is $2 billion more than the offices current $7.5 billion budget. It is imperative that we meet this historical moment with transformative investments in science and innovation, and that process begins with the presidents budget request, they state.

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Congress Urged to Meet Budget Targets in CHIPS and Science Act - American Institute of Physics

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Post-COVID, recoded: Training, prospecting, and programming for the new corporate needs – Fast Company

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Thirty months ago, when the novel coronavirus pandemic began flagging economic alarm, there was tangible concern regarding how a shrinking corporate sphere would support enough jobs for a healthy employment rate. But luckily, the path of COVID-era management has not only replenished lost roles, but its also created new ones. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in computer and information occupations to grow 13% by 2030, creating approximately 667,000 new jobs. Businesses across all sectors have a greater need for cloud computing, data storage, and cybersecurity; a lack of available roles has not turned out to be the problem.

Interestingly, though, theres a barrier to connection between employers and employees. I am seeing it keep candidates and business owners away from the symbiotic connection that defines a strong company and a strong economy at large. As in-demand roles have multiplied and changed across the IT space, an apparent skills-mismatch has emerged in a number of crucial areas, including DevOps, customer experience, cloud infrastructure, automation, platforms and products, data management, and cybersecurity. McKinsey researchers predict this employer-candidate gap will worsen before it improves; the disparity between employer needs and candidate experience could leave employers with gaps in positions that the pandemic has rendered integral.

SKILLS GAP: FACT OR FICTION?

I believe the skills mismatch can partially be explained by the nature of the industry itself. Computer science is intensely progressive. Breakthrough innovations are developed, integrated, and adopted faster than they are in other industries. The cyclical progressnew languages being introduced, adopted, and replaced soon afterrepeats.

For candidates, educators, and employers, its hard to know where to intersect within that cycle of change. I believe the best thing a candidate can learn is how to learn and how to pivot between new programs, languages, and processes with speed, enthusiasm, and agility. For prospective candidates in the IT space, now is an opportune time to invest in lifelong learning.

CONSTANT AND CONTINUED EDUCATION

The pace of tech evolution can actually work as an equalizing force. A candidate with a relevant degree might possess the initial advantage, but in my experience, its the candidate committed to growth that will best navigate the industry. The lack of a traditional computer science degree need not prevent a candidate from participating in the tech industry boom, nor should fears about the cost of alternative training. Current alternative training options exist at low or no cost. Many programs offer online learning with a focus on relevant skills in a changing industry.

BEGINNING, AGAIN

In considering programs, a candidate should ensure the training they receive is relevant. One strategy is to network within the target sector, looking for programs that are need-aware and that offer courses tailored to local industries. However, if a candidate is still unsure of their desired focus, they can explore the subcategories of computer scienceprogramming, systems analysis, database administration, network architecture, software development, and researchand the jobs that accompany them. Studying information technology trends, watching webinars on LinkedIn or Youtube, and leveraging other self-led learning platforms are all great ways to begin.

The next step in securing relevant training is to select a stack to pursue. Many startups are using Javascript-based technologies, such as NodeJS, ReactJS, VueJS, AngularJS, and React Native.

Consulting firms or state-owned enterprises might use more established technologies such as Java or .NET Core. Multinational companies sometimes favor Ruby. A good strategy is to examine the job market for each language and try to determine which language is most commonly listed on job postings that are local or seem interesting.

Another consideration is how easy a language is to learn and what projects one is able to build and add to a portfolio while learning a language. In the end, the best language depends on a candidates needs and interests. The most important priority is to learn an initial language in depth and to use it to build a foundation for other languages, as well as a portfolio. No one can be an expert in every aspect of computer science, and there are no wrong choices.

FACING THE INTERVIEW

Armed with new knowledge and experience, candidates are ready to explore the available roles in their desired field. The top priority on both sides of an interview, for both the candidate and the employer, is to explore the fit in depth; no one wants to be in a working position thats not right for them. And while the interview can be a stressful stage in the journey of a job search, candidates who are able to keep that goal in mind might find some much-needed ease.

Bringing in a portfolio of self-directed projects is a great way for a candidate to communicate their interests, experience, and skill level to date. In addition, candidates should be ready to bring alternative educational experience, skill test scores, and unpaid apprenticeship experience to the employers attention. Recruitment teams often make the mistake of specifying degree requirements in the language of a traditional educational system, but may be just as open to skills earned in other ways. Candidates who are able to speak to those alternative experiences are in the best position to demonstrate their intrinsic interest and motivation in a way that will be memorable to recruitment teams.

Finally, a candidates answers are only as good as their questions. Inquiring about a companys long- and short-term goals in the recovery phase demonstrates an advanced awareness and collaborative capacity. Consider also inquiring about how the company supports the career goals of its employees. Does the company invest in reskilling and upskilling? Does it value its employees individual improvement, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape?

Building a career in programming can seem intimidating, particularly without a computer science degree. However, a candidate can construct a path by exploring subfields, researching stacks, and finding relevant training. This training can give them the skills to create a portfolio, complete skills tests, and secure initial work experiences. The number of self-made tech professionals is ever-growingperhaps the perfect solution to a field that evolves greatly every day.

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Post-COVID, recoded: Training, prospecting, and programming for the new corporate needs - Fast Company

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Senior Research Assistant in the Division of Science, Computer Science job with NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ABU DHABI | 304844 – Times Higher Education

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Description

The New York University Abu Dhabi Computational Approaches to Modeling Language (CAMeL) Lab seeks to hireone new researcherto work on the development of cutting edge video-chatbot dialogue systems within its Time-Offset Interaction Application (TOIA) Project. CAMeL's mission is research and education in artificial intelligence, specifically focusing on natural language processing, computational linguistics, and data science. Since its establishment in 2014, the CAMeL Lab has produced over 120 publications and 20 language resources and tools. The lab website ishttp://camel-lab.com/. Google Scholar of the lab is athttp://scholar.camel-lab.com/.

The positions will target the rank of Senior Research Assistant (BS or MS). A strong preference is for individuals with (a) computer science or engineering, information or data science, or statistics degrees including previous experience in natural language processing; or computational linguistics/language technologies degrees; (b) strong programming and software engineering skills, and machine learning experience; (c) some research publication experience; (d) experience with running big projects including user studies are preferred; (e) industrial experience is a plus.

The terms of employment are very competitive and include housing and educational subsidies for children. Applications will be accepted immediately and candidates will be considered until the position is filled. To be considered, all applicants must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcript of degree, a one-page summary of research accomplishments and interests, and at least 2 letters of recommendation, all in PDF format. If you have any questions, please email:nizar.habash@nyu.edu

About NYUAD:

NYU Abu Dhabi is a degree-granting research university with a fully integrated liberal arts and science undergraduate program in the Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Engineering. NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU New York, and NYU Shanghai, form the backbone of NYUs global network university, an interconnected network of portal campuses and academic centers across six continents that enable seamless international mobility of students and faculty in their pursuit of academic and scholarly activity. This global university represents a transformative shift in higher education, one in which the intellectual and creative endeavors of academia are shaped and examined through an international and multicultural perspective. As a major intellectual hub at the crossroads of the Arab world, NYUAD serves as a center for scholarly thought, advanced research, knowledge creation, and sharing, through its academic, research, and creative activities.

EOE/AA/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity Employer

UAE Nationals are encouraged to apply

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

For people in the EU, click here for information on your privacy rights under GDPR:www.nyu.edu/it/gdpr

NYU is an equal opportunity employer committed to equity, diversity, and social inclusion.

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Senior Research Assistant in the Division of Science, Computer Science job with NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ABU DHABI | 304844 - Times Higher Education

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The sixtieth anniversary of my first computer program: things have and have not changed. – Daily Kos

August 21, 2022 | Author: admin

An entirely improbable confluence of events in my sophomore year in high school in Denver, Colorado, in 1962, sent me off in unpredictable directions.

One of the members of the Math Club at George Washington HS was the son of a sales rep for Control Data Corporation. The sales office had a CDC 160A demo unit, and if it was not in use for sales (and was actually not down for trouble diagnosis, or raided for spares by the field service folk...) Math Club members could use it for instructional purposes. This, admirably, was organized as a course in programming using the F0RTRAN language. (Whoever designed this presentation of the language decided that a circle with a stroke through it would be the letter O, when for decades it had signified the digit 0 for telegraphy and radio communications. Consequently, a slashed circle as upper-case o became the sign that you really were hip to exotic technological information.)

The CDC 160A was Seymour Crays first commercial computer, and was not as massively capable as most of the quarter-acre systems, but being transistor-based it was capable of being miniaturized (the base unit was like a very large office desk). In overall processing power terms, it was basically the equal of the computer that runs your wall thermostat, or your coffee pot. In present-day currency, delivered and supported models began at $200K, according to my ability to recover price lists.

START

We would craft our programs, writing the instructions on coding sheets (a practice that persisted for perhaps twenty more years, in some shops), then use a Friden Flexowriter to punch a paper tape with the program. When your turn came. Then, when your turn came, reset the machine, load the Compiler tape, then your program source code tape. Normally, the machine would then spit out a paper tape containing terse and cryptic diagnostic criticisms of your precociously inept work product, which you must now correct and re-punch. (Our first lesson in LOOP, ENDLESS: SEE ENDLESS LOOP). Otherwise, it would spit out the Object tape.

Eventually after fussing with the Linker tape and the Library tape and the Object tape, an executable tape would issue forth, which then (when your turn came) could be loaded and run in the machine, usually with results that elicited vocalizations like Well, bless my sox, whatever does this unexpected result betoken?", and a return to the coding sheets.

GOTO START

In the ensuing 59 years, there were many adventures. I inadvertently invented the Third Normal Form in 1976, not having the benefit of a formal education in what little was known of computer science in that era. I restructured the operating system that controlled the engine and powertrain in Ford passenger cars (EEC-IV, 1987 and beyond). I was the architect of perpetual inventory and stock management systems for a couple of large telecom enterprises. This stuff has always been in my blood, so to speak. In fact, after I discovered at age 68 that I am autistic, it became obvious that these things were a Special Interest, and not every other human will have these interests and/or skills.

Today I read the article http://www.dailykos.com/

CDC gave permission for the Math Club to allow us to invade, and benefit from, their commercial enterprise. I dont doubt that there was some grasp of the fact that, when these machines became ever more affordable, a vast army of nerds with coding sheets would be indispensable.

From the standpoint of what benefits for-profit corporations, this makes eminent sense in that, like construction workers, you need a lot of em to get things built. Withal we have for-profit coding academies, as well as some that appear to have objectives other than accumulation of wealth.

From my experiences while jobless and in bankruptcy due to unemployment, I find that most businesses are entirely clueless when it comes to their actual needs, and how to find individual humans who can meet them. After all, remember that the HR departments primary function is to identify the persons who should not be hired. I only got my job at Ford because I was a contractor (therefore a product, handled by Purchasing and not a human, handled by Human Resources). Even though I didnt have an engineering degree (thus not eligible for hire through HR), I was at one point assigned to tutor a recent new-hire, who did have a degree (U Mich), in how to do software engineering.

It seems like, daily, I encounter examples of elementary software blunders in software that controls our lives. These things cannot happen (at least not as oppressively often) if coders" have correct and unambiguous instructions from designers, whose designs derive from the overall architecture propounded by competent architects.

Our problem, in part, stems from the unfortunate hierarchical distinction between coders, designers, and architects. The inbuilt assumption is that the coders are of the least value, and the architects are of the most. This is harmful. Coders, carpenters, pipefitters, bricklayers if they dont love what they do, things will tend to fall apart. If their value is not perceived and taken into account, there will be issues, short- and long-term.

My late Dad was a pipefitter. He loved it, was very good at it, and taught me as much as my neurologically deficient self could absorb. I wound up as a designer and an architect; Im really a poor coder, but I have enormous respect for those who do it well.

An effective system for finding, cultivating, and deploying people in their promised land must begin by knowing what you are looking for, and what to do with it when you find it.

The for-profit model only works accidentally.

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The sixtieth anniversary of my first computer program: things have and have not changed. - Daily Kos

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