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Iomart flags solid trading, announces Accesspoint acquisition – ShareCast

December 6, 2023 | Author: admin

12:00 06/12/23

Cloud computing specialist Iomart Group reported steady progress in its first half on Tuesday and announced the acquisition of Accesspoint Technologies.

The AIM-traded firm recorded revenue of 62m for the six months ended 30 September, marking an 18% increase compared to the prior year.

It achieved 94% recurring revenue, remaining consistent with the same period in the 2023 financial year.

Adjusted EBITDA reached 18.6m, reflecting a 5% increase, while adjusted profit before tax showed 3% growth to 7.6m.

However, profit before tax declined 10% to 4.4m, and basic earnings per share decreased 11% to 3.1p, while adjusted diluted earnings per share remained stable at 5.2p.

The company generated cash from operations of 16.8m, marking a 16% increase.

Operationally, Iomart said it made significant strides in enhancing its capabilities and offerings.

The company intensified its sales and marketing efforts, resulting in improvements in order bookings and pipeline development.

It said the acquisitions of Concepta and Extrinsica expanded its routes to market and enhanced its customer proposition.

Looking ahead, Iomart Group anticipated continued year-on-year momentum, driven by ongoing sales channel and services initiatives and contributions from its recent acquisitions.

It said current trading aligned with the boards expectations.

Im pleased to report on another period of progress at Iomart, said chief executive officer Lucy Dimes.

We continue to build on our existing strong foundations as a well-established and trusted service provider within the private cloud space, at the same time as extending our service offering across the wider and higher growth hybrid cloud market.

Dimes said Iomart saw a great opportunity ahead.

For the UK to thrive as an economic powerhouse, its businesses will need to increase efficiency, operate at pace and adapt - leveraging cloud, data and digital technologies.

Our blend of both IT and connectivity skills combined with our secure, scalable, resilient cloud and network infrastructure uniquely positions us to support the ambitions of our customer base, giving us confidence in our ability to participate successfully in the growing cloud sector.

In a separate announcement, Iomart said it was making another strategic move on Tuesday by acquiring Accesspoint Technologies - a company based in northeast London, primarily focusing on providing IT hosting services tailored to the UK legal industry.

It said Accesspoint offers various managed and hosted services, including infrastructure hosting, software licensing, security management, business continuity services, and communications provisioning.

The acquisition would add to Iomarts existing capabilities and bring industry expertise and a capable team with a strong reputation within the legal sector.

In combination with Iomarts existing legal customers, adding Accesspoints customer base would consolidate Iomarts position in a critical sector, the board explained.

For the year ended 31 August, Accesspoint Technologies reported revenues of 3.8m and adjusted EBITDA of 0.8m, unaudited.

The cash transaction would see an initial consideration of 4.5m on completion, with potential additional payments of up to 0.5m contingent on post-acquisition milestones.

Additionally, there was a contingent earn-out payment of up to 1.4m based on Accesspoints profitability for the 12 months ending 31 August 2024.

Iomart said it planned to finance the initial consideration through a combination of existing bank facilities and cash available on its balance sheet.

The vendors of Accesspoint comprised its existing directors, Richard Roebuck, Victor van Der Poel and Gary Shaw.

The flow of sensitive data and drive to adopt technology to provide enhanced customer service within the legal sector means that data management, security and data sovereignty are all pressing considerations for legal firms and ones in which Iomart and Accesspoint excel, CEO Lucy Dimes said of the acquisition.

We are delighted to welcome Accesspoints growing list of customers into the Iomart Group and excited to be working with the full team to further advance iomarts differentiation in this sector and positively contribute to the groups overall organic growth plans.

At 1118 GMT, shares in Iomart Group were up 1.38% at 156.13p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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Iomart flags solid trading, announces Accesspoint acquisition - ShareCast

The Most Powerful Cosmic Ray Since the Oh-My-God Particle … – Slashdot

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

Scientists have detected the most powerful cosmic ray seen in more than three decades. But the exact origin of this turbocharged particle from outer space remains a mystery, with some suggesting that it could have been generated by unknown physics. From a report: The puzzling cosmic ray had an estimated energy of 240 exa-electron volts (EeV; 10^18 volts), making it comparable to the most powerful cosmic ray ever detected, aptly named the Oh-My-God particle, which measured at around 320 EeV when it was discovered in 1991. The findings were published today in Science.

"It's amazing because you have to think of what could produce such high energy," says Clancy James, an astronomer at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. A cosmic ray, despite its name, is actually a high-energy subatomic particle -- often a proton -- that zips through space at close to the speed of light. In their ultra-high energy form, cosmic rays have energy levels that exceed one EeV, which is around one million times greater than those reached by the most powerful human-made particle accelerators. Cosmic rays with energies of more than 100 EeV are rarely spotted -- fewer than one of these particles arrive on each square kilometre of Earth each century.

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The Most Powerful Cosmic Ray Since the Oh-My-God Particle ... - Slashdot

Dark Matter’s Role in the Cosmic Enigma – AZoQuantum

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

Scientists are investigating the potential production of Dark Matter particles within a stream of standard model particles.

Image Credit: University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg.

The presence of Dark Matter remains a longstanding enigma in the universe, constituting approximately a quarter of its composition. Despite its significant share, Dark Matter exhibits minimal interaction with ordinary matter.

The confirmation of Dark Matters existence stems from various astrophysical and cosmological observations, including recent captivating images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

But as of now, there have been no reported experimental observations of Dark Matter. The question of Dark Matters existence has engaged high-energy and astrophysicists worldwide for decades.

This is the reason we do research in basic science, probing the deepest mysteries of the universe. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is the largest experiment ever built, and particle collisions creating big-bang like condition can be exploited to look for hints of dark matter.

Deepak Kar, Professor, School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand

Kar and Sukanya Sinha, his former Ph.D. student, currently serving as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Manchester, have innovatively spearheaded a novel approach to detecting Dark Matter while working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN.

Their groundbreaking research has been published in the journal Physics Letters B.

There have been plethora of collider searches for Dark Matter over the past few decades so far have focused on weakly interacting massive particles, termed WIMPs. WIMPS is one class of particles that are hypothesized to explain Dark Matter as they do not absorb or emit light and dont interact strongly with other particles.

Deepak Kar, Professor, School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand

Kar added, However, as no evidence of WIMPS has been found so far, we realized that the search for Dark Matter needed a paradigm shift. What we were wondering, was whether Dark Matter particles actually are produced inside a jet of standard model particles, said Kar.

This exploration led to identifying a previously unexamined detector signature called semi-visible jets. In high-energy proton collisions, the outcome often involves the creation of a concentrated spray of particles, referred to as jets, resulting from the decay of ordinary quarks or gluons.

Semi-visible jets represent a novel scenario wherein hypothetical dark quarks partially decay into Standard-Model quarks (known particles) and partially into stable dark hadrons (the invisible fraction).

As these semi-visible jets are produced in pairs, typically accompanied by additional Standard-Model jets, the detector registers an imbalance of energy or missing energy when the jets are not perfectly balanced.

The direction of the missing energy is frequently aligned with one of the semi-visible jets. The search for semi-visible jets poses a significant challenge, as this event signature can also occur due to inaccurately measured jets in the detector.

Kar and Sinhas innovative approach to investigating dark matter opens up new avenues for exploring its presence by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of semi-visible jets.

Even though my Ph.D. thesis does not contain a discovery of Dark Matter, it sets the first and rather stringent upper bounds on this production mode, and already inspiring further studies.

Sukanya Sinha, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Manchester

The ATLAS Collaboration (2023) Search for non-resonant production of semi-visible jets using Run 2 data in ATLAS. Physics Letters B. doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138324.

Source: https://www.wits.ac.za/

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Juggling Atom-Chilling Physics and Immunity Mysteries on the … – SciTechDaily

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

The suns first rays burst through the Earths atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 264 miles above the Pacific Ocean northwest of New Zealand. Credit: NASA

Ultra-cold space physics and immunity research were the top science objectives aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, November 27. The seven-member Expedition 70 crew is also stepping up its cargo operations this week while continuing to maintain lab systems.

The coldest place in the universe may just be the orbital outposts Cold Atom Lab, a quantum research device that chills atoms to near absolute zero, lower than the average temperature of space. NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli configured components and installed hardware for a controller test of the facility that provides unique observations of atomic wave functions seen at extremely low temperatures not possible on Earth.

This view of Earth shows the White Nile River leading to the Nile River and winding through the African nation of Sudan. The dark spot at top left, is the Jebel Al Dair National Park containing a variety of mountains in the southern portion of Sudan. Credit: NASA

Moghbeli also assisted Commander Andreas Mogensen inside the Columbus laboratory module setting up the Kubik incubator first thing Monday morning. Next, Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) collected and processed his blood and saliva samples for the Immunity Assay biology study that is exploring cellular immunity in space. Afterward, he placed a set of samples inside a science freezer and placed another set inside Kubik for later analysis.

Astronauts Loral OHara and Satoshi Furukawa focused mainly on maintenance throughout Monday. OHara spent the afternoon inspecting the COLBERT treadmill in the Tranquility module. She photographed and cleaned components, checked pin alignment and treadmill slats, and greased axles. Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) worked in the Kibo laboratory module servicing gear that cools and rejects heat from equipment to ensure a safe operating environment aboard the space station.

The vibrant city lights of Tokyo were pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above. Credit: NASA

Furukawa later partnered with Mogensen and Moghbeli loading cargo inside the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the Harmony modules forward port. The Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived on November 11 carrying about 6,500 pounds of gear including advanced science hardware to study laser communications and atmospheric gravity waves. Dragon is due to return to Earth in mid-December packed with hardware and completed science experiments for retrieval and analysis.

The Roscosmos Progress 84 resupply ship will end its mission when it departs on Wednesday after six months docked to the Poisk module. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub packed trash and discarded gear inside the departing Progress that will reenter the atmosphere above the South Pacific Ocean for a fiery, but safe disposal. It will be replaced when the Progress 86, packed with nearly 5,600 pounds of cargo, launches at 4:25 a.m. EDT on Friday and automatically docks to Poisk at 6:14 a.m. on Sunday.

Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko started his day pointing a specialized camera toward Earth to gain atmospheric and climatic data. Next, he studied how fluid systems are affected by spaceflight conditions such as electrical and magnetic fields. First-time space flyer Konstantin Borisov began Monday servicing a variety of life support and communications gear. During the afternoon, he collected air samples throughout the stations Roscosmos modules for chemical analysis.

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Juggling Atom-Chilling Physics and Immunity Mysteries on the ... - SciTechDaily

The formation of an excitonic Mott insulator state in a moir superlattice – Phys.org

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

This article has been reviewed according to ScienceX's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

peer-reviewed publication

trusted source

proofread

by Ingrid Fadelli , Phys.org

When a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole in a pair remain bound together following excitation by light, they produce states known as excitons. These states can influence the optical properties of materials, in turn enabling their use for developing various technologies.

A team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Imperial College London, University of California Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University, and other institutes worldwide have been studying the formation of excitons for years now, while also trying to identify new promising materials for optoelectronic applications.

In a paper, published in Nature Physics, they present evidence of a so-called excitonic Mott insulator state in a WSe2/WS2 based moir superlattice (i.e., a periodic interference pattern arising from overlaying two atomic layers with a slightly different periodicity).

"In our previous work, we have shown that electron and electron correlation interaction is strong in this WSe2/WS2 moir superlattice," Sufei Shi, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org.

"We suspect that the exciton-electron and exciton-exciton interaction is also strong. We can potentially utilize this strong exciton correlation to realize new quantum states of excitons, which are bosons and would be different from fermions (electrons)."

Shi and his colleagues have been studying moir superlattices for a while, due to their unique structure that makes them desirable for manipulating excitons. These structures are made up of two or more atomically thin crystals stacked on top of each other, but at a characteristically twisted angle producing what is known as "lattice mismatch."

In their previous research, the researchers showed that the interaction between electrons were particularly strong in a moir superlattice based on WSe2 and WS2 crystals. In their new paper, they set out to further examine this same structure and explore its potential as a platform to realize quantum states of excitons.

"In our experiment, we mostly used optical spectroscopy techniques, particularly photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy," Shi explained. "The emitted photon energy of interlayer exciton as a function of the doping (electrons or holes added to the moir superlattice) and excitation power (controlling the average number of exciton density) reveals the strong electron-exciton repulsion and exciton-exciton repulsion."

The experiments carried out by Shi and his colleagues gathered evidence that an exciton-driven Mott insulator state emerges in the WSe2/WS2 structure, specifically when one interlayer exciton occupies a cell in a cell of the moir superlattice. This state could have interesting implications for the study and development of quantum systems.

"The most notable achievement of our study is the formation of an excitonic Mott insulator state, which is a prediction of the bosonic Hubbard model," Shi said. "This shows that the exciton correlation is indeed strong in the moir superlattice, and we can use that to construct quantum states arising from many-body Hamiltonian of bosons."

The recent study by this team of researchers further validates previous findings, highlighting the potential of this WS2/WSe2 moir superlattice for studying and engineering new correlated states. The excitonic Mott insulator state it unveiled could be reproduced and further examined in future research, while also informing other works utilizing the same experimental platform.

"In our next studies, we want to explore the valley-spin, a new quantum degree of freedom, of this excitonic Mott insulator state," Shi added. "We also want to use our new understanding to construct new quantum state and perform quantum simulations based on excitons or exciton-electron mixture."

More information: Zhen Lian et al, Valley-polarized excitonic Mott insulator in WS2/WSe2 moir superlattice, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-02266-2.

Journal information: Nature Physics

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Fortanix debuts Key Insight to manage enterprise encryption keys – VentureBeat

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

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Fortanix, the seven-year-old Santa Clara, California-based startup focused on enterprise key management and data security for companies that use software, is upgrading its Fortanix Data Security Manager (DSM) platform for securing cloud, on-premises, and hybrid digital data with a powerful new tool.

The tool, Key Insight, was unveiled this week at Amazon Web Services (AWS)s annual re:Invent 2023 conference in Las Vegas. Fortanix describes it as the first and only solution to provide consolidated insights and control of all cryptographic keys to protect critical data services.

In other words, Key Insight is like a tracking system for all your organizations digital encryption keys a very intelligent one.

Cryptographic keys service all sorts of purposes in computer security, and encryption keys in particular are designed to allow information to be encrypted or turned from its original state into a special secret code so that only trusted and properly permissioned users can decrypt, translate, and access it.

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When you encrypt the information on your Mac computer or PC, it is encryption keys that allow you to access it and change it later. Organizations of all sizes rely on encryption keys to keep their sensitive data safe and relegated to only authorized users.

Encryption keys are a good practice for any software and data-dependent organization to follow. But they are not foolproof. Hacks at Microsoft, GoTo, CircleCi, and laptop maker MSI in recent years have shown that encryption keys can fall into the wrong hands if those entrusted with them are not careful or dont have the right protective infrastructure. Key Insight, along with the larger Fortanix DSM, aims to provide just that to organizations, specifically those who store information in the cloud (and these days, who doesnt)?

Not only does the new Fortanix Key Insight tool maintain awareness of all the cryptographic keys your employees and trusted users and applications rely upon on, but it also provides an easy-to-use dashboard showing which keys are mapped to which services and users. And it does so in a glanceable, information-rich format.

Some of the information Fortanix Key Insight provides to enterprise customers includes the total number of keys, the number of accounts using them, the regions in which they are being used, and the services they are linked to, as well as the encryption status of said services. It also shows the key source, or where they originated/were issued from, and if they were used recently and by how many different accounts.

Key Insight provides a unique combination of discovery, assessment and remediation of encryption keys and cloud data services in one Enterprise Key Posture Management (EKPM) solution, helping enterprises prevent data breaches and failed regulatory audits, said Anand Kashyap, co-founder and CEO at Fortanix.

Based on the information displayed in Fortanix Key Insight, organizations can see which encryption keys and attached services/applications and users show evidence of increased risk, anomalous behavior, and/or deviation from the companys policies and industry-specific regulatory requirements. Using this information, Fortnaixs enterprise customers can have IT security team members deactivate certain keys or conduct investigations to close the security holes and reduce risks of improper access to information.

Fortanix Key Insight can further be used by organizations to help ensure they are complying with relevant industry data storage and security regulations and best practices (e.g., NIST, GDPR, PCI, etc.), according to Fortanix.

Fortanix is providing live demos of Key Insight and other capabilities to interested parties and potential customers at its re:Invent booth number 118 during the week.

AWS re:Invent 2023 is a fitting venue for Fortanix to debut the new feature given that Fortanix DSM and other Fortanix products are already available for enterprises to use, for hourly fees, through the AWS Marketplace.

The company started in 2016 and has raised a total of $122 million from big-time investors including Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, In-Q-Tel, and others. It also partners with AWS cloud rivals Google and Microsoft.

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.

Proton Drive arrives for macOS with full end-to-end encrypted cloud storage – 9to5Mac

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

Proton has released a number of updates and new privacy-focused solutions this year, including family plans, its end-to-end Proton Pass password manager, and more. Now, the company has launched a native Mac app for its Proton Drive secure cloud storage.

Proton CEO Andy Yen shared all the details in a blog post:

Cloud storage is a critical piece of our mission to build an internet that protects your privacy and secures your data. Its where you keep your most sensitive files, from personal photos to identity documents. Unfortunately, the leading cloud storage providers today can scan your data and dont use end-to-end encryption by default.

Thats why were pleased to announce that Proton Drives encrypted cloud storage is now available on all major platforms with the launch of our macOS app. In addition to Proton Drive apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and web, we now offer Mac users a privacy-first alternative to Big Tech.

Andy highlights that with Apple, end-to-end encryption isnt on by default for iCloud Drive (you have to enable Advanced Data Protection for that).

Along with Proton Drive using end-to-end encryption for all your data across all devices, it also does the same for all of your metadata, like file names and date modification details.

Proton Drive for macOS is secured with cryptographic signatures to guarantee file authenticity and prevent data tampering. Plus, like Protons other services, Proton Drive for macOS will be open source and is being independently reviewed.

Proton offers 1 GB of free encrypted storage with other plans going from $3.50/month (when paying for two years) or $3.99/month (when paying for one year). The Proton Family plans included 3 TB of storage starting from $19.99/month (when paying for two years).

You can download the new free Proton Drive for Mac (and other platforms) directly from Proton.

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Proton Drive arrives for macOS with full end-to-end encrypted cloud storage - 9to5Mac

Announcing Fortanix Key Insight A Solution to Discover and … – Dark Reading

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

PRESS RELEASE

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 27, 2023 Fortanix Inc., a leader in data security and pioneer of Confidential Computing, today announced Key Insight, a new industry-first capability in the Fortanix Data Security Manager TM (DSM) platform designed to help enterprises discover, assess, and remediate risk and compliance gaps across hybrid multicloud environments. At AWS re:Invent 2023, Fortanix will showcase the capabilities of Key Insight at booth #118.Data breaches lead to massive monetary losses, hefty penalties and severe brand damage. While traditional firewall and cloud security defenses shield the perimeter, the data itself remains vulnerable. Encryption is the final line of defense, but enterprises lack robust control over encryption keys, leading to significant risk.Enterprises need to fortify security beyond just its perimeter layers and are driving the paradigm shift towards a rigorous, data-centric security model with complete visibility and control over its encryption assets.According to a Gartner report, It is critical to understand if access to data and encryption keys by the CSP, by internal staff, or if the data residency locations across CSP platforms will create business impacts due to security or compliance risks.Fortanix Key Insight is the first and only solution to provide consolidated insights and control of all cryptographic keys to protect critical data services. Security, cloud and developer teams can collaborate to assess risk posture and remediate compliance gaps consistent with policies, regulatory mandates, or industry standards (e.g., NIST, GDPR, PCI, etc.). Key Insight expands the power of Fortanix DSM, a unified data security platform for enterprise key management, data tokenization, secrets management, and more.Key Insight provides a unique combination of discovery, assessment and remediation of encryption keys and cloud data services in one Enterprise Key Posture Management (EKPM) solution, helping enterprises prevent data breaches and failed regulatory audits, said Anand Kashyap, co-founder and CEO at Fortanix. Key Insight is aligned with our value statement Look. Know. Further., by allowing companies to look across siloed encryption environments, know their data security risk posture, and go further with complete control of their data, including remediation.Fortanix Key Insight offers several innovations to enhance data security:

Discover all encryption assets and provide a detailed mapping between encryption keys and data services in an intuitive and easy-to-understand dashboard

Assess data security risk posture through visual heatmaps that quickly pinpoint risks, gaps and priorities against established policies, regulations and industry standards

Remediate gaps in policy and compliance to eliminate risk to achieve crypto agility at scale, with robust reporting to demonstrate continuous improvements over time

As the global leader in AI-based advanced imaging for healthcare applications, Rapid AI is fully committed to security, compliance, processes and technologies to protect its platform and sensitive patient data, especially in the cloud, said Amit Phadnis, CTO of Rapid AI. In this endeavor, awareness and proper management and remediation, where necessary, of encryption keys is of prime importance. Any tool that helps ease our encryption keys posture management would be desirable for our security and compliance teams. Organizations can ill afford data breaches and non compliance of globally proliferating privacy regulations," said Craig Gledhill, CEO of ACA Pacific. "Data encryption is crucial for protecting data, but equally crucial is the ability to pinpoint blind spots and remediate risks and compliance gaps. It is in this regard that the introduction of Fortanix Key Insight can be of great help to our customers in their quest for multicloud data security and compliance."This latest addition to Fortanix DSM adds another industry first to the platforms robust list of capabilities, which include enterprise key management, data masking/tokenization, secrets management, code signing, and confidential AI and confidential data search.

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Announcing Fortanix Key Insight A Solution to Discover and ... - Dark Reading

NYPD Moves Towards Encrypting Radio Transmissions After Years … – Techdirt

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

from the our-security-trumps-your-security dept

New York City residents will, once again, be asked to foot the bill for NYPD efforts that solely benefit the nations largest police department. Its not enough that theyve been asked to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to bail out officers hit with civil rights lawsuits. Its not enough that theyve been asked to foot the bill for the NYPDs repeated refusal to comply with public records laws.

Now, theyre being asked to pay for even more opacity, this time taking the form of full encryption of police/dispatch radio transmissions.

The NYPD is set to fully encrypt its radio broadcasts by the end of next year as part of a nearly $400 million planned system upgrade setting off alarm among local politicians and press advocates.

[]

The NYPDs massive network of radio communications is expected to go dark by the end of 2024 as the department switches from an analog to a digital network, according to Chief of Information TechnologyRobert Beltran.

This will effectively cut one form of public oversight out of the loop. Journalists and others keeping an eye on police activity will no longer be able to perform this public service. Instead, the NYPD will spend $400 million in public funds to ensure only cops know what cops are up to.

A decade ago, the NYPD was actually encouraging people to keep their smartphones updated to ensure they could avail themselves of device and communication encryption offerings. Not long after that, the tune changed, led by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance.

Bill Bratton, following the lead of then-FBI Director James Comey, said device encryption did a terrible disservice to the public by making it more difficult for police to obtain data and communications from seized phones. Bratton also claimed the move towards default device encryption (as well as end-to-end encryption for communications) was nothing more than mercenary behavior by device manufacturers that served nothing more than their bottom line.

Cyrus Vance engaged in his own brand of encryption demonization, claiming (without supporting facts) the NYPD was sitting on dozens of uncrackable devices, insinuating that all the phones he tossed on the press conference table were loaded with evidence crucial to ongoing investigations and prosecutions. Warrant-proof was the term deployed by DA Vance, a term frequently deployed by consecutive FBI directors as they complained about the public being allowed to secure their devices and communications.

But encryption is apparently ok if its the PD using it. Thats the takeaway from this planned deployment, which NYPD officials claim is crucial to ensuring officer safety. That it helps prevent the public from keeping an eye on cops is just an added bonus one that is deliberately ignored when police officials discuss the encryption rollout. According to the NYPD, the fact that the NYPD communicates anything at all through social media accounts and press releases is far more than the public deserves.

Beltran said the switch was necessary to protect cops and the personal details of crime victims, arguing during the hearing that the police department can be trusted to get important information out to the public in a timely manner.

The department provides information to reporters many times a day every day. We also have hundreds of digital media officers assigned to precincts that are also updating information on social media in real time, he said.

Yes, the citys journalists and citizens should be thrilled to be blessed by fully vetted PR releases, rather than being allowed to draw their own conclusions from radio transmissions and activity witnessed at crime scenes ones theyre able to locate thanks to previously unencrypted transmissions.

Somewhat ironically, one of the most notable victims of this shift to encryption is the controversial crime-reporting app, Citizen. This app and its developers have courted controversy in the past by encouraging users to act as ambulance chasers and rush to crime scenes to provide other users with footage and speculation. The company that courted voyeurs and vigilantes is now a bit nonplussed that this shift to encryption will render its product mostly useless.

We have spent six years building up this network and saving a tremendous amount of lives and this threatens all of this progress, said Andrew Frame, CEO of Citizen, adding that many New Yorkers rely on the app to stay safe.

I can believe the six years building up this network. The claim that Citizen has saved lots of lives is completely ridiculous. The app was never about improving public safety. It was always about filling crime scenes with rubberneckers and encouraging peoples worst impulses.

Thats not to say the NYPD has completely cut the public out of the loop. It claims it might let a few chosen partners (journalists, Citizen) engage in virtual ride-alongs via limited feed access, but it wont make that decision until long after the heat has died down.

The NYPD hasnt ruled out allowing the press or companies like Citizen to tune in, said Beltran, while noting that such a plan which could include granting delayedaccess to the feeds is under a departmental review that wont be completed until after the entire network is encrypted.

In other words, the NYPD will go dark first. Then it will engage in the much longer process of determining whos allowed to listen in a process that I imagine will involve months or years of discussion, followed by months or years of inaction NYPD officials will claim is actually implementation.

The NYPD is going dark, something it claims is necessary to keep it safe and secure. But its not willing to extend the same courtesy to the people it serves. And it certainly wont be bothered by the extra layer of opacity it provides. The taxpayers lose. Again. And theyre expected to pay for this privilege.

Filed Under: encryption, nypd, transparency

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Four considerations when selecting as-a-Service Hardware Security Module solutions to secure your encryptio… – Security Boulevard

November 30, 2023 | Author: admin

Keeping up with the latest security challenges can feel like you are running a race that has endless hurdles. From rapid advancements in technology rendering old hardware obsolete to increasingly stringent requirements and regulations, the time and costs can quickly become enormous.

Many of these challenges are related to the migration of compute, storage, and backup services to cloud services. Picture this, you have moved your databases to the cloud. But are you in control of your encryption keys? Do you know who has a copy or could access a copy?

Todays solutions offer your organization a choice of how to most effectively secure your encryption keys. You can select a solution that allows your organization to secure your keys in an on-premise HSM or one that allows your organization to protect your keys via a secure connection to a cloud-based HSM with an HSM-as-a-Service (HSMaaS) offering such as Entrusts nShield-as-a-Service solution.

Entrust recently partnered with TechValidate to conduct a survey to understand how companies view and are implementing HSMaaS solutions.

From On-Premise to the Cloud

For years, the best practice was to use an HSM deployed on-premise. Concerns about security of software based key storage, separation of keys, and sovereignty requirements made it the only viable option. Over time, as-a-service HSM offerings appeared in the market offering lower costs, and a level of security comparable to on-premise HSMs, with more flexibility and quicker implementation.

The Survey Says

Todays organizations are looking to save time and money. The survey showed that 57% of organizations said a key reason for considering subscribing to an HSMaaS offering is to reduce IT management costs. Further, 69% of respondents said that their organizations would realize reduced spend on physical infrastructure. The next closest benefit noted was improved efficiency with 46% of the respondents selecting that benefit.

The focus on saving time and reducing expenses has also been a significant driver of cloud adoption. With the rise of cloud service providers, as-a-service-HSM offerings evolved even further. Leading cloud service providers offer their own unique approach to securing your encryption keys. While these offerings provide convenience and cost-effective solutions, they do not always meet internal security requirements set by some organizations adding further to the complexity involved when deciding how to store your encryption keys.

In addition to saving time and money, HSMaaS solutions like Entrust nShield-as-a-Service provide the same level of support for a wide range of applications. This is something that was also reflected in the survey results. Respondents indicated that once onboarded, they would leverage an HSMaaS solution for a variety of functions.

The top functions ranked were public key infrastructure (PKI), which was mentioned by 60% of respondents followed by key management which was selected by 57% of respondents. Data encryption/decryption and digital signatures were also mentioned by nearly half of the respondents (49%). These results reinforce the similarities in functionality between on-premise HSM and HSMaaS offerings.

Important Cloud Key Management Considerations

Saving time and money are necessary criteria when considering implementing an HSMaaS solution. However, they are not the only considerations you should have when deciding what as-a-service HSM offering to use when storing your encryption keys. It is important to also consider:

Conclusion

When evaluating these considerations and HSMaaS solutions, partnering with a company that understands your holistic security and encryption needs will simplify this process. While cost is always a driving factor, ensuring you are in control of your keys is the most important. Ensuring where your keys are stored for key sovereignty requirements, the available integrations and the key management capabilities need to be carefully reviewed. The right keys need to be stored in the right places, using a solution that will protect your business and significantly enhance your organizations security.

To learn more about HSM-as-a-Service and how Entrust can help you save capital expenditures, maintain control of your critical keys, and strengthen the security of your data, visit the Entrust website.

The post Four considerations when selecting as-a-Service Hardware Security Module solutions to secure your encryption keys appeared first on Entrust Blog.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Entrust Blog authored by Andrew Tweedie. Read the original post at: https://www.entrust.com/blog/2023/11/four-considerations-when-selecting-as-a-service-hardware-security-module-solutions-to-secure-your-encryption-keys/

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Four considerations when selecting as-a-Service Hardware Security Module solutions to secure your encryptio... - Security Boulevard

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