January 8, 2020
Security: CISA Discovers Token Abuse Around SolarWinds Hack, Calls for Full Rebuild of Affected Networks
SC Media
Largely lost in the fallout from yesterday’s Capitol riots was an update on a mandatory order to federal agencies responding the SolarWinds hack.

An alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security pointed to evidence of initial access vectors beyond SolarWinds’ Orion platform, and abuse of SAML authentication tokens that mirror behaviors of the actor behind the compromise. An attacker gaining access to these tokens could be catastrophic for identity validation and likely requires a full rebuild of the network. The agency referenced guidance from Microsoft for further instructions. Read More
Healthcare IT: Amazon Dives Deeper into Health in 2020
MobiHealthNews
From expanding its employee health offerings to launching its first health wearable, Amazon had a busy 2020. The online retail giant made a splash last year with news ranging from automated voice medication reminders on the Amazon Alexa to a feud between Amazon’s PillPack and Surescripts.

Looking back on the year past, Amazon’s initial jump into the healthcare space has turned into a deep dive as it furthered past ventures in voice commands and the employee health space, and waded into the world of wearables. Read More
Homeland Security: Airport Screening While Wearing Masks? Facial Recognition Tech Shows Up to 96 Percent Accuracy in Recent Test
Homeland Security Today
A controlled scenario test by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) shows promising results for facial recognition technologies to accurately identify individuals wearing protective face masks. The tests were conducted as part of S&T’s 2020 Biometric Technology Rally, held this fall at the Maryland Test Facility, and could reduce the need for people to remove masks at airports or ports of entry.

The third annual rally evaluated the ability of biometric acquisition systems and matching algorithms to reliably collect and match images of individuals wearing a diverse array of face masks. Previous rallies show biometric systems can excel at rapidly processing high volumes of travelers using face recognition. This year’s focused on using such systems to detect and recognize travelers without asking them to remove their masks, thereby protecting both the public and frontline workers during the COVID-19 era. Read More
Transportation: Report of 2024 Apple Car Sparks Mixed Reactions
TechNewsWorld
A report that Apple is readying its own self-driving car for release in 2024 is being met with a healthy dose of skepticism by some analysts. The new vehicle for consumers would include breakthrough battery technology developed by Apple that would "radically" reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle's driving range, Reuters reported Monday.

Since 2014, when Apple first set out to design its own vehicle, the company has engaged in automotive research and development collectively under the name "Project Titan." Read More
Human Resources: DHS Ditches H-1B Visa Lottery for Wage-Based Selection Process
HR Dive
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security proposed Nov. 2 a rule to replace the existing lottery system used to select cap-subject H-1B visa petitions with a "wage level ranking" system that would prioritize foreign workers who have received the highest wage offers from employers.

Under the proposal, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would first select registrations offering a proffered wage that equals or exceeds the highest prevailing wage level — on a four-tier scale — for the relevant occupation and intended geographic area of employment. USCIS would then select petitions in descending order of prevailing wage level. This ranking would first occur for cap-subject petitions and then for petitions that qualify for the program's advanced degree exemption, per the NPRM.

The H-1B program's current lottery system "is reasonable, but inconsiderate of Congress' statutory purposes for the H-1B program and its administration," DHS said. Read More
Business & Technology: AI and automation are linchpins for post-pandemic business success
CIO
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, business leaders weren’t racing to understand the role artificial intelligence (AI) could play in optimizing business operations, boosting profitability, and driving innovation. In a 2019 survey of global executives, McKinsey found that only 58% said their companies had incorporated AI into at least one process or product. Many didn’t fully grasp the potential applications and value of AI, and, as a result, adoption wasn’t scaling quickly. In the same McKinsey survey, about three-fourths of companies that had adopted or planned to adopt AI said they would increase their investments over three years, the majority by just 10%.

That was then, however. Now, since the pandemic struck, investment in AI platforms has skyrocketed, shifting from a “nice-to-have” initiative to a full-blown business imperative.  Read More