January 7, 2022
Security: Attackers Exploit Flaw in Google Docs’ Comments Feature
Threatpost
Attackers are using the “Comments” feature of Google Docs to send malicious links in a phishing campaign targeted primarily at Outlook users, researchers have discovered.

Researchers from email collaboration and security firm Avanan, a CheckPoint company, first observed “a new, massive wave of hackers leveraging the comment feature in Google Docs” in December, Avanan Cybersecurity Researcher/Analyst Jeremy Fuchs wrote in a report published Thursday. Read more
Healthcare IT: Why Providers Are Key to Digital Therapeutic Uptake
MobiHealthNews
Digital therapeutics are a growing field in the larger digital health space, but they’re still relatively new. What’s the state of the market, and how can the companies behind these products encourage their uptake? 

With regard to mental and behavioral health – a clinical area that’s ripe for digital health investment – many people who have mental illnesses don’t receive care. The scalability of digital therapeutic products is pushing more stakeholders to adopt these tools. Read More
Homeland Security: Bipartisan Group of Senators Calls for Agency Update on Cybersecurity Plans for Transportation
Homeland Security Today
A bipartisan group of Senators has written to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to seek information about specific measures regarding planned cyber defense of U.S. critical infrastructure.

Addressed to Secretaries Mayorkas and Buttigieg, the letter says DHS and DOT must have the capabilities and resources to prevent and address the increasing cyber threat to transportation systems.

The Senators say that many state and local transit agencies “are not fully equipped to implement more than basic cybersecurity protections”. The letter points to a study by the Mineta Transportation Institute which found that only 60% of transit agencies had a cybersecurity plan in place last year. Read More
Transportation: Deere Expects ‘Slow’ Rollout of Autonomous Tractors
Transport Topics
Deere & Co. is being cautious in its rollout of self-driving tractors, a technology which the agriculture industry thinks could revolutionize farming.

Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman said the company still is assessing the volume of autonomous tractors it will bring to market this year, saying it could be between 10 and 50. The comments indicate the company is aware that it can’t afford to roll out the new tractors in case there still are bugs. The company unveiled the new tractor this week. Read More
Human Resources: Survey: Flexibility top of mind as quit rates soar
HR Dive
Employees are voluntarily quitting over work flexibility concerns, according to a recent survey conducted by business review website GoodFirms. The company found that 70% of HR manager respondents pointed to flexibility as a reason for resignations, the most cited cause in the survey.

Meanwhile, more than one-third of employee respondents said they still wanted to work from home, and 38% said they feared getting infected while working in an office. As debates around vaccine mandates continue, more than 50% of employees in GoodFirms' survey said they supported employers' vaccine mandates. Read More
Business & Technology: Quantum Computing for Business Leaders
Harvard Business Review
In 1994, mathematician Peter Shor introduced a quantum-computing algorithm that could reduce the time it takes to find the prime factors of large numbers from billions of years using a conventional transistor-based computer to a few days using a quantum computer. This was an enormous breakthrough, because prime factorization is the foundation for much of our present encryption and information security infrastructure. Seven years later, IBM scientists successfully demonstrated the algorithm on a quantum machine—albeit a very small one—for the first time, proving that quantum computers could be built and that Shor’s algorithm could be implemented.

Quantum computing will enable businesses to better optimize investment strategies, improve encryption, discover products, and much more. Read More