Tag: Technology

AWS Inks Deal With Australian Intel, Microsoft Security Breaches Hit Texas State Agencies

A recent Bloomberg article, noted that Russian hackers breached Microsoft’s security again, gaining access to customer emails. The hackers, identified as Midnight Blizzard (also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear), are linked to Russian foreign intelligence. This breach targeted communications between corporate executives and their customers, adding to a growing list of security failures for Microsoft.

The lack of prominent media coverage on these issues is troubling. This latest article was buried deep in Bloomberg’s website, with similar stories also hidden in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Financial Times. It’s alarming how little attention these significant breaches receive, especially considering how many American businesses rely on Microsoft services.

Midnight Blizzard was also responsible for the notorious SolarWinds breach in 2021, an incident that was never fully explained. Microsoft’s continued security lapses are not just isolated incidents but part of a worrying trend. The company’s security culture has been criticized as inadequate, raising serious concerns about the safety of our communications and data.

Adding to this concern, another Bloomberg article disclosed that several Texas state agencies were compromised in the same hack. Agencies like the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Workforce Commission had their emails exposed. And while most of the details remain unclear, since emails were exposed, it suggests the breaches involved Office 365. The lack of transparency from Microsoft about whether the security failings were on their end or the customers’ side only adds to the frustration.

Microsoft’s repeated security issues should be a wake-up call. As we rely heavily on their services, the need for robust security measures and transparency is more critical than ever. If our emails and communications aren’t safe, what else is at risk? With the interconnectivity of Office 365 and Azure, particularly through services like Active Directory, everything on their platform is interconnected. This makes transparency on security breaches even more critical.

In other news, Amazon is building a series of high-security data centers for Australia’s defense and intelligence community in a $1.3 billion deal over the next decade. This follows a similar $5.3 billion deal with New Zealand in 2021. Given the strong alliances between these countries and the US, these deals likely aim to create a robust international intelligence-sharing network.

Posted on by George

Machines Risen

Photo by Somchai Kongkamsri on Pexels.com

Washington Post article on the use of AI in weapons systems. Well written and timely. But I feel that the concerns come too late. It is unlikely that the US or any other power will walk away from using AI in their weapons. Given the proliferation of AI systems, anyone that does will be at a disadvantage.

In March, a panel of tech luminaries including former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, then-chief of Web services, now chief executive of Amazon Andy Jassy and Microsoft chief scientist Eric Horvitz released a study on the impact of AI on national security. The 756-page final report, commissioned by Congress, argued that Washington should oppose a ban on autonomous weapons because it would be difficult to enforce, and could stop the United States from using weapons it already has in its arsenal.

Washington Post: The U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But the age of autonomous war is already here — By  Gerrit De Vynck

The key will be how tightly the protocols lead from one stage or escalation to another. If AI systems can make decisions that escalate into using powerful weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, then we are fucked. There has to be a man-in-the-middle approach that buffers how far and fast the AI systems can go. But it is safe to assume that battlefield engagements will have AI systems running point.

The frustrating aspect of this subject is that the speed that technology continues to move leaves very little time for society to review and sensibly argue the ethical implications. Now, anyone who reads science fiction knows that these topics have been covered in detail by writers for decades, but our leaders and society have dismissed these stories as fantasy. Now they have come to reality.

Posted on by George

A Door, A Cat, And Its Prey

The video below is an excellent example of home-brewed innovation that leverages machine learning to solve a problem many know but for which there is no financial incentive to address — it is a long tail problem. And while this is not something anyone can do without some technical skills, the case study does give us a glimpse of the incremental changes to everyday life machine learning promises to make as the technology gets democratized.

Posted on by George

The CFO As Your Ally

Photo by Chahat Sagar on Pexels.com

Perhaps one of the most important relationships, the head of any technology department can develop, is the one with the company’s CFO. (It is important to remember that in many organizations, the head of tech already reports to the CFO for several reasons, one of which I suppose, is that of control over the expenditures in technology). Often, these relationships are usually not as close or tight as they should be. That’s probably a result of decades of senior leadership always thinking of technology as a necessary evil or a cost center. We know now that technology is more than just a cost center or necessary evil, and in the 21st century, if the technology is not at the heart of your business, it will be whether you like it or not. Be it agriculture, a small business, or laundry service, technology will be a core component of your business, and your clientele will be demanding that you’re up to the latest technologies.

So, as a result, the business leaders making financial decisions around technology must understand and help define what the value proposition is that they’re looking for out of their technology investments and what outcomes they want to drive and for that they need to have a level of understanding of said technologies. Conversely, it is essential that whoever runs the tech Department — I’ll keep that as broad whoever– needs to build those relationships and understand the language that the business stakeholders and business leaders speak; specifically around finances, cost centers, and return on investments. These can’t be simple or anecdotal propositions of “people will be more productive.” Build strong arguments by building a good relationship with your CFO. In Redefining AI Leadership in the C-Suite, from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the author addresses the importance of the relationship between the head of the technology department and the CFO.

The article goes a bit too deep down the finance vertical because they’re talking specifically around machine learning and artificial intelligence and all the values that could it can bring to that department. But overall, this article lays out a good case of how you, as a leader of your tech Department, should be thinking about how to engage in conversation with your CFO and making that relationship a tight and mutually beneficial relationship and not one that’s too contentious around costs and vision.

Posted on by George