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The coronavirus epidemic is the moment for Welsh devolution to prove its worth
Welsh Health Minister Vuaghan Gething. Picture by Davmay48 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Ifan Morgan Jones
An article by the Political Editor of the Sunday Times this morning confirms what many had suspected, which is that the UK Government misjudged their early response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Tim Shipman's article, at the end of February political strategist Dominic Cummings' approach was "herd immunity, protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad".
Apparently this all changed on March 12 – the day before Wales v Scotland was called off – when the government realised that it would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and they quickly changed to an approach which shut down mass gatherings and pubs and cafes.
Although this is described in the article as a 'Damascene conversion' it's still worth asking to what extent the UK Government is taking all measures at their disposal to tackle the crisis.
Their approach currently is a half-way house between mitigation and the kind of suppression strategy we have seen in France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.
Essentially they are asking people to stay at home but not enforcing that by any legal means, leading to scenes as witnessed on Snowdon yesterday when hundreds of tourists descended on the mountain.
There has also been a failure in communicating their message to the public. £46m was spent on the Get Ready for Brexit campaign but we have seen no similar effort to get the message over about the lift-saving steps people can take to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
As a result, and looking at the projections for the future spread of coronavirus in the UK, it is probably too late to avoid becoming another Italy.
The question now may not be how we avoid hundreds of deaths a day in April but how we avoid thousands a day in May, when the infection is expected to reach its peak.
Decamping
The revelation that the UK Government got its response to coronavirus wrong is an important reminder to the Welsh Government that Number 10 and Whitehall are not infallible.
The Welsh Government can act on their own if there is a clear and obvious need to do so, as they should have done on the issue of Wales v Scotland.
So far the Welsh Government has moved in lockstep with the UK Government on moves such as banning mass gatherings and closing pubs.
However, given that health is devolved to Wales, and that the Coronavirus Bill making its way through the House of Commons will give Welsh ministers sweeping new powers, there is no reason why they cannot move more quickly on some issues.
There are a number of areas where the Welsh Government have already done excellent work:
Announcing that the £350m Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran will open next month, a year earlier than planned.
Bringing final year medical students, nurses and midwives into paid roles in the NHS.
Screening frontline NHS staff in Wales for coronavirus to help the health service cope with the outbreak.
Cancelling planned surgery last week in order to free up capacity to deal with coronavirus.
One obvious other issue on which they could quickly deviate from the UK Government's approach is to close caravan parks, campsites and Air BnBs to visitors from outside the area.
I don't blame anyone that wants to sit out the pandemic in rural Wales. I would want to do the same, particularly with the kids' psychological and physical health in mind.
However with GPs, AMs and MPs from across the west of Wales united in calling for reistrictions in order not to put too much pressure on already struggling health boards, the Welsh Government should act quickly.
This is not a nationalist issue or an England v Wales issue as some have tried to paint it – it would be the same if large numbers of people from Cardiff or Newport were decamping to rural areas in order to flee the coronavirus.
Norway have already banned people moving to second homes in rural areas and the issue has also raised its head in Cornwall, Spain, Italy and France.
In order to avoid a massive strain on already patchy rural health services, the Welsh Government should implement these changes ASAP.
Stricter
Beyond this, once the Coronavirus Bill is passed the Welsh Government should act quickly to implement the kind of stringent lockdown seen in other countries.
The UK Government has already said that it wants to avoid such "draconian" measures but the Welsh Government can and should come to a different conclusion.
A short term lockdown now is essential in order to give the NHS the time to prepare itself for the spike in coronavirus cases over the next few months.
Luckily despite sadly already suffering 12 deaths, much of Wales overall seems to be around two weeks behind in epicentre of the UK outbreak in London.
It can use that time not just to implement stricter measures but also to ensure that they are still in place when London has already gotten over the worst.
They could also invest in the kind of public information campaign that is needed in order to get the message out to everyone in Wales regarding what kind of behaviour is needed to stop the spread of the virus, and why it helps.
The fact that devolution exists reflects the fact that Wales is politically and demographically different from other parts of the UK.
Few here would agree that the our first priority should be to "protect the economy and and if that means some pensioners die, too bad".
The Welsh Government doesn't have to follow the UK Government's lead – we can do things differently if we see fit. That is ultimately what devolution is for, and this is the moment when it can prove its worth.
Charles L. Gallagher
What this crisis really shows are the devasting consequences of ten years of savage dogma based cuts to all our Public Services by the Tories and their coalition partners for five years the Lib/Dems but thankfully our devolved, SNP led Scottish Government has managed with some difficulty to mitigate these cuts but we were not totally immune from them all.
Drakeford and co have already fumbled and dropped the ball. They are now watching bewildered as covid 19 heads unchallenged for the try line.
Reply to John Evans
There is still time for Welsh Labour to redeem themselves – but hopefully Vaughan Gething and Mark Drakeford read Nation. Com or the message won't get across!
Richard LONGUES
I love this article and it's spirit. The spirit of lndependence.
Wait for your chance and move smart. Keep the faith, always.
Everything is possible if you have the right identity and attitude.
The spider builds again.
Diolch in mawr !
Cymru am byth !
Kerry Davies
Perhaps it would be useful to read the Coronavirus Bill (HoC Bill 122) before criticising the Welsh Government? Powers using the legal system of England and Wales, such as inquests, insurance and all Home Office responsibility for civil order etc. are reserved to Westminster. Drakeford and the Senedd are currently severely limited in comparison to Scotland. We don't have Welsh law or the capacity to not follow Westminster and to ignore that rather smelly elephant in the room is naive. The Bill, when passed will delegate quite strong powers to Welsh Government but if the argument is to devolve justice,… Read more »
Ann Owen
Reply to Kerry Davies
But can apply the existing PublicHealth Acts that do give a range of emergency powers.
I watched James Williams interviewing Mark Drakeford on the BBC's 'Politics Wales' this (Sunday) morning.
While Drakeford seemed in principle to favour more decisive government action in certain areas in the context of the current crisis, he commented that the government must always act according to law, and said that he and his team will be meeting imminently with the lawyers in order to be certain of the powers which his government presently possesses.
Presumably he was alluding to the point which you make.
As the most confirmed cases in the UK are in London, there should initially be a complete lock down within the M25.
Mark Thomas
Totally agree 1000%
max wallis
Excellent Ifan! It's high time the WG and Public Health Wales exerted their own policy PHW still tell us the virus has spread throughout Wales. Yet 5 of the new deaths were in Gwent, like half the confirmed cases. Should this not mean stronger measures to lockdown the Newport area? Contrast the urgency of the situationwith the slow roll-out of testing in Wales, reported by Chris Williams, COVID19 Incident Director https://phw.nhs.wales/…/public-health-wales-statement-on-n…/ for full statement. Failure till now on Testing is now tacitly admitted: "…appropriate access to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing. Based on careful risk assessment, a phased rollout of testing… Read more »
j humphrys
Reply to max wallis
Dead right on the testing, as it seems to have worked in S Korea.
Whole country needs locking down immediately!
Reply to mark Thomas
Fortunately the public doesn't buy Boris Johnson's panicky over-reaction and know we have to support our health service, public transport and services to support the 'frontline' and back-office staff. As well as the whole food supply chain. That includes Welsh farmers harvesting early crops and planting new. We haven't tried to make social distancing work in supermarkets, nor wearing facemasks, nor packing your shopping in bags rather than taking the trolley to the car, washing/sanitising hands immediately after leaving the trolley. Perhaps the 5 deaths in Gwent will bring home in Wales how serious the situation is and get people… Read more »
I like the idea of "sweeping new powers", and hope our gov. use them to their full extent, as they are obviously needed. Retain them like Smaug afterwards.
Some important information from France, where Dr. Didier RAOULT, an internationally well known epidemiologist from IHU in Marseilles, has been the first to prescribe a cure against CORONAVIRUS: Chloroquine, with a high degree of efficiency, even if not 100 %. He is strongly recommending its use now and simultaneously, the end of the confinement, as it was not necessary in South Korea because they used Chloroquine very rapidly. It was also used in China with very good results. The Pharmaceutical industry doesn't want it since it's an old medication, and they wouldn't make a good business out of it, if… Read more »
Cian Llywelyn
Reply to Richard LONGUES
How is this lazy copy and paste of misinformation relevant to this discussion?
Reply to Cian Llywelyn
You believe Chloroquine to be useless, and Welsh Gov. has rejected it?
If Dominic Cummings is indifferent to the lives and deaths of pensioners does that also include his own parents/grandparents and members of the Royal Family?
If the Dominic Cummings statement is true, surely he will go down in history as some sort of psychopath.
Reply to Lily smith
Psychopaths prioritize their cerebral doctrines over mere human sentiments …


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Category: 5G
5G, automation, behavior analytics, Critical Infrastructure, cyber risk, cybersecurity, data breach, Don't miss, Expert Analysis, Hot stuff, Internet of Things, IT Security, misconfiguration, Mobile, network, News, Nokia, threats	 6th January 2021 6th January 2021
The 5G toolbox of defense
For the mobile communications industry, security has always held a prominent role. However, the onset of 5G – which introduces new network architectures, services and devices – raises the stakes and increases the challenge for network operators. 5G is set to affect almost every aspect of life through hosting more critical infrastructure and enabling the development of a digital environment. This makes any breach potentially catastrophic, and governments are taking note – it's therefore imperative … More →
The post The 5G toolbox of defense appeared first on Help Net Security.
"Edge", 5G, Featured news, investment, IT Security, Juniper Research, market, network, News, predictions, trends	 24th December 2020 24th December 2020
Network operator spend on multi-access edge computing to reach $8.3B by 2025
Network operator spend on multi-access edge computing (MEC) will grow from $2.7 billion in 2020, to $8.3 billion in 2025, as operators invest heavily in upgrading network capacities and infrastructure to support the increasing data generated by 5G networks, according to Juniper Research. The study also revealed that by 2025, the number of deployed multi-access edge computing nodes will reach 2 million globally in 2025, up from 230,000 in 2020. These devices, which take the … More →
The post Network operator spend on multi-access edge computing to reach $8.3B by 2025 appeared first on Help Net Security.
4G, 5G, 5G Americas, Featured news, Innovation, IT Security, LTE, Mobile, network, News	 21st December 2020 15th January 2021
5G connections reach 229 million, adoption 4x as fast as LTE
Despite a global pandemic and economic challenges, the fifth generation of wireless 5G powered ahead at four times the speed of subscriber growth as 4G LTE, according to 5G Americas. 5G connections The world added 225 million 5G subscribers between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, a feat which required 4G LTE four years to attain. As of December 2020, there were 229 million 5G subscriptions globally, which represents an astonishing 66 percent increase over last … More →
The post 5G connections reach 229 million, adoption 4x as fast as LTE appeared first on Help Net Security.
5G, China, cyber, cybersecurity, Data Security, Don't miss, Expert Analysis, Government, Huawei, IT Security, News, Opinion, Privacy, Spotlight, USA	 7th December 2020 7th December 2020
Techno-nationalism isn't going to solve our cyber vulnerability problem
Against the backdrop of intensifying cyber conflicts and the rapidly evolving threat landscape, a new wave of techno-nationalism is being trumpeted from almost every corner of the world.
The U.K. just announced it will ban the installation of Huawei 5G gear by the end of September 2021 and the FCC rejected a petition from ZTE asking for reconsideration of their finding that the Chinese company is a national security threat to communications networks. Meanwhile, ByteDance is trying to meet the requirements of both the U.S. government and China's new Export Control Law so that TikTok can continue to exist in the U.S.
The U.S. is also pushing to persuade countries like Brazil to shun Chinese equipment as they develop their digital infrastructures, offering financial assistance to use Washington-approved alternatives. This led to Brazil's top four telecom companies refusing to meet with a senior U.S. official advocating for exclusion of Huawei from the Brazilian 5G market. In their home country of China, Huawei and other tech companies are grumbling about Nvidia's acquisition of U.K. chip designer Arm (the deal is still awaiting regulatory approval).
Across the world today, people are using smartphones made in China, and have personal information scattered around various data centers in India or the Philippines, via hosted service providers and call centers. Data is now fluid, mobile and global – that genie is out of the bottle and embargos against specific companies' or countries' technologies will ultimately have limited impact from a security perspective.
A false sense of security
Techno-nationalism is fueled by a complex web of justified economic, political and national security concerns. Countries engaging in "protectionist" practices essentially ban or embargo specific technologies, companies, or digital platforms under the banner of national security, but we are seeing it used more often to send geopolitical messages, punish adversary countries, and/or prop up domestic industries.
Blanket bans give us a false sense of security. At the same time, when any hardware or software supplier is embedded within critical infrastructure – or on almost every citizen's phone – we absolutely need to recognize the risk.
We need to take seriously the concern that their kit could contain backdoors that could allow that supplier to be privy to sensitive data or facilitate a broader cyberattack. Or, as is the lingering case with TikTok, the concern is whether the collection of data on U.S. citizens via an entertainment app could be forcibly seized under Chinese law and enable state-backed cyber actors to then target and track federal employees or conduct corporate espionage.
We cannot ignore that nation states around the world are increasingly turning to cyber operations to gather intelligence, wield influence, and disrupt their adversaries. But we must remember that technology made by those close to home, in proximity or ideology, does not put them out of reach of compromise or automatically make it more secure.
Digital deception and trust
Trust alone is never a sound security strategy. To echo the words of former U.S. President Reagan (who was, appropriately enough, quoting a Russian proverb): "Trust, but verify." In cybersecurity, "verify" means not blindly trusting the technology you are leveraging, but instead taking the actions needed to monitor and audit in real-time.
Trust is a tool itself that attackers commonly employ in methods of digital deception. Indeed, spoofed login pages from reputable SaaS platforms have been used as a means of harvesting compromised credentials from unwitting victims.
Regardless of whether a cloud provider is based in the U.S., China, or elsewhere, attackers will still seek creative means to exploit both the vulnerabilities in these technologies and the ever-present threat of human error. For example, foreign actors will attempt to infiltrate the supply chains of hardware or software tools, sometimes by simply paying an insider to do the job for them.
In other words: purchasing decisions rooted in techno-nationalism, or, conversely, techno-globalism, are both essentially susceptible to the same security threats. And so, when we target a specific company or technology, rather than critically evaluate our underlying security strategy and defensive technologies, we do not actually strengthen our security posture, but instead chase a red herring.
National security is about much more than blanket bans on specific organizations and technologies. Rather, it is about cybersecurity and operations resilience against the ever-present reality of threats in cyber space—crucially, regardless of where the attacks come from or what technology attackers are targeting.
Building resilience moving forward
Nowadays, cyber-attacks are advancing at a rate that outpaces attempts to define indicators of threat in advance. The strength of any cyber-security stance accordingly lies in its ability to understand and maintain normal conditions internally, not in its attempts to predict the nature of future external threats. This truth holds regardless of whether the threat actor is motivated by financial, strategic or political concerns.
The focus on individual companies distracts from the realities of cyber-defense. Rather than decreasing or restricting the technology ecosystem, national security concerns can actually be advanced by gaining further visibility into critical digital environments. By gaining an in-depth understanding of these environments, we can manage risk in our complex landscape.
Historically, this level and scale of understanding into the ever-growing complexity of digital environments would have been at the limits of a human security team, more likely beyond. However, it is not beyond those teams leveraging AI and machine learning. These technologies excel at achieving a comprehensive and granular understanding of the behaviors and technologies that comprise a technology ecosystem.
Today's techno-nationalism is taking off and will probably continue to do so because it is responding to real issues in a very observable way, even though it is ultimately ineffective. And so, the stakes remain high. Hidden backdoors in component parts and supply side technologies are used as an entry point for foreign malicious actors. Once attackers gain entry, economic espionage can lead to incalculable financial damage. Further, disrupted critical national infrastructure, such as power grids and gas lines, can lead to devastating costs for a nation.
The persistence of these threats calls for a practical response. Techno-nationalism, though rising in popularity, simply does not rise to the greater security challenge. Rather than blocking access to foreign technologies in a great game of whack-a-mole, national security can actually be advanced by implementing AI enabled digital understanding. The rigid scrutiny and real time attack disruption achieved by AI's wholistic approach provides robust cyber defense across the full range of technologies that can be implemented, regardless of the attack's origin.
5G, artificial intelligence, CIO, Coronavirus, cybersecurity, Featured news, IEEE, Innovation, Internet of Things, IT Security, machine learning, News, predictions, survey, trends	 2nd December 2020 2nd December 2020
IT leaders on 2021 opportunities, challenges and key technology trends
IEEE released the results of a survey of CIOs and CTOs in the U.S., U.K., China, India and Brazil regarding the most important technologies for 2021 overall, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the speed of their technology adoption and the industries expected to be most impacted by technology in the year ahead.
2021 most important technologies and challenges
Which will be the most important technologies in 2021? Among total respondents, 32% say AI and machine learning, followed by 5G (20%) and IoT (14%).
Manufacturing (19%), healthcare (18%), financial services (15%) and education (13%) are the industries that most believe will be impacted by technology in 2021, according to CIOs and CTOS surveyed.
At the same time, 52% of CIOs and CTOs see their biggest challenge in 2021 as dealing with aspects of COVID-19 recovery in relation to business operations. These challenges include a permanent hybrid remote and office work structure (22%), office and facilities reopenings and return (17%), and managing permanent remote working (13%).
However, 11% said the agility to stop and start IT initiatives as this unpredictable environment continues will be their biggest challenge. Another 11% cited online security threats, including those related to remote workers, as the biggest challenge they see in 2021.
Technology adoption, acceleration and disaster preparedness due to COVID-19
CIOs and CTOs surveyed have sped up adopting some technologies due to the pandemic:
55% of respondents have accelerated adoption of cloud computing
52% have accelerated 5G adoption
51% have accelerated AI and machine learning
The adoption of IoT (42%), augmented and virtual reality (35%) and video conferencing (35%) technologies have also been accelerated due to the global pandemic.
Compared to a year ago, 92% of CIOs and CTOs believe their company is better prepared to respond to a potentially catastrophic interruption such as a data breach or natural disaster. What's more, of those who say they are better prepared, 58% strongly agree that COVID-19 accelerated their preparedness.
When asked which technologies will have the greatest impact on global COVID-19 recovery, 25% of those surveyed said AI and machine learning.
The top two concerns for CIOs and CTOs when it comes to the cybersecurity of their organization are security issues related to the mobile workforce including employees bringing their own devices to work (37%) and ensuring the IoT is secure (35%). This is not surprising, since the number of connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, sensors, robots and drones is increasing dramatically.
34% of CIO and CTO respondents said they can track and manage 26-50% of devices connected to their business, while 20% of those surveyed said they could track and manage 51-75% of connected devices.
5G, ABI Research, CSP, cybersecurity, enterprise, Featured news, finance, IT Security, market, network, News, strategy, trends	 2nd December 2020 2nd December 2020
Demand for private network deployments will be driven by heavy industry verticals
With enterprise 5G maturing, the importance of private networks for the enterprise domain will continue to grow.
According to ABI Research, the demand for private network deployments will be driven primarily by heavy industry verticals. Industrial manufacturing, energy production (including mining, oil and gas, and logistics) alone will generate private network revenues of $32.38 billion by 2030, representing half of the $64 Billion overall private network revenues.
"These findings show the importance of private networks, particularly for automating mission- or even life-critical use cases, that require the highest possible network reliability and availability and are characterized by a high degree of network integrity to prevent data from leaving the enterprise premises," says Leo Gergs, Research Analyst for 5G Markets at ABI Research.
"Enterprises that require network slicing capabilities to separate mission-critical from non-mission-critical use cases within the same physical network will turn to private networks."
What's causing the surge in private network demand?
Two main factors are causing the surge in private network demand. Gergs explains, "First, there is a huge rise in demand for automation and enterprise digitization. What has started with Industry 4.0 is now exacerbated by the aftermath of the global COVID-19 outbreak.
"Enterprises in industrial manufacturing, logistics, and oil and gas are now accelerating their digitization plans to reduce their dependency on manual labor availability and increase the resilience of their business operations against sudden disruptions to supply chains. The second is the addition to the demand-side effect."
Gergs continues, "The market for private network deployments will also benefit from a supply-side effect. The freeze of Release 16 gives enterprises the much-needed reassurance of 5G capabilities for enterprise-grade connectivity, which allows chipset and module manufacturers to grow the device ecosystem for compatible hardware.
"The maturing device ecosystem, in turn, drives down prices per module and therefore makes the deployment of private 5G network more cost-efficient, which will spur additional interest from enterprises."
A durable business strategy is key
There is a growing number of private network offerings emerging on the market to address this rising opportunity. While private network operators like Ambra, Citymesh or Edzcom are threatening traditional CSPs' market share by monetizing managed services other than connectivity, hyperscalers like AWS, Google, and IBM are launching their private network offerings in co-creation efforts with telco players.
In addition, software companies like Athonet or Quortus benefit from trends toward network virtualization, which allows them to offer a virtualized core network either through System Integrators or to enterprises directly.
"These breathtaking developments show the amazing pace at which this market is evolving. Against this backdrop, it is important that all players in the enterprise connectivity domain develop a durable business strategy to profit from this rising market," concludes Gergs.
5G, cybersecurity, drones, Featured news, Identity Theft, IT Security, Mobile, network, News, Research	 25th November 2020 25th November 2020
Using drones to improve 5G network security
The introduction of 5G will change the way we communicate, multiply the capacity of the information highways, and allow everyday objects to connect to each other in real time.
Its deployment constitutes a true technological revolution not without some security hazards. Until 5G technology has definitively expanded, some challenges remain to be resolved, including those concerning possible eavesdropping, interference and identity theft.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as drones, are emerging as enablers for supporting many applications and services, such as precision agriculture, search and rescue, or in the field of communications, for temporary network deployment and their coverage extension and security.
Giovanni Geraci, a researcher with the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, points out in a recent study: "On the one hand, it is important to protect the network when it is disturbed by a drone that has connected and generates interference. On the other, in the future, the same drones could assist in the prevention, detection, and recovery of attacks on 5G networks".
The study poses two different cases
First, the use of UAVs to prevent possible attacks, still in its early stages of research, and, secondly, how to protect the network when disturbed by a drone, a much more realistic, as Geraci explains: "A drone could be the source of interference to users. This can happen if the drone is very high up and when its transmissions travel a long distance because there are no obstacles in the way, such as buildings".
The integration of UAV devices in future mobile networks may expose the latter to potential risks of attack based on UAVs. UAVs with cellular connection may experience radio propagation characteristics that are probably different from those experienced by a terrestrial user.
Once a UAV flies well above the base stations, they can create interference or even rogue applications, such as a mobile phone connected to a UAV without authorization.
Using drones to improve 5G security
Based on the premise that 5G terrestrial networks will never be 100% secure, the authors of this study also suggest using UAVs to improve 5G network security and beyond wireless access.
"In particular, in our research we have considered jamming, identity theft, or 'spoofing', eavesdropping, and the mitigation mechanisms that are enabled by the versatility of UAVs", the researchers explain.
The study shows several areas in which the diversity and 3D mobility of UAVs can effectively improve the security of advanced wireless networks against eavesdropping, interference and 'spoofing', before they occur or for rapid detection and recovery.
"The article raises open questions and research directions, including the need for experimental evaluation and a research platform for prototyping and testing the proposed technologies", Geraci explains.
5G, Featured news, finance, Internet of Things, IT Security, Juniper Research, manufacturing sector, market, network, News, software	 5th November 2020 5th November 2020
Global number of industrial IoT connections to reach 36.8 billion by 2025
The global number of industrial IoT connections will increase from 17.7 billion in 2020 to 36.8 billion in 2025, representing an overall growth rate of 107%, Juniper Research found.
The research identified smart manufacturing as a key growth sector of the industrial IoT market over the next five years, accounting for 22 billion connections by 2025.
The research predicted that 5G and LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) networks will play pivotal roles in creating attractive service offerings to the manufacturing industry, and enabling the realisation of the 'smart factory' concept, in which real-time data transmission and high connection densities allow highly-autonomous operations for manufacturers.
5G to maximise benefits of smart factories
The report identified private 5G services as crucial to maximising the value of a smart factory to service users, by leveraging the technology to enable superior levels of autonomy amongst operations.
It found that private 5G networks will prove most valuable when used for the transmission of large amounts of data in environments with a high density of connections, and where significant levels of data are generated. In turn, this will enable large-scale manufacturers to reduce operational spend through efficiency gains.
Software revenue to dominate industrial IoT market value
The research forecasts that over 80% of global industrial IoT market value will be attributable to software spend by 2025, reaching $216 billion. Software tools leveraging machine learning for enhanced data analysis and the identification of network vulnerabilities are now essential to connected manufacturing operations.
Research author Scarlett Woodford noted: "Manufacturers must exercise caution when implementing IoT technology, resisting the temptation to introduce connectivity to all aspects of operations. Instead, manufacturers must focus on the collection of data on the most valuable areas to drive efficiency gains."
5G, app, automation, Coronavirus, CyberAttack, cybercriminals, cybersecurity, Exploit, Featured news, Internet of Things, IT Security, Malware, News, Nokia, smart home, trends	 28th October 2020 28th October 2020
Attacks on IoT devices continue to escalate
Attacks on IoT devices continue to rise at an alarming rate due to poor security protections and cybercriminals use of automated tools to exploit these vulnerabilities, according to Nokia.
IoT devices most infected
The report found that internet-connected, or IoT, devices now make up roughly 33% of infected devices, up from about 16% in 2019. The report's findings are based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally.
Adoption of IoT devices, from smart home security monitoring systems to drones and medical devices, is expected to continue growing as consumers and enterprises move to take advantage of the high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and fundamentally new networking capabilities that 5G mobile networks enable, according to the report.
The rate of success in infecting IoT devices depends on the visibility of the devices to the internet, according to the report. In networks where devices are routinely assigned public facing internet IP addresses, a high infection rate is seen.
In networks where carrier-grade Network Address Translation is used, the infection rate is considerably reduced, because the vulnerable devices are not visible to network scanning.
Cybercriminals taking advantage of the pandemic
The report also reveals there is no let up in cybercriminals using the COVID-19 pandemic to try to steal personal data through a variety of types of malware. One in particular is disguised as a Coronavirus Map application – mimicking the legitimate and authoritative Coronavirus Map issued by Johns Hopkins University – to take advantage of the public's demand for accurate information about COVID-19 infections, deaths and transmissions.
But the bogus application is used to plant malware on victims' computers to exploit personal data. "Cybercriminals are playing on people's fears and are seeing this situation as an opportunity to promote their agendas," the report says. The report urges the public to install applications only from trusted app stores, like Google and Apple.
Bhaskar Gorti, President and Chief Digital Officer, Nokia, said: "The sweeping changes that are taking place in the 5G ecosystem, with even more 5G networks being deployed around the world as we move to 2021, open ample opportunities for malicious actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities in IoT devices.
"This report reinforces not only the critical need for consumers and enterprises to step up their own cyber protection practices, but for IoT device producers to do the same."
5G, Data, Featured news, finance, IT Security, Juniper Research, market, network, News, predictions, supply chain, supply chain compromise, trends, virtualization	 23rd October 2020 23rd October 2020
Operator‑billed 5G connections revenue to reach $357 billion by 2025
Operator‑billed revenue from 5G connections will reach $357 billion by 2025, rising from $5 billion in 2020, its first full year of commercial service, according to Juniper Research.
By 2025, 5G revenue is anticipated to represent 44% of global operator‑billed revenue owing to rapid migration of 4G mobile subscribers to 5G networks and new business use cases enabled by 5G technology.
However, the study identified 5G networks roll-outs as highly resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that supply chain disruptions caused by the initial pandemic period have been mitigated through modified physical roll-out procedures, in order to maintain the momentum of hardware deployments.
5G connections to generate 250% more revenue than average cellular connection
The study found that 5G uptake had surpassed initial expectations, predicting total 5G connections will surpass 1.5 billion by 2025. It also forecast that the average 5G connection will generate 250% more revenue than an average cellular connection by 2025.
To secure a return on investment into new services, such as uRLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication) and network slicing, enabled by 5G, operators will apply this premium pricing for 5G connections.
However, these services alongside the high-bandwidth capabilities of 5G will create data-intensive use cases that lead to a 270% growth in data traffic generated by all cellular connections over the next five years.
Networks must increase virtualisation to handle 5G data traffic
Operators must use future launches of standalone 5G network as an opportunity to further increase virtualisation in core networks. Failure to develop 5G network architectures that handle increasing traffic will lead to reduced network functionality, inevitably leading to a diminished value proposition of its 5G network amongst end users.
Research author Sam Barker remarked: "Operators will compete on 5G capabilities, in terms of bandwidth and latency. A lesser 5G offering will lead to user churn to competing networks and missed opportunities in operators' fastest-growing revenue stream."
5G, CSP, digital transformation, Frost & Sullivan, IT Security, market, network, News, wireless	 25th September 2020 25th September 2020
Expansion opportunities in the next-generation wireless BSS market
Business support systems (BSS) are necessary to provide the fast-changing requirements in 5G and enhance customer experiences, a Frost & Sullivan research reveals.
They also help communication service providers (CSPs) deliver personalized service experiences for consumers and businesses.
BSS market could experience a slowdown
Vendors have introduced advanced BSS features, including the ability to support flexible deployments (core and edge) and options for network slice lifecycle management, which are critical in helping CSPs deliver on multi-partner business models.
However, due to COVID-19, the global BSS market is estimated to experience a slowdown in the short term, whereas the long-term outlook remains positive.
"It is evident that BSS can significantly drive efforts to help organizations address key concerns such as introducing digital services and enabling customers to personalize their service experience," said Vikrant Gandhi, Senior Industry Director, Information & Communication Technologies at Frost & Sullivan.
"However, businesses from across many other industry verticals are still relatively early in their digitization efforts and are facing issues similar to those of CSPs in the early days of their digital transformation efforts."
Gandhi added: "Given the evolving situation, it is more critical than ever for wireless networks to function reliably and support the connectivity requirements across the board. BSS vendors are supporting existing 4G (and earlier generations) network services that currently drive the majority of their revenue.
"Going forward, while the wireless industry remains a priority for BSS vendors, they are also able to align BSS solutions to meet the needs of communications, financial services, healthcare, and media and entertainment companies, as well as government entities."
BSS vendors can partner with CSPs to create immense growth prospects
Pioneer new price plans and partner-based business models such as B2B, B2C, and B2B2X for 5G success.
Introduce AI-driven BSS and customer experience solutions that help CSPs deliver differentiated 5G services.
Leverage cloud-native principles and support flexible deployments (core and edge) to help operators monetize different features of the network and create new opportunities.
Implement a robust 5G policy that can set performance characteristics, including quality of service (QoS) and latency. With 5G, the policy can control networks and services down to the device level to ensure the best customer experience while managing valuable network resources.
5G, artificial intelligence, CommScope, Data, Featured news, Internet of Things, IT Security, Mobile, network, News, survey, wireless	 18th September 2020 18th September 2020
Ongoing and initial costs top list of barriers to 5G implementation
5G is set to deliver higher data transfer rates for mission-critical communications and will allow massive broadband capacities, enabling high-speed communication across various applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.
According to a study from CommScope, only 46% of respondents feel their current network infrastructure is capable of supporting 5G, but 68% think 5G will have a significant impact on their agency operations within one to four years.
Of the respondents who do not feel their current infrastructure is capable of supporting 5G, none have deployed 5G, 19% are piloting, 43% are planning to pilot, and 52% are not planning or evaluating whether to pilot 5G.
Costs reported as top barriers to 5G implementation
According to the report, ongoing and initial costs are reported as top barriers for federal agencies wishing to implement 5G – 44% believe initial/up-front costs will be the biggest barrier and 49% are concerned about ongoing costs.
"There is no single approach to 5G and no one-size-fits-all 5G solution," said Chris Collura, vice president, Federal business for CommScope.
"This study indicates that federal agencies are at the beginning stages of 5G evaluation and deployment. As they are looking to finalize their strategy for connectivity, agencies should also consider private networks, whether those are private LTE networks, private 5G networks, or a migration from one to the other to ensure flexibility and scalability."
Desired outcomes for federal agencies
Remote employee productivity (40%) is one of the top desired outcomes for federal agencies looking to implement 5G, along with introducing high bandwidth (39%), higher throughput (39%) and better connectivity (38%).
Additional findings from the study include:
32% hope that 5G will make it easier to share information securely and 32% would like to see easier access to data
82% plan to or have already adopted 5G with 6% having already deployed 5G, 14% piloting 5G and 62% evaluating/planning to pilot 5G
71% are looking at hardware, software or endpoint upgrades to support 5G
83% believe it is very/somewhat important for mission-critical traffic on the agency network to remain onsite while 64% feel it is very/somewhat important
5G, BCG, Featured news, Innovation, investment, IT Security, network, News, Policy, wireless	 15th September 2020 15th September 2020
Five critical success factors for the 5G economy
Policymakers should focus on five critical success factors in order to ensure the US continues to build its emerging 5G economy, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Drawing on an in-depth analysis of the factors that secured America's leadership of the 4G economy, the study concludes that spectrum availability and wireless network deployments, along with broader economic factors such as a pro-investment and innovation business climate, private sector R&D, and workforce readiness are key to expanding a country's 5G penetration rate and 5G-powered economic growth.
"A country's 5G progress shouldn't be based on misleading snapshots in time such as the number of 5G subscribers or the amount of 5G base stations deployed in a given quarter," said Enrique Duarte Melo, a BCG managing director and senior partner and lead author of the report.
"Policymakers should instead look at how these factors—network coverage, spectrum availability, the quality of the innovation ecosystem, business climate, and technology talent—will blend together to drive 5G penetration and make 5G use cases widely available throughout society."
Spectrum availability
Spectrum is the foundation of mobile wireless service, and particularly for 5G networks, providers need a mix of low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum.
The study finds that the US has made significant amounts of low- and high-band spectrum available, but lags in crucial midband spectrum.
Widespread network deployment is critical to laying the foundations of a 5G economy and achieving high levels of wireless penetration—the number of active 5G subscribers per capita.
The study finds that US telecom companies have invested seven times more than Chinese companies and that from 2020 to 2025, US operators are expected to invest over $250 billion to build 5G networks, more than any other country.
Strong R&D investment and IP protection will help spur the development of innovative new 5G services as well as cross-industry collaboration.
The study finds that US technology and telecom companies spend significantly more on R&D, as a percentage of sales, than other global competitors. On an absolute basis, US wireless companies invest five times as much as Chinese companies.
Capital expenditures and investment and an openness to risk-taking, combined with business-friendly policies, will create an environment conducive to wireless innovation and entrepreneurship.
The study finds that the US ranks in the top three nations on key drivers of new business creation and ranks first for entrepreneurship. It's also home to 12 of the world's top 30 cities for startups and serves as a startup hub for key 5G technologies like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
A workforce with digital and technical skills will provide countries the expertise to build state-of-the-art wireless networks and develop new 5G applications.
The study finds that the US's ability to attract the best global talent has promoted innovation and that training and retraining employees in tech-related certifications and degrees will be critical.
Further, the study finds that that the foremost impact of 5G will be the services and applications unlocked by powerful and ubiquitous 5G networks.
5G, ABI Research, Asia, Featured news, India, IT Security, network, News, predictions, trends	 14th September 2020 14th September 2020
Emerging countries will adopt 5G faster than expected
Emerging markets have always been behind developed countries in adopting the latest generation mobile networks, with a few exceptions. While it would be safe to assume that emerging markets would also lag in 5G adoption, global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research, finds that emerging countries will have faster than expected 5G subscriber adoption.
The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5G subscriptions in emerging markets is estimated to be 26% between 2020 to 2030, an impressive rate considering the global CAGR of 5G subscriptions is only a slightly higher 28% in the same period.
"The pace of the 5G rollout in emerging markets will be expedited by a combination of regulatory enablement, enabling technologies, such as edge computing and OpenRAN (ORAN), and the broader use cases that 5G brings forward," explains Miguel Castaneda, Industry Analyst at ABI Research.
Contributing factors spurring emerging countries' 5G adoption
The underlying impediments on nationwide 5G deployment in emerging countries are based on the capital-intensive 5G infrastructure and the declining financial health of the emerging markets' telecommunications sector. These factors are compounded when considering the additional logistical and financial factors for countries such as Vietnam or Thailand that have larger rural populations. Operators in these countries need to exhaust all options that can help alleviate the financial burden of 5G rollout.
Emerging countries should also pay heed to factors that contribute to the growing impetus of 5G rollouts. Changing consumer demographics, the proliferation of smartphone usage, and affordable 5G devices have spurred an exponential increase in emerging countries' data consumption.
Despite having a rural population of around 65%, ABI Research forecasts India's mobile data traffic, based on 1.2 billion subscribers, to balloon to 160.4 Exabytes by 2025. This figure exceeds the combined mobile data traffic of developed countries like South Korea, United Kingdom, and Germany in the same year, which is 159.7 Exabytes. "Emerging countries that strongly rely on agriculture or manufacturing production would also stand to benefit from the digital transformation capabilities of 5G enterprise," Castaneda points out.
This surge in data consumption, device affordability, and potential of broader use cases should therefore prompt regulators and operators in adopting proactive strategies in establishing their respective 5G networks. Countries such as India and Vietnam are building their own 5G ecosystem through local telecommunication and software vendors.
Developments and innovations in fixed wireless access (FWA) create more financial incentives for 5G rollout into rural regions and helps governments in emerging markets to fulfill their national coverage plans. 5G-enabling technologies such as distributed edge computing, the ORAN initiative, and network slicing have given emerging countries more tools in accelerating the pace of a more digitalized economy.
Regulators also play a critical role as they can initiate enabling policies and initiatives to improve the business case of 5G rollout for financially strapped operators in these emerging countries.
"As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the social fabric and economic activities of our countries, emerging markets are constantly reminded of the importance of a connected world. 5G will address the issue of supply chain resiliency and provide new business models in enterprises. These deployments can serve as a great complementary technology for key national initiatives, such as the Thailand 4.0 Smart City Initiative, India's Smart City Mission, and the Vision of Indonesia 2045," Castaneda concludes.
"Edge", 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain, cybersecurity, Data, Featured news, Internet of Things, IT Security, machine learning, News, Splunk, survey, trends, virtual reality	 8th September 2020 8th September 2020
Are today's organizations ready for the data age?
67% of business and IT managers expect the sheer quantity of data to grow nearly five times by 2025, a Splunk survey reveals.
The research shows that leaders see the significant opportunity in this explosion of data and believe data is extremely or very valuable to their organization in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).
81% of survey respondents believe data to be very or highly valuable yet 57% fear that the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.
"The aata age is here. We can now quantify how data is taking center stage in industries around the world. As this new research demonstrates, organizations understand the value of data, but are overwhelmed by the task of adjusting to the many opportunities and threats this new reality presents," said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk.
"There are boundless opportunities for organizations willing to quickly learn and adapt, embrace new technologies and harness the power of data."
The data age has been accelerated by emerging technologies powered by, and contributing to, exponential data growth. Chief among these emerging technologies are Edge Computing, 5G networking, IoT, AI/ML, AR/VR and Blockchain.
It's these very same technologies 49% of those surveyed expect to use to harness the power of data, but across technologies, on average, just 42% feel they have high levels of understanding of all six.
Data is valuable, and data anxiety is real
To thrive in this new age, every organization needs a complete view of its data — real-time insight, with the ability to take real-time action. But many organizations feel overwhelmed and unprepared. The study quantifies the emergence of a data age as well as the recognition that organizations have some work to do in order to use data effectively and be successful.
Data is extremely or very valuable to organizations in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).
And yet, 66% of IT and business managers report that half or more of their organizations' data is dark (untapped, unknown, unused) — a 10% increase over the previous year.
57% say the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.
47% acknowledge their organizations will fall behind when faced with rapid data volume growth.
Some industries are more prepared than others
The study quantifies the emergence of a data age and the adoption of emerging technologies across industries, including:
Across industries, IoT has the most current users (but only 28%). 5G has the fewest and has the shortest implementation timeline at 2.6 years.
Confidence in understanding of 5G's potential varies: 59% in France, 62% in China and only 24% in Japan.
For five of the six technologies, financial services leads in terms of current development of use cases. Retail comes second in most cases, though retailers lag notably in adoption of AI.
62% of healthcare organizations say that half or more of their data is dark and that they struggle to manage and leverage data.
The public sector lags commercial organizations in adoption of emerging technologies.
Manufacturing leaders predict growth in data volume (78%) than in any other industry; 76% expect the value of data to continue to rise.
Some countries are more prepared than others
The study also found that countries seen as technology leaders, like the U.S. and China, are more likely to be optimistic about their ability to harness the opportunities of the data age.
90% of business leaders from China expect the value of data to grow. They are by far the most optimistic about the impact of emerging technologies, and they are getting ready. 83% of Chinese organizations are prepared, or are preparing, for rapid data growth compared to just 47% across all regions.
U.S. leaders are the second most confident in their ability to prepare for rapid data growth, with 59% indicating that they are at least somewhat confident.
In France, 59% of respondents say that no one in their organization is having conversations about the impact of the data age. Meanwhile, in Japan 67% say their organization is struggling to stay up to date, compared to the global average of 58%.
U.K. managers report relatively low current usage of emerging technologies but are optimistic about plans to use them in the future. For example, just 19% of U.K. respondents say they are currently using AI/ML technologies, but 58% say they will use them in the near future.
5G, cybersecurity, Data, encryption, Featured news, IT Security, Mobile, network, News, Privacy, standards, Vulnerability, whitepaper	 4th September 2020 4th September 2020
Recommendations to enhance subscriber privacy in 5G
There are clear benefits of 5G SIM capabilities to protect the most prominent personal data involved in mobile communications, according to the Trusted Connectivity Alliance.
Addressing privacy risks
The IMSI, known as a Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) in 5G, is the unique identifier allocated to an individual SIM by an MNO. Despite representing highly personal information, the IMSI is exposed to significant security vulnerabilities as it is sent unencrypted over-the-air in 2G, 3G and 4G technologies.
Most notably, 'IMSI catchers' are readily and inexpensively available and can be used to illegally monitor a subscriber's location, calls and messages.
"To address the significant privacy risks posed by IMSI catchers, the 5G standards introduced the possibility for MNOs to encrypt the IMSI before it is sent over-the-air," comments Claus Dietze, Chair of Trusted Connectivity Alliance.
"But as the standards state that encryption can be performed either by the SIM or by the device, and even be deactivated, there is potential for significant variability in terms of implementation. This creates scenarios where the IMSI is not sufficiently protected and the subscriber's personal data is potentially exposed."
Managing IMSI encryption within the 5G SIM
Given these scenarios, the white paper recommends that MNOs consider limiting the available implementation options to rely on proven, certified solutions. Of the available options, executing IMSI encryption within the 5G SIM, which refers to both the SIM or eSIM as defined by Trusted Connectivity Alliance as the Recommended 5G SIM, emerges as a comprehensive solution when examined against a range of key criteria. This includes ownership and control, the security of the SIM and its production process, and certification and interoperability.
"Eurosmart fully supports the Trusted Connectivity Alliance position on subscriber privacy encryption, and agrees it should be managed within the 5G SIM. If we consider the direct impact on the security and resilience of critical infrastructures and essential services, and the requirements of the NIS directives, it is also apparent that a robust regulatory response is warranted to support these recommendations," adds Philippe Proust, President of Eurosmart.
"We therefore contend that regulatory measures should be implemented to define an ad hoc security certification scheme addressing IMSI encryption within the 5G SIM under the EU Cybersecurity Act. In addition, it should be a requirement for the IMSI to be encrypted within the 5G SIM, and for the 5G SIM to be mandatorily security certified to demonstrate its capabilities."
Claus concludes: "Managing IMSI encryption within the 5G SIM delivers control, best-in-class security and interoperability to prevent malicious and unlawful interception. And with 5G creating a vast array of new use-cases, SIM-based encryption is the only viable way to establish interoperability across emerging consumer and industrial IoT use-cases and, ultimately, enable a secure connected future."
5G, cybersecurity, Don't miss, Expert Analysis, Featured news, Hot stuff, IT Security, network, News, Niagara Networks, Opinion, strategy, tips	 3rd September 2020 3rd September 2020
Private, unlicensed 5G mobile network adoption may intensify NetOps and SecOps challenges
While 5G sometimes seems like the panacea for just about everything, it will likely intensify the already common friction between NetOps and SecOps teams that will take part in deployments and operations of the 5G mobile network. Besides faster speeds, lower latency, greater coverage and ultra-reliable mobile services across new radio spectrums, 5G brings tectonic changes in mobile architecture and enables totally novel applications with highly complex requirements.
One of the major changes in 5G architecture is the virtualization and network slicing that makes NetOps and SecOps monitoring and control even more challenging. Even the idea of fully understanding a network and all that it includes becomes more difficult and perplexing.
Additionally, a likely surge in the use of IoT devices and mission-critical applications demanding low latency communications adds complexity and complications. These challenges apply to both security and networking. Specifically, the threat surface will be increased as more devices will be connected to more cells.
Just to highlight the tip of the iceberg, we need to consider the fact that some IoT devices likely have lower security capabilities and are even subject to physical security risks as many small cells that will be used indoors and outdoors on lights, signs, storage areas and other infrastructure. Some of these may be cameras, proximity sensors and other kinds of detectors.
As a result, NetOps and SecOps teams will need greater network visibility, assessment tools and security measures. Most of all, teams will need a far greater level of agility to stay ahead of such dynamic changes, both to the network itself, the traffic utilizing it, and the connected elements that can start from machine to machine elements, such as operational technology sensors and controllers, and go far beyond to augmented reality applications.
These new conditions aggravate the traditional networking and security challenges and threaten to intensify the friction between the organizations. 5G standardization has an enhanced security framework over 4G, but there are various new implementations and complexities of design, and NetOps and SecOps teams need to come together to achieve greater agility and accommodate changes and challenges to their new mobile networks more quickly and more efficiently. Today's means of resolving these differences need to evolve, as teams are already overworked and under-staffed and generally slow in making or accommodating changes to the network.
In new 5G deployments, there will be two options for enterprises:
1. Connect to a public 5G mobile network that's owned and operated by a mobile operator.
2. Deploy and operate its own private 5G network with non-licensed radio spectrum, known as 3GPP release 16. This is a new standard that will be a new alternative to Wi-Fi and LTE networks with special purpose-build requirements for private industrial networks. This mode can be operated as an outsourced deployment or using a consultancy service or a "build it yourself" model that will probably be more feasible for companies as the technology matures.
Many large industrial and manufacturing enterprises with mega-sites or even multiple sites that will require private mobile interconnections, will select the second option to enable their mobile private communications and reduce dependencies with more control to adapt the mobile network to their business processes and special requirements. Some of the most attractive 5G use cases will justify this trend and will streamline a digital transformation of old industries that are still lagging behind.
Being in control of quality, coverage and operational requirements will drive internal teams to collaborate based on corporate directives and foster security measures on people, processes and connected elements and applications. Organizations putting a premium on security will push enterprises to lean towards private 5G enterprise networks because of the complete segregation it offers. Since 5G slicing that is performed on a public network might share the same physical infrastructure with virtual slices that logically separate customers, sharing the same physical infrastructure by multiple customers will be still a valid concern.
New forms of network virtualization brought by 5G – and specifically private 5G – present new requirements for monitoring, management and security. In particular, the dynamic nature of creating a new slice or segmentation in a mission-critical environment, seemingly out of the blue, or reverting back or changing existing ones calls for constant vigilance. The rise of virtualized computing presented its challenges to security, and new solutions and practices arose to meet them. In much the same way, these virtualized networking practices will create new security challenges and solutions.
5G network slicing is a paramount challenge and operational teams will need to collaborate on having clear procedures that impact both mobile and wireline infrastructure. Additionally, new technology adaption takes time and requires careful planning to inspect various dynamic scenarios that not necessarily known before.
As 5G unlicensed networking will be adapted gradually by the enterprise as a private 5G local area network, it's hard to know what changes to plan for, so the best planning must be in the form of creating far more streamlined NetOps and SecOps teams that can work together under the same corporate directives to accomplish business objectives and insure top security posture.
This is a new paradigm shift for Enterprise to adopt novel mobile technology and accelerate digital transformation. Organizations will gain new, important capabilities, but they will also be presented with new challenges. Embracing these factors requires evolving from old ways of distancing NetOps and SecOps with opposing roles to more co-team relationships where both can work together more effectively.
"Edge", 5G, app, Data, data collection, Featured news, Frost & Sullivan, IT Security, market, News, predictions, trends	 2nd September 2020 2nd September 2020
Multi-access edge computing market to reach $7.23 billion by 2024
Edge computing is a foundational technology for industrial enterprises as it offers shorter latencies, robust security, responsive data collection, and lower costs, Frost & Sullivan finds.
In this hyper-connected industrial environment, edge computing, with its solution-agnostic attribute, can be used across various applications, such as autonomous assets, remote asset monitoring, data extraction from stranded assets, autonomous robotics, autonomous vehicles, and smart factories.
Multi-access edge computing market growth rate and revenue
Despite being in a nascent stage, the multi-access edge computing (MEC) market – an edge computing commercial offering from operators in wireless networks – is estimated to grow at an astounding compound annual growth rate of 157.4%, garnering a revenue of $7.23 billion by 2024 from $64.1 million in 2019.
"The recent launch of the 5G technology coupled with MEC brings computing power close to customers and also allows the emergence of new applications and experiences for them," said Renato Pasquini, Information & Communication Technologies Research Director at Frost & Sullivan.
"Going forward, 5G and MEC are an opportunity for telecom operators to launch innovative offerings and also enable an ecosystem to flourish in the business-to-business (B2B) segment of telecom service providers using the platform."
Pasquini added: "From the perspective of the MEC ecosystem, software—edge application and solutions—promises the highest CAGR followed by services—telecom operators' services, cloud providers' infrastructure-as-a-service, and edge data center colocation services."
Growth prospects for MEC market participants
It is predicted that approximately 90% of industrial enterprises will utilize edge computing by 2022, presenting immense growth prospects for MEC market participants, including:
Telecom operators should work on solutions and services to meet the requirements for connected and autonomous cars.
System integrators should provide end-to-end solutions, which would be a significant value addition for enterprises because 5G requires specific skillsets.
The combination of 5G and the new specialized hardware-based mobile edge compute technologies can meet the market's streaming media needs now and in the future.
Telecom operators must partner with cloud providers and companies with abilities related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to design solutions for autonomous cars, drone delivery, and others.
Companies in the MEC space must capitalize on the opportunity for innovation and new developments that utilize 5G and MEC, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which can also be applied to games.
5G, automation, cybersecurity, Data Security, Featured news, IT Security, Lenovo, News, predictions, remote working, Report, survey, trends	 20th July 2020 20th July 2020
People work more while at home, but worry about data security
A global research report by Lenovo highlights the triumphs, challenges and the consequences of the sudden shift to work-from-home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic and how companies and their IT departments can power the new era of working remotely that will follow.
The study looks at how employees worldwide are responding to the "new normal" after 72 percent of those surveyed confirmed a shift in their daily work dynamic in the last three months. Employees feel more connected and more productive than ever before as they WFH, but the data shows financial, physical and emotional downsides for the global workforce.
"This data gave us valuable insights on the complex relationship employees have with technology as work and personal are becoming more intertwined with the increase in working from home," commented Dilip Bhatia, Vice President of Global User and Customer Experience at Lenovo.
"Respondents globally feel more reliant on their work computers and more productive but have concerns about data security and want their companies to invest in more tech training. We're using these takeaways to improve the development of our smart technology and better empower remote workers of tomorrow."
Productivity, connectivity, and IT independence increase
Survey respondents around the world are embracing working away from the office – yet feel more connected to their devices than ever as the 'office' becomes wherever their technology is.
Eighty-five percent of those surveyed feel more reliant on their work PCs (laptops and/or desktop computer) than they did working from the office.
63 percent of the global workforce surveyed feel they are more productive working from home than when they were in the office.
Fifty-two percent of respondents believe they will continue to WFH more than they did pre-COVID-19 – even after social distancing measures lift.
This new confidence in working remotely has increased organizations' need for customizable, modern IT solutions to be deployed at scale. Seventy-nine percent of participants agree that they have had to be their own IT person while working from home, and a majority of those surveyed believe employers should invest in more tech training to power WFH in the future.
WFH during the pandemic: Productivity can come with downsides
In such a quick, dramatic shift to WFH that the pandemic brought on, workers say they have had to make personal investments on tech when their employers have not.
Seven-in-ten employees surveyed globally said they purchased new technology to navigate working remotely
Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed have had to partially or fully fund their own tech upgrades
US respondents say they have personally spent an average of $348 to upgrade or improve technology while working at home due to COVID-19 – roughly $70 higher than the global average ($273), and the second-highest among 10 markets surveyed
New ways of working have also brought on a set of literal aches and pains. Seventy-one percent of workers surveyed complain of new or worsening conditions, including headaches, back and neck pains, difficulty sleeping and more.
Having a proper WFH setup is important to minimizing discomfort, including proper furniture and a larger-sized external monitor that can ergonomically adjust to natural eye-level.
Making time for breaks is also important since many built-in workday breaks for office workers (stretching, getting up to get coffee, going out for lunch, etc.) occur in different rhythms while working remotely.
Along with physical ailments, workers around the world identified other top challenges to the WFH experience: reduced personal connections with coworkers, an inability to separate work life from home life, and finding it hard to concentrate during work hours due to distractions at home.
Training and implementation of high-quality video conferencing capabilities such as noise-cancelling headphones and webcams on the work PC, tablet or phone can help employees feel more connected with colleagues and feeling less distracted at home.
Naturally as technology has powered WFH around the world, surveyed workers also expressed overall concerns overall around security and being heavily reliant on tech connectivity to get the job done.
Employees of all ages agree their top tech-specific concern is how it makes their companies more vulnerable to data breaches. As a result, enhanced security will need to be built into employees' hardware, software and services (including deployment, set-up and maintenance) from the get-go and is especially critical within today's remote work environment.
The study also offers important guidance to employers around the world to embrace the new technology normal beyond the pandemic and into the future.
Flexibility isn't just expected, it's required
Overall, surveyed employees globally expressed mixed feelings about work in a post-COVID world – while some employees expressed being happy (27 percent) and excited (21 percent) about working from home forever, others feel neutral (22 percent) and conflicted (17 percent).
In light of this, it is more important than ever to give employees flexibility and the required tech to WFH so they don't have to spend their own money on tech upgrades for work.
Tech should facilitate balance, collaboration, multi-tasking
Although most respondents say tech makes them efficient and more productive, employees identified other ways that tech could improve to help them gain an advantage at work:
Help them better maintain work life balance
Make it easier for employees to collaborate with others at outside companies and organizations
Assist with multi-tasking and switching gears between projects more frequently
Automate some of their daily tasks
More 5G, please!
Although emerging technologies may have been a new subject in the past, employees are now expressing excitement about the role it plays in improving the WFH experience.
When asked which emerging technologies would have the most positive impact on their job within the next few years, employees ranked 5G wireless network technology and AI/ML as their top choices.
When implementing these technologies, companies should seek employee input on where these can make the most impact within their jobs. 5G provides a strong and more secure connection while giving employees the ability to move around, while AI can help automate routine responsibilities.
A majority of employees have also expressed they are hopeful that emerging technologies can help improve work/life balance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ear Cuffs are worn without a piercing on the cartilage part of the ear in a position that is most comfortable for you. Due to the handmade nature of our products, each ear cuff will be slightly different from the one pictured. Feel free to request custom bead shapes and colors as well as wire metal types and colors!
Black enameled wire is wrapped around an 8mm acrylic red dice to make this fun and light weight ear cuff. This piece can be worn on either ear.
Blue enameled wire and 6mm opalite beads swirl together to make this ear cuff that can be worn on either ear.
Blue enameled wire and a 6mm rainbow glass bead are woven together. This ear cuff can be worn on either ear and does not require a piercing.
Non-tarnish bronze wire meanders around a 6mm howlite bead.
Brass wire and beads, translucent green beads, and enameled brass celtic beads all come together to make this ear cuff that can be worn on either ear.
Non-tarnish copper wire and beads swirl along the edge of your ear when you wear this ear cuff that can be worn on either ear.
Green swirls and 4mm golden brass beads frame the edge of your ear.
Genuine Malachite beads are wrapped in non-tarnish silver wire to make this ear cuff that can be worn on either ear.
Purple enameled wire and silver beads are wrapped in loops and spirals to make this ear cuff that can be worn on either ear without requiring a piercing.
Purple glass beads have been wrapped with non-tarnish vintage bronze wire to make this cuff that can be worn on either ear without a piercing.
Copyright 2011 Back to Earth Creations. All rights reserved.


text:
The Electric Paperless Prototype
Everybody's favorite digital fantasy of living a paperless life got a two- year tryout in the glass ark of Biosphere 2. Kevin Kelly visits and finds it's still a fantasy.
Whatever else you might say about the Biosphere 2 experiment in Arizona, you've got to give the eight people who agreed to be sealed in a glass bottle for two years credit for this: They are the only folks so far to attempt to live an information-intensive life without paper. For 24 months nothing was to be brought in or out of the sealed ark. Paperless existence became one of the first obvious design goals.
Sure, lots of people have talked about paperless life, and many have actually taken vows to reduce their paper consumption and recycle what they do use. But to my knowledge, the biospherians are the only ones to have tried living out the fantasy for any length of time. In September 1993, when the eight bionauts marched out of their big glass house, they had a lot to say about the feasibility of living without paper. Their message: "Paperless life is just possible."
An airtight glass ark the size of an ocean liner, Biosphere is stuffed with seven very dense and compact ecosystems ranging from a bona fide rain forest to a small coral reef lagoon. It is also stuffed with some of the most complex mechanical systems built – for air, water, heat, electricity, and information. During their stint inside, the biospherians were expected to raise their own food, keep the weeds down in the wilderness areas, keep all the machines running, and write scientific papers. To do this, they ordinarily processed the following hunks of data and information: Each day they completed a checklist noting the working status of 60 motors, 50 miles of cables, 100 pumps, and innumerable valves. They were in 24-hour radio contact with colleagues inside the big ark and outside at mission control, 300 feet away. They recorded every bit of food harvested, how much it weighed, how much was eaten (as well as how many calories it contained), and how much matter was returned to compost. They frequently connected via videoconferencing hookups to classrooms around the world. They exchanged their atmospheric data with scientists outside and organized six scientific workshops altogether with these far-flung participants. They recorded their water use and where the water went. They measured plant growth and mapped species movements within the ark. They received electronic faxes of late-breaking news. They got cable TV. They worked on scientific papers to be published, complete with peer reviews from outside scientists and extensive citations of other papers. They sent and received volumes of internal e-mail regarding everyday management of their project. A few of them ventured into the Internet cloud to seek information and companionship; this added exponential numbers of e-mail messages and list postings. Half of the biospherians were involved in managing businesses or second jobs while inside. And about half also pursued advanced academic degrees during their two years away from paper. These folks were not digital slouches.
In between the first and second "closures" of Biosphere 2, I visited the site to see how close to paperless the biospherians actually got. Their human habitat, as they like to call it, was amazingly spacious, ultimately modern. They enjoyed a large meeting/dining room/kitchen area, outfitted with plush lavender carpet and marblish decorating touches. There was a phone at every corner. Indeed, there were phones hidden throughout the place, even in the wilderness area. Inside each apartment was a computer with a modem, as well as a bed, storage space, a phone, and TV. Each biospherian also had a computer in a common workplace.
By and large, the bulk of the information processing was done from the biospherians' personal desktops. Although they brought in laptops, they didn't use them portably. They didn't find palmtops or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to be of much use for their chores either. The biospherians (eco-serfs I called them) used their hands a lot in manual labor. They said what they wanted was "handless" voice input, so they could read out data as they harvested crops or hauled compost. Lacking this device, the biospherians would sometimes use their walkie-talkies as a substitute. As their hands sized up plants, they would speak the measurements into the radio, while someone outside would jot down the numbers on a computer and relay the data back to them inside to check. Not very elegant, but it worked.
Even though they managed to forgo paper in the bathroom, in reality biospherian life was not completely paperless. Paper was used for field notebooks with pencil "input." There's something about the compact reliability of a notebook that is still hard to beat. They also had a book library – eclectically stocked – which reminded me of the odd lots of books you find shelved in vacation cottages.
Outside of the field notebooks and this library, the ark buzzed with data. Noberto Alvarez-Romo, the project's director of cybernetics, calculates that the biospherians collectively received 10,000 faxes. These faxes never saw paper, having been projected instead onto desktop computer screens. The resolution was adequate for reading them, except when material was faxed sideways.
Somewhat surprisingly, Biosphere 2 was not wired with fiber-optic cable. Instead, it used coaxial cable, which, given the short distance, proved to be cheaper to install and maintain. Videoconferences took place on a regular basis. There were several stations inside where the biospherians could link up with fixed cameras and cabling. The best reception was via PictureTel, whose pictures ran over high-bandwidth telephone lines. I participated at the other end of one hookup with the biospherians; the quality was impressive. There was a slight, ragged delay between Arizona and San Francisco, but overall the picture and sound reminded me of a home videotape – only in real time.
The biospherians were big on e-mail. Since they were in the limelight, they encountered about a 10-to-1 ratio of inbound mail to their outbound. In addition to reading Usenet groups, some biospherians also participated in forums on PeaceNet, EcoNet, and the Well.
Biosphere 2's grand experiment was to determine what could be learned from a self-sustaining closed system – nothing in, nothing out, except energy and information. But in the second year of the mission, the Biosphere Scientific Advisory Committee recommended that the scientists relax their strict import rules and allow some paper into the bottle, as long as the material was recorded. So on request, the biospherians could import needed medical journals (they experienced low oxygen conditions inside) and research documents for their own scientific papers and classes (diagrams in journals turn to mud during faxing).
The printed matter the biospherians most requested (but never got) was TV Guide. The support crew balked at having to fax it in so often. I got the impression the biospherians had their sets tuned to CNN Headline News as a default. To compensate for a lack of TV schedule listings, the support center served as a minor video-on-demand center. The biospherians sent constant requests asking the support crew to load rented, newly released movies into the VCR outside and pipe them into the ark. Saturday nights quickly evolved into Double Feature Night.
A few biospherians got desperate enough for text news to have an entire book faxed in or e-mailed in as ASCII. The slight hardship of reading a book on screen and not being able to mark it, as well as the long downloading time needed to get the text, dampened their enthusiasm for electronic books. Less than a dozen paperless books were read in the first "closure."
The point of Biosphere 2 was to demonstrate that no organism or habitat is an island. One of the biospherians, Linda Leigh, said of her try at a paperless habit, "We discovered that true paperless living requires lots of people outside who are also paperless. You can't really be an island of paperless life." Linda explained that she could only write to others via e- mail or fax, and many recipients had only paper fax machines. Thus she generated more paper than she wanted to. Ordinary paper letters mailed to the biospherians had to be opened, scanned in as faxes, read over the phone, or held up to a window – all time-consuming activities. Even with that help, twelve boxes of paper mail awaited the biospherians' re-entry.
The most common complaint the biospherians had about living without paper was that they couldn't find stuff after they had filed it. After storing two years' worth of personal, work-related, and media and news data (estimated at 4 gigabytes of information per biospherian) little bits of it seemed to disappear easily. Paper can get lost too, of course, but the visual clues provided by paper on a desk or shelf do make it easier to retrieve.
On March 6, 1994, a second crew of six biospherians sealed themselves up for ten months of paperless life. They are experimenting with one or two palmtops and have upgraded their IBM clones with more RAM and power. They've installed more portable and remotely controllable video cameras. And for future missions they are putting more of their operating manuals online in the form of custom CD-ROMs.
The original Biosphere crew felt they came within 80 percent of being comfortably paperless. They could live with reading everything
on a screen. They delighted in creating purely digitized data for others, and they loved the immediacy of e-mail and video hookups. But they missed newspapers and magazines. Their primary request was for two major advances: improvements over hand-generated input in the field and superior tools for retrieving, managing, and coordinating gigabytes of stored electronic information. Oh, and they never figured out a way to legitimately create their "signatures" for paper forms that demanded them. They used what the second crew will use: a person outside with power of attorney.
Biosphere 2: +1 (602) 825 6400.
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But most memorable, says Thiel, a photographer, was the themed baby shower they organized. She and husband Neil are foodies and travellers and the event for 30 featured passportthemed invitations and finger foods from six countries. They didn't want a traditional shower that was all about gifts or the mother.
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I know there is another thread discussing the removal of these much hated stamps, but without pictures, its hard to visualize the process. Since I was removing a few stamps this morning, I decided to take some pics and explain the process.
Place stamp, stamp side down, on coffee lid and spray lightly over the back of the stamp.
With the stamp tongs, start at a corner and slide tongs under stamp without bending stamp. The tongs will slide very easily under the whole stamp. If you have to pry the stamp off, respray the back of the stamp again.
Place stamp, face down on plain copy paper.
With your scraper, lightly press down, slide over the back of the stamp, to remove the glue.
After glue is removed, place stamp back in coffee lid and spray lightly again with Pure Citrus.
Place stamp back on copy paper.
With a paper towel (or you can use a clean rag towel), press hard to wipe the back of the stamp to remove any glue residue.
Once you have removed all the glue and wiped the stamp, place the stamp, face down, on a clean piece of paper to dry.
Your work area will start to get messy, so change your white paper often. You can see the glue will accumulate on the paper.
This a picture of the stamps, drying on a clean sheet of copy paper. The stamps will dry within minutes. I normally will keep them on the paper for a few hours before placing them in my album or stock sheets.
If done correctly, there is no reason to apply talc powder or plastic paper to the back of the stamp. If the stamp is still sticky after drying, respray with Pure Citrus, wipe again with paper towel and let dry.
I have one question, and it's rather ominous. Is there any evidence - for or against - of long-term effects? Pure Citrus isn't archival-rated, and I don't know if its use might lead to any discoloration, even if it isn't immediately apparent.
I'm probably being a bit paranoid because a supposedly benign hinge-lifting compound left a permanent "coffee stain" on an unused Bulgarian stamp a few days ago. (I guess it's permanent, anyway; it hasn't faded out yet.) I'm not making a direct comparison between hinge-lifting fluid and Pure Citrus, or between non-water-soluble adhesive and whatever Bulgarians were using for adhesive in 1963, but it certainly wasn't the result I expected.
I have been using Pure Citrus for nearly 8 years now. I just opened my US album, and looked for any discoloration, especially on the light color or white stamps. I cannot see any discoloration of any of my stamps at all.
But I do have one problem and thats partly my fault. When I first started to use Pure Citrus, I watched a video explaining how to do it. In the video, it explained once the stamp was removed from the paper, to let it dry. Once it was dried, apply a talc powder on the back of the stamp, so that the powder would stick to the glue. I probably did that for a couple of years until I started to remove all the glue from the stamp, by scrapping it off.
As for as Pure Citrus being archival, I doubt it. The way I look at it, I rather take that risk than to see a bunch of stamps in my album with paper surrounding the stamp. I have read many articles recommending to mount your self adhesive stamps with closely cut paper around them. Thats not for me.
I have been using Pure Citrus for nearly 8 years now.
Thank you for that. Eight years should indeed be enough to discern long-term effects. Though I'm not a chemist, I find it hard to imagine that Pure Citrus would lie dormant for that long and then start damaging paper.
I had no idea that the Pure Citrus Cure has been around for that long. I've done very little self-adhesive removal, and what I have done has been with Bestine, a solvent whose main use is by artists who need to remove stray paint from canvases. Bestine is effective, but its texture and aroma are vile, and it can be unsafe when used in a poorly ventilated area.


text:
St. Clair clips barber's business license
Jackie Smith
Times Herald
St. Clair officials are holding a hearing Monday to determine whether a local barber will get to keep his business license.
Evan Rood had previously applied for a zoning change at 602 S. Eighth St. — from a single-family residential to mixed use — before planning commission and City Council members rejected the request.
City attorney Jim Downey said that Rood was instead issued a business license under existing zoning rules that allow for "home occupation" in a residential district.
"My barbershop, it's me. I have no employees. It's a one-chair barbershop. Just a very old-fashioned, traditional men's barbershop," Rood said Friday. "It's one of the lowest-type impact businesses you could have in the area."
Mayor Bill Cedar referred comment to St. Clair building inspector D.J. Boulier, who said he shouldn't comment before the hearing, forwarding comment to Downey.
The attorney said on Friday, it was the city's building official who alleged Rood "doesn't actually live" at 602 S. Eighth St.
"Actual residence is one of the requirements for this 'home occupation' designation," Downey said in a message. "Monday's hearing is to determine whether the building official's allegations are meritorious. If they are, the business license will be revoked. If they aren't, the business license will be reinstated. Currently, the license is suspended pending the conduct of the hearing."
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Under Rood's previous zoning request, planning officials had said the change wasn't concurrent with the city's existing master plan for that area. At the time, Rood didn't already live at the location of his business.
Now, the barber said all he wants to do is follow through with plans and "continue my profession as I have in this town for the last 16 years."
The city, he said, is preventing him. He took his concerns to City Council members during public comment of last Monday's regular meeting.
"Last Friday, the city directed the chief of police to shut down my business and my livelihood," Rood said Oct. 15. "This board has hidden behind the argument that they failed to update the city master plan. This argument has two fatal flaws."
The first, Rood said, was that the master plan does allow for some mixed use in zoning and that the city is overdue to update its plan.
The other, he said, was the city rejected his initial request, bending to the complaints of neighbors.
"The board is being swayed singularly by the complaints of one or two local residents," Rood told council members. "The first item taught in municipal leadership 101 is to never deny an applicant based on opposition. This council has done exactly that and by doing has put the city in a very precarious and litigious place."
Neighbors had spoken to council at meetings in August and September — some questioning renovations at Rood's business and home occupation requirements, and some just opposed to a business in a residential area.
At Oct. 15's meeting, Rood said the city "wrongly" put him out of business, and that his residence should be "irrelevant to the location of my barbershop." He complained about the "loose running of the board," recalled interactions with Cedar related to the issue, and alleged the city was giving "special treatment" to other businesses.
"Companies such as hotel chains, riverfront restaurants and new Coney Islands by allowing public roads and parking lanes to be blocked off for their personal use," he said. "But a small barber, such as me, is not allowed to even use his own parking lot and the adjacent legal street parking and (is) in no violation of local ordinances without constant harassment."
"The privileges and actions of this board have been so grossly misused and abused that if one weren't careful someone might accuse it of being the good old boys club," Rood added.
At that meeting, Cedar responded but also deferred more discussion to Monday's hearing.
"Some of that stuff I'm going to take issue with at the hearing because some of that stuff I think you've taken and turned a little bit," the mayor told Rood. "And that's OK, I understand your position. But we'll have our position, too, and some of that stuff is just a little bit tweaked. But we'll deal with that."
On Friday, Rood said he thought there has been a lot of misinformation about the issue.
"I think, when it's all said and done, they're going to see a groundswell of support (at) the meeting on Monday," he said. "There's a lot of people that are not happy with the way this went down."
The City Council will hold a special meeting for the hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at the St. Clair municipal building, 547 N. Carney Drive.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.