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Maryland, Pennsylvania add tracts to Old-Growth Forest Network The Chesapeake Bay Journal
A recent report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association found that pickleball—the “fastest growing sport in America”—has attracted 4.8 million players nationwide (a 40 percent increase since 2020). The game, a combination of badminton, tennis, and ping pong, gained popularity during the early days of the pandemic. Not only does pickleball offer benefits galore for your coordination and heart health, but for many, the fun, competitive activity is also a way to build a professional network.
The structure of a pickleball game naturally leaves room for socializing. For the uninitiated, pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court—about 20 by 44 feet—and the rules are simple.
Like in tennis, a volley begins when the ball is served diagonally across the court, and your team of two people can only earn points when it has service. Pickleball is complicated by the fact that there is a seven-foot no-volley zone called “the kitchen” to prevent players from spiking. “The server continues to serve, alternating service courts, until he or she faults. The first side scoring eleven points and leading by at least two points wins,” says David Dutrieuille, National Pickleball Director for Life Time.
Recreation centers, schools, parks, YMCAs, and private clubs now host pickleball, and because only four players are on the court at once, many folks have plenty of time on the sidelines to connect and talk business. David Hampshere, CEO of Purple Egg Real Estate, located in the Florida Panhandle and Lower Alabama, plays pickleball every morning, as well as some weekends and evenings. “Every chance I get, I mention my real estate business and state I’m always looking for properties,” he tells Fortune. “I’m casual about it, never pushy, so that helps. I have been introduced to quite a few people interested in selling, including one that I purchase.”
Brandon Mackie, co-founder of Pickleheads—a website that helps locate pickleball courts near you—echoes how natural it feels to make business connections while playing the game. ”You naturally meet new players you’re paired with, and the time between games I’ve found great for socializing and networking. I’ve met players from all walks of life, including many successful people that have helped me professionally,” says Mackie. Recently, he adds, a marketing professional on the court helped him think through his distribution strategy for Pickleheads.
Some local clubs and organizations are making business connections between players even more seamless. For example, NOW CFO, a consulting company with locations across America, has plans for a networking pickleball party in Westminster, Colorado in early November.” We will have an outstanding time playing pickleball and meeting and networking some of the greatest people and companies in Colorado for the best networking of your life!,” reads the invitation. A similar event is planned for Boston later this year.
While pickleball is sometimes thought of as a game for older folks, the data tells a different story. Currently, six out of 10 pickleball players are men, and around 38 years old on average. “What used to be considered a ‘seniors’ sport has transcended to become a sport for everyone—the average playing age has dropped and we see everyone from grandparents to their grandkids playing.” In other words: There are chances to connect with people at your professional level regardless of your age.
It’s also worth noting that choosing to network over a few games of pickleball comes with more health benefits than, say, meeting people at a business mixer. The sport boosts cardiovascular health, improves your stability, balance, and agility. And, of course, like most exercise, pickleball may help improve depressive symptoms and help players cope with stress. According to Detreuille, the social and networking advantages of the sport are really just the cherry on top. “Pickleball is centered around both exercise and social engagement with those you are playing both with and against. Establishing those strong social connections improves the quality of our lives and can extend our life expectancy,” says Dutrieuille.
So, even if your hometown isn’t currently hosting pickleball events specifically targeted at networking, you can look for local meetups and see what connections you can make. Even if you walk away without any new contacts in your phone, you’ll still have a few hours of fun and your workout checked off for the day.
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Time was, a mobile phone network would promise good coverage for calls and texts and that was that. Things have changed, and the latest announcement from EE, the biggest mobile network in the U.K., shows how. The company has just revealed partnerships with Norton and Verisure.
EE Smart Home Security is a 24/7 monitored home alarm package, installed by Verisure security engineers and monitored 24 hours a day by Verisure’s Alarm Receiving Center, which allows customers to speak to the Alarm Center at any time through an SOS feature. This is different from self-monitored set-ups and the company claims a target response time of 60 seconds.
There are two bundles. One is aimed at flats and apartments, which costs $29 (£25) a month and the other for houses, which is $35 (£30) a month. Each has a one-off upfront fee of $58 (£50). The main difference is that the house package has extra shock sensors designed to detect intruders before they enter the home. Additionally, house package subscribers can upgrade with a smart doorbell, smart cameras and smoke detectors, for additional monthly fees.
EE Cyber Security powered by Norton, to give it its full name, provides protection against viruses and online threats, notifying customers if their personal information is found on the dark web, for instance. It’ll also alert them if unusual login activity is spotted. It’s available in November, initially only to EE mobile customers.
Both these initiatives are unusual for mobile phone networks. As Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight, comments, “EE’s push into home security and cybersecurity is the next stage on its journey to expand beyond core connectivity offers. Partnering with established brands – rather than going solo – enables it to quickly bring new products to market, without significant upfront cost. Security is a high-growth opportunity, but one also close to its connectivity roots.”
Mann also points out that the plans reflect an EE core principle, to ensure that its offers are more accessible, affordable and simpler to understand than others.
This kind of broadening of a company’s aims can work well, though there is often also a risk involved. EE’s venture looks promising.
The startup accelerator will consist of four yearly 8-week programs, with successful applicants receiving $250,000 and one receiving an additional $500,000 at the end of the program.
Asset management firm Stone Ridge, the parent company of Bitcoin company NYDIG, has launched the first startup accelerator that focuses on the Bitcoin Lightning Network and the Taro protocol, called In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf).
The accelerator consists of 8-week programs in which the best founders and startup teams from around the world will be brought to New York City, with accommodation and travel costs covered.
The teams which apply and are accepted into the program will receive a guaranteed investment of $250,000. One team will be chosen by a panel of judges to receive an additional $500,000 of funding during the demonstration day at the end of each program.
The programs will occur four times per year, with the first now open to applications and set to kick off in April next year.
Kelly Brewster, the CEO of Wolf, pointed to one-on-one mentorships and access to a range of specialists as additional benefits of the program.
Working alongside experts from Wolf, Stone Ridge, NYDIG, and beyond, founders will get funding, one-on-one mentorship, and access to specialists in bitcoin, cryptography, regulation, engineering, branding, marketing, sales, and more.
— Kelly Brewster (@kbbrewster) October 26, 2022
Despite macroeconomic headwinds and a huge drop in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), the Lightning Network has continued to see rapid growth in its capacity over the last year, recently breaching the 5,000 BTC threshold after having only hit 4,000 BTC in June.
Related: CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is a layer-2 solution built on top of Bitcoin that allows users to send satoshis, the smallest amount of Bitcoin can be divided into, with greater speeds and lower fees.
The Taro protocol is a Taproot-powered protocol designed by the Bitcoin software firm Lightning Labs, which allows assets issued on the Bitcoin blockchain to be transferred to the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
In other words, Taro allows the Lightning Network to become a multi-asset network with Bitcoin at its core.
According to data from 1ml, at the time of writing, the network’s capacity is currently sitting at 5,140 BTC, representing a 5.43% increase over the past month, and median transaction fees are well under 1 millionth of a cent per satoshi.
“Unsettling.”
That’s the sort of news CNN staffers had delivered to their inboxes at 1pm ET on Wednesday when network boss Chris Licht candidly informed them that sweeping changes are imminent. In other words, brace for layoffs by the end of the year.
Licht, who has been conducting a business review of CNN for six months, said in a memo that he had identified areas where changes will be made. In addition, he noted that there is “widespread concern over the global economic outlook” and said that “we must factor that risk into our long-term planning.”
“All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization,” Licht said in a memo. “That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.”
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.
Licht’s memo came hours after CNBC’s Alex Sherman published a deep-dive examining the future of CNN. Sherman’s story, which Licht went on the record for, stated that job cuts will hit the news organization.
“Licht’s review is part of a larger effort spearheaded by [Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav], who has told division heads throughout the company to rethink their units and find ways to cut costs,” Sherman reported, adding that “more than 1,000 people will be laid off” this year by WBD, CNN’s parent company. In addition to the economic headwinds every company is facing, Zaslav has promised Wall Street he will find $3 billion in savings in the combined organization.
CNN is, of course, not the only media company aiming to tighten the belt and lean itself out amid the uncertainty and a downturn in the advertising market. As one former television executive told CNN, “The ad market will plummet in a recession” and “ratings declines aren’t helping.”
For now, staffers will have to wait a little while longer to learn who will be leaving the network. Licht said in his memo that he aims to have the changes implemented by end of year so that 2023 can start on a strong foot. He stressed that when CNN exits the process it will “still be the largest, most-respected newsgathering organization in the world.”
“When we emerge on the other side, CNN will be a stronger, more nimble organization,” Licht said, “ready to weather whatever the global economy throws at us and to grow into the future.”
President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARPA) allocated the Economic Development Administration (EDA) $3 billion in supplemental funding. This investment is assisting communities nationwide in their efforts to recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic by accelerating the process of economic recovery and by improving the resiliency of local economies to future economic challenges.
In furtherance of EDA’s implementation of Executive Order 13985, which calls on agencies to advance equity by identifying and addressing barriers to equal opportunity that underserved communities face, EDA’s Research and National Technical Assistance (RNTA) program this month tapped the University of Michigan’s Economic Growth Institute (EGI) and the New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) to lead a robust, equity-focused research program. This project is aimed at identifying best practices of equity and inclusion in two of EDA’s keystone ARPA initiatives: the Build Back Better Regional Challenge and the Good Jobs Challenge. This grant is supported through EDA’s ARPA Research and Networks Funding Opportunity. “EDA’s first investment priority is equity,” said Alejandra Y. Castillo, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “We demonstrate our commitment to equity by not only supporting projects that provide barrier-breaking opportunities to underserved communities, but also through adaptive reflection on those projects to maximize the efficiency of future efforts.”
The $557,942 grant will support EGI and NGIN in a collaborative investigation of equity and inclusion-related output and outcomes arising from EDA’s ARPA programs. Over a four-year grant period, the research team will work with select members of the 53 coalitions that were awarded funding through EDA’s Good Jobs Challenge and Build Back Better Regional Challenge to identify best practices for inclusion and equity among funded coalitions. A capstone report will describe key learnings gleaned from the research and advance recommendations for equitable growth frameworks that can be adopted by the greater community of economic development practitioners.
Housed at the University of Michigan, the Economic Growth Institute leverages the university’s resources, research, technologies, and expertise to foster innovation and create equitable economic growth for local, state, and national communities and economies.
“This investment by the EDA will result in actionable findings on equitable and inclusive practices specifically highlighting what moves the needle for underserved and underrepresented communities,” said Sarah Crane, Research Manager of the University of Michigan’s Economic Growth Institute. “We are honored to partner with the EDA and NGIN in this critical and timely effort.”
Established in 2018 and headquartered in Chicago, NGIN is a nonprofit organization focused on inclusive economic growth and closing structural opportunity gaps to ensure that people of color, women, and neglected geographies are a core part of regional economic growth and prosperity.
“NGIN’s work has shown that economic leaders can deliver both strong economic growth and advance equity in their regions,” said M. Yasmina McCarty of NGIN. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to support EDA’s once-in-a-generation investment and look forward to developing best practices which advance inclusive economic development at the local and regional level.”
The 53 community and industry coalitions selected for funding through EDA’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge and Good Jobs Challenge were chosen from a competitive pool of more than 1,000 applicant organizations. The two programs aim to boost economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic through the creation or upscaling of regional growth clusters and the support of high-quality, locally led workforce development systems.
Press release from Green Built Alliance:
From humble roots working with volunteers to perform basic weatherization services on local homes to offering wide-ranging no-cost energy-efficiency upgrades for low-income clients, Energy Savers Network will be helping vulnerable families save money, reduce carbon emissions, and stay cozy in more ways than ever before this coming winter.
Winter can be a challenging time for low-income residents in Buncombe County, where more than 3,000 families receive home-heating assistance, while many more struggle to keep power bills paid and homes warm. Energy Savers Network serves clients with a household income at 200 percent or below the federal poverty level.
For the past five years, Energy Savers Network has received funding from the City of Asheville and Buncombe County to provide energy-efficiency upgrades to more than 850 homes. These homes are more prepared for winter as the cold weather arrives and temperatures drop. Helping low-income families seal up small and large holes in their homes makes the indoor environment more comfortable, healthy and safe.
“Energy Savers Network touches the lives of our most vulnerable communities in a technical, compassionate, and inclusive way,” Energy Savers Network Project Manager Kelvin Bonilla said. “It addresses the intersection of environmental and social justice by serving families who face the highest energy burdens, are often forgotten, and are affected the most by climate change.”
Energy Savers Network has grown to expand its offerings considerably in 2022, now serving clients with basic energy-efficiency upgrades, home repairs, new heating systems and installations of solar energy systems. By pooling funding resources from government, foundations, and private donors, each client receives more benefits.
Energy Savers Network is now offering heating repair and replacement services funded by ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act). This includes electric HVAC repair and installations of new mini splits and heat pumps that replace old heating systems, many of which are not functioning and/or use propane or oil. These new heating systems dramatically reduce energy costs and lower carbon emissions.
The program is also now doing home repairs with the financial support of Dogwood Health Trust. This effort provides essential health and safety repairs for households, helping keep homes more affordable and maintained.The nonprofit is also launching phase two of the Neighbor to Neighbor solar program. This effort provides free solar energy systems to income qualified households. Through ARPA funding from the city and county, Green Built Alliance has hired Sugar Hollow Solar to install approximately 16 photovoltaic systems in the area in the next three years.
As the program has grown in scope, so has the impact. Typical savings per home are $231 per year. Based on when the home was served in total, clients have saved approximately $171,000 with 620 metric tons of CO2 savings which equals 3.6 million miles driven by passenger cars. With new home heating systems and/or solar energy systems savings will be even higher.
Since 2016 close to 300 volunteers have supported the program. Volunteers have been an integral part of keeping the cost of Energy Savers Network low and training people in the community to do energy efficient work.
Energy Savers Network plays an integral role in the effort to move to 100 percent renewable energy and serves a key piece of Green Built’s Alliance’s dedication to sustainable living, green building and climate justice through inspired action, community education and collaborative partnerships.
“Addressing climate change has to include everyone, especially those who pay the highest price for it, in order to make meaningful change and create a better future for all,” Bonilla said. “The ease of signing up for the program brings down barriers that these families typically face when trying to access services in the community.”
Community members interested in getting involved with Energy Savers Network as a client, volunteer, or donor can learn more at www.energysaversnetwork.org, or contact Hannah Egan at client@energysaversnetwork.org 828-585-4492.
A massive cache of leaked data reveals the inner workings of a stalkerware operation that is spying on hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including Americans.
The leaked data includes call logs, text messages, granular location data and other personal device data of unsuspecting victims whose Android phones and tablets were compromised by a fleet of near-identical stalkerware apps, including TheTruthSpy, Copy9, MxSpy and others.
These Android apps are planted by someone with physical access to a person’s device and are designed to stay hidden on their home screens but will continuously and silently upload the phone’s contents without the owner’s knowledge.
Months after we published our investigation uncovering the stalkerware operation, a source provided TechCrunch with tens of gigabytes of data dumped from the stakerware’s servers. The cache contains the stalkerware operation’s core database, which includes detailed records on every Android device that was compromised by any of the stalkerware apps in TheTruthSpy’s network since early 2019 (though some records date earlier) and what device data was stolen.
Given that victims had no idea that their device data was stolen, TechCrunch extracted every unique device identifier from the leaked database and built a lookup tool to allow anyone to check if their device was compromised by any of the stalkerware apps up to April 2022, which is when the data was dumped.
TechCrunch has since analyzed the rest of the database. Using mapping software for geospatial analysis, we plotted hundreds of thousands of location data points from the database to understand its scale. Our analysis shows TheTruthSpy’s network is enormous, with victims on every continent and in almost every country. But stalkerware like TheTruthSpy operates in a legal gray area that makes it difficult for authorities around the world to combat, despite the growing threat it poses to victims.
First, a word about the data. The database is about 34 gigabytes in size and consists of metadata, such as times and dates, as well as text-based content, like call logs, text messages and location data — even names of Wi-Fi networks that a device connected to and what was copied and pasted from the phone’s clipboard, including passwords and two-factor authentication codes. The database did not contain media, images, videos or call recordings taken from victims’ devices, but instead logged information about each file, such as when a photo or video was taken, and when calls were recorded and for how long, allowing us to determine how much content was exfiltrated from victims’ devices and when. Each compromised device uploaded a varying amount of data depending on how long their devices were compromised and available network coverage.
TechCrunch examined the data spanning March 4 to April 14, 2022, or six weeks of the most recent data stored in the database at the time it was leaked. It’s possible that TheTruthSpy’s servers only retain some data, such as call logs and location data, for a few weeks, but other content, like photos and text messages, for longer.
This is what we found.
This map shows six weeks of cumulative location data plotted on a map of North America. The location data is extremely granular and shows victims in major cities, urban hubs and traveling on major transport lines. Image Credits: TechCrunch
The database has about 360,000 unique device identifiers, including IMEI numbers for phones and advertising IDs for tablets. This number represents how many devices were compromised by the operation to date and about how many people are affected. The database also contains the email addresses of every person who signed up to use one of the many TheTruthSpy and clone stalkerware apps with the intention of planting them on a victim’s device, or about 337,000 users. That’s because some devices may have been compromised more than once (or by another app in the stalkerware network), and some users have more than one compromised device.
About 9,400 new devices were compromised during the six-week span, our analysis shows, amounting to hundreds of new devices each day.
The database stored 608,966 location data points during that same six-week period. We plotted the data and created a time lapse to show the cumulative spread of known compromised devices around the world. We did this to understand how wide-scale TheTruthSpy’s operation is. The animation is zoomed out to the world level to protect individuals’ privacy, but the data is extremely granular and shows victims at transportation hubs, places of worship and other sensitive locations.
By breakdown, the United States ranked first with the most location data points (278,861) of any other country during the six-week span. India had the second most location data points (77,425), Indonesia third (42,701), Argentina fourth (19,015) and the United Kingdom (12,801) fifth.
Canada, Nepal, Israel, Ghana and Tanzania were also included in the top 10 countries by volume of location data.
This map shows the total number of locations ranked by country. The U.S. had the most location data points at 278,861 over the six-week span, followed by India, Indonesia, and Argentina, which makes sense given their huge geographic areas and populations. Image Credits: TechCrunch
The database contained a total of 1.2 million text messages, including the recipient’s contact name, and 4.42 million call logs during the six-week span, including detailed records of who called whom, for how long, and their contact’s name and phone number.
TechCrunch has seen evidence that data was likely collected from the phones of children.
These stalkerware apps also recorded the contents of thousands of calls during the six weeks, the data shows. The database contains 179,055 entries of call recording files that are stored on another TheTruthSpy server. Our analysis correlated records with the dates and times of call recordings with location data stored elsewhere in the database to determine where the calls were recorded. We focused on U.S. states that have stricter phone call recording laws, which require that more than one person (or every person) on the line agree that the call can be recorded or fall foul of state wiretapping laws. Most U.S. states have statutes that require at least one person consents to the recording, but stalkerware by nature is designed to work without the victim’s knowledge at all.
We found evidence that 164 compromised devices in 11 states recorded thousands of calls over the six-week span without the knowledge of device owners. Most of the devices were located in densely populated states like California and Illinois.
TechCrunch identified 164 unique devices that were recording the victim’s phone calls during the six-week period and were located in states where telephone recording laws are some of the strictest in the United States. California led with 76 devices, followed by Pennsylvania with 17 devices, Washington with 16 devices and Illinois with 14 devices. Image Credits: TechCrunch
The database also contained 473,211 records of photos and videos uploaded from compromised phones during the six weeks, including screenshots, photos received from messaging apps and saved to the camera roll, and filenames, which can reveal information about the file. The database also contained 454,641 records of data siphoned from the user’s keyboard, known as a keylogger, which included sensitive credentials and codes pasted from password managers and other apps. It also includes 231,550 records of networks that each device connected to, such as the Wi-Fi network names of hotels, workplaces, apartments, airports and other guessable locations.
TheTruthSpy’s operation is the latest in a long line of stalkerware apps to expose victims’ data because of security flaws that subsequently lead to a breach.
While the possession of stalkerware apps is not illegal, using it to record calls and private conversations of people without their consent is illegal under federal wiretapping laws and many state laws. But while it is illegal to sell phone monitoring apps for the sole reason of recording private messages, many stalkerware apps are sold under the guise of child monitoring software, yet are often abused to spy on the phones of unwitting spouses and domestic partners.
Much of the effort against stalkerware is led by cybersecurity companies and antivirus vendors working to block unwanted malware from users’ devices. The Coalition Against Stalkerware, which launched in 2019, shares resources and samples of known stalkerware so information about new and emerging threats can be shared with other cybersecurity companies and automatically blocked at the device-level. The coalition’s website has more on what tech companies can do to detect and block stalkerware.
But only a handful of stalkerware operators, such as Retina X and SpyFone, have faced penalties from federal regulators like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for enabling wide-scale surveillance, which has relied on using novel legal approaches to bring charges citing poor cybersecurity practices and data breaches that fall more closely within their regulatory purview.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch ahead of publication, a spokesperson for the FTC said the agency does not comment on whether it is investigating a particular matter.
If you or someone you know needs help, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) provides 24/7 free, confidential support to victims of domestic abuse and violence. If you are in an emergency situation, call 911. The Coalition Against Stalkerware also has resources if you think your phone has been compromised by spyware. You can contact this reporter on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849 or zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com by email.
Despite the rise of the cloud, storage area networks (SANs) remain the backbone of many enterprises. They are used to store vast amounts of data and serve it to a wide range of user throughout the organization.
SAN security has risen in prominence of late, given the propensity of cybercriminals to be able to break into just about every nook and cranny of the enterprise. Here are some of the top trends in SAN security:
Gil Hecht, CEO of Continuity, points out that SANs are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as the rest of the infrastructure. This is a change from years ago when SANs were considered to be back-end systems that weren’t under much threat. That has changed completely.
“Some ransomware – Locky and Crypto – now bypasses parameter systems altogether, and goes straight for the data center core, like storage and backups,” said Hecht. “This has forced storage teams and CISOs to look again at potential holes in their safety nets, by reviewing their primary and secondary storage systems.”
There’s always a great emphasis on firewalls and securing the obvious networks and communications infrastructure. But enterprise storage is now mission critical, too. It is where the data resides that is the lifeblood of the organization.
“All companies should be able to quickly restore data from their primary and secondary storage resources as part of an effective cyber resilience strategy,” said Hecht.
Hecht added that most vulnerability scanners and patch management systems focus on operating systems and applications. They do a fine job identifying the presence of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), misconfigurations, and other weaknesses found in OSes and apps. But they typically miss badly on such problems found in SANs, backup systems, and other storage technologies.
Some of the most common vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations discovered in storage systems, according to Hecht, include:
Tools are now available that are designed to find such areas of risk.
“Scanning your storage environment for vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations is a critical part of a storage security strategy,” said Hecht.
Ahsan Siddiqui, Director of Product Management for Arcserve, advises anyone running a SAN to ensure that their security plan includes a robust data backup and recovery strategy to ensure the organization stays operational even after a ransomware attack. However, this may not be enough as cybercriminals are realizing that organizations are relying on backups, so they are now targeting all copies of backup data, including primary, secondary, and backup data, and then encrypting the primary data.
Organizations, then, had better put a good recovery process in place for SAN data including adequate protection for their backups.
One good way to protect SAN data is via comprehensive backups and the use of air gapping.
“One of the most practical and effective ways to secure backup data against a ransomware attack in a SAN is air gapping,” said Siddiqui. “The beauty of air gapping is that it makes it nearly impossible for ransomware to compromise data backups.”
There are two types of air gapping. The first is traditional, physical air gapping, in which an organization disconnects the digital asset from all other devices and networks, creating a physical separation between a secure network and any other computer or network. Using a physical air gap, organizations store backup data on media such as tape or disk, then disconnect these media entirely from their production IT environment.
The second type of air gapping is called logical air gapping. A logical air gap relies on network and user-access controls to isolate backup data from the production IT environment. It’s like a one-way street on which data is pushed to its intended destination, whether a storage device on-premises or a custom appliance. The key here is that the control and management of that data, such as how it is retained or who can modify it, is not available through that same system or path. Anyone who wants to manage or alter the data must go through entirely different authentication channels.
The Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (MSET) today announced that its President and CEO Davis Pace has been named a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s prestigious Leadership Network.
Established in 1938, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a Washington-based, public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world.
The Leadership Network is an exclusive, invitation-only policy education and professional development program for state-based leaders in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Pace will continue as MSET President and CEO.
In his position at MSET, Pace works to grow Stennis Space Center, the Gulf Coast, and Mississippi. He joined MSET in 2021 after nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., on and off Capitol Hill, with a focus on technology, telecommunications, and cybersecurity issues. While on Capitol Hill, he served as senior staff for the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) under Ranking Member Michael McCaul (TX), Legislative Director to then-Rep. John Ratcliffe preceding his cabinet level appointment as Director of National Intelligence, and various other advisory roles to Members of Congress.
In these roles, Pace successfully led the effort to incentivize technology development and manufacturing in the U.S., led the charge to reorganize the U.S. State Department’s standards setting, cyber security, and emerging technology initiatives, and spearheaded critical reforms in cyber defense at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and information systems.
Pace now leads MSET, a non-profit formed through a joint effort between the State of Mississippi, NASA, and the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning that facilitates regional economic development by leveraging the resources of Stennis Space Center, the State, and the region.
MSET promotes growth in existing industry, stimulates new business, and attracts high-tech companies to the region by providing companies crucial business and technology-related services, opportunities for partnerships and collaboration, entrepreneurial resources, and access to state and federal technology portfolios.
At MSET, Pace is a leader in the development of Mississippi’s aerospace and defense community through MSET’s relationships with NASA, the Navy, the Mississippi Development Authority, and Mississippi’s R-1 universities.
Of his new role at AEI, Pace said it is good for MSET, the Coast, and Mississippi for him to have a seat at the table.
“The Leadership Network is a unique opportunity to connect with impressive folks from across the U.S. MSET and the State of Mississippi having a seat at the table will raise the profile of our organization and open new opportunities to better serve the Gulf Coast, our State, and the country” Pace said.
As part of his new role in AEI’s Leadership Network, Pace attended an October summit in Washington, D.C. where thought leaders from around the country gathered with AEI’s scholars, with the goal of advancing effective public policy that increases opportunity for all Americans.
You can learn more about MSET here.
BATON ROUGE – LSU Football’s Nov. 5 game against Alabama in Tiger Stadium will kickoff at 6 p.m. CT, the Southeastern Conference announced on Monday.
The LSU-Alabama contest will be televised by ESPN, and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network including the LSU Sports Mobile Apps and LSUsports.net/live.
Both No. 18 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC) and No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC) have open dates on Oct. 29.
Nov. 5 SEC Football Television Selections
Time (CT), MATCHUP, TV NETWORK
11 a.m. CT – Florida at Texas A&M, ESPN
11 a.m. CT – Kentucky at Missouri, SEC Network
2:30 p.m. CT – Tennessee at Georgia, CBS
3 p.m. CT – Liberty at Arkansas, SEC Network
6 p.m. CT – Alabama at LSU, ESPN,
6:30 p.m. CT – South Carolina at Vanderbilt, SEC Network
6:30 p.m. CT – Auburn at Mississippi State, ESPN2
MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edgecore Networks, the leader in open networking solutions, today announces its participation at Fyuz, the Telecom Infra Project’s (TIP) 2022 Summit in Madrid, Spain, from October 25th to 27th. At the summit, Edgecore will highlight its complete range of open networking solutions, from access and aggregation to core networks. These open networking solutions offer greater choice of software from a rich partner ecosystem, providing flexibility in deployment and reduced costs for telecom operators.
With the introduction of 5G mobile networks, carrier and cloud service providers need to upgrade their network infrastructure to address the major growth in traffic driven by new innovative services and an increased number of users. As a leader in open network solutions, Edgecore offers core, metro, and aggregation routers based on the Broadcom StrataDNX family of chipsets with deep buffer designs, capable of handling the most demanding use cases, and delivering the quality, reliability, and features expected by operators. In fact, some of the largest Tier-1 operators in the world have already deployed thousands of Edgecore aggregation routers in their networks. These field-proven solutions provide the high-performance, high capacity, and scalability that operators require for delivering powerful new services to customers.
Edgecore has been an early participant in TIP, a community that includes hundreds of companies working together to create and deploy open network solutions in telecom networks. Edgecore is a key contributor to the TIP Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT) project and was involved in the design of Cassini, the industry’s first modular open-source packet transponder, which has seen successful deployment in several networks worldwide. In addition, Edgecore has been actively involved in the TIP OpenWiFi project, a community-developed, open Wi-Fi software system that includes both a cloud controller SDK and access point firmware, both designed and validated to work seamlessly together. Edgecore is committed to driving the adoption of open network solutions, which is key to achieving TIP’s goal of accelerating the pace of innovation in the telecom industry.
Heimdall Siao, President of Edgecore said, “As a longtime active contributing member of TIP, Edgecore is excited to participate in the Fyuz TIP summit in Madrid. Edgecore believes in the positive collaboration among the members of TIP, and is always eager to promote open networking solutions as a flexible and reliable answer for telecom operators. Being a leader in open networking, Edgecore is able to offer a wide range of solutions with a complete turnkey ecosystem of hardware and software choices that are ready for deployment in the most demanding of network environments.”
Kristian Toivo, Executive Director, TIP said, “Edgecore shares TIP’s ambition for the adoption of open and disaggregated networks. Through the introduction of Edgecore’s switches, operators will be able to leverage software and open source developers to deliver more innovation and choice in how its network is built.”
At the Fyuz TIP 2022 Summit, Edgecore will outline the following solutions:
About Edgecore
Edgecore Networks Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation, the leading networking ODM. Edgecore Networks delivers wired and wireless networking products and solutions through channel partners and system integrators worldwide for data center, service provider, enterprise, and SMB customers. Edgecore Networks is the leader in open networking, providing a full line of open 1G-400G Ethernet switches, core routers, cell site gateways, virtual PON OLTs, optical packet transponders, and Wi-Fi access points that offer choice of commercial and open source NOS and SDN software. For more information, visit www.edge-core.com.
About the Telecom Infra Project (TIP)
The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations working together to accelerate the development and deployment of open, disaggregated, and standards-based technology solutions that deliver the high quality connectivity that the world needs – now and in the decades to come. Find out more at telecominfraproject.com.
All trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Washington Commanders wide receiver Jahan Dotson won't play Sunday versus the Packers after re-tweaking a hamstring injury, coach Ron Rivera told NFL Network's Stacey Dales. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported earlier that the rookie was a "long shot" to go. Dotson is officially inactive.
Dotson had already missed the Commanders' last two games with the injury and aggravated it during Thursday's practice, leading to a questionable designation on the injury report. Now it'll be a third straight inactive game for the first-year WR out of Penn State.
Dotson was drafted by Washington with the No. 16 pick in this year's draft and immediately became a starting WR. Through the first four games of the season before the injury, Dotson had been a solid contributor on the Commanders offense, collecting 152 receiving yards, but was especially effective in scoring situations, becoming one of only 11 players to have at least four touchdown catches through the first six weeks of the season even despite the missed time.
Washington will also be missing quarterback Carson Wentz (broken finger) and tight end Logan Thomas (calf), among others, in Sunday's game versus Green Bay.
The Commanders (2-4) and Packers (3-3) kick off at 1 p.m. ET.
Other injuries we are keeping an eye on ahead of Sunday's Week 6 games:
Verizon (VZ) doesn't plan to moderate its network infrastructure investment, even as recession concerns loom.
"I think the last six, seven years, we have planned exactly how we're going to invest in the network," Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "This is our peak year. We're going to do somewhere around $22 billion in capex, that's our guidance. And one portion is our business as usual, and then the other is that the new spectrum we bought last year is actually coming to execution right now, and we're doing that as fast as we can."
In order to help offset the rise in capital expenditures as Verizon continues to invest heavily in its network infrastructure, the company announced select price increases this year, which vary across subscription plans.
These service fee adjustments arrived as consumers continue to juggle higher prices with inflation remaining near 40-year highs.
Verizon stock fell more than 4% on Friday after the company reported a decline in subscribers. Vestberg noted that the drop in subscribers was expected after the price changes were rolled out and maintained that it should ease over time.
"We took a deliberate decision in the second quarter to do price adjustment in certain consumer segments,” Vestberg said. "I think it was important for us to also do that because our industry has not done price adjustments on wireless ever, so this was the time to do it."
Verizon's calculated decision to raise some fees for customers knowing some subscribers might balk at higher prices isn't unusual in the industry as telecommunication giants spend to compete over latency levels and network reliability.
On Thursday, AT&T Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches told Yahoo Finance that the company plans to invest in its network. Desroches also expressed confidence in AT&T's ability to continue spending on improving network speed and reliability in the event of an economic downturn.
Despite the present risk of a Federal Reserve-induced recession, communication services executives share the expectation that their core product is resilient.
"We all read what's happening in the macro economy with higher inflation and the interest rates coming up, so it's a little bit mixed," Vestberg said. "But clearly, we are in the fundamental product. Everybody needs mobility, everybody needs to be connected."
Brad Smith is an anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @thebradsmith.
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At its core, the Internet is really just a bunch of computers networked together. There’s no reason that there can’t be other separate networks of computers, or that we all have to tie every computer we have to The One Internet To Rule Them All. In fact, for a lot of embedded systems, it doesn’t make much sense to give them a full network stack and Cat6e Ethernet just to report a few details about themselves. Enter LoRaWAN, a wireless LAN that uses extremely low power for Internet-of-Things devices, and an implementation of one of these networks in an urban environment.
The core of the build is the LoRaWAN gateway which sits at the top of a tall building to maximize the wireless range of all of the other devices. It’s running ChirpStack on the software side and uses a Kerlink Wigrid station to broadcast. The reported range is a little over 9 km with this setup. Other gateways can also be added, and the individual LoRa modules can report to any available gateway. From there, the gateways all communicate back to the central server and the information can be sent out to the wider network, Internet or otherwise.
The project’s creator [mihai.cuciuc] notes that this sort of solution might not be best for everyone. There are other wide area networks available, but using LoRaWAN like this would be likely to scale better as more and more devices are added to the network. For some other ways that LoRa can be used to great effect, take a look at this project which builds an off-grid communications network with it.
Tech solution giant NTT is putting further effort into validating private 5G expansion following its recent deal with the city of Las Vegas and partnership with VMware.
The company’s 2022 Global Network Report released this week surveyed 1,300 enterprise networking professionals, unveiling four major factors moving network modernization forward. Cybersecurity and private 5G are in the front seat, and the hybrid workplace structure and cloud-native platforms following close behind.
Only two in five businesses say they are very satisfied with their current network capabilities, and 70% of business leaders report network maturity levels negatively impact business and growth.
Concordantly, there is a clear move to outsource network management. Seventy two percent of top performing businesses outsource more than half of their infrastructure, and 94% of business leaders are looking to partner with a managed service provider (MSP) or single specialist provider.
“As business demands evolve, technology innovation accelerates, and digital optimization capabilities advance, there is strong linkage [with] the likelihood and depth of outsourcing increases,” NTT VP Alfonso DiGabriele told SDxCentral.
Survey responses indicated cybersecurity and private 5G to be the major impetus behind the enterprise network renovations.
The new hybrid-work model accelerated the focus on cybersecurity, according to DiGabriele, citing that 93% of respondents believe new threats will drive increased security demands, requiring a deeper level of access control and inspection.
As enterprises shift focus to delivering “employee experience, ensuring access to people, applications, and collaboration from any device in any location,” this drives a greater need for security across platform, application, and user levels, DiGabriele said.
Another clear marker of the report: 86% of respondents expect private 5G to be managed as an extension to the local area network (LAN).
“[Private 5G] enables enterprises to deliver the same capabilities and business benefits to ‘non-carpeted’ areas as ‘carpeted’ – think office building – environments,” DiGabriele explained. “[Private 5G] is better suited to certain verticals as well. For example, in manufacturing facilities, airports, logistics companies, [private 5G] delivers the ubiquitous wireless experience – access to data, access to applications, access to collaboration – as one would have in a corporate office setting."
Despite more than 95% of report respondents stating networks are essential for business growth, 70% of CEOs say growth is slowed by their current networks. DiGabriele believes enterprises should shift investment priorities to begin addressing these deficiencies.
“For enterprises to be successful they must first align technology and network strategy directly with their business goals. No linkage yields sub-optimization of technology [or] network investment,” he explained, adding that 89% of top performing companies have their technology strategy aligned with business goals.
“Secondly, enterprises must commit to investing in their technology and network platforms to keep pace,” he continued. “In fact, over 89% of top performing respondents indicate they are accelerating investment in digital transformation versus less than half of underperformers.”
With the survey finding 76% of top performers outsourcing network management or planning to fully outsource to an MSP in the next two years, DiGabriele believes another big part of enterprise success is having a realistic view of their current network state and capability – and seeing what can be improved.
“As enterprises determine where to invest, they should be aware that the expertise is available, and enables businesses to focus on their core competencies,” he said.
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