August Technology News

August’s Tech Updates

1. Coronavirus accelerates European utilities’ digital drive
2. Google turns Android phones into earthquake sensors; California to get alerts
3. Coronavirus: England’s contact-tracing app gets green light for trial
4. Amazon launches online pharmacy in India
5. Uber ex-security boss accused of covering up hack attack
6. Carmakers urge FTC to fight Qualcomm ruling
7. As fintech upends banking, Japan regulator expects more cross-boundary tie-ups

[August 11th, 2020]

Coronavirus accelerates European utilities’ digital drive

• Who: European utility companies
• What: To properly respond to the challenges of COVID, company Enel has boosted their overall digitalisation drive.
• Why:
  • European utilities are having to speed up the adoption of new technologies as the coronavirus crisis forces them to use software, not people, to steer critical infrastructure including plants and grids.
  • Companies that started digital programs earlier have been more resilient during the pandemic. Hence there is a need to reconsider the technology priorities.
• How:
  • Enel has created a parallel backup control room close to the plant and plugging some workers into their database to utilize working from home.
  • E.ON has virtually recreated substations to train staff remotely and provide remote access to partner firms.
• So?:
  • The pandemic has created advantages for businesses immune to shutdowns and restrictions, allowing for remote working and smooth service provision.
  • The digitalisation not only facilitates the management of plants and grids efficiently and fast,, but also roll out new services and create new revenue streams.
  • But such drives don’t come without risks as the increased need to work remotely also raises the chance of cyberattacks - therefore, a more reliable risk management strategy needs to be designed.
• Link to the article

[August 12th, 2020]

Google turns Android phones into earthquake sensors; California to get alerts

• Who: Alphabet Inc’s Google
• What: Turning smartphones into mini-seismographs to detect earthquakes around the world to provide data for alerting feature.
• Why: To make the earthquake detection and alert more effective and safe for countries who use traditional sensors for earthquake detection.
• How:
  • By turning smartphones into mini-seismographs. Using accelerometers on an android device, when it detects an earthquake, the phone sends their city-level location to Google, which can triangulate the epicenter and estimate the magnitude with several hundred reports.
  • People expected to experience strong shaking would hear a loud dinging and see a full-screen advisement to drop, cover and hold on.
• So?: If Google’s approaches for detecting and alerting prove effective, warnings would reach more people, including for the first time Indonesia and other developing countries with few traditional sensors.
• Link to the article

[August 13th, 2020]

Coronavirus: England’s contact-tracing app gets green light for trial

• Who: England
• What: England’s revamped coronavirus contact-tracing app is set to begin public trials on Thursday.
• When: 13th of August, 2020
• Why:
  • Tp test the effectiveness of the application before the national launch.
  • The app should enable the Britons to return to more normal daily activities with the reassurance that their contacts can be rapidly and anonymously notified if they get infected.

• How:
  • The idea behind the app is to use people’s phones to log when they have been close to another person for so long, that there is a high risk of contagion.
  • So that if one user is diagnosed with the disease, the other person can be alerted too.
  • They also need to scan a QR code when they enter a property for location tracing.
• So?:
  • There has been a problem with the Apple-Google framework as developers do not get the raw attenuation data - not being able to take advantage of a data filtering technique developed by researchers at Turing Institute and Oxford.
  • The team behind England’s app hopes it can still improve the accuracy rate to a high enough - but not perfect - level by the end of the year.
  • The new Isle of Wight trial will allow them to see how the software behaves in real-world situations, to help further their endeavours.
• Link to the article

[August 15th, 2020]

Amazon launches online pharmacy in India

• Who: The tech giant, Amazon
• What: Amazon has launched an internet pharmacy in India, marking its entry into the country’s online medicine market. They offer prescription, over-the-counter and traditional Ayurveda medication as well as basic health devices.
• When: August, 2020 (but have started its move into pharmaceutical retailing in 2017)
• Why:
  • As the online drugs business has been given a major boost during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • The online pharmacy business is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.26 percent to reach $107.53 billion by 2025, according to Zion Market Research.
  • It also helps customers meet their essential needs while staying safe at home
• So?:
  • The customers will be able to get their medications safely and more conveniently through the service.
  • However, many trader groups continue to protest against e-pharmacies, saying it would lead to sale of medicines without proper verification.
• Link to the article

[August 24th, 2020]

Uber ex-security boss accused of covering up hack attack

• Who: Uber’s former chief security officer Joseph Sullivan
• What: He was charged with obstruction of justice in the US as the former security officer tried to cover up a data breach in 2016 that exposed the details of 57 million Uber drivers and passengers.
• When: Data breach in 2016, Accusation in August 2020
• Why: He is accused of approving the $100,000 payment to the hackers, which was made in bitcoin to cover up the data leak.
• How:
  • The payment was disguised as a “bug bounty” reward. The charges allege that he asked the hackers to sign non-disclosure agreements, falsely stating they had not stolen any Uber data.
  • The hackers broke into the systems anonymously, stole data and held the company to ransom.
• So?: The officer in charge was accused in the US.
• Link to the article

[August 25th, 2020]

Carmakers urge FTC to fight Qualcomm ruling

• Who: Carmakers including Tesla, Ford, Honda, Daimler, Intel and MediaTek
• What: Asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to fight a recent court ruling in favour of Qualcomm - for stifling competition due to its patent rules.
• When: First complaint in January 2017, and ongoing battlefight now
• Why:
  • Qualcomm is accused of using “anticompetitive tactics” to maintain a monopoly in supplying semiconductors for mobile phones and other products - requiring customers to sign patent licence agreements before selling them chips.
  • Qualcomm’s “anticompetitive conduct” led to the WiMax standard for 4G being dropped, while LTE became adopted by the global mobile industry instead.
  • The “carmakers are suddenly faced with dealing with computer standards and computer patents, which is a big problem for them as they don’t have any. So if they have to start licensing this stuff, it’s going to get expensive for them,” Mr Moody told the BBC.
  • “If you want to grow the market for connected cars, what you really want is open standards without patent encumbrances, so that you can have as many companies participating in the market as possible [to] drive innovation and reduce costs.”
• So?:
  • In May 2019, a US district judge sided with the FTC and ruled that Qualcomm would need to change its patent licensing practices, but earlier this month, a panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision.
  • If the carmakers wish, they can proceed to sue the chip company.
• Link to the article

[August 31th, 2020]

As fintech upends banking, Japan regulator expects more cross-boundary tie-ups

• Who: Japan’s banking industry
• What: More financial tie-ups and consolidation that extend beyond traditional boundaries have been observed in Japan’s banking industry.
• When: Recently, starting from August 2020
• Why:
  • Advances in financial technology triggered structural changes in Japan’s banking industry.
  • Years of ultra-low interest rates and a dwindling local population have hurt profits of regional banks, prodding some to consolidate or sign business tie-ups with each other to survive.
• How: Some have joined forces with an internet banking SBI (a newcomer of online banking).
• So?: The conditions surrounding the country’s banking industry are very severe, hence they are experiencing huge changes such as the tie=-up and consolidations - the adaptation to the fast changing era is essential.
• Link to the article