Internet of things (IoT) networks has become a standard part of many organizations’ operations. As these networks grow in size and complexity, managing them becomes increasingly challenging, leading businesses to rely on third-party management solutions. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most popular thanks to features like device shadows.
AWS has been the dominant force in cloud services for years, accounting for roughly a third of the market since at least 2017. Consequently, many companies use AWS to manage their IoT networks, which presents several benefits but also raises some concerns. AWS’s Device Shadow service is perhaps the best example of this duality.
What Are IoT Device Shadows?
The Device Shadow service aims to simplify and improve communication between different IoT devices on a network. It does this by creating “shadows,” which are files on the cloud that work as a stand-in for a given device. These make a device’s state available to apps and services even when not connected to AWS IoT.
Continue reading: 
https://www.securityinfowatch.com/cybersecurity/article/21239604/how-iot-device-shadows-affect-cybersecurity

A flaw in a widely used internet-of-things (IoT) infrastructure code left more than 100 million devices across 10,000 enterprises vulnerable to attacks.
Researchers at Guardara used their technology to find a zero-day vulnerability in NanoMQ, an open-source platform from EMQ that monitors IoT devices in real time, then acts as a “message broker” to deliver alerts that atypical activity has been detected. EMQ’s products are used to monitor the health of patients leaving a hospital, to detect fires, monitor car systems, in smartwatches, in smart-city applications and more.
“Guardara used its technology to detect multiple issues…that caused EMQ’s NanoMQ product to crash during testing,” the company said in a press statement. “The existence of these vulnerabilities means that any NanoMQ reliant system could be brought down completely.”
Continue reading: https://threatpost.com/100m-iot-devices-zero-day-bug/174963/

In a demonstration that IoT devices are getting ever smaller, a Nevada-based vendor has unveiled a combustible gas sensor with a surface area of just 0.9 square inches.
NevadaNano’s MPS Mini has purportedly drawn interest from gas monitoring sensor producers targeting domestic gas leaks and other combustible gas incidents, as well as poisonous forms like carbon monoxide and radon.
The sensor is designed to detect flammable gas, refrigerant leaks, methane leaks and indoor air quality in conjunction with an IoT-enabled distributed gas sensing system.
Continue reading: https://www.iotworldtoday.com/2021/09/23/iot-miniaturization-spawns-thumbnail-scale-combustible-gas-sensors/

Software developers and data professionals go to work. Software application development engineers, programmers, data scientists, systems architects and database sysadmins, plus a whole army of other co-related technical professionals get in the car, bus, metro (delete as applicable) and go to work, often in a Dilbert-style cubicle, but usually quite happily.
But now, as we look towards 2022, things have (obviously) changed and many more of us are now working from home or other remotely connected locations. This means that we will need to think about the digital roadblocks that can delay work for highly dispersed teams.
The risk of dark data
The risk for organizations now looking to create effective work practices in this new era of remote working is dark data i.e. those information silos where a company fails to have full knowledge of any single given piece of data’s contents, location, owner, access history, or whether it contains sensitive information.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2021/09/23/a-prescription-for-less-chaos-in-data-management/?sh=53fe320e6a85

A partnership, which marries Ascent AeroSystems’ coaxial unmanned aerial system technology with Exyn Technologies’ LiDAR-enabled mapping software, is expected to provide a new solution for customers seeking to operate drone systems in confined spaces and in GPS-denied environments.
The partnership, announced in August, will equip Ascent’s Spirit compact, coaxial aerial platform with Exyn’s LiDAR system and autonomous software stack, enabling the capture of 3D mapping data in environments inaccessible to other UAV systems.
The two companies had been working together for about nine months before announcing their agreement, said Paul Fermo, Ascent’s vice president of business development. Exyn’s software technology creates a three-dimensional LiDAR point cloud that allows operators to build a 3D picture in GPS-denied environments, he said.
“It’s a great technology that’s adaptable to our system, so you have all the benefits of the coaxial drone with the autonomous software stack and LiDAR that Exyn provides,” Fermo said.
Continue reading: https://dronelife.com/2021/09/23/ascents-coaxial-drones-now-with-exyns-lidar-enabled-mapping-software/

Your food is in the air! In the not so distant future, this could be Swiggy’s notification to customers. In May, the ministry of civil aviation cleared 20 entities to conduct experimental beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone flights. The online delivery platform is part of a consortium, led by ANRA Technologies, which is among the 20. “We are excited about the potential of drones and look forward to BVLOS trials for food delivery,” said Shilpa Gnaneshwar, principal program manager at Swiggy.
Entire businesses have emerged solely for processing drone footage and turning it into actionable insights. 
Drone Rules 2021 has been welcomed by the industry. There have been relaxations which would speed up the adoption of drones.
Commercial drones, initially perceived as little more than toys, are now being used by businesses in an attempt to increase efficiency and decrease costs. According to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and EY, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market in India is expected to touch $885.7 million in 2021, with the global market approaching $21.47 billion. A report by PwC India said that the drone segment was expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18 per cent between 2017 and 2023.
However, experts point out that India is at least 10 to 15 years behind the US and China in drone utilization. China is the world leader in drone hardware, while the US has shown the most innovation in creating new applications. According to a report by Statista Research Department, from the 2017 fiscal year to the 2021 fiscal year, the US spent about $17.5 billion on drones. This was the highest expenditure on drones by a country and was followed by China ($4.5 billion) and Russia ($3.9 billion). During the same time period, India is estimated to have spent $2.5 billion on drones.
Continue reading: https://www.theweek.in/theweek/current/2021/09/23/civilian-drones-new-laws-could-drive-rapid-growth-in-domestic-market.html

Drone rules 2021 is being considered a landmark policy that will enable mass adoption of drones across sectors. Drone experts, startups and investors in the space call it progressive and comprehensive. One of the biggest benefits that it offers is the abolition of many approvals, which drastically reduces the time to start any operations.
“As compared to earlier rules, Drone Rules 2021 has greatly simplified the process of ownership and operation of drones. This is reflected by relaxation and removal of a number of clauses,” said Anup Jindal, CEO and JMD, RMSI, a startup that undertakes drone surveys in agritech and sustainability sectors.
Furthermore, the Drone Rules 2021 offers many benefits including covering all types of drone operations such as delivery, removal of any regulatory uncertainty about deliveries, enabling drone corridors for safe carriage of cargo, nominal penalty provisions, liberalizing research and development (R&D) of all types of drones to empower experimentation and innovations, allowing drones up to 500 kgs, safety and security features such as NPNT, among others. 
Continue reading: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/387209

As the 2021 Utah State University Eastern Drone Camps wound down for the summer, parents and teens alike praised the program for making aviation fun and accessible.
“I can’t stop my daughter from talking about drones,” read one parent’s review. “It’s great!”
Organized by the Aggie Drone Academy, the USU Eastern Drone Camps offer 40 grade school students three activity-filled days where they learn about drones and the principles of flight. The program this year was spread across three locations: the Carbon County School District offices, Emery High School and Green River High School.
Campers built gliders, flew fixed-wing drones, piloted drones in a simulator and learned how to use coding to control a quadcopter. At the conclusion of the camp, students piloted drones through an obstacle course and participated in a drone jousting competition.
Shawn “B.W.” Barstow, director of the Aggie Drone Academy and lecturer in aviation technology, is proud of what the students accomplished.
Continue reading: https://etvnews.com/local-youth-take-to-the-skies-with-usu-eastern-drone-camps/

More than 20 years ago, the state of Florida was producing nearly 250 million boxes of oranges a season.
This year, just ahead of the start of another harvest, experts predict only 52 million boxes will be produced.
The industry has suffered a staggering decline due to several problems including citrus greening, damage from hurricanes, and a dwindling demand for orange juice. 
But those who work in the citrus groves aren’t giving up. University of Florida researchers near Immokalee have developed a new technology using drones to help growers save money and be more efficient. 
Continue reading: https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2021/09/23/how-drones-can-help-citrus-growers-in-swfl/

A cryptocurrency firm is aiming to tackle food poverty in Africa with an ambitious mobile voucher system that will give rural farmers better access to finance for growing crops.
KamPay will initially draw funding from a network of lotteries operated on its soon-to-be-launched digital wallet, before expanding into wider pools of decentralized finance, chief executive Chris Cleverly told me in an interview.
“There's always been a culture in southern Africa – certainly in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi – around this voucher system,” he explained. “The government used to give out vouchers to individual farmers. The farmers would then take the voucher down to a store to get a subsidized price on their fertilizer.
“For a while [this physical voucher system] was very successful … but it got quite corrupt in the end. By putting that sort of a system onto the blockchain, the corruption element is eliminated.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinrivers/2021/09/23/planting-the-seeds-of-a-crypto-revolution-how-blockchain--decentralized-finance-can-feed-the-poor-in-africa/?sh=cbd168f59c6d

Databases have always been able to do simple, clerical work like finding particular records that match some given criteria — say, all users who are between 20 and 30 years old. Lately database companies have been adding artificial intelligence routines into databases so the users can explore the power of these smarter, more sophisticated algorithms on their own data stored in the database.
The AI algorithms are also finding a home below the surface, where the AI routines help optimize internal tasks like re-indexing or query planning. These new features are often billed as adding automation because they relieve the user of housekeeping work. Developers are encouraged to let them do their work and forget about them.
There’s much more interest, though, in AI routines that are open to users. These machine learning algorithms can classify data and make smarter decisions that evolve and adapt over time. They can unlock new use cases and enhance the flexibility of existing algorithms.
In many cases, the integration is largely pragmatic and essentially cosmetic. The calculations are no different from those that would occur if the data was exported and shipped to a separate AI program. Inside the database, the AI routines are separate and just take advantage of any internal access to the data. Sometimes this faster access can speed up the process dramatically. When the data is substantial, sometimes merely moving it can take up a large portion of the time.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/23/how-do-databases-support-ai-algorithms/

As the United States emerges from the pandemic, many state and local government agencies are struggling to hire and retain workers. Not only have many retirement-age employees decided to accelerate their plans to retire, but agencies face stiff competition for workers from the private sector. As a result, for a number of key positions, especially those in IT, many government agencies are receiving fewer qualified applicants than the number of jobs available. To address this challenge, government agencies should start making use of AI tools to improve how they acquire and retain workers. A growing number of tools make use of AI to help organizations recruit and hire talent more effectively. First, AI can help candidates and employers find one another. Job boards like ZipRecruiter and LinkedIn use recommendation algorithms to suggest candidates and job openings, and services like Textkernel can parse resumes with natural language processing to build semantic search engines that allow recruiters to search for concepts like “IT security” rather than specific keywords or job titles. For example, the U.S. Departments of Labor, Defense and Veterans Affairs worked with the private sector on an AI challenge to help employers hire veterans who have valuable skills but whose profiles might not show up on a typical search based on their previous job titles.
Continue reading: https://www.govtech.com/opinion/the-case-for-artificial-intelligence-in-recruiting-it-talent

In 2022, we will see artificial intelligence continue along the path to becoming the most transformative technology humanity has ever developed. According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, its impact will be even greater than that of fire or electricity on our development as a species. This may seem like a very ambitious claim, but considering it is already being used to help us tackle climate change, explore space, and develop treatments for cancer, the potential is clearly there.
The full scale of the impact that giving machines the ability to make decisions – and therefore enable decision-making to take place far more quickly and accurately than could ever be done by humans – is very difficult to conceive right now. But one thing we can be certain of is that in 2022 breakthroughs and new developments will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Here’s my pick of the key areas and fields where those breakthroughs will occur in 2022:
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2021/09/24/the-7-biggest-artificial-intelligence-ai-trends-in-2022/?sh=66f980f22015

It's impossible to discuss modern marketing without talking about the latest trends and the increased use of artificial intelligence. Today, A.I. is changing the paid advertising realm while presenting many new opportunities to marketers.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, it's predicted that A.I. and machine learning will collectively generate up to $2.6 trillion in value by helping to solve problems related to sales and marketing in the coming years.
The question you have to answer is: What does this mean for your paid advertising and PPC (pay-per-click) efforts?
Technology develops quickly, meaning even new technologies are promising. While A.I. recently gained momentum, it has already proved to be extremely beneficial in many areas, including in the marketing realm.
Continue reading: https://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/how-artificial-intelligence-can-improve-your-pay-per-click-ad-efforts.html

A technology-led revolution, dubbed Industry 4.0, is gathering pace in the industrial world where traditional processes and legacy technologies are being replaced by smart devices, automated machines and advanced forms of computing. The rise of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), owing to exponential growth in technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, robots, drones, sensors, etc., is helping manufacturers improve efficiencies, productivity and the autonomous operation of production lines. Businesses are pouring billions of dollars in AI and automation, and the Industrial IoT (IIoT) alone is set to become a $500 billion market by 2025.
IT/OT convergence could spell disaster for industries.
As smart factories and supply chains connect the production line to the outside world via IIoT, digitally connected industries are becoming increasingly appealing to cybercriminals, who now have the opportunity to hijack high-value targets. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has warned of a rising barrage of ransomware attacks resulting from IT/OT convergence — the integration of information technology systems with operational technology (OT) systems — and the resultant expanded threat surface. Last year, 41% of all ransomware attacks targeted OT. IoT attacks soared by 700% (registration required) during the pandemic, while infected IoT devices grew 100%.
Continue reading: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/09/23/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-cybersecurity/?sh=5209623c454c

Have you ever attempted to roll out a new service based on an emerging or new technology, expand into a new market or completely transform the way you do business? Have you ever looked back on these initiatives and wondered why they weren’t as successful as you had hoped in the timeframe you had planned for? The reason may be that your organization is not positioned correctly to innovate. The Emerging Technology Innovation Assessment, created by CompTIA’s Emerging Technology Community, will help you examine the areas of business that are necessary to drive innovation and determine what steps are needed to ensure you’re ready to expand your business.  
Continue reading: https://surveys.comptia.org/s3/Emerging-Tech-Assessment-Grid

We’ve all seen drone fail videos pop up on social media from time to time. Sometimes, we get a good laugh out of the misfortune, or sheer foolishness, of hapless pilots. Other times, we wonder out loud, “What the hell were you thinking?!” Guess which category this gem fits in.
The video “Parent of the year award goes to the dad flying his kid on a giant drone” has been getting some buzz on Reddit. The 50-second footage begin with a toothy kid explaining to us that he’s wearing a helmet because things are about to get “scary.”
You’d think he means “crazy,” but by the time the video ends, you realize scary indeed was the apt word choice.
So, here’s this daredevil kid who is standing underneath a giant industrial drone, probably oblivious to what propellers spinning at speed can do to do human flesh. He grabs the landing gear and the drone lifts him off the ground, its motors groaning tremendously under pressure. Thankfully, the drone doesn’t go too high because that helmet would have done precious little to save the guy’s legs if he fell.
You can see how things could have gotten so much worse for this boy, the way that drone crashed… So, why do it? Why put your kid at risk and total an expensive piece of gadget for a few seconds of thrill?
And lately, when it comes to drone users, we’ve been wondering that a lot: Why do people do the things they do… because if you really think about it, there are many rules mandated by the regulatory bodies that would seem like common sense to most, and yet people break them:

• Don’t fly near an airport because you may actually hit an airplane like the York Regional Police in Canada did.
• Don’t interfere with an emergency response because that action could result in a 2-acre-wide fire spreading to 500 acres overnight, fueling the second-largest recorded wildfire in California’s history.
• Don’t fly over people or invade someone’s privacy because it may prompt your city council to restrict drone operators with even more regulations and everyone’s going to hate you for that.
• Don’t fly under the influence of alcohol or drugs because you may end up crashing into your neighbor’s window and they will call the police on you.
• Don’t harass wildlife with your drone because you don’t really want the blood of 1,500 unborn elegant terns on your hands, now do you?

Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2021/09/22/things-you-shouldnt-do-with-a-drone-use-it-to-lift-your-kid/

One of the US Navy’s first female fighter pilots, the engineering and robotics professor talks about the promise and peril of automation in airplanes and cars, predicting a “very distinct shift away from replacing human reasoning to augmenting human reasoning.”


 

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui speaks with Mary “Missy” Cummings, one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy and now a professor in the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, as well as the director of Duke’s Humans and Autonomy Laboratory.
Cummings talks about her life as a fighter pilot and her journey into automation and robotics. She also answers questions like:

• What are your reflections on diversity across different fields?
• What are some interesting developments you’re seeing in the automation of vehicles?
• Are there things that car designers should be learning from the aerospace industry, or vice versa, as they’re starting to implement more levels of automated technology and driver assistance?
• What is the perfect use case for automation?
• What excites you most about advances in technology?

Continue reading: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/from-fighter-pilot-to-robotics-pioneer-an-interview-with-missy-cummings

SAN RAMON, CA — Megan Jacob, a Dougherty Valley High School student, said she's long had a love for technology and engineering. But time and time again, at hackathons, engineering fix-it clinics or robotics meets, she noticed few women and girls were among the crowd.
Thus Jacob's nonprofit, Tech Girls United, was born last summer. Jacob said in an email that she hopes to educate and empower women in tech. So far, she's reached more than 2,200 girls and women in 30 states and 45 countries.
Tech Girls United kicked off with a data science boot camp that drew 100 girls across the world to learn the basics and put those lessons into use with a final project.
Continue reading: https://patch.com/california/sanramon/san-ramon-teen-starts-nonprofit-empower-techs-girls-women

In a data-driven world, the implications of AI are far-reaching. In this article, Ashley Kramer, Chief Product & Marketing Officer for Sisense shares her views on AI, its challenges and opportunities and what women can do to lead the way.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in AI and data analytics?
I was a computer science major who doubled as an athlete, playing soccer in college. Earlier in my career I was a software engineer at NASA and Oracle. I quickly realized that I am better suited talking to people rather than computers, so I pivoted into a product-focused role with Amazon. What was really impactful during my time at Amazon was the focus on the customer and using data to drive the business. That really built a solid foundation of using analytics to drive better outcomes as an emerging product leader – a foundation that I’ve used throughout my career.
From there, I moved to Tableau because I had experienced for myself how analytics can be utilized to save time and money for companies. I was fortunate to be a part of the early cloud movement and led the move of Tableau to the cloud (Tableau Online) which was a pivotal part of my career journey.
Continue reading: https://womenlovetech.com/sisenses-ashley-kramer-on-ai-data-ethics-and-future-of-women-in-technology/

Data permeate all aspects of modern economies and societies. As a result of decades of digitalization, data in digital form are constantly created, gathered and shared across the globe to support core societal functions. Digitalization brings together two interrelated processes: digitization, the transformation of analogue information into digital form, and datafication, the application of quantitative and other analytics to data.
The digitization of everything and the unprecedented expansion of datafication have led jurisdictions to produce and utilize ever expanding amounts of data, setting the stage for a new economy – a fourth industrial revolution. Through this revolution, data have transformed into a strategic asset interlocking individuals, private actors and public entities in global networks, supporting traditional economic activities and giving rise to a new economic ecosystem – the data economy – where digital information is sourced, analyzed, aggregated and exchanged.
Over the past three decades, transnational data governance has been dominated by a techno-libertarian ethos reflected in free movement of data across decentralized infrastructure – the internet. Without an international legal framework governing data, domestic policy-makers are developing different systems of rules and processes to extend their jurisdictional control over the digital world, domestically and transnationally. Legal and regulatory frameworks are being developed to define rights and obligations for data holders and consumers; competition policies have been triggered to curb data abuse by dominant incumbent firms; new rules to assert control over internal and external data flows and related infrastructure are being enacted.
Continue reading: https://www.omfif.org/2021/09/solving-the-transnational-data-governance-problem/

Since graduating in Geomatics Engineering from Germany’s University of Essen in the 1980s, Ulrich Hermanski – chief marketing officer and executive vice president of geopositioning at Topcon – has seen the surveying profession change dramatically. In this interview with GIM International, he sums up the current status of the surveying profession. He reflects on the key advances in the ever-evolving geospatial business, emphasizes the vital role of geodata and discusses the role of surveyors – and of Topcon – in the future.
There have been a lot of changes since then, but the biggest in terms of geomatics is of course the impact of digital technology. This change hasn’t just impacted the way professionals take measurements and analyze findings; it has actually completely transformed the role of a geomatics engineer. Today, geomatics professionals are far more focused on data handling than in the past – or at least they should be. With masses of data now available on every job site, it’s vital that surveyors are able to translate this data into meaningful information for project teams. Back when I was studying, it was more important to focus on taking accurate measurements and avoiding human errors on site, rather than considering how the information would be digested by other stakeholders on the project. And in 1985, there was far less data available – not to mention there being no laptops, smartphones or tablets. Any computerized calculation was performed by a machine that took up half a room! So when you look at what technology is at a geomatics engineer’s fingertips now versus back then, you can’t even compare the two situations.
Continue reading: https://www.gim-international.com/content/article/the-surveyor-s-need-to-embrace-data-management

The complex issue of data management is becoming an increasingly important focus for businesses in the UK, particularly with cybertheft continuing to pose a significant threat to entrepreneurs.
For example, an estimated 88% of UK firms have suffered data breaches during the last 12 months, while it’s thought that one small business is hacked on these shores every 19 seconds.
But what steps can firms take to manage their data more effectively? Here are some tips to keep in mind!
#1. Complete Regular Backups to Safely Store Your Data
Let’s start with the basics; backing up your data and creating a clear path to recovery are crucial if you’re to manage your customer’s information safely and securely.
Continue reading: https://www.techiexpert.com/essential-data-management-tips/

It’s predicted that there will be more than 41 billion IoT devices in use by 2027. This is up from an already staggering 8 billion just two years ago. Why the unbelievable exponential growth? In large part because these devices are turning out to be incredibly useful for businesses, automating and streamlining processes in every industry. However, all of that automation comes with an enormous volume of data, and trying to collect and analyze that data, then transforming it into actionable information, isn’t always easy.
Enter edge-computing (EC) platforms.
These platforms aim to remedy the pain points felt by businesses who are sending all of their IoT data to the cloud. The cloud process can be slow, inefficient, and costly, none of which helps businesses optimize and get ahead.
Edge-computing platforms, or edge analytics, on the other hand, are situated near IoT devices, making it possible for them to collect and analyze data where it originates. This ensures that businesses can use the analytics in near real-time, which is the timeframe you want to be working with when it comes to improving operational efficiency and planning predictive-maintenance upgrades.
Continue reading: 
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/iot/article/21176184/wyebot-optimizing-networks-to-resolve-iot-and-edge-challenges

IoT devices, particularly in the home, are growing at an incredible rate. Some estimates have the number of household devices at around 30 billion by 2025. To put that in perspective, that's double the number of devices deployed in 2020.
Users in both industrial and connected home settings need these products and applications to just work for them to be viable and profitable. But this explosion of technology has put an unprecedented amount of pressure on networks and the networking technologies that the internet relies on even today.
IP technologies, and IPv6 in particular, can assist with this rapid growth. Developers, manufacturers and IT specialists must use standardized technologies to ensure the interoperability and long-term viability of IoT.
Continue reading: https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/post/Why-move-to-an-all-IP-IoT