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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

RealSense ID

Intel launches the RealSense ID Facial Recognition System using depth-sensing cameras

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Intel introduced the RealSense ID facial recognition system advancing in the depth-sense technology to help users unlock at a glance. The company introduced the Intel RealSense ID on Wednesday which will be available to most countries at the end of Q1 2021. The active depth sensors used in the RealSense cameras provide a touch-free unlocking solution. Intel claims that this new design will deliver absolutely secure and accurate facial recognition authentication. The Intel RealSense ID can be used in ATMs, smart locks, access control, etc.

How does the RealSense ID work?

RealSense ID is built on the company’s depth-sensing technology. The dept sensors in the camera use a neural network to identify faces. It is a dedicated system-on-a-chip development that has a secure element to encrypt and process user data. The advanced Artificial Intelligence used in these sensors eventually helps the device to learn and adapt to a face over time. It studies all the facial features thoroughly from facial hair to a variety of skin tones. Rigorous testing of the Intel RealSense ID has been done on faces from different nationalities on every continent. This is done to eliminate the chances of false positives or negatives. The camera will also work if the person is putting a mask on which is a common observation since the outbreak of COVID-19.Intel claims that it provides a one-in-a-million false acceptance rate.

RealSense ID
Image Source: theverge.com

Intel RealSense ID is not expected to be used on a laptop or a phone. This module is designed to ensure more safety and security thus can be spotted in places like ATMs or entrance gates. Intel RealSense ID can either be integrated into other products or work as a standalone after plugged into a computer. Intel has made a great attempt to get its camera business on track but this time towards creating a safer and secure environment. Though the company elaborated about where this device can be used but didn’t mention if it can be used in government agencies for tracking and profiling people.

Price and availability of Intel RealSense ID

There is more than one module of RealSense ID that will be launched in the market. The price of Intel RealSense ID F455 Peripheral is $99 whereas the Intel RealSense ID F450 module is priced at $750. You can preorder these modules right now but the products will be shipped during the first week of March. The products will be shipped to India as well as per the official website.

The future of RealSense

Intel is working on the potential of RealSense ID especially as it trained the camera using a diverse sample of faces. Intel told VentureBeat in a press briefing that the device was trained using an extensive data collection as samples belonged to Asia, Europe, and Middle East Africa. Though the false acceptance rate is very low they will now wait for the outside researchers to test it and comment on it.

Apart from the Intel RealSense ID that is designed exclusively for facial recognition, the company has also announced RealSense Touchless Control Software (TCS). This software also used Intel’s RealSense depth camera to allow interaction with a touch screen only by hovering your finger rather than actually touching the screen. This is impressive software especially when we are fighting a pandemic. TCS can be a great deployment in crowded public places like shopping malls, restaurants, automated teller machines, retailers, etc. The software mainly transforms touch-based to touchless interactions in a cost-effective way.

TCS is combined with an Intel RealSense Depth Camera D435 to convert into a touchless system without changing anything in the core software. TCS can be easily incorporated into new and existing systems to establish a safer communication way in public places.

Advancements in the facial recognition system

A facial recognition system is a common development that took place after the advent of AI. But, most of the recognition system shows a higher possibility of false positives. Sometimes the camera is unable to distinguish between genders or fails to identify faces with darker skin tones. One of the reasons for this failure might be that when the device was tested a diverse sample was not used to train the system. For example, Rekognition, the facial recognition software by Amazon faces difficulties identifying faces with dark complexion than a fairer skin tone.

Chinese Apps

Trump signs executive order banning U.S. transactions with Alipay and other Chinese apps

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Tension escalates between the White House and Beijing as the former hits China by banning U.S. transactions with eight Chinese apps. Yesterday, former U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bars any citizens of the U.S. from carrying out transactions with eight Chinese software applications. One of this Chinese software is Ant Group’s Alipay which is one of the broadly used payment services in China. The news is first reported by Reuters.

One of the senior administration officials has reported to Reuters that the executive order has been signed to protect the U.S. citizens. The U.S. government officials believe that the sensitive data of American citizens are at risk of getting exposed to this Chinese software. Due to their large user bases, it is easier for the Chinese applications to gather crucial data of the Americans.

The executive order on banning Chinese Apps

According to the order signed by Trump, it suggests the United States take “aggressive actions” against these Chinese software applications. The steps will be taken for the sake of national security. The Commerce Department is responsible for deciding which transactions will be barred under this directive within 45 days from now. The U.S. is targeting Tencent Holdings Ltd’s QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay apart from Alipay. Some of the other names mentioned in the order are CamScanner, SHAREit, and VMate. The sudden ban on transactions between these apps and America will have a huge impact on the economic stature of China.

In response to this order, Kingsoft Corporation, a Chinese software company said that it did not expect to have a huge impact on its business in such a short term due to Trump’s executive order. No other company made any comment related to this statement. Apart from this listed Chinese software, the Chinese Embassy also didn’t comment after a response was requested.

Why is this ban important?

Any kind of software used for payment purposes is linked to our bank accounts. Moreover, we are connecting these software applications from my electronic devices thus giving the Chinese software access to our personal information. The order says that this Chinese software can capture our sensitive personally identifiable information and private information. Having such a broad swath of data would allow China to locate the federal employees and contractors and build dossiers of personal information.

Chinese apps
Image Source: rappler.com

The relationship between China and the U.S. is going through turmoil for quite some time. In August, Trump ordered a ban on Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat and gave the same reason that the government is concerned about data theft. But, amidst this bitter-growing relationship, the newly elected U.S. president, Joe Biden made very few comments. He didn’t clearly specify yet how he plans to address the cyber or tech threats from China.

Though Trump has signed this order, Biden can revoke it while he begins officially as the president of the U.S. But, Biden’s transition team has declined to comment on this matter. This order might bring out casualties on both sides even before the dispute regarding the origin of COVID-19 is settled. It seems like Trump is ready for a big battle with China striking time and again at the same wound.

If Trump’s order passed in August had gone into effect, the Chinese apps would have already been banned from the U.S. It couldn’t have been possible due to the court restrictions mainly on the ground of freedom of speech. One of the senior administration officials said that the White House is confident about the order this time. The new rules and restrictions of this order cannot stand against judicial scrutiny as software like Alipay will struggle to bring a First Amendment case.

Impact on Ant Group

In November 2020, Reuters reported that the U.S. The State Department submitted a proposal to add Ant Group to a trade blacklist. This would prevent U.S. investors from taking part in the world’s potential biggest IPO. But, for some reason, the Chinese government made Ant Group pull off the IPO resulting in a huge loss for both the company and the investors. Currently, Ant Group is suffering from the judgments of both America and China itself. Recently, China ordered an anti-monopoly investigation on Alipay which is owned by the Ant Group. It is difficult for a company to operate is in the crosshairs of both its home country and another powerful nation.

data leaked

Tension grows as over 100 million Credit, Debit Cardholders’ data leaked on the dark web

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Tension grows among civilians as a security researcher discovers that the personal data of millions of cardholders’ have been compromised. According to this recent discovery, personal information like full name, email address, phone numbers, and the first and last four digits of the card has been revealed on the dark web. Due to this glitch, the bank account and other sensitive data of 100 million debit and credit cardholders are at stake.

The leakage of sensitive information on the dark web seems to have been caused by the platform of Juspay. Just pay is a digital payment service that processes transactions for many Indian and global multinational companies like Swiggy, Amazon, etc. With India getting accustomed to the digital payment system, there is a huge potential for phishing attacks if proper security is not established.

Nature of data leaked

It was cybersecurity researcher, Rajshekhar Rajaharia, who discovered the data leak last week on the dark web. He informed Gadgets 360 about the leaked data and that it was up for sale on the dark web by some hacker. According to the files shared with Gadgets 360, the data of the cardholders’ that has been leaked is between the time frame of March 2017 to August 2020. The data surfaced on the dark web included personal details of Indian cardholders. From customer IDs to the expiry date of the cards were fully visible on the site.

Apparently, the transaction details have not been leaked on the dark web. But, the information leaked is enough to cause phishing attacks by the hackers after combining the personal details available in the dump. Since the hacker put the information on the sale, Rajaharia also informed that the hacker was contacting buyers in Telegram for negotiation. The payment was demanded in Bitcoin.

Research on the data leak

Rajaharia on further research found that the hacker was selling the information on the dark web in the name of Juspay. The company on being contacted confirmed that there was a data leak in the month of August but didn’t provide any further details. Rajaharia continued his investigation and further verified the direct link of leaked data with Juspay. He received some of the dump sample files from the hacker which he compared with a Juspay API Document file. He said, “both were exactly the same.”

data leak

Juspay’s founder acknowledges the data leak

Vima Kumar, the founder of Juspay, informed Gadgets 360 that the company detected an unauthorized attempt on 18th August of this year. He further mentioned that it was terminated in progress. Kumar, in an email, claims that no personal data like card number, financial credentials, or transaction data was compromised. But he also accepted that data “Data records containing non-anonymized email, phone numbers and masked cards used for display purposes (contains first four and last four digits of the card, which is not considered sensitive), were compromised.”

Kumar mentioned that the masked card data which is non-sensible data for display leaked has two crore records. And the card vault is connected to a different PCI compliant system and it was never accessed. In response to this comment, Rajaharia said that the masked card numbers can be decrypted if a hacker figures out the algorithm used for the card fingerprints. Kumar defended his statement saying that Juspay does hundreds of rounds of hashing with multiple algorithms. These algorithms are not possible to reverse engineer even if given enough computing assets.

To prevent such attacks again Juspay has identified the security gaps in the company and made two-factor authentication (2FA) compulsory for all the tools accessed by the team members. However, it is hard to predict the capabilities of hackers these days after the recent data breach in the American government system that shook the internet.

Not even cybersecurity

Rajaharia is convinced that the security system of Juspay is still not strong enough. He said that there still exists a configuration issue on the company’s site that redirects its users to malicious websites. A company as big as Juspay which has around 50 million daily users including major clients like Swiggy, Airtel, Flipkart, Uber, etc should be more vigilant. The company holds the highest level of compliance given by the PCI Security Standards Council to such payment merchants. So now it is their responsibility to ensure the safety of its users.

Amazon

Amazon plans to launch computer science program for Indian students in 2021

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India is the second-largest internet market in the world. Within the past few years, the number of citizens getting access to the internet has sky-rocketed. This opens up a huge opportunity for new business, creating new jobs, and developing new skills in the world of technology. We are witnessing how students from a young age are motivated to take up computer classes and most importantly learn to code. This gives the students immense opportunity to get used to any coding environment which is necessary for the 21st century. And, to help out the students learn and launch their careers the tech giants are very interested to invest in the Indian market. India is a pool of young talents where every year millions of computer science students are offered lucrative jobs in and outside the country.

Seizing this opportunity, Amazon has decided to extend its computer science program Future Engineer in India. Amazon, via a job recruitment post, has said that the primary aim for launching Amazon Future Engineer in India is to provide computer science education to the underprivileged and underrepresented youth of India. The news was first conveyed by TechCrunch that Amazon is planning to launch the computer science program sometime next year.

Amazon plan for the Indian students

In the job posting, Amazon mentioned that this childhood-to-career program of Amazon Future Engineer will launch in India in 2021. The post-announcement also mentioned that the candidate they are looking for has to work with local non-profit organizations and government officials to educate the children and young students. Currently, the childhood-to-career program is operational only in the United States connecting more than 5,000 schools and teaching computer science to 550,000 students. Amazon also mentioned that computer science education in India is “currently underway” and the company wants to invest in the development of such coursework and extend the learning hand.

The hype for coding is increasing among young students especially in this pandemic where everyone is finding opportunities to learn new skills. We have also seen that social media is crawling with the advertisements of White Hat Jr. helping students to learn and do coding. The increasing demand for coders proves that soon every individual needs to learn a bit of coding to secure a good job. So, isn’t it better to start learning from a young age?

Amazon
Image Source: amazon.com

Amazon has already invested $6.5billion in India and is currently exploring opportunities in the education field. Every young student has the right to proper education. So, this time Amazon is inclined towards reaching out to those who don’t get the opportunity to get a lavish education. The main target of this program launching in India is to equip the students of neglected communities with proper computer science education.

Last year, Amazon launched an app called JEE Ready to help JEE aspirants get ready to compete in one of the most participated entrance exams for engineering. Currently, the app has been rebranded as Amazon Academy which is like any other preparation app for engineering entrance exams.

Amazon Future Engineer Program

There was a time when getting a chance to study computer science was a dream come true. But, the advent of technology in every field has made us realize it has become a necessity rather than an extravaganza. So, Amazon decided to release a childhood-to-career program to educate and train students from economically backward communities.

Amazon Future Engineer Program provided lots of course materials to the students, abundant resources, partnerships with schools to educate the unprivileged youth. The program has released many scholarship and internship opportunities for students from elementary to high schools.

Other tech giants investing in education

You can find endless opportunities to learn if you genuinely want to develop new skills. It is not only Amazon that is striving to make a change in the lives of young students. Facebook, earlier this year partnered with CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) to launch a certified course on digital safety and online well-being and augmented reality for both students and teachers. Google and Microsoft have also partnered with many Indian governmental bodies and invested in ed-tech start-ups to train the educators. Training and educating the educators itself is helpful as educating one teacher means educating an entire class.

Alibaba

Alibaba Ant Group faces tough scrutiny from Chinese regulators over monopolistic behavior

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Allegations were raised against Alibaba Ant Group as the Chinese regulators found the company adhering to monopolistic behavior. According to the Chinese regulators, the company took benefit of its power market position to exclude its rival in a morally questionable perspective. The regulators further mentioned that the recent acts of the Ant Group towards monopolistic activities also hurt consumer rights and public interest. Thus, last Saturday, the People’s Bank of China and the country’s Central Bank held a meeting with the executives of the Ant Group. The meeting was called to make them comply with anti-monopolistic scrutiny and other regulatory requirements.

Chinese regulators have ordered the company to build a rectification plan which will also include a timetable to make proper implementations on its business. The Alibaba Ant Group should focus more on credit, insurance, and wealth management services as suggested by the regulators. The company is further accused of not having a sound governance mechanism acting against the anti-monopoly rules and, often engaging in regulatory arbitrage.  

Alibaba anti-monopoly investigation 

There is a reason why the Chinese regulators all of a sudden summoned the Ant Group executives last weekend. Last month these Chinese regulators halted an amount of $37 billion which belonged to Ant Group stock debut in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The halt was over the regulatory changes and just after a few days, China announced an investigation of the leading financial giant Alibaba Group. And Group is an affiliate company of the Alibaba Group and the latter owns a 33% stake of the Ant Group.

It was only two months ago that the global investors were waiting for the world’s largest Initial Public Offering. But now the million dollars investment in this lucrative finance business is in jeopardy. The investigation followed by the new regulations forced on the company will put the expansion of this business in question. Apart from the investigation, the Chinese regulators have asked the company to return to its root business as a payments service. The basis of the investigation was anti-monopoly scrutiny.

What are the Chinese regulators up to?                

Ant Group started as a payments service for Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao. Since then the company has expanded into various financial sectors by offering insurance money and investment products. Currently, the company has hundreds of millions of active users from China who use the services of Ant Group.

Alibaba
Image Source: technologyshout.com

But the Chinese regulators have demanded the Ant Group to establish a financial holding company and hold sufficient capital. They have also demanded that the company should get back to its original business and increase transaction transparency. They are also asked to prohibit unfair competition and comply with the regulatory requirements to run the business. There was another meeting earlier last week where Chinese regulators sat with the executives of Alibaba Group and five other major Chinese internet companies. And all of them are warned not to use exclusive contracts to drive out competitors, predatory pricing, and use of other tactics.

After the meeting on Saturday, Ant Group has made a statement that it will take all the necessary steps to enhance risk management and control. It will also comply with the regulatory requirements and set up a new team to make necessary rectifications. The statement further said that this rectification is an opportunity for the Ant Group to strengthen the foundation of the company.

Why did China turn against Alibaba Group?

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group is one of the richest entrepreneurs in China. He is always appreciated by the Chinese and has followers from around the world. But recently people of China are calling him names leading to a huge loss of his stature. Last month, Jack Ma accused the Chinese banks of behaving like “pawnshops” as they are only lending to those who can put up with the collateral. It seems now that his one comment had huge repercussions and it will haunt his business for some time.

After a few days, Chinese authorities forced the Ant Group to pull off what could have become the world’s largest IPO. It didn’t only stop at this as later the Chinese regulators announced the Alibaba antitrust investigation. It seems like the Chinese government is turning against all the big entrepreneurs who helped in lifting the nation’s economy.

Samsung TV Plus

Samsung TV Plus free streaming in India from 2021 is confirmed by the company

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It is great news for the Indian citizens that Samsung is making its smart TV video service free in India. The company confirmed it in a press announcement earlier this week. The Indian users of Samsung smart TV are very lucky that this OTT streaming service is finally coming to India for free. The video streaming service called Samsung TV Plus was launched in 2015.

The company launched it with very limited access. Till now, only 12 countries, namely, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US had access to the free content of Samsung TV Plus. But, with this big announcement, the free media content of Samsung TV Plus will be available in India, Mexico, Sweden, and other European countries from next year.

Samsung TV Plus Free streaming

Samsung TV Plus is a free media streaming service for both its smart TV users and galaxy phones. Yes, you heard it right; it is truly 100% free of cost. As the company declared free access to Samsung TV Plus in India, it might be a rough year for streaming services like Netflix, Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, etc. The company already had a huge demand for its free video web content service summing up to 60 million Samsung smart TVs precisely.

Samsung TV Plus
Image Source: xda-developers.com

Amidst the pandemic, every streaming service has noticed the sudden demand for opening new accounts. People appreciate good web content for entertainment especially when they are confined in the home. As video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet gained millions of new users in a very short period, the market for video streaming service also accelerated. But, these services have a paid subscription package of a fixed amount depending on a monthly or yearly basis. But now that the South Korean tech giant is going for 100% free access, the consumers in India have a better choice.

The free service of Samsung TV Plus comes pre-installed in the Samsung smart TV models since 2016. So, if you are going for a new Samsung smart TV all work is done for you, and for the existing users, they have to get it via an OTA. And it is also available in a few Samsung smartphones which include Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip, and Galaxy 20 in the US. The company says many more devices will be added in the upcoming months. But, the company didn’t mention anything regarding the availability of Samsung TV Pus for the galaxy users in India.

Samsung Smart TV Plus 

With Samsung Smart TV Plus made available to many new countries, the company has partnered with 300 broadcast networks, content platforms, and, digital creators for a better user experience. For those, who until now didn’t know anything about the Samsung Smart TV Plus, it is a free ad-supported content service exclusive to Samsung smart TV users. The greatest thing about Samsung Smart TV Plus is that it is completely free for its users. It is more like if you are buying our device we will provide you free entertainment. Although many countries are now getting access to the Samsung Smart TV Plus the number of channels may vary for different regions.

Until now, the citizens of the US got maximum channels in their Smart TV Plus, that is, a total of 120 channels. But, no matter how many channels you have access to you get a mixture of sports, news, kid’s entertainment, etc. Some of the famous channels included in this free service are ET Live, People TV, Nick Pluto TV, CBSN, ABC News Live, Cheddar, US Today, Anime All Day, Comedy Dynamics, etc. You can find many music channels too. Maybe the content is no match that of Netflix or Disney+Hotstar, but one should remember that you are getting it for free.

A message to the audience 

During the press release, Seline Sangsook Han, Senior Vice President of the Visual Business at Samsung Electronics said, TV has now become the center of entertainment from just news carrying device. With the expansion in the new markets ad collaborating with many networks and content creators, it is hopeful that Samsung Smart TV Plus will become the premium at-home destination for all its users around the world.