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Covid-19 Vaccine

Hacking Group from China Attacks the Bharat Biotech and Serum Insititute of India (SII) IT Infrastructure

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India has not been on good terms with China for the past few years. From crossing the borders to attacking the Indian government on political grounds, China is pushing all the limits. This time, the Country has gone even beyond.

For the past couple of weeks, a Chinese hacking group has been interfering with the IT systems of two major Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer companies in India, i.e. Serum Insititute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech. The Singapore and Tokyo-based cybersecurity company, Cyfirma, has revealed that a China-state-backed hacking group named APT10, also known as Stone Panda, had identified holes in the IT infrastructure and supply chain software of these two Indian companies. Cyfirma follows around 750 cybercriminals and uses a cybersecurity tool DeCYFIR to monitor over 2000 hacking campaigns, to create robust cybersecurity strategies for companies around the world.

The Chief Executive at Cyfirma, Kumar Ritesh, said in a statement, “In the case of Serum Institute, they have found a number of their public servers running weak web servers, these are vulnerable web servers. They have spoken about the weak web application, they are also talking about the weak content-management system. It’s quite alarming.”

Covid-19 and its Vaccination

Due to the spread of Covid-19, the year 2020 has been a disastrous year for the entire world. And despite, we have discovered a few vaccines to fight Covid, we are still struggling to get everything back to normal. Exactly a year ago, the world got to know about the Covid outburst, and countries had to shut down all their operations. China got all the blame since the virus had come from Wuhan, a city in China. The year passed in finding the cause of the virus and vaccine for it, but China never admitted its hand in the spread of Covid.

Covid-19 Vaccine
Image Source: businessinsurance.com

Many countries blamed China, and many defended, but the main issue was to find a drug to help fight the disease. Finally, two big drug manufacturing companies in India, The Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, came with their version of the vaccine for Covid, and the vaccination process started. SII came up with Covishield, and Bharat Biotech is manufacturing Covaxin.

Motive Behind the Cyber Attacks

As said earlier, the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are some of the first pharmaceutical companies to provide the most effective Covid-19 vaccines. These two companies are the ones, supplying 60% of Covid vaccines to the world, and China falls in the other 40% category to sell or gift its vaccines to the other countries.

According to Cyfirma, the motive behind attacking the IT systems of these two companies can be this excessive competition. “The real motivation here is actually exfiltrating intellectual property and getting a competitive advantage over Indian pharmaceutical companies,” said Ritesh in a statement.

Action to be Taken

The matter has gone into the hands of the state-run authority CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team). Though the authority has denied commenting on the matter, due to the importance of the issue, they have confirmed that the matter will be handled by the operations director of CERT, S.S Sharma. According to Cyfirma, they had contacted CERT on the issue, and it has acknowledged the threat.

Other than China, there have been cyber intrusions in the IT systems of companies manufacturing Covid-19 Vaccine around the world from other countries as well. Microsoft, in November, had confirmed that there have been cyber attacks on drug companies of India, Canada, France, the USA, the UK, and South Korea from countries like Russia and North Korea.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc had also revealed that some of its documents that included the information regarding Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing also went under a cyber attack in December 2020 and were “unlawfully accessed”. For now, neither China’s foreign ministry nor SII or Bharat Biotech has given any statement on the matter.

apple

Apple in collaboration with Google launched COVID-19 ‘Exposure Notification Express’ via iOS 13.7

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Only after the outburst of the novel coronavirus, Apple and Google started working together to develop a contact tracing system. The system was designed in a way that new apps can be created by PHAs (Public Health Authorities) and this system will be incorporated. So, whoever downloaded and installed this app when came close to another person using the app data will automatically be transferred and saved. This helped later to get notified if the user in the past few days came in contact with a COVID-19 patient or not.

Yesterday, the two companies announced a big advancement in the existing technology by rolling out new tools. The new tools are launched to make the task for PHAs easier as they do not need to maintain their apps. Currently, the tool has been incorporated in iOS 13.7 and Google is working on the same for Android. For Android, there will be an automatically generated application that will be implemented in Android 6.0 later this month.

What is Exposure Notification Technology?

Exposure notification technology or exposure notification API is software made jointly by Google and Apple to help the PHAs incorporate it in apps. After the PHAs and other organizations built these apps with incorporated exposure notification API they can release it publicly. The general public can use these apps to stay updated about the COVID-19 cases around them and if they came in contact with any of the affected patients.

Both the companies took care of the user’s privacy and hence encrypted the transmitted Bluetooth metadata. Keeping in mind public privacy, the location information of the users is not exposed. Instead of this, the notification alert just shows a time and place where the device came in close Bluetooth range with other devices. So, if a user-tested COVID-19 positive and updated in the app only then the other users will receive notification that they came in contact with a potential COVID patient. The first version (Beta version) of this software was released in May 2020. But, now Apple has announced about the modified system which will not require creating a separate app by any PHA anymore.

contact tracing system
Image Source: appleinsider.com

No separate apps required anymore

Since changes in the software have been made, people might get a little confused. The working system of this new modified tool is different for both iOS and Android. It is a bit complex for Android and that is why it will launch later this month. So, the most striking and best improvement is that you don’t have to download and install an app on your own that is created by the PHAs to keep yourself updated.

Instead of downloading the app, you will receive notification from your local health authority then you can choose to opt-in. If you are an iOS user you have to install a provisioning profile and in case of an Android user, an auto-generated app will be installed via Google Play.

Role of PHAs

The PHAs don’t have to create apps on their own, so what they will do? They will provide Apple and Google with necessary information like contact information, proper guidance procedure, the recommendation for effected patients, precautions for those who came in contact with the virus, etc. Then the notification system can deliver it to the users helping them to take necessary steps as required.

The local health authorities are still responsible for what messages should be sent and the further steps if someone with positive COVID-test updates in the database. So, they are just relieved of developing their apps as most of the tech part is covered by Apple and Google. But, in the meantime already 20 countries around the world have developed and launched their apps.

Implementation of this new system

This new Exposure Notification Express will be first implemented by DC, Maryland, Nevada, and Virginia. Both Apple and Google are also working with the U.S. Association of Public Health Laboratories that will help the users to track even after they are traveling out of their home state. It is proven that this system has helped in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and preventing many deaths.

Huawei

US Commerce Department Further Tightens Grip On Huawei’s Access to Chips

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The COVID-19 situation has become much more than a health pandemic, having had an impact on international relations as well. Ever since the crisis came to light, several countries have grown cold towards China, with the US topping that list. Over the past few months, President Donald Trump has been waging a trade war with China, causing problems for many Chinese firms. Recently, he has put in motion steps to stop TikTok from functioning in America as well.  Additionally, the US Department of Commerce released statements today, placing further restrictions on Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei. Read on to find out more about the restrictions placed and the impact they will have on the smartphone market.

US Commerce Department Further Tightens Grip On Huawei’s Access to Chips

USDC Restrictions

 As per new reports, the United States Department of Commerce issued updates to their list of rules this morning aiming to place further restrictions on Huawei. With these new laws in place, Huawei will find it difficult to source US-based technology. The new restrictions follow the same principle set by laws released in May. Since the starting of the ongoing health crisis, the US and China have been engaged in a cold-war sort of state, exchanging a few bitter words along the way. The American President has been trying vehemently to cut China’s access to the US market, and the technology it develops. 

New Laws

The new rules come as an amendment to the statement of rules released in May. As per reports, the new laws will help block all the loopholes that the old ones had which Huawei was using to gain access to the American market. These additions will make the blocking of technology complete, going a long way in shutting off the Chinese manufacturer’s access to American by-products. The old rules allowed Huawei to engage in business relations with third-party chip manufacturers. However, the present set of amendments will make it even harder for the Chinese phone giant to use American technology-based chips. The Department is also not trying to hide their intentions of shutting Huawei’s access to semiconductors, and are being quite evident and open about the whole arrangement.

Political Statements

Wilbur Ross, who serves as the Commerce Secretary, stated that Huawei and other foreign companies are making use of advanced semiconductor technology developed in the US to help the Chinese Communist Party. In a statement in which he held nothing back, Ross made it clear that they will continue to restrict the access of Chinese firms as a means to protect national security and safeguard foreign policy objectives. Furthermore, Mike Pompeo, who serves as the American Secretary of State, also did not mince words. In his statement, he called Huawei, ‘an arm of the CCP surveillance state’. He also stated that the company continually evaded American rules, leading to the implementation of such regulations.

Pompeo continued that the US will no longer tolerate Chinese efforts to undermine the personal privacy of its citizens. Furthermore, he said the government is backing up all statements through heavy-handed actions, such as the Department of Justice indicting Huawei for fraud, conspiracy, and theft. Furthermore, the charges made by the Department of Justice also hold the Chinese manufacturer responsible for helping Iran evade their sanctions.

On the Backfoot

Huawei has not released statements of their own as of now. However, they have continued to deny all the charges placed against them. The company also stated that it had no ties to the Chinese government. These new rules are an addition to the ever-growing Entity List, which also includes 38 affiliates of the smartphone maker from 21 different countries. Earlier reports had stated that the US Government believes Huawei was evading earlier rules to continue with engagement with American firms. However, the new rule makes it explicitly clear that Huawei cannot use any American software or equipment without a prior license. 

Since the company was added to the Entity List in May of last year, the US had kept adding companies and affiliates, bringing the list to a total of 152 firms. With the Department also refusing to extend the license of Huawei devices, it isn’t likely anyone within the market will purchase these devices again. 

These US Commerce department’s restrictions led to Huawei cutting production on its flagship Kirin chipset, as per a report that came out on August 8. Since Huawei’s HiSilicon division relies heavily on American software, the ban will most likely have a tremendous impact on the smartphone manufacturer. All of these actions make it abundantly clear that US-China relations are at a tipping point. The association between these two superpowers have never been this bad in decades, with Washington continuing to push Chinese players out of American markets. Though Huawei denies that it spies for the Chinese government, it is clear that the company will have to do more to regain the trust of the foreign market.

TikTok

Twitter shows interest in buying TikTok’s US operations by outbidding Microsoft

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ByteDance, a Chinese company is the owner of the very famous video sharing platform, TikTok. With the advent of the global pandemic which emerged out from the Chinese city Wuhan, many nations have turned against China. Whether it’s a serious innocent breakout of an infectious disease or a plotted biological weapon is still in question. But, with almost every country around the globe suffering tremendously, many unpredictable decisions have been taking place.

Last week, Trump announced the ban of TikTok along with other Chinese apps from the U.S. Apart from all the other Chinese applications; TikTok has a very wide user base not only in the U.S. but also around the world. Trump has expressed the need of the hour to ban these Chinese apps as they might be responsible for serious data theft that can put the nation’s security in jeopardy. So, with a 45-days timeline to ban the usage of any Chinese apps by the U.S. citizens, Microsoft showed interest in buying the U.S. operations of TikTok. But, it is only yesterday that Twitter showed interest in buying the same by outdoing Microsoft in bidding.

TikTok by Pixabay

Can Twitter manage to Finance?

Yesterday, the news of Twitter being interested to buy ByteDance owned TikTok was delivered to Reuters from a trusted source. But, it is a big question if Twitter has the capital to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok. The market capitalization of Twitter is around $30 billion which is nearly equal to the assets of TikTok put on sale. On the other hand, Microsoft’s market capitalization is around $1.3 trillion which makes the scenario clear about the bidding.

So, if Twitter is having a serious plan to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok, it needs to raise additional capital. In a normal situation, it would have been easy to raise money, but with the pandemic creating havoc in the financial world and a time strain of 45-days it is a very difficult task.

Due to these two important factors, Microsoft is still on the run and occupy the first place for the bidding. Erik Gordon, a professor from the University of Michigan said that Twitter doesn’t have enough borrowing capacity making it even harder to acquire the U.S. operations of TikTok. Moreover, the current shareholders of Twitter might think that expanding business in this crisis might be a big risk and it will be better if the company (Twitter) focuses on its existing business.

Protecting the Nation

A couple of months back India decided to take strict action against China because of two main reasons, first the outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan which might be a strong conspiracy against the world, and second, the dispute regarding LAC. So, Indian banned all the Chinese apps hence taking a big step and protecting the nation’s security from compromising. Now, a similar action was taken by the American president, Donald Trump, thus banning Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat.

Trump has also mentioned that this is one step forward towards protecting sensitive information and privacy of U.S. citizens from China. These apps are gaining access to information of every user and it can be used against the U.S. for many purposes. He also told that the ban of Chinese apps will also improve Clean Network thus adding five more lines of effort, namely, Clean Carrier, Clean Cable, Clean Apps, Clean Store, and Clean Cloud. And, lastly, he gave a deadline of 45 days and in mid-September, the ban will be imposed completely.

TikTok’s current reputation 

With the novel coronavirus pandemic, the reputation of China as well as its apps is degrading. But, TikTok is used by billions of users around the world, and especially in the U.S., it has millions of fans. Many citizens of the U.S. have expressed outrage towards Donald Trump after he declared the ban of TikTok. But, no matter what a nation’s security should always be the priority. Moreover, it will also become a golden opportunity for the country’s app developers to create something similar and make it a big hit.

The relationship between Twitter and Donald Trump has become sour as the president accused the platform of unfairly censoring him. So, apart from the capital of Microsoft being incredibly bigger than Twitter’s, it is likely Trump will support the acquisition by Microsoft.

illumina

The success of Illumina, Inc. and how it helped fight COVID-19

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With our generation constantly marching towards the IT sector and playing safe by working for a multinational company is a common view these days. This doesn’t mean that working for the IT sector harms us rather the advent of AI and ML is making a great contribution to every field. But, how many of us consider working for a biotechnology company and contributing to mankind from a different perspective? Our world has been attacked by an infectious pathogen that can stop time and turn everything upside down. People dying, the economy at the edge, unemployment, and we do not know what else we will witness. And, in this crisis, we are looking up to companies like Illumina to make a breakthrough and save the world from drowning.

What is Illumina?

Illumina is an American-based biotechnology company that develops systems to analyze genetic variation and biological function. The company dragged down the price of human genome sequencing from $1 million to $1,000 in 2014. Research organizations around the world, the pharmaceutical companies, and also academic institutions buy the products of Illumina. The company was founded in 1998 by David Walt, Larry Bock, John Stuelpnagel, Anthony Czarnik, and Mark Chee. The company’s headquarters are currently based in San Diego, California.

About the founders

David Walt

David Walt went to the University of Michigan and acquired a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. He later pursued his masters and Ph.D. in chemical biology. Currently, he is an Advisor at Illumina Ventures and a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School.

Larry Bock

Larry Bock was a famous American entrepreneur who died on 6th July 2016. He went to Bowdoin College and later to UCLA for his MBA. Apart from Illumina, Larry has also founded Nanosys, Caliper Life Sciences, and a few more companies.

John Stuelpnagel

John Stuelpnagel went to the University of California and has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He was a venture capitalist at the CW group when he founded Illumina. Currently, he is the chairman of Fabric Genomics (also co-founder).

Anthony Czarnik

Anthony Czarnik is an American chemist who worked as an assistant professor at Ohio State University. Czarnik is the founder of RenoCares, a charity to support the drug addicts for rehab.

Mark Chee

Mark Chee went to the University of New South Wales followed by the University of Cambridge. He completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. Currently, he is on the Board of Directors of Complete Genomics.

How Illumina was founded?

Back in 1998, the five founders established Illumina when Larry and John came to an understanding of what would be the BeadArray technology for Illumina. Shortly after founding the company, Illumina acquired Spyder Instruments which had the technology for high-throughput synthesis. In 2000, the company successfully filed its first IPO. The next year, the company started the new service, single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping.

Growth and Expansion

Eventually, the company started growing and designing solutions that can make our lives better. In 2007, Illumina acquired Solexa, a British company for approximately $600 million. Solexa was famous for commercializing genome sequencing technology who also bought the DNA colony sequencing technology in 2004. Illumina from the very beginning put immense effort to bring down the sky-high cost required for this kind of analysis and sequencing. In 2009, the company started its service for personal full genome sequencing for $48,000 which dropped to almost $19,000 by the next year.

Until 2010, Illumina sold systems and solutions only for research purposes but in 2010 it received approval for clinical tests as well. In 2011, the company acquired Epicentre Biotechnologies and next year launched HiSeq 2500, a very successful product of Illumina. This year the company also launched a cancer analysis service.

Famous people like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos invested $100 million in Series A funding of the company. Since Illumina was working in the field of cancer testing as well, it partnered with Philips in 2017 to offer integrated genomic solutions for oncology. This year the company also opened its first commercial and customer training center.

How Illumina is fighting COVID-19?

Today, Illumina has provided solutions to more than 10,000 labs over 115 countries. And, due to the trust, they have built over time they are now connecting the local and global resources to fight against the pandemic. Next-generation sequencing or NGS is claimed to be very crucial for the study of patients during this pandemic. Illumina said that NGS can help gain information about patients and create a genetic tree that can show the path of transmission of this virus between two patients.

In response to this, the company designed Illumina COVIDSeq Test which is the first NGS test to receive emergency authorization use from the FDA. It can be only used in the US-based laboratories to perform tests at moderate and complex levels. The software toolkit of Illumina for COVID-19 has also been made free. The company is still working vehemently to help combat COVID-19 around the globe.

technology

Which way the technology addressing the world during this pandemic?

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Technology

The world is going through a significant upheaval in the form of a global health pandemic. Most countries around the world are doing all they can to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. As a result, we saw a mass shut down of schools, colleges and offices. Half the world’s population are under one form of lockdown or another, confined to their houses for months. However, what this pandemic has made more evident than ever before is the value that technology adds to our lives. Throughout this global lockdown, we have witnessed the many ways in which technology has made things easier for us. So, in what ways has technology addressed the world during this pandemic? Here’s a quick look at the same.

Healthcare

The most significant help that technology has provided the world during this pandemic is in the healthcare sector. Around the world, we are seeing several research institutes and pharma companies working together to find a cure and vaccine. From Harvard to Johnson and Johnson, researchers are working against the clock to help contain this pandemic. Furthermore, corporations are also trying to figure out combination drugs that can help prevent the spread of the disease when used together.

Countries are lending each other drugs and medicines on a scale never seen before. College students, researchers and scientists are also coming out with upgrades for ventilators that help make them more efficient. Breathing apparatuses, which are vital to treating patients, also witnessed several upgrades thanks to the global scientific community. In fact, Mercedes Formula One worked with researchers to build a special apparatus that works without a ventilator and using 70% less oxygen. Certain countries are also using remote-controlled care robots to take care of their patients. These automatic medical staff can do everything from taking swab tests to checking Ultrasound scans.

Artificial Intelligence

The tracing of patients has also become an integral part of our fight against the COVID-19. In our interconnected world, AI and IoT are making it possible for healthcare workers to find links and quarantine the right people. Road maps of the places they have been to, and the people they have come in contact with help in tracing possible victims and carriers. Countries are making use of drones and other such technology to monitor people and ensure their safety. The Indian Government too came out with an app to make it easier to monitor people.

Aarogya Setu has since gone on to become one of the most downloaded and used apps in the country. Contact tracing using GPS and mobile phone tracing has helped countries all the way from China to Ghana track the disease’s spread. Liechtenstein also came out with biometric bracelets to help track potential COVID-19 cases in real-time as an early warning system. Data analytics within the bracelet help collect data on essential metrics. Such data help algorithms detect patterns in physiology to identify likely cases. Therefore, we are reaping all the benefits provided by a well-connected digital world. 

Digitalisation

The COVID-19 also put in wheels the most massive exodus to remote working the world has ever seen. More people are now working from the comfort of their homes than ever before. This is primarily due to the efficient digital connections we have been able to establish. Most companies host their applications and projects on cloud servers, allowing their employees to access them from their homes. The large-scale penetration of the internet and the use of mobile devices has made this transition smooth and efficient. Furthermore, applications like Zoom and Teams have made it easier for companies to host meetings and maintain internal communication. Live presentation sharing websites allow for presentations and meetings to happen without a hiccup. Essentially, we are witnessing the dawn of a new age of employment opportunities.

Education Technology

The global pandemic also brought to a standstill our traditional forms of education. Since most schools and colleges had to shut in a bid to prevent further spread of the virus, millions of students were left without a classroom. However, digital methods of learning came to the rescue, enabling teachers and students to work together to take their learning forward. A large number of Ed-tech companies from Bjyus to Coursera opened up their services to people for free. This made it easier for children to continue their learning, uninterrupted, from the confines of their living rooms. Furthermore, server-hosted applications allowed colleges to go ahead with their evaluation so that students can move on. Several colleges around the world took online examinations to the homes of their students to make graduation a reality. In the US, we saw a host of digital graduations, where children enjoyed the rite of passage while following social distancing norms. All of these are, without a doubt, how technology has addressed this pandemic. 

Logistics and Operations

Since the older generation has been confined to their homes due to being in risk of contracting the disease, we see new supply lines come up. Whether it is Reliance Mart or Swiggy, we witnessed the launch of large supply-chain logistics come to life in the last few months. From home-delivering groceries to getting cooked food to people, these companies have ensured that everyone has access to these commodities. Governments have also come out with applications to make the seamless availability of essential daily needs a reality.

This pandemic has made it very clear how globalisation and digitalisation have helped the world. Global trade and scientific relations have made it possible for even developing countries to implement new-age methods. It is globalisation that made the large-scale adoption of technology possible. This pandemic has shown us how technology will play a big part in redefining the economy of tomorrow. All key industries, such as manufacturing, food and beverages, medicine, tourism and education, will leverage technology to get itself back on its feet. Whether it is by discovering or vaccine or helping people communicate, technology has answered more questions and addressed more issues than ever before, during this pandemic.