Techlife News #549

Idaho needs to be better prepared to defend against inevitable cyberattacks that could harm individuals, businesses and critical infrastructure, the Governor’s Cybersecurity Task Force said in a report released this week. The 34-page report contains 18 major recommendations that include providing active cyber deterrence, increasing spending on cybersecurity, ensuring election integrity and increasing the public’s awareness of cybersecurity threats. “Across our state and throughout the nation, there have been few more pressing threats than the threat to safety, security and freedom of cyberattacks,” said Republican Gov. Brad Little at a Cyber Security Task Force news conference announcing the report at the Idaho National Laboratory Meeting Center in Idaho Falls. “This is not a one-and-done,” Little said. “We’re going to implement the baselines from this, but then we’re going to have to continue…

California, which has a economy larger than all but four countries and where much of the world’s technological innovation is born, on Wednesday became the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations. Following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for state agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for officials to explore incorporating broader blockchain computer coding into the government operations. Evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency technology “is potentially an explosive creator of new companies and new jobs and new opportunities,” said Dee Dee Myers, a senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. “So there are…

Billionaire Elon Musk has strengthened the equity stake of his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a range of investors, including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The Thursday filing also said that Musk is in ongoing talks with other parties including former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is the second largest individual stakeholder in the company after Musk. Other investors include Sequoia Capital Fund, which pledged $800 million, and VyCapital, which pledged $700 million, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But Ellison, who is also a and Tesla board member, is making the biggest contribution, pegged at $1 billion. Technology venture capitalist Ben Horowitz said his firm, known as Andreessen Horowitz or a16z, is investing $400 million…

Telecommunications industry groups ended their bid to block California’s net neutrality law that bars broadband providers from throttling service. In a federal court filing in Sacramento, the groups and California Attorney General Rob Bonta jointly agreed to dismiss the case. The move followed a January decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing enforcement of the 2018 law, which bans internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to websites and applications that don’t pay for premium service. “The case is finally over,” Bonta said in a statement. “With this victory, we’ve secured a free and open internet for California’s 40 million residents once and for all.” Messages seeking comment from an attorney representing the groups weren’t immediately returned. The law was signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown after regulators during the…

Airbus said that its profit in the first three months of 2022 more than tripled to 1.22 billion euros ($1.28 billion), helped by an increase in aircraft deliveries as airlines recover from the worst of the pandemic. Airbus said it plans to speed up production of its A320 family of planes that compete with Boeing 737s to 75 per month by 2025. To hit that rate, Toulouse, France-based Airbus will build a second final assembly line at its plant in Mobile, Alabama, CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters. The ramp-up in A320 production builds on a current Airbus goal to build 65 A320s a month by the middle of 2023. The company hopes to take advantage of strong demand for short-and medium-range planes. Boeing is also trying to churn out more 737 Max…

A NASA climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday. Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, was awarded the $250,000 prize in recognition of her innovative modeling of the impact of climate change on food production. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and serves as adjunct senior research scientist at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University, both based in New York. Rosenzweig, whose win was announced during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, said she hopes it will focus attention on the need to improve food and agricultural systems to lessen the effects of climate change. “We basically cannot solve climate…