Category Archives: Data Mining
Federal procurement fraud occurs more often than you might think – Federal News Network
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One might be surprised to learn the FBI has opened more than two dozen grand jury investigations this year alone related to federal contracting fraud. Its Procurement Collusion Strike Force is using some up to date techniques like data mining for contractors honest ones, that is it all means the need for strong compliance programs. For more,Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to Jon Jacobs and Alex Canizares, partner and senior counsel, respectively, from the law firm Perkins Coie.
Tom Temin: And lets begin at the beginning here, and tell me a little bit about this phenomenon of contracting fraud. Is this mostly something that happens with collusion among contractors? Or is it something that happens between the government and contractors as a rule?
Jon Jacobs:Yeah, the kind of fraud were talking about here, Tom, is contractor-to-contractor collusion. So what the Strike Force is focusing on is bid rigging, price fixing or market allocation among contractors who are bidding for federal contracts. They will get together beforehand, and they will decide who is going to win a particular bid, the one whos going to submit a higher or complimentary bid will know what the prearranged winner is going to bid. And so its all set up so competition is eliminated. The agency, the federal government is not involved. So this is very different than say kickbacks to federal contractors in order to steer contracts a certain way.
Tom Temin:Sure. And then I guess, for the contractors involved, the ones who agree to lose then get some sort of consideration, I guess, for the winners in general?
Jon Jacobs:They do. These bid-rigging conspiracies are often set up so that if Alex and I are the two natural bidders for a contract, well get together and Ill say, Alex, let me have this one, please bid above this certain price, and the next ones yours.
Tom Temin:And I guess the question is, how often does this happen? I mean, theres a couple of dozen out of what 15- 20,000 contracting actions a year and 2,000 of them roughly are protested. I mean, this is a big business. So I guess Im asking in general, is the system in the United States corruption-free with exceptions? Or is it tend to be maybe the noncorrupt ones are the exceptions?
Alex Canizares: According to the FBI, which issued a report in March of this year, this is a significant issue. They cite a study that says that about 20% of procurement is tainted by some sort of bid rigging. And whether or not that study is true, if you think about $500 billion-plus of federal procurement activity every year, this is something that is going to have a significant impact. And this Procurement Collusion Strike Force recognizes that, kind of renews the focus that the law enforcement community has.
Tom Temin:By the way, your numbers a little out of date during the pandemic, it was more like $639 billion. So theres a lot of room for collusion I guess, drug companies and mask companies or whatever. And is it generally more on to the extent we know, on the DoD side or the civilian side?
Alex Canizares:Well, its really everything. I mean, I think the areas of focus for this particular Interagency Task Force include Defense. There was just another indictment announced last week in the Defense context, but also health care. And you mentioned the pandemic, and I think the significant increase in federal spending and response to the pandemic heightens the concern. And its not specific to COVID but if you think about infrastructure, thats another area I think well see renewed focus on, especially with talks underway about increased spending on transportation and infrastructure. But really, its not agency-specific, its not just DoD. These are many, many law enforcement agencies, and inspectors general and different agencies that are now on heightened alert for this issue.
Tom Temin:And, Jon, you did have experience in the Justice Department earlier in your career. Is there any clue that a contracting officer can discern that might tip him or her off that somethings un-kosher going on here?
Jon Jacobs:Yes. And actually, the Antitrust Division as a part of this new initiative has published the so-called red flags of collusion on their website. And the red flags are designed for contracting officers to know what to look for. Its not completely comprehensive, but some of the examples are, are there a small number of bidders for this particular kind of contract? Because obviously, its easier to collude if you dont have a large number. Are there similar-looking bid proposals? Is there similar handwriting, similar typographical errors? Does it look like the different bids were prepared by the same person because believe it or not, sometimes these conspirators arent careful enough. And its very suspicious when you lay them all out in the table. And then take a look at the patterns not only the prices, but the patterns of winning. As I said before, the way these bid rigging conspiracies usually work is, if Alex and I are supposedly competing, were rotating. And so if it looks like Alex is winning about 50%, Im winning about 50% thats a red flag.
Tom Temin:Sounds like high school construction contract. Were speaking with Jon Jacobs and Alex Canizares. They are partner and senior counsel at the law firm Perkins Coie. And tell us more about the FBI task force. Its an interagency affair. Whos involved and maybe a little bit about the data mining and data experts theyve gotten on board?
Alex Canizares:Well, its not just the FBI, its actually led by the Antitrust Division within the Department of Justice. FBI is a principal law enforcement agency thats involved. But youve actually got a total of 29 either U.S. attorneys offices or agencies, and that includes the inspectors general who already have their own oversight function looking for this sort of conduct. I do want to mention one aspect of the red flags, which is important here, too, which is contracting officers that conduct competitive procurements are already required by statute and regulation to be on the lookout for this sort of antitrust activity. And so when they are reviewing contract proposals in a procurement, theyre already supposed to notify the Department of Justice for this sort of thing. What this particular task force does, is really two things. One is bring new cases. And the other part is really bring about more awareness, educate people, and train people, and theyve done a significant amount of training in that regard.
Tom Temin:Alright, so lets get to some of the advice your law firm has put forth for contractors that dont want to be seen as doing this. And also, I guess theres the situation where it could occur because of some employees, but you can protect the corporation, even if those people get punished and go to jail somehow. So what should contractors do to stay out of this?
Jon Jacobs:Yeah, the very first thing I would advise is to update your compliance program. That is particularly important for avoiding any kind of antitrust offense and particularly recently, given some DOJ guidance, and theres at least a couple of reasons for this. I mentioned the so-called leniency program and then Alex, maybe you can describe the recent availability of deferred prosecution agreements that are available to those with otherwise effective compliance programs. So the Antitrust Division has a leniency program. And what that is, is if you are the very first individual or company to notify the Antitrust Division of a conspiracy that it has not heard about before, you get complete immunity. You will not be charged, you wont be fined, your executives wont go to jail. Remember, the antitrust laws do involve jail terms, potentially, for executives that participate in this activity. Now, youre still going to have to cooperate and that can be quite an effort. Youre going to have to hire a lawyer, unfortunately, youre going to have to proffer your facts of your internal investigation, youre going to have to produce documents and make your executives available for an interview with the criminal prosecutors. But its also available only for the first to contact the DOJ. There is a race for leniency. So its important if you see something right away, say something.
Tom Temin:Is there, by the way, any qui tam possibility for someone that might be lower down in the company that blows the whistle on this?
Jon Jacobs:There absolutely is and some of my criminal cases started with a qui tam complaint.
Tom Temin:Got it, okay and what else?
Alex Canizares:Well, one of the things that contractors can really do to kind of mitigate the risk of this sort of enforcement activity is to, as Jon says, build a robust compliance program, have those internal controls in place, but also be specifically aware of the risks that the DOJ is looking at. These same red flags of collusion are things that companies within their own company can sensitize their employees to. Thats the procurement folks, thats the people who are doing the business development and that sort of thing. And it also means having a very specific reporting mechanism. So if people see something, they can bring it to the attention of the appropriate person. The False Claims Act, in terms of qui tam is another aspect of this. Its not particularly within the purview of this program. But its certainly reasonable to expect that if people are identifying potential fraudulent activity that could result in a False Claims Act matter.
Tom Temin:Alright, and a couple of lightning round questions here at the end, does this tend to be as far as you can tell more in the services or in the products acquisition area?
Alex Canizares:I would say its not limited to either one. I think that the areas that were looking at now, in terms of recent announcements, we had one very recently in the infrastructure sector that was more service oriented. But really, I think theres likely to be cases on both sides of that fence.
Tom Temin:And the second question is, more and more contracting dollars are going through government wide acquisition contracts as GWACs as task orders, as opposed to full an open. And so is it more an occurrence in full and open competition, or do you find it in the GWAC task orders also?
Alex Canizares:Its an interesting question. I dont think its off the table in terms of a GWAC context. I mean, as you say, there are situations and its not limited to the GWACs but where sole source contracting is perfectly permissible. The concern in this particular area is where competition is required. And I think thats where companies, particularly if theyre engaged in teaming arrangements, need to be very sensitized to what the risks are.
Tom Temin:Alex Canizares is senior counsel at the law firm Perkins Coie, thanks so much.
Alex Canizares:Thank you.
Tom Temin:And Jon Jacobs is a partner there. Thank you very much.
Jon Jacobs: Thank you, Tom.
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Federal procurement fraud occurs more often than you might think - Federal News Network
Will All End Well for This Popular Reddit Biotech? – Motley Fool
On June 28, shares ofCel-Sci (NYSEMKT:CVM) plunged nearly 70% peak-to-trough before recovering. The reason behind the wild price action couldn't be more obvious -- the company's pivotal phase 3 study involving its Multikine immunotherapy did not meet its primary endpoint of improving the overall survival (OS) of head and neck cancer patients.
Cel-Sci had been extremely popular among traders of the r/WallStreetBets community due to its short interest -- standing as high as 24% before the data release. The stock also has a cult following outside of that. There is even a website with detailed instructions on how to make short-sellers cover all of their bets. Is there any hope left for shareholders?
Image source: Getty Images.
Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately, depending on the lens one looks through), it looks like the shorts have won, and the hunters have now become the hunted. Despite the clinical trial lasting 9.5 years, Multikine was unable to demonstrate a 10% benefit in improving patients' OS.
This is the company's flagship drug candidate. Cel-Sci has no product revenues and only around $50 million in liquid assets. By all measures, the stock should be going to zero after the plunge from its $1 billion market cap before the data readout.
It took over a year for results to come out after the trial finished. In retrospect, that gave the company ample time to data-mine and look for "potential" therapeutic signals.
Via a post-hoc subgroup analysis, the company uncovered that patients who received Multikine followed by surgery and radiotherapy, but not chemotherapy, had an OS improvement of 14.1% after five years, compared to those who just received surgery and radiotherapy. The survival benefit disappeared after accounting for patients who also received chemotherapy. Based on this, the company anticipates that it can meet regulatory requirements for a Biologics Licensing Application (BLA) submission.
If the data mining here seems confusing, consider this analogy. A political candidate lost in the midterm elections. Instead of acknowledging defeat, he instead cites data from one sub-district that overwhelmingly voted for him as evidence that he actually "won."
Let's think about Cel-Sci's story for a minute. Its plan to seek approval for Multikine effectively suggests that patients would need to forgo chemotherapy for Multikine to have a significant effect. I do not think that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could ever approve a drug based on such a scheme, but Cel-Sci is going ahead with its FDA filing anyway.
The stock has attracted a huge meme following, and it has not tanked to single digits after the disappointing data readout. Some investors probably moved all-in and are hoping for a good river card (the FDA submission) to complete a busted hand (reverse their fortunes).
At this point, however, it's almost a given that Multikine will go nowhere. The data says it all. In addition, while the Multikine trial was still ongoing, next-generation immunotherapy checkpoint inhibitors like Opdivo and Keytruda entered the market. In the case of the former, it reduced the risk of death in patients with head and neck cancer by 30%. On a side note, it did not take a decade for Opdivo to achieve that efficacy. All of this makes it pretty clear that for investors thinking about the long term, Cel-Sci is a biotech to avoid.
This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.
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Will All End Well for This Popular Reddit Biotech? - Motley Fool
NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity could keep flying the Martian skies for months – Space.com
The future of aerial Mars exploration looks bright.
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity, which landed inside Mars' Jezero Crater with the agency's Perseverance rover in February, has now completed eight Red Planet flights. That's three more than the maximum targeted for the 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper's original technology-demonstration mission and Ingenuity isn't done yet.
The little rotorcraft's current extended-mission activities, which center on showcasing the potential of Mars helicopters to serve as scouts for rovers, will "continue for at least a few more months, with a cadence of a couple of flights a month," Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley, a geochemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said last Monday (June 21) during a webcast meeting of NASAs Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG).
Video: Watch NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity fly in 3D
Balancing the needs of a helicopter and rover mission simultaneously requires a complicated "dance," and the upcoming Ingenuity flights will give members of both teams valuable practice, Farley said. (Ingenuity and Perseverance are separate missions, but the helicopter relies on the rover which is just now digging into its life-hunting, sample-gathering work as a communications relay.)
"Along the way, we hope to acquire reconnaissance imagery of places that we cannot go," Farley said. "And we are also using the helicopter to develop terrain meshes that could, in the future, allow rovers to drive across landscapes that they cannot actually see from their mast-mounted cameras."
To date, the farthest distance that Ingenuity has traveled on a single sortie is 873 feet (266 meters; achieved on Flight 4, on April 30), and the longest it has stayed aloft is 140 seconds (Flight 6, May 22). The Ingenuity team would like to shatter both of those marks in the next few months, if possible.
"We've gone 266 meters; we're looking to stretch that to a kilometer [0.6 miles]," Ingenuity operations lead Teddy Tzanetos, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said during the MEPAG meeting on June 21.
"That would mean three minutes flight time total," Tzanetos said. "And that would really be pushing the limits of what the technology demonstrator is capable of, in terms of a flight vehicle."
The helicopter team will also prioritize scouting regions of interest to Perseverance, such as the geologic unit on the floor of Jezero known as Stah, and mining the reams of scientific and engineering data generated by Ingenuity, Tzanetos added.
The data-mining work could inform the design of Ingenuity's successors, which are already starting to take shape as concepts at least. For example, engineers have begun drawing up plans for a much larger, much more capable rotorcraft called the Mars Science Helicopter, Tzanetos said during his MEPAG talk.
The Mars Science Helicopter is a joint project involving JPL, NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and the defense contractor AeroVironment. The envisioned craft would sport six rotors, weigh about 66 lbs. (30 kilograms) and be able to carry science payloads weighing up to 11 lbs. (5 kg) or so, Tzanetos said. (Those are the weights here on Earth; the hexacopter would be lighter on Mars, whose gravity is just 38% as strong as our planet's.)
The Mars Science Helicopter would be capable of flying about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) in a single sortie, Tzanetos said. Such an aircraft would be able to explore "locations that rovers couldn't access, like cliffside walls, or difficult-to-traverse terrains, or even down into caves," he said.
Again, the Mars Science Helicopter is just a concept at the moment, not a full-fledged mission. But thanks to Ingenuity's ongoing work, the hexacopter might find its way to the Red Planet at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity could keep flying the Martian skies for months - Space.com
ALPK2 acts as tumor promotor in development of bladder cancer through targeting DEPDC1A – DocWire News
This article was originally published here
Cell Death Dis. 2021 Jul 1;12(7):661. doi: 10.1038/s41419-021-03947-7.
ABSTRACT
Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the urinary system. The development and improvement of treatment efficiency require the deepening of the understanding of its molecular mechanism. This study investigated the role of ALPK2, which is rarely studied in malignant tumors, in the development of bladder cancer. Our results showed the upregulation of ALPK2 in bladder cancer, and data mining of TCGA database showed the association between ALPK2 and pathological parameters of patients with bladder cancer. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that knockdown of ALPK2 could inhibit bladder cancer development through regulating cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, and cell migration. Additionally, DEPDC1A is identified as a potential downstream of ALPK2 with direct interaction, whose overexpression/downregulation can inhibit/promote the malignant behavioral of bladder cancer cells. Moreover, the overexpression of DEPDC1A can rescue the inhibitory effects of ALPK2 knockdown on bladder cancer. In conclusion, ALPK2 exerts a cancer-promoting role in the development of bladder cancer by regulating DEPDC1A, which may become a promising target to improve the treatment strategy of bladder cancer.
PMID:34210956 | DOI:10.1038/s41419-021-03947-7
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Business Intelligence: How far and deep can it go to change the way organisations work? – Business Insider India
A wily banker in the mid-1800s made it a point to gain knowledge of political instabilities in Europe and thereby predicted the market. During his time, Sir Henry Furnese became successful and infamous for his corrupt practices. However, his deals were recorded by Richard Millar Devens as a train of business intelligence. You would ask why?
The idea and the concept of using data to gain an advantage over competition, is still in vogue and gaining ground. It has travelled from using data on computers, to floppy disks (where data could travel), to the internet and the cloud. Currently, the BI as it is now called, uses AI and ML to make the reams of data and make it available to decision makers who no longer need to depend on instinct alone.
In spite of the endless promise, a number of BI adoptions have not produced the desired results. This reflects more about the way most traditional businesses work, rather than the technology itself, since most departments within a company refuse to share data, that creates silos, which breaks the philosophy of BI to - democratize data.
The IT departments become proprietary owners of data. To break these walls, the technology too evolved from technical BI to self-service BI wherein sales teams, product development teams, marketing teams access BI for their daily decision making.
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The ultimate goal is to enable end-user BI wherein every user can access BI without having to go through an engineering team. The trends in BI that point to end user BI are Auto Narratives where insights/outcomes are delivered in natural language; BI Bots where users can ask and receive insights from specialized bots; mobile analytics which can provide insights all day, all year; Collaborative BI where users collaborate on BI platforms to gain insights; and Data governance which ensure data data quality for unstructured data, informed Abhishek Rungta, Founder and CEO of Indusnet Technologies.
The business of intelligence The magic word that has made BI even more intelligent is AI. The confluence of both technologies is where computer intelligence meets business decision making. It is very important for companies to move and use data. In most cases, 70% of data is never used by companies. There are riches in niches, and data can help you explore those niches or hidden gems within the company in different contexts. Added Abhishek Rungta
The data story needs to make immediate sense. Indus Net Technologies is focusing on predictive analytics, which uses data mining, modeling, and machine learning to determine the probability of future outcomes. With these predictive analytics, healthcare companies are able to deliver personalised healthcare, with focus on individual patients and a greater understanding of trends for larger cohorts.The applications here extend to the financial world too, with banks having greater outlook in designing market specific products, where business performance is predicted to a high degree of accuracy, while delivering a keener understanding of risks involved and preventing fraud. McKinsey, in their Insurance 2030 report predicts that by In 2030, underwriting as we know it today ceases to exist with a majority of underwriting being automated owing to intelligence.
AI and BI can come together to build a truly intelligent business where all its processes are guided data and its management. Apart from capturing data, analyzing it and help create decision making models and empowering employees with data, it can go many steps further. For one, the systems can be taught to learn decision making via machine learning and lead to assisted intelligence that can shift the direction of a business and how it successful it can be.
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Digital transformation is crucial to the future of mining in South Africa – African Mining Market
Mining has played a crucial role in South Africas economy for the best part of two centuries. And while it may not play as big a role as it once did, it still contributed R400-billion to GDP in 2020 and employed more than 450 000 people. But if the sector is to remain competitive at a global level, it has to evolve particularly when it comes to embracing digital transformation.
While South Africas unique circumstances should be taken into account, especially when it comes to factors such as the orebody depth and labour intensity of the countrys mining operations, that doesnt mean that mining companies should shy away from digital transformation. The application of digital technologies, both in their current form and in future digital forms such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IOT) is increasingly pivotal to mining success. The players in the space which understand that and use these technologies as enablers are the ones most likely to thrive going forward.
Those were the overriding messages at a webinar hosted by Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University, which included speakers from mining houses, software builders that specialise in solutions for the mining industry, and Huawei.
When we look at mining, what people dont comprehend is that the mining value chain is extremely complex, says Alex Fenn, Head of Technology and Innovation at Sibanye Stillwater. The infrastructure varies from space to space, meaning that achieving digital transformation is far less simple than it would be in a factory, for instance.
That does not, however, mean that it doesnt hold benefits.
Digital transformation is a key enabler to value delivery that is both incredibly specific as well as all encompassing, he adds. The aggregated benefits across the value chain are huge. Thats why were working towards becoming a digital first organisation that creates cultures, structures, and processes which support digital transformation.
Practically, Pierre Swart, CEO of mining software specialist Accutrak, agrees with this whole-view approach to digital transformation.
He does, however, believe that optimising data is crucial to any digital transformation initiative.
Everything, for me, boils down to the optimisation of data at the end of the day, he says. If we have accurate data, we can analyse it to identify patterns, or when patterns break. We can create business improvement tools and start to use predictive algorithms that can tell us that something will likely happen before it does.
That kind of data optimisation cannot, however, occur without the necessary levels of connectivity.
As Gys Malan, Solutions Manager, Huawei, points out:
What one absolutely cannot miss when it comes to thinking about a digitally-transformed mine is connectivity.
Unfortunately, he adds, this is something that sometimes get neglected when mines try to embrace digital transformation.
Here, Malan says, its important to understand that a typical mine may need a combination of several different technologies to meet its connectivity needs.
Its important that you have different options for transporting the data from sensors embedded in different parts of the mine to upper layer platforms, he says.
He also points out that its important to be able to integrate the data from different platforms to create a central data lake, which allows for easier central decision making.
At Huawei we assist our mining clients to achieve these objectives with a variety of products and services, he says. When it comes to connectivity, for instance, our 5G and private LTE offerings allow for large amounts of data to be transmitted at very low latencies.
While these forms of connectivity are important, Malan still believes that Wi-Fi and Fibre have important roles to play in mines across the globe. Whether its connectivity or any other aspect of digital transformation, he cautions against anyone pegging their bets on any single technology.
We have to diversify the communication technologies that we use based on environmental factors and application requirements, he says.
If mining is to continue playing an important role in South Africa, then it must digitally transform. As the webinar speakers demonstrated, however, thats not just about adopting new technologies but being selective and using them in the way that best suits a particular mines needs and aspirations.
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Digital transformation is crucial to the future of mining in South Africa - African Mining Market
Cyber threats on the rise in these industries in South Africa – BusinessTech
Increasingly, companies are looking to adopt smart technologies to optimise production and decision-making in order to create businesses of the future. However, as reliance on autonomous and digital technology grows, so too does the risk of cyber-attacks, says professional services firm PwC.
As technologies become more interconnected, the potential cybersecurity threats and attack vectors are growing. The consequences of these threats can be severe, resulting in production and revenue losses, regulatory fines, reputational damage, as well as the shutdown of critical infrastructures.
This has been further compounded by the complexities and uptake of smart systems that use advanced technologies such as machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Termed Smart Manufacturing/Smart Mining, South African industry leaders recognise that the terms encompass everything from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to robotics and cyber-security.
PwC said it has issued a point of view on emerging cyber threats in the mining and manufacturing industries. The document focuses on emerging cyber threats affecting these sectors, with a focus on South African and other Africa-based organisations.
Although there are considerable benefits in the convergence of these advanced technological systems and the operational technology that makes up the backbone of the sectors, it is important to note that the reliance on such connected and internet-dependent systems is not without its own risks, PwC pointed out.
Junaid Amra, PwC Forensics Technology Solutions Leader said: Organisations in the manufacturing and mining sectors face a myriad of different cyber threats. A number of organisations have not been paying enough attention to these threats. They are also not prioritising the implementation of the appropriate mitigation strategies, whilst threat actors are starting to take an interest in organisations operating in this space.
Due to the increasing level of technology adoption, the consequences of attacks on organisations in these sectors can be far-reaching and potentially devastating. It is therefore important for businesses to understand key risk areas, attack vectors and vulnerabilities to ensure that they employ the correct controls to improve security and protect their assets.
The technologies most targeted by attackers within these sectors are Industrial Control Systems (ICS). ICS are embedded computing devices that are responsible for a myriad of automated process controls in industries (e.g., measuring instruments, packaging machinery and all other components of an assembly line that make parts of any production process.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the problem of cyber-attacks. According to international research, there was an uptake in intrusion activity in the manufacturing sector in 2020, as well as several cybersecurity incidents in some countrys mining and resources sectors, said Amra.
PwCs paper highlights the different threats to ICS technologies and the profiles of the actors perpetrating these attacks. It also focuses on notable incidents to help demonstrate the complexity and subsequent impact of ICS attacks.
Attacker tactics, techniques and procedures
PwCs global Threat Intelligence practice recognises four types of motivations driving attackers, namely espionage, hacktivism, terrorism/sabotage and organised crime. There are also a range of different tactics, techniques and procedures used by each attacker.
This not only determines the impact of each attack but also the means by which organisations get targeted and subsequently compromised. It is also notable that insiders can be part of any threat group, PwC said.
Organisations who are mindful that a security breach can take several different forms and originate from several different places are in a better position to imagine ways of implementing the correct defences.
It is important to note that local regulator stipulations and disclosure laws play a major role in the number of incidents that are reported and, as a by-product, known to the public.
Motivation
Espionage has been growing as one of the driving forces behind cyber-attacks in the manufacturing industry. Cyber-criminals gain access to the networks of businesses in the sectors with the aim of stealing trade secrets and intellectual property.
However, our research revealed that although in 2020 there was a notable uptick of espionage-motivated incidents as compared to the same period last year, most of the attacks have predominantly been financially motivated (63-95%).
We have also drawn on our experience conducting cyber-security assessments and penetration tests from across our global network to identify the most common security vulnerabilities in OT/ICS networks.
The most common attacks identified by PwCs incident response teams over 2019 and 2020 were: infiltration of insecure email platforms following cloud adoption; phishing; and insecure remote access platforms (VPN, remote login), PwC said.
Ransomware
Once attackers have a foothold in an organisation, the tools and tactics used by them are usually designed to monetise their attacks by the simplest means possible. An example is ransomware, which is a type of malicious software (malware) that holds your systems or data to ransom.
Globally, PwC has tracked ransomware attacks across various industries for 2020. Of these, 17% affected the manufacturing sector but no data appears to have been advertised from the mining sector.
Based on our experience, the nature of attacks in the mining sector have largely been focused on electronic payment fraud, industrial espionage and sabotage. Data available for the African continent is limited, however, we believe this to be a representation of how susceptible African organisations in the sectors are to these types of attacks, PwC said.
Potential impact
Cyber-attacks are becoming more pronounced as technology is embedded in operational processes. Apart from the loss of data and intellectual property, the risk to the core business operations becomes heightened and could lead to severe disruption through cyber-attacks.
In addition, safety, health, environmental and quality (SHEQ) systems could also be affected as there is a growing dependence on smart devices to support these processes and functions.
Organisations in the mining and manufacturing sectors need to embed a safety culture against potential cyber-attacks organisations should have plans and processes in place to prevent, respond and recover from a potential cyber-attack. The likelihood and consequences of a cyber-attack should not be downplayed, said Amra.
Read: What 2021 holds for cybersecurity in South Africa
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Cyber threats on the rise in these industries in South Africa - BusinessTech
Using ITeS to transform businesses and create resilience in a post-Covid world – Livemint
In a post-Covid world, digital transformation is no longer just a competitive edge which is good to have". It is now considered critical for business resilience around the world, especially as Cloud computing enables a variety of industries to dream of things that never existed.
Evidence shows that businesses that have already started their business transformation journeys feel better equipped to respond to swift changes while more digitally prepared organisations now have an advantage in navigating the upheavals and challenges presented by the pandemic.
The latest session of Trending Now: ITes- Technology makes the future resilient, in partnership with Microsoft, saw industry experts come together to discuss how ITeS tools can effectively be deployed to make your business resilient in a post pandemic world.
In the Indian context, the IT industry which was estimated to degrow has actually grown to up to 194 billion dollar revenues up to March 2021. This is an addition of about 4 billion dollar revenues. New workforce models have emerged about 1.38 lakh new jobs have been created in India over the past year in digital sales and concepts of gig economy and enterprise talent cloud have emerged," said Dhanniya Venkatasalapathy, Senior Director and National Head - Information Technology Vertical, Microsoft India.
There is a lot of focus towards digital digital talent acquisition, upskilling the workforce, M&As through digital acquisitions and towards improving overall customer experience. All that can be achieved only by moving away from the legacy model and spending on digital," Venkatasalapathy further said.
The past year has been about thinking out of the box and using ITeS to transform business practices. Some of the changes of 2020 are here to stay and are going to transform the way the IT industry will work in the future.
First, there was Y2K. After that, this is the next big event that is going to move us ahead and throw some new ways of working into our enterprise. Earlier, digital was a WOW factor. But the past one and a half years has seen a conversation shift that is mindboggling. The key factors that encapsulate the change are agility in the industry, catalysts for digitalization and the shift to Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML), and the workforce of the future," said Tushar Phadnis, Senior Director at Global Delivery Partner, Cognizant Technologies Solutions India Private Limited.
The ITeS industry needs to see what kind of a workforce they need to invest into today, that will be relevant a few years later. The existing workforce needs to be transformed and roles across all functions will need to adapt to AI/ML, Cloud and automation.
The clich till even two years ago was that AI will come and take jobs away from humans. But, it is actually turning out to be a force multiplier. I believe that the roles are going to change and how humans interact with digital will transform," Phadnis added.
Business transformation is synonymous with digital solutions today. Even with advanced tools, solutions tend to focus on data aggregation without offering any kind of true insights. The need of the hour is to tailor the solutions to cater to the changing needs of todays work order.
We are helping our clients pivot from looking at historical data and moving it to more predictive modelling, statistical regressive techniques that take the historical data into context and build the information for the future," said Mudit Kumar, VP-Consulting & Global Delivery, Global EProcure.
Mixing of data mining in day to day business operations is a practice which is fast gaining popularity across industries to improve growth trajectories and gain competitive business advantage.
The efforts for digitalization have been on for a long time. What the pandemic did was accelerate the process by 5-10 years. And, the reason why this happened is because one of the key bottlenecks that is user adoption was no longer a challenge. With the power of data, every customer can be treated as a micro segment and we can build services, recommendations around the entire journey to improve revenue realisation and customer lifetime value," said Birender Sen, Business Leader-Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra.
The key challenges that the IT industry is facing today is that synching the customers requirements with a hybrid work strategy, competing with global players for a share of the digital wallet and the fact that companies want to charge more for digitalization as they are hiring more specialists and upskilling existing talent. Now more than ever, it is imperative that stakeholders have an unified view of the operational and commercial side of a business.
Certain digital tools will be indispensable for this transformation. The key tools that our customers are investing in include anything towards building a secure hybrid workplace. The second one is about improving the employee experience and their productivity by enabling them with tools which are low code. Then, building the entire internal efficiency and how Cloud is playing an integral role in DevOps. Last, is data analytics to help companies make quick and informed decisions and improve operational efficiency as well as productivity," said Venkatasalapathy.
With democratization of data come challenges of security. As operations continue remotely, there has been an alarming increase in cyber-attacks across the world and India is no exception.
One of the most important challenges that I have faced was always security, from the point of view of the customer, IT company as well as employee or end user who started working from home since March 2020. While a lot of anti-intrusion tools and technologies have been put in place, the end user appreciation of it has changed in a remote working scenario," said Phadnis.
Over the last 25 years, there has been a brutal focus on efficiency and cost saving. The result was that there was just no redundancy in the system. After the pandemic hit, the top priorities became resilience and continuity vs efficiency and savings. This seems to be the way forward.
There are three building blocks towards this supply chain visibility, looking at end to end value chain using digital tools that allow for collaboration, advanced of advanced digital tools to pull in real-time information from the market," said Kumar.
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Using ITeS to transform businesses and create resilience in a post-Covid world - Livemint
Tuition Scholarship in Spatio-Temporal Data Mining for Mineral Exploration – News – The University of Sydney
1. Background
a. This Scholarship has been established to provide financial assistance to a PhD student where the focus of their research is on spatio-temporal data mining for mineral exploration.
2. Eligibility
a. The Scholarship is offered subject to the applicant with an unconditional offer of admission for full-time studies in a PhD within the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
b. Applicants must be willing to conduct research into spatio-temporal data mining for mineral exploration.
c. Applicants must be an international student.
d. Applicants must also hold at least one of the following:I. an Honours degree (First Class or Second Class Upper) or equivalent in a relevant discipline, orII. Masters degree with a substantial research component.
e. Applicant must have a background in geological resources and geological engineering, with emphasis on mineral exploration and machine learning
f. Applicants must hold a primary scholarship that provides a stipend form the University of Sydney.
3. Selection Criteria
a. The successful applicant will be awarded the Scholarship on the basis of:
I. academic merit,II. area of study and/or research proposal andIII. curriculum vitae.
b. The successful applicant will be awarded the Scholarship on the nomination of the relevant research supervisor(s), or their nominated delegate(s).
4. Value
a. Academic course fees and the Student Services Amenities fee (SSAF) are also provided for a successful international applicant, for 12 research periods, subject to satisfactory academic performance.
b. The recipient may apply for an extension of the academic course fees and SSAF for up to 2 research periods.
c. Periods of study already undertaken towards the degree prior to the commencement of the Scholarship will be deducted from the maximum duration of the Scholarship excluding the potential extension period.
d. The Scholarship is for commencement in the relevant research period in which it is offered and cannot be deferred or transferred to another area of research without prior approval.
e. No other amount is payable.
f. The Scholarship will be offered subject to the availability of funding.
5. Eligibility for Progression
a. Progression is subject to attending and passing the annual progress evaluation.
6. Leave Arrangements
a. Not applicable.
7. Research Overseas
a. The same conditions as indicated in the terms and conditions of the primary stipend scholarship.
8. Suspension
a. The same conditions as indicated in the terms and conditions of the primary stipend scholarship.
9. Changes in Enrolment
a. The same conditions as indicated in the terms and conditions of the primary stipend scholarship.
10. Termination
a. The Scholarship will be terminated:
I. on resignation or withdrawal of the recipient from their research degree,II. upon submission of the thesis or at the end of the award,III. if the recipient ceases to be a full-time student and prior approval has not been obtained to hold the Scholarship on a part-time basis,IV. upon the recipient having completed the maximum candidature for their degree as per the University of Sydney (Higher Degree by Research) Rule 2011 Policy,V. if the recipient receives an alternative primary tuition fee scholarship. In such circumstances this Scholarship will be terminated in favour of the alternative tuition fee scholarship where it is of higher value,VI. if the recipient does not resume study at the end of a period of approved leave, orVII. if the recipient ceases to meet the eligibility requirements specified for this Scholarship, (other than during a period in which the Scholarship has been suspended or during a period of approved leave).
b. The Scholarship may also be terminated by the University before this time if, in the opinion of the University:
I. the course of study is not being carried out with competence and diligence or in accordance with the terms of this offer,II. the student fails to maintain satisfactory progress, orIII. the student has committed misconduct or other inappropriate conduct.
c. The Scholarship will be suspended throughout the duration of any enquiry/appeal process.
d. Once the Scholarship has been terminated, it will not be reinstated unless due to University error.
11. Misconduct
a. Where during the Scholarship a student engages in misconduct, or other inappropriate conduct (either during the Scholarship or in connection with the students application and eligibility for the Scholarship), which in the opinion of the University warrants recovery of funds provided, the University may require the student to repay payments made in connection with the Scholarship. Examples of such conduct include and without limitation; academic dishonesty, research misconduct within the meaning of the Research Code of Conduct (for example, plagiarism in proposing, carrying out or reporting the results of research, or failure to declare or manage a serious conflict of interests), breach of the Code of Conduct for Students and misrepresentation in the application materials or other documentation associated with the Scholarship.
b. The University may require such repayment at any time during or after the Scholarship period. In addition, by accepting this Scholarship, the student consents to all aspects of any investigation into misconduct in connection with this Scholarship being disclosed by the University to the funding body and/or any relevant professional body.
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Lifesciences Data Mining and Visualization Market: North America to Account for Largest Revenues Forecast 2017 to 2026 The Manomet Current – The…
The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application and industry
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The global healthcare data mining & visualizationmarket has been slated to reflect a spectacular rise between the forecast period 2017 and 2026. The market has been estimated to surpass US$ 6,000 Mn in revenues by 2026-end.
Companies Leveraging Lifesciences Data Visualization to Make Improvements in their Facilities
With the business of lifesciences witnessing continuous evolution, optimizing effectiveness of decisions related to capital investment is gaining paramount importance within the industries. The decisions apropos to facility function & location are indispensable, mainly because proximity to services plays pivotal role. Lifescience data visualization has therefore been gaining huge momentum along with its provision of the application-specific data and infographics.
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Lifescience data visualization facilitates better understanding of complex datas graphical representation, which has led companies to capitalize on the technology with an aim to make improvements in their facilities. A popular trend witnessed in the market is increasing importance of sharing lifescience data visualization in a bid to enable discerning of results in a format that is easy to understand.
Data mining is intensively & extensively being utilized by several lifesciences organizations, and is gaining immense popularity in the industry, although the degree of essentiality has been moderate. The data mining applications significantly benefit the lifesciences companies, for example, these organizations can make correct decisions associated with customer relationship management, thereby enabling physicians in identifying best practices as well as effective treatment options. Patients are provided with affordable & improved healthcare services.
Huge amount of highly complex data created by transactions apropos to the lifesciences industry entails challenges such as processing and analyzing the voluminous data by using traditional methods. However, with the help of methodology and technology of data mining, the process of transforming this complex data into a useful intelligence is facilitated.
Key Future Projections of Lifescience Data Mining and Visualization Market for Forecast Period 2017-2026
Key players identified by Fact.MRs report include Tableau Software, SAS Institute Inc., SAP SE, Microsoft Corporation, TIBCO Software Inc., Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation, Dundas Data Visualization Inc., Information Builders, Pentaho Corporation, MicroStrategy Inc., and InetSoft Technology Corporation.
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The report answers important questions which include:
Key findings of the Market report:
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