Archive: Technology

112 stories filed under Technology

Lancashire Cricket puts mobile tickets on the blockchain

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Lancashire Cricket becomes first organisation to activate blockchain secure ticketing — Lancashire Cricket — “Lancashire Cricket is leading the way in ticketing technology after becoming the first organisation in the UK, in any industry, to activate blockchain secure mobile tickets for all domestic and international fixtures at Emirates Old Trafford in 2020. The club will be using TIXnGO, a new blockchain mobile tickets platform, after successful trials took place during the 2019 season.”

Samsung to include a cryptocurrency key store in the Galaxy S10?

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Samsung Blockchain KeyStore confirmed by Galaxy S10 leaked images — SamMobile — “The images show the Samsung Blockchain Keystore app running on the Galaxy S10. The splash page mentions that this app is a ‘secure and convenient place for your cryptocurrency’… There’s also going to be a relevant menu item for Blockchain KeyStore in the Settings app under the Biometrics and Security section. It mentions that the service lets users secure and manage their blockchain private key.”

Researchers show how invisible backdoors can be hidden in chips during manufacture

By Mike Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Adding backdoors at the chip level — Schneier on Security — “In this paper we propose an extremely stealthy approach for implementing hardware Trojans below the gate level… we insert our hardware Trojans by changing the dopant polarity of existing transistors. Since the modified circuit appears legitimate on all wiring layers (including all metal and polysilicon), our family of Trojans is resistant to most detection techniques.”

New protocol alerts users to encryption breaches

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Computer scientists address gap in messaging privacy — University of Birmingham — “With current end-to-end encryption, if an attacker compromises a recipient’s device, they can then put themselves in a position to intercept, read and alter all future communications without sender or recipient ever knowing. The new protocol, published in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, forces attackers to leave evidence of any such activity and alerts users to take action.”

Researchers demo voice assistant security flaw

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

A simple design flaw makes it astoundingly easy to hack Siri and Alexa — Co.Design — “Using a technique called the DolphinAttack, a team from Zhejiang University translated typical vocal commands into ultrasonic frequencies that are too high for the human ear to hear, but perfectly decipherable by the microphones and software powering our always-on voice assistants. This relatively simple translation process lets them take control of gadgets with just a few words uttered in frequencies none of us can hear.”

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control — MIT — “MIT researchers have now developed a system that enables small, safe, aerial drones to read RFID tags from tens of meters away while identifying the tags’ locations with an average error of about 19 centimeters. The researchers envision that the system could be used in large warehouses for both continuous monitoring, to prevent inventory mismatches, and location of individual items, so that employees can rapidly and reliably meet customer requests.”

First battery-free cellphone makes calls by harvesting ambient power

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

First battery-free cellphone makes calls by harvesting ambient power — University of Washington — “University of Washington researchers have invented a cellphone that requires no batteries — a major leap forward in moving beyond chargers, cords and dying phones. Instead, the phone harvests the few microwatts of power it requires from either ambient radio signals or light.”

Ticketmaster will soon admit you to events using audio data transmitted from your phone

By Rian Boden • • Updated • nfcw.com

Ticketmaster will soon admit you to events using audio data transmitted from your phone — VentureBeat — “Ticketmaster will soon be able to admit you to live events and track your movement using nothing more than a discrete digital audio broadcast from your smartphone… The ticketing giant has teamed up with Lisnr, a data-over-audio company that uses an ultrasonic sound technology it calls ‘smart tones’ to transmit information between devices.”

Synthetic fingerprints make plastic particles tiny security keys

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Synthetic fingerprints make plastic particles tiny security keys — New Scientist — “Microscopic wrinkles squeezed onto the surface of tiny plastic particles could be used to create security keys that are impossible to duplicate… The particles could be used to verify a person’s identity instead of them using a security card, or their own fingerprint. The particles could also be fixed to a priceless piece of art so people can be sure it’s the real deal.”

Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things forecast to reach nearly $1.4 trillion in 2021

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things forecast to reach nearly $1.4 trillion in 2021 — IDC — “A new update to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) to grow 16.7% year over year in 2017, reaching just over $800 billion. By 2021, global IoT spending is expected to total nearly $1.4 trillion.”

Rise of the technophobe – education key to tech adoption, says HSBC

By Rian Boden • • nfcw.com

Rise of the technophobe – education key to tech adoption, says HSBC — HSBC — “The study of more than 12,000 people in 11 countries reveals four in every five people (80%) believe that technology makes their lives easier but less than half (46%) trust fingerprint recognition to replace their password, despite it being recognised to be at least five times more secure and significantly more convenient than traditional passwords.”

International standard completed for high rate close proximity wireless communications exceeding 10 Gbps data rate

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

International standard completed for high rate close proximity wireless communications exceeding 10 Gbps data rate — TransferJet Consortium — “This new standard maintains the intuitive ease-of-use and can instantly transfer any type of data including large 4K definition and VR (virtual reality) video files… The required connection setup time has been reduced to 2 msec or less, allowing new usage scenarios such as the delivery of content while walking through ticketing gates.”

Xiaomi and Apple tie for the top position as the wearables market swells 17.9% during the first quarter, according to IDC

By Rian Boden • • Updated • nfcw.com

Xiaomi and Apple tie for the top position as the wearables market swells 17.9% during the first quarter, according to IDC — International Data Corporation — “The worldwide wearables market maintained its upward trajectory during the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17) with Xiaomi and Apple leading all companies and multiple products experiencing double- and triple-digit growth.”

EU agency calls for action on IoT security

By Rian Boden • • Updated • nfcw.com
ENISA logo

The EU Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) is calling on the European Commission to define a policy framework ensuring minimal requirements for the security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices along with the development of mandatory staged requirements for security and privacy to give stakeholders a “level playing field” in implementing trust into connected devices and IoT systems. More

Researchers create a T-shirt that monitors the wearer’s breathing rate in real time

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

Researchers create a T-shirt that monitors the wearer’s breathing rate in real time — Université Laval — “The key to the smart T-shirt is an antenna sewn in at chest level that’s made of a hollow optical fiber coated with a thin layer of silver on its inner surface. The fiber’s exterior surface is covered in a polymer that protects it against the environment… As the wearer breathes in, the smart fiber senses the increase in both thorax circumference and the volume of air in the lungs… These changes modify some of the resonant frequency of the antenna.”