Snippings

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To that end, the House this week finally passed the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act, which should finally bring some meaningful privacy and security standards to the internet of things (IOT). Cory Gardner, Mark Warner, and other lawmakers note the bill creates some baseline standards for security and privacy that must be consistently updated (what a novel idea), while prohibiting government agencies from using gear that doesn’t pass muster. It also includes some transparency requirements mandating that any vulnerabilities in IOT hardware are disseminated among agencies and the public quickly:

From House Passes Bill To Address The Internet Of Broken Things | Techdirt:

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“Even where a crypto-asset would qualify as a MiFID II financial instrument (the so-called ‘security tokens’), there is a lack of clarity on how the existing regulatory framework for financial services applies to such assets and services related to them. As the existing regulatory framework was not designed with crypto-assets in mind, NCAs [national competent authority] face challenges in interpreting and applying the various requirements under EU law.”

From Leaked document: EU Commission aiming for a front position on crypto regulation – The Tokenizer:

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“ar from sounding the death knell for cash, the rise of digital payments will instead lead to the extinction of the plastic card, according to Deutsche Bank research on the future of payments.”

From “Cash is here to stay – cards are the true dinosaurs”.

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The National Audit Office report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on “The Production and Distribution of Cash” has been published. It makes for some fascinating reading (for people like me) but I think that the most interesting aspect of it is the big picture conclusion about the need for strategy: basically, no one knows what is going on and beyond some vague aspirations, no-one knows what to do about it.

TL:DR; “The declining use of cash is placing increasing pressure on the sustainability of the infrastructure for producing and distributing cash. The current approach to overseeing the cash system is fragmented with no clear link between HM Treasury’s overall objective of safeguarding access to cash for those who need it, the outcome that public bodies want to see and the costs associated with that outcome, and the responsibilities of the individual public bodies involved in the cash system.” [taken from the conclusion to the report].

In short, as I have long maintained, we have no strategy for cashlessness and we need one.

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As part of the research, which is being funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), SRUC researchers are capturing 3D and 2D facial images of the breeding sow population under various, typical commercial situations that are likely to result in different emotional states. 
The images are then processed at UWE Bristol, where state-of-the-art machine learning techniques are being developed to automatically identify different emotions conveyed by particular facial expressions.

From SRUC research hits Netflix – SRUC:

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The Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) and the UK’s four mobile network operators have announced a new initiative aiming to combat fraud by SMS.
BT-owned EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have joined forces to combat SMS-based phishing attacks, with key objectives of raising awareness of phishing by SMS, reducing the number of attacks and helping consumers report it.

From Capacity Media:

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MEF will establish a new SMS SenderID Protection Registry for early 2019. Starting with the banking industry and UK Government agencies, MEF and the operators will launch the cross-network initiative to allow merchants to register and protect the message headers used in SMS communications to consumers.

From Capacity Media:

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In April, UK banks and other financial services companies linked up with the mobile industry in a bid to block scam text messages exploiting the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic from reaching their targets and make sure legitimate messages get through. The initiative was organised by the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), Mobile UK and UK Finance, with support and assistance from the National Cyber Security Centre.

From Banks report surge in impersonation scams:

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“ar from sounding the death knell for cash, the rise of digital payments will instead lead to the extinction of the plastic card, according to Deutsche Bank research on the future of payments.”

From “Cash is here to stay – cards are the true dinosaurs”.

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Tesco Bank is to become the first UK bank to introduce new technology that allows its 2.6 million credit card customers to more easily manage and pay their balance.

The ‘Pay by Bank’ facility will be provided by Tesco Bank and enabled by Mastercard’s Open Banking Connect™ service.  It allows Mobile and Online credit card customers to make payments directly from their current account via electronic payment services.

Tesco Bank introduces new payment technology for 2.6 million credit card customers | Open Banking Expo:

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“Even where a crypto-asset would qualify as a MiFID II financial instrument (the so-called ‘security tokens’), there is a lack of clarity on how the existing regulatory framework for financial services applies to such assets and services related to them. As the existing regulatory framework was not designed with crypto-assets in mind, NCAs [national competent authority] face challenges in interpreting and applying the various requirements under EU law.”

From Leaked document: EU Commission aiming for a front position on crypto regulation – The Tokenizer:

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The decision to make Aadhaar just a number has greatly contributed to the goals of cost reduction, determination of uniqueness, inclusion of the poor and in enabling Aadhaar to become a digital ID platform, rather than a standalone smartcard. There are multiple reasons for the success of this design.

From Why we made Aadhaar a number, and not a card:

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Dhuri said specific information unique to each animal like the footprint, height, weight, colour and tail hair is recorded in the software.

“These details are then fed into the system, which generates a unique code to each cattle. Once the codes are uploaded in the system, they are then made available to all across the country. This unique ID allotted to each cattle is very useful when insuring cattle,” Dhuri said, adding that details of the software will be made available to the public in the next few days.

From Cows on cloud: Unique digital identity for cattle | Goa News – Times of India:

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