IBM and ABB partner to focus on Internet of Things and Industrial artificial intelligence

ABB has sealed a collaboration agreement with International Business Machines Corp, the Swiss engineering company said on Tuesday, the latest step in its efforts to ramp up its presence in digital technology and the Internet of Things.

In a joint statement ABB said it would combine its digital offering, which gathers information from machinery, with IBM’s expertise in artificial intelligence featured in its Watson data analytics software. The two companies will jointly develop and sell new products.

“This powerful combination marks truly the next level of industrial technology, moving beyond current connected systems that simply gather data, to industrial operations and machines that use data to sense, analyse, optimise and take actions that drive greater uptime, speed and yield for industrial customers,” ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a statement.

For example, instead of manual machinery inspections, ABB and IBM intend to use Watson’s artificial intelligence to help find defects via real-time images collected by an ABB system, and then analysed using IBM Watson.

ABB has identified digital technology – where machinery communicates with control centres to increase productivity and reduce downtime – as a driver of growth. It now gets around 55 percent of sales from products that are digitally enabled.

As part of the drive, the company last year signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft to roll out digital products for customers in the robotics, marine and ports, electric vehicles and renewable energy sectors.

To spearhead its strategy, it appointed former Cisco executive Guido Jouret as its first chief digital officer last year.

Reuters

Publish date: April 25, 2017 12:30 pm| Modified date: April 25, 2017 12:30 pm

McAfee suggests about 2.5 million IoT devices were infected in Q4 of 2016

Image: Linino

Two and a half million Internet of Things (IoT) devices were infected by Mirai botnet by the end of fourth quarter last year, a new report by cyber security company McAfee said on Tuesday.

Mirai is a malware that turns networked devices running on obsolete versions of Linux into remotely controlled “bots” which can be used for a large-scale network attacks.

The ‘McAfee Labs Threats Report April 2017’ estimated that five IoT device IP addresses were infected by Mirai botnet each minute.

“The security industry faces critical challenges in our efforts to share threat intelligence between entities, among vendor solutions, and even within vendor portfolios,” said Vincent Weafer, Vice President McAfee Labs, in a statement.

Overall count of new malware samples grew 24 per cent in 2016 to 638 million samples despite showing a drop of 17 per cent in fourth quarter.

McAfee also detected 176 new cyber-threats every minute, almost three every second in fourth quarter of 2016. Further, the total mobile malware grew 99 per cent in 2016.

“The number of total ransomware samples grew 88 per cent in 2016, despite 71 per cent drop in fourth quarter,” the company said.

The findings further showed that the number of new Mac OS malware samples grew 245 per cent in fourth quarter due to adware bundling, though still small compared to Windows threats. Also, overall Mac OS malware grew 744 per cent in 2016.

IANS

Publish date: April 11, 2017 4:30 pm| Modified date: April 11, 2017 4:30 pm

Cyber attacks in China and Hong Kong grew 969% from 2014 to 2016, says survey

Image credit: Reuters

  30 Nov 2016 , 10:53

Cyber attacks on Chinese companies have soared in the past two years, according to a survey, with new technologies that connect household items to the internet and allow them to receive and send data seen as particularly vulnerable.

The average number of cyber attacks detected by companies in mainland China and Hong Kong grew 969 percent between 2014 and 2016. The number of attacks averaged more than 7 a day for each of the survey’s 440 China-based respondents – around half of the global average of 13.

However, the average number of attacks fell by 3 percent globally over the last two years, and 30 percent since 2015, in contrast to the rise in China.

China’s rapid adoption of new consumer and industrial technology for the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ era may be part of the reason. PwC said such connected devices are the leading targets of cyber-attacks.

“IoT devices in general have not paid attention to cyber security,” said Marin Ivezic, a partner on cyber security at PwC in Hong Kong.

“In China and Hong Kong … we have more adoption than anywhere else in the world,” he said, noting China was also one of the biggest manufacturers of these items.

Chinese-made connected home devices such as webcams with security loopholes that gave way to botnet malwares were blamed by security researchers for a massive cyber attack in the US last month that temporarily paralyzed major internet sites.

The Chinese companies surveyed had cut their cybersecurity budget by 7.6 percent in 2016 compared with flat global spending. Thirty four percent of them identified competitors as a source of attacks, a rate higher than anywhere else in the world.

The PwC survey does not track the country of origin of the attacks, which Ivezic said is “almost impossible”. The drop in the global number of cyber attacks did not reflect a safer environment, he said, but was rather the result of more sophisticated cyber criminals who more selective in who they targeted.

Reuters

Internet search engines need to update to keep up with IoT products, says experts

Image: Linino

  26 Nov 2016 , 14:19

Internet search mechanisms will need to change to support the Internet of Things (IoT) whereby billions of devices will become connected, say experts.

“Search engines have come a long way since their original purpose of locating documents, but they still lack the connection between social, physical and cyber data which will be needed in the IoT era,” said the study’s lead author Payam Barnaghi, Reader in Machine Intelligence at the University of Surrey in England.

“IoT data retrieval will require efficient and scalable indexing and ranking mechanisms, and also integration between the services provided by smart devices and data discovery,” Barnaghi said.

With more and more IoT devices being connected to the internet, there is an urgent need to develop new search solutions which will allow information from IoT sources to be found and extracted, the researchers said.

Complex future technologies such as smart cities, autonomous cars and environmental monitoring will demand machine-to-machine searches that are automatically generated depending on location, preferences and local information.

New requirements will include being able to access numerical and sensory data, and providing secure ways of accessing data without exposing the devices to hackers.

“IoT technologies such as autonomous cars, smart cities and environmental monitoring could have a very positive impact on millions of lives. Our goal is to consider the many complex requirements and develop solutions which will enable these exciting new technologies,” Barnaghi noted.

The article highlighting the latest research in this area by academics at the University of Surrey and Wright State University in the US was published in the journal IEEE Intelligent Systems.

While in the past, human users have searched for information on the web, the IoT will see more machine-to-machine searches which are automatically generated depending on location, preferences and local information.

Autonomous vehicles, for example, will need to automatically collect data (such as traffic and weather information) from various sources without a human user being involved.

The IoT also presents a challenge in terms of cyber security. Applications which rely on public data, such as smart city technologies, need to be very accessible to make them available to a wide range of applications and services.

“I see tremendous opportunities to effectively utilise physical (especially IoT), cyber and social data by improving the abilities of machines to convert diverse data into meaningful abstractions that matter to human experiences and decision making,” Amit Sheth of Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge Enabled Computing at Wright State University said.

“IoT search, particularly for devices or machines to interact with each other to find and aggregate relevant information on a human’s behalf, will become a critical enabler,” Sheth noted.

IANS

550mn users to be connected to 5G networks by 2022: Ericsson Mobility Report

By tech2 News Staff /  25 Nov 2016 , 18:06

Ericsson has released a new Ericsson Mobility Report forecasting the trends in telecom sector across the world. According to the report, there are two major trends that the networking giant can foresee. The first, obvious trend is the rise of 5G networks and consumers subscribing to the network. The second one being rise in mobile broadband to 6.1 bn unique subscribers by 2022.

The report points out that approximately half billion users will be connected to 5G networks by 2022 with almost quarter of all the mobile subscriptions opting for 5G connectivity.

Nearly 25 percent of all the 5G subscriptions in 2022 will come from North America, with the exact figure reaching 550 million. Asia Pacific will closely follow North America regarding the fastest growth of 5G subscribers with about 10 percent of the share. The Middle East and Africa will shift from predominantly GSM/EDGE only to approximately 80 percent of users being connected to WCDMA/HSPA and LTE. The report further points out that the mobile subscriber base is estimated to scale 6.8 billion with over 95 percent people being connected to 4G or 5G networks.

Ulf Ewaldsson, chief strategy and technology officer, Ericsson added, “Almost 90 percent of smartphone subscriptions are on 3G and 4G networks today and standardised 5G networks are expected to be available in 2020.” He further added that 5G would help Automation, IoT and big data.

The second major point discussed in the report was the rise of mobile broadband with approximately 6.1 billion unique subscribers by 2022. To set the context, the world added 84 million new mobile subscriptions during the third quarter of 2016 with India leading regarding net additions with 15 million, with China closely following with 14 million new mobile subscribers.

Ericsson also points out that the mobile video traffic will grow 50 percent every year through 2022, accounting for about 75 percent of all the mobile data traffic. Social Media traffic will be the second type of traffic that will dominate the mobile traffic growing 39 percent each year.

Currently, consumers are focusing on the live streaming aspect along with social networks to interact with friends, family and customers. Two in every five smartphone users are interested in live streaming apps in India and other high-growth countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Oman with the figure dropping to one in every five smartphone users in the United States of America.

Along with 5G and Mobile Broadband, IoT will also see significant growth, with approximately 29 billion devices connected to the internet, out of which 18 billion of the devices relating to IoT.

3 ways state and local governments can ensure the future of 5G mobile networks in the US

Ahead of the White House Frontiers Conference, Richard Adler, of the Institute for the Future, explained how state and local governments can help pave the way for 5G in 2020.

By Conner Forrest | October 11, 2016, 9:25 AM PST



The future of many technologies hinges on the deployment of 5G networks, but there are still a few potential roadblocks to their development Richard Adler, a distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, said in a press call on Tuesday.

The call came a few days before the White House Frontiers Conference kicks off in Pittsburgh. The conference will focus on advances in science and technology, and Adler hosted a call to discuss the importance of 5G networks in supporting innovation and the role they will play in some of the technologies that the conference will focus on.

Mobile data traffic has experienced a 4,000x increase in the past 10 years, Adler said, and the next-generation 5G networks will help increase communication times, and improve speed and bandwidth as traffic continues to grow. The standard for 5G won't be completed until 2020, Adler said, but actions have been taken around the US to lay the foundation for the network.


One of the biggest differences with 5G is that it uses what is known as millimeter wave band, which has a shorter range, but is key to increasing capacity. Because of that, though, providers will

Verizon to use 4G LTE-equipped drones to provide emergency cell service

By Shawn Knight on October 6, 2016, 1:30 PM



Verizon believes the next frontier for the Internet of Things won’t happen in our homes or even on land. Instead, it’ll play out in the sky.

For the past two years, the nation’s largest cellular provider has been working on its Airborne LTE Operations (ALO) initiative which involves outfitting both manned and unmanned aircraft (drones) with 4G LTE wireless connectivity.

Unlike Facebook and Google which intend to use unmanned craft to provide wireless Internet access to remote and underserved regions, part of Verizon’s goal is to use drones to provide mobile connectivity during emergency situations when land-based towers aren’t an option.

In 2012, for example, Hurricane Sandy had a major impact on the communications infrastructure on the East Coast. Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said shortly after the storm that around 25 percent of cell phone towers across 10 states had been damaged or destroyed beyond repair.

In an initial controlled trial, Verizon partnered with American Aerospace Technologies Inc. (AATI) to test connectivity between aerial platforms and Verizon's 4G LTE network using a 17-foot wingspan unmanned aircraft system.

Verizon’s initiative isn’t just for emergency situations. Come next year, the telecom hopes to offer a new suite of services through its ThingSpace IoT platform that could be used for all sorts of tasks such as inspecting pipelines and high-voltage power lines, gathering traffic data and keeping tabs on farmland through aerial imaging.

Infographic charts history and potential risks of the Industrial Internet of Things

By 2020 the IIoT is expected to be a multi-billion dollar market. With massive scale comes massive security challenges. Security expert Lancen LaChance share his enterprise security best practices checklist.

By Dan Patterson | October 4, 2016, 9:01 AM PST

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to describe networked objects. For consumers, "smart devices" can range from watches, to refrigerators, to chairs. For example, in the analogue world, a chair is simply a chair. IoT chairs, however, might be equipped with sensors that report data like posture, weight change over time, time spent sitting, and other metrics. When combined with sophisticated software, these stats provide unique and useful insights.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is a broad term that refers to the rapid rise of industrial automation in the past decade and encompasses networked, "smart," homes, cities, and electrical grids. "The IIoT holds great potential for improved communications, productivity, quality control, supply chain efficiencies, and overall business operations," said Lancen LaChance, VP of IoT solutions at GlobalSign.

IIoT devices are switched online every day. In 2014 the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that the total IoT market could hit $7.1 trillion by 2020 and account for nearly half of all connected devices. Lux Researchestimated the Industrial IoT market alone would hit $151 billion by

Arduino unleashes a serious Internet of Things system for hardware hackers

Posted 15 hours ago by John Biggs (@johnbiggs)

Back in the old days hardware manufacturers felt safe in the knowledge that no mere hardware hacker could attempt to recreate their inventions. From Sony to Philips to LG to Samsung, the consumer electronics industry was locked up and no one could crack the case. Until those meddling Arduino kids came along…

Now anyone can make cool hardware and, thanks to Arduino, it is easier than ever to connect your devices to the Internet and take in data from the outside world. TheESLOV IoT Invention Kit is an official Arduino product that adds Internet of Things capabilities to your hardware products. Trying to build a connected fridge to beat Samsung? Go for it with the ESLOV. Want to knock Sony off its perch? Try popping an ESLOV unit onto your Arduino board and take on major manufacturers from your living room.

Think of the ESLOV system as a sort of Mindstorms on steroids. This self-described “plug-and-play toolkit” lets you connect multiple sensors and outputs together to create various systems. This chart shows a few of the possible permutations. Everything is controlled via Arduino’s online IDE.







The system consists of various sensors as well as a Wi-Fi hub. Interestingly each sensor runs a ATmega328P processor, the same one found on the Arduino Uno. The entry-level $99 kit includes a WiFi and motion hub, a button, a buzzer, and an LED. The Pro model includes a Hall sensor, OLED Display, and GPS – 22 modules in total – for $499. The $249 intermediate kit seems to contain everything you need to get started, however.

The company is raising on Kickstarter and they’re looking for a hefty $500,000. They’ve hit $15K so far but with a little love from the maker community I think they can get it done. The kit should ship next July.