2011 Turing Award Winner - Prof. Judea Pearl

2011 A.M. Turing Award Winner Judea Pearl's innovations have enabled remarkable advances in the partnership between humans and machines that is the foundation of Artificial Intelligence. Pearl has also pioneered developments in probabilistic and causal reasoning and their application to a broad range of problems.
For more:
http://amturing.acm.org/

Helix Nebula ‐ the Science Cloud

Big science teams up with big business to kick-start European cloud computing
Geneva, Switzerland - 1st-March-2012
‘Helix Nebula ‐ the Science Cloud’, will support the massive IT requirements of European scientists, and become available to governmental organisations and industry after an initial pilot phase.
The partnership is working to establish a sustainable European cloud computing infrastructure, supported by industrial partners, which will provide stable computing capacities and services that elastically meet demand.
For more:
http://www.cloudsigma.com/en/about-us/press-releases/211

Cloud computing standards - Coming Soon

The University of Melbourne has joined NTT Data and over 300 other companies collaborating on standards to help businesses specify their cloud-computing requirements under the auspices of user-focused group the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the group announced today as it celebrated its first anniversary in an update briefing in Melbourne.
For more:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/nab-bmw-show-off-cloud-standards-progress-339332889.htm?ocid=nl_TNB_02032012_fea_1

Venture Capitalists: Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley

Despite a still sluggish economy, venture capital firms poured a total of $28.4 billion into 3,673 deals last year—one of the highest levels of dollar investments of the decade—with the majority of deals going into the software and biotechnology industries.
The annual figures represent an increase of 22 percent in dollar terms and a 4 percent increase in the number of deals compared with the 2010 figures, according to The MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.
for more: http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/07/venture-capitalists-favor-silicon-valley-but-silicon-alley-is-rising-fast/

Quantum Computing on a Cloud

The new work, by University of Vienna quantum computing pioneer Anton Zeilinger and a team of international scientists, combines the quantum computing and cloud computing.
Quantum computing will use the inherent uncertainties in quantum physics to carry out fast, complex computations.
One of the peculiarities of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics is that objects can be in more than one state at once, with the states of different objects tied together in ways that even Albert Einstein famously referred to as "spooky".
Instead of the 0 and 1 "bits" of digital computing, quantum computing aims to make use of these mixed and entangled states to perform calculations at comparatively breathtaking speeds.
Other quantum trickery comes in cryptography, the art of encrypting data. Data is encoded in delicately prepared states - most often those of single particles of light called photons - and the data cannot be "read" without destroying them.
Quantum cryptography uses this feature to send the "keys" to decrypting messages with high security.
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16636580

Stability Returns to R&D Funding

Reflecting recent trends, pros- pects for R&D funding vary by region, with the United States (U.S.) expect- ing R&D growth to track GDP growth, Europe contemplating fiscal austerity that may restrict investment for several years, and most Asian countries maintaining strong financial commitments to R&D. Total global spending on R&D is anticipated to increase 3.6%, to almost $1.2 trillion. For more: http://www.battelle.org/aboutus/rd/2011.pdf

The White House Cyber Policy Review

Assuring a Trusted and Resilient Information and Communications Infrastructure Cyberspace touches practically everything and everyone. It provides a platform for innovation and prosperity and the means to improve general welfare around the globe. But with the broad reach of a loose and lightly regulated digital infrastructure, great risks threaten nations, private enterprises, and individual rights. The government has a responsibility to address these strategic vulnerabilities to ensure that the United States and its citizens, together with the larger community of nations, can realize the full potential of the information technology revolution. The architecture of the Nation’s digital infrastructure, based largely upon the Internet, is not secure or resilient. Without major advances in the security of these systems or significant change in how they are constructed or operated, it is doubtful that the United States can protect itself from the growing threat of cybercrime and state-sponsored intrusions and operations. http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Cyberspace_Policy_Review_final.pdf

Hardware qualification, a must in a cyber strategy

by paganinip on January 1st, 2012 The ability to manage every aspect of what we have described must be part of a cyber strategy that each country must deploy and that is the only way to guarantee satisfactory security levels. http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=1019281229&gid=43269&type=member&item=87281020&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fsecurityaffairs%2Eco%2Fwordpress%2F1198%2Fcyber-crime%2Fhardware-qualification-a-must-in-a-cyber-strategy%2Ehtml&urlhash=aBLE&goback=%2Egde_43269_member_87281020

2011: security's most spectacular stuff-ups

It has been a giant year in security, with numerous data breaches, a reassessment of whether certificate authorities are safe, accusations of hidden mobile spyware and companies given wake-up calls as to whether they're secure or not. http://www.zdnet.com.au/2011-securitys-most-spectacular-stuff-ups-339328509.htm

Japan tests $2.28m cyber-defence virus

The Japanese government is testing a self-defence virus that has the objective of tracking down the source of cyber attacks and removing the threat. http://www.zdnet.com.au/japan-tests-228m-cyber-defence-virus-339328893.htm