Develop digital forensic infrastructure to deal with Dark Web: NHRC chief

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 26, 2023 | Technology

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice Arun Kumar Mishra on Sunday expressed concern about the Dark Web and the threat it poses to society, adding that there is a need to develop a digital forensic infrastructure to deal with it.

Speaking at a Constitution Day event here, the former Supreme Court judge also said that public interest litigations (PILs) should not be used for political purposes.

“We live in the digital era which is helpful for progress and development. There is a phenomenon of increasing the number of internet users. However, 96 per cent of the cyberspace is the Dark Web. It is used for criminal purposes such as exploitation of children, destroying the right to privacy, modern slavery, trafficking, and demanding ransom by data hacking…it must be stopped,” the NHRC chief said.

“We must invest and develop a broad-based digital forensic infrastructure to tackle the misuse of cyberspace and criminal commerce. At the same time we have to ensure the digital divide is not there,” he said.

Noting that several reforms have been brought in through PILs, Mishra said, “PIL is useful, however its misuse for political purpose must stop.”

He also said that to ensure that the goal of the Constitution is achieved, violence-free elections must be ensured.

“Violence has no place in the democratic process. Fair election is recognised as a human right,” he said.

“The time has come to distinguish between the promise made to voters to create an egalitarian social order…and when freebies promised will be equal to luring voters by forbidden means in election. The same needs to be determined at the appropriate level and forum, if necessary by specific legislation,” he said.

Talking about gender equality, the human rights panel chief said the time has come to define the phrase “gender equality”.

“Women are still discriminated against, they should enjoy the same rights,” he said.

Mishra also said the Constitution enshrines the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam’ (world is one family) and added it has secured our past and present and will ensure a better future for the generations to come.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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iPhone notifications to MPs: Apple to meet CERT-In officials this month

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 25, 2023 | Technology

Apple’s cyber security executives from the US are expected to meet officials of CERT-In this month regarding the show cause notice issued to the company in the wake of several opposition MPs receiving a warning notification on their iPhones.

Last month, several opposition leaders claimed they have received an alert from Apple warning them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government.

CERT-In, which comes under Meity, had issued a show cause notice to Apple in this regard.

On Friday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Apple has to reply to the notice which needs to be done by their global cyber security team.

“They have to come here and answer those questions. Basic issue is ongoing,” the minister told reporters.

He said that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In has met local representatives of Apple but the issue is beyond their capability to respond.

“It is their cyber security people who have to come and meet CERT-In and they will come all the way from the US,” the minister said.

When asked about the deadline given to Apple to submit its response, the minister said he is not certain about the dates but expects the team to meet Cert-In officials sometime this month.

A Meity official said that the Apple cyber security team will come this month only if they get a visa on time.

Meanwhile, the Members of Parliament (MPs) who received the warning notification on their iPhones include Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, T S Singhdeo and Bhupinder S Hooda; Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received the notification.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Internet, tech can do harm if not regulated via prism of safety: MoS IT

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 24, 2023 | Technology

Internet and technology – unless regulated carefully through the prism of safety and trust – have the power to harm users, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday, adding that ‘guardrails’ have to be carefully developed without over-regulating innovation.

The Minister of State for IT and Electronics said that while artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the biggest inventions of recent times, the government is committed to ensuring the safety of users on digital platforms, given that India is one of the largest connected nations in the world with almost 850 million Indians already using the internet and 1.2 billion estimated to do so by 2025-26.

In a video message at the ‘DATE with Tech’ event, the minister also drew attention to the issue of deepfakes.

“You have heard recently our Prime Minister call out the risks of deepfakes. We have all been aware, especially some of us from my generation, who always believe that technology is a great enabler and is a force for good, but the recent events in the last 10 years have also shown that unless regulated carefully and through the prism of safety and trust, internet and the broader technology ecosystem can also be a power for harm and criminality,” the minister said.

Therefore, “guardrails carefully developed without over-regulating innovation is something that we are focusing on, working with the rest of the world,” he noted.

The safety and trust of all online users (digital nagriks) is a policy imperative.

India is an extraordinary case study of the deployment of technology for the public good, he said, highlighting the success of the UPI.

“Technology at scale has been demonstrated in India…it is not only about creating unicorns, billionaires, and jobs but fundamentally transforming governance and democracy,” Chandrasekhar said.

The digitalisation of governance and economy has led to an extremely vibrant ecosystem of startups in the country.

“UPI has spawned one of the world’s most exciting fintech systems in the world, which is now growing and thriving and creating unprecedented opportunities in India,” he said.

India’s technology prowess has gone beyond the traditionally-strong areas of IT and ITES, and now covers all-new, critical and emerging areas of technology.

“Today, we are living in an era where every aspect of the digital economy, innovation economy, semiconductors, micro-electronics, quantum, high-performance computing, AI…every area of technology and innovation economy has an Indian flag with one, two or more Indian startups that are doing very well,” he said.

India has established its presence in every area shaping the future of technology, he added.

“Be it next-generation AI chips, cybersecurity platforms…any of the areas that are important in terms of growth and opportunity and in shaping the future of technology, we have India presence there firmly,” Chandrasekhar said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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WD starts shipping its 24TB CMR HDD, ramps up 28TB SMR HDD: Details

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 24, 2023 | Technology

Western Digital (WD) has started shipping its 10-disk CMR Hard Disk Drive line with 24 TB storage space for hyperscale, cloud and enterprise data centre users. WD has also ramped up production of the new 28TB SMR HDD, which has been sampling since August.

WD said that these drives are built on a platform specifically designed for data centre customers, providing the highest storage capacity while being cost-effective. The company claims these new generation HDDs are 10 per cent more energy efficient per terabyte compared to the previous generation while being sustainable.

“The 24TB CMR HDDs and 28TB SMR HDDs not only address the escalating demands of data-intensive applications but also contribute significantly to our sustainability goals. These innovations support our mission to help our customers create digital infrastructure that is not only technologically advanced but also environmentally conscious.” Said Khalid Wani, Senior Director – Sales, Western Digital India.

28TB Ultrastar DC HC680 SMR HDD: Details

WD said that at 28TB, the new Ultrastar DC HC680 SMR HDD provides the necessary storage density for hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers. It has been designed for sequential write workloads where storage density, power consumption per terabyte and running cost per terabyte are critical parameters. It targets environments such as bulk storage, online backup and archive, video surveillance, cloud storage, storage for regulatory compliance, big data storage, and other applications where data may be infrequently accessed.

24TB Ultrastar DC HC580 CMR HDD: Details

The Ultrastar DC HC580 24TB CMR HDD comes with improved OptiNAND technology, allowing data centre customers to maximise their storage within the same footprint, and in power-constrained environments. For better storage density, the HC580 can enable up to 612TB 1 of raw storage per rack unit in a 4U 102-drive bay solution. These drives are also more power efficient, providing 12% less power consumption per terabyte compared to the company’s previous 22TB version.

WD said, the Ultrastar DC HC680 and HC580 HDDs are currently being qualified by select hyperscalers, CSPs and OEM customers and are now available for large enterprise customers.

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What is Q Star, AI breakthrough allegedly responsible for Altman’s ouster?

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 24, 2023 | Technology

Sam Altman’s ouster from OpenAI, known for its artificial intelligence (AI) software ChatGPT, and his eventual return have been the most important news in the AI world for the past week. While nobody knows exactly why OpenAI’s board decided to remove Altman as the company’s chief executive officer (CEO), a recent report suggests that a software named Q Star (Q*) may be behind it.

Herw we will try to understand what is this Q Star software. But before that, let us first understand what AGI or artificial general intelligence is, which is behind the software.

What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)?

Most chatbots today, including ChatGPT, are specialised language models that focus on specific tasks and are trained for specific use cases. Although they interact with the user, they do so in an interactive manner.

Now, imagine software that thinks and evolves like humans. Its abilities are not limited to one field but include nearly everything. It has cognitive abilities and can learn and improve its capabilities over time. According to ChatGPT, AGI is capable of outperforming humans at “nearly any economically valuable work”.

In a blog post earlier this year, Altman wrote at length about AGI. The blog read, “AGI has the potential to give everyone incredible new capabilities; we can imagine a world where all of us have access to help with almost any cognitive task, providing a great force multiplier for human ingenuity and creativity.”

“If AGI is successfully created, this technology could help us elevate humanity by increasing abundance, turbocharging the global economy, and aiding in the discovery of new scientific knowledge that changes the limits of possibility,” it added.

However, no company has officially claimed that they have developed AGI software.

What is Q Star?

Now, Q Star may bring OpenAI one step closer to making AGI a reality. According to a Reuters report, before Altman’s ouster from the company, a group of researchers sent a critical letter to the board discussing a new AI breakthrough, likely to be Q Star.

The report said Q Star could perform grade school-level mathematical questions. It aced the exams, making researchers optimistic about its future success.

Notably, Maths is considered to be a frontier for generative AI development.

Most models today are good at writing and translating. However, solving mathematical problems with only one solution shows that its reasoning capability works like human intelligence.

However, no official word about Q Star’s capability has yet been released by the company.

Why did it ring alarm bells?

The researchers, in their letter to OpenAI’s board, said that it may pose a threat to humanity. They also raised their concerns about the “over-commercialisation” of AI capabilities before completely understanding their consequences.

Is any other company working on AGI?

No other company has officially discussed working on AGI models, but reports suggest that Amazon may be in the race. According to a Business Insider report, Amazon is planning to build its own foundational models, AGI conversational assistants, and related infrastructure services.

It has also appointed Rohit Prasad, who earlier headed Alexa, as the head scientist on AGI at Amazon.

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Govt to enable citizens to file FIR against social media companies

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 24, 2023 | Technology

The government will assist citizens in filing FIR against social media platforms for violation of IT rules in case they are aggrieved from objectionable content like deep fakes.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will develop a platform on which users can notify about IT rule violation by social media platforms.

“Meity will assist users to very easily notify it about violation of IT rules and assist them in filing FIRs,” the minister said.

He was speaking to the media after a meeting with social media platforms. “From today onwards there is zero tolerance for violation of IT rules,” Chandrasekhar said.

The FIR will be registered against the intermediary and if they disclose the details from where the content has originated then the FIR will be filed against the entity that has posted the content, the minister said.

He said that social media platforms have been given seven days time to align their terms of use, as per the IT rules.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Nov 24 2023 | 1:13 PM IST

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