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The Treasury Department slapped six Russian technology companies with sanctions for supporting Kremlin intelligence agencies engaged in "dangerous and disruptive cyber attacks." But only one of them stands out for its international footprint and partnerships with such IT heavyweights as Microsoft and IBM . That company, Positive Technologies , claims more than 2,000 customers in 30 countries, including major European banks Societe Generale and ING, as well as Samsung , SK Telecom of South Korea and BT, the British telecommunications giant. Its clients also include the FSB, a successor to the KGB that "cultivates and co-opts criminal hackers" who carry out ransomware and phishing attacks, the Treasury Department said. The U.S. said big conventions hosted by Positive Technologies are "used as recruiting events" by the FSB and the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. GRU agents are the swashbucklers of Russian intelligence. The agency stands accused of … [Read more...] about Sanctioned Russian IT company Positive Technologies partners with Microsoft, IBM

Forward-looking: We still have to wait a bit more for the adoption of DDR5 as the new standard, but manufacturers are already hard at work on it. Micron, Samsung, Team Group, and SK Hynix are some of the companies known for developing DDR5 memory modules, but Netac is joining them with something new. The Chinese memory manufacturer plans to develop DDR5 memory modules clocked at over 10,000 MHz. The DDR5 memory standard released by JEDEC set clock speeds between 4,800 MHz and 6,400 MHz, but SK Hynix and Samsung have already promised more than that. Samsung stated that its DDR5 memory would go up to 7,200 MHz, and SK Hynix went a step further claiming it would reach speeds as high as 8,400 MHz. Netac, which has just announced that it received the first batch of DDR5 DRAM memory chips from Micron, plans to push DDR5 memory speeds even higher, going beyond the 10,000 MHz barrier. The Micron chips Netac received have the IFA45 Z9ZSB FBGA code. According to Micron , these … [Read more...] about Memory maker aims to develop DDR5 modules clocked at over 10,000 MHz

Russia is revisiting its Soviet space heritage for a new series of missions that will take the nation back to the m o on . The first of those missions, dubbed Luna 25, is scheduled to launch this October, ending a 45-year drought of Russian moon landings with the nation's first arrival at the south pole, where, like everyone else targeting the moon, Russian scientists want to study water locked below the surface in permanent ice. "The moon is the center of our program for the next decade," Lev Zelenyi, scientific advisor for the Russian Space Research Institute, said during a virtual presentation on March 23 hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. Lunar timeline: Humanity's explorations of the moon Russia has plenty of company in sketching out ambitious lunar exploration programs. The United States is targeting human exploration with its Artemis program , which also incorporates plenty of robotic moon missions. In December, China … [Read more...] about Russia is going back to the moon this year

The US logged another 4 million or so vaccinations Friday, bringing the total doses administered in the country over 200 million at the time of writing. Over 127 million adults—38.5 percent of the US population—have received at least one shot. Over 80 million adults—24 percent of the US population—are now fully vaccinated. The seven-day rolling average of US vaccinations per day is now around 3.35 million and the Biden administration is on track to make its latest goal of 200 million vaccinations within the first 100 days in office. Even with a current pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, Biden officials expect availability of vaccine to remain strong. “Vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer are still widely available,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a White House COVID-19 press briefing Friday. “We continue to work with pharmacies, states, and FEMA to make sure the vaccine supply remains robust across the … [Read more...] about At 38.5% vaccinated, US may be running low on people eager for a shot

The choices that humans make aren't always the wisest. executive guide What is AI? Everything you need to know about Artificial Intelligence A guide to artificial intelligence, from machine learning and general AI to neural networks. Read More All too often, they're based on some mixture of self-regard, self-indulgence, and sheer laziness. You'd think, though, that if you really love a service, you'll remain loyal to it. I'm not so sure about that. Because here is the regular leader in truly human fast-food customer service deciding that it needs robotic help. We're speaking, with much reverence, of Chick-fil-A . This occasionally sanctimonious chicken chain is regularly at the summit of the American Customer Satisfaction Index . Its customer service humans are said to be exemplars of fine behavior. Yet here is the chain announcing that it's experimenting with robotic delivery. Specifically, the Kiwibot 4.0 . The chain told Restaurant … [Read more...] about Chick-fil-A wants you to spend $2 not to go to Chick-fil-A