To trace or not to trace — and how

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the tech news
story of the past few days has been the Apple-Google partnership against
COVID-19. 

Announced last week, the unlikely union
between the two giants will focus on developing an app to help determine if a
person has been in close contact with an infected individual. 

The system will let users opt-in, providing
anonymous and decentralised tracing. Much like a tool previously proposed by
MIT researchers, the app will theoretically ensure privacy by leveraging
Bluetooth connectivity.

The news, however, has sparked a global
debate on the potential security and surveillance
implications of implementing the technology. 

Is anonymity really guaranteed? Should this
power be in the hands of private companies or controlled by public
institutions?  

The two companies held a media call earlier this week to answer questions by reporters. Here’s TechCrunch’s account of what was discussed in that call.    

If you’d like to dive deeper into the specifics, here’s a look at how these tracing tools work.  

And they keep burning 5G towers…

Last week we touched on an ongoing phenomenon
that sounds surreal even in these strange times.

Some people in the UK are attacking 5G cell
towers, believing them to be linked to COVID-19. 

Well — it looks like events keep escalating,
fueled by ludicrous conspiracy theories and social media claims that 5G is
behind the spread of the disease. 

According to industry body Mobile UK, the country’s
network received more than
20 attacks over the weekend. 

It turns out that one of the attacks was
directed at — wait for it — a 5G tower servicing a nearby hospital. 

Genius. 

Like the virus itself, this wave of disinformation seems to be spreading like wildfire, with incidents now being reported in the Netherlands.

Cybersecurity 

Now more than ever, ensuring your network and
data security is critical for business success. 

Remote
work has multiplied the number of potential points of entry for attackers,
while phishing attacks are easier to carry out thanks to greater use of social
media and email tools.

Just in
the US, a cybersecurity consultancy firm claims to have experienced a 500% increase in
attacks directly related to work-from-home individuals. 

Now is the time to strengthen your IT security team, if you haven’t done so yet. 

But hurry up. The skills shortage is getting worse.

News from the frontlines…

One more week equals one more look at the new
tech initiatives being launched to help fight the novel pandemic. 

Speaking
of cybersecurity, Microsoft announced
that its
AccountGuard security service is now available for free for healthcare staff,
as well as for human rights and humanitarian organisations. 

The
company has also released
a new
security patch addressing 113 bugs. Make sure to update your system.

Cloud provider DigitalOcean has created a hub where developers can share their projects aimed at tackling the crisis. The various initiatives go from hackathons to remote learning and quarantine support platforms.  

A start-up called Thoughtful Human has partnered with BetterHelp to offer a free month of emotional support with licensed therapists.

Working on Mars — from home

Nothing better to remind you that you’re not
alone working from home.

NASA’s Curiosity team keeps operating the Mars rover from the comfort of their households. Inspiring to say the least.

If they can coordinate across time zones and different computing setups to drive a robot that’s millions of miles away, we can all weather this storm.