China captured a spy tool deployed by the US National Security Agency, which is capable of lurking in a victim's computer to access sensitive information and was found to have controlled global internet equipment and stole large amounts of users' information, according to a report the Global Times obtained from the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center exclusively on Monday. `
According to the report, the Trojan horse, "NOPEN," is a remote control tool for Unix/Linux computer systems. It is mainly used for stealing files, accessing systems, redirecting network communication, and viewing a target device's information. `
Through technical analysis, the center believes that the "NOPEN" Trojan horse is characterized by complex technology, comprehensive functions and strong concealment, which can fit a variety of processor architectures and operating systems. It can also collaborate with other cyber weapons and is a typical tool used for cyber espionage. `
The report came after the NSA was exposed to have been launching cyberattacks against 47 countries and regions for a decade, with Chinese government departments, high-tech companies and military-related institutes among the key targets. Under the surveillance of the NSA, the privacy and sensitive information of hundreds of millions of people around the world were exposed, like "running around naked." `
Photo: Courtesy of National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center `
Cybersecurity experts told the Global Times that once the Trojan was planted into a victim's computer, it would become a "lurker" waiting for the "code" and opening the "vault door" for hackers. The Trojan also could turn a victim's computer into a bridge tower, allowing hackers to go deeper into the group where the victim works and grasp the company's information. `
According to the center's report, the "NOPEN" can remotely control most existing network servers and terminals, which can be manually implanted by attackers, or cyberattack platforms by the NSA. It can execute a variety of instructions such as information theft and destruction. `
Evidence shows that the NSA used the "NOPEN" Trojan horse to control a large number of internet devices around the world and steal user privacy data, which has caused inestimable losses. `
According to internal NSA documents leaked by hacking group Shadow Brokers, "NOPEN" is one of the powerful weapons used by the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) to attack and steal secrets. `
"As the research and development arm of the world's top military power, the NSA cannot develop weapons that rust in their arsenals," a Chinese cybersecurity expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. "The international community has learned from the PRISM scandal that the US military intelligence agency has been conducting network monitoring and cybertheft of countries around the world for a long time, and these cyber weapons are an important means of its implementation of network monitoring." `
In April 2017, the Shadow Brokers released a large number of cyberattack tools developed by the NSA. As the NSA is affiliated with the US Department of Defense, the tools are widely believed to be used for military purposes as "cyber weapons." `
For example, on May 12, 2017, the worldwide WannaCry ransomware used EternalBlue, a computer exploit developed by the NSA to attack unpatched computers, which brought serious damage and data loss to many enterprises and individuals, according to media reports. The incident enabled the international community to witness for the first time the terrible power of cyber weapons, but such weapons of mass destruction are only the tip of the iceberg in the NSA's vast arsenal. `
"The vast majority of the NSA's arsenal consists of stealth fighters and submarines that can easily attack victims without theirknowledge," the anonymous expert said, noting that the "NOPEN" Trojan horse is the main weapon of the NSA's arsenal. `
The expert said the center's report sounds an alarm to the world as there are likely a large number of undetected victims online, who face long-term and serious cybersecurity risks. The leakage and proliferation of these cyber weapons further aggravate the increasingly severe network security situation, seriously endanger the overall security of the cyberspace, turning military confrontation in cyberspace into a "zero-sum" game.
After years of data breaches exposing individuals’ personal information, cyberthieves will increasingly use that information to attack businesses in 2022, according to the Identity theft resource Centre’s predictions for the coming year.
`
“We also tracked a record number of data breaches and a steady flow of new victims of unemployment benefits identity fraud long after the enhanced benefits ended,” said eva Velasquez, president and CEO of Identity theft resource Centre.
`
Velasquez anticipates an increase this year in the number of people who have been victims of identity theft multiple times. And she warned of particular risk ahead as people change how they pay for things.
`
“Look for cybercriminals to take advantage of the shift to alternative digital payment methods, such as payment apps, digital wallets and peer-to-peer services,” Velasquez said.
`
With cryptocurrency becoming increasingly popular, scammers will find new ways to steal from consumers, according to the resource centre, which is a US nonprofit that tracks data compromises and provides free assistance to victims.
` The centre’s predictions for 2022 include:
`
l An accelerated shift from identity theft to use of already stolen personal information and credentials to commit identity fraud and attack businesses.
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l Consumers may shift away from some online transactions and email communications due to the increasing problem of phishing, which is when cybercriminals use a fraudulent email or website to masquerade as a legitimate business or person.
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l the effects of pandemicrelated fraud will continue into 2024, with some fraud cases taking years to resolve and unemployment compensation fraud efforts likely becoming permanent.
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l ransomware, when hackers use malicious software to infect and lock a computer network and demand demand money to restore access, may surpass phishing as the top cause of data breaches.
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l Supply chain attacks, which is when malware infects a single organisation that is linked to multiple others, will become more common.
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l Single incident attacks will impact greater numbers of individuals, including social media account takeovers that victimise followers and networks.
`
“All of these trends point toward increases in identity fraud that will change consumer behaviours, revictimisation rates and pandemicrelated identity crimes for years to come,” Velazquez said.
`
“We expect to see these types of cyberattacks and who they target continue to evolve as they did in 2021.”
` The resource centre called for wider consumer education efforts and improved data protection. the number of publicly reported data compromises was already higher last year than in all of 2020. the centre’s third quarter report shows that as of Sept 30, 2021, data compromises rose by nearly 17% over all of 2020. the report found that nearly 281.5 million people were victims last year. there were 1,291 data compromise events in 2021, compared to 1,108 in all of 2020. the record is 1,529 in 2017.
`
In November, the resource centre released data showing that 16% of 1,050 US adult consumers surveyed took no action after receiving a data breach notice, according to the survey by the resource centre and Dig.works, a consumer research company.
` Fewer than one-third of survey respondents had frozen their credit at one time for any reason and only 3% did so after receiving a data breach notice, the survey found.
– Journal-news, Hamilton, Ohio/tribune News Service
Here’s how you can thwart websites from tracking your every movement.
THERE are several reasons that your Windows 10 PC is overrun by web trackers, bits of software code that follow you online to help marketers learn more about you.
The money trail
Nearly all commercial websites use them to create an elaborate profile of your tastes and habits, a profile that the websites can use themselves or sell to others.
Your online movements are tracked by cookies (bits of code left in your web browser), Google and Facebook tracker software (that follows you even when you aren’t on their websites), session recorders (that record everything you do on a website), key-loggers (that record what you type into text boxes on a website, even if you don’t submit anything), beacons (invisible objects in a web page that record how many times you viewed that page) and “fingerprinting” (a record of the technical details of your computer that can be used to identify you.)
While privacy advocates are aware of web trackers, most people aren’t. As a result, web tracking keeps expanding.
A recent study showed that 87% of the most popular websites now track your movements, whether you sign in to the website or not (see tinyurl.com/yyy5qyas).
You can view the web trackers on any website at tinyurl.com/y2em59e6.
Also, Windows 10 may indeed attract more web tracker software, because it collects more personal information about you than earlier versions of Windows did.
Microsoft shares some of that information with advertisers.
Throw it off track
Until recently, web browsers didn’t offer much protection against web tracking.
The latest versions of the four most popular browsers – Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari – have improved (but not perfect) anti-tracking features.
A reviewer of the latest Safari browser reported that it blocked 90 web trackers in five minutes of online activity.
But be sure your browser’s anti-tracking features are turned on.
Also, adjust the privacy settings in Windows 10.
The Windows 10 settings you may want to change include the “advertising ID” (monitors your online travels for advertisers), “location tracking” (helps advertisers localise what they promote to you), “Timeline” (keeps track of what you’re doing so that you can switch from one PC to another without interruption) and Cortana, the Windows 10 digital assistant (monitors your location, email, contacts, and calendar, and keeps a record of every “chat” you’ve had with Cortana).
You can also add more anti-tracking add-ons to your web browser.
Top-rated add-ons include Duckduckgo Privacy Essentials, Privacy Badger and Ghostery. – Star Tribune/tribune News Service - By STEVEN ALEXANDER
Have you ever wondered how websites and apps track you on the net? Why do other websites show you advertisements from Amazon about exactly the product you looked at before? How does online tracking work? We explain to you how Google, Facebook and Co track you on the Internet. What is your opinion about online tracking? Write it in the comments...
An AI technology has won praise for its ability to generate coherent stories, novels and even computer code. — AFP Relaxnews
An artificial intelligence (AI) technology made by a firm co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk has won praise for its ability to generate coherent stories, novels and even computer code but it remains blind to racism or sexism.
GPT-3, as Californian company OpenAI’s latest AI language model is known, is capable of completing a dialogue between two people, continuing a series of questions and answers or finishing a Shakespeare-style poem.
Start a sentence or text and it completes it for you, basing its response on the gigantic amount of information it has been fed.
This could come in useful for customer service, lawyers needing to sum up a legal precedent or for authors in need of inspiration.
While the technology is not new and has not yet learnt to reason like a human mind, OpenAI’s latest offering has won praise for the way its text resembles human writing.
“It is capable of generating very natural and plausible sentences,” says Bruce Delattre, an AI specialist at data consulting agency Artefact.
“It’s impressive to see how much the model is able to appropriate literary styles, even if there are repetitions.”
GPT-3 is also capable of finding precise responses to problems, such as the name of an illness from a description of symptoms.
It can solve some mathematical problems, express itself in several languages, or generate computer code for simple tasks that developers have to do but would happily avoid.
Delattre tells AFP it all works thanks to “statistical regularities”.
“The model knows that a particular word (or expression) is more or less likely to follow another.”
Billions of web pages
Amine Benhenni, scientific director at AI research and development firm Dataswati, tells AFP that “the big difference” compared to other systems is the size of the model.
GPT-3 has been fed the content of billions of web pages that are freely available online and all types of pieces of written work.
To give an idea of the magnitude of the project, the entire content of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia represents just 3% of all the information it has been given.
As such, it does not need to be retrained to perform tasks, as previous models did, when a new subject is introduced like medicine, law or the media.
Give it just a handful of examples of a task to do, such as completing a sentence, and it will then know how to complete any sentence it is given, no matter what the subject – a so-called “few-shot” language model.
“It’s amazingly powerful if you know how to prime the model well,” Shreya Shankar, an AI-specialised computer scientist, said on Twitter after having used GPT-3.
“It’s going to change the ML (machine learning) paradigm.”
Despite the hype, however, GPT-3 is only 10th on the SuperGLUE benchmark that measures the language-understanding of algorithms.
And that’s because some users demonstrated that when asked absurd questions, the model responds with senseless answers.
For instance, developer Kevin Lacker asked: “How many eyes does the sun have?”
“The sun has one eye,” it responded, Lacker wrote on his blog.
Fake reviews, fake news
Claude de Loupy, co-founder of French startup Syllabs that specialises in automated text creation, says the system lacks “pragmatism”.
Another major problem is that it replicates without a second thought any stereotype or hate speech fed during its training period, and can quickly become racist, anti-semitic or sexist.
As such, experts interviewed by AFP felt GPT-3 was not reliable enough for any sector needing to rely on machines, such as robo-journalism or customer services.
It can however be useful, like other similar models, for writing fake reviews or even mass-producing news stories for a disinformation campaign.
Concerned about “malicious applications of the technology”, OpenAI, which was co-founded in 2015 by Musk who has since left, and is financed by Microsoft among others, chose not to release the previous version of the model, GPT-2, in February 2019.
Originally a non-profit, OpenAI then became a “capped profit” company, which means investors get a capped return.
And in June, the firm changed tack and opened its GPT-3 model to commercial use, allowing for user feedback.
A step Claude de Loupy says could yield big profits.
There is “no doubt that the amount of text generated by AI is about to explode on the Web”. – AFP
GPT 3 Demo and Explanation - An AI revolution from OpenAI
Half Ideas - Startups and Entrepreneurship
4.89K subscribers
GPT 3 can write poetry, translate text, chat convincingly, and answer abstract questions. It's being used to code, design and much more. I'll give you a demo of some of the latest in this technology and some of how it works.
GPT3 comes from a company called OpenAI. OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman (former president of Y-combinator the startup accelerator). OpenAI was founded with over a Billion invested to collaborate and create human-level AI for the benefit of society.
GPT 3 has been developed for a number of years. One of the early papers published was on Generative Pre-Training. The idea behind generative pre-training (GPT) is that while most AI's are trained on labeled data, there's a ton of data that isn't labeled. If you can evaluate the words and use them to train and tune the AI it can start to create predictions of future text on the unlabeled data. You repeat the process until predictions start to converge.
The newest GPT is able to do a ton. Some of the demos include: - GPT 3 demo of how to design a user interface using AI
- GPT 3 demo of how to code a react application using AI
- GPT 3 demo of an excel plug-in to fill data using AI
- GPT 3 demo of a search engine/answer engine using AI
- GPT3 demo of command line auto-complete from English to shell commands
OpenAI has released GPT-3, a state-of-the-art language model made up of 175 billion parameters. In this video, I'll create a simple tutorial on how you can use OpenAI's API to use the GPT-3 model.
The previous OpenAI GPT model that is GPT-2 had 1.5 billion parameters and was the biggest model back then. GPT-3 can write poetry, translate text, chat convincingly, and answer abstract questions.
If you do have any questions with what we covered in this video then feel free to ask in the comment section below & I'll do my best to answer those.
If you enjoy these tutorials & would like to support them then the easiest way is to simply like the video & give it a thumbs up & also it's a huge help to share these videos with anyone who you think would find them useful.
Please consider clicking the SUBSCRIBE button to be notified for future videos & thank you all for watching.
To address new problems and challenges in an increasingly digital era, China is ready to launch a global initiative to safeguard global data security that welcomes the participation of all parties, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared China's effort on Tuesday at a seminar on global digital governance.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of Trump administration cooking the so-called data threat from China's high-tech companies in recent months.
The move could be seen as a Chinese response to counter Washington's "Clean Network" program that clearly aims to smear and exclude Chinese technology firms, apps and services providers from some US allies.
Actually, Beijing's move seems more like a Chinese approach on how to properly handle global data security risks.
Data security, which is now under growing regulatory scrutiny, has become a focus of global attention due to the rising geopolitical risks linked to the issue. Over the past months, the Trump administration, without providing any evidence, claimed Chinese high-tech firms and their apps, such as Huawei Technologies, ByteDance's TikTok and Tencent's WeChat, could pose national security risks because of their access to Americans' personal data.
In the digital era, data security threat may be real, but politicizing security issues to use it as a weapon to crack down on other countries' high-tech companies, constitutes a reckless detachment from globally-recognized rules and practices.
Some US politicians may truly believe that suppression of Chinese tech firms by spreading the Cold War mindset to the digital sector will give the US an upper hand, but in fact, it will only undermine investor confidence in the global digital industry. This is because the utilization of data will determine how far we can go in the digital era, and if governments are obsessed with geopolitical games by abusing security issues, it will only lead to isolated islands of data, stalling the progress of the digital age.
But this doesn't necessarily mean that data security is not important, on the contrary, the fast development in global digitalization could only be achieved under the guarantee of data security.
China's latest initiative calls for an objective and rational approach to data security, which is essential for restoring confidence in global digital sector. For instance, governments should tighten data privacy laws and carry out cooperation over cyber-security issues like encryption. These are the right approaches to better protect each country's data security while avoiding political discrimination toward companies, wherever they are based.
Only with better rules can development be assured, so that countries can also avoid picking sides or being subject to arbitrary suppression from one or two specific governments.
It is also worth noting that even though China calls on the global discussion on data security, it won't set the rules. Because only rules that reflect the will of all countries in the world can be accepted and implemented in the long run.
China-proposed Cyber Mimic Defense (CMD) system
successfully blocked 2.8 million times of attacks from top world
white-hat from 14 countries in 48 hours at a cyber security contest.
Russia's unplugged test is not a defense measure to close
itself, but a tactic to strengthen global network integration so that
it will not be used by the US for military and political purposes
Facts prove that the US intention to contain China in the
internet space has not been welcomed, as many of the countries that
Washington claimed had joined its Clean Network program have denied
being part of it, saying the US had unilaterally put their names on the
list, the Global Times has learned.
China extended its dominance in a list of the world's
fastest supercomputers by the number of systems, according to a
semi-annual ranking of the Top500 published Monday.
China's homegrown memory chip manufactures will be able
to fill the gap left by US-based memory chip producer Micron in the
supplies to Huawei to a certain extent, but such replacement - coming
against the backdrop of a chip ban drawing near - could mean that the
Chinese tech giant will have a more difficult time ahead, in particular
in its smartphone business, industry analysts said.
How to protect your online privacy in 2020 | Tutorial
https://youtu.be/jxeeKKfjb5o
Internet anonymity empowers people to speak without fear, and to be trolls
ONLINE anonymity is such a huge topic, often carrying a bad reputation because it appears to incite irresponsible behaviour.
Anyone can say something cruel or nasty, and no one will ever know it was him because he uses a made-up personality.
When you spend more time delving into the subject of Internet anonymity, you will find that it has its fair share of pros and cons.
It is a matter of debate among security researchers, politicians and policy analysts. There are those who say it affords everyone freedom of speech as there is less judgement levelled at an anonymous person who speaks his mind freely, and whistleblowers are able to unearth secrets and share information without fear of being accused of slander or ending up in jail.
It is important to note that freedom of speech doesn’t mean you have freedom to lie.
Online abuse is rampant, it’s easy for lies to be manufactured and spread, and news loses its credibility in the process.
Cloak of anonymity
Assoc Prof Dr Anasuya Jegathevi Jegathesa, programme director of Psychology at Taylor’s University, concurs that anonymity allows people to speak without fear.
“If you have to put your name to it, there may be consequences for speaking the truth, ” she said.
Dr Anasuya Jegathevi Jegathesan will be speaking at the Star Empowerment: Healing Hearts 2020, a forum on grieve management.Dr Anasuya Jegathevi Jegathesan will be speaking at the Star Empowerment: Healing Hearts 2020, a forum on grieve management.
“When you’re anonymous, you can avoid the consequences. The Internet and social media allow people to remain anonymous and there is a certain power in this.
“In certain situations, when you say your truth, you may be put in jail or you may be harassed and abused by other people because they don’t agree with you.
“In such situations, people choose to be anonymous because they need a voice and there’s no other outlet.
“Of course, even without the consequences, many still hide behind anonymity when they want to insult others or stir up disagreement. Online drama can be an interesting thing for some people!”
Digital culture expert Dr Niki Cheong of University of Nottingham feels that there are many strong arguments that can be made in defence of anonymity – victims and marginalised people and communities rely on the cloak of anonymity to speak truth to power.
“This is particularly so when they have been wronged or taken advantage of. This is also the case when it comes to larger institutions whereby acts like whistleblowing have shown to be a powerful tool.
“Journalism has for the longest time used anonymity for very good reasons – not just to protect the identity of sources speaking out against, among other things, corruption and misdeeds, but also to protect people who share important stories from being stigmatised or targeted.”
Cheong agrees that anonymity has emboldened many to engage in anti-social behaviour, both offline and online.
“We are seeing severe repercussions from an individual level with personal attacks and bullying, and at a more societal level with political suppression and information manipulation.”
Sharing stories
The advent of social media has also seen the rise of citizen journalism – which is the creation or collection, dissemination and analysis of information by the general public.
“It’s trendy to create news these days because when you have more likes, that translates to more interest in your channel, and that’s how you make more money.
“There is a financial reward for being popular – whether you’re a blogger, YouTuber or TikTok artist, ” Anasuya explains the psychology behind the obsession to create content and share it with the world.
“The other reward is an emotional reward. Research shows that when you see ‘likes’ and ‘comments’, there’s dopamine released in your system, and dopamine is a pleasure hormone that makes you feel good.
“So when people get more posts, or become more famous, they feel good about themselves.”
When it comes to sharing, she says that when “news” calls for attention and is fun or shocking, people naturally want to be the first to tell others.
“It’s a high, you get a good feeling when you are the first person to tell somebody some interesting or important.”
Because of this, people often make the mistake of not verifying information before hitting the forward button. Often a headline is enough to make someone share a post without even reading the story. Admit it, many of us have made that mistake, right?
Spreading rumours takes that scenario one step further, because a rumour usually has a negative tilt to it.
So why do certain people get off on spreading rumours? Anasuya says it’s because some people like to create flame wars.
“When you’re anonymous, after all, you don’t even have that platform where you can get popular, so why do people still share and spread rumours or false information? The dopamine is still there.
“They know they are in the midst of a drama unfolding, they are getting hits, creating issues and they enjoy this. They enjoy people ‘believing’ them.
“And sometimes they believe it themselves. Truth can be based on perception, after all, and there are lots of people who perceive truth in a different way from the norm. That doesn’t mean they are crazy, they just perceive truth differently, ” she says.
Cheong reckons that a lot of this boils down to the individual.
“Some people don’t always feel that there are real life consequences to their online actions.
“We’ve seen cases where trolls have been confronted by their victims and regret their actions once they get to know them better because they suddenly realise they are real people with real feelings and real family members feeling threatened.”
He cites the case of American writer/activist Lindy West who responded to the guy who stole her dead father’s identity to abuse her. West received an apology from the person who she had earlier billed her “cruellest troll”, and went on to talk to him which ended in forgiveness.
“There is also this culture on the Internet, from the early days, of doing things just for the sake of it, which may have partially influenced this disconnect, ” says Cheong, explaining the catchphrase
“I did it for the lulz” (IDIFTL) which serves as a description for any trolling you do or any Internet drama you cause. To explain further, “lulz” translates to “fun, laughter or amusement at another’s expense”.
“Increasingly we’re seeing in many cases around the world that there are few consequences for people’s actions especially when they favour those in power or are perceived as ‘public sentiment’, so people feel they can act with impunity, ” Cheong adds.
Check and balance
What can we do to prevent this situation from plunging?
“Censorship isn’t the answer, ” Anasuya offers. “Because then you will be going backwards, and people will find ways around it.
In journalism, anonymity protects sources who provide information, and victims from being targeted, says Cheong.In journalism, anonymity protects sources who provide information, and victims from being targeted, says Cheong.
“Instead we should be educating people about best practices: how to check on false media, how to verify news, how to spot fake accounts, ” she says, using the anti-vaxxer movement as an example of how things can go terribly wrong without proper check and balance in place.
In that case, research fraud – a study led by the now discredited physician-researcher Andrew Wakefield involving 12 children – suggested there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.
This study was subsequently thoroughly debunked, and Wakefield was stripped of his medical licence. Yet, today there is still a growing number of parents who buy into the whole anti-vaxxer argument and refuse to vaccinate their children.
“Because of some fake research and false findings, this ‘correlation between vaccinations and autism’ went viral and people started posting scary stuff, so much so that even a few in the US Congress believe this false news!” says Anasuya.
“So why do people believe it? Because they need somebody to blame, they want to be able to point a finger and say this is why the world is going bad, this is why things are going wrong, this is why my child got sick. It’s not me, it’s something else.
“People feel power in thinking that they are not sheep being told what to do, when in fact that’s exactly what they are. They don’t check their news, they don’t check their facts.
“You have to educate people to recognise what is real news and what is false. And it has to be a repeated learning.
“The checks and balances do exist, if people know how to use websites like FactCheck, Snopes and Sebenarnya.my.
“There’s a huge bunch of very logical, very factual people in cyberspace who are constantly correcting false news but as a user you have to be able to use those channels.
“It is whether each individual who creates and receives news is willing to do all the checking required. And sadly this is not something that we teach our children in school.”
Cheong agrees that education is the best policy, but it needs to be a multi-pronged approach.
“We need better media literacy education at all levels, we need political will to ensure that any response to these actions is fair across the board, we need to pressure digital platforms to take a more proactive role in managing these sort of behaviour.
"For most people alive today, anywhere in the world, we have never faced a crisis of such magnitude. It is the first true test of our ability to stand together in the face of a common enemy"
An aerial view shows the newly completed Huoshenshan
Hospital. Digital tools helped coordinate its design and construction-Image: REUTERS
Taking advantage of emerging technologies, including Big Data and artificial intelligence, has enabled China to respond rapidly to the impacts of COVID-19 and to fight against its spread;
New hospitals were built in record time and millions of students were able to resume their learning online thanks to the industrial internet;
From coordinating community volunteers to offer municipal programmes online, digital platforms have helped empower citizens in the fight against the virus.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought huge challenges across the globe.
There are contradictions and conflicts, but also an unprecedented spirit within humanity to defeat this scourge. Beyond national borders, countries are working together to combat the coronavirus, utilizing joint prevention and control mechanisms while sharing resources and information. Have you read?
In China, people have joined together to contain the virus’ spread. Their achievements have been nothing short of heroic given the exponential rise in confirmed cases, a huge and densely-packed population and the world’s largest human migration simultaneously occurring during the Chinese New Year festivities in January and February.
The involvement of Tencent, a Chinese internet technology company, in promoting the power of digital, is testament to the rise of the industrial internet in the fight against the virus.
While the consumer internet provides services such as social networking and e-commerce to consumers who are self-isolating, its industrial counterpart, focusing primarily on business and industry, has worked to safeguard society’s normal operation, making a profound contribution which we will call the “ACE effect”. Accelerator: a new speed record
Incorporating technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence, Big Data and cloud computing, the industrial internet is a new, pan-industry infrastructure. Connecting data, while promoting data sharing and its evolving importance, enables the coordination of the entire industry chain. This has given the Chinese manufacturing industry a dramatic boost, leading to an amazing string of new production records.
An excellent example is the newly built Huoshenshan and Leishenshan Hospitals, which offer 2,600 beds in total.
Containing the virus’ spread required additional facilities to handle the patient load and construction workers took just 10 days and 12 days respectively to build and equip both. Digital tools like BIM (Building Information Modelling), allowed the hospitals’ design institutes to utilize the industrial internet, bringing together hundreds of BIM designers nationwide. The hospitals’ design plans were produced in 24 hours and construction drawings in only 60 hours. Onsite construction was so well-organized that thousands of machines were monitored and coordinated in real-time through an industrial internet platform.
Change-maker: the cyber-world becomes the real world
The outbreak increased the digitalization of sectors including medical services, office work and education. In turn, these newly digital products have reshaped people’s perceptions and behaviours. Society has experienced an irreversible leap into digital life.
Following the outbreak, Tencent, Alibaba and vertical online healthcare platforms like DXY began offering the public remote medical services. People consulted with online doctors, conducted self-assessments and decided whether to go to a hospital for further medical checks or remain at home. These simple screening tools reduced non-essential hospital visits and caregiver workloads while mitigating the risks of cross-infection.
Remote technology has enabled hospitals to share their best resources over great distances. Thanks to China’s 5G networks, many Wuhan hospitals, have been able to connect with counterparts in Beijing, allowing experts in the capital to provide real-time consultation based on ultra-high-definition images.
China is leading the way in development of 5G technology
China is leading the way in development of 5G technology
Image: Statista
Keeping 276 million students learning online has advanced the digitalization of education. In mid-February, the government ordered more than a quarter of a billion full-time students to resume their studies through online platforms - the largest “online movement” in the history of education. Hundreds of industrial internet-based online educational platforms now provide free-of-charge, individual live streaming services or share their open class content. During the Spring Festival period, Tencent Classroom alone added nearly 1.28 million new users.
Starting with remote offices, the digitalization of business and human resource management has moved up the agendas of corporate managers. Online collaborative platforms from Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Byte Dance and Baidu have been refined to meet surging consumer demand. Tencent Conference added more than 100,000 Cloud Hosts in only eight days between 29 January and 6 February.
Enabler: a new co-governance model for modern society
During this period a new type of social governance has arisen; one enabled by the industrial internet. Governments now actively engage partners to improve the efficiency and quality of municipal services. Empowered by digital tools, communities and people are active stakeholders in social governance. Co-governance, involving multiple participants, is emerging as a new model for today’s increasingly complicated society.
In China, the digital provision of municipal services infiltrates government agencies in many cities. The outbreak has expedited this process and agencies have digitized further. By 8 February, there were 100-plus municipal service “mini programmes” featuring epidemic status information. On WeChat, these programmes grew their users by nearly 60% in under 3 weeks.
Importantly, the industrial internet has empowered communities and people in the war against COVID-19. Through digital platforms, volunteer teams of residents within communities assist in disinfection and deliver supplies aided by digital community management and communication tools.
US cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed those in China
US cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed those in China
Image: Statista
In addition, the advent of the “Health QR Code” lets users submit information regarding travel to major epidemic outbreak regions and details close contact with infected people and other relevant information. A three-colour scale indicates the person’s recent virus-related health history, enabling them to cooperatively comply with virus-related prevention and control policies.
Through the “ACE effect”, the industrial internet provides a fundamental infrastructure for empowering individuals and organizations. Enterprises, government and individuals have all actively engaged in the war on COVID-19 through the advantage supplied by this technology and the advantage this creates has helped China to almost stop the outbreak.
What is the World Economic Forum doing about the coronavirus outbreak?
A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.
Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community,
which is at the centre of the World Economic Forum’s mission as the
International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform,
a global platform to convene the business community for collective
action, protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity,
and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created
with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all
businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to
integrate and inform joint action.
As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting
efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
(CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government,
business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the
development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to
develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.
The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.
As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.
These enabling capabilities will outlast the COVID-19 pandemic and make lasting contributions to the sustainable development of mankind. Tencent’s partnership with the UN, in recognition of its upcoming 75th anniversary, is a good example. The initiative will ask millions of participants worldwide how our planet should look in 2045 and what role international cooperation can play in solving our common challenges, both now and in the future.
For most people alive today, anywhere in the world, we have never faced a crisis of such magnitude. It is the first true test of our ability to stand together in the face of a common enemy.
Now is the time for neighbourliness, not hostility. Let this event serve as a wake-up call: our governments must be responsible to the people and enter into a collaborative relationship for the well-being of this and future generations. Should we lose, then we lose together; when we achieve victory it will be because we did it together.
Lau Sengyee, Senior Executive Vice President, Chairman of Group Marketing and Global Branding, Tencent
After Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei Province
hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, lifted its city
lockdown after 76 days in isolation to contain the novel coronavirus
spread, China officially entered the next stage of combating the virus.
It is time for the US to accept the fact: China is indeed
working miracles, and will certainly do more. Realizing this reality
will benefit the US itself and China-US relations.
