Tech

Twitter’s fraud problem isn’t too hard to solve

Published

6 days ago

March 19, 2023

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With every element of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter under constant scrutiny, there has been no shortage of headlines about the social media giant in recent months. Twitter has had a turbulent few months under its new ownership; there were layoffs (and new hires); changes to user experience; and of course, there’s Twitter’s ongoing effort to fix — and monetize — its user verification system.

After first launching in November, Twitter Blue — initially conceived as a revenue-generating scheme for the social media platform — quickly took an unexpected turn that took a toll on everyone Lebron James To Lockheed Martin. Twitter pranksters took the opportunity to pay $8 for verification and immediately started impersonating public figures and brands by tweeting racy and lively messages that ended up landing cost companies billions.

Since then, the company has revamped its Twitter Blue system, developing new verification badges designed to protect businesses and governments from scammers, as well as a labeling system that shows what type of verification a user has. There’s a waiting time for new accounts that want to sign up for Twitter Blue, as well as a cell phone number. It’s enough to stop the rampant scam spree the company faced in November, but still not enough to stop one determined cheater.

Blue tick does not always mean verified

Twitter’s problems with user verification show how vulnerable the online world is to fraud. If a few bored individuals can drain the stock market with just a phone number and an email address, imagine what a few organized bad actors could do. It’s not a risk Twitter – or the economy – can afford.

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The problem of pay-to-play verification is almost a self-made trap for social media companies whose blue ticks are perhaps the most effective digital literacy tool developed in the last decade.

After years of conditioning, web users assume that there is some level of verification behind the blue tick, although the steps behind that verification are somewhat unclear. Under Twitter’s old leadership, the blue tick was even more than verification; It was validation, and losing the blue check was a common penalty for extremists and individuals alleged to have violated Twitter’s policies.

If Musk and Twitter are to reinvent the world of social media verification, they must start by fundamentally rethinking the verification process and flipping their understanding of what Twitter Blue is and can be. Verification isn’t just a status you pay for, it’s a status users pay to prove.

Sacrifice safety for experience

Under the latest Twitter Blue update, Twitter treats the verification process as a transaction; The customer is buying a commodity, and Twitter needs to get it into their hands and account as soon as possible. You want a smooth customer experiencethereby sacrificing security.

It’s a known issue – if the process takes too long or is too difficult, users can drop out and businesses lose sales. This is why web optimization services are in such high demand.

But Twitter isn’t the first company to have to verify its digital identity. The financial services industry, for example, faces stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations yet has managed to adapt digital onboarding, generally using a combination of biometrics and physical ID cards to create a match a real person with an official ID. Importantly, many banks can now verify users in minutes, if not seconds.

In fact, post-pandemic, more consumers than ever are used to these forms of identity verification. Virtual identity verification is no longer an unfamiliar concept for individuals or businesses as the pandemic has forced hundreds of businesses to establish methods of building trust with customers while protecting their systems from fraud. From banking to car rentals to online shopping, there are already dozens of use cases in the market that Twitter Blue could target.

Of course, the level of evidence banks require before allowing a customer to open a checking account may not be what Twitter needs or wants for the majority of its users. While a full identity verification might be the appropriate method for someone trying to set up a Twitter account claiming to be a political candidate or CEO, it might not be the solution needed for a popular meme account.

Here’s a chance for Twitter to break new ground when it comes to social media scrutiny and see what other fraud signals can both seamlessly determine legitimacy and uphold values of privacy and security. It’s an area where the trend is increasing digital wallets and Identities can be useful – Twitter can display some credentials leading to account legitimacy while maintaining the level of anonymity that has made Twitter such an effective tool for social dialogue.

With a new verification system comes new forms of fraud – untapped and untested. Twitter Blue can work – but only if there is real verification behind it.

Yuelin Li is Chief Product Officer for OnfidoProduct, design and strategy oversight.

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Tech

Innovation in the space industry takes off

Published

1 hour ago

March 24, 2023

Jasmine Abbott

Space technologies are picking up steam in the UK alongside other emerging technologies such as quantum computing. “I don’t think we can do full-scale space exploration and travel, if you will, without quantum technology,” explains Simon Phillips, chief technology officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC). “It’s just too much to calculate.”

“I think it’s going to be very soon that when we’re talking about space technology, we’re always going to involve quantum,” says Phillips. For space technology to incorporate quanta, he explains, it means “building ground-based systems capable of processing lots and lots of quantum information in ways we didn’t previously know was possible.”

In the short term, quantum technologies could support space research and development such as mission planning, material discovery, and studies of how space travel affects the space environment. Solving the space debris problem is an area that may sound corny, but, as Phillips notes, “it’s actually a small problem.” Quantum, he explains, can model space debris removal “hundreds and hundreds” of years into the future.

In the longer term, quantum technologies could improve our understanding of how people are affected by their time in space. “We have data on Mars and we have data on humans, but we don’t understand the interaction between those environments,” says Phillips. With quanta, he says, “we could figure out how to protect people working in space,” which he believes is a critical issue.

Building a collaborative startup ecosystem

As applications of quantum computing in space continue to grow, the UK space start-up ecosystem is also growing.

For example, Space Forge is developing a production center that will go in and out of Earth’s atmosphere. They will only produce goods in space that result in positive net utility on the ground, Western says. He points to the various benefits of working in space, including a cleaner environment, lower pressure, extreme temperatures and reduced carbon emissions. “You can access plus or minus 250 °C,” he says.

Meanwhile, the sun’s rays could be used for lithography in the manufacture of semiconductors. While it sounds like science fiction, “all the technology to do that is already there,” says Western.

Another notable British space startup is Lumi Space. With support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency, Lumi Space is building the world’s first global commercial satellite laser ranging service that will enable safe and sustainable space exploration. Applications of its technology include collision avoidance, debris clearance and constellation management.

Tech

OpenAI turns ChatGPT into a platform overnight with addition of plugins

Published

1 hour ago

March 24, 2023

Jasmine Abbott

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OpenAI today announced support for new third-party plugins for ChatGPTand Twitter is already buzzing about the company’s potential platform game.

in one to blog postthe company explained that the plugins are “tools specially designed for language models with security as a core principle, helping ChatGPT to access up-to-date information, perform calculations or use third-party services”.

A sign of the increasing dominance of OpenAI

The announcement was quickly taken as a signal by the public OpenAIAmbitions to further expand its dominance by transforming ChatGPT into a developer platform.

“OpenAI considers ChatGPT a platform game,” tweeted Marco Mascorro, co-founder of fellow AI.

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And @gregmushen tweeted: “I think the introduction of plugins for ChatGPT is a threat to the App Store. It creates a new platform with new monetization methods.”

Sharing the announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted: “We start rolling out ChatGPT plugins. You can install plugins to help with a variety of tasks. We are excited to see what developers create!”

OpenAI, he said, offers a web browsing plugin and a code execution plugin. He added that the company is open source the code for a fetch plugin.

The plugins, he said, are “still very experimental,” but reiterated that “we think there’s something great going on in that direction; It was a highly requested feature.”

ChatGPT Plugins: Important milestone in the development of AI chat

OpenAI announced that plugin developers invited by the company’s waitlist will be able to use them documentation to build a plugin for ChatGPT. The first plugins have already been created by companies such as Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, OpenTable and Zapier.

According to Expedia, their new plugin simplifies travel planning for ChatGPT users. “Previously, ChatGPT could see what to do and where to stay, but it couldn’t help travelers with shopping and booking,” a press representative said in an email.

Once a traveler activates the Expedia plugin, they can now “bring to life” a travel plan created by chatting with ChatGPT, with information based on Expedia’s travel data, including real-time availability and pricing from flights, hotels, vacation rentals, activities and more car rentals. When they’re ready to book, they’ll be taken to Expedia where they can log in to view personalized options, as well as member discounts, loyalty rewards and more.

The update marks a major milestone in the evolution of AI chat as a platform for accessing and interacting with the internet. ChatGPT not only provides a service, but creates an ecosystem where developers create their own plugins for the benefit of users and can distribute. This is similar to how Apple’s App Store revolutionized the mobile industry by allowing third-party apps to thrive on its devices. ChatGPT’s plugin feature could potentially open up new avenues and markets for AI chat in the future.

OpenAI said they would start expanding plugin alpha access to users and developers waiting list and plan to roll out access more widely “over time.”

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Tech

Scandal-plagued Japan tech giant Toshiba gets tender offer

Published

1 hour ago

March 24, 2023

Jasmine Abbott

TOKYO — scandal contested JapanElectronics and technology maker Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) takeover bid from Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund made up of major banks and corporations.

If the proposal is successful, it will be an important step in Toshiba’s year-long turnaround effort, allowing the company to be privatized and delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. However, overseas activist investors own a significant portion of Toshiba’s shares, and it’s unclear whether they will be happy with the latest offering.

Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. announced late Thursday that its board of directors accepted the offer at 4,620 yen ($36) per share after trading in Tokyo closed. Toshiba closed at 4,213 yen ($32) a share on Thursday and was up 4.3% on Friday to 4,395 yen ($34).

The move comes at a time when markets are becoming nervous about the fallout from the recent US bank collapses

The takeover would keep Toshiba’s business Japanese in an alliance with Japanese partners.

Japan Industrial Partners, formed in 2002 to restructure Japanese companies, lists big names in which it has invested such as: SonyHitachi, Olympus and NEC.

According to Japanese media reports, the consortium includes around 20 Japanese companies, including Orix Corp., a financial services company, electronics manufacturer Rohm Co. and megabanks such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Toshiba’s big troubles began in 2015 with a wide-ranging accounting scandal that saw books manipulated for years. That contributed to his problems related to his nuclear power business.

Its US nuclear arm, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after years of deep losses in security costs. Toshiba is also involved in the decommissioning of the severely damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Toshiba has gone through several presidents over the years as the brand once prized for making home appliances, laptops, batteries and computer chips has become the target of activist overseas shareholders.

The latest proposal still has to go through regulatory reviews in several countries, including the US, Vietnam, Germany and Morocco. The process is expected to take several months.

Toshiba has tried to go private in recent years. Proposals to split Toshiba into three and then two companies were rejected by shareholders. A delisting would allow Toshiba to leave activist investors behind.

Toshiba had its humble beginnings in a telegraph equipment factory in 1875. The brand was synonymous with the power of modern Japanese manufacturing. It sold parts of its business, including its flash memory business now known as Kioxia, although Toshiba remains a Kioxia shareholder.

Whether Toshiba can return to a solid growth path remains uncertain. Last month, Toshiba lowered its profit guidance for the fiscal year ended March to 130 billion yen ($1 billion) from an earlier forecast of 190 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in profit.

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Yuri Kageyama is there Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama