Techstrong News Recap – June 20, 2023

Hi again. Everyone hear the headlines For June 20th, first up, the US government's efforts to expand internet access through the country took a significant stride with the announcement of 930 million in grants. These grants known as Middle Mile Grants aim to address connectivity gaps in remote areas of Alaska, rural Texas, and other underserved regions.

The funds will be used to create large scale networks that connect retail broadband providers to subscribers. The middle mile infrastructure comparable to the interstate highway system will bridge the gap between major networks and the last mile connections in tribal lands, underserved rural areas, and critical institutions like hospitals, schools, libraries, and businesses. The grants were awarded to various entities with the goal of laying approximately 12,000 miles of new fiber across 35 states in Puerto Rico.

The initiative is part of J President Joe Biden's broader plan to expand high speed internet access nationwide with 65 billion a allocated for broadband and infrastructure measure assigned into law in 2021. These grants will help establish the foundation for networks that connect every home in the country to affordable and reliable high speed internet service. Next, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant recently disclosed that suspected Chinese hackers, allegedly backed by the state, took advantage of a security vulnerability and a widely used email security appliance.

The hackers utilized malicious email attachments to gain author unauthorized access to targeted organizations data and devices. The impact was primarily felt in the Americas, followed by Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mandiant attributed these espionage activities to a group known as C 48 41, suggesting their support for the People's Republic of China.

Barracuda Networks. The provider of the compromised email security gateway promptly announced the breach and advised replacing the affected appliances. Mandiant considered this cyber espionage campaign to be the most extensive by a China associated threat actor since the large scale Microsoft Exchange exploitation in 2021.

This cyber attack specifically targeted topics of significant policy importance to China, particularly in the age of Pacific region and aimed at individuals involved in diplomatic meetings. In other news, French president Emanuel Macron called for the advancement of AI development in Europe while implementing smart regulations that support the growth of tech companies. During his visit to the popular tech event, Viva Tech Macron acknowledged that Europe, in including France and the EU is lagging behind the uk, US and China.

In terms of innovation. He expressed concerns about the slow pace of regulation and emphasized the need to catch up. Macron also called for the broader discussions that involved the UK and the United States and suggested involving organizations such as UNESCO and the O E C D and shaping regulations.

MACRA also announced his plans to meet with Elon Musk to discuss the necessary rules in the fields of AI and social media and how to promote the attractiveness of France and Europe in these areas. While Macron made These statements, Europe, European lawmakers have approved the world's first comprehensive set of AI rules. However, the rules are not expected to take full effect for several years.

While Macron praised these eus discussions, but he cautioned that the time of the rules are finalized, they may already be outdated. Next up, Amazon unveiled its new headquartered complex in Virginia, aiming to entice employees back to the office after the pandemic. The Met Park office complex in Arlington's, crystal City offers the state-of-the-art amenities and is part of Amazon's HQ two project originally planned for both Virginia and New York City.

Opposition in New York led to the Arlington Complex becoming the sole site. Amazon said it invested in the community, including affordable housing initiatives and incorporated employee friendly features such as collaborative spaces and recre recreational facilities. While the project faced some challenges, local leaders were generally welcomed Amazon presence and the high paying jobs that it brings, and the construction of the building comes after Amazon said it will require all workers to return to office at least three days a week back in February.

Amazon hopes that this new HQ will make employees want to reconsider the work from home lifestyle that many of them grew accustomed to on digital C X O. We've an article that looks at the beverage company. Diage Geo's recently announced partnership with SAP and ibm.

Over the course of this five year partnership, Diaggio hopes to enhance and streamline its processes across all of its countries that it operates in. com. On Security Boulevard, we have an article that looks at the recent Farm America breach.

This article looks at the breach, which occurred back in March of this year, as well as the state of the cybersecurity in regards to healthcare. com. Finally on cloud native, now we have an article looking at how AWS has extended its alliance with cobe cost to integrate a cost monitoring tool for Kubernetes cobe cost, which is built on open cost, will enable teams to allocate costs by application to charge back the cost of K eight infrastructure being consumed by particular applications.

com, and that's today's Techstrong news recap.