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The year 2019 ends. Time to sum up. Unfortunately, cyber threat was even more widespread than in previous years. Let me present statistics and facts: – The average cost of breaking into the organization reached USD 150 million. – There is a hacker attack every 39 seconds. – Most cyber attacks affect small businesses (Cybercriminals have noticed that they will gain more profit by attacking organizations that do not attach much importance to IT security, and can store sensitive data such as email addresses and personal data or credit card numbers.) – Ransomware is the king among viruses (2019 definitely belonged to ransomware. 77% of all successful attacks analyzed ended with data encryption and ransom demands) In the US, only 10% of all burglaries have been reported to the authorities. – The largest data leak – 218 million records at Zynga, the creator of popular mobile games. – 90% of cyber attacks result from human errors, often due to oversight, ignorance or lack of awareness of the threat in the organization

Apparently, in two years, Intel intends to introduce a new technological process. This year they made their debut with 10-nanometer Ice Lake units, although work is already underway on the implementation of 7nm probably in 2021. In the following years, the plans look very ambitious, because in 2023 we will see 5nm, in 2025 – 3nm, and in 2027 – 2nm, and the revolutionary year is 2029 with 1.4nm. Of course, this is only a theory for now, engineers are studying new processes and their construction. In a few years we will find out if the assumptions will come true.

Microsoft won in a tender valued at US $ 10 billion to provide cloud infrastructure for the US Department of Defense. The investment has in mind the extension of the US Department of Defense IT modernization plan and the construction of the JEDI cloud infrastructure. The huge project aroused a lot of controversy from the beginning, most of all the surprise was the choice of the concern, most observers bet that the contract will be won by the operator of the platform Amazon Web Services. It was also feared that awarding such a gigantic order to only one supplier (that was the assumption of the project) would make it gain a gigantic advantage over competitors in all future business contacts with the Pentagon. In the Pentagon statement informing about the selection of the contractor, it was explicitly taken into account that the tender settlement process was very transparent and all candidates were evaluated according to the same criteria. However, Amazon has doubts and has already complained about the whole case. The group’s representatives do not hide their surprise, and what is more – they suggest that if the decision-making process was based solely on a comparison of the terms of the bids submitted by the bidders, the result would certainly have been different.

Lots of people use cell phones while driving. How many times have we seen people talking without loudspeakers or sending messages. It is very dangerous not only for these people but also for us drivers who follow the rules. To strengthen security, the Government of New South Wales in Australia introduced as the first intelligent camera system, set to automatically detect such drivers. Everything is based on artificial intelligence, which by analyzing the image looks for signs of using the phone. Then, the photos of the caught person are reviewed by an authorized person to prevent the system from misinterpreting the image. I must admit that this can greatly facilitate the work of the police. Cameras will help reduce the number of accidents. Drivers can reach for the phone less knowing that the camera will record them. Officials are confident that this will reduce the number of accidents on the road. Independent studies have calculated that the new camera system can prevent up to 100 fatal accidents over a five-year period. In this way, the government wants to reduce the number of road accidents by 30% before 2021.

Japanese research center Riken and Fujitsu announced in May this year that they were working together on a post-K supercomputer that will likely be operational in mid-2021. This decision may change the balance of power on the market of high-speed “exascale” computers. Belonging to HPE for several months, Cray announces that it has entered into an agreement with Fujitsu providing that it will install its A64FX line processors in its supercomputers. It will be the first commercial supercomputer based on innovative CPU systems. The A64FX processors are almost one hundred percent based on Arm8 architecture and have a very interesting and unusual appearance. They contain 48 basic computing cores and four additional cores. Cray announces that supercomputers based on this system have been designed with scientific institutions in mind. So they support specific technologies such as HMB (High-Bandwidth Memory, a memory interface that supports 3D DRAMs). As I mentioned above, Fujitsu and the Japanese research center Riken are working on a supercomputer and A64FX will be installed in it. It is worth knowing that Post-K is the successor of the well-known K supercomputer (based on Sparc64 VIIIfx processors), which was once designed by Fujitsu together with the now defunct Sun.

At the beginning of the year, the American company Swarm Technologies will introduce a data transmission service from loT networks using satellites orbiting the earth. We can safely say that internet is entering space. By the end of the year, 150 satellites will be launched by the company. The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to deploy 150 satellites in space to orbit the earth, but the condition is that the satellites will be used to transmit data, not voice. This information should make us aware of one thing – in front of our eyes the race for telecommunications companies to take over space begins, in offers that will certainly appear soon, new generation satellite Internet services will be offered.