Mediaboss Marketing

Mining has become synonymous with crypto the past few years in the tech industry, what with Bitcoin piercing the $50,000 barrier and GPUs and ASICs worldwide scrambling to hash functions in a bid for distributed crypto manna. That excitement belies an increasingly energetic push though to bring VC dollars and entrepreneurial acumen back to Mining 1.0 actual meatspace resource extraction.

One of the key target resources is lithium, a critical component for smartphones, electric vehicle batteries and nearly every other electric tool of modern convenience and industrial import. China through its mining companies and battery manufacturers is currently in the lead, thanks to a years-long push to control both the supply of lithium and develop massive new manufacturing capacity to meet global demand.As tensions rise between China and the United States however, companies are racing to find alternative supplies as the world transitions to more electric-based infrastructure systems.

Thats one reason why DuPont is making a push to prove out its extraction technologies.

The water filtration and purification service provider DuPont Water Solutions has teamed up with Vulcan Energy Resources, a developer of lithium mining and renewable energy projects, to test a new process for direct lithium extraction.

Current processes for mining lithium are bad for the environment (to put it mildly), involving heavy use of toxic chemicals and increasingly scarce water resources. This new joint project, which is being developed in the Upper Rhine Valley of Germany, would tap DuPonts direct lithium extraction products and filtration expertise to mine and refine lithium in a more environmentally friendly way, the company said.

Dr. Francis Wedin, managing director of Vulcan, said in a statement that DuPonts diverse set of products, which can be manufactured at scale, are likely to be well-suited to sustainably extract the lithium from the brine.

DuPont is hoping to push the technology out across the mining industry and make its portfolio of sorbents, nanofiltration technologies, reverse osmosis filters, ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration and close-circuit reverse osmosis products available to a wider group of customers.

A push by DuPont to become more involved in the lithium-mining business will heighten competition for startups like Lilac Solutions, which has developed its own technology for lithium extraction. The companyhas partnered with an Australian company, Controlled Thermal Resources, todevelop lithium brine deposits in the Salton Sea, which is among Californias most blighted environmental disasters.

Last year, the Oakland-based startupannounced a $20 million investment led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (those folks are everywhere), the MIT-affiliated investment firm The Engine and early Uber investor Chris Saccas relatively new climate-focused fund, Lowercarbon Capital.

Outside Lilac, theres been a stream of VC dollars flowing into the (non-crypto) mining business as software helps extraction companies operate more efficiently. Notable investments include high-tech prospectors like KoBold Minerals (another Breakthrough Energy Ventures portfolio company), which uses big data and machine learning to help pick better targets for mines, and Lunasonde, which prospects from space using satellites.

Other solutions to the lithium problem are attracting investor attention, too. For Jeff Chamberlain, the founder and chief executive of the battery technology investment firmVolta Energy Technologies, an alternative may be found in urban mining, or the recycling of used lithium-ion batteries.For decades, lead-acid batteries have been recycled for their component materials, and Chamberlain expects that the lithium-ion supply chain will evolve to support more efficient reuse of existing materials as well.

Theres a slew of companies trying to prove Chamberlain right.They include businesses like Li-Cycle, which yesterday announced that it would go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a deal that would value the company at $1.67 billion.

Meanwhile, privately-held and venture-backed startups are developing other recycling solutions. Battery Resourcers, a spinout from Massachusetts Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is focused on making cathode power converters from recycled scrap. Singapore-based Green Li-ion is another company thats opening a recycling plant for lithium-ion battery cathodes, andNorthvolt, a Swedish battery startup that was founded by former Tesla executives in 2016, already has an experimental recycling plant up and running.

Finally theres J.B. Straubels Nevada-based startupRedwood Materials, which was one of the first companies to receive funding from Amazon through its Climate Pledge Fund.

Ultimately we wont have to extract lithium out of rock. We can extract lithium from pools and using urban mining, said Chamberlain. Call it Mining 1.0, Version 2 but its just the kind of investment our world needs if we are going to secure a better climate future.

Read this article:
DuPont and VCs see lithium mining as a critical investment for the electric future - TechCrunch

A security lapse by a Jamaican government contractor has exposed immigration records and COVID-19 test results for hundreds of thousands of travelers who visited the island over the past year.

The Jamaican government contracted Amber Group to build the JamCOVID19 website and app, which the government uses to publish daily coronavirus figures and allows residents to self-report their symptoms. The contractor also built the website to pre-approve travel applications to visit the island during the pandemic, a process that requires travelers to upload a negative COVID-19 test result before they board their flight if they come from high-risk countries, including the United States.

But a cloud storage server storing those uploaded documents was left unprotected and without a password, and was publicly spilling out files onto the open web.

Many of the victims whose information was found on the exposed server are Americans.

The data is now secure after TechCrunch contacted Amber Groups chief executive Dushyant Savadia, who did not comment when reached prior to publication.

The storage server, hosted on Amazon Web Services, was set to public. Its not known for how long the data was unprotected, but contained more than 70,000 negative COVID-19 lab results, over 425,000 immigration documents authorizing travel to the island which included the travelers name, date of birth and passport numbers and over 250,000 quarantine orders dating back to June 2020, when Jamaica reopened its borders to visitors after the pandemics first wave. The server also contained more than 440,000 images of travelers signatures.

Two U.S. travelers whose lab results were among the exposed data told TechCrunch that they uploaded their COVID-19 results through the Visit Jamaica website before their travel. Once lab results are processed, travelers receive a travel authorization that they must present before boarding their flight.

Both of these documents, as well as quarantine orders that require visitors to shelter in place and several passports, were on the exposed storage server.

Travelers who are staying outside Jamaicas so-called resilient corridor, a zone that covers a large portion of the islands population, are told to install the app built by Amber Group that tracks their location and is tracked by the Ministry of Health to ensure visitors stay within the corridor. The app also requires that travelers record short check-in videos with a daily code sent by the government, along with their name and any symptoms.

The server exposed more than 1.1 million of those daily updating check-in videos.

An airport information flyer given to travelers arriving in Jamaica. Travelers may be required to install the JamCOVID19 app to allow the government to monitor their location and to require video check-ins. (Image: Jamaican government)

The server also contained dozens of daily timestamped spreadsheets named PICA, likely for the Jamaican passport, immigration and citizenship agency, but these were restricted by access permissions. But the permissions on the storage server were set so that anyone had full control of the files inside, such as allowing them to be downloaded or deleted altogether. (TechCrunch did neither, as doing so would be unlawful.)

Stephen Davidson, a spokesperson for the Jamaican Ministry of Health, did not comment when reached, or say if the government planned to inform travelers of the security lapse.

Savadia founded Amber Group in 2015 and soon launched its vehicle-tracking system, Amber Connect.

According to one report, Ambers Savadia said the company developed JamCOVID19 within three days and made it available to the Jamaican government in large part for free. The contractor is billing other countries, including Grenada and the British Virgin Islands, for similar implementations, and is said to be looking for other government customers outside the Caribbean.

Savadia would not say what measures his company put in place to protect the data of paying governments.

Jamaica has recorded at least 19,300 coronavirus cases on the island to date, and more than 370 deaths.

Send tips securely over Signal and WhatsApp to +1 646-755-8849. You can also send files or documents using our SecureDrop.Learn more.

More:
Jamaicas immigration website exposed thousands of travelers data - TechCrunch

You need a password manager. Data breaches are now commonplace, and that flood of stolen data has made cracking passwords even easierand not just the password12345 variety, but also those that use strategies like variations on a single password or substituting numbers for letters. Even if youre using unique, random passwords, storing them in a document or spreadsheet leaves you vulnerable to prying eyes.

While paid password managers offer nice extras, even a free password manager protects you from the risks of using weak passwords (or worse, using the same one everywhere). You just have to remember one password to access a single, secure place where all your other passwords are stored.

Free password managers come in different flavors and styles, too, so you should be able to find one that fits your lifestyle. Down the road, you can always upgrade to a paid service as your needs grow.

Not sure what features youll need? Generally, you want a service that offers password generation, autoform filling, two-factor authentication, and allows you to move between different devices -and- device types. For more info, you can read our explanation of what you need to know about password managers.

Like several other services, Bitwarden offers a free tier and a paid tierbut its free tier packs in so many features that most individuals wont need more. You can access the service across an unlimited amount of devices and a multitude of device types, enable basic TOTP two-factor authentication, and fill your vault with as many passwords as youd like. The free personal plan also allows privacy-minded users to avoid the companys cloud hosting and instead self-host.

Rivals dole out far less to their free users, and its particularly rare for them to grant unrestricted movement between multiple device types. (Dashlane even begins charging as soon as you want to leave the confines of a single device.) Most competitors are also not open-source like Bitwarden, which prevents their communities from being able to hunt for hidden backdoors or security holes.

The one thing that the free personal plan doesnt offer is password sharingbut you can partially get around that by signing up for a free enterprise plan instead. It includes two seats with unlimited password sharing between them, thus allowing both individuals to safely access passwords for shared accounts. The trade-off, however, is that free enterprise plans do not allow self-hosting.

Bitwardens generous lineup of features for its free service makes it our top pick. Choose the free enterprise plan to enable password sharing with one other account.

Bitwardens other advantage is that should your needs expand down the road, the transition to a paid plan wont cost much. A premium personal plan is just $10 per year (compared to $36+ per year for rivals), and a family plan is $40 per year for up to six users (compared to $48+ per year for rivals). And moving up to a paid tier does come with concrete benefits: support for more sophisticated forms of two-factor authentication, evaluations of your passwords health (e.g., strength, public exposure, etc), encrypted file storage, and emergency access for trusted individuals.

Finally, if you decide to move elsewhere one day, Bitwarden allows you to export your passwordswith the option to do so as an encrypted file. But with such a generous and thorough set of features, youll likely not want to go elsewhere.

KeePass may not look like much, but under the hood this desktop-application-based password manager has all the features you could want, particularly if youre privacy and security minded.

Because the program and its encrypted database file(s) are stored locally on your computer by default, you retain full control over who could access itunlike a cloud service, where you have to trust that servers are set up correctly and that the employees are trustworthy. Moreover, you dont even have to install it on your system, but run it via a portable .exe application kept on a USB stick.

KeePass is also an open-source program, which means that the community can always vet it for any hidden backdoors or just plain old security-crippling bugs. And you can enable two-factor authentication through the use of key files (which augments your master password), plus lock the database file to the Windows account that created it, too.

KeePasss numerous plugins let you approximate much of the premium features youd get with a paid service, so long as youre willing to put in some elbow grease. This is only part of the full list!

Youre not just locked to a Windows desktop system, eitherbecause the program is open source, you can find community-created ports of KeePass for MacOS, Android, and iOS, as well as a boatload of plugins that let you customize it to your taste. With plugins, you can re-create most of the features youd find in paid cloud-based services, like checking to see if any of your passwords have been found as part of a data dump.

You can also get creative with how you store your database filefor remote access, you can put it on a home server, or if youre comfortable, a cloud service of your own choosing. (Perhaps youre more comfortable with how Google safeguards its accounts than a dedicated password manager service, for example.) And should you ever decide to hang up your hat as a DIY password manager administrator, KeePass allows for easy exports of your passwords.

Password managers within mobile operating systems and major browsers have come a long way. Just a few years ago, we wouldnt have advised using them at all, but now theyve shored up their security and features to become a viable (though basic) option.

But basic isnt badwhen it comes to password managers, the best service is the one that youll use. For some people, using a dedicated password manager can be too much to keep track of. In those cases, leaning on Google, Apple, or even Firefox can help upgrade your password security with little extra effort necessary. Their built-in password management tools can do the heavy lifting of creating and remembering unique random passwords across the web, and you wont need to switch to a different app to make it work.

If youre going to choose a browser-based password manager, Firefox is one of the best options among the bunch.

Of course, you will lock yourself into those ecosystems by doing so, but if you live your whole life within those waters already, you wont be bothered by that fact. Google probably will appeal to most people, as Chrome is ubiquitous, but those who worry about data privacy can instead turn to Firefox and its pledge to not sell your data. Apple also shares Firefoxs commitment to privacy, but theyre the hardest to leave, as the company doesnt provide an easy method to export passwords. We advise choosing Google or Firefox for the widest reach across devices, and Apple if you own both MacOS and iOS devices (and dont plan to leave).

Committing to Apple and iCloud Keychain? Follow these tips on how to set it up and make the most of it.

The one primary downside to using your Google, Apple, or Firefox account to store passwords is that theyre not as tightly safeguarded as with a third-party service. Even if you secure your account with two-factor authentication (and you absolutely should if youre storing passwords in it!), Google, Apple, or Firefox tend to be more lax about accessing passwords from a device thats logged in. Often they dont ask for reauthentication to use a stored password, unlike most dedicated password managersand that can be a security hazard on a shared device.

Why bother with a paid password manager if you can use a free one? Paid services provide premium features that enable more control over your passwords and how you secure them. For example, youll often gain access to password sharing (handy if your household members all need to know the Netflix password), support for YubiKey and other more advanced forms of 2FA authenticators, and alerts that tell you if your password turned up in a data dump. Some paid services even have a signature feature that makes them stand out from competitorsfor example, 1Password has a travel vault feature that hides some passwords when youre traveling, as an extra security measure when you might encounter aggressive airport screening or simply lose access to your devices due to theft or lost baggage.

If you need these kinds of features, check out our list of the best paid password managers to see which ones offer the best bang for your buck.

More here:
Best free password managers: Better online security doesnt have to cost a thing - PCWorld

Previously an Android exclusive, PDF Extra is now on Apple's App Store, featuring the ability to scan images, and both create and edit PDFs, all on iPhone.

Two years after its launch on Android, PDF Extra has launched for the iPhone in both free and premium versions. Users of the free version are given 5GB of free space to store their PDFs on maker MobiSystems' servers while premium users receive a tenfold increase to 50GB.

The aim is to provide one place to store your PDFs, and then one editor app to do everything on the go. PDF Extra will display PDFs for reading and users can then digitally sign that document.

Rather than requiring you to photograph your signature and use that image for all your digital signatures, PDF Extra lets you do more. While you can indeed choose to create a digital signature image that you will repeatedly use in this legacy manner, the app also gives you the alternative of providing live signatures and annotations directly on your iPhone or iPad's touch screen.

PDF Extra also offers tools that allow you to tweak the appearance of your live signatures and annotations, such as increasing the thickness (weight) of the lines. Or if a legal PDF form demands black ink but you last signed in blue, you can simply switch the color.

L-R: PDF Extra includes pop up help, you can add text notes to any PDF, and you can also enter your signature

In addition to being able to use photographed signatures, you can use the app to work with photographs in general. PDF Extra can import an image and immediately convert it to PDF.

Similarly, once you've made or opened an existing PDF, the app can export it again for you in multiple different formats. For instance, the app can take an existing PDF and send it to a colleague in Microsoft Word format so that the recipient can edit it.

If you're working with a PDF that happens to be a financial report, PDF Extra can also automatically isolate and extract the figures contained within and then create an Excel-format document.

Within the app itself, you can manipulate your documents while keeping them as PDFs. Open any PDF to annotate it, draw around text, and resize elements as needed. You can also split PDFs within the app or use PDF Extra to join separate PDFs together a particularly useful feature. And then you can save them in your 5GB of free space.

The primary difference between the free and paid versions of PDF Extra is this storage space. Everyone gets 5GB, but premium users get 50GB and more features for $49.99 per year.

Although PDF Extra is primarily a PDF editor, the app also sports a scan feature, which can easily scan multiple pages and save them as one document. In fact, the scan feature is not limited only to documents everything that needs to be scanned can indeed be snapped with your iPhone's camera and instantly turned into a PDF.

Read the original:
PDF Extra comes to iOS with productivity tools and free storage - AppleInsider

People who have spent time in jail or prison often face barriers to accessing stable jobs, housing and financial services. These types of barriers are a key driver of recidivism for the more than 600,000 people who are released from prison each year. Between 2005 and 2014, an estimated 68% of people released in 2005 were arrested again within three years. Within nine years, 83% of those released in 2005 were rearrested, according to the U.S. Department of Justices Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Justice Through Code, a semester-long coding and interpersonal skills intensive that takes place at Columbia University, aims to provide alternative paths for people once they reenter society.

Throughout the semester, students learn the fundamentals of Python and other computer science basics. They also receive career coaching, public speaking training, and learn negotiation skills and how to write a resume. Once students complete the program, Justice Through Code, which held its first cohort last year with just over 30 students, puts them in touch with its partners for paid internships and jobs.

Of the students in the first cohort who were interested in finding jobs or internships after the program, more than 80% of them were placed in relevant roles within six months, Justice Through Code founder Aedan Macdonald told TechCrunch. Antwan (pictured above) is one of the graduates who secured an internship after the program. Antwan has been interning full time at Columbia in the schools IT department since December.

It was just amazing that within one year of me coming across that flyer [for Justice Through Code] on Facebook, Im actually working an internship at Columbia, Antwan told TechCrunch. And its just been tremendous. I mean, its been nonstop learning every single day.

Before that, Antwan spent time at Emergent Works.

It really gave me my first opportunity of using the theory that I learned in the program in a work setting, Antwan said.

Justice Through Code works with a handful of tech partners to support its program and its students. Amazon Web Services, for example, provides laptops to students who need them while technologists from Google, Slack and Coursera speak to students on their experiences in tech.

AWS has yet to hire folks from the program but an AWS spokesperson says the company is excited to present opportunities to graduates.

Its definitely our intention to hire individuals from this program, the spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Justice Through Code is now accepting applications for its third cohort, which Macdonald says he hopes will have a class size of up to 60 people. While Justice Through Code does not require applicants to have any prior coding experience, the program does want participants to be comfortable using computers. The application process also seeks to determine how well someone may be equipped to deal with the frustrations that come with learning how to code.

So much of learning how to code is being in a kind of state where you dont know everything, Macdonald said. And it can be highly frustrating. And so I think seeing how the process of how people work through problems [is beneficial]. We do a couple logic problems in the interview, and its really not a matter of does somebody have the answer to this, but we actually have questions in pairs. So if somebody struggles on one question, well go through in detail how to solve that and then see what their process is of applying that same principle of logic to the subsequent question that utilizes the same principle. So how people are responding in a learning environment, as well as kind of curiosity about the the industry and just a real drive to succeed if theyre selected to participate in the program.

Justice Through Code is not the only program that serves folks impacted by the criminal justice system. The Last Mile teaches folks business and coding skills while incarcerated, and similarly has partnerships in place with tech companies to help returned citizens find jobs.

Macdonald, who himself spent time in prison, says he hopes Justice Through Code can help to shift the negative stereotypes of the formerly incarcerated as not having any future beyond a minimum wage job.

Read the rest here:
Justice Through Code is a free coding program for those impacted by the criminal justice system - TechCrunch