Mediaboss Marketing

A new noodle bar has opened in North Brooklyn.

No Strings Attached Noodle Bar (135B North 5th St.), also called NSA, is a fusion restaurant byrestaurateurs Chiwa Yeung and Spencer Cartledge, and Executive Chef Brooke Apfelbaum.

Yeung and Cartledge, both architectural designers, met while studying at the Pratt Institute, and the two college friends eventually became business partners, buying La Margarita Pizza on the Lower East Side in March 2020. Obviously, not the best time to take on a new restaurant, the two, along with newly hired chef, Apfelbaum, pivoted to selling pasta kits to earn revenue.

The kits popularity led to the creation of NSA, and the team wanted a brick and mortar space for the concept, which fuses Japanese and Italian-American fare.

NSAs opening menu includes seasonal gyoza with peanut butter sauce, stuffed macaroni bites with Japanese sausage, scallop crudo with yuzu and caviar and more inventive appetizers. Main courses, both family-style and individually portioned, include house-made pasta, like garganelli with Wagyu ragu and parmesan fettuccine with seared Japanese scallops and garlic chips. An elegant uni creme angel hair with nori panko rounds out the pasta menu.

On the ramen side, guests can choose from truffle tonkatsu ramen, smoky tempeh miso ramen, chilled yuzu shrimp ramen and more.

NSA is truly a collaborative affair, with the chefs older brother, Samuel Apfelbaum, running the beverage program. While the restaurant waits for a liquor license, mocktails will be served.

NSA Noodle Bar is built a sleek, minimalist space with bar seating and a small dining room with tables and counter seating. Adorned with homemade pottery and art that is all contributed by the staff and close friends, the restaurant embodies creativity at every level.

Link:
No Strings Attached Noodle Bar Merges Italian and Japanese Fare in Williamsburg - greenpointers.com

America's National Security Agency has published an FAQ about quantum cryptography, saying it does not know "when or even if" a quantum computer will ever exist to "exploit" public-key cryptography.

In the document, titled Quantum Computing and Post-Quantum Cryptography, the NSA said it "has to produce requirements today for systems that will be used for many decades in the future." With that in mind, the agency came up with some predictions [PDF] for the near future of quantum computing and their impact on encryption.

Is the NSA worried about the threat posed by a "cryptographically relevant quantum computer" (CRQC)? Apparently not too much.

"NSA does not know when or even if a quantum computer of sufficient size and power to exploit public key cryptography (a CRQC) will exist," it stated, which sounds fairly conclusive though in 2014 the agency splurged $80m looking for a quantum computer that could smash current encryption in a program titled Owning the Net, so the candor of the paper's statements is perhaps open to debate.

What the super-surveillance agency seems to be saying is that it's not a given that a CRQC capable of breaking today's public-key algorithms will ever emerge, though it wouldn't be a bad idea to consider coming up with and using new techniques that could defeat a future CRQC, should one be built.

It's almost like the NSA is dropping a not-so-subtle hint, though why it would is debatable. If it has a CRQC, or is on the path to one, it might want to warn allies, vendors, and citizens to think about using quantum-resistant technologies in case bad people develop a CRQC too. But why would the spies tip their hand so? It's all very curious.

Progress on quantum computers has been steadily made over the past few years, and while they may not ever replace our standard, classical computing, they are very effective at solving certain problems

Eric Trexler, VP of global governments at security shop Forcepoint, told The Register: "Progress on quantum computers has been steadily made over the past few years, and while they may not ever replace our standard, classical computing, they are very effective at solving certain problems. This includes public-key asymmetric cryptography, one of the two different types of cryptosystems in use today."

Public-key cryptography is what the world relies on for strong encryption, such as TLS and SSL that underpin the HTTPS standard used to help protect your browser data from third-party snooping.

In the NSA's summary, a CRQC should one ever exist "would be capable of undermining the widely deployed public key algorithms used for asymmetric key exchanges and digital signatures" and what a relief it is that no one has one of these machines yet. The post-quantum encryption industry has long sought to portray itself as an immediate threat to today's encryption, as El Reg detailed in 2019.

"The current widely used cryptography and hashing algorithms are based on certain mathematical calculations taking an impractical amount of time to solve," explained Martin Lee, a technical lead at Cisco's Talos infosec arm. "With the advent of quantum computers, we risk that these calculations will become easy to perform, and that our cryptographic software will no longer protect systems."

Given that nations and labs are working toward building crypto-busting quantum computers, the NSA said it was working on "quantum-resistant public key" algorithms for private suppliers to the US government to use, having had its Post-Quantum Standardization Effort running since 2016. However, the agency said there are no such algos that commercial vendors should adopt right now, "with the exception of stateful hash signatures for firmware."

Smart cookies will be glad to hear that the NSA considers AES-256 and SHA-384 "safe against attack by a large quantum computer."

Jason Soroko, CTO of Sectigo, a vendor that advertises "quantum safe cryptography" said the NSA report wasn't conclusive proof that current encryption algos were safe from innovation.

"Quantum computers alone do not crack public key cryptography," he said, adding that such a beast would need to execute an implementation of Shors algorithm. That algo was first described in 1994 by an MIT maths professor and allows for the calculation of prime factors of very large numbers; a vital step towards speeding up the decryption of the product of current encryption algorithms.

"Work on quantum resistant cryptographic algorithms is pushing forward based on the risk that Universal quantum computers will eventually have enough stable qubits to eventually implement Shors algorithm," continued Soroko. "I think its important to assume that innovation in both math and engineering will potentially surprise us."

While advances in cryptography are of more than merely academic interest to the infosec world, there is always the point that security (and data) breaches occur because of primarily human factors. Ransomware, currently the largest threat to enterprises, typically spreads because someone's forgotten to patch or decommission a machine on a corporate network or because somebody opens an attachment from a malicious email.

Or there's the old joke about rubber hose cryptanalysis, referring to beating the passwords out of a captured sysadmin.

Talos' Lee concluded: In a world where users will divulge their passwords in return for chocolate or in response to an enticing phishing email, the risk of quantum computers might not be our biggest threat.

See the original post:
NSA: We 'don't know when or even if' a quantum computer will ever be able to break today's public-key encryption - The Register

New Delhi, Sep 4 (UNI) Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash has said it is a very opportune moment for the indigenous development of 5G NSA & SA by C-DOT, in the overall context of meeting the challenging communications requirements of the nation and realizing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'.

Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the premier Telecom R&D Centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, observed its 38th Foundation Day celebrations yesterday.

The technical conference was inaugurated by Anshu Prakash, Chairman, Digital Communications Commission & Secretary (Telecom), the Ministry of Communications said in a statement on Saturday.

Speaking at the event, Prakash exhorted the engineers to relentlessly work towards successful Proof of Concept (PoC) of C-DOT 4G LTE Core in BSNL network.

UNI NY SHK1838

See the article here:
Opportune moment for indigenous development of 5G NSA & SA by C-DOT: Prakash - United News of India

U.S. Vehicle Sales (millions)

While the story of the week was the big miss in Nonfarm Payrolls, most of the incoming data continue to be much softer than the markets or financial media let on, as they continue to ignore the implications.The chart above shows U.S. vehicle sales beginning in 2015.Note the steady sales levels until the pandemic, the climb out to just above normal, and now a renewed falloff.Sales in August were -11% lower than in July, as they fell to a 13.5 million annual rate.They were nearly 19 million in April.Could it possibly be that the helicopter money pulled demand forward?Lack of semi-conductors, you say!If so, why are used car sales also falling?

NY Fed Weekly Economic Index

Now, look at the chart of the NY Feds Weekly Economic Index.Like autos, note the big rise in April and the tail-off since.From this chart, it appears that the growth all occurred in April, causing Q2s GDP to rise 6.6%.But this index has been falling since, implying that growth has slowed since then, leading us to conclude that Q3s growth will be weaker than Q2s, and Q4s worse yet.

In past blogs, we discussed the potential impact of the Delta-variant.The impacts from it are continuing.Restaurant reservations are falling, hotels are experiencing cancellations and a lower number of room nights, and a significant number of major corporations have delayed a return to the office.The latest employment data show job losses in the retail, hospitality, and restaurant sectors.

Here is a partial list of weakening incoming data:

The Payroll Survey:Fridays Nonfarm Payrolls at +235K (Seasonally Adjusted (SA)) also disappointed the consensus view (+733K), yet another big miss on the part of the business forecasters.There wasnt much impact on the equity markets (September 3: DOW: -74.7, S&P 500: -1.5; Nasdaq NDAQ : +32.3).The Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) number was +312K.Our view has been, and continues to be, that the pandemic and its nuances (Delta-variant) arent seasonally adjustable.From a strictly statistical point of view, the pandemic data havent been around long enough to display seasonality and using seasonal factors from pre-pandemic data makes no sense because todays data is profoundly influenced by the pandemic (i.e., re-opening, mask mandates, supply-chain issues, government supplemental payments, school re-opening issues ). Nevertheless, the August +312K NSA number appears close enough to the +235K SA one so whats the issue for us?

The people with jobs are the ones that get paid.Over the last two months, BLS has told us that 1.288 million (SA) jobs were created (1.053 million in July (revised) and 235K in August).The NSA numbers (these are the actual job counts) for both months combined was 278K (312K for August and -34K for July).278K new payrolls is a far cry from 1.288 million.Perhaps this is why the August business surveys show employment softness!Noteworthy: the NSA data shows -64K in the retail sector, -74K in leisure/hospitality, -50K in accommodation (hotels) and -52K in restaurants.This data strongly implies that the Delta-variant has had a dramatic economic impact.We think this impact will continue at least for another few months.

Weekly Initial Claims (ICs):The weekly data are both encouraging and discouraging.Encouraging because ICs in the state programs fell from 299K to 288k (NSA) the week of August 28.ICs represent new layoffs, and they continue to inch their way toward the 200K/week level that was the pre-pandemic normal.

State Initial Claims

But it is discouraging to realize that there will be a negative economic impact in early September when millions of unemployed lose those benefits.Small business owners are payors into the state systems for their employees, but the owners, themselves, are not eligible for state unemployment benefits (only their employees).The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) programs were established early in the pandemic for these business owners.As you can see from the PUA Initial Claims chart (data from April through August), the PUA programs have struggled of late (Delta-variant?) and the weekly new claims have remained above 100K.

PUA Initial Claims

The PUA programs end the first week of September, so their demise is imminent.

Continuing Claims (CCs):While the 100K/week ICs are worrisome, the real issue is the imminent cessation of benefits for the 9.2 million Continuous Claimants (those getting benefits for more than one week) in the PUA programs.

Continuing Unemployment Claims

If such recipients have only been receiving benefits of $500/week, they are facing a reduction of $45 billion/month in household income (thats about 3% of such income).Expect a significant impact on consumption at least for the remainder of the year.

Opt-Outs vs. Opt-Ins:The tables below continue to show that the Opt-Out states (those not paying the federal $300/week supplement) have continued to outpace the Opt-Ins as far as reducing the unemployment rolls.From May 15 through August 21, Opt-Out state unemployment has fallen by more than 41% vs. under 20% for the Op-Ins.

Percentage Changes in CCs: Opt-Out vs. Opt-In States

Looking more granularly (table below), using the final data for August 14, Opt-Outs (representing 25% of the total CCs) reduced unemployment by -40K, while unemployment increased in the Opt-In states by +42K!

Relative Performance: Opt-Out States vs. Opt-In States

The preliminary data for August 21 show somewhat better performance of the Opt-Ins, as their CC count decreased only slightly more slowly than the Opt-Outs.As we have said in past blogs, we think the Opt-Ins will catch-up when the PUA programs end. And, once again, it is our belief that once those programs end, there will be a rush to find employment.

However, filling available job slots isnt an instantaneous process.There is an appointment needed, then an interview, a background check, and finally, an offer and acceptance.So, even if the majority of the 9.2 million CCs begin to look for work, it may take several months for a semblance of normality to return.And the economic implication is that there is likely to be a noticeable consumption slowdown, with retail falling at an even faster pace than we are seeing in the current emerging data.

Markets continue to ignore the signs of economic slowdown, as does the financial media.Of course, the equity markets love easy money, and slower economic growth means the Fed will stay easy longer.The bond market, on the other hand, appears to see the softness, and rates have reacted to the downside after some inflation indigestion last quarter.

Besides the existing softening signs, the rapidly approaching end of the special unemployment programs means no weekly checks for more than nine million current recipients.That is bound to have a negative impact on consumption, implying continued economic weakness in Q4.

(Joshua Barone contributed to this blog)

See the article here:
A Softening Economy Will Be Buffeted By Stimulus Withdrawal And Delta-Variant Surge - Forbes

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Violations of user rights by IT giants who are now directly checking information and data contained in peoples personal gadgets entails a risk that governments will later monopolize this function, former US NSA staffer Edward Snowden said on Thursday.

"Its no longer a company question, its a government question. So, you have to ask yourself can Apple say no to the US government, the Russian government, the Chinese government, the German government, the French government, the British government? Of course, the answer is no. Not if they want to keep selling their products in these countries. Thats dangerous," he said.

He recalled that Apple earlier announced plans to look for illegal content on their phones even before this information is saved on their servers. "Instead of private companies scanning their files in the cloud on their system, now they are doing it on your phone. This has caused a lot of concern for people around the world even though they say that the system for now is only rolling out in the United States." Snowden noted. "The reasons for it are once Apple proves that it is possible for them to scan for some kind of forbidden content <> they cant decide in the future what kind of files would be searched for."

According to him, this function will give Apple opportunity to look through and search for any personal information stored on phones. "Now they are telling your device what to look for. And if they find something thats forbidden, thats against the law <> but tomorrow it can be something else, some new category. You dont know what they are scanning for," he said. "Once Apple breaks down this barrier between their servers and your phone and now they start scanning on your phone, they can scan for anything, they scan for political criticism, they can scan for financial records," he concluded.

In early August, Apple revealed that the company would start checking messages and iCloud content for child pornography. Apple said on Thursday that the necessary means to technically do that would be introduced in the new software for all its devices.

Read the original:
Actions of IT giants pave the way for states to monopolize data Snowden - TASS