National

“Fueling Up for Success: Revolutionary Changes to Space Diversity with Fresh Leadership and K-12 National Space Day Focus”

Space Workforce 2030 Space Day
“When we think about our nation’s IP and leadership globally, it’s synonymous with leadership in space,” Stricklan told me in an interview before the occasion. To that end Space Workforce 2030 has started with the basics: collecting and understanding the data in order to establish a baseline. Stricklan told me that thousands of teachers have signed on and they expect to see a lot of engagement next month. They have different touchpoints to get to those that just don’t understand there could be a future for them in a STEM-related career.” Stricklan told me. You can learn more about the Space Workforce 2030 effort here.

StealthMole Secures $7 Million in Series A Funding for Revolutionary Dark Web AI Platform

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StealthMole, an AI-powered dark web intelligence startup that specializes in monitoring cyber threats and detecting cybercrime, announced Thursday that it has raised a $7 million Series A funding round. The startup serves over 50 clients across 17 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. One differentiator from its competitors in the cybersecurity industry is its unique expertise in Asia-related threats, Kevin Yoo, chief operating officer (COO) at StealthMole, told TechCrunch. “The high demand for Asia-oriented threat information underscores the uniqueness and value of our dataset for customers worldwide, within and beyond Asia,” Yoo said. Korea Investment Partners led the Series A round with participation from Hibiscus Fund (a joint venture between RHL Ventures, Penjana Kapital and KB Investment) and Smilegate Investment.

UK Initiates Investigation into Proposed $19B Vodafone / Three Merger for Antitrust Concerns

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The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching a formal probe into the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK. That is some 18 months form when they first revealed their plans back in June. It’s not entirely clear how that might impact this latest merger attempt, but Smith reckons that deal is as good as dead, regardless of what any court might subsequently find. “The previous Three/O2 merger is still technically going through the EU courts, but that deal is long since dead in reality,” Smith said. “We strongly believe that the proposed merger of Vodafone and Three will significantly enhance competition by creating a combined business with more resources to invest in infrastructure to better compete with the two larger converged players,” Vodafone UK CEO Ahmed Essam said in a statement.

Report: 1.3 Million Customers’ Data Stolen by Hackers, Confirms Fidelity National Financial

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Real estate services giant Fidelity National Financial has confirmed hackers stole data on 1.3 million of its customers during a November cyberattack that knocked the company offline for a week. FNF spokesperson Lisa Foxworthy-Parker did not respond to TechCrunch’s email requesting further details. FNF said it “contained” the cyberattack on November 26 following a week-long outage that virtually froze all of the company and much of its subsidiaries’ operations. One of FNF’s subsidiaries described the incident as a “catastrophe” in an automated message for customers. FNF was one of several corporate victims of cyberattacks in recent weeks targeting the mortgage and loan industry, including LoanDepot and Mr. Cooper.

Nuclear asteroid deflection simulated in government laboratory in wake of Armageddon-style event

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As if last year’s fabulous Dual Asteroid Redirection Test firing a satellite bullet into an asteroid wasn’t enough, now researchers are doing detailed simulation of the nuclear deflection scenario envisioned in 1998 space disaster film Armageddon. At Lawrence Livermore National Lab, a team led by Mary Burkey (above) presented a paper that moves the ball forward on what is in reality a fairly active area of research. The problem is that a nuclear deflection would need to be done in a very precise way or else it could lead (as it did in Armageddon) to chunks of the asteroid hitting Earth anyway. In particular, understanding whether or not an attempted deflection mission will break apart an asteroid has been a long-standing question in the planetary defense community. Every detailed, high-fidelity simulation and every broad sensitivity sweep brings the field closer to understanding how effective nuclear mitigation would be.