Harrisburg, PA – Today, the Wolf Administration will use the national Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system to provide critical public messages about the COVID-19 pandemic.

WEA is a national public safety system that allows customers with compatible mobile devices to receive geographically targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. The WEA system is commonly used to issue time-sensitive and life-saving alerts, such as Amber Alerts or severe weather warnings.

The Federal Communication Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau allows the state, as an authorized alert originator of messages, to use the WEA system as a COVID-19 communications tool.

Pennsylvania’s first message will be sent statewide today, with the option to target specific state regions for future announcements. For example, suppose one part of the state is experiencing an exceptionally high surge in COVID-19 cases. In that case, cellphone users in that region may receive an alert with information about staying at home or where to find an available COVID-19 testing site in their area.

Governor Tom Wolf said:  “WEA is one more way to reach as many Pennsylvanians as we can to provide timely information on COVID-19. This tool is another tool in our toolkit to fight the pandemic and unite against COVID.”

Message content, in both English and Spanish, is a combined effort of the Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. PEMA will send alerts through FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to participating wireless carriers, pushing the signs to compatible mobile devices in the area. Wireless companies volunteer to participate in WEA.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, since its launch in 2012, the WEA system has been used nearly 56,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations – all through alerts on compatible cell phones and other mobile devices.

Source: Press Release
Date: November 25, 2020
pa.gov

An AI & Robotics Technologies Park (ARTPARK) set up in Bengaluru will promote technology innovations in AI (Artificial Intelligence)& Robotics, leading to societal impact by executing ambitious mission mode R&D projects in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail, and cyber-security focusing on problems unique to India.

ARTPARK is a unique not-for-profit foundation established by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, with support from AI Foundry in a public-private model. With seed funding of Rs. 170 Cr ($22mn) from the Department of Science & Technology(DST), Govt. of India, under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), it will bring about a collaborative consortium of partners from industry, academia, and government bodies. This will lead to cutting-edge innovations in new technologies, standards, products, services, and intellectual properties.

“The National Mission ICPS with its 25 Hubs has a unique architecture that envisages a strong collaboration and co-ownership among the triple helix of industry, academia, and government with full flexibility. Generous additional support of the Government of Karnataka to the ARTPARK Hub brings extraordinary value in increasing its effectiveness, reach and use. It also sets a template of center-state partnership in the frontier areas of technology– a theme which will receive focus in the soon-to-be-released Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020”, said Professor Ashutosh Sharma, DST Secretary at the launch of the ARTPARK recently.

“Indian academia has been carrying out cutting-edge technology research in various domains. However, we have had systemic issues in moving the results of this research from university laboratories into the outside world. ARTPARK would go a long way in establishing a template for addressing this need,” Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc, pointed out.

“These moonshots will not only enable India but also build technology solutions for the 6 bn people in the developing world,” said Umakant Soni, Co-founder & CEO,

ARTPARK will develop AI and robotics facilities to support technology innovations and capacity building through advanced skills training of students and professionals in these areas. Some of these facilities will be critical enablers for new technologies, products, and services. It will develop DataSetu, which will enable confidentiality and privacy-preserving frameworks to share data, run analytics, spur the data-sharing ecosystem, and create a data marketplace, boosting AI applications and solutions.

One such service will be BhashaSetu, which enables real-time indicator language translation, both speech-to-speech and speech-to-text. This will further unlock the country’s economic potential, enabling all Indian citizens to participate in economic progress equitably, regardless of their language.

Prof. Bharadwaj Amrutur, Research Head & Director ARTPARK, explained how ARTPARK was a natural evolution of the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, interdisciplinary research, and academic centre at IISc, with funding from the Bosch group of companies.  

Vishal Dhupar, MD, NVIDIA South Asia, spoke about the collaborations between NVIDIA and ARTPARK to “enable technology to solve humanity’s grand challenges”. 

Robin Sukhia, Secretary-General and President of the Sweden India Business Council, pointed out how the not-for-profit organization will enable international co-creation at a higher and deeper level to help solve today’s and tomorrow’s challenges uniquely using technology.

ARTPARK, in collaboration with AI Foundry, will run a novel ARTPARK Venture Studio that will mentor technopreneurs who will take the outputs of the mission mode projects to launch new startups.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Science & Technology
Date: November 29, 2020

Attorney General James Helps Secure $17.5 Million After Data Breach at The Home Depot

New York State to Receive Nearly $600,000

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a multistate agreement with The Home Depot, Inc. that resolves an investigation into a massive 2014 data breach, which compromised the payment card information of approximately 40 million consumers nationwide. Today’s agreement resolves the cyber-attack by requiring The Home Depot to pay 46 states and the District of Columbia $17.5 million — of which $597,459.80 will go to New York state. In addition to the payment, The Home Depot has agreed to a series of data security practices designed to strengthen its information security program and safeguard consumers’ personal information.

Attorney General James said: “New Yorkers have every reasonable expectation that their personal financial information will remain private and protected. Instead of building a secure system, The Home Depot failed to protect consumers and put their data at risk. My office is committed to protecting consumers, which is why we will continue to use every instrument in our toolbox to hold accountable companies that fail to safeguard personal information.”

The breach occurred when hackers accessed The Home Depot’s network and deployed malware on the company’s self-checkout point-of-sale system. The malware allowed hackers to obtain the payment card information of customers who used self-checkout lanes at The Home Depot stores throughout the U.S. between April 10, 2014, and September 13, 2014.

As part of the agreement, The Home Depot will also make a series of provisions to its security protocols, including:

• Employing a duly qualified chief information security officer — reporting to both senior or C-level executives and the board of directors regarding The Home Depot’s security posture and security risks;
• Providing resources necessary to implement the company’s information security program fully;
• Providing appropriate security awareness and privacy training to all personnel who have access to the company’s network or responsibility for U.S. consumers’ personal information;
• Employing specific security safeguards concerning logging and monitoring, access controls, password management, two-factor authentication, file integrity monitoring, firewalls, encryption, risk assessments, penetration testing, intrusion detection, and vendor account management; and
• Undergoing a post-settlement information security assessment — consistent with previous state data breach settlements — will, in part, evaluate its implementation of the agreed-upon information security program.

Joining Attorney General James in filing today’s multistate agreement are the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

This matter was handled by Deputy Bureau Chief Clark Russell of the Bureau of Internet and Technology under the supervision of Bureau Chief Kim Berger. The Bureau of Internet and Technology is a part of the Division for Economic Justice, led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy. Source: Press Release Date: November 24, 2020, Attorney General’s Press Office/212-416-8060 ag.ny.gov