AmpiFire is the world’s first content amplification engine

AmpiFire

To showcase an insight into the future of Lisk and to celebrate this year’s biggest achievements, was born. It will consist of a hybrid event scheduled to be held on , 2021, and will focus on the wider audience of blockchain enthusiasts. AmpliFire December 2nd Behind AmpliFire This is an event designed to suit everyone. It is geared towards both technical and non-technical individuals, blockchain enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, investors, and basically anyone interested in the crypto and blockchain industry. AmpliFire is all about celebrating our competitive advantages within the blockchain world, together with showcasing why blockchain, and why Lisk is the way forward. It will also provide us with an incredible opportunity to unveil some of the key announcements and brand new partnerships we have now established, coupled with our extensive vision to amplify and grow Lisk further into the future. Finally, we could not be happier to host another in-person event in Berlin, to facilitate networking sessions, and other fun activities. AmpliFire, an event by Lisk, aims to show the world we are not inactive by any means. On the contrary, we are very much alive and on fire! The Venue Located in a historic and vibrant area of Berlin, is a multifunctional and modern venue that offers ample space for a wide variety of diverse event formats. From meetups to conferences, the overall concept represents and portrays much of what we aim to achieve with this event. Hence the inspiration for our event naming. Amplifier We cannot wait to see you there on December 2nd, 2021, so make sure to and secure your ticket while you can! register The Agenda 6:00pm - 7:00pm Open Doors 7:00pm - 7:15pm by Monica Tartau, Head of Marketing, and Miguel de Sousa, Community Manager Welcome to AmpliFire 7:15pm - 8:00pm by Max Kordek, CEO & Co-Founder The Case for Lisk 8:00pm - 8:10pm by Miguel de Sousa, Community Manager HackOnLisk2: DeFi & GameFi Prizes 8:10pm - 8:20pm by Max Kordek, CEO & Co-Founder Lisk in Retrospect 8:20pm - 8:40pm by Jan Hackfeld, Head of Research, Shusetsu Toda, Head of SDK Development, Manu Nelamane Head of Platform Development Research & Development - Lisk Platform Launch in 2022 Siddalingegowda, 8:40pm - 9:00pm by Monica Tartau, Head of Marketing Marketing - Let's Get Loud in 2022 9:00pm - 9:15pm by Max Kordek, CEO & Co-Founder The Ultimate Vision for Lisk 9:15pm onwards Networking The Speakers To discuss the overall strategy and merits of Lisk, coupled with revealing our ultimate vision, we will welcome on stage Lisk’s CEO and Co-Founder, Max Kordek. AmpliFire, as the name suggests, is all about expanding our efforts. To achieve this the event will focus heavily on the newly redesigned and improved marketing strategy to further increase Lisks global exposure into 2022 and beyond, , will also be on stage to highlight this. Monica Tartau, Head of Marketing Furthermore, AmpliFire will provide an opportunity for those already engaged with the project to get a brief, yet insightful update on the latest technological advancements that the Lisk Development and Research are currently working on, namely, an update on the platform launch, together with numerous other key announcements. Conclusion Unlike our other event formats, will heavily focus on our Marketing efforts moving forward and essentially consist of rapid-fire presentations from official contributors of the Lisk project. We are confident this event will be a perfect opportunity to finally reveal multiple exciting announcements that we have been holding on to, together with our brand new partners, and finally to disclose for the first time ever the new vision for Lisk. AmpliFire We hope you are just as excited as we are. Make sure to set a reminder to on and/or to register if you would like to be present at the Amplifier venue in Berlin, Germany. watch the event live December 2nd Join us on our journey to make Lisk louder.

Lisk Preparing for AmpliFire: A Hybrid Event for Blockchain Enthusiasts

Let's learn about via these 42 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Conference /Learn Repo 1. Lisk Preparing for AmpliFire: A Hybrid Event for Blockchain Enthusiasts To showcase an insight into the future of Lisk and to celebrate this year’s biggest achievements, AmpliFire was born. This will consist of a hybrid event 2. How Hackathons Can Help You Build Much-Needed Developer Experience Hackathons are a great way to get hands-on development experience. They offer developers the chance to learn from more experienced devs and can also be fun. 3. Networking at VC Events: How to Gain More Value? The pandemic and lockdowns have proven to the world the simple truth that we are social beings. 4. Top 10 Web3 Events You Should Attend in Jan-May 2023 In this article, I’m sharing only a few that I think will be big and have great opportunities as well as cool audiences 5. A Look into the World of Web3 Summit The Global Web3 Summit WOW finished its 3rd edition in Lisbon. The 3-day event is one of the top B2B and B2G in the world of Web3 tech and digital assets. 6. WOW Summit Web3 Conference is Coming to Hong Kong in 2023 WOW Hong Kong is supported by government institutions - Invest Hong Kong and Hong Kong Tourism Board 7. DeGameFi Conference in Tbilisi: Introducing a New Crypto Hub to the Web3 Community They say, once you come to Georgia, you find yourself reluctant to leave. This stunning country – particularly attractive with sunny weather, scenic mountains.. 8. Top 7 Crypto Events in 2023 For me, visiting crypto conferences is to learn about the crypto and engage with the brightest minds. So, I want to share my top 7 crypto events for this year. 9. Paris Blockchain Summit (PBS) Returns July 8th, 2022 After two successful editions, Paris Blockchain Summit (PBS) returns on July 8, 2022 with its Mainstream edition! 10. Vue Amsterdam 2022 - Part IV: The Unwanted Stack How to purpose changes; How to adapt ourselves in a tech stack. 11. My First Tech Talk: How I Prepared and How I Got Through It Overall, it was a fantastic experience, & I am glad I went live instead of pre-recording. 12. Zoom 5.0: Major 5 Security Updates You Need to Know From yoga classes to worldwide webinars, Zoom community has been expanding all around the world after the global lockdown due to COVID-19. 13. 8 Best AI Conferences to Attend in 2022 Here’s the full list of top AI conferences to attend in 2022, from the most technical to business-focused to academic 14. Virtual Conferences: Innovating the Conference Industry for the Future OK, so maybe we’re all growing a little tired of staring at our computer screens all day. But would you rather be going into an office every day and potentially contracting the coronavirus? What about business travel? If your boss asked you to go on a business trip to a conference that involved airfare and eating out at restaurants, would you be completely comfortable with that right now? Chances are we are constantly weighing the risks and rewards of things these days to make decisions that three months ago were no big deal. Until there’s a vaccine or a cure, chances are we aren’t going to feel totally comfortable getting “back to normal” just yet. Sp what will business start to look like as people get back to normal activities from a distance? 15. Introducing T.K.O Summit 2021 Asia’s First Crypto Outlook The T.K.O Summit 2021will also focus on the introduction of the TKO token utility, Indonesia's first local token project with CeFi and DeFi utilities. 16. 7 Ways to Stand Out at a Tech Conference After more than 60 meetings at a major tech conference in Dubai Gitex Global 2022, I figured out what helps projects stand out and get stuck in the memory. 17. SaaStock West Coast 2019 Launches in Startup Mecca San Francisco SaaStock, "a global community of software as a service (SaaS) founders, executives, and investors" is an ambitious organization with successful events already held in Latin America, Asia, and the U.S. Eastern Coast. West Coast (happening now), Dublin, Australasia, are the final events planned out for this year. San Francisco and Silicon Valley is the birthplace of the world's biggest SaaS companies which brings symbolic significance for this particular event.  Unlike the other events held by SaaStock, the West Coast event is specially catered for companies with traction and already in the growth stage  doing $0-$10M in ARR. 18. JSWorld Conference 2022: Part IV JSWorld Conference is the number one JavaScript Conference in the world, and I share a summary of all the talks with you. Part IV 19. The Show Must Go On: Producing a Virtual Nonprofit Event Virtual events are nothing new. Yet COVID-19 has people scrapping travel itineraries and signing up for online sessions, workshops, and classes. Instead of a crowded expo floor, they'll be watching educational and informational sessions in their homes. 20. 4 Blockchain Events to Keep an Eye On in 2021 - 2022 Virtual hackathons contribute to growth in the nascent blockchain industry by empowering developers to create new ways to accelerate the global adoption of DLT. 21. How to Remove Background Sound in Real-Time for Linux 22. Web3 & AI Events That You Won't Want to Miss in April 2023 web3 events and conferences April 2023 23. CGC|LIVE: Cutting-edge Games Conference Coming September 22 - 26 Cutting-edge Games Conference invites all game industry professionals and enthusiasts to plunge into a completely different world for five days, to explore new capabilities of technology and creativity during the game developers’ conference sessions and on the online exhibition area! 24. Draper Goren Holm’s LA Blockchain Summit Announces $1 Million Dollar Bitcoin Giveaway The unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the world of business conferences into a whole new dimension. Draper Goren Holm, a blockchain venture studio co-owned by billionaire Tim Draper, has decided that the safety of LA Blockchain Summit attendees comes first and therefore is sending the event into cyberspace. 25. WOPR is Coming to Uruguay! This year Abstracta is hosting WOPR (Workshop on Performance and Reliability) in Uruguay! It’s going to be December 6-8, 2022, in Montevideo. 26. TDD Conference 2021: Opening Ceremony by Alex Bunardzic Alex is a software engineering veteran with over 30 years of hands-on professional experience. He is a staunch advocate of Extreme Programming and TDD. 27. SpringOne Tel Aviv World Tour Trip Report My talk was accepted by SpringOne in San Francisco. I never went to that conference and was really looking forward to it. 28. Looking Back on My 2022: A Year in Review 29. My Experience at THAT Conference 2023: Opinions and Thoughts Weeks ago, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending THAT Conference Austin as a workshop presenter, and I thought it would be cool to share my review. 30. JSWorld Conference 2022: Part II JSWorld Conference is the number one JavaScript Conference in the world, and I share a summary of all the talks with you. Part II 31. TSQA 2022: Test Automation Code and Strategy How one company outlined how to streamline test automation code and some strategic uses for it at the Triangle Software Quality Association 2022 conference 32. 6 Virtual DevOps Conferences to Attend in 2021 Free to distribute and use in any form 33. HackerNoon Partners with Non-Fungible Conference HackerNoon has signed on as a media partner for this year's Non-Fungible Conference 34. JSNation Live 2020, the remote spin-off of a successful JavaScript conference Would you like to know the future of the JavaScript ecosystem and get connected to a stellar crowd? To help you stay up-to-date on the latest JS tech, the GitNation team has come up with a new remote event taking place on June 18-19, 2020. JSNation Live, their 2-day event on all things JavaScript, will gather 25 thousand software engineers, making it the biggest JavaScript conference in the cloud. 35. MumbaiFOSS: My Experience, Thoughts, and Opinions MumbaiFOSS is a conference organized by FOSS United and FOSSEE to promote Free and Open Source Software in Mumbai. In this blog, I share my experiences and take 36. Everything You Need to Know About This Year's World Economic Forum Mario Nawfal goes over the World Economic Forum. 37. Automating a Conference Submission Workflow: Tech Stack And Setup Even given the current situation, part of my Developer Advocate job is to talk at (virtual) conferences. Sometimes, organizers invite me. Yet, most of the times, I need to take part in a CfP. With the sheer numbers of conferences I submit to, I need a tool to manage the status of each submission. Since I started, Trello has been my tool of choice. I’ve a dedicated board with several defined columns: backlog, abandoned, submitted, rejected, submitted and done. A conference is a card that I move around, depending on its status. 38. Webinars Can be as Efficient as In-Person Events with Nunify With virtual meetings, webinars, and online events being hosted on various online platforms, it's never been easier to attend a session of your choice! Many factors like location, accessibility, and convenience are addressed through this innovative technology. 39. JSWorld Conference 2022: Part III JSWorld Conference is the number one JavaScript Conference in the world, and I share a summary of all the talks with you. Part III 40. JavaZone Turned Out to be an Amazing Conference This Year JavaZone is my absolute favorite Java conference. I like it even more than JavaOne at Moscone! Great to be back to enjoy great content, food & company 41. Top Deep Learning Papers from This Year's ICLR Conference Last week I had a pleasure to participate in the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), an event dedicated to the research on all aspects of deep learning. Initially, the conference was supposed to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, however, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it went virtual. I’m sure it was a challenge for organisers to move the event online, but I think the effect was more than satisfactory, as you can read here! 42. The ICLR 2020 Conference: Reinforcement Learning Papers Demystified Last week I had a pleasure to participate in the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), an event dedicated to the research on all aspects of representation learning, commonly known as deep learning. The conference went virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic, and thanks to the huge effort of its organizers, the event attracted an even bigger audience than last year. Their goal was for the conference to be inclusive and interactive, and from my point of view, as an attendee, it was definitely the case! Thank you for checking out the 42 most read stories about Conference on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

42 Stories To Learn About Conference

The Radio Amateur's Hand Book, by A. Frederick Collins is part of . You can jump to any chapter in this book here: . Chapter IX: Vacuum Tube Amplifier Receiving Sets HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series [LINK TO TABLE OF LINK] The reason a vacuum tube detector is more sensitive than a crystal detector is because while the latter merely rectifies the oscillating current that surges in the receiving circuits, the former acts as an amplifier at the same time. The vacuum tube can be used as a separate amplifier in connection with either: (1) a crystal detector or (2) a vacuum tube detector, and (a) it will amplify either the radio frequency currents, that is the high frequency oscillating currents which are set up in the oscillation circuits or (b) it will amplify the audio frequency currents, that is, the low frequency alternating currents that flow through the head phone circuit. IX. VACUUM TUBE AMPLIFIER RECEIVING SETS To use the amplified radio frequency oscillating currents or amplified audio frequency alternating currents that are set up by an amplifier tube either a high resistance, called a grid leak, or an amplifying transformer, with or without an iron core, must be connected with the plate circuit of the first amplifier tube and the grid circuit of the next amplifier tube or detector tube, or with the wire point of a crystal detector. Where two or more amplifier tubes are coupled together in this way the scheme is known as cascade amplification. Where either a radio frequency transformer, that is one without the iron core, or an audio frequency transformer, that is one with the iron core, is used to couple the amplifier tube circuits together better results are obtained than where a high resistance grid leak is used, but the amplifying tubes have to be more carefully shielded from each other or they will react and set up a howling noise in the head phones. On the other hand grid leaks cost less but they are more troublesome to use as you have to find out for yourself the exact resistance value they must have and this you can do only by testing them out. A Grid Leak Amplifier Receiving Set. With Crystal Detector.--The apparatus you need for this set includes: (1) a loose coupled tuning coil, (2) a variable condenser, (3) two fixed condensers, (4) a crystal detector, or better a vacuum tube detector, (5) an A or 6 volt storage battery, (6) a rheostat, (7) a B or 22-1/2 volt dry cell battery, (8) a fixed resistance unit, or leak grid as it is called, and (9) a pair of head-phones. The tuning coil, variable condenser, fixed condensers, crystal detectors and head-phones are exactly the same as those described in Set No. 2 in . The A and B batteries are exactly the same as those described in . The vacuum tube amplifier and the grid leak are the only new pieces of apparatus you need and not described before. Chapter III Chapter VIII The Vacuum Tube Amplifier.--This consists of a three electrode vacuum tube exactly like the vacuum tube detector described in and pictured in Fig. 38, except that instead of being filled with a non-combustible gas it is evacuated, that is, the air has been completely pumped out of it. The gas filled tube, however, can be used as an amplifier and either kind of tube can be used for either radio frequency or audio frequency amplification, though with the exhausted tube it is easier to obtain the right plate and filament voltages for good working. Chapter VIII The Fixed Resistance Unit, or Grid Leak.--Grid leaks are made in different ways but all of them have an enormously high resistance. One way of making them consists of depositing a thin film of gold on a sheet of mica and placing another sheet of mica on top to protect it the whole being enclosed in a glass tube as shown at A in Fig. 42. These grid leaks are made in units of from 50,000 ohms (.05 megohm) to 5,000,000 ohms (5 megohms) and cost from $1 to $2. As the value of the grid leak you will need depends very largely upon the construction of the different parts of your receiving set and on the kind of aerial wire system you use with it you will have to try out various resistances until you hit the right one. The resistance that will give the best results, however, lies somewhere between 500,000 ohms (1/2 a megohm) and 3,000,000 ohms (3 megohms) and the only way for you to find this out is to buy 1/2, 1 and 2 megohm grid leak resistances and connect them up in different ways, as shown at B, until you find the right value. Assembling the Parts for a Crystal Detector Set.--Begin by laying the various parts out on a base or a panel with the loose coupled tuning coil on the left hand side, but with the adjustable switch of the secondary coil on the right hand end or in front according to the way it is made. Then place the variable condenser, the rheostat, the crystal detector and the binding posts for the head phones in front of and in a line with each other. Set the vacuum tube amplifier back of the rheostat and the A and B batteries back of the parts or in any other place that may be convenient. The fixed condensers and the grid leak can be placed anywhere so that it will be easy to connect them in and you are ready to wire up the set. Connecting Up the Parts for a Crystal Detector.--First connect the sliding contact of the primary of the tuning coil to the leading-in wire and one of the end wires of the primary to the water pipe, as shown in Fig. 43. Now connect the adjustable arm that makes contact with one end of the secondary of the tuning coil to one of the posts of the variable condenser; then connect the other post of the latter with a post of the fixed condenser and the other post of this with the grid of the amplifying tube. Connect the first post of the variable condenser to the + or positive electrode of the A battery and its - or negative electrode with the rotating contact arm of the rheostat. Next connect one end of the resistance coil of the rheostat to one of the posts of the amplifier tube that leads to the filament and the other filament post to the + or positive electrode of the A battery. This done connect the negative, that is, the zinc pole of the B battery to the positive electrode of the A battery and connect the positive, or carbon pole of the former with one end of the grid leak and connect the other end of this to the plate of the amplifier tube. To the end of the grid leak connected with the plate of the amplifier tube connect the metal point of your crystal detector, the crystal of the latter with one post of the head phones and the other post of them with the other end of the grid leak and, finally, connect a fixed condenser in parallel with--that is across the ends of the grid leak, all of which is shown in the wiring diagram in Fig. 43. A Grid Leak Amplifying Receiving Set With Vacuum Tube Detector.--A better amplifying receiving set can be made than the one just described by using a vacuum tube detector instead of the crystal detector. This set is built up exactly like the crystal detector described above and shown in Fig. 43 up to and including the grid leak resistance, but shunted across the latter is a vacuum tube detector, which is made and wired up precisely like the one shown at A in Fig. 41 in the chapter ahead of this one. The way a grid leak and vacuum tube detector with a one-step amplifier are connected up is shown at A in Fig. 44. Where you have a vacuum tube detector and one or more amplifying tubes connected up, or in cascade as it is called, you can use an A, or storage battery of 6 volts for all of them as shown at B in Fig. 44, but for every vacuum tube you use you must have a B or 22-1/2 volt dry battery to charge the plate with. A Radio Frequency Transformer Amplifying Receiving Set.--Instead of using a grid leak resistance to couple up the amplifier and detector tube circuits you can use a radio frequency transformer, that is, a transformer made like a loose coupled tuning coil, and without an iron core, as shown in the wiring diagram at A in Fig. 45. In this set, which gives better results than where a grid leak is used, the amplifier tube is placed in the first oscillation circuit and the detector tube in the second circuit. Since the radio frequency transformer has no iron core the high frequency, or radio frequency oscillating currents, as they are called, surge through it and are not changed into low frequency, or audio frequency pulsating currents, until they flow through the detector. Since the diagram shows only one amplifier and one radio frequency transformer, it is consequently a one step amplifier; however, two, three or more, amplifying tubes can be connected up by means of an equal number of radio frequency transformers when you will get wonderful results. Where a six step amplifier, that is, where six amplifying tubes are connected together, or in cascade, the first three are usually coupled up with radio frequency transformers and the last three with audio frequency transformers. A radio frequency transformer is shown at B and costs $6 to $7. An Audio Frequency Transformer Amplifying Receiving Set.--Where audio frequency transformers are used for stepping up the voltage of the current of the detector and amplifier tubes, the radio frequency current does not get into the plate circuit of the detector at all for the reason that the iron core of the transformer chokes them off, hence, the succeeding amplifiers operate at audio frequencies. An audio frequency transformer is shown at A in Fig. 46 and a wiring diagram showing how the tubes are connected in cascade with the transformers is shown at B; it is therefore a two-step audio frequency receiving set. A Six Step Amplifier Receiving Set With a Loop Aerial.--By using a receiving set having a three step radio frequency and a three step audio frequency, that is, a set in which there are coupled three amplifying tubes with radio frequency transformers and three amplifying tubes with audio frequency transformers as described under the caption A Radio Frequency Transformer Receiving Set, you can use a loop aerial in your room thus getting around the difficulties--if such there be--in erecting an out-door aerial. You can easily make a loop aerial by winding 10 turns of No. 14 or 16 copper wire about 1/16 inch apart on a wooden frame two feet on the side as shown in Fig. 47. With this six step amplifier set and loop aerial you can receive wave lengths of 150 to 600 meters from various high power stations which are at considerable distances away. How to Prevent Howling.--Where radio frequency or audio frequency amplifiers are used to couple your amplifier tubes in cascade you must take particular pains to shield them from one another in order to prevent the feed back of the currents through them, which makes the head phones or loud speaker howl. To shield them from each other the tubes should be enclosed in metal boxes and placed at least 6 inches apart while the transformers should be set so that their cores are at right angles to each other and these also should be not less than six inches apart. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Collins, A. Frederick. 2002. The Radio Amateur's Hand Book. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6934/6934-h/6934-h.htm#chap09 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

How A Vacuum Tube Can Be Used as A Radio Amplifier 

In electronics, the comparator is a circuit that makes use of operational amplifiers with very high gain in its open-loop state, that is, there is no feedback resistor. The has a positive or negative voltage output by comparing its input voltage against some preset DC reference voltage. The following are some common amplifier comparator circuits to analyze their functions. op-amp comparator is an operational amplifier compatible with DTL, RTL, TTL, or MOS logic levels. Its output can switch voltages to 50volts at currents to 50mA with a single supply. LM311 IC has been used for voltage comparisons for a long time in some typical circuits. Here introduces them with diagrams. LM311 versatile comparator Basic Circuit of LM311 Comparator (1) Offset voltage balance (Figure 1) When adjusting the balance, the two input terminals are grounded, and the 5kΩ potentiometer is adjusted to make the output be the minimum voltage value (close to 0V). (2) Single power supply (Figure 2) At this time, VEE is connected to GND. In Figure 1 and Figure 2, the load resistance RL is connected between VCC and Output. (3) RL is connected between pin 1 and ground (Figure 3) According to Figure 3, the input polarity is reversed, that is, pin 3 is used as the non-inverting terminal. (4) RL is connected between pin 1 and VEE (Figure 4). According to Figure 4, the input polarity is reversed. (5) General connection method of RL for positive and negative power supply (Figure 5). (6) Comparator connection with strobe (Figure 6). Connect a transistor to pin 6 for strobe connection. When the base of the transistor is connected to the TTL high level, the comparator is strobed (normal operation); when the base is connected to the low level, the comparator does not work. LM393 & LM2903 LM393 and LM2903 are a kind of low offset voltage dual comparators, and their pin arrangement is shown in Figure 7. Their main performance is the same, but the temperature range is different: the former is 0~70℃, and the latter is -40℃~105℃. Its main features are: wide operating voltage range, single power supply operating voltage is 2V~36V, dual power supply operating voltage ±(1V~18V); Working current is small, the typical value is 0.4mA; Input bias current typical value is 25nA; The input offset current is 5nA; The input offset voltage is ±1mV (LM2903 is ±2mV); The input common-mode voltage range is equal to the power supply voltage; The output voltage is compatible with TTL and CMOS logic levels; The input has ESD protection; the typical voltage gain is 200V/mA; The large signal response time is 300ns. LM393 & LM2901 The LM393 and LM2901 comparators are quad comparators. The pin arrangement is shown in Figure 8. The main parameters and performance of these two devices are the same, but the temperature range is different: the former is 0~70℃, and the latter is -40℃~105℃. The main features of these two devices: They can be powered by a single power supply or dual power supply, and the power supply voltage range is wide, ranging from 2V to 36V or ±(1V to 18V). Working current (independent of power supply voltage), the typical value is 0.8mA typical input bias current value is 25nA; typical input offset current value is ±5nA; typical input offset voltage value is 2mV; input common-mode voltage range includes low level; The differential input voltage is equal to the power supply voltage; the difference between the saturation voltage and the power supply voltage is low; the output voltage is compatible with TTL and CMOS logic levels; the typical large signal response time is 300ns; the voltage gain is 200V/mV. This article was first published on Writeup Cafe

Intro to Amplifier Comparator Circuits: LM311, LM393, LM2903 and LM2901

The voltage follower , as shown in Figure 1, uses virtual short and virtual break. At first glance, it seems simple and clear. If you think that there is not much content to pay attention to, then you may be wrong. Understanding the op amp's voltage-following circuit is a great help for understanding the op amp's in-phase, inverting, differential, and various op amp circuits. circuit of the op amp Figure 1 op amp voltage follower circuit Voltage follower circuit analysis If we connect the output of the op amp to its inverting input and then apply a voltage signal to the noninverting input, we will find that the output voltage of the op amp will follow the input voltage very well. Assume that the input and output voltages of the initial state op amp are both , and then when Vin increases from , will also increase in the direction of positive voltage. This is because it is assumed that Vin suddenly increases, still has no response and is still . is greater than 0, so multiply the open-loop gain of the op amp. , so that the output of the op amp begins to increase in the direction of the positive voltage. 0V 0V Vout Vout 0V Ve=Vin-Vout Vout=Ve*A Vout When increases, the output voltage is fed back to the inverting input, which then reduces the voltage difference between the two inputs of the op amp, ie, will decrease, in the same open-loop gain case. Next, will naturally decrease. Vout Ve Vout The end result is that no matter how large the input voltage is (of course, within the op amp's input voltage range), the op amp will always output a voltage that is very close to , but this output voltage is just below . There is a sufficient voltage difference between the two inputs of the guaranteed op amp to maintain the output of the op amp, which is . Vin Vout Vin Ve Vout=Ve*A Negative feedback in op amp circuits This circuit will soon reach a steady state, the amplitude of the output voltage will accurately maintain the voltage difference between the two input terminals of the op amp, which in turn will produce an accurate amplitude of the op amp output voltage. Connecting the output of the op amp to the inverting input of the op amp is called negative feedback, which is the key to self-stabilizing the system. This applies not only to op amps, but also to any common dynamic system. This stability allows the op amp to have the ability to operate in a linear mode, rather than just being saturated, fully "on" or "off", just as it is used for comparators without any negative feedback. Due to the high gain of the op amp, the voltage maintained at the inverting input of the op amp is almost equal to . For example, an op amp has an open loop gain of 200,000. If is equal to 6V, then the output voltage will be 5.999 970 000 149 999V. This produces a sufficient voltage difference at the input of the op amp, =6V-5.999 970 000 149 999V=29.999 85uV, which is amplified and then produces a voltage of 5.999 970 000 149 999V at the output, thus the system Will be stable here. Vin Vin Ve As you can see, 29.999 85uV is a small voltage, so for practical calculations, we can think that the voltage difference between the two inputs of the op amp maintained by negative feedback is . The whole process is shown in Figure 2. This is also the “virtual short” we are familiar with, and since the impedance between the two inputs of the op amp is very large, there is naturally a “virtual break”. The circuit below has a stable double-loop closed-loop gain, and the output voltage simply follows the input voltage. Ve=0V Figure 2 The role of negative feedback One big advantage of using negative feedback is that we don't have to worry about the actual voltage gain of the op amp, as long as it is large enough. If the op amp's voltage gain is not 200 0000 but 250 000, this will cause the op amp's output voltage to be closer to , and the voltage difference between the smaller inputs will be used to produce the desired output voltage. In the circuit illustrated in Figure 2, the output voltage is also equal to the input voltage at the inverting input of the op amp. Therefore, for the circuit design engineer, in order to achieve a stable closed-loop gain of the amplifier circuit, the open-loop gain of the op amp does not have to be an accurate value, and the negative feedback causes the system to self-adjust. Vin Using negative feedback improves linearity, gain stability, output impedance, and gain accuracy, but using negative feedback also poses a serious problem, which is to reduce system stability for voltage-following circuits with unity gain. This is the worst case scenario, especially when driving capacitive loads, interested students can check the relevant information themselves. Regarding the op amp circuit, many times we are infused with the inverting end to follow the in-phase end. As mentioned above, can't we follow the inverting end of the phase? For the voltage follower circuit mentioned today, only the inverting terminal follows the non-inverting terminal. Here, if a positive input voltage is applied to the inverting terminal and the output is connected to the non-inverting terminal, and the output is assumed to be 0. will be a negative voltage, multiplied by the open-loop gain of the op amp, and the output will be a A negative voltage, returning to the non-inverting input of the op amp, will further result in a larger negative absolute voltage difference. Soon the output of the op amp will be saturated, and naturally the in-phase will not follow the inverting end. Ve However, for an op amp, if a reference voltage is applied to the inverting terminal, and other electronic components, such as a triode, MOS, etc., the overall loop of the op amp forms a negative feedback, and the in-phase end can also follow the inverting end. And this naturally breaks the rule that the inverting end of the familiar op amp follows the in-phase end. The voltage of the op amp follows the circuit, "virtual short", "virtual break" is the surface, and negative feedback is the root. Based on this root, it can help us understand the ever-changing op amp circuit.

The Voltage Follower Circuit of The Operational Amplifier

Here are three strange ways the human mind works: If a person with a certain strong belief is presented with clear evidence of the belief being false, this may lead to a reinforcement of the belief. A person might draw different conclusions from the same type of information depending on in what way the information is being presented. A person who has just been told about a phenomenon which he/she never noticed before, starts paying attention to it and now sees it/hears about it everywhere. These examples of cognitive biases show how easily our perception and thinking is being tricked and led astray. More than a 100 cognitive biases have been identified so far. The Wikipedia is both a fascinating and sobering read. list collecting them all Considering how flawed our thinking and perception tends to be, it’s hard not to be amazed by humanity’s achievements and how far civilization has come. As cognitive biases affect every single individual no matter their standing, academic credentials, authority or projected confidence, and produces the constant risk of wrong decision-making and subsequent conflicts, the advances and fairly peaceful state in not all, but a large number of societies is against all odds. This remarkable outcome became possible because over millennia, humanity discovered strategies and systems to reduce the impact of individual cognitive biases on the collective reasoning — often through painful and bloody trial-and-error. On an individual biological level, eliminating cognitive biases before they happen is impossible. For now, these biases are our evolutionary legacy and we’re stuck with them. The best one can do is to be aware of one’s failures in reasoning and make a deliberate effort to act against an initial thinking error. How modern societies reduced the harm of cognitive biases On a society level, it is possible to reduce the negative consequences of people’s cognitive biases and to correct for them. The successful recipe that emerged over time (and sadly, only after endless suffering of tens of millions of people throughout history) is built around a few core ideas such as: Distributing power on many shoulders, so that the harm one person’s flawed thinking can cause is being limited. Delaying decision making to allow for thorough investigations instead of empowering impulsive moves, for example in the legal system, which proved to be way better at generating justice and figuring out if someone is guilty than if the verdict and punishment is left to an emotional crowd on the street. Creating systems that control each other’s outputs or perspectives on mistakes and flawed thinking (for example the pluralist model of government or the editorial approval processes in publishing). For all their shortcomings and inequalities, the most advanced civilizations of the pre-internet age had been comparatively successful in containing the negative influence of people’s individual cognitive biases, by making use of the learned lessons of the past, and also simply due to limitations in available technology. Then came the internet. Internet-enabled amplification of cognitive biases For all the greatness and freedom it brought to billions of people, by now it’s evident that ubiquitous connectivity has come with a set of major challenges. Aside from surveillance and information security issues, what I am personally mostly concerned about is how the internet reverses some of the previous achievements of reducing the aggregate harm of people’s cognitive biases on a society level. The internet, the tools it spawned and the dynamics they’ve led to, enable what the previous most advanced societies to some extend prevented, and what might increase the surface and consequences of individual cognitive biases: Power is being concentrated in the hands of a few global tech companies, their CEOs and their algorithms, as well as among a small number of individuals who become “influencers” and sometimes boast tens of millions of loyal followers. It’s hard to prove, but one cannot rule out that someone like PewDiePie, with close to 100 million YouTube followers, does hold the ability to change more minds than any reputable media organization ever has been able to. If a beloved influencer pundit makes an uneducated critical comment about vaccines, for example, the societal consequences can be wide-reaching. Built-in delays and friction are being removed. An angry tweet or blog post is published in a few seconds and a person might be deemed guilty by the public court of social media in an instant, with sometimes existential consequences. Some of the mechanisms that ought to help to check others’ decisions and ideas for cognitive biases are failing, due to the technical, social and psychological dynamics of online-fueled discourse, which lead to and dogmas instead of open and critical exchanges with contrary viewpoints. In other words: Persuasion becomes much harder, while the willingness to listen and to emphasize is decreasing. Once someone is a firm part of an ideological group, contrary viewpoints become a threat to his/her identity, and thus are being considered hostile per definition. Noteworthy, many journalists , and thereby heavily influenced by these mechanisms. That is deeply regrettable, because they are — consciously or unconsciously — carrying the skewed “conclusions” of the malfunctioning Twitter discourse into the rest of society. group polarization are obsessed with Twitter My current operating theory is that the internet-enabled amplification of the harmful consequences of individuals’ cognitive biases is not the only, but a major contributor to the slow but steady erosion of best practices, systems and institutions that acted as essential foundation of the most advanced, most peaceful and most democratic societies. This erosion leads to a host of dysfunctions on the individual, societal and political level. Phenomena such as systematic disinformation, polarization, radicalization in various flavors, the spread of conspiracy theories, mistrust in science, us-vs-them-thinking and outrage/anger as a default mode with obvious negative effects on mental health, are — while not new in themselves — all connected to this amplification trend and the product of a variety of underlying cognitive biases; that is, by flawed thinking or the absence of thinking in favor of behavior caused by primal impulses and emotional reflexes. It’s hard to predict where this will lead to in detail, as there are numerous systems involved, creating a complex interdependence and multi-layered feedback loops that — as I would argue — no single human can fully grasp. But what’s clear is that taken together, the trend doesn’t look good. If the results of cognitive biases are allowed to run wild on a society-wide scale for too long, this easily might lead to devastating outcomes, as it always has. Therefore, it would be better to not reach that point.Assuming that this is indeed as much of a problem as I claim it to be, what could be done? Well, simple: People just have to get more aware of when they are affected by cognitive biases, and actively work against their damaging effects… Ok, it’s not really simple at all. But that’s still likely the only viable solution, since the digital era, the empowerment it brought to the individual and the attention- and engagement-related incentive structures it created, is the reality. There are a few obvious challenges in tackling cognitive biases: 1. The knowledge about and awareness of cognitive biases isn’t very widespread. Even though some of the most “famous” cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, group think or loss aversion are nowadays mentioned frequently in the media and possibly even in school (not when I went to school but maybe this changed) as general phenomena clouding people’s reasoning, it’s still rare that they are being noticed or much thought about by those who are subject to it at any given moment or those affiliated with them while it is happening. 2. Learning about the occurrence of a cognitive bias does make most people feel pretty bad. We don’t like to be faced with the harsh reality of how easy our mind’s are being fooled. We prefer to see ourselves as fairly intelligent and reasonable. 3. Not actively working against one’s cognitive biases can provide desirable short-term benefits for the individual, while challenging one’s cognitive biases can do the opposite. An example: For someone closely aligned with an highly ideological group whose perspective is fueled by cognitive biases such as confirmation bias (favoring information that confirms a prior belief or bias) and selective perspective (not noticing or more quickly forgetting stimuli that cause emotional discomfort and contradict prior beliefs), questioning these beliefs will likely lead to ostracism from the group, while buying the whole package of beliefs and dogmas provides a sense of unity, belonging and a purpose. Tackling the systemic issues caused by cognitive biases in the digital age means taking into account all three of these challenges. What’s needed is an approach which increases an individual’s knowledge about cognitive biases, helps to identify flawed thinking when it happens, uses psychological tactics to reduce discomfort felt by an individual when being confronted with an instance of cognitive bias in him-/herself, and offers incentives perceived as attractive enough by the individual to accepting the “costs” of this type self improvement work. An AI-powered personal coach to help reduce cognitive biases Possibly, all this could be achieved with an AI-powered personal coach, which keeps an eye on an individual’s online activity and chimes in whenever necessary with helpful advice, such as “Don’t you want to do this 1-minute breathing exercise before you send that emotional tweet?” or “Have you considered that this person who you are attacking is also a human being with feelings like yours?” or “Here is an interesting fact about that topic which you might not be aware of…”. A solution like that would have to be based on insights from psychology and behavioral sciences and could make use of instruments such as nudging, gamification and tangible rewards (e.g. crypto currency, gift cards, discounts, cash…. ) to attract and retain users. Ironically, it would have to exploit and leverage our cognitive biases in order to get us hooked, engaged and willing to work on ourselves. Maybe such a tool is wishful thinking. It could suffer from all kinds of flaws. Impossible technical requirements (it’s easy to ask from the comfort of one’s armchair for an “AI” solution that spots cognitive biases but hard to built a sufficiently smart one in reality), usability challenges (how to integrate this with people’s “online life”?), lack of interest or even hostility among potential users, suspicions of hidden agendas (the conspiracy peddlers will come up with something) or surveillance, and so on. There might be other, simpler, better ways. Hopefully there are. I also should hope to be simply wrong. That the problem I am describing is not bigger than before, and that the increased tension and unwillingness to find common ground in public discourse is only a fashion which people will get tired of eventually, instead of it causing dangerous second-order effects. However, if one considers how much suffering and bloodshed the aggregate consequences of individual flawed thinking have brought humanity throughout history, from religious wars and witch burning to genocide and violent extremism, raising awareness and finding ways to reduce their impact can never be a wrong thing. ======= Sign up for my weekly email , loaded with great things to read about the digital world.

How the Internet Amplifies Our Cognitive Biases

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license.
Authors:
(1) Aleksandra Urman, She is a corresponding author from Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland;
(2) Mykola Makhortykh, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, University of Bern, Switzerland;
(3) Roberto Ulloa, GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany;
(4) Juhi Kulshrestha, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction
Web search results: biases, inaccuracies and their consequences
Conspiracy theories in the online environments
Research questions
Methodology
Results
Discussion
Limitations
Conclusion and Bibliography Conspiracy theories in the online environments Multiple studies suggest that the rise of online platforms have been conducive to the broader circulation and proliferation of conspiracy theories (Stano, 2020). While this suggestion has been criticized (e.g., by arguing that conspiracy theories can convince only those who already have predispositions to believe in them, Uscinski et al., 2018), even critics agree that the internet amplifies the spread of conspiratorial information and facilitates exposure to it even for individuals who do not hold conspiratorial ideas (Uscinski et al., 2018). While the spread of conspiratorial content by itself is unlikely to make the society as a whole to believe conspiracy theories, it is nevertheless concerning. It can increase belief in conspiracy theories in those parts of the population that have relevant predispositions. The spread of conspiratorial content might not lead to striking increases in the share of people who believe in conspiracy theories (Douglas et al., 2019), but it can have other problematic societal consequences such as decreasing prosocial behaviour and acceptance of science (van der Linden, 2015). Broad circulation and “normalization” of conspiratorial information (Aupers, 2012) in the online environments has prompted increased scholarly interest in the phenomenon (for an overview see Douglas et al., 2019). Over the last decade, a range of studies has explored the way conspiracy theories are spread and discussed online (e.g., Bessi et al., 2015; Harambam, 2021; Lewandowsky et al., 2013; Mahl et al., 2021; Metaxas and Finn, n.d.; Mohammed, 2019; Röchert et al., 2022; Samory and Mitra, 2018; Uscinski and Parent, 2014; Wood and Douglas, 2013). Most of this research has focused on social media platforms which are deemed a favourable environment for the spread of conspiratorial content (Stano, 2020): not only do the (conspiracy theory-sharing) users cluster together there (Bakshy et al., 2015), but also false information tends to rapidly spread on social media (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Despite the importance of social media-focused research on how conspiracy theories are spread, we suggest that other online information retrieval and curation platforms - such as SEs - can contribute to the proliferation of conspiracy theories online. At the same time, to our knowledge, no systematic analysis of the presence of conspiratorial information in web search results has been conducted yet[2] and we aim to address this gap. [2] One recent study examined the proliferation of conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 in Google’s autocomplete suggestions (Houli et al., 2021), but not search results. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Aleksandra Urman, She is a corresponding author from Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; (2) Mykola Makhortykh, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, University of Bern, Switzerland; (3) Roberto Ulloa, GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany; (4) Juhi Kulshrestha, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Aleksandra Urman, She is a corresponding author from Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; (2) Mykola Makhortykh, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, University of Bern, Switzerland; (3) Roberto Ulloa, GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany; (4) Juhi Kulshrestha, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Web search results: biases, inaccuracies and their consequences Conspiracy theories in the online environments Research questions Methodology Results Discussion Limitations Conclusion and Bibliography Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction Web search results: biases, inaccuracies and their consequences Web search results: biases, inaccuracies and their consequences Conspiracy theories in the online environments Conspiracy theories in the online environments Research questions Research questions Methodology Methodology Results Results Discussion Discussion Limitations Limitations Conclusion and Bibliography Conclusion and Bibliography Conspiracy theories in the online environments Multiple studies suggest that the rise of online platforms have been conducive to the broader circulation and proliferation of conspiracy theories (Stano, 2020). While this suggestion has been criticized (e.g., by arguing that conspiracy theories can convince only those who already have predispositions to believe in them, Uscinski et al., 2018), even critics agree that the internet amplifies the spread of conspiratorial information and facilitates exposure to it even for individuals who do not hold conspiratorial ideas (Uscinski et al., 2018). While the spread of conspiratorial content by itself is unlikely to make the society as a whole to believe conspiracy theories, it is nevertheless concerning. It can increase belief in conspiracy theories in those parts of the population that have relevant predispositions. The spread of conspiratorial content might not lead to striking increases in the share of people who believe in conspiracy theories (Douglas et al., 2019), but it can have other problematic societal consequences such as decreasing prosocial behaviour and acceptance of science (van der Linden, 2015). Broad circulation and “normalization” of conspiratorial information (Aupers, 2012) in the online environments has prompted increased scholarly interest in the phenomenon (for an overview see Douglas et al., 2019). Over the last decade, a range of studies has explored the way conspiracy theories are spread and discussed online (e.g., Bessi et al., 2015; Harambam, 2021; Lewandowsky et al., 2013; Mahl et al., 2021; Metaxas and Finn, n.d.; Mohammed, 2019; Röchert et al., 2022; Samory and Mitra, 2018; Uscinski and Parent, 2014; Wood and Douglas, 2013). Most of this research has focused on social media platforms which are deemed a favourable environment for the spread of conspiratorial content (Stano, 2020): not only do the (conspiracy theory-sharing) users cluster together there (Bakshy et al., 2015), but also false information tends to rapidly spread on social media (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Despite the importance of social media-focused research on how conspiracy theories are spread, we suggest that other online information retrieval and curation platforms - such as SEs - can contribute to the proliferation of conspiracy theories online. At the same time, to our knowledge, no systematic analysis of the presence of conspiratorial information in web search results has been conducted yet[2] and we aim to address this gap. [2] One recent study examined the proliferation of conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 in Google’s autocomplete suggestions (Houli et al., 2021), but not search results.

A Comparative Algorithm Audit: Conspiracy Theories in the Online Environments

Unlike most prognosticators in the cyber industry, I will try not to inflame the hype of yet another doomsday, the sky is falling discussion on the newest threat vector. Over the past quarter in particular, that has been Generative AI (GenAI). This technology has even captured the minds (and fears) of the C-Suite and Boardrooms, quite a bit differently than when security practitioners started talking about machine learning many years ago. Most (though not all) of the GenAI conversation has seemed to revolve around its ability to amplify productivity and its potential to continue the trend of automating away tasks that shouldn’t require humans. Lots of technology companies have been touting their new “AIs”, which predominantly have meant chatbots and interactive prompts. AI-powered companies have begun marketing many of GenAI’s positive expectations: predictive analytics, phishing detection & prevention, automated security patch generation, adaptive threat detection, enhanced biometrics, anomaly detection, threat simulation & training, malware generation & analysis. And Gartner recently found that one-third (34%) of organizations planned to deploy GenAI in the next 12 months. But Crowdstrike’s 2023 Global Threat report only mentions AI once, in its CEO’s opening letter about future technology. This is a strong indicator that we aren’t yet seeing it as an attack vector or amplifier in the wild. We surmise that the 2024 Global Threat report will be similar. In January, The National Cyber Security Center in the United Kingdom published a report entitled "The Near-Term Impact of AI on the Cyber Threat" detailing the potential way AI tools could be used offensively from increasing the sophistication of phishing attacks to malware and exploit development. Microsoft just corroborated that assertion with specific examples of ChatGPT-assisted phishing. This is a welcomed addition to a body of information highly focused on the new benefits of AI rather than its risks. We’ve heard and read that “soon” state-sponsored adversaries will be using GenAI to target critical infrastructure putting lives at risk. Such statements are not useful, as those adversaries have been focused on those targets forever. What matters is whether GenAI will provide useful new capabilities to compromise them. Gartner forecasts that in the next 2 years, GenAI will cause enough additional offensive capability that companies will end up spending 15% more on application and data security. Google’s recent “Cloud Cybersecurity Forecast” also indicated that Google expects GenAI to support phishing and other social engineering attacks. And CISA, which has become the US Government’s harbinger of all things cybersecurity, released a “Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence” this past November recommending developer accountability. This followed an October Executive Order by President Biden directing a variety of federal agencies to grapple with and protect against AI-enabled threats, including, for example, content authentication and watermarking by the Commerce Department and AI safety in drug discovery by the Department of Health and Human Services. So Which Risks Are Currently Accelerating? AI will increase the speed at which relatively low-quality phishing emails will be created, and likely even the sophistication of what happens after a link is clicked (chat boxes may start to replace web forms to solicit your information and bank account details). Phishing has been the overwhelmingly preferred and successful attack to establish initial access, whether through malware or password theft. The NCSC predicts that by 2025, GenAI will substantially improve the quality of Phishing emails (particularly the spelling and grammar of those emails), and thereby, increase the difficulty in identifying such malicious requests. The NCSC also predicted that the language models will be rapidly improved as exfiltrated data is reincorporated into the training models. Given its preference and preponderance, this is certainly the vector that will be impacted the soonest – automating dumb attacks. Anti-phishing training is going to have to move far beyond spotting typos to context-based evaluation. And humans are going to have to be retrained to use password managers and not re-sign into websites without careful and meticulous evaluation and contemplation. Several new anti-phishing tools seek to mitigate these risks (pixmsecurity, agari, etc.). The NCSC’s primary conclusion is that GenAI will enhance existing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) unevenly among categories of threat actors. We believe that in the near term, most of the benefit accrues to the unsophisticated as AI provides capability uplift in reconnaissance and social engineering. The NCSC states “More sophisticated uses of AI in cyber operations are highly likely to be restricted to threat actors with access to quality training data, significant expertise (in both AI and cyber), and resources. Such advanced uses are unlikely to be realized before 2025…AI lowers the barrier for novice cyber criminals, hackers-for-hire and hacktivists to carry out effective access and information gathering operations. This enhanced access will likely contribute to the global ransomware threat over the next two years.” While we appreciate the zealousness, we are skeptical of the timeframe. Over the next two years, we expect phishing emails to get more sophisticated and nation-states to continue training AIs on their incredibly large data sets. For emphasis, we’ll repeat – the near-term benefits accrue to the lowest-skilled hackers with limited resources executing TTPs in social engineering, phishing, passwords, and data exfiltration. We agree strongly that AI will also improve the efficiency of vulnerability scanning (“find me a server that is vulnerable to <fill in the blank>”). The NCSC stated that  "AI is highly likely to accelerate this challenge as reconnaissance to identify vulnerable devices becomes quicker and more precise.” To reference Alan Turing’s original formulation of Artificial Intelligence, GenAI dumb chatbots are likely to be perceived as real people relatively quickly. That will greatly enhance the ability of foreign criminals to sound like natives in their emailed requests for passwords, fund transfers, etc. Darktrace notes that GenAI has already “opened the door to providing offensive tools to more novice threat actors. But the efficacy of these tools will only be as good as those directing them. In the near term, we expect to see an increase in the speed and scale of familiar attack methodology.” The NCSC also suggests that GenAI will offer improvement in malware and exploit development and assistance in lateral movement, though we remain doubtful that in the next 5 years, there will be sufficient training models to enable vulnerability discovery available to non-nation-states or the largest 50 technology companies. The NCSC report essentially argues both sides, vacillating between two-year time frames and agreeing with this notion, by noting that GenAI tools would provide only minimal uplift for malware and exploit development for nation-states and organized cybercrime groups. But we are not saying that it’s impossible to happen relatively quickly; indeed, early last year HYAS researchers developed a proof-of-concept malware that leverages OpenAI to enable polymorphic code that can evade current cybersecurity products. And eventually (though we think it is at least 5 years out), GenAI systems themselves will be subject to data integrity attacks. What reasonable steps should we start to consider? We’ve reviewed a tremendous corpus of available literature looking for wisdom and practical advice on how to deal with these emergent threats (both the expected, near-term dumb ones and the hypothetical far away scary ones). As usual, the best tactical recommendations are the same recommendations that security teams have sought to implement since their establishment. These have become old saws by now: ● Establish governance approaches and workflow monitoring to ensure compliance with policies, standards, and procedures (whether by a human or an AI). ● Update and patch regularly against an asset registry or CMDB that consistently grows in the amount of coverage it represents (we hate that this still needs to be said). ● Monitor and block inappropriate access.  Better yet, develop a zero-trust architecture that inherently invalidates unexpected access. ● Develop continuous monitoring programs that ensure you have done all of the above (and alert you when something is out of the ordinary). ● Build strong security behavior programs to train employees toward secure, informed, and intentional behavior (no more than once a year, check the box security compliance videos). ● Monitor robust existing security control programs and quickly identify anomalous activity. ● Create relevant legal and compliance guidelines that detail appropriate use and security approvals for any GenAI activities. ● Create, disseminate, communicate, and evangelize acceptable use policies. In summary, over the next 5 years, we are most concerned about AI helping dumb attacks get faster and more automated (and minorly less dumb).  Darktrace agrees, claiming that we are “at the beginning of malicious actors’ applying AI techniques to automate more laborious aspects of their attacks.” All the current approaches to cybersecurity still hold – which is good news as most cyber teams remain highly taxed, being asked to do too much with too little. Unlike most prognosticators in the cyber industry, I will try not to inflame the hype of yet another doomsday, the sky is falling discussion on the newest threat vector. Over the past quarter in particular, that has been Generative AI (GenAI). This technology has even captured the minds (and fears) of the C-Suite and Boardrooms, quite a bit differently than when security practitioners started talking about machine learning many years ago. Most (though not all) of the GenAI conversation has seemed to revolve around its ability to amplify productivity and its potential to continue the trend of automating away tasks that shouldn’t require humans. Lots of technology companies have been touting their new “AIs”, which predominantly have meant chatbots and interactive prompts. AI-powered companies have begun marketing many of GenAI’s positive expectations: predictive analytics, phishing detection & prevention, automated security patch generation, adaptive threat detection, enhanced biometrics, anomaly detection, threat simulation & training, malware generation & analysis. And Gartner recently found that one-third (34%) of organizations planned to deploy GenAI in the next 12 months. But Crowdstrike’s 2023 Global Threat report only mentions AI once, in its CEO’s opening letter about future technology. This is a strong indicator that we aren’t yet seeing it as an attack vector or amplifier in the wild. We surmise that the 2024 Global Threat report will be similar. In January, The National Cyber Security Center in the United Kingdom published a report entitled "The Near-Term Impact of AI on the Cyber Threat" detailing the potential way AI tools could be used offensively from increasing the sophistication of phishing attacks to malware and exploit development. Microsoft just corroborated that assertion with specific examples of ChatGPT-assisted phishing. This is a welcomed addition to a body of information highly focused on the new benefits of AI rather than its risks. We’ve heard and read that “soon” state-sponsored adversaries will be using GenAI to target critical infrastructure putting lives at risk. Such statements are not useful, as those adversaries have been focused on those targets forever. What matters is whether GenAI will provide useful new capabilities to compromise them. Gartner forecasts that in the next 2 years, GenAI will cause enough additional offensive capability that companies will end up spending 15% more on application and data security. Google’s recent “Cloud Cybersecurity Forecast” also indicated that Google expects GenAI to support phishing and other social engineering attacks. And CISA, which has become the US Government’s harbinger of all things cybersecurity, released a “Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence” this past November recommending developer accountability. This followed an October Executive Order by President Biden directing a variety of federal agencies to grapple with and protect against AI-enabled threats, including, for example, content authentication and watermarking by the Commerce Department and AI safety in drug discovery by the Department of Health and Human Services. So Which Risks Are Currently Accelerating? So Which Risks Are Currently Accelerating? AI will increase the speed at which relatively low-quality phishing emails will be created, and likely even the sophistication of what happens after a link is clicked (chat boxes may start to replace web forms to solicit your information and bank account details). Phishing has been the overwhelmingly preferred and successful attack to establish initial access, whether through malware or password theft. The NCSC predicts that by 2025, GenAI will substantially improve the quality of Phishing emails (particularly the spelling and grammar of those emails), and thereby, increase the difficulty in identifying such malicious requests. The NCSC also predicted that the language models will be rapidly improved as exfiltrated data is reincorporated into the training models. Given its preference and preponderance, this is certainly the vector that will be impacted the soonest – automating dumb attacks. Anti-phishing training is going to have to move far beyond spotting typos to context-based evaluation. And humans are going to have to be retrained to use password managers and not re-sign into websites without careful and meticulous evaluation and contemplation. Several new anti-phishing tools seek to mitigate these risks (pixmsecurity, agari, etc.). The NCSC’s primary conclusion is that GenAI will enhance existing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) unevenly among categories of threat actors. We believe that in the near term, most of the benefit accrues to the unsophisticated as AI provides capability uplift in reconnaissance and social engineering. The NCSC states “More sophisticated uses of AI in cyber operations are highly likely to be restricted to threat actors with access to quality training data, significant expertise (in both AI and cyber), and resources. Such advanced uses are unlikely to be realized before 2025…AI lowers the barrier for novice cyber criminals, hackers-for-hire and hacktivists to carry out effective access and information gathering operations. This enhanced access will likely contribute to the global ransomware threat over the next two years.” While we appreciate the zealousness, we are skeptical of the timeframe. Over the next two years, we expect phishing emails to get more sophisticated and nation-states to continue training AIs on their incredibly large data sets. For emphasis, we’ll repeat – the near-term benefits accrue to the lowest-skilled hackers with limited resources executing TTPs in social engineering, phishing, passwords, and data exfiltration. We agree strongly that AI will also improve the efficiency of vulnerability scanning (“find me a server that is vulnerable to <fill in the blank>”). The NCSC stated that  "AI is highly likely to accelerate this challenge as reconnaissance to identify vulnerable devices becomes quicker and more precise.” To reference Alan Turing’s original formulation of Artificial Intelligence, GenAI dumb chatbots are likely to be perceived as real people relatively quickly. That will greatly enhance the ability of foreign criminals to sound like natives in their emailed requests for passwords, fund transfers, etc. Darktrace notes that GenAI has already “opened the door to providing offensive tools to more novice threat actors. But the efficacy of these tools will only be as good as those directing them. In the near term, we expect to see an increase in the speed and scale of familiar attack methodology.” The NCSC also suggests that GenAI will offer improvement in malware and exploit development and assistance in lateral movement, though we remain doubtful that in the next 5 years, there will be sufficient training models to enable vulnerability discovery available to non-nation-states or the largest 50 technology companies. The NCSC report essentially argues both sides, vacillating between two-year time frames and agreeing with this notion, by noting that GenAI tools would provide only minimal uplift for malware and exploit development for nation-states and organized cybercrime groups. But we are not saying that it’s impossible to happen relatively quickly; indeed, early last year HYAS researchers developed a proof-of-concept malware that leverages OpenAI to enable polymorphic code that can evade current cybersecurity products. And eventually (though we think it is at least 5 years out), GenAI systems themselves will be subject to data integrity attacks. What reasonable steps should we start to consider? What reasonable steps should we start to consider? We’ve reviewed a tremendous corpus of available literature looking for wisdom and practical advice on how to deal with these emergent threats (both the expected, near-term dumb ones and the hypothetical far away scary ones). As usual, the best tactical recommendations are the same recommendations that security teams have sought to implement since their establishment. These have become old saws by now: ● Establish governance approaches and workflow monitoring to ensure compliance with policies, standards, and procedures (whether by a human or an AI). ● Update and patch regularly against an asset registry or CMDB that consistently grows in the amount of coverage it represents (we hate that this still needs to be said). ● Monitor and block inappropriate access.  Better yet, develop a zero-trust architecture that inherently invalidates unexpected access. ● Develop continuous monitoring programs that ensure you have done all of the above (and alert you when something is out of the ordinary). ● Build strong security behavior programs to train employees toward secure, informed, and intentional behavior (no more than once a year, check the box security compliance videos). ● Monitor robust existing security control programs and quickly identify anomalous activity. ● Create relevant legal and compliance guidelines that detail appropriate use and security approvals for any GenAI activities. ● Create, disseminate, communicate, and evangelize acceptable use policies. In summary, over the next 5 years, we are most concerned about AI helping dumb attacks get faster and more automated (and minorly less dumb).  Darktrace agrees, claiming that we are “at the beginning of malicious actors’ applying AI techniques to automate more laborious aspects of their attacks.” All the current approaches to cybersecurity still hold – which is good news as most cyber teams remain highly taxed, being asked to do too much with too little.

AMPIFIRE

ampifire.com

-- employees

Since n.d.

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AMPIFIRE

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Since n.d.

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