Skiing and AI?

30

September

2019

5/5 (2)

I doubt that many of us will like the current weather situation in Rotterdam, nevertheless I do have good news. Winter is around the corner – and with it comes the ski season. Since I am a big fan of skiing, I will dedicate this post on how AI and tech are being used on the slopes. I will present 3 interesting innovations that have been commercialized: 

  • Carv – Digital Ski Coach 

Yes, it might sound strange, but Carv might revolutionize ski instructions. Carv provides personalized skiing tips in real-time – just like a ski coach, but over your smartphone speaker or headset.  An article of the Financial Times is well describing how Carv works: “Hidden in my boots are two sensor-packed footbeds, communicating via Bluetooth to the smartphone in my jacket pocket, which in turn is reporting back to a server in Frankfurt. With each turn I throw up a spray of snow and a cloud of data. […] An average turn lasts about 1.5 seconds, during which time it will have collected and analyzed more than 5.000 pieces of information.”  

  • Emma – Epic Mountain Assistant

The way we can think of Emma is Siri for the slopes. A smart assistant for all snow-related queries with real-time information. According to the Telegraph, the queries include “snow conditions, queue times for lifts to your favorite runs and the status of the backside gullies, to where to head to for a family friendly meal, the best deal in resort on a new jacket, or which bars will have a happy hour later”. Moreover, it can be integrated with the apps of the ski resort which can track your speed, distance travelled or altitude changes. 

  • Skadi – AR ski app 

Similar to Emma, Skadi is an app that is used during skiing. The difference is that Skadi works like a mountain guide who can choose new routes for you and makes sure that you do not miss your last lift. The goal is “to encourage skiers and snowboarders to explore more. Without Skadi, most visitors to a resort only tackle about 15 per cent of the ski area. Skadi opens that up and encourages visitors to try new runs” (Telegraph). Skadi has other futuristic functions that even rely on augmented reality. This means that the app combines real-time environment from the camera of the phone with visual content created like a computer game. For example, you can ski on the slope while hunting for marmots or bears, similar to Pokémon Go. 

 

What do you think of these developments? Are they distracting you from the beauty of nature or do they help making winter sports an even greater hobby?  

 

Bibliography 

https://www.ft.com/content/049f15ce-d798-11e8-a854-33d6f82e62f8 

https://getcarv.com/ 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/news/siri-for-the-slopes-vail-resorts-launch-emma/ 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/articles/new-ski-app-skadi-launches-sat-nav-and-augmented-reality-on-the-slopes/ 

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Operation Luigi: Hacking a Friend and Industry Considerations

15

September

2019

5/5 (2)

Hacking into personal data requires state-of-the art programming skills? Not at all, you will be surprised how easy you can gain (loose) control over other (your own) data. This blog deals with phishing and general cybersecurity concerns, which are affecting me, you & every other person with access to digital content.

While scrolling through HackerNews (which I can highly recommend if you are into technical IT news), I found this amazing blog post of a hacker called Alex. He made a bet with a friend that within 12 months he could hack into all her online platforms (without her noticing of course). The way he describes his operation is not only fun to read but also shocking. Shocking in a sense that you do not require deep technical skills in order to create a substantial damage to personal data.

This is the moment where I must give credits to “Alex” (@mangopdf on twitter) and his genius work. Please read Operation Luigi here: https://mango.pdf.zone/operation-luigi-how-i-hacked-my-friend-without-her-noticing.
If you are unsure whether to take the extra 5 minutes to read, HackerNews top-rated feedback is “best commentary on a real-life social engineering hack I’ve seen”.

I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I did, so that we can now turn to Operation: Prevent Luigi. How can we prevent such attacks and keep confidential data confidential?

  1. Don’t be lazy! Many social network and online platforms have increased options for security, but let’s be honest, how often did you press “Remind me later” when asked to set up additional security steps? I can assure you that the time invested will pay off soon.
  2. Make use of two-step authentication! Google (Gmail) is one example that started to make use of it. Obviously, this cannot pretend cyberattacks per se, but the extra layer of security might at least scare off hackers searching for easy targets.
  3. Don’t use the same password! I know it’s convenient to use your favorite football club combined with your birthyear as password and keep it on all platforms, but the hacker will appreciate it even more. Make use of password managers (I can recommend LastPass) that will simplify your life a lot.
  4. Pray! (We all know that cybersecurity is becoming crazily dangerous, but investments and research initiatives even on governmental levels give me faith.)

Since the course Information Strategy doesn’t particularly deal with individuals, I want to highlight some statistics and macro trends on cybersecurity which are concerning many organizations. Please give it a thought:

  • Just 38% of global organizations claim that they are equipped and able to handle a complex cyber attack.
    (Source: IBM, 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report 2019)

This means that there is almost a 2 out 3 chance that the hacker is successful when using a complex cyber attack. Although I am not sure how “complex” is defined, I am sure that I would double check the security standards when giving personal data to third parties.

  • In most cases, it takes companies about 6 months to detect a data breach. (Source: ZD Net 2015)

The fact that it takes such a long time to detect data breaches is once again in favor to the hacker since he / she can cover their tracks. Let’s all hope this statistic is outdated (since it was published 4 years ago) and security improved…

  • IoT attacks were up by 600% in 2017. (Source: Symantec – Internet Security Threat Report 2017)

Thinking about your next smart watch? The increasing number of devices connected to internet gives cybercriminals a broader scope for possible attacks. The question is whether the improvement rate for security is keeping up with the growing threats…

Let’s all start thinking more critically about security standards, not only by pointing to the tech giants but also starting to update our own security settings in the web.

 

Resources:

http://images.mktgassets.symantec.com/Web/Symantec/%7B3a70beb8-c55d-4516-98ed-1d0818a42661%7D_ISTR23_Main-FINAL-APR10.pdf?aid=elq_

https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach

https://mango.pdf.zone/operation-luigi-how-i-hacked-my-friend-without-her-noticing

https://news.ycombinator.com/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/businesses-take-over-six-months-to-detect-data-breaches/

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