JERUSALEM – Israel's Mossad intelligence agency has set up an investment fund to help development of new espionage techniques, and is offering grants of up to 2 million shekels (about $570,000) per project to bring in new ideas. A government statement on Tuesday said Mossad was seeking technologies in various fields, including robotics, miniaturization and encryption as well as new automated methods of gleaning information from documents and new ways of carrying out operations more stealthily. A statement by the new fund, called Libertad, said it would be willing to give grants of up to 2 million shekels per project in exchange for non-exclusive rights to the technology. Developers would retain the rights to their products and would be able to sell them on, it said. "The Mossad wants to encourage innovation and creation of groundbreaking technology … the technology developed will be implemented by us, in cooperation between the parties," Libertad explained in a document.

The following is a guest article from Dr. Sven Krasser, chief scientist at CrowdStrike. Without a doubt, machine learning is one of the hottest topics in cybersecurity at the moment, and most vendors boast their newest machine learning additions as the panacea that liberates you from all security woes. Machine learning allows security products to do vastly better in various areas. However, it is best understood as a set of techniques that dramatically optimize detection techniques. It does not allow sidestepping inherent limitations e.g.

As we learned during the general election, political campaigns now routinely involve paid social advertising utilising a variety of data to identify likely supporters or swing voters. Such'social scoring', whether done manually or by an algorithm, is concerning to some. Professor John Rust of Cambridge University's Psychometric Centre told the Guardian: "The danger of not having regulation around the sort of data you can get from Facebook and elsewhere is clear. With this, a computer can actually do psychology; it can predict and potentially control human behaviour." He finds it "incredibly dangerous" that people's "attitudes are being changed behind their backs".

Imagine a world where robots ruled, where they could continuously improve their intelligence without human intervention or programming. It sounds like the future--but it's also our present reality. Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn't a new idea, though it's certainly developed a more forward-facing interface in recent years. In 2010, only $14.9 million was invested in the technology. But in 2014, a Bloomberg report showed that Venture Capitals had invested $309.2 million into AI startups for a 300% increase.

Recitations from Tel-Aviv University introductory course to computer science, assembled as IPython notebooks by Yoav Ram. Exploratory Computing with Python, a set of 15 Notebooks that cover exploratory computing, data analysis, and visualization. No prior programming knowledge required. Each Notebook includes a number of exercises (with answers) that should take less than 4 hours to complete. Developed by Mark Bakker for undergraduate engineering students at the Delft University of Technology.

The US Air Force has teamed up with IBM to develop a supercomputing system that mimics the human brain. The system, said to be the first of its kind, will rely on a 64-chip array from IBM's TrueNorth Neurosynaptic System, allowing for pattern recognition and sensory processing power equal to 64 million neurons and 16 billion synapses. Ultimately, it aims to merge the'right brain' capabilities of IBM's system with the'left brain' capabilities of a traditional system to optimize efficiency – and, it will run on just 10 watts. The US Air Force has teamed up with IBM to develop a supercomputing system that mimics the human brain. The system, said to be the first of its kind, will rely on a 64-chip array from IBM's TrueNorth Neurosynaptic System A single TrueNorth processor consists of 5.4 billion transistors wired together to create an array of 1 million digital neurons that communicate with one another via 256 million electrical synapses.

Steve Chien and Kiri Wagstaff of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have predicted that in the future, the behavior of space probes will be governed by AI rather than human prompts from earth. While humanity has made great strides in exploring the galaxies beyond our own, in order to learn even more about our universe, we may need to hand the controls over to robots. First, probes may fall outside communications range, which means they will have to continue without instruction on their journey. That also means that eventually they'll have to work out when, and how, to return with the data they have collected. A key aspect of this is knowing which data to document, and how to identify it: for example, deciding if weather is due to a storm or is normal for the planet being observed.

Cyber security experts are warning that consumers can also be targeted by the ransomware that has affected huge organisations around the world. A new variant of known malware Petya is believed to be behind the chaos, which initially hit Ukraine, before spreading to companies in a number of other countries, including the UK. However, it's not just big businesses that are under threat. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

The'Petya' cyber attack currently spreading around the world could be "bigger" than WannaCry, a cyber security expert says. The ransomware initially hit Ukraine, but the WPP has confirmed that several of its companies have also been affected by it. Naturally, comparisons are being made with WannaCry, the ransomware that so badly affected the NHS in May, but some believe Petya could be worse. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

The'Petya' cyber attack is affecting major companies around the world. The ransomware, which is being likened to WannaCry, which crippled the NHS in May, initially attacked businesses in Ukraine, but has spread to more countries, including Russia and the UK. However, experts have warned against paying the ransom, as doing so could encourage similar attacks in the future. These are the companies and organisations that have confirmed they've been affected by the Petya attack. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.