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MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2017 technology AI gets so-so grade in China university entrance exam BEIJING: An AI machine has taken the math section the math exam last year scored an average of “This is not a make-or-break test for a robot. The The test was the latest attempt to show how AI of China’s annual university entrance exam, finish- 109.Exam questions and the AI machine’s answers aim is to train artificial intelligence to learn the way technology can perform in comparison to the ing it faster than students but with a below average were both shown on a big screen while three peo- humans reason and deal with numbers,” Lin said. The human brain. Last year, the Google-owned comput- grade. The artificial intelligence machine, a tall ple kept score. The AI was developed in 2014 by a machine took only one of the four subjects in the er algorithm AlphaGo became the first computer black box containing 11 servers placed in the centre Chengdu-based company, Zhunxingyunxue crucially important entrance examination, the other program to beat an elite player in a full match of of a test room took two versions of the exam on Technology, using big data, artificial intelligence three being Chinese, a foreign language and one the ancient Chinese game of Go. AlphaGo won Wednesday in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The and natural language recognition technologies comprehensive test in either liberal arts or science. again last month, crushing the world’s top player, machine, called AI-MATHS, scored 105 out of 150 in from Tsinghua University. “I hope next year the While AI is faster with numbers than humans, it Ke Jie of China, in a three-game sweep. AlphaGo’s 22 minutes. Students have two hours to complete machine can improve its performance on logical struggles with language. “For example, the robot had feats have fuelled visions of AI that can not only the test, the official Xinhua news agency reported. reasoning and computer algorithms and score over a hard time understanding the words ‘students’ and perform pre-programmed tasks, but help humanity It then spent 10 minutes on another version and 130,” Lin Hui, the company’s CEO, was quoted as ‘teachers’ on the test and failed to understand the look at complex scientific, technical and medical scored 100. Beijing liberal art students who took saying by Xinhua. question, so it scored zero for that question,” Lin said. mysteries in new ways. —AFP New Mimecast report detects 400% increase in impersonation attacks DUBAI: Mimecast Limited (NASDAQ: and December 2016 business email MIME), a leading email and data security compromise scams resulted in a total company, yesterday announced the most loss of more than $5.3 billion US dollars. recent quarterly release of the Mimecast Between January 2015 and December Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA), a 2016 alone, there was a 2,370% increase test which measures the effectiveness of in identified exposed losses. email security systems currently in use by This latest ESRA reflects findings from thousands of organizations globally. In its inspecting the inbound email for more second quarterly assessment, Mimecast than 44,000 users over a cumulative287 found that both known and unknown days received by participating organiza- attacks, as well as spam, are continuing to tions. In aggregate to date more than 40 get through incumbent email security sys- million emails have been inspected by tems. In addition and of particular con- Mimecast, all of which had already passed cern, are emails that contain no malware, through the incumbent email security and instead rely on duping recipients into vendor or cloud email service in use by responding to a request that usually each organization. The ESRA test uncov- involves sending the attacker money or ered almost 9 million pieces of spam, highly monetizable data. These points 8,318 dangerous file types, 1,669 known were addressed in a January 2017 com- and 487 unknown malware attachments missioned Forrester Consulting study and 8,605 impersonation attacks. The data titled, Closing the Cloud Security Email reinforces the concerning reality that the Gap, which recommended that organiza- industry must work towards a higher stan- tions engage with a trusted third-party dard of email security, as 90 percent of security vendor to more effectively close attacks start with email. In general, organi- the gap with their email security. zations everywhere are struggling with In comparison to the data initially prolific ransomware attacks, like Locky. reported in the February 2017 ESRA, the “Cybercriminals are constantly adapt- number of impersonation attacks ing their attack methods. For instance, this detected this quarter rose more than latest ESRA analysis reflects how imper- LOS ANGELES: Actress Janina Gavankar introduces ‘Star Wars Battlefront 2’ during the Electronic Arts EA Play event at the 400 percent quarter over quarter. sonation attacks are getting through exist- Hollywood Palladium. — AFP Impersonation attacks consist of social ing email security defenses at an alarming engineering heavy emails that attempt rate. If a CISO isn’t reviewing its current to impersonate a trusted party such as a email security solution on a 12-18 month Fans in focus at major E3 C-level executive, employee or business basis, they may be surprised at what partner. This simple method of attack is threats are now getting into employees’ being exploited at an alarming rate as it inboxes,” said Ed Jennings, chief operating can be used to dupe recipients into initi- officer at Mimecast. “At the same time, video game trade show ating wire-transfers and sending back email security providers need to ensure other sensitive data leading to signifi- they’re doing their due diligence to pro- cant financial loss- as evidenced by tect customers from new attacks, whether widely publicized recent attacks. In fact, they be advanced or simple. The Mimecast ‘Battlefield 1’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Fifa’ in spotlight a public service announcement issued ESRA results show a clear need for the by the Federal Bureau of Investigation security industry to come together in the SAN FRANCISCO: Video game giant Electronic Endless play a monthly fee for access to a library of video (FBI) stated that between October 2013 fight against email-borne threats.” Arts yesterday courted fans with titles such as “Star EA provided a glimpse at what appeared to be games for its console. Wars Battlefront” and snatched the spotlight a new science fiction shooter work titled “Anthem” People who already subscribe to an Xbox ahead of a major industry trade show in Los from BioWare and a character driven, buddy Gold service can pay an extra $10 monthly for the Angeles. Gamers who have become stars on prison break game called “A Way Out” that can new “Game Pass.”Sony makes video games avail- YouTube for streamed play or commentary joined only be played cooperatively with a friend. EA’s able as part of a subscription service for EA executives in the Hollywood Palladium to pro- fan-fest comes as the video game industry flour- PlayStation consoles. “Most important for the con- vide world premier glimpses into eagerly awaited ishes and shifts to cultivating ongoing relation- sole space at the moment is the concept of games games. The event kicked off a three-day “fan fest” ships with players instead of simply selling them as a service,” said NPD video games analyst Mat where people can get tastes of coming games. EA blockbuster games in packages or as digital Piscatella. “Games are now designed around Live will end on the eve of the official start of the downloads. Historically an event exclusively for keeping people engaged for years.” historically trade-only Electronic Entertainment the industry, E3 appeared to be adapting to the Expo (E3). trend of game makers building ongoing relation- Dueling consoles “There is a lot of interest in the industry to ships with players in online communities. “E3 is E3 will once again be an arena for competing speak more directly to the gamer,” Sony Interactive evolving to try to bring in people who are not consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony to Entertainment worldwide studios chairman involved in the industry, who are fans, “said Ted battle it out. Sony PlayStation 4 has dominated Shawn Layden told.E3 took the unusual step this Pollak, senior video game industry analyst at Jon the market, while Nintendo’s recently-launched year of making about 15,000 tickets available at Peddie Research. Twitch has been a hit, with fans snapping up the $149 each for fans to explore the show floor and console and a “Legend of Zelda” game that has attend panels. EA held the first of a series of press Netflix-style games become a must-play title. Microsoft is to spotlight events by console and game makers in the days Hot trends at E3 next week will include the rise a muscular new Xbox model, referred to in devel- leading up to E3.Games showed off included of streaming games, to be played subscription- opment as “Scorpio,” at a special E3 press event blockbuster shooter “Battlefield” and a sequel to a style as a service or to be watched as spectator yesterday. PS4 and Xbox One are both performing CAMBRIDGE: Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a T-shirt with equations equaling M, I, “Star Wars Battlefront” game that met with criti- sports on the booming ‘eSports’ stage. Amazon- better in the market that their respective prede- and T, given to him by MIT President L Rafael Reif in his office before the commence- cism after its release about two years ago.”We got owned Twitch and Google’s YouTube are once cessors, and Nintendo “is back in a big way” with ment exercises at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.