MOONSHOT
While private companies try to get space tourism off the ground, another lunar endeavor is now in the offing: moon mining. Interlune, a startup founded by two former Blue Origin employees, wants to extract helium-3 from the moon’s surface and sell it. Helium-3 is an isotope that exists in only very limited amounts on Earth but in vast quantities on the moon. It could potentially be used for quantum computing and medical imaging. While Interlune currently has no method of extracting the helium-3 or getting it back to Earth, the company recently announced it had raised $15 million, in addition to previous angel investments. Source: Ars Technica
600%
From April 2023 to January 2024, organizations’ reliance on AI and machine learning tools grew by 600 percent, from 521 million monthly transactions to 3.1 billion. The ThreatLabz 2024 AI Security Report from Zscaler also found that related increased security concerns mean organizations block 18.5 percent of those transactions. ChatGPT was found to be the most widely used and most blocked AI tool.
Source: VentureBeat
$10M
That’s the reward the U.S. Department of State is offering for information that helps identify anyone associated with the Russia-backed ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operation, according to a statement from the agency in late March. The group took credit for a February cyber attack against Change Healthcare, a major health tech firm owned by United Healthcare that handles one-third of patient records in the U.S. The cyber attack led to major outages and affected prescription fulfillments and surgical authorizations for weeks. It also cost Change Healthcare $22 million in ransom. Source: TechCrunch
CHARGE IT
A January survey from car research firm Edmunds found a disconnect between drivers in the market for electric vehicles and the car makers who sell them. Nearly half (47 percent) of the 300 buyers polled said they wanted to spend less than $40,000 on a new EV, but only a small number are available at that price point. And while 22 percent said they don’t want to pay more than $30,000, that amount wouldn’t cover any new EV on the market. Sedans and SUVs ranked as the most popular models for EV buyers, at 43 and 42 percent, respectively; 10 percent said they’re shopping for an electric truck and just 5 percent are looking for a minivan. Source: Ars Technica
This story originally appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to read the full digital edition online.
