Kozminski Techblog

On Thursday morning, cryptocurrency exchange website Crypto.com announced that the company had lost well over $30 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum after hackers attacked their servers on January 17th.

The total value of the unauthorized withdrawals was 4,836.26 ETH and 443.93 BTC which corresponds to roughly $15.2 million and $18.6 million. The company also says that 483 Crypto.com user accounts were compromised as the result of the theft. Fortunately, all the sufferers have been fully reimbursed for their losses.

“On Monday, 17 January 2022 at approximately 12:46 AM UTC Crypto.com’s risk monitoring systems detected unauthorized activity on a small number of user accounts where transactions were being approved without the 2FA authentication control being inputted by the user, “This triggered an immediate response from multiple teams to assess the impact. All withdrawals on the platform were suspended for the duration of the investigation. Any accounts found to be impacted were fully restored.” – says Crypto.com.

Because of the hack, the company has changed its two-factor authentication system to a new architecture, and receded all existing 2FA tokens, meaning that all customers will need to switch over to the new authentication system.

Cryptocurrency exchange websites are becoming high-value targets for hacker attacks. In 2021 there were more than 20 exchange hacks where the criminals escaped with more than $10 million, according to an analysis by NBC News, there were another six cases where the value of funds stolen exceeded $100 million.

source: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/20/22892958/crypto-com-exchange-hack-bitcoin-ethereum-security

184 fully electric cars are said to be delivered by June 2022 for NYPD, New York City’s Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Correction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and other emergency management and response departments usage only. The city signed an $11.5 million contract with ford for five years.

The goal is to have a fully electric fleet by the end of 2035. NYC plans to buy over 1250 vehicles in 2022. “This order of all-electric Mach-Es will enable our law enforcement agencies to put electric models to the full test and work out maintenance, lights and sirens, charging, and other operational issues. It is a critical step towards our goal of a fully electric fleet” says Keith Kerman, NYC chief fleet officer.

New York is trying to integrate electric vehicles into government fleets. In 2021 Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and billions of it are meant to be used for building and developing electric cars chargers across the country.

source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22860068/nyc-police-car-electric-ford-mustang-mach-e

That will be the first BMW to receive an electric motor in the M class. The XM production is planned to begin in late 2022.

750 horsepower and 737 foot-pounds of torque provide a V8 engine combined with an electric motor. There is also the all-new black kidney grill which from now on will be illuminated.

The interior will attract us with its “vintage-look” leather and a curved display that binds the entertainment display with the instrument panel. As the BMW M line CEO says the XM concept car will utterly redefine the high-performance vehicle segment.

We still don’t have much information about this model, BMW is willing to develop into a more electrified future. By 2030 50% of those german cars are meant to be fully electric. We will see how it goes.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/30/22809724/bmw-new-xm-hybrid-concept-electric-vehicle

As we can assume sitting in your car for 40 minutes waiting for it to charge up is not a fun or immersive thing to do. With the presence of the Starlink super-fast internet connection, drivers will get the chance to spend their time reading an interesting article or watching a movie. You can also buy yourself a $10 monthly subscription for taking advantage of Tesla built-in entertainment apps, such as Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and YouTube

There are also rumours that this is one of the first steps to Elon’s plan. His idea is to open Tesla Superchargers to other EV’s from different companies. That move would massively increase their annual revenue from charging from $1 billion to $25 billion.  If Superchargers were made available to everyone, considering not only the speed of the charging but also free Starlink WI-FI it might make other EV users choose Tesla chargers over its biggest competitors, like EVgo or ChargePoint.

As for now, SpaceX launched nearly 1900 Starlink satellites intending to deliver WI-FI access to the remotest parts of our planet. All that is left for us to do is to wait for the results.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/15/22782877/tesla-starlink-antennas-charging-stations

Famous Italian brake manufacturer announced new AI-based braking system. It should make the whole process of slowing the car down more calm and effective.

Using Artificial Intelligence in transport especially in electric vehicles is not new however in terms of braking it is surprising. Immediately we come up with questions like how is this algorithm going to work or is it even safe?
Sensify will have a dedicated app for operating the whole system. Based on the driving experience it will learn how to program itself to be maximally effective. Brembo says it will have a “digital brain” by using predictive algorithms and many sensors.

The anti-lock braking system is also known as ABS will also be improved. Italian engineers say that it would make a lot more sense to first diagnose what is going on at each of the wheels and then smartly apply brake force independently on different wheels.

Braking modes will be easily personalized by the driver. For example, if you choose to go for a slow sightseeing family trip you should choose a comfortable setting but when you are going to have a little bit of fun on a track you would go for a sport setting. With the help of anonymously gathered data from all its users, the system will be developed and updated over time.

Moreover, Sensify can be applied in every car from small city vehicles to big SUVs and sports cars. Most effectively however it will work in electric and hybrid cars because it recovers energy while braking better than a regular system. That will open an opportunity for installing smaller batteries in cars because they will charge faster.

Brembo says that Sensify will have its premiere in 2024, so we have to wait a couple of years to experience that in our everyday cars. Fortunately, journalists that had to use it are astonished by the system’s performance.

Sources: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/4/22747353/brembo-sensify-ai-braking-car-system-2024 https://www.auto-swiat.pl/testy/brembo-sensify-przetestowalismy-na-torze-rewolucyjny-uklad-hamulcowy/2dyf927