Coronavirus ‘decimated’ device manufacturing in February, says IDC

With files from Alex Coop

 

The spreading of Coronavirus has curtailed production in the tech industry, a new IDC study finds.

Most affected sectors include factory, logistics, and transportation, many of them located in China, but the effects can be felt worldwide.

“As is stands, device manufacturing will be decimated in February with uncertainty for March and beyond until the epidemic stabilizes at the very least,” the report says.

In an effort to quarantine the virus, the Chinese government imposed travel and work suspensions across the country between Lunar new year to Feb. 16th.

Areas where production is affected in China. The Hubei province is ground zero for the current outbreak.

And while the outbreak in China has slowed, the number of reported cases has spiked in other areas. Cases have been reported in all continents of the world.

According to IDC, the global smartphone and PC markets will likely be substantially affected by the virus. Its effects may persist throughout the year depending on the developing situation.

IDC predicts that the system manufacturing ecosystem will not return to full health until the middle or end of Q2 2020.

The fear of infection is just as potent as the virus’s contagiousness. The 2019 coronavirus, formally known as COVID-19, has eviscerated the technology trade show business. This morning, Shopify told IT World Canada in an email that it was cancelling the in-person element of Shopify Unite this year. 

GSMA cancelled Mobile World Congress, its annual Barcelona event, in February after a number of exhibitors decided to pull out. Facebook has just recently cancelled its F8 developer event under the same pretext, and IDC scrapped its Santa Clara Directions technology conference. These are just a handful of affected trade shows among a list of many.

“It’s a really tricky thing to navigate,” said Lars Goransson general manager and group vice-president, IDC Canada, adding there are currently no plans to cancel its Directions event in Toronto April 7. “We’re going to continue to monitor the situation for the next week or two, but it’s a challenging environment.”

These cancellations paint a gloomy picture for coming events like Apple’s WWDC 2020 and the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Stocks feel the pinch

The global stock market reflected virus’ outreach. In a seven-day decline, the DOW faced the biggest weekly losses since 2008, plunging over 1,000 points. 

Both Apple and Microsoft warned that they may not be able to meet quarterly revenue guidance due to COVID-19.

“Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call,” Microsoft said in a press release. “As a result, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, we do not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.”

Despite the system component stock being “unusually healthy” due to high-production in December, their distribution is choked by the slowed supply logistics. In addition, COVID-19 presents a persistent threat to production. A poignant example occurred on Feb. 22nd when Samsung temporarily closed one of its smartphone factories in Korea after a factory worker was tested positive for the virus.

In an optimistic scenario, IDC’s report says the supply chain disruption to revive in the current quarter in a speedy V-shaped recovery. But at worst, IDC foresees the supply disruptions to last throughout the year and regress into a L-shaped recession if Chinese production continues to be impacted.

IDC said smartphones may be impacted the most due to their fragmented sources of and proprietary supply chain. PCs will be less affected since most component manufacturers are located in China. But as factories resumed business on Feb 17, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he trusts China’s ability to control the outbreak.

“iPhone is built everywhere in the world,” said Cook in an interview with Fox Business transcribed by the Verge. “When you look at the parts that are done in China, we have reopened factories, so the factories were able to work through the conditions to reopen. They’re reopening. They’re also en-ramp, and so I think of this as sort of the third phase of getting back to normal. And we’re in phase three of the ramp mode.”

So far, there have been 75,204 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally and 2,009 deaths. As of Feb. 28, Canada has 14 confirmed cases–seven in Ontario and seven in British Columbia. The Public Health Agency of Canada currently deems the virus’ public health risk to be low.

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Movement starts to have Canada declare Sept. 1 as International Women in Cyber Day

In a bid to recognize the effort women play in strengthening online security in an overwhelmingly male profession, a group of women is making its second attempt to have Ottawa declare Sept. 1 International Women in Cyber Day, and have it recognized globally.

Lisa Kearney, CEO Women CyberSecurity Society

On Monday Lisa Kearney, CEO of the Vancouver-based Women CyberSecurity Society collected the five supporters needed for presenting an online petition for the declaration to her member of Parliament. That’s the initial step in the parliamentary process for public petitions.

With five supporters the e-petition can be sent to House of Commons’ Clerk of Petitions for certification, after which it can be officially put online for mass support. If it collects at least 500 signatures within 60 days, it can be tabled in the House of Commons for a vote.

That may not be a problem. The first version of the e-petition published last year pulled in 147 signatures before the federal election was called, which meant the process had to start all over again.

(Here’s a link to the international petition. The new Canadian petition for Parliament will have similar wording.)

Ultimately, Kearney said in an interview that supporters want the United Nations to recognize Sept. 1 as International Women In Cyber Day around the world. For that at least one country has to approve it.

Kearney and supporters across the country last year did some early groundwork, getting support from city councils in Vancouver, Ottawa and St. John’s, Nfld,

In addition to recognizing the day, the Canadian e-petition asks the federal government to provide grants and funding to help raise awareness and build solutions to remove barriers of entry to women in cybersecurity as well as increase retention.

Related:

How to get more women into cybersecurity

 

Asked why a day or recognition is essential, Kearney said, “women have a lot of barriers and roadblocks within the industry,” noting that in Canada women make up only 10 per cent of the cybersecurity workforce, and11 per cent globally.

Research has shown there is a 50 per cent drop out rate for women in information technology within the first four years, the petition notes. Studies also show women are paid less than men.

“Women need support; there’s a high drop-out rate, and we really want to bring awareness, so we bring solutions that retain women in this industry,” Kearney said.

“Second, we want to celebrate the achievements of women in the industry, and this has been key.

Doing both will help close the skills, and the gender gap experts say is causing a shortage in demand for cybersecurity workers.”

She added, “diversity increases profits for organizations,” noting how diversity is a business incentive as well.

 

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Another record year for online crime, says FBI

Online crime continues to reach new heights, according to the latest edition of the FBI’s annual Internet Crime Report.

Last year the agency’s Internet Crime Complaints Center (IC3) received 467,361 complaints — about 1,300 a day — with reported losses exceeding US$3.5 billion, the highest number of complaints and the highest dollar losses reported since the centre was established in May 2000.

One bright spot: The IC3’s Recovery Asset Team (RAT), which assists in recovering funds for victims of business email compromise schemes, helped recover over US$300 million lost through on-line scams. That’s a 79 per cent return rate of reported losses.

One of the most recent cases involving a gang that specialized in thefts related to swapping SIM cards in smartphones. led to an arrest of the alleged leader and the seizures of over US$18 million, five vehicles, a $900,000 home, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry. Overall the scheme compromised hundreds of cryptocurrency accounts and caused approximately US$40 million in losses.

Last year the FBI noted an increase in the number of complaints related to the diversion of payroll funds with a criminal emailing a company’s human resources or payroll department to change an employee’s direct deposit information. Usually, the money goes to a pre-paid card account.

The FBI urges organizations to never make any payment changes without verifying with the intended recipient. Meanwhile, individuals should verify email addresses are accurate when checking mail on a cell phone or other mobile device.

Still, the amount of online crime grows. Report highlights include:

• In 2019, the IC3 received 23,775 complaints with adjusted losses of over US$1.7 billion related to business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise, which involve the takeover of email accounts to get victims to transfer money to bank accounts controlled by scammers.
• Tech support fraud continues to be a growing problem, says the report. In 2019, the IC3 received 13,633 complaints related to Tech Support Fraud from victims in 48 countries. The losses amounted to over US$54 million, which represents a 40 per cent increase in losses from 2018. The majority of victims reported being over 60 years of age.
• In 2019 the IC3 received 2,047 complaints identified as ransomware with adjusted losses of over US$8.9 million. The agency advises ransoms not be paid because that doesn’t guarantee an organization will regain access to its data. “Paying a ransom emboldens the adversary to target other organizations for profit, and provides a lucrative environment for other criminals,” the report says.

Still, the agency understands that if a business can’t function executives will evaluate all options to protect their shareholders, employees, and customers.

Excluding the United States, the largest number of complaints filed with the FBI came from the U.K. with over 93,000. Canada was second with over 3,700.

In terms of reported online crime, phishing/smishing/vishing/pharming related incidents accounted for the largest number, followed by non-payment/non-delivery of goods, extortion, personal data breach, spoofing, BEC, confidence/romance fraud and identity theft.

In terms of dollar losses, BEC led the list ($1.7 billion), followed by confidence/romance scams, spoofing, investment scams, and real estate/rental scams ($221 million).

Annual numbers like these in Canada will be hard to come by until the RCMP’s new National Cyber Crime Reporting Unit (NC3) is fully running in 2023.

In a statement, Donna Gregory, the chief of the FBI’s IC3, said that in 2019 the centre didn’t see an uptick in new types of fraud but rather saw criminals deploying new tactics and techniques to carry out existing scams.

“Criminals are getting so sophisticated,” Gregory said. “It is getting harder and harder for victims to spot the red flags and tell real from fake.”

While email is still a common entry point, frauds are also beginning on text messages—a crime called smishing — or even fake websites, a tactic called pharming.

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Samsung launches Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone and Galaxy S20 series smartphones

Samsung announced four new smartphones at its Samsung Unpacked event held in San Francisco yesterday.

Model	Galaxy Z Flip	Galaxy S20 5G	Galaxy S20+ 5G	Galaxy S 20 Ultra 5G
Display	Main: 2636 x 1080 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex Display Cover display: 300x 112 1.1-inch Super AMOLED display	6.2-inch 120Hz 3,200 x 1,440 Dynamic AMOLED  Infinity-O Display	6.7-inch 120Hz 3,200 x 1,440 Dynamic AMOLED  Infinity-O Display	6.9-inch 120Hz 3,200 x 1,440 Dynamic AMOLED  Infinity-O Display
SoC	Snapdragon 855	Snapdragon 865	Snapdragon 865	Snapdragon 865
RAM	8GB	Up to 12GB LPDDR5	Up to 12GB LPDDR5	Up to 16GB LPDDR5
Camera	Front: 10MP f/ 2.2 Rear: 12MP f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera 12MP f/ 2.2 ultra-wide camera	Front: 10MP f/ 2.2 Rear: 12MP f/ 2.2 ultra-wide camera 12MP  f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera 64MP f/ 2.0 telephoto camera	Front: 10MP f/ 2.2 Rear: 12MP f/ 2.2 ultra-wide camera 12MP  f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera 64MP f/ 2.0 telephoto camera	Front: 10MP f/ 2.2 Rear: 12MP f/ 2.2 Uutra-wide camera 108MP  f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera 48MP f/ 2.0 telephoto camera
Storage	256GB	128GB	Up to 512GB	Up to 512GB
Battery	3,300 mAh	4,000mAh	4,500mAh	5,000mAh
Durability	N/A	IP68	IP68	IP68
Dimensions and weight	Weight: 183g Unfolded: 73.6 x 167.3 x 7.2mm – 6.9mm Folded: 73.6 x 87.4 x 17.3mm	Weight: 163g Dimensions: 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9mm	Weight: 186g Dimensions: 161.9 x 73.7 x 7.8mm	Weight: 220g Dimensions: 166.9 x 76.0 x 8.8mm
OS	Android 10	Android 10	Android 10	Android 10
Price	CA$1,819.99	Starting at CA$1,319.99	Starting at $1,579.99	Starting at $1,849.99

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung has released a second foldable phone with a few drastic design changes. Unlike the Galaxy Fold released last year, the Galaxy Z Folds vertically, cutting its height by half when closed. There is still a slight gap in the middle when closed, but it now uses a more durable glass for its 6.7-inch 2,636 x 1,080 AMOLED display. 

To show notifications when the phone’s closed, Samsung installed a tiny 1.1-inch AMOLED display on the cover to display notification icons. Interestingly, it can also be used as a small viewfinder. Due to its size, however, its viability may be limited.

Its rear camera array features a conservative dual-sensor setup, coming with a 12MP f/ 1.8 Wide-angle camera and a 12MP f/ 2.2 Ultra-wide camera. On the front, There’s a single 10MP f/ 2.4 camera.

Because the phone folds vertically, it’s able to prop itself up. At the event, Samsung showcased several use cases for this mode, including taking video calls without a stand. Samsung also developed Flex mode that divides the display into two halves to show different content and controls.

Internally, the Samsung Z Flip forgoes Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 SoC and instead uses the last-gen Snapdragon 855. It’s still plenty powerful, but it won’t have an integrated 5G modem.

Other specs include 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s a battery in both halves of the phone, totalling to 3,300 mAh. Like most recent flagship phones, the Galaxy Z flip supports wireless charging as well.

The Galaxy Z Flip can provision the top and bottom halves for different purposes.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will be available in Canada in limited quantities for CA$1,819.99 starting Feb. 11. Colour options will include Mirror Black and Mirror Purple. Compared to the Galaxy Fold’s CA$2,599 price tag, the Galaxy Z Flip’s cost is much easier to swallow. Granted, it’s still costly, but it’s dropping closer to the mainstream flagship slab phones. All Galaxy Z Flips come with four free months of YouTube Premium.

Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra

The Galaxy S20 series is the rigid slab phones familiar to everyone.

Samsung has dramatically improved the refresh rate on the display. When used in 1080p mode, the screen can operate at 120Hz to provide a more fluid experience in games. The caveat is that if you increase the resolution to 1440p, the display dials back to 60Hz.

With the Galaxy S20 series, Samsung dove fully into 5G. All three models come with 5G capabilities thanks to their Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC and integrated 5G modem. In Canada, only the sub-6GHz frequencies will be supported.

With the new SoC comes LPDDR5 memory, a noteworthy upgrade to LPDDR4/X. Compared to the previous generation, Samsung’s LPDDR5 uses 30 per cent less power while boasting 50 per cent higher data rate. The Galaxy S20 5G and S20+ 5G can be configured with up to 12GB, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G can house 16GB.

Storage-wise, the Galaxy S20 5G has 128GB of storage. The Galaxy S20+ 5G and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G bump it up to 512GB.

Whereas the Galaxy S20 and S20+ both feature a 12MP f/ 2.2 ultra-wide camera and a 12MP f/ 1.8 wide-angle camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G has a 108MP f/ 1.8 primary camera. The tradeoff, however, is a slightly lower resolution zoom camera. Unlike the two smaller models that have 64MP telephoto cameras, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G has a 48MP camera telephoto camera. With that said, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has an L-shaped telephoto lens array for 10 times optical zoom. Combined with its 10 times digital zoom, the S20 Ultra can technically reach 100 times zoom, although image quality at such magnification can be blurry.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a colossal camera array.

All three models come with appreciable batteries. They’re rated at 4,000mAh, 4,500mAh, and 5,000 mAh, respectively, and feature wireless charging in both directions. The S20 5G and S20+ 5G come with a 25W charger. The Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a 45W charger.

The Galaxy S20 series is available for pre-order now, starting at CA$1,320. All pre-orders made between Feb.11 and Mar. 5 will include a free pair of the new Galaxy Buds+.

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Hashtag Trending – IBM picks Slack, Samsung Unpacked, robotic workforce stops growing

IBM selects Slack over Teams as its official communications platform, Samsung Unpacked yields a few surprises, and Robots loosen their grip on the American workforce.

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ventureLAB announces first cohort of its Hardware Catalyst Initiative companies

Markham, Ontario-based technology hub ventureLAB has announced the first cohort of companies in its Hardware Catalyst Initiative (HCI), Canada’s first hardware and silicon-focused incubator for tech companies building solutions for technologies like AI, IoT, wearable computing, 5G, and other transformative technologies that will enable the creation of products and solutions that scale globally.

The eight successful applicants, which have to be located in Southern Ontario (or be willing to establish a long-term presence), were founded within the five years preceding their applications, have had less than $5 million in revenue in the last 12 months, and have met criteria around their product plans, will receive a series of benefits including:

• 24/7 access to a 1500 square foot hardware lab with state-of-the-art specialized equipment, such as high-speed spectrum analyzer and high-speed oscilloscope, as well as prototyping, production services, and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) toolsets
• Access to highly experienced hardware and silicon development experts, as well as supply chain management, product environmental compliance, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) compliance experts
• Dedicated advisory team to work with the company to define business milestones and to support them with resource navigation, introductions, and putting a growth plan in place
• Specialized supports and guidance around: intellectual property (IP) protection, market development, purchase and supply contracts
• Support through the Capital Investment Program
• Access to Market Intelligence and premium reports from top-tier research firms
• Premium access to curated educational programming and exclusive partner 1-on-1s
• Free workspace (up to 2 spots per team) at ventureLAB

The initiative launched in June 2019 with $5 million in funding from Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Since then, six founding industry partners – AMD, Synopsys, Microart Services Inc., ReMap, Bereskin & Parr, and MNP – have committed up to $8 million in resources, expertise, and mentorship for the cohort.

“In the U.S., every semiconductor job that’s created creates almost five new jobs across the economy. And it’s a $7 trillion global market,” said Melissa Chee, president and chief executive officer of ventureLAB. “So I think, for Canada, if I bring it back home, we have this immense amount of talent, and rigour and expertise and really historic pioneering examples in this country of really being able to deliver systems, but primarily we have a deep silicon and semiconductor base here. And so we’re very excited to see our partners reinvest in the sector.”

The eight companies in the inaugural cohort are:

The inaugural HCI cohort. Photo submitted.

• Bionic-i — A hardware biotechnology company focused on augmenting vision and combating blindness with a surgically implantable device that can treat and monitor an “orphan” genetic disease, as well as rejuvenate cataract surgical patients by eliminating their need for reading glasses
• BluMind.AI — Analog machine learning inferencing; engines for network Edge devices
• Cyberworks Robotics — AI-based technology for autonomous self-driving wheelchairs
• Ekidna Sensing — Will provide a rapid and critical testing solution for licensed producers in the global cannabis industry
• Humantec Inc. | Menopod — Manufactures the ‘Menopod’, a handheld electronic cooling device for women suffering from hot flashes during menopause
• Micromensio — A semiconductor company developing a unique biosensing technology to provide transformative solutions for healthcare, the environment, and industry
• TARTAN AI — A hardware company optimizing machine learning to offer processing elements and transparent memory compression technologies to reduce the computation, storage, and communication needed when executing machine learning models on silicon.
• Wind Shape Technology Inc. — Designs and manufactures proximity sensors for electronic faucets

Over the next five years, HCI plans to support up to 40 companies, create more than 200 jobs, and commercialize 15 new products and technologies.

“When this started three years ago, it was a big vision to really rebuild and put this ecosystem from a silicon and semiconductor and hardware perspective back on the map,” Chee noted. “And the bigger vision for this is that this becomes one of a select few global hubs around the world for semiconductor and semiconductor related products and companies, big, small, and in all in between.”

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