Tech

Startups in the music industry are nowadays flourishing, trying to answer some of the questions that the same technology that allows their existence is posing. Data security, secondary ticketing, royalties, hit songs: every topic has someone covering it in more or less successful ways.

The social media help ask these questions but also spread the word about these startups, while many of them get a kickstart from incubators. Marketplus will run a special in the following weeks regarding these startups.

This week Marketplus will look into GUTS, a company developing a platform for the sale and resale of tickets to shows and events, using the blockchain technology. In the Netherlands, where GUTS is based, the live music industry is expanding, according to advisors DDMCA and the number of visitors to concerts and festivals grew from 1.6 to 2.9 million people from 2011 to 2016, while the revenues went from 46 to 140 million euros.

IBM Security has partnered with SIX, the infrastructure operator for the Swiss financial sector, to integrate IBM Watson for Cyber Security into a new cognitive Security Operations Center (SOC). As part of a new partnership, the SIX SOC powered by IBM will give clients access to the latest IBM cognitive security tools used to fight cybercrime.

Watson has been trained on the language of cyber security, ingesting over 1 million security documents, helping security analysts parse thousands of natural language research reports that have never before been accessible to modern security tools.

Leading Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC has announced the launch of a new global multicurrency wallet called Mobi. The app will be available on both iOS and Android platforms.

Mobi offers in-app conversion of more than 150 global currencies, including dollar, euro, pound, gold and silver. It also enables users to send money to any Twitter account and phone number, as well as an optional Visa debit card. China-based BTCC is a Bitcoin company founded in 2011 that operates an online trading exchange, mints physical bitcoins, and now has entered the mobile payments market.

Concerts, museums, surgical theatres: all have in common one thing, the use or potential use of virtual or augmented reality. More and more companies in all fields are studying how to use this technology, with celebrities jumping on board like Buzz Aldrin, who created a version of himself in space to show everyone how to reach Mars.

Bands are using virtual reality to get in touch with their fans, who can now take part in concerts anywhere as long as both ends are equipped with the correct technology.

Hackers, intelligence agencies and advertisers could be tracking your online video-watching habits, even when the sites in question, such as YouTube, provide encryption and promise anonymity, according to research by a Ben Gurion University cyber-security expert, who presented the research at a recent Black Hat Europe cyber-security gathering in London.

Gaps in YouTube’s encryption enable both government intelligence agencies, hackers and internet marketers to determine which videos a user is watching, said the researchers.

Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS), Ontario, Canada, has issued a warning against digital currencies such as bitcoin after residents reported related fraud schemes.

According to a notice posted last week, the Canadian Police said that fraudsters contact residents, promising to make money. They also send cheques to the victims, asking money to purchase bitcoins.

Investment in robotics is a growing trend within the United States and other parts of the world. It’s clear that these little, and huge metal men, are going to become a huge factor in the future of industrialism and everyday life.

According to a report from Redwood Software and the Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR), the U.S. is the leader in the investment of robotic automation.

After a Pennsylvania court ruled that Google has to hand over emails stored overseas in response to an FBI warrant, Apple, Amazon, Cisco, and Microsoft are supporting the Mountain View-based company.

Google, Facebook, and other Silicon Valley giants backed Apple’s decision not to create an iPhone backdoor that would compromise the security of iOS. Now Apple is returning the favor by standing alongside Google in its fight against an FBI search warrant.
Apple knows all too well what it’s like to battle with the FBI. Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple has also taken a broader pro-privacy stance, most famously refusing to code a backdoor into iOS so the FBI could access the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook and became embroiled in a legal battle with the bureau that went on for months.