One of the biggest technology events in the world took place in January, where usually the biggest innovations in the world of technology are presented.

March
Covid-19 – Teleworking

The State of Emergency in Portugal was declared on March 20 and one of the measures imposed was the adoption of telework. A measure that may have worked as a paradigm shift in the way of working in
Portugal.

May
Space Tourism

At the end of May SpaceX became the first private company to launch a manned rocket into space, with the aim of laying the foundations for future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Jun
WWDC20

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference took place in June and included more than 100 technical sessions and a forum for developers to put their questions to the brand’s engineers.

November
Online Voting – USA

For the first time in the country’s history, the USA has adopted an online voting system for Presidential Elections aimed at military voters who live outside the country or people with some degree of disability.

December
Web Summit 2020

The first 100% online edition of the Web Summit took place in early December and brought together more than 160 countries, 1100 speakers and around 2000 startups.

Through surveys conducted in American, English, Spanish, Dutch, German, Belgian and French companies, the study sought to understand whether companies are prepared for these attacks.

According to the report, the majority of companies (61%) say they have experienced security breaches in the last twelve months, which contrasts with the 45% of companies that acknowledged having experienced one or more cyber attacks in the year 2017. With regard to the frequency of incidents, 30% of companies reported having had four or more incidents, an increase and 10% compared to the previous year.

The most recurrent attacks were viruses and worms (24%), followed by ransomware (17%) and denial of service or DDoS (15%).

“Small businesses (up to fifty employees) that have been targeted by cyber-attacks have risen from 33% to 47% and for medium-sized businesses (up to 250 employees) from 36% to 63%, this is despite large organisations being the most affected with 75% experiencing problems and with 21% indicating they have experienced five or more security incidents.”

However, the study reveals that this increase may be a consequence of the implementation of the GDPR As Gareth Wharton, cyber CEO of Hiscox, noted “The regulation is increasing companies’ awareness of security issues and forcing them to lay a rigorous foundation in cybersecurity. The GDPR has forced organisations to adapt and caused an increase in demand for cyber security and cyber insurance solutions.”

Source: https://business-it.pt/2019/11/26/maioria-das-empresas-sofreu-incidentes-de-seguranca-em-2018/

In Portugal, according to the bulletin of the Observatory of the National Cybersecurity Centre of July 2020, about 160 phishingattacks were registered, the main ones being malwareattacks and unauthorised access. The sector most affected by these attacks was banking.

This type of attack, when well executed, can have very serious consequences for organizations, and the entire structurecan be affected, as well as the respective customers and suppliers.

Kaspersky’s study also shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought conditions conducive to the development of new attack strategies, with this public health crisis being a ‘pretext’ for hackers to request confidential and sensitive information from victims.

There were, for example, various attacks on mail and parcel delivery companies, once due to the pandemic, these types of organizations had to resort to more frequent use of digital channels to communicate with customers. Thus, they took advantage of this situation to send misleading emails to customers by impersonating the same institutions.

As already mentioned, banking institutions have also suffered an increase in this type of attack. False messages are sent to customers offering a set of benefits and perks, in order to compensate for the crisis triggered by the pandemic, allowing access to the victims’ bank details and their theft.

It can thus be stated that the pandemic affected multiple sectors of our society, leaving them weakened and more vulnerable to attacks by cybercriminals.

Sources:

: https://www.itchannel.pt/news/seguranca/portugal-e-dos-paises-onde-os-utilizadores-sao-mais-atacados-porphishing

https://tek.sapo.pt/noticias/internet/artigos/portugal-e-o-segundo-pais-com-mais-utilizadores-afetados-por-ataques-de- phishing

One of the aspects that we can consider as most positive during these months in Portugal, has been the acceleration of the processes of transition and digital transformation that until then were blocked by complex bureaucratic processes that hindered and delayed this type of evolution.

Until earlier this year, the Portuguese government had ambitious plans for digital transition and transformation. However, we can say that this pandemic was largely driven by the great and fast evolution that occurred over the last months, leading to these plans now being even more ambitious than initially planned.

The aim is thus to take Portugal to be the European leader in digital transition. Companies, especially those holding projects involving digital transformation and transition processes, were required to present technological solutions that would allow this progress to be made faster and more efficiently, in a shorter period of time.

Some of the examples that can be presented as innovative and that mark this fast transition are, for example, the possibility of very soon being able to renew our citizen’s card through an ATM terminal or, for example, the displacements to public entities now being made through schedules, avoiding the great floods and the long delays in this type of services.

Another great change that the pandemic brought to our current reality was the growing trend of teleworking and the readaptation of companies to this modality, which implies having contact with technologies that they didn’t use usually or very often.

Sources:
https://tek.sapo.pt/noticias/negocios/artigos/transicao-digital-com-a-pandemia-saltamos-etapas-e-desbloqueamos- resistencias

Cartão de Cidadão: Renovação vai poder ser feita por Multibanco

There are several indicators that show that organizations that invest in these two features get more dedicated teams, competitive and able to achieve positive results at various levels, ultimately producing positive effects also for the business results. Thus, and according to some experts, the companies that will be better equipped for teleworking are those that have digital workplaces provided with some features that are essential to a better performance.

Liferay experts point out five capabilities of digital workplaces that help employees perform their tasks more efficiently and promote motivation and satisfaction at the same time.

Content management and collaboration skills: have technology with functionalities that enable the creation of knowledge bases, facilitate content creation and exchange, as well as departmental and interdepartmental collaboration with videoconferencing systems, chats, discussion forums or wikis.

Personalisation of the worker experience: make it easier to find information in order to reduce search time, through automatic personalisation of content based on behaviour.

Management of access to information based on profiles: maintain a continuous security system in access to information through correct management of identity and access control to the intranet.

Content search: having a search engine at employees’ disposal that allows them to access information in a faster and more agile manner, enabling them to filter and sort results and customize their classifications, will have an impact on team productivity and employee satisfaction levels.

Ecosystem integration: integrate all the aforementioned tools with the company’s other systems, which will allow the employee to have a unified experience and make the most of the investments previously made by the company in the various technologies.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-05-scientists-quantum-radar-prototype.html

This last pillar seeks to make the economy more digital, and is therefore based on five components: Companies 4.0; Quality and Sustainability of Public Finances; Economic Justice and Business Environment; Public Administration – Capacity Building; Digitalization and Interoperability and Cybersecurity; and Digital School.
Due to the focus that Think Attitude has on the IT area, we will look in more detail at the Companies 4.0 component.

Companies 4.0

This component seeks to strengthen the digital skills of employees, modernize business models, create new digital marketing channels, incorporate disruptive technologies in the companies’ value proposition and stimulate digital entrepreneurship in order to accelerate the digital transition of the Portuguese business fabric.

Totalling 650 million euros, this initiative includes three investment vectors: Digital empowerment of enterprises (€100 million) It provides for the creation of two interlinked training programmes, which aim to address gaps in the digital skills of workers and companies.

Digital transition of businesses (€450 million) Seeks to digitalise and transform the business models of Portuguese SMEs through the acceleration and automation of decision-making and execution, the redesign of value and supply chains and the use of cross-sector data spaces, supported by European cloud and edge computing infrastructures.

Catalysing the digital transition of businesses (€100 million) It aims to reduce the use of paper by dematerialising invoicing, create a more secure and reliable digital business environment and stimulate the development of knowledge transfer structures to stimulate the development of digital products and services.

Sources: https://www.itchannel.pt/news/negocios/plano-de-recuperacao-e-resiliencia-impacto-na-transformacao-digital

Source: IST Áustria/Philip Krantz

This prototype was the result of research by a group led by Professor Johannes Fink, of IST Austria, together with Stefano Pirandola, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University and David Vitali of the University of Camarino, in Italy.

Contrary to what happens with traditional radars, this model offers greater sensitivity in that it allows distinguishing the radiation emitted by the object under analysis from the remaining radiation present in the environment where the study takes place, which translates into more conclusive results.

This technology is seen as promising mainly for ultra-low power biomedical imaging scanners, where the object to be detected may be at room temperature, with no need for biopsies.

There are also those who believe that this project may eliminate the invisible aircraft technology, also constituting an added value in the security area.

Sources:

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-scientists-quantum-radar-prototype.html

https://www.inovacaotecnologica.com.br/noticias/noticia.php?artigo=radar-quantico-prototipo&id=0 10150200513#.Xs49MGhKhPY

The governments of several countries, in partnership with major technology companies such as Google and Apple, are implementing a measure consisting in the creation of applications that allow the user, in real time, to know if he is in a space with someone contaminated by the New Coronavirus. This way, the user may choose not to go near the place where the infected person is.

So the question arises: how will this type of applications work and what will they be based on?

First of all, these applications will be developed to work through the Bluetooth, i.e. with prior registration by the user, who will have to provide certain data indicating whether or not he/she is contaminated. The device will connect to the various devices in the vicinity using this technology.

So, when moving to a certain place, the device connects through Bluetooth to the devices of those who have the application, issuing an alert whenever there is someone infected in the vicinity.

Theoretically, this type of application may be very useful for our society, but to what extent will it indicate with real accuracy if there are people infected by the virus? Another question raised is to what extent technology can “turn against us”, disrespecting the principles of the data protection law.

The European Commission’s answer to this question is that these applications can only operate if they guarantee that the data collected does not identify users and that all the information is aggregated and anonymous.

Are therefore these types of technologies useful to reduce the risk of contamination of the New Coronavirus in a reliable way? Can these applications comply with the guidelines imposed by the European Commission?

To date, we do not have an answer to these questions, but we hope that with time both can be clarified.

Sources: https://tek.sapo.pt

With the appearance of Covid-19, people were forced to stay at home for longer, which motivated a greater investment in electronic equipment.

At the same time, many companies were forced to close their doors or limit access to their factories, which compromised the manufacturing of these components and, consequently, their availability in the market.

There is, however, another factor that has been pointed out as one of the major causes of this crisis, and that is mining.

Scenarios like this are increasingly common all over the world and at its origin is the rise in value of cryptocurrencies and the profitability that users obtain through the practice of mining blocks. The more devices are connected simultaneously, the greater the return for users, which justifies this increase in demand for graphics cards.
However, the imbalance between demand and supply has caused some equipment to increase in value by up to 300% compared to its market price.

In order to ease the situation, Nvidia, one of the largest manufacturers of graphic cards worldwide, has sought to develop specific solutions for mining but admitted that this crisis may still last until the end of this year..

Sources:

Nvidia confirma que a escassez de GPUs ainda vai durar durante a grande parte de 2021

Importance of formal education

Although the majority of respondents do not consider formal training as extremely important, about 75% of respondents have at least a bachelor’s degree or higher.

This is the result obtained in the top 3 factors that users consider most important in a professional challenge. However, if we analyse only the answers from women, the work environment and organizational culture move to the first place with 48.3%, followed by the flexible schedule with 45.6% and finally the languages, frameworks and technologies with 41.8%.

And finally, did you know that most respondents (19.2%) wrote their first line of code between the ages of 14 and 15? And that 18.9% of the results reveal that users wrote their first line of code at age 11 or younger?

Sources: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#overview