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The Changing Landscape of Check Fraud [White Paper]

Checks still remain the dominant business-to-business (B2B) payment used to fulfill financial obligations across the United States. As technological advances and digitization in payments processing evolves, so too does the landscape of check fraud. Fraudsters continue to take advantage of access to inexpensive technology, social engineering tactics, and remote business practices to engage in illegal and deceptive check fraud practices. This white paper explores the risks that checks pose to financial institutions (FIs), how check fraud has evolved, and what FIs can do to proactively prevent check-related fraud losses.

Significant investments in cybersecurity and fraud prevention measures by financial institutions aside, payments fraud in the United States is still rampant. Last year, check fraud was reported by 70 percent of U.S. organizations and was responsible for more than $18 billion in losses. New check fraud tactics, bolstered by access to new technologies and software, have made fake checks cheaper and easier to produce than ever.

The Sophistication of Check Fraud Schemes

Fraudsters, often early adopters of new technology, have become increasingly adept at weaponizing the digital tools at their disposal, frequently employing sophisticated, high-tech schemes to evade or impede detection. And the scale of these schemes has grown exponentially as a result. Counterfeit checks are mass produced on high-quality check stock with the latest printing and scanning technology. Many are designed with legitimate FI names and addresses, multi-colored watermarks, and verifiable routing and account numbers.

Without an adequate front-line check fraud prevention solution, these fakes are nearly indistinguishable from real checks to the naked eye. As data breaches flood Dark Web marketplaces with compromised consumer data, criminals have gained access to PII that they can use to carry out these crimes… (full article here)

How Blockchain Technology Cleans Up Oil Spills [Essay]

Business Email Compromise: A Global Threat [White Paper]

In this white paper, GIACT® – the leader in helping companies positively identify and authenticate customers – will detail how BEC tactics are changing; how BEC is being committed; and how to proactively validate account information, using real-time, diverse data sets, before a potentially fraudulent payment is disbursed.

Big Business

It typically costs criminals less to commit BEC than most cybercrimes, but that doesn't mean that BEC is not effective. In fact, BEC tactics have gotten so convincing in recent years that even the U.S.’s top tech giants have suffered major losses as a result. In fact, according to The New York Times, a lone fraudster was able to steal a total of $100 million from Google and Facebook using BEC tactics alone.

What is more, BEC has been so lucrative that the FBI reported a 46% year-over-year uptick. The Association for Financial Processionals (AFP), meanwhile, reported that in 2018, 80% of surveyed businesses reported being targeted by a BEC scam — up from 77% the year prior. And, for the first time, the AFP found that a majority of businesses surveyed (54%) admitted to being financially impacted by BEC.

BEC has morphed into big business. The FBI reported that well-organized fraud networks have formed overseas and are sharing intelligence to enhance their targeting of U. S.-based businesses.

EVOLVING TACTICS

BEC is usually executed using a spoofed email originating from within an organization requesting payment settlement; or a request that accounts payable update a billing account; or it may even originate from an executive’s hacked account, instructing that money be sent immediately to an account that the fraudster controls. Employees are then tricked into initiating payments from a request that appears to be coming from someone within a trusted organization – a tactic known as phishing.

Businesses have suffered high-ticket losses as a result of phishing, including one company that suffered a $29 million loss as a result of a misdirected wire transfer.2 In this scenario, not only did the fraud operation mimic an executive's email, but also their voice – the fraudster group found a way to imitate the voice of an executive to socially engineer the transfer. Looking ahead, it's likely that fraudsters might even start using "deep fakes", where a person's likeness is mimicked using advanced technology to carry out social engineering projects. The bottom line is that anyone can be impersonated.

Most businesses today, however, are on high alert. Many have put up some defenses (including email origination notifications, secure email portals, etc.) to lessen the potential for BEC. To circumvent these defenses, fraud operators have begun to evolve their tactics. According to the FBI, more targeted tactics have developed recently, including the use of hacked email account. These emails used in this tactic include compromised employees, vendors, executives, etc. These targeted attempts are known as “spear phishing,” i.e., targeted attempt using a trusted / high-level person’s actual email. One example of a spear phishing attempt, according to the FBI, includes the use of an executive’s email account:

“When the time is right, often when the CEO is away from the office, the scammers send a bogus e-mail from the CEO to a targeted employee in the finance office — a bookkeeper, accountant, controller, or chief financial officer. A request is made for an immediate wire transfer, usually to a trusted vendor. The targeted employee believes he is sending money to a familiar account, just as he has done in the past. But the account numbers are slightly different, and the transfer of what might be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars ends up in a different account controlled by the criminal group“

In addition, BEC tactics have also begun to target payroll funds. According to the FBI, in this scheme a fraud operator looks to exploit the Human Resources department with a request that appears to be from an employee requesting an update on their direct deposit. Worse yet, entire batches of ACH can be edited to reflect a new account number while leaving the name in place of the intended recipient. The change redirects funds into a fraud operator-controlled account. To prevent this type of fraud, controllers must either use an account validation tool that verifies the name on the account or manually review each account in a batch that has been edited.

Overall, one of the big problems with BEC is not only that it tricks employees into misdirecting funds, but also that it can takes weeks – even months – to catch. Usually, only after a complaint is made and the routing information is investigated.

Given the increased sophistication of BEC tactics, making it difficult for even the most attentive employee to catch a potentially fraudulent scheme, validating account information in real-time, before funds are ever sent, is one of the best ways to reduce potential losses.

The most effective way to do so is through robust account validation that goes beyond simply confirming if an account is active. Businesses need to run all payments against a stricter validation process, including confirming the following:

1. Account status

2. Payment history, particularly NSF (non-sufficient funds) or chargeback history

3. Ownership and matching ownership to the payment originator

4. Consistency of PII, including name, address, phone number, email and more

These validations should be run prior to creating a payment account, prior to initiating the first payment, as well as at every subsequent customer touchpoint, whether that be a payment, update to account information, and more. By doing so, businesses will be able to confirm if an account is legitimate prior to payment. In addition, businesses should consider adding email validation, verifying not only the name associated with the email address but also triangulating the domain, location and age of the domain, etc.

Click here for full report

How I Came to Enjoy Writing [Essay]

As a youngster, I was polite, patient, methodical, and mild-mannered. At dinnertime, I was never the first to eat. At soccer, I was more often tentative than aggressive. At home, I would meticulously color inside the lines of my coloring book, outlining each inner curve to buffer my coloring strokes. In class, I’d hold it in before ever attempting to seek permission to use the restroom. While I was as well behaved and disciplined as any, my imagination was always madly unconstrained.

Growing up in New Jersey suburbia, I was lucky enough to visit New York City early and often. Everything was stimulating; the buzz of pedestrians, honking city taxis, the screeching metal of subway car wheels bursting through the metal grates under my feet, and the bouquet of stenches and aromas that filled every avenue kept me brimming with wonder. Even at 8 years old, I knew it would be my favorite city.

It was visits with Aunt Monica in Hell’s Kitchen that was what I looked forward to the most. She would spoil me with fresh packs of collectible basketball cards, K’nex building sets from FAO Schwartz (which was a mesmerizing children’s house of toys just south of Central Park), and access to her brand new computer, equipped with a primitive word processing software called Corel WordPerfect. One cold winter morning, she gave up her desk chair me for an entire afternoon while she interviewed applicants for low-income city housing. Within minutes, I was typing up my first short story.

The one-page fable “Squeaks and her Thinking Chair” was no masterpiece, but the look of genuine surprise and glee on my aunt’s face, however subjective she was, reaffirmed that writing would be my creative outlet of choice. As I came into my own in middle school, my distracting inclination to survey the many pretty girls in the hallways compelled me to put pen to paper. I would obsessively scour thesauruses and dictionaries for the particular word that captured the elusive essence of my feelings. How else to describe a crush without words like “ethereal”, “effervescent“, and “enigmatic“? How else can one embody the feeling of exchanging glances with your crush without “ephemeral”, “scintillating”, and ”exuberant”?  As a product of a multi-lingual home, I soon learned to appreciate the depth of lexical richness of the English language. English has its roots in the Germanic languages, from German to Old Norse, in Romance languages like French and Latin, and even more distant influences like Hindi, Persian and Celtic languages. It is a language that has evolved from many others, but unlike others like the French Académie française or the German Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung, there is no central regulatory body that oversees modern English. New words are continually added organically based on the needs of English speakers. What struck me from a young age was the abundance of nuanced word variations. To me, the journey in discovering the one word that wholly describes a person, place, or feeling was fulfilling in and of itself.

Short stories and freeform creative writing served as the channels for most of my writing, but it was poetry that I was most passionate about. From Carl Sandburg to Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman to Pablo Neruda, Robert Frost to E.E. Cummings, I had boundless sources of inspiration. Despite the elegance and complexity presented by these masters of prose, it was rhyme gratified me most. Sonnets and limericks littered my notepad. My medium was constantly changing. As word processing technology and communication channels evolved, my writing took on different forms. In sixth grade, I was typing painstakingly on the family typewriter where errors were punished with irrevocable white correction ink. In eighth, I was unanimously bestowed the esteemed but unenviable position of token greeting card writer by my entire family. By tenth grade, I was typing up poems for my high school crush into Instant Message boxes that I was too fainthearted to send.

It was not until my first semester in college that my strict NYU professors curtailed my tendency to use overly flowery descriptors and rhythmic writing flow. It was impressed upon me to only as few words as possible to drive home a point. Excess is the enemy. I now attribute this fundamental writing to preparing me for my career in editing and copywriting. I have since successfully crafted a number of slogans that encapsulate the mission and culture of multi-million dollar companies within a mere four to six-word phrase. The passion for wordplay has only developed with age, but by incorporating literary mentors and adapting to new technological platforms, I continue to hone my voice and allow this evolving digital world shape it further.

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and the Brain [Article]

Luminescence, genetics, and the role of jellyfish in identifying cancer cells in the human body

Jellyfish have roamed the seas for more than 500 million years, making them the oldest multi-organ animal in the Earth’s history. These soft-bodied gelatinous have a reputation for their translucent, gelatinous flesh, their melodic pulsating way of swimming, and the sting from their tentacles. What is lesser known, however, are their contributions to modern science. In 2008, three scientists named Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their successful isolation of the luminescent marker called the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) from the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. The team discovered that by using the GFP gene to generate a protein, it allowed scientists to track the progress of that protein through a cell, organ, or even through an entire organism. Since, this breakthrough has paved the way for neuroscientists by dramatically improving their method of observation within the brain.

Shortly after the GFP gene was cloned, the generation of blue, cyan and yellow variants through a process called mutagenesis soon followed and, soon after, a process called Brainbow was born. Individual neurons in the brain could now be flagged with a fluorescent ‘dye’ palette of more than 100 distinct hue combinations, helping researchers map, track, and observe interconnections between neurons and their interactions affecting overall brain functionality.

For decades, neuroscientists have struggled to differentiate between individual neurons in the brain. Mapping neural circuits of the brain was complex and challenging. According to Shu-Hsien Sheu, senior scientist in David Clapham’s lab at Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, such an entangled group of neurons and other brain cells are as indiscernible as a “tub of spaghetti.” Now, instead of labeling one neuron in 20 individual mice, for example, researchers can label twenty individual neurons in a single mouse, which is far more efficient and effective.

There are, however, limitations in strictly relying on GFP in the lab. Tagging molecules or cells to make them glow is invaluable, but restrictive. The ability to observe the builder of these proteins, RNA, in action, provided a great deal of unique advantages. In 2011, one novel technique was developed that combined fluorophe (a fluorescent compound) with RNA to form a glowing molecule called ‘Spinach’. Nicknamed for its bright green glow, similar to GFP, this molecule provided researchers with the ability to observe RNA in action. Biologists soon benefited from a greater insight into how and when molecules move about a cell and also explain the behavior of viruses, which use RNA and (not DNA) as their genetic material.

Science is not the only arena benefiting by this vibrant technology. Organisms, from tadpoles to flatworms to zebrafish, have been programmed to light up in the name of science and industry. Yorktown Technologies, a US company, created the GloFish brand to sell glowing zebrafish of every color for the home, office, or classroom. NeonPets sells green fluorescent mice (NeonMice) in pet stores nationwide. Green fluorescent pigs, known as Noels, were bred by a group of researchers at the Department of Animal Science and Technology at National Taiwan University. A green-fluorescent rabbit named Alba was created by a lab in France in the name of art.

Nearly 10 years since its discovery, the GFP has completely transformed biomedical research. Scientists can track the path of alpha-synuclein proteins involved in the neurodegenerative disease Parkinson’s. The HIV virus can be observed as it attempts to infect healthy cells. Cancerous cells can be detected and illuminated to improve the accuracy and precision of tumor removal. Tagging the journey of the sperm cell from a male fruit fly to its female’s counterpart egg cell with GFP can illuminate exactly how certain sex cells improve their probability of winning the race to the egg.

GFP marking has emerged as a powerful tool, though according to a study called the Plant Journal in 1999 published by five scientists of the Graduate School of Nutritional and Environmental Sciences at the University of Shizuoka in Japan, specific fluorescent dyes may exhibit some problems with toxicity, penetration, and photo-bleaching. By substituting one amino acid for another (serine for threonine), the resulting S65T mutation has been shown to result in enhanced brightness, faster coloration, and slower photo-bleaching. A brighter, strong version of GFP will help researchers and scientists in distinguishing molecules under the microscope.

From tadpoles to flatworms, jellyfish to zebrafish, mice to piglets, all types of creatures are being pro-grammed to fluoresce in the name of science and industry.

Our Driverless Dilemma [Article]

Human error is the critical reason for 93% of all car crashes.

— According to the National Highway Safety Administration

The United States is one of the busiest countries in terms of road traffic in the world, with more than 260 million registered vehicles. While the number of fatal passenger car crashes has incrementally decreased over the last quarter century in the U.S., data from the National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that approximately 40,000 Americans died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, a 6% increase from 2015 and a 14% increase since 2014. This is the largest jump in more than fifty years. The culprits are varied, from drowsy to substance-impaired drivers, but the cost in dollars and in lives is astronomical. The NSC estimates the cost of motor-vehicle deaths, injuries, and property damage in 2016—including medical expenses, property damage, losses in wages, and more—was $432 billion.

Automotive and tech companies, from Google to Tesla, have responded by developing self-driving technology designed to navigate fleets of autonomous vehicles. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, human error is the critical reason for 93% of crashes. Driverless cars can help prevent accidents by implementing artificial intelligence. Brian Krzanich, CEO of the innovative microchip company Intel, writes on the company website that autonomous vehicles will “learn from the collective experience of millions of cars—avoiding the mistakes of others and creating a safer driving environment.” This belief is widely held by automakers and tech giants alike, and the revolutionary technology has already received an early green light by Congress. The House of Representatives passed the SELF DRIVE Act (Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution) with bipartisan support, laying the framework for autonomous vehicle regulation. The go-ahead for access to all public roads has not been given to the self-driving industry, and it will take some time for legislation to grant this approval, but it will inevitably pave the way for a new driving (and riding) experience in the near future.

Relinquishing control over the wheel may be an easy concession by some, but a deeper moral dilemma lies beneath this decision. By passing over every decision you make behind the wheel as a driver to a highly proficient, emotionless robot, your life and that of your family is in its figurative hands. Imagine a scenario in which the car’s brakes fail while you are behind the wheel. As you zoom toward a congested crosswalk, you are faced with an unthinkable decision: swerve right and barrel into a group of elderly pedestrians or swerve left into a mother pushing her baby in a stroller. Do you alternatively decide to brace yourself and sacrifice yourself and your passengers instead? If you were in a self-driving car, how would you expect the car decide which way to turn?

This troubling ethical quandary is facing carmakers, car buyers, legislators, and regulators as driverless technology progresses. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have run a several studies to ascertain how participants think an autonomous vehicle should manage such life-or-death scenarios. The main goal of the research is to understand exactly what society is willing to accept in order to support the use of these vehicles. 

Most of the 1,928 research participants in a June 2016 study published in Science Magazine indicated that they believed autonomous vehicles should be programmed to avoid pedestrians, despite the likelihood that it would kill the vehicle’s passengers. The same participants, however, were unenthusiastic about the idea of buying such a car. Should lawmakers choose to prioritize pedestrians over passengers in future self-driving regulation, many consumers would be far more hesitant to willingly put themselves at risk and would not move forward with the purchase.

This theoretical dilemma is based on an ethics thought experiment known as “the trolley problem,” which poses a similar scenario involving diverting a trolley bound for an unsuspecting group of people. Ragunathan Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and the autonomous vehicle guru on campus, believes that the discussion of driverless car moral dilemmas is a work in progress. “AI does not have the same cognitive capabilities that we as humans have,” says Rajkumar. These machines use a variety of sensors and cameras to gather information like speed, road conditions, and potential obstacles, but cannot decide who lives or dies.

“The bigger concern I have about autonomous vehicles, “adds Rajkumar, “is the ability to keep them protected from hackers who might want to take over their controls while someone is onboard.”

As we move from driver to driverless in the coming decades, everything from highway infrastructure to traffic lights, commuter culture to automotive design will inevitably transform. Azim Shariff, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and director of the Culture and Morality Lab at the University of California, Irvine, has teamed up with colleagues to launch a website called Moral Machine (moralmachine.mit.edu) designed to gather “a human perspective on moral decisions made by machine intelligence” like autonomous vehicles.  Research projects like these will continue to bridge the gap between the moral and ethical fabric of our society with exciting new advancements in autonomous technology and artificial intelligence.

The New Space Race to the Red Planet [Article]

After more than 25 years since the last manned mission left Earth's Moon, humanity has entered into a new, more ambitious and advantageous adventure: the colonization of Mars. Contrary to the motivations of the “space race” between the United States and Soviet Union to visit the moon in the 1970s, this new race involves three front runners from the private sector: Boeing-Lockheed United Launch Alliance (ULA), Tesla SpaceX, and Amazon Blue Origins.

Elon Musk, the enigmatic CEO of SpaceX, has lofty goals for his space exploration upstart and is adamant about his desire to reach the red planet first. He stated to the Wall Street Journal in a 2011 interview that SpaceX would be able to put a man on Mars within 15 to 20 years. Since launching its first rocket in January 2017, SpaceX made six subsequent flights (about one every three weeks), which puts them on track to more than double the company’s total launches for any previous year.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and offshoot Blue Origins, is a formidable challenger in the race. His space tourism company has publicly contested SpaceX’s accomplishments, resulting in a bit of hostility between the two companies. Blue Origins aspires to launch tourists to into orbit in the upper edge of Earth’s atmosphere with its New Shepard reusable launching system that , after one partial failure in 2015, has completed five successful consecutive flights.

Yet of these three multi-billion dollar corporations, ULA boasts the strongest track record. Since 2006, the company has successfully sent 111 such payloads into orbit without losing a single one. Despite the progress that its adversaries have achieved, this is a feat unmatched. ULA is building NASA’s Space Launch System, a design that CEO Dennis Muilenburg noted in an October 2017 speech as “the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.” The project’s ultimate mission is to send the rocket, with American astronauts in tow, farther than ever before. One scenario has the voyagers flying to a lunar space docking system and shooting to Mars before returning to Earth.

Despite its vast differences with Earth, Mars has been perceived for decades as the planet most likely to sustain human life in our solar system. Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, has a noxious surface that runs 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Mercury, even closer to the sun, also offers a harsh uninhabitable environment. It is the Mars, the red planet, that offers the most endurable atmospheric and environmental amenities. For more than half a century, we have used our analysis of the topography of Mars to presume that its surface was shaped by standing and running water. We also know that Mars has a tilted axis, which means that the planet experiences seasons just as we do on Earth. The rhythm of day and night on Mars is also strikingly similar to ours on Earth: a Mars day is 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. Gravity on Mars is 38 percent that of ours on Earth, which is believed to be sufficient for the human body to adapt over time. Its atmosphere, albeit a thin one, provides protection from the Sun’s powerful ultraviolet radiation. And, while cold, it is not as oppressively cold as other planets. According to Neil Degrasse Tyson, world-renowned astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in the Museum of Natural History in New York City, “When you look at the nearby terrestrial planets, Mars is looking just right, in spite of the challenges.”

In spite of technological breakthroughs and consistently successful launching trials, traveling to, let alone colonizing Mars, has its significant challenges. Spacecraft are exposed to extreme temperatures, damaging ultraviolet radiation, flying space debris, and more. ULA and SpaceX have implemented rigorous testing for their vehicles the Dragon 2 and the CST-100 Starliner respectively. Known more simply as “space taxis, these vehicles held under the observation of veteran NASA astronauts. Above all else, the mission would not be a success without avoiding human passenger injury, which has led to significant drop tests to make sure capsule landing systems can sustain powerful impact and the elements. If progress remains on target, SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed may yet fulfill their ambitious target launches in the new year. SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned test flight to Mars in February 2018 and a crewed flight in June 2018, while Boeing is aiming to launch their unmanned test flight in June 2018 and a crewed flight in August 2018.

According to Ashwin Vasavada, the project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, Mars is the ideal planetary choice to explore because of its remarkable similarities to our own planet. “It’s a place that you can go today that’s like going to early Earth, Vasavada said in a January 2017 Atlantic article. “You remove that dusty exterior of Mars, and you have this planet that is just so reminiscent of Earth. It’s like finding a dusty Earth in your attic.” While there are considerable concerns regarding the astronomical resources utilized to reach Mars, the realistic timeline and scope of the mission, and even ramifications of foreign bacteria from Earth contaminating the planet with human contact, one thing is for sure. Mars is the next frontier.

Charismatic Megafauna: Promoting Pandas to Push Conservation [Essay]

Economic Exploitation and Endangerment of Tigers
Hundreds of Earth’s animal and plant species, from the Arabian Ostrich (1937) to the Zanzibar Leopard (1996), have fallen to extinction in the past one hundred years. Startlingly, according to the FTSE Index for threatened wildlife, more than half of the world’s wildlife has disappeared since the 1970s. Among the most high-profile on the endangered list, tigers have dwindled to 4,000 in number from more than 100,000 as recently as a century ago. 

Indigenous to Asia, tigers have held a longstanding adulation in ancient and modern cultures throughout history for their strength, cunning, and beauty. Each subspecies of the striped jungle cat has adapted to their unique geographical environment. Siberian tigers developed thicker coats to combat sub-zero climates in the Russian tundra and Malayan tigers adopted complex fur patterns to better camouflage themselves in dense jungle vegetation. However, such remarkable adaptations take time, and tigers have been unable to counter the swift and cruel realities of illegal poaching, climate change and habitat loss. The multifaceted threat is a complex one. The clearing of their natural habitat for agriculture and timber, the development of road networks and housing, and and encroachment of human populations has cut down nearly 93% of their ecological range according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Increasing demand for luxury tiger products like tiger bone wine, tiger skin rugs, and stuffed animals by wealthy Chinese buyers has devastated wild tiger populations as well, pushing them to the brink of extinction.

As an apex predator, the tiger serves an integral role in a balanced and healthy ecosystem. Where tigers are, so tourists go. This influx of cash allows poorer towns villages with limited income opportunities to elevate local businesses and service the community at large. Tigers need room to roam, about 25,000 acres of forest per animal, and the ecological areas in which they live not only preserve their natural habits but benefit many endangered species within the ecosystem. By supporting the tiger’s cause, conservation efforts could help preserve the natural habitats of hundreds of species imperiled by deforestation and neglect.

The phenomenon of "charismatic megafauna" and how environmentalists use them to promote conservation
One of the most effective strategies employed by wildlife conservationists is the utilization of ‘charismatic megafauna’ in their marketing campaigns. This academic term is used to describe likeable animals (mammals mostly), which capture the hearts and minds of prospective donors and conservation advocates. These animals, tigers, panda bears, lions, and wolves, among them, draw an emotional public response that facilitates fundraising efforts. The argument for this tactic is varied; most of these animals tend to dwell in ecosystems which nurture a wide range of lesser known plant and animal species and it is the health of these ecosystems that is resultantly restored. For example, the Worldwide Wildlife Fund employs the panda as its logo. As the world’s largest conservation organization, their branding decision to invoke the panda has been instrumental in attracting money, press, and public empathy for the cause of conservation.

 Though a positive for overall awareness and funding for many conservationist organizations, this public-facing approach has its downsides. Firstly, scientists tend to receive grants for studies of charismatic megafauna at a far greater rate than other non-charismatic species. This has lead to the formation of a bias in scientific research. Since 1994, more than 100 reports about the meerkat have been published compared to merely 14 about the less “charismatic” manatee. This academic gap may work to counter conservation efforts on the whole.

Secondly, there are doubts regarding the effectiveness of the residual benefit or “umbrella” effect on other non-charismatic endangered species. One rationale is that the marketing of more charismatic animals takes attention and resources away from less appealing and lesser known species. A 1998 review by Daniel Simberloff, a biologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, noted that “whether many other species will really fall under the umbrella is a matter of faith rather than research.” According to a 2012 review by Frédéric Ducarme, the “engineer species”, which often represent endangered capital keystone species (an organism integral to the fabric of an entire ecosystem), “are rarely charismatic species.” The starfish, a prime keystone species, consumes enough barnacles and mussels to keep seaweed healthy and, in turn, supports the sea urchin, snail, and limpet communities that feed on this seaweed.

By supporting advocacy programs for charismatic megafauna, keystone species including corals, shellfish, insects, worms, and algae could be tragically overlooked. But likable tigers and pandas are not universally promoted within the conservationist community. Organizations like the Ugly Animal Preservation Society have led efforts to incorporate less prominent endangered species into the conservation fold. This comedy night founded in Great Britain by biologist and TV presenter Simon Watt has raised awareness for obscure species including the proboscis monkey, blobfish, sea slug, naked mole-rat, and Titicaca water frog.

CRISPR and the Gene-Editing Revolution [Article]

For decades, researchers have hoped to eliminate diseases, increase crop yields, and enhance quality of life through DNA editing. In recent years, many scientists have found success by utilizing CRISPR, a groundbreaking gene-editing tool that has served as an instrumental tool for hundreds of creative genetics experiments.

CRISPR, or to give its full name Crisper-Cas9 has two fundamental components. The first works as a microscopic scalpel that splices DNA. The other is comprised of RNA, the protein that principally acts as the messenger between proteins within the genome. It targets a specific gene, hidden among thousands of other genes, and leads the scalpel there to cut, delete and replace it.

The myriad of ways this powerful technology has been used, and the countless other more controversial applications that have yet to be executed, are altogether brilliant and unsettling. In 2014, a team led by Chinese geneticist Gao Caixia used CRISPR to delete genes within a wheat strain that made it fully resistant to a devastating fungal disease: powdery mildew. Later that year, Japanese scientists blocked specific genes in tomatoes responsible for ripening, effectively extending the life of the fruit. The future of refining plants this way, some researchers believe, will prove far less divisive than genetically modified organisms (GMO), which relies on external sources of genetic material to achieve desired results.

Before long, researchers began to use CRISPR on insects, mice and more complex organisms and the results thus far have been impressive. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a research team called Target Malaria that has successfully used CRISPR to edit the genes of the Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes and prevent females from producing fertile eggs and proliferating the parasite causing malaria across sub-Saharan Africa. By disrupting mating patterns among those parasite-carrying mosquitoes, the target insect population would shrink and cases of malaria would dramatically decrease. Similarly, genetic defects such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and blood disorders like sickle-cell anemia and beta thalassemia have been significantly mitigated by researchers in their lab work with mice. Once the enzyme latches onto the targeted DNA sequence, CRISPR can operate on a specific region of DNA with striking precision.

Feng Zhang, a biological engineer at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, was astonished by the effectiveness of CRISPR, saying that “it set off a cascade of experiments that have transformed genetic research.” Jio Ito, the Director of MIT’s Media Lab since 2011, views CRISPR as a pivotal tool in the development of digital and economic progress. By lowering the costs of experimentation, it has provided the international research community with a faster, easier, more efficient way of accessing and amending genetic material.

“When you take away money, you take away the requirement for permission,” says Ito, who sees comparisons to the advent of e-mail. “Suddenly, a janitor had the ability to communicate with the chairman of the board,” he said. “The filters disappeared. We are seeing the same thing today with CRISPR and biotechnology.”

There are substantial regulatory, ethical and political barriers that have prevented animals and plants with CRISPR-modified genes from entering their respective ecosystems, though the impact of these methods have already made an impact around the world.

A Chinese biophysics researcher named He Jiankiu recently became the focus of an international debate when it was discovered that he had allegedly altered the DNA of twin girls named Lulu and Nana. According to a document analysis by gene-editing scientist Fyodor Urnov, associate director of the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle, Washington, the efforts of Jiankiu’s research “[aimed] to produce a human” with altered genes. Jiankiu’s research team at Southern University of science and Technology in Shenzhen, China had signed up couples comprised of HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers for the experiment in hopes of eradicating a gene called CCR5. This process was designed to achieve HIV virus-resistance for genetically-modified babies, which would be a remarkable medical feat.

The implications of human testing carry significant risks as changes to an embryo could introduce unwanted mutations that would be inherited by future generations and eventually affect the entire gene pool. David Baltimore, a biologist and former president of the California Institute of Technology, notes that “we have never done anything that will change the genes of the human race, and we have never done anything that will have effects that will go on through the generations.” And yet China, since 2015, is one of very few countries that have used CRISPR in clinical trials on humans. In China, gene editing is a key industry in its science and technology development plan and cancer patients have repeatedly been given infusions of edited DNA.

The scientific community’s reaction to Jianku’s undertaking ranges from concern to outrage. One widespread notion is that such uncharted experimentation was never required in the first place.  Urnov notes that there is cause for “regret and concern over the fact that gene editing, a powerful and useful technique, was put to use in a setting where it was unnecessary.”

As far back as the 1960s, scientists have been seeking ways to edit genomes. Early work at UCSF and Stanford were primitive by modern standards, borrowing DNA from bacteria, hacking and fastening strands together without finesse or precision. The low-cost, highly-effective CRISPR tool has shaken up the biotech community and established genetic editing possibilities that were once unthinkable. The idea of creating designer babies—having the choice of hair color, eye color, averting specific genetic predispositions to disease and cancer—is one such possibility. CRISPR offers a way to affect the building blocks of life, but with every reason to be wary of such life-changing technology, the benefits of discovering cures for cancer, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or improving the nutrition of food and crop yield, provide us with a reason to push science forward.

Our Social Media Drive Down Memory Lane [Essay]

It may seem unfathomable to some, but the technology and platforms we utilize to access, share, and peruse content and multimedia today is very, very new. YouTube, the iconic video-sharing website, is only twelve years old. Photo-sharing behemoths Snapchat and Instagram are only six and seven years old respectively. Smartphones and their high-definition 12-megapixel camera phones are ubiquitous now, but it wasn’t long ago that these powerful social network apps and websites were mere fledgling startups. There are dozens of pivotal moments throughout the twenty-first century that catapulted companies to relevance.

In 2009 during a protest against newly elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, a stray bullet hit Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old philosophy student, in the chest. Shaky camera phone footage was captured by an onlooker of Agha-Soltan’s last dying moments and posted to YouTube and social networks Facebook and Twitter. Boosted by hashtags like #iranelection and #Neda, the video went viral. Media outlets like Fox and CNN soon took notice, broadcasting clips suitable for television. Yet, it was primitive camera phone sharing technology that enabled Agha-Soltan to become a rallying symbol of Iran’s opposition Green Movement (named after the campaign color of losing presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi).

The Green Movement is believed by many to have spurred the Arab Spring, a string of revolutions that caused the collapse of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, civil war in Syria and Libya, and uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain. Dissenters across North Africa and Southwest Asia found ways to bypass government censors and tweeted videos, photos and documents that exposed human rights abuses, electoral fraud and political corruption; such images could not be ignored by the international community.

Photographs play a particularly powerful role in shaping memory. Smartphone apps like Instagram and Snapchat have made taking, editing, and sharing photos easier and more engaging. Touching on the nostalgia of instant film Polaroid cameras, Instagram filters have further evolved with facial recognition, location-based services, and augmented reality. Daniel Schacter, a Harvard University professor of psychology, established the effects of photographs on memory. In one trial in the 1990s, Schacter demonstrated that it was possible to embed memories into the consciousness of subjects by showing them photos of an event they could have experienced but did not. In another, he discovered that it was not just the physical viewing of photos that boosted memory of an event, but it also distorted memories of events that occurred at the same time as those shown in the photographs.

These “false memory” findings can be contextualized within the realm of photo sharing apps. Scrolling through pictures from a rock concert a year ago could make someone almost certain that they remember the band’s encore performance, when in fact, that person went to bed early instead. This memory phenomenon is called “retrieval-induced forgetting” (or RIF). According to a criminal justice study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice City of the University of New York (CUNY), social media has possibly given individuals a way of selectively offloading personal memories through photo-sharing apps like Instagram. Information is more readily accessible than ever before, which may lead to some unforeseen societal consequences.

This cascade of visual stimuli from social networks does not just shape if we remember events, but how as well. The pervasiveness of camera phones has provided users the chance to take an endless number of photos just about anywhere in the world. Linda Henkel, a psychological scientist and researcher at Fairfield University, conducted an experiment involving a guided tour through the university’s Bellarmine Museum of Art. As noted in the journal Psychological Science, subjects were given digital cameras to photograph some subjects and observe others. She concluded that some subjects were able to recall “fewer of the photographed objects, and fewer of the details about them, relative to the pieces of art they’d actively observed with their own eyes.” This ‘photo-taking-impairment effect’ has altered our connection to our physical world. The ascendancy of digital maps has allowed us to remember less and rely on technology more. In extreme cases, some even go so far as to photograph documents with their camera phones in lieu holding onto the physical paper. Our reliance on access to limitless recording has at times incentivized us to bypass memorization altogether.

Further undermining this issue, Instagram’s new algorithmic feed has shifted its focus from chronology to personalization. Changed back in June of 2016, this update was designed to elevate visibility of posts that garner more engagement than others. Joaquin Candela, head of applied machine learning at Facebook, shed more light on Facebook’s master algorithm and how it works. Facebook (which owns Instagram) cloned its existing News Feed algorithm and tweaked it for the Instagram platform. The engineer team uses artificial intelligence (AI) to sort through all the posts that one could see and display the portion it thinks he or she would like to see first. More popular posts, determined by social values like recommendations by friends or personal online behaviors, are more likely it will surface to the top of your feed.

While backlash was fierce, these changes are likely here to stay. Our digital media landscape is constantly evolving, with curated photos and videos in our faces every day. Though it may seem like your personal preferences and digital footprint are being used to target you more effectively, this may not be a cause for alarm. By recognizing the power your personal predispositions hold over your own digital experience, you may be able to use these algorithms to improve your content experience.

The Sinai Peninsula Drop By: July 2005 [Essay]

“Get in! Get in! I take you. Come, come!” pleaded the robed Bedouin in broken English, hanging his head out the tinted window of his shabby Mercedes sedan. After the five-hour bus ride from the Golan Heights, a four-kilometer hike from Eilat and scrupulous security procedures at the Israeli-Egyptian border checkpoint, my brother Andrew and I finally landed in Egypt. Within seconds of our flip flops hitting the sandy Sinai Peninsula, three lurking taxi drivers jumped from their vehicles and scurried at us. Grinning through tobacco-stained teeth, they presented their rates in Hebrew, gesticulating excitedly toward their vehicles, as we sauntered past, unfazed. Haggling with locals in food markets around the world had taught us many valuable life lessons, one of which was to never bite on the first offer. As the only prospective customers in sight, we simply did not engage them and walked on as they continued to undercut each other at every turn. Once the price suited us, we winked triumphantly at each other, honored the deal with an exuberant handshake, and continued our 70-kilometer journey south to Nuweiba.

It was not until we settled into the backseat that I began to contemplate the impetuousness of our adventure. Traveling without a cell phone, credit card, or even a rudimentary understanding of Arabic, we were relying on the recommendations of friends, paper maps of the peninsula, and the kindness of strangers. Some travelers might prefer a strict itinerary when abroad, sticking to popular tourist circuits, well-reviewed restaurants, and comfortable lodging and amenities. We were two college kids who were seeking a richer, wilder, more unscripted experience that we hoped to fill with visits to local hidden gems off the beaten path.

After craning our necks as we took in the majestic Red Sea views, our cab driver Tariq pulled up to Tarabin Beach. We were greeted by Mohamed, an eager Bedouin boy no older than 11, who ushered us into town. Within a stone’s throw of the gleaming coral, we perched at the corner of one of dozens of straw bungalows, furnished with carpets, low wooden tables and red sandy pillows. Andrew and I hastily dumped our heavy packs, stripped to our bathing suits, and sprawled lazily across the bundles of sun-soaked cushions as the breeze misted us with saltwater.

I awoke to the sounds of song. Looking down, I discovered a platter of flaky falafel, hummus, olives, fresh pita bread and hot tea fanned across the wooden table, just for us. We ate until we couldn’t and our attention soon returned to the music. We followed the melodies to the third bungalow where we him: a cross-legged Bedouin, his head bobbing to the rhythmic plucks on his rebab, a bowed Bedouin string instrument. He sang his own original adaptation of a popular Bob Marley tune, in unexpectedly articulate English, repeating the unforgettable hook: “No Camel, No Cry.” Due to the steady influx of Israeli tourists to the region, most locals learned Hebrew to connect with their guests from the north. Not Hasseen. Unlike the others, his motivations were borne out of curiosity. “English makes a nicer sound,” he said with a gap-toothed grin.

Before long, we were handed makeshift dumbek drums and brought into Bedouin music circle. Lubricated by and knockoff Jim Daniels whiskey and sweet tea, the night was filled with storytelling that carried into the early morning until one unexpected question arose. Hasseen implored us to come with him the next morning to meet his family and see home, some 40 kilometers southwest from Nuweiba. We happily agreed, despite our doubts of the earnestness of his boozy proposal. Six hours later, at exactly seven o’clock, Hasseen roused us from our slumber. Before we knew it, we were packing up his 1988 Mitsubishi pickup with water, blankets, food, and firewood. Bleary-eyed and without expectations, we squeezed into the cabin and set off into the mountains.

As the blistering July sun rose high above us, we methodically climbed the craggy highlands of central Sinai. We stopped periodically to replenish the coolant tank, which meant Andrew had to press his feet against the clutch and the brake as Hasseen lifted the hood and poured precious water into the coolant tank. We reached an end to the rutted road at the summit and witnessed a dramatic shift in the landscape; jagged red rock and gravel gave way to silky beige boulders scattered across the interminable desert plain, their shadows stretching across smooth light sand.  For several days, our routine was the same. Each day, we spend hours on a sandy road, finding periodic shelter behind shady rocks and jutting buttes. We would make coffee, cut fruit, inspect Bedouin caves dug into the mountainside, and carry on by truck. Each night in the Sinai Desert, we would lay side-by-side on mats atop rocks smoothed by the sand and wind. We would make a fire that would whip high in the desert wind, pass around a hookah packed with cantaloupe-flavored tobacco soaked in molasses, and listen Haseen’s tales of life in the mountains. If you gazed up at the night sky, it was only a matter of seconds before a shooting star would streak into view.

At long last, we reached the tiny village hidden at the base of a shallow valley. Hasseen’s wife Maryam set down a feast on his hand-crafted dinner table: a dozen bowls and plates, heaving with babaganoush, spicy bean dip, tender lamb tagine, matbucha, pita bread, and more. Dusty laminated pictures of his children, brothers, parents and cousins hung on a red and blue tapestry, serving as the backdrop of his cozy bungalow, illuminated by the kettle-warming embers. Looking out across the desert, a distant lagoon sparkled under the crescent moon, awaiting to greet us on our imminent return north.

The Data Privacy Divide between the EU and US [Article]

Since the advent of the world wide web, the sanctity of data privacy has fallen under increasing scrutiny. And with formation the tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook, the collection and dissemination of consumer data, both legal and illegal, have led to some unforeseen consequences.

It took a whistleblower named Christopher Wylie leaking documents to The Guardian that exposed the mishandling of private data by his employer Cambridge Analytica in March of 2018, causing public outrage and reigniting a national conversation about the issue. Wylie alleged that the data harvesting company accessed personal private data from nearly 87 million Facebook user accounts without authorization. It was also determined that this data was obtained for the purpose of creating targeted political advertisements, based on psychological and personality profiles of prospective voters, leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. This illicit breach was described by the media as a watershed moment in the public understanding of personal data and pressured Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, to respond to the allegations. He ultimately testified before the United States Congress, apologizing for the breach.

“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” said Zuckerberg. “I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.” It was revealed that Aleksandr Kogan, a Moldovan-born data scientist, created the personality quiz app that was downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users, which facilitated access to Facebook information that was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Despite being asked to remove this data, it was later discovered by the New York Times and The Guardian that the data was not deleted.

Facebook shares fell more than 24% as a result of the scandal, amounting to $134 billion in market value, but, despite the #DeleteFacebook movement and mounting public pressure, the losses were recovered in less than two months. Deleting Facebook, however, is a reactionary and misdirected response. Most popular apps and media platforms and search engines, from Instagram (owned by Facebook) to YouTube to Google, operate in similar ways when it comes to data privacy. To combat misuse, regulation is vital. It is the European Union that has paved the way for reform.

Concerns about the state of data privacy and regulation in Europe has been significantly stronger than in the United States for years. Compared to their American counterparts, the idea of surrendering personal data to companies for access to “free” content and technology seems a less tolerable tradeoff in Europe. European Data Protection Day, known as Privacy Day outside of Europe, is celebrated on January 28th to commemorate the anniversary of the opening for signature of Convention 108. This was put in place, according to the Council of Europe, for the “protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data.” Additionally, in May of 2018, the European Union put forth new legislative measure called the GDPR in hopes of better balancing technological innovation and privacy concerns for consumers. The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation act, prohibits companies from soliciting personal data for one reason and using it for another. More simply, it aims to put consumers in charge of their own data. Since its enactment, companies or individuals that use private consumer information or build profiles of individuals without consent would be handed significant fines.

According to the HIPAA Journal, GDPR is designed to ensure that “every individual located within the EU, no matter which member state, is guaranteed the same rights and freedoms—including the right to privacy, which is thought of as a basic human right.”

If data has been collected in the EU, even if it relates to a non-EU citizen, the information is subject to the protections of the GDPR. Similarly, should an EU citizen have their data collected and processed outside of the EU, their data is not subject to the GDPR protections. These protections and their constraints have begun to shape everyday scenarios in vastly different ways between the EU and the United States. For example, if your bank account is hacked and expensive fraudulent charges are accrued in your name in Europe, the GDPR instructs the bank to notify national regulators within three days of discovering the breach or it risks facing fines for not sufficiently protecting personal data

 In the U.S., notification requirements vary dramatically. While some companies are required to alert customers in the event of a data breach, such disclosures can be delayed indefinitely if law enforcement officials deem it could interfere with a criminal investigation. If you wish to learn what information has been collected about you from your digital footprint in Europe, you can ask any company, for a modest fee, for a data report on what information is available and what it is used for. In the U.S., there is no federal law that consumers can rely on to fulfill such a request. Some companies, i.e. Twitter, voluntarily allow customers to download their own tweet archives. To date, there is no law enforcing such disclosures.

With the proliferation of apps, social media platforms and web services, regulation in the United States will need to become much more stringent. “There are things that people do on the web that reveal absolutely everything, more about them than they know themselves sometimes,” says Tim Berners-Lee, outspoken advocate of data privacy and net neutrality and creator of the world wide web. Berners-Lee has spent years defending an open internet and battling the privatization of personal data. “When people use the web, what they do is really, really intimate,” he says. “They go to their doctor for a second opinion; they’ve gone to the web for the first opinion on whether it’s cancer.”