A number of years in the past, at any time when I printed a brand new article right here, I’d simply
announce it on Twitter, which appeared to assist entice readers who would discover
the article worthwhile. For the reason that Muskover, Twitter’s significance has
declined sharply. It now would not take very a lot time in any respect for me to verify
posts of individuals I observe on X (Twitter), since most of them have left.
As an alternative I am different social websites, and posting there too. Now after I
announce a brand new article, I submit on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, in addition to X
(Twitter). (I additionally submit into my RSS feed, which remains to be my favourite option to
let individuals know of latest materials, however that will simply reveal I am caught in an
idyllic previous.)
Whereas it is one factor to have a intestine really feel for the significance of those
platforms, I would moderately collect some extra goal knowledge.
One supply of knowledge is what number of followers I’ve on the these
platforms.
Right here X (Twitter) reveals a notable lead, however I strongly suspect that
a lot of my followers there are inactive (or bots). Contemplating I solely joined
LinkedIn a few 12 months in the past, it is developed a wholesome quantity.
On condition that I made a decision to take a look at exercise primarily based on my latest posts. Most
of my posts to social media I make throughout all these platforms, tweaking them
a bit of bit relying upon their norms and constraints.
For this train I took 24 latest posts and checked out what exercise they
generated on every platform.
I will begin with reposts. Though some LinkedIn posts get
reposted extra typically than X, the median is fairly shut. Bluesky trails a bit
behind, however nowhere close to so far as the follower rely would recommend.
Mastodon, as we’ll see with all three stats, is way smaller.
Determine 2: Plot of reposts
This plot is a mixed strip chart and field plot. When visualizing knowledge,
I am suspicious of utilizing aggregates resembling averages, as averages can typically cover quite a lot of essential data. I a lot
want to plot each level, and on this case a stripchart does the trick. A strip chart plots
each knowledge level as a dot on a column for the class. So each dot within the
linkedIn column is the worth for one linkedin submit. I add some horizontal
jitter to those factors so they do not print on high of one another. The strip
charts enable me to see each level and thus get a very good really feel of the
distribution. I then overlay a boxplot, which
permits me to check medians and quartiles.
Shift over to likes nonetheless, and now LinkedIn is way above the others, X
and Bluesky are about the identical.
Determine 3: Plot of likes
With replies LinkedIn is once more clearly
averaging extra, however bluesky does have a big variety of closely
replied posts that push its higher quartile far above the opposite two providers.
Determine 4: Plot of replies
That is wanting on the knowledge, how may I interpret this when it comes to the
significance of the providers? Of the three I am extra inclined to worth the
reposts – in spite of everything that’s somebody pondering the that submit is efficacious
sufficient to ship out to their very own followers. That signifies a transparent pecking
order with LinkedIn > X > Bluesky > Mastodon. It is attention-grabbing that LinkedIn
is a extra singular chief on likes, it appears each increased itself and X is
decrease. I suppose which means LinkedIn persons are extra desperate to hit the like button.
As for replies, it is attention-grabbing to see that Bluesky has generated fairly
just a few posts which have triggered plenty of replies. However given that almost all replies
aren’t precisely insightful, I do not chalk that up as a optimistic.
General, I would say that LinkedIn has taken over because the primary social
community for my posts, however X (Twitter) remains to be essential. And Bluesky is by
far probably the most lively on a per-follower foundation.
At first look, palletizing ice cream cone containers doesn’t sound like a high-risk job. However when these containers weigh 35 to 40 kilos and should be stacked shoulder-high, shift after shift, 5 days per week—you begin to perceive the pressure it places on individuals.
That’s precisely what one main U.S. meals producer realized. They produce a variety of cones—waffles, sugar, and cake. Regardless of their scale and attain, what actually stood out to us was one thing else: their tradition.
Vibrant Planet affords a dashboard for land administration and fireplace mitigation, priorities of the federal authorities. Supply: Vibrant Planet
Nobody needed to go on the report, however everybody I spoke with shared contradictory experiences with the Trump administration final month. A frontier tech firm will depend on the federal government to approve licenses or waivers, reminiscent of launching low Earth orbit satellites or past visible line-of-sight supply drones.
However what occurs if the particular person or the workplace you filed with just a few weeks earlier is not there? This isn’t a hypothetical query however the actuality of the present authorities. On the identical, the present White Home might be one of many greatest advocates for effectivity and know-how.
Within the rooms subsequent to the Oval Workplace sits some of the distinguished innovators in U.S. historical past and an AI czar who has invested in essentially the most profitable Silicon Valley unicorns. So, it will come as no shock that many tech corporations are discovering much less crimson tape and faster turnarounds for his or her regulatory approvals.
Fireplace chat finds openness to collaboration
Final week, I moderated a hearth chat with Allison Wolff of Vibrant Planet hosted by Blue Imaginative and prescient Capital. The startup makes use of machine studying to proactively empower metropolis planners, land managers, and governments to mitigate forest fires.
Its proprietary knowledge analytics engine makes use of public knowledge reminiscent of maps, climate patterns, and neighborhood budgets to create predictive AI fashions. These fashions and fireplace hazard priorities proactively allow neighborhood actions to boost environmental resilience with actions like managed burns and clear-cutting shrubbery.
Wolff is working throughout social gathering strains to carry collectively federal directors, state authorities officers, and personal landowners to collaborate to handle one of many greatest local weather emergencies — tremendous fires. To everybody’s shock within the room, Wolff shared that the Trump administration sees her know-how as mission-critical in addressing these megafires, one thing the president declared after seeing firsthand harm from the Los Angeles fires.
It’s not about monumental forms or debating the reason for the present predicament. Everybody considers the constructive impact of AI in stopping disasters as a “purple situation,” Wolff claimed.
Drones & Robotics AI Summit VC panel with Lisa Chai of Interwoven Ventures, Jordan Odinsky of GroundUp Ventures, Kaitlyn Glancy of Eclipse VC, Zeno Mercer of TMX Group, and moderator Sean Simpson of Newlab. Credit score: NY Robotics Community 2025
Panelists study laws, protection
Wolff’s expertise was not restricted to local weather tech, as audio system who attended my Drones & Robotics AI Summit in New York final month shared related anecdotes. The occasion introduced collectively greater than 300 business leaders, together with authorities officers and lobbyists working with the U.S. Division of Protection, NASA, the FAA, and plenty of different federal companies.
Every shared their concern about how the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) will have an effect on the flexibility of superior applied sciences to maneuver from tutorial labs to industrial sectors rapidly. Two panels stood out: one on the altering regulatory atmosphere, and the opposite on the rising protection tech market.
Tony Lin of Cooley moderated the primary panel with panelists Phil Kenul, rear admiral (retired) of ASTM, Nathaniel Bazydlo of NUAIR, and Brendan Schulman of Boston Dynamics. The final sentiment was uncertainty combined with curiosity in getting direct entry to decision-makers, illustrating how the spirit of collaboration by federal companies in working with the personal sector is a precedence for this administration.
This view was shared with the contributors of the protection tech panel with Ret. Col. Pat Mahaney moderating David Bonfili of ACME; Christopher C. Miller, the previous performing secretary of protection; and Bhargav Patel of the Division for Homeland Safety. Throughout your complete day, leaders reminiscent of Andrea Thomaz of Diligent Robotics, Nicholaus Radford of Persona AI, Ryan Gariepy of Clearpath Robotics (acquired by Rockwell Automation), and Fangwei Li of Bear Robotics (acquired by LG) proved that innovation will not be slowing with DOGE, tariffs, and capital market volatility, however amplified by the promise of generative AI in mechatronics.
This was additional validated by a few of the greatest investments within the robotics sector, illustrated by the latest funding bulletins of Determine AI, Apptronik, and Deterixity.
Nicholaus Radford, founding father of humanoid startup Persona AI, keynoted his experiences launching Robonaut II to the ISS. Credit score: Joe Bibby/NASA
Startups present vary of robotic sorts
The startup panel featured two ff Enterprise Capital portfolio corporations, CivRobotics with moderator Tom Yeshurun and Burro with Mark Gaudiosi. Vikas Enti of Reframe Programs, Eric Litman of Aescape, and Eyal Zor of Airwayz additionally joined the dialogue.
The panel exemplified the variety of the improvements offered all through the occasion, from massaging robots, humanoids, restaurant servers, and cell hospital robots. In fact, loads of building bots, agricultural applied sciences, and logistics options had been additionally on show.
Our companions included the NY Robotics Community and Genius NY, with their newest cohort of UAV startups. Seeing the breadth of the drone business eased dystopian fears that solely months earlier had rocked the New York metropolitan space with a whole bunch of low-flying uncrewed techniques.
Airwayz founder Zor shared his takeaway from the day and the discussions round DOGE: “Now, what’s occurring with the brand new coverage? I believe there’s a transition time, and there’s a whole lot of uncertainty. I’m making an attempt to know how the brand new strategy will ease the methods of doing enterprise within the U.S. and assist create a brand new coverage that may allow personal corporations to work with DoD to speed up [drone] options within the protection ecosystem.”
Zor has utilized his battlefield expertise at Airwayz to commercialize drones for dual-use functions. The Israeli startup is engaged on unmanned plane system visitors administration (UTM).
“Protection first began managing the aerial image by way of aerospace,” famous Zor. “After which what to do with the [drones operators] who’re unauthorized, in airspace administration, you could carry the infrastructure to the decrease area, particularly the municipalities or completely different sorts of authorities.”
Like Wolff of Vibrant Planet, Zor works throughout native, state, and federal companies to coordinate the airspace for industrial drones and menace detection.
“You see what’s occurring in Ukraine. So, after all, drones over New Jersey might be a menace if you happen to don’t know what’s occurring within the skies,” he added. “So I believe to unravel the anti-drone downside, you could management the [air] administration downside first. Then who’s working with and with out authorization.”
Zor’s perspective has been embraced by the Protection Division, which final 12 months printed its “Technique for Countering Unmanned Programs.” As former Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin said, “In recent times, adversary unmanned techniques have advanced quickly.”
“These low-cost techniques are more and more altering the battlefield, threatening U.S. installations, and wounding or killing our troops,” he stated. “To get after this menace, I directed the swift improvement of a categorised, complete, departmentwide technique. It lays out a roadmap for countering the specter of adversary unmanned techniques – immediately and much into the longer term.”
“Drones and different unmanned techniques will more and more remodel the safety atmosphere,” stated Austin. “Tackling these threats is not going to be simple. However the U.S. army is unmatched in our potential to adapt to new challenges, and the division is shifting out on making this technique’s imaginative and prescient a actuality. The character of conflict is altering, and we’ll change with it.”
It’s unclear how this administration with DOGE will evolve in managing the nationwide airspace and different points associated to mechatronics. The welcome collaborative spirit of the present policymakers is retaining the wheels of innovation delivering an open discussion board on points from preventing megafires to industrial drones.
Austin’s December declaration has been superior by Daniel Driscoll, the newly appointed secretary of the Military, a.okay.a. the “disruptor and alter agent” within the Pentagon.
He instructed Congress, “Wherever doable, and as required by Federal Acquisition Rules, the Military should buy non-development and COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] options to fulfill necessities. Some capabilities require the Military to undertake impartial improvement, however lots of the Military’s most urgent wants — small-unmanned aerial techniques, counter-unmanned aerial techniques, digital warfare techniques, and communications gear — have already been developed”
“The Military must speed up its modernization and higher put together our forces for the advances in drone and autonomous warfare the world has witnessed in Ukraine,” asserted Driscoll. DOGE or not, drones, robotics, and AI at the moment are a matter of nationwide safety that your complete pressure of presidency is targeted on implementing.
Mast Reforestation, a post-wildfire restoration firm, has developed a novel carbon credit score that retires extra shortly than conventional reforestation credit and gives a co-benefit of replanting forests on scorched landscapes. For sustainability professionals in search of to offset their firm’s hardest-to-cut carbon emissions, the corporate’s first tranche of carbon removing credit will change into obtainable this month on puro.earth.
Mast is working with a Montana landowner to bury charred timber on 900 acres of burned forestland in an oxygen-free landfill utilizing a know-how referred to as biomass carbon removing and storage. It plans to replant the panorama with native seedlings produced by the nurseries it owns, Cal Forest Nurseries in Etna, California, and Silvaseed, in Roy, Washington.
“We’re taking a few of these [burned] logs and burying them underground, which locks away carbon and generates a carbon credit score on a shorter timeline that enables an organization to retire it as early as subsequent February, whereas additionally financing reforestation as a part of that,” mentioned Brady Paron, director of carbon market partnerships at Mast Reforestation.
What patrons need
Mast usual its carbon credit score in direct response to what patrons mentioned they wished, mentioned Micah Kirscher, strategist at Redwood Communications and a Mast spokesperson: “One thing with the advantages of a nature-based resolution and the feel-good side of contributing to post-wildfire restoration, however with the tangible advantages of a carbon credit score that retires extra shortly and at a extra inexpensive worth than many different comparable choices.”
The corporate not too long ago raised $25 million in a Collection B funding spherical led by the enterprise capital agency Pulse Fund, which focuses on local weather tech investments. It has additionally secured a pre-issuance mission score from carbon scores company BeZero for the Montana pilot of BBBe, which means that there’s a “reasonable probability” that one credit score will obtain one metric ton of emissions discount.
The mission ought to generate about 30,000 metric tons of carbon removing credit by 2026, the corporate estimates, and it’s in search of company patrons for these credit. The brand new funding spherical will allow it to generate an preliminary 5,000 metric tons of credit on 100 acres to show the know-how.
Mast doesn’t plan to promote carbon credit for the reforestation a part of the scheme, which it calls a “co-benefit,” Paron mentioned, despite the fact that that’s how the corporate acquired its begin: “We view the biomass burial mission as an evolution in our learnings and a instrument to speed up reforestation. He calls it “ complement” to Mast’s core work, which focuses on scaling reforestation in North America.
Regenerating burned forests
With wildfires rising in depth, they now burn at the very least twice as a lot tree cowl as they did twenty years in the past. Final 12 months, they scorched 8.9 million acres within the U.S., an space roughly equal in measurement to Vermont and Connecticut mixed.
Leaving burned timber uncovered additional damages the ecosystem from soil erosion and secondary mortality occasions, similar to beetle outbreaks. Burned timber additionally proceed to emit carbon lengthy after flames subside and might pose a future hearth danger.
Previously, forests might have been in a position to naturally regenerate after wildfires, however the present megafires have modified that. “In excessive severity burns, administration is nearly at all times crucial to revive the pure regeneration processes,” Ricky Satomi, forestry and pure assets advisor on the College of California Cooperative Extension, mentioned in an electronic mail. Key native species, like conifers, that develop from seeds dropped from reside cones have to be replanted after extreme burns.
Authorities funding for such replanting is shrinking because the Trump administration slashes Forest Service jobs and threatens to reclaim billions disbursed by way of the Inflation Discount Act for forest administration and wildfire mitigation. Financing reforestation with voluntary forest carbon credit takes a very long time and is hard as a result of many seedlings don’t take maintain.
“Tree seedlings are having a very powerful time surviving in these sizzling, post-fire environments,” mentioned Matt Hurteau, a biology professor and director of the Heart for Fireplace Resilient Ecosystems and Society on the College of New Mexico. Hurteau’s analysis pinpoints to the sq. meter the place in post-wildfire landscapes seedlings are more than likely to outlive — data that’s important to any reforestation effort.
Particulars to determine
Mast’s vertical integration, plus its “potential to work on the bottom with the group,” attracted the brand new funding, Tenzin Seldon, the founder and managing companion at Pulse Fund, advised Trellis. (Different biomass burial corporations are doing comparable work, together with InterEarth in Australia and Carbon Sequestration in Texas.)
Mast has signed a second deal in Idaho. The pilot nonetheless has key technical particulars that should be labored out, together with knowledge assortment to measure the emissions related to tree burial and design options of the burial plots, similar to cap supplies, temperature and humidity controls and monitoring.
“Mast will change into a transparent business selection and a transparent private-public partnership selection for governments as effectively,” mentioned Seldon.
Cell World Congress 2025 in Barcelona delivered on each promise – a record-breaking occasion with 109,000 attendees from 205 nations, with over 2,900 exhibitors, sponsors, and companions showcasing a formidable array of chopping‐edge matters, from 5G and IoT to Unified Safety for the AI-driven Future.
As all the time, Cisco’s presence showcased a collection of improvements, similar to the newest safe connectivity options, demonstrated subsequent‐gen wi-fi improvements, and made a number of high-profile media bulletins that underscored our dedication to shaping the way forward for digital communications.
Cisco’s One Cisco technique was on full show, integrating networking, safety, observability, and Splunk options to ship unparalleled outcomes. This holistic method showcases how our clients can obtain AI-ready information facilities, future-proofed workplaces, and digital resilience.
Cisco at MWC 2025: A Powerhouse of Innovation
In true Cisco vogue, our sales space wasn’t only a area however quite a hub of innovation and collaboration. Stay Demo Highlights included:
Fig. 1: Alberto Torralba, Cisco, Presenting to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain
Classes From Earlier Occasions
Constructing on our experiences at Black Hat, NFL Tremendous Bowl, RSA Convention and others the Group introduced the identical power and technical rigor to MWC 2025. Our SNOC crew leveraged the operational excellence honed at these occasions, mixing state-of-the-art safety instruments with real-time community monitoring to make sure seamless occasion operations.
The Splunk Cloud was used as the info platform, including Apps for information ingestion:
With these integrations, our SOC crew was in a position to construct a CISO stage SNOC dashboard for crucial telemetry from all community and safety sources.
Fig. 2: CISO-level SNOC dashboard
We additionally had SOC Supervisor stage dashboards for XDR Incidents, Firewall Occasions and DNS Safety.
Fig. 3: SOC manager-level dashboard
We additionally linked the integrations with Cisco XDR, for Dashboard visibility and Incident investigation.
Fig. 4: Dashboard view of integrations linked to Cisco XDR
We had XDR Automate workflows to advertise menace detections in Splunk to XDR Incidents, and the XDR integration again into Splunk.
Fig. 5: Automated XDR workflows
The Incidents empowered the SNOC crew to prioritize investigations.
Fig. 6: Cisco XDR incident checklist
Moreover, at this 12 months’s Cell World Congress in Barcelona, Cisco’s ThousandEyes dashboard was instrumental in offering strong community assurance. Attendees benefited from real-time monitoring and insights into community efficiency, making certain a seamless expertise from begin to end. With the aptitude to trace crucial elements just like the occasion homepage and login processes, ThousandEyes ensured that members might entry important assets swiftly and with out interruption. This stage of detailed visibility and management helped preserve the integrity and reliability of the community all through the occasion.
Fig. 7: Cisco ThousandEyes dashboard
Day 1: A Take a look at of Scale
Day 1 was all about dealing with huge community exercise seamlessly. From only some workers units to 1000’s of units connecting concurrently, our firewall and community monitoring programs carried out flawlessly, processing a excessive quantity of visitors whereas sustaining pinpoint visibility. The strong efficiency of our Cisco safety options reaffirmed that, whether or not in a managed lab setting or amidst a vibrant convention, community resilience will not be negotiable.
Fig. 8: Fira Community Safety structure
Day 2: When a Russian Risk Tried to Crash the Get together
Simply as you assume the one surprises at MWC 2025 are the progressive tech and spontaneous demos, our firewall logs gave us an surprising twist. On Day 2, our vigilant monitoring detected an anomalous occasion: a privilege escalation occasion coming from a Russian supply.
Our technical maestro, Jorge Quintero, instantly flagged this as a possible high-risk occasion – a state of affairs the place an endpoint may be compromised. The logs confirmed a sample per C2 communications, prompting a fast investigation and swift remediation measures. In true SNOC type, we ensured that any unwelcome visitor was proven the door earlier than it might wreak havoc. (It appears even at MWC, cyber adversaries can’t resist the attract of the social gathering!)
Utilizing public generative AI instruments, the evaluation of the payload yielded the next outcomes, revealing constant patterns of malicious exercise — together with makes an attempt to establish anti-malware instruments (doubtless for elimination to keep up persistence) and probably escalate privileges additional.
Fig. 14: Instance from Public Generative AI Software Immediate Response
Lastly, what confirmed our suspicions (in the event that they weren’t already) got here from Talos and AlienVault menace intelligence. This IP tackle (belonging to the Russian Federation) had already been flagged for malicious exercise.
Fig. 15: Risk Intelligence Info
Day 3: Cryptomining — The Story of the Good and the Evil
Day 3 introduced an attention-grabbing matter to our consideration — cryptomining. From its humble beginnings to the multi-billion-dollar business, it’s right this moment, we have now witnessed the rise of crypto — now extending past simply cryptocurrency to progressive makes use of within the fintech area, together with NFTs and extra.
Nevertheless, we have now additionally seen how this know-how has been leveraged by malicious actors, particularly to compromise endpoints and hijack computing assets for cryptomining.
Utilizing public generative AI instruments to decode plain textual content, we recognized mining software program (XMRig) making RPC calls to the Monero cryptocurrency community. Now, it’s price highlighting that, though suspicious, this might nonetheless be a respectable case of an endpoint operating mining software program.
Fig. 18: Instance from Public Generative AI Software Immediate Response
Nevertheless, the illegitimate nature of this exercise was confirmed once more by means of Talos and AlienVault intelligence. The general public IP tackle in use had already been flagged for involvement in malicious cryptomining operations.
Fig. 19: Risk intelligence data
Day 4: Slowdown and Occasion Wrap-Up!
Day 4 confirmed a slowdown in exercise, making it a threat-free day and giving us time to investigate and mixture all the dataset from the occasion. Listed below are a few key takeaways from the firewall evaluation:
1. EVE (Encrypted Visibility Engine): Paving the best way for encrypted visitors evaluation.
Cisco’s Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) has confirmed that the innovation of latest years is critical. Monitoring at Fira was performed fully utilizing IDS (Intrusion Detection System) with passive evaluation. Even with out decryption capabilities, we had been in a position to establish threats inside encrypted visitors, in addition to the processes producing these visitors stream.
The Cisco + Splunk story is a match made in heaven. With Cisco’s depth and breadth in safety and a robust portfolio, mixed with Splunk’s world-class observability and suppleness, we had been in a position to construct highly effective, actionable dashboards for straightforward consumption by the SNOC crew.
Beneath is the aggregated information for all the occasion — masking all the things from connection occasions, file occasions, and intrusion occasions to a prioritized set of incidents recognized all through the conference.
Fig. 20: Safe Firewall Splunk app in Splunk
This included DNS safety blocks, defending Fira’s Community attendees at MWC, from malicious web sites. Over 14,400 apps had been seen on the MWC community.
Fig. 22: Umbrella DNS in Splunk dashboard
Trying Forward
The surprising incident on Day 2 solely strengthened one very important lesson: in right this moment’s hyper-connected world, innovation should all the time be matched with rigorous safety. As we replicate on the successes of MWC 2025, we’re already planning enhancements to our menace detection and incident response capabilities, drawing on each our MWC, Black Hat, and NFL experiences.
Cisco’s SNOC Group stays dedicated to staying one step forward, turning each problem into a possibility to innovate and shield. Whether or not it’s managing tens of 1000’s of connections or intercepting a rogue C2 sign, we’re prepared to make sure that the digital future is as safe as it’s sensible.
Whereas know-how was on full show, the true stars of the Safety Sales space had been the devoted people who introduced these demos and operations to life. A heartfelt thanks to: Alberto Torralba, Filipe Lopes, Jorge Quintero, Jervis Hui, Nirav Shah, John Cardani-Trollinger, and Emile Antone. Their experience and dedication ensured that each demo ran flawlessly and captured the eye of each attendee. Particular appreciation to Ivan Padilla Ojeda, who was our liaison with the community crew to attach all the things within the SNOC.
Additionally, thanks to those that helped us put together for the SNOC: Ivan Berlinson, Ryan Maclennan, Aditya Sankar, Seyed Khadem, Tony Iacobelli, Dallas Williams, Nicholas Carrieri and Jessica Oppenheimer.
Wrapping Up
Cell World Congress 2025 was not nearly showcasing the following wave of technological innovation; it was additionally a robust demonstration of how built-in, resilient safety measures can safeguard even probably the most bustling, high-stakes environments. The comparative insights from Day 1 and Day 2 underscore the significance of staying one step forward, continually adapting, and repeatedly bettering our protection methods.
Thanks for becoming a member of us on this journey by means of MWC 2025 and keep tuned for extra insights and behind-the-scenes tales from MWC 2025. In any case, on this planet of tech, it’s by no means simply one other day on the workplace!
We’d love to listen to what you assume. Ask a Query, Remark Beneath, and Keep Linked with Cisco Safe on social!
