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Floating Photo voltaic Meets Fish Farming For More healthy Fish


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Fish farmers are starting to deploy floating photo voltaic panels at their services, as a cost-cutting renewable vitality useful resource that gives important extra advantages to the well being of the fish farm. The floating solar-plus-fish motion is yet one more demonstration that the trendy renewable vitality options of the twenty first century transcend lowering carbon emissions, to offer extra versatility and financial advantages than than their century-old, fossil fueled counterparts. Take that, haters.

Floating Photo voltaic & Fish Farms

The concept of floating photo voltaic panels out onto a human-made physique of water sounds easy sufficient. On the plus facet, present fish ponds, reservoirs and different services can present photo voltaic builders with house to plant their photo voltaic panels, with out operating into conflicts over land use.

There being no such factor as a free lunch, engineering water-hardiness right into a floating photo voltaic array posed some preliminary technical challenges, particularly in bigger our bodies of water the place storms can kick up excessive waves. Specialised mooring methods are additionally wanted, a very difficult activity for reservoirs that have sharp modifications in water ranges. Ice formation is yet one more hurdle to confront (see extra floating photo voltaic background right here).

The aim-built, regulated nature of inland fish farms makes them a extra receptive atmosphere for floating photo voltaic arrays, although engineering challenges can nonetheless come up.

The main world business-to-business occasion organizer Leadvent Group is amongst these sensing a possibility. In a current recap of the advantages of floating photo voltaic for aquaculture operations, the agency famous that shade from the panels fosters a more healthy aquatic atmosphere, by lowering the chance of algae blooms and offering for a extra optimum water temperature. That’s a very essential profit as aquaculturists take care of the influence of rising world temperatures on their operations.

“The mixing of floating photo voltaic optimizes using house, permitting aquaculturists to harness photo voltaic vitality with out compromising on the floor space wanted for fish farming,” Leadvant additionally famous.

“By producing on-site renewable vitality, aquaculture services can scale back their dependence on conventional energy sources, resulting in important operational value financial savings,” the agency emphasised.

Floating Photo voltaic Plus Fish Farm Floodgates Open

Not too many floating solar-plus-fish tales have turned up on the CleanTechnica radar in previous years, however exercise has been percolating up beneath the floor. In the newest improvement, earlier this morning the Chinese language producer DMEGC Photo voltaic introduced that it has equipped the photo voltaic modules for an enormous, 940-megawatt floating photo voltaic array at a fish farm in Jingsu, China.

If all goes in accordance with plan, the floating photo voltaic array shall be accomplished and hooked as much as the grid in October.

“Upon completion, the mission is anticipated to generate 1.609 billion kWh of electrical energy yearly, contributing to a discount of 496,400 tons in coal consumption and lowering carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2374 million tons,” DMEGC explains.

Over and above the climate-related advantages and the direct advantages to the well being of the aquaculture operation, DMEGC signifies that the floating photo voltaic array will function a dwelling laboratory for future initiatives. “It additionally has the additional advantage of enhancing native fishery automation and scientific development, fostering collaborative development throughout a number of industries and growing the general revenue of native residents,” DMEGC says of its handiwork.

Floating Photo voltaic Panels Meet Recycled Fish Cages

One other strategy to look at is taking form in northern Europe, the place the Norwegian agency Inseanergy has provide you with a enterprise mannequin that deploys recycled fish cages as platforms for floating photo voltaic panels. Reasonably than particularly focusing on human-built aquaculture operations on land, Inseanergy searching for new alternatives in open waters adjoining to island communities and different distant areas.

Final February, Inseanergy gained a USD $3 million seal of approval from two buyers, Norway’s Norselab influence funding platform and the sustainability-focused family-owned industrial investor Umoe.

“The marketplace for such options in salmon and trout farming alone is estimated at a billion {dollars}. The broader world marketplace for floating photo voltaic vitality, which the corporate is now focusing on along with buyers Norselab and Umoe, is so large that it’s tough to estimate its measurement,” Inseanergy observes.

Inseanergy is at the moment providing three variations of its floating photo voltaic methods. One is aimed toward lowering using diesel-fueled gear. One other system eliminates diesel fully, changing diesel mills with hydrogen gasoline cells.

The third iteration, “Clear Imaginative and prescient,” integrates inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing into the system, liberating up the gasoline cells — and the fish farmers — from the standard hydrogen provide chain. As with the floating photo voltaic panels, the hydrogen gear can be stationed on recycled aquaculture constructions.

“By reusing extra giant floating metal constructions from the aquaculture business, it turns into doable to provide and retailer vitality within the type of inexperienced hydrogen independently,” Inseanergy observes. “With this idea, bigger quantities of vitality might be saved to satisfy the vitality wants of the aquaculture facility year-round” (see extra inexperienced hydrogen background right here).

As envisioned by Inseanergy, the inexperienced hydrogen angle allows aquaculturists to leverage their floating photo voltaic panels for added revenue. Promoting extra hydrogen to different native operations utilizing gasoline cell is one choice, and there are others.

“Extra hydrogen (probably additional processed as ammonia) might be traded as gasoline for wellboats, service, and processing vessels specializing in sustainable transport of dwell, slaughtered, or processed fish, in addition to different vessels within the close by maritime sector,” Inseanergy notes.

Floating Photo voltaic & Aquaculture: The Greatest Is But to Come

For the floating solar-plus-fish motion to speed up, fish farmers and photo voltaic builders will want extra knowledge. Right here within the US, among the solutions shall be forthcoming from a three-year analysis mission below approach at Cornell College in Ithaca, New York.

“We’d like renewable vitality to mitigate local weather change, and we’d like room to develop meals and help ecosystem companies,” noticed principal investigator Steven Grodsky in an replace on the mission issued by Cornell final August. “If we partially cowl lakes and reservoirs with photo voltaic panels, how can we do it in a sensible, sustainable approach? That’s what we’re going to seek out out.”

“Particularly, the mission will look at how floating photo voltaic panels on the analysis ponds have an effect on the abiotic and biotic components of water; and the way microbes, macroinvertebrates (snails and crayfish), macrophytes (aquatic vegetation) and fish fare,” Cornell defined. Monitoring greenhouse fuel emissions, algae development, and different parts are additionally included within the mission.

Regulate the French agency Ciel et Terre for extra exercise within the floating photo voltaic discipline. The corporate is a accomplice within the Cornell analysis mission. It has about 280 different photo voltaic initiatives to its credit score around the globe, together with a fish farm in Taiwan.

Observe me by way of LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on Threads, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Picture (cropped): A big fish farm in East China is getting a 940-megawatt floating photo voltaic array, aimed toward changing fossil fuels whereas fostering a more healthy atmosphere for the fish (courtesy of DMEGC Photo voltaic by way of prnewswire.com).


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Utilizing SymbolEffect to Animate SF Symbols in iOS 17


In terms of designing visually interesting and intuitive person interfaces in iOS growth, SF Symbols are a useful asset. It provides a complete library of over 5,000 customizable icons, designed particularly for iOS and macOS purposes. The newest iOS 17 replace brings SF Symbols 5, which introduces a improbable assortment of expressive animations. SwiftUI provides builders the power to leverage these animations utilizing the brand new symbolEffect modifier.

This characteristic empowers builders to create numerous and charming animations inside their apps. By incorporating symbolEffect into your SwiftUI code, builders can improve person interactions and create visually participating interfaces. On this tutorial, we’ll present you work with this new modifier to create varied forms of animations.

The Fundamental Utilization of SymbolEffect

To animate a SF image, you possibly can connect the brand new symbolEffect modifier to the Picture view and specify the specified animation sort. Right here is an instance:

struct ContentView: View {
    @State non-public var animate = false

    var physique: some View {
        Picture(systemName: "ellipsis.message")
            .font(.system(measurement: 100))
            .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
            .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
            .symbolEffect(.bounce, worth: animate)
            .onTapGesture {
                animate.toggle()
            }
    }
}

There are a variety of built-in animations together with Seem, Disappear, Bounce, Scale, Pulse, Variable Coloration, and Change. Within the code above, we use the bounce animation. So, if you faucet the image within the preview canvas, it reveals a bouncing impact.

symboleffect-demo

Make it Repeatable

By default, the animation is simply performed as soon as. To make it repeatable, you possibly can set the choices parameter of the modifier to .repeating like this:

.symbolEffect(.bounce, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)

This may obtain an animated impact that repeats indefinitely. Should you need to repeat the impact for a particular variety of occasions, you possibly can make the most of the .repeat perform and point out the specified repeat rely as proven under:

.symbolEffect(.bounce, choices: .repeat(5), worth: animate)

Controlling the animation pace

swiftui-symboleffect-speed

As well as, you may have the flexibleness to customise the animation pace by using the .pace perform throughout the choices parameter. As an example, should you want to decelerate the animation, you possibly can set the worth of the .pace perform to 0.1, as demonstrated under:

.symbolEffect(.bounce, choices: .pace(0.1), worth: animate)

Animation Sorts

As said earlier, SwiftUI offers a wide range of built-in animation varieties, similar to Bounce, Scale, Pulse, Variable Coloration, and Change. Up till now, we have now completely used the bounce animation. Now, let’s discover and take a look at out different animation varieties utilizing the supplied code snippet:

struct SymbolAnimationView: View {
    @State non-public var animate = false

    var physique: some View {
        VStack(alignment: .main, spacing: 50) {
            HStack {
                Picture(systemName: "mic.and.sign.meter")
                    .font(.system(measurement: 60))
                    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
                    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
                    .symbolEffect(.bounce, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
                Textual content("Bounce")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }

            HStack {
                Picture(systemName: "mic.and.sign.meter")
                    .font(.system(measurement: 60))
                    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
                    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
                    .symbolEffect(.bounce.down, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
                Textual content("Bounce (down)")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }

            HStack {
                Picture(systemName: "mic.and.sign.meter")
                    .font(.system(measurement: 60))
                    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
                    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
                    .symbolEffect(.pulse, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
                Textual content("Pulse")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }

            HStack {
                Picture(systemName: "mic.and.sign.meter")
                    .font(.system(measurement: 60))
                    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
                    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
                    .symbolEffect(.pulse.wholeSymbol, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
                Textual content("Pulse (entire)")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }

            HStack {
                Picture(systemName: "mic.and.sign.meter")
                    .font(.system(measurement: 60))
                    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
                    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
                    .symbolEffect(.variableColor, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
                Textual content("Variable colour")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }

        }
        .onTapGesture {
            animate.toggle()
        }
    }
}

By tapping any of the pictures within the preview canvas, you possibly can see the animations coming to life. Compared to the bounce animation, the Pulse animation provides a definite impact by progressively fading the opacity of particular or all layers throughout the picture. However, the variableColor animation replaces the opacity of variable layers within the picture, offering a novel visible transformation.

swiftui-symboleffect-animations

Even for the Bounce animation, you possibly can specify .bounce.down to bounce the image downward.

.symbolEffect(.bounce.down, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)

For added flexibility, it’s attainable to use a number of symbolEffect modifiers to a view, permitting you to attain a customized impact by combining completely different animations.

Picture(systemName: "ellipsis.message")
    .font(.system(measurement: 100))
    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
    .symbolEffect(.bounce, choices: .pace(1.5), worth: animate)
    .symbolEffect(.pulse, choices: .repeating, worth: animate)
    .onTapGesture {
        animate.toggle()
    }

Content material Transition and Change Animation

symboleffect-content-transition

In sure eventualities, there could also be a have to transition between completely different symbols inside a picture. As an example, when a person faucets the Contact ID image, it transforms right into a checkmark image. To make sure a seamless and visually pleasing transition, you possibly can make the most of the contentTransition modifier along side the Change animation, as demonstrated under:

Picture(systemName: animate ? "checkmark.circle" : "touchid")
    .font(.system(measurement: 100))
    .symbolRenderingMode(.palette)
    .symbolEffect(.bounce, worth: animate)
    .contentTransition(.symbolEffect(.exchange))
    .foregroundStyle(.purple, .grey)
    .onTapGesture {
        animate.toggle()
    }

Abstract

SF Symbols and symbolEffect present builders with highly effective instruments to reinforce person interactions and create visually participating interfaces in iOS and macOS purposes.

This tutorial demonstrates the essential utilization of symbolEffect, making animations repeatable, controlling animation pace, and exploring completely different animation varieties. It additionally covers content material transition and exchange animation.

If in case you have discovered this tutorial pleasing and wish to discover SwiftUI additional, we extremely suggest trying out our complete e book, “Mastering SwiftUI.

New Qilin Ransomware Assault Makes use of VPN Credentials, Steals Chrome Information

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New Qilin Ransomware Assault Makes use of VPN Credentials, Steals Chrome Information

The menace actors behind a not too long ago noticed Qilin ransomware assault have stolen credentials saved in Google Chrome browsers on a small set of compromised endpoints.

The usage of credential harvesting in reference to a ransomware an infection marks an uncommon twist, and one that would have cascading penalties, cybersecurity agency Sophos stated in a Thursday report.

The assault, detected in July 2024, concerned infiltrating the goal community by way of compromised credentials for a VPN portal that lacked multi-factor authentication (MFA), with the menace actors conducting post-exploitation actions 18 days after preliminary entry passed off.

“As soon as the attacker reached the area controller in query, they edited the default area coverage to introduce a logon-based Group Coverage Object (GPO) containing two gadgets,” researchers Lee Kirkpatrick, Paul Jacobs, Harshal Gosalia, and Robert Weiland stated.

The primary of them is a PowerShell script named “IPScanner.ps1” that is designed to reap credential knowledge saved inside the Chrome browser. The second merchandise is a batch script (“logon.bat”) contacting instructions to execute the primary script.

“The attacker left this GPO lively on the community for over three days,” the researchers added.

“This offered ample alternative for customers to go browsing to their gadgets and, unbeknownst to them, set off the credential-harvesting script on their techniques. Once more, since this was all accomplished utilizing a logon GPO, every consumer would expertise this credential-scarfing every time they logged in.”

Cybersecurity

The attackers then exfiltrated the stolen credentials and took steps to erase proof of the exercise earlier than encrypting the recordsdata and dropping the ransom observe in each listing on the system.

The theft of credentials saved within the Chrome browser signifies that affected customers are actually required to alter their username-password mixtures for each third-party website.

“Predictably, ransomware teams proceed to alter techniques and develop their repertoire of methods,” the researchers stated.

“In the event that they, or different attackers, have determined to additionally mine for endpoint-stored credentials – which might present a foot within the door at a subsequent goal, or troves of details about high-value targets to be exploited by different means – a darkish new chapter could have opened within the ongoing story of cybercrime.”

Ever-evolving Traits in Ransomware

The event comes as ransomware teams like Mad Liberator and Mimic have been noticed utilizing unsolicited AnyDesk requests for knowledge exfiltration and leveraging internet-exposed Microsoft SQL servers for preliminary entry, respectively.

The Mad Liberator assaults are additional characterised by the menace actors abusing the entry to switch and launch a binary known as “Microsoft Home windows Replace” that shows a bogus Home windows Replace splash display to the sufferer to present the impression that software program updates are being put in on the machine whereas the information is being plundered.

The abuse of authentic distant desktop instruments, versus custom-made malware, affords attackers the right disguise to camouflage their malicious actions in plain sight, permitting them to mix in with regular community visitors and evade detection.

Ransomware Attack

Ransomware continues to be a worthwhile enterprise for cybercriminals regardless of a sequence of legislation enforcement actions, with 2024 set to be the highest-grossing yr but. The yr additionally noticed the largest ransomware fee ever recorded at roughly $75 million to the Darkish Angels ransomware group.

“The median ransom fee to probably the most extreme ransomware strains has spiked from just below $200,000 in early 2023 to $1.5 million in mid-June 2024, suggesting that these strains are prioritizing concentrating on bigger companies and significant infrastructure suppliers which may be extra more likely to pay excessive ransoms as a consequence of their deep pockets and systemic significance,” blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis stated.

Ransomware victims are estimated to have paid $459.8 million to cybercriminals within the first half of the yr, up from $449.1 million year-over-year. Nonetheless, whole ransomware fee occasions as measured on-chain have declined YoY by 27.29%, indicating a drop in fee charges.

What’s extra, Russian-speaking menace teams accounted for a minimum of 69% of all cryptocurrency proceeds linked to ransomware all through the earlier yr, exceeding $500 million.

In keeping with knowledge shared by NCC Group, the variety of ransomware assaults noticed in July 2024 jumped month-on-month from 331 to 395, however down from 502 registered final yr. Probably the most lively ransomware households have been RansomHub, LockBit, and Akira. The sectors that have been most ceaselessly focused embody industrials, client cyclicals, and motels and leisure.

Industrial organizations are a profitable goal for ransomware teams because of the mission-critical nature of their operations and the excessive affect of disruptions, thus rising the chance that victims might pay the ransom quantity demanded by attackers.

Ransomware Attack

“Criminals focus the place they will trigger probably the most ache and disruption so the general public will demand fast resolutions, they usually hope, ransom funds to revive providers extra shortly,” stated Chester Wisniewski, international area chief know-how officer at Sophos.

“This makes utilities prime targets for ransomware assaults. Due to the important features they supply, fashionable society calls for they get well shortly and with minimal disruption.”

Ransomware assaults concentrating on the sector have practically doubled in Q2 2024 in comparison with Q1, from 169 to 312 incidents, per Dragos. A majority of the assaults singled out North America (187), adopted by Europe (82), Asia (29), and South America (6).

Cybersecurity

“Ransomware actors are strategically timing their assaults to coincide with peak vacation durations in some areas to maximise disruption and strain organizations into fee,” NCC Group stated.

Malwarebytes, in its personal 2024 State of Ransomware report, highlighted three tendencies in ransomware techniques over the previous yr, together with a spike in assaults throughout weekends and early morning hours between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., and a discount within the time from preliminary entry to encryption.

Ransomware Attack

One other noticeable shift is the elevated edge service exploitation and concentrating on of small and medium-sized companies, WithSecure stated, including the dismantling of LockBit and ALPHV (aka BlackCat) has led to an erosion of belief inside the cybercriminal group, inflicting associates to maneuver away from main manufacturers.

Certainly, Coveware stated over 10% of the incidents dealt with by the corporate in Q2 2024 have been unaffiliated, which means they have been “attributed to attackers that have been intentionally working independently of a particular model and what we sometimes time period ‘lone wolves.'”

“Continued takedowns of cybercriminal boards and marketplaces shortened the lifecycle of prison websites, as the location directors attempt to keep away from drawing legislation enforcement (LE) consideration,” Europol stated in an evaluation launched final month.

“This uncertainty, mixed with a surge in exit scams, have contributed to the continued fragmentation of prison marketplaces. Current LE operations and the leak of ransomware supply codes (e.g., Conti, LockBit, and HelloKitty) have led to a fragmentation of lively ransomware teams and obtainable variants.”

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macOS Sequoia to be launched with iOS 18 subsequent month; M4 Macs ‘coming later’

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Pluralsight Releases Programs to Assist Cyber Professionals Defend Towards Volt Hurricane Hacker Group


PRESS RELEASE

Pluralsight, the expertise workforce improvement firm, at present introduced the discharge of its expert-led course path targeted on understanding, detecting, and defending towards the extremely expert Volt Hurricane hacker group.

Volt Hurricane is a state-sponsored cyber group looking for to pre-position themselves on IT and OT networks to hold out cyberattacks towards U.S. important infrastructure, notably in communications, vitality, transportation, and water sectors. As an APT, Volt Hurricane has been referred to as “the defining risk of our technology” by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“State-sponsored cybersecurity teams like Volt Hurricane are growing in quantity, but in addition in sophistication and persistence,” mentioned Bri Frost, Director of Curriculum, Cybersecurity and IT Ops at Pluralsight. “Menace actors and teams of this kind leverage superior methods by way of present instruments in a corporation’s surroundings to go undetected for prolonged durations of time, tailoring their assaults to persistently goal important infrastructure.”

The Volt Hurricane course sequence consists of seven expert-led programs and 6 hands-on lab experiences designed to equip learners with the techniques, expertise, and procedures to defend towards all these assaults. Learners will acquire data to implement controls to scale back the danger of those assaults happening in their very own environments. 

“For cybersecurity professionals, there’s elevated urgency to develop the talents wanted to guard towards risk actors concentrating on important infrastructure,” mentioned Chris Herbert, Chief Content material Officer at Pluralsight “Given the elevated ranges of threats with main geopolitical implications, cybersecurity professionals should take a proactive method to enhance their safety expertise earlier than an assault occurs.”

The Volt Hurricane programs are the primary in a studying path created to handle detection and protection towards APTs. Programs embody Volt Hurricane: Command and Scripting Interpreter Emulation, Volt Hurricane: Credential Dumping Emulation, and Volt Hurricane: Indicator Removing Emulation.

Join a free trial of the Volt Hurricane programs and Pluralsight’s complete library of cybersecurity programs and certifications.