The demonstration, which showed how drones could ease congestion in the busy city, is part of a $15.7 million government pilot project known as the Israel National Drone Initiative (INDI).

The tests began with a half-hour flight of a long-distance Chinese-made electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) drone from Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. The setting for the tests is significant, as the government plans to use the drones for life-saving missions, as well as cargo and passenger purposes.

“What we’re looking at here is how Israel’s National Drone Initiative is expanding its scope to move beyond transporting packages to transporting human beings,” explained Daniella Partem, senior director at the Israel Innovation Authority. “We are looking to improve the economic viability of this model and advance connectivity in urban areas and further afield around the world”.

The air taxi test was performed by Dronery, a subsidiary of the Israeli drone delivery fleet operator Cando Drones. The fully autonomous EH216 aircraft can carry a 250-kilogram payload for 30 kilometers using an intelligent command-and-control system that includes a real-time video feed.

“The possibility of flying the aerial taxi in the early stages within an urban area as complex as the Hadassah Medical Center is a practical realization of the Transportation Ministry’s belief [in smart transportation],” said Cando Drones CEO Yoeli Or. “Cando and Dronery are the first in Israel to bring and fly heavy drones capable of flying significant distances and carrying over 200 kilograms”.

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During a recent June demonstration, the startup AIR also tested its own all-electric eVTOL, known as AIR ONE. The craft features collapsible wings for easy storage and is marketed as an everyday alternative for short city commutes.

Other Israeli companies involved in the INDI project include Airwayz Drones, a provider of AI-based smart management systems for drone fleets; HighLander, which has developed a traffic management system for drones; and Robotican, a producer of ground and air-based autonomous robotic systems.

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The investment adds another $15 billion on top of the $10 billion earmarked for the proposed factory back in 2019, after the global COVID pandemic delayed construction. The new facility will be significantly more advanced than in the original plans, forming part of a larger production site known as Megafab.

Intel hasn’t yet commented directly on the investment details, but a press release was quick to praise Israeli expertise: “Israel is a global center of technical talent and innovation and one of Intel’s significant global manufacturing and R&D centers. Since its establishment in 1974, Intel Israel has played a crucial role in Intel’s global success. Our intention to expand manufacturing capacity in Israel is driven by our commitment to meeting future manufacturing needs and supporting Intel’s IDM 2.0 strategy, and we appreciate the continued support of the Israeli government”.

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Formal approval of the new agreement is expected to happen in a few weeks as Intel ramps up its international efforts to expand worldwide production capacity. According to a press release from the Israeli finance ministry, thousands of additional technicians will be required in Kiryat Gat, with Intel offering higher wages than the industry average. Additionally, the processor company has agreed to increase its tax obligations from 5% to 7.5%. Intel aims to close the investment deal and commence plant operations by 2027, operating the complex until at least 2035.

As manufacturers like Apple opt to develop their own processor architectures, Intel increasingly needs to adapt to a changing global market worth trillions of dollars. The company’s recent investment in Israel comes shortly after announcing a $4.6 billion deal to build a chip assembly and testing facility in Warsaw, Poland, and joins existing manufacturing facilities in Ireland and Germany.

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Antivirus company, Avast, collated a report, which it delivered to Google detailing the zero-day exploit. In this report, Avast claims that Israeli spyware firm, Candiru, used the exploit to install spyware on the journalist’s computers.

It equally believes that the firm has used similar exploits to target Avast users in Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen beginning in March of this year.

A zero-day exploit is, in short, a vulnerability in a piece of software that is unknown to the developers. They are typically discovered in the wild for this reason, and are known as zero-day because the developers have zero days in which to address the issue. This is because the vulnerability has the potential to cause damage from the moment it is discovered.

Avast alleges that Candiru used the above-mentioned exploit to gain access to user’s computers. It is believed to have compromised a website, which it used to redirect users to a server that could collect their data. If the data – collected on 50 data points such as location, language, time zone, etc. – met their requirements, the server would establish an encrypted channel.

Despite not claiming responsibility, Candiru is the prime suspect in the attack because the CVE-2022-2294 exploit was used to install the DevilsTongue spyware. This is a piece of malware previously linked to the group by Microsoft in a separate string of attacks.

In its report, Avast claims that the zero-day exploit was used alongside another vulnerability capable of bypassing the sandbox security function in Chromium. However, Avast has (as yet) been unable to determine the second exploit used by the alleged attackers.

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Luckily, Google released a patch for the exploit on July 4. As such, there is no need for Chrome users to be concerned, providing browsers are kept up to date. Microsoft and Apple have released patches for their Edge and Safari browsers, too, as they also use WebRTC.

Candiru has not yet been officially connected to the incident, so its involvement is currently (albeit well-informed) speculation. However, the tools used and computers targeted matches its previous spyware attempts dating from 2021 and early 2022. As the company has no public online presence, this fact is unlikely to change anytime soon.

The post Google Chrome Exploit Results In Attack On Lebanese Journalists appeared first on Tech Magazine.

The group was abusing Microsoft’s file hosting service, OneDrive, to target private and government organizations in Israel. Based on its tools and techniques, it seems that Polonium is affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

“Polonium has targeted or compromised more than 20 organizations based in Israel and one intergovernmental organization with operations in Lebanon over the past three months,” explains MSTIC.

The good news is that all legitimate OneDrive accounts are completely safe because the attack didn’t involve any security issues or vulnerabilities. Instead, Polonium used the file hosting service for command and control to execute part of their attack operation.

Polonium’s targets include primarily organizations in critical manufacturing, IT, and defense industry. “In at least one case, Polonium’s compromise of an IT company was used to target a downstream aviation company and law firm in a supply chain attack that relied on service provider credentials to gain access to the targeted networks.”

MSTIC is still actively investigating how Polonium gained initial access to many of their victims, but it knows that most victims were running Fortinet appliances. Based on this fact, MSTIC suspects that the CVE-2018-13379 vulnerability was used to gain access inside the targeted organizations.

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While the threat has been contained, there are certain actions MSTIC recommends all organizations to take to protect themselves, such as confirming that Microsoft Defender Antivirus is updated, enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA), and blocking in-bound traffic from specific IP addresses.

This isn’t the first instance of threat actors using OneDrive and other similar file hosting services to achieve their nefarious goals. Last year, for example, Microsoft discovered that OneDrive was used to host malware files commonly used to launch Conti ransomware attacks.

The post Microsoft Blocks Lebanon-Based Hackers Targeting Israel appeared first on Tech Magazine.

“The maritime industry has come leaps and bounds in recent years, but is still far behind aviation with technological innovations. Ships deal with increasingly congested waterways, severe weather and low-visibility conditions creating difficult navigation experiences with often expensive cargo,” says Orca AI CEO and co-founder Yarden Gross.

Orca AI combines data from sensors with artificial intelligence to provide real-time insights that reflect the changing conditions at sea. The system can be used for individual ships to deliver predictions and alerts on hazards, but it can also supply fleet managers with insights on the risk behavior and patterns of the entire fleet.

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“Utilizing onboard navigation sensors and high-resolution cameras with proprietary AI algorithms, the technology is able to provide valuable insight such as alerting the crew on dangerous targets, prioritize risk in real-time and sort out complex navigation situations,” explains Dor Raviv, Co-Founder & CTO of Orca AI.

Other tech companies are also trying to make the shipping industry safer and less prone to costly accidents. For example, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company is using AI technology to monitor its maritime fleet, while Stockholm-based X Shore is exploring an auto-docking solution that could greatly streamline what’s arguably the most dangerous part of getting a massive cargo ship from point A to point B.

The post Orca AI To Save Lives With Its Collision Avoidance System For Ships appeared first on Tech Magazine.

The groundbreaking technology comes from a healthtech company called IceCure. The company was founded in 2006, and it’s currently headquartered in the coastal city of Caesarea, Israel.

IceCure’s cancer-freezing technology relies on an innovative process referred to as cryoablation therapy. The goal of cryoablation is to insert a hollow needle into the breast until the tumor is reached. Liquid nitrogen is then precisely applied directly into a tumor to kill the abnormal tissue by freezing it at a very low temperature of -170°C (-274 F).

“We are basically covering the tissue with an ice ball. No tissue can survive such a low temperature,” explained Tlalit Bussi Tel-Tzure, vice president of business development and global marketing at IceCure. “Once the tissue is dead, it will dissolve in the body in a natural process and be absorbed in the body in a couple of weeks.”

The technology has already proved to be extremely successful when it comes to destroying kidney tumors, demonstrating perfect efficiency. Its main advantage is the fact that it can be carried out either at a doctor’s office or an outpatient facility thanks to its minimally invasive nature. The entire procedure can take less than one hour from start to finish, and it doesn’t leave any lasting physical mark on the body.

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“Our main vision is to become the gold standard in breast cancer treatment,” said Eyal Shamir, CEO of IceCure Medical. “Most of the cases where you have good early detection are small tumors, considered early stage, and the only treatment available today is surgery.”

IceCure isn’t the only company exploring the application of cryoablation for treating breast cancer. There’s also California-based Sanarus Technologies, which has recently completed a clinical trial in the United States.

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“We have grown hundreds of mice in this way, in a method that has taken seven years to develop, and I’m still captivated every time I see it,” said Hanna, who works at the Weizmann Institute of Science, a public research university in Rehovot, Israel. “This could be relevant to other mammals, including humans, though we acknowledge that there are ethical issues related to growing humans outside the body.”

Hanna and his team have revealed their breakthrough in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, a multidisciplinary publication known for publishing the finest research from a variety of academic disciplines.

Previous experiments of this kind involved fetuses with already developed organs, such as when the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia grew fetal lambs for over four weeks in artificial wombs back in 2017. The Israel-based team started with five-days old embryos consisting of just 250 cells, placing them into a special liquid to provide nourishment.

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“By day 11, they make their own blood and have a beating heart, a fully developed brain. Anybody would look at them and say, ‘this is clearly a mouse fetus with all the characteristics of a mouse.’ It’s gone from being a ball of cells to being an advanced fetus,” explained Hanna.

While this experiment certainly invokes unsettling scenes from the movie Matrix, with machines growing humans in massive quantities to extract electricity from their bodies, scientists are still a long way from applying the research to create life outside the human body. It’s even possible that the ethical issues surrounding such research will lead to its bad, or at least a heavy regulation.

The post Israelis Have Successfully Grown Mouse Embryos In Artificial Wombs appeared first on Tech Magazine.

The good news is that there are people like biomedical engineering Adi Wallach and her mother, Dr. Orna Levin, who understand that mental health issues can be just as debilitating as physical ones and are determined to do something about them.

After years of struggle with Wallach’s panic attacks, the mother-daughter duo decided to combine their expertise and use technology to help people around the world live their lives without panic attacks. Through their Israel-based company, Dendro Technologies, they released a product called CalmiGo, which looks like an asthma pump but functions completely differently.

“The idea came about as a result of my own personal struggles with anxiety attacks,” said Wallach. “Out of this unfortunate situation, CalmiGo was conceived. I was searching for something, anything, that I could take with me that would help me get through these moments of distress. When I was unable to find an adequate solution, I decided to create a device which people could take with them everywhere they go, one that would help them stop moments of anxiousness and distress regardless of age, location, or technical abilities.”

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CalmiGo is essentially a smart deep breathing companion whose purpose is to calm your breathing in stressful situations to prevent the onset of a panic attack. To accelerate and deepen the relaxation, the device features a scented element (lavender, peppermint, or bergamot) as well as an optional function that vibrates the device to provide multi-sensory stimulation.

CalmiGo is compact enough to carry in a small pocket, and studies have shown that just a few minutes each day with the device can significantly reduce common symptoms of anxiety and stress. You can order CalmiGo right now on its official website by or via Amazon.

The post Israeli Engineers Create Gadget That Fights Panic Attacks appeared first on Tech Magazine.

Instead of location signals provided by satellites, the drone relies on a software solution combining computer vision with artificial intelligence technologies, called NaviSight, to autonomously get to its destination.

NaviSight is compatible with all camera-equipped off-the-shelf drones. With the help of advanced video processing, the software essentially transforms the camera into a smart sensor, allowing the drone to understand its surroundings and identify its location in real-time.

“We give drones the ability to get from point A to point B safely without the need for GPS signals,” said Roy Shmuel, the CEO of Sightec. “There is no available solution today for players globally,” he added.

The test was part of a pilot program operated by Israel’s Ministry of Transport (MOT), Ayalon Highways, the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI), and the Israel Innovation Authority. The goal of the program is to test and demonstrate the viability of autonomous drones in managed airspace.

During the test, Sightec successfully navigated the drone on five pre-determined routes near the southern city of Yeruham. “The drone completed each route safely, from take-off to full landing, over desert and construction sites,” said Shmuel.

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Not depending on GPS for navigation is important because GPS satellites can malfunction, and the signals transmitted by them can be disrupted by malicious hackers. Without an alternative navigation method, it would be safe to use drones for deliveries and other purposes in populated areas because they could lose signal and endanger people, buildings, and vehicles.

Shmuel also said that the test is an important step toward the legalization of drone delivery operations in Israel and other regions. However, more test flights still need to be conducted in other parts of the country before the technology is ready for prime time.

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