Technology mobilizes to fight the COVID-19 pandemic

As IT professionals around the world mobilize to support a completely distant workforce, many workers and tech companies are also joining forces to help alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in a variety of ways, including developing products to fight the virus, by tracking and predicting its spread and protecting hospitals from cyber attacks.

Apple Launches COVID-19 Website Application

Apple friday unveiled a screening tool and a set of resources designed to help people stay informed about the ongoing pandemic and take steps to protect their health. The information provided is based on the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.

New COVID-19 websiteand theCOVID-19 application(now available in the company’s App Store), were created jointly with the CDC, the White House Coronavirus Task Forcean and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The application and the website allow users to answer a series of questions regarding risk factors, recent exposure and symptoms of coronavirus. In turn, users will receive recommendations from the CDC on next steps, including advice on social isolation and self-isolation, how to monitor symptoms, whether a test is recommended or not, and when to contact. doctor. These screening tools are not designed to replace the instructions of health care providers or the advice of national and local health authorities, the company said.

Apollo start-up refines platform to match healthcare professionals to hospitals

A healthcare startup that associates healthcare professionals with healthcare organizations and establishments looking for immediate shift coverage relaunched its platform in light of an anticipated shortage of nurses, doctors, health professionals and volunteers nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Apollo’s online tool is intended to reduce the pressure on the American healthcare system; Apollo has waived all user fees for its platform for the next four weeks.

Using the platform, hospitals can post job vacancies and job seekers can create profiles. An algorithm then matches institutions that need immediate assistance with potential employees to meet staffing challenges. Apollo has more than 90 physicians enrolled in several large healthcare systems.

“As healthcare professionals, we understand the desperate need of the healthcare community right now,” said Jon Lensing, founder and CEO of Apollo. “We believe this change in our original plans better serves our suffering nation. Our mission has always been to help save lives, and it will remain so forever.”

“COVID-19 quickly changed life in the United States in a way that few people thought possible just a few weeks ago,” the company said in a statement. “While we are adapting to these changes, there may be even more changes to come, including increased pressure and demand on our healthcare facilities and providers. At Apollo, we want to help mitigate the stress experienced by health facilities and health care providers. “

IBM, Google, Microsoft, HPE and others create an HPC consortium

A number of major technology players, government agencies and universities have joined forces to create a COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium who hopes to speed up the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The group includes IBM, AWS, Google, HPE, Microsoft, NASA, the U.S. National Labs, NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the U.S. Department of Energy, among others.

The idea is to merge the high performance computing (HPC) systems supported by the members of the consortium to help researchers perform huge amounts of epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular modeling calculations. According to IBM, the experiments would take years if performed by hand, or months if performed on slower traditional computing platforms.

New York Tech SWAT Teams

New York officials are bring together the “SWAT technology teams” like the state struggling to cope with the COVID-19 epidemic.

“New York State is launching technology-driven products with the world’s largest technology companies to accelerate and amplify our response to COVID-19,” said the state on its official website. “We are looking for compelling solutions and qualified technical staff to help you. People from the world’s largest technology companies are deployed in urgent and high impact coronavirus response activities.”

In particular, New York is looking for “experience in product management, software development / engineering, hardware deployment and end user support, data science, operations management , design or other similar fields. Technology companies, universities, non-profit organizations, research laboratories and other organizations with technological expertise are invited to submit an expression of interest. “

IT professionals interested in helping should complete a “Interest Form“The state is considering 90-day deployments and is focusing on workers already working remotely, particularly in the eastern and central US time zones.

“Since many employers have many homeworkers, volunteers work virtually with teams from New York State,” said the state. “So preference will be given to those in the eastern and central United States time zones, but we are also open to the west coast.”

New York, especially New York City, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and leads the nation in the cases diagnosed.

The Devpost hackathon

In the hope of generating “software solutions that generate social impact”, Devpost organized a COVID-19 World Hackathon to try to fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“We encourage innovators around the world to # BuildforCOVID19 by using the technologies of your choice in a range of suggested themes and challenge areas, some of which have been obtained through health partners, including the World Health Organization. Biohub Chan Zuckerberg’s health and scientists, “said Devpost.

“The hackathon hosts locally and globally focused solutions, and is open to all developers with the support of companies and technology platforms such as AWS, Facebook, Giphy, Microsoft, Pinterest, Slack, TikTok, Twitter and WeChat, who will share resources to support participants throughout the submission period. “

Devpost said it was working with a number of partners, including WHO, to find “key areas” that technological innovation could help solve. These areas include: accurate disease prevention information “in languages ​​/ formats that resonate locally, as well as regional needs for expertise, resources / supplies and financial support from donors.”

The organization focuses on seven main areas, but has suggested that developers use the technologies of their choice in any way they think they can make an impact. The seven areas highlighted include:

• Health: Address and scale up a range of health initiatives, including preventive / hygienic behaviors (especially for countries and populations at risk), support for frontline health workers, telemedicine on a large scale, search / containment strategies, development of treatments and diagnostics.
• Vulnerable populations: Problems faced by groups of people who are disproportionately affected by the various health, economic and social problems associated with the COVID epidemic around the world, such as those with underlying health conditions or a thin net social security.
• Businesses: The set of problems that businesses face to stay afloat, collaborate effectively and move parts of their business online.
• Community: Promote connection with friends, family and neighbors to combat social isolation and the digitization of public services for local governments.
• Education: Alternative learning environments and tools for students, teachers and all school systems.
• Entertainment: Alternatives to traditional forms of entertainment that can ensure the safety and health of talent and the public.
• Other: The above themes are only suggestions. Feel empowered to be creative!

The organization works with various companies, including Oculus, Uber, Evernote, Twitter, Twilio, Venmo, IBM, Microsoft and Qualcomm. The deadline for sign up for the hackathon 12 p.m. ET Monday, March 30. The highlighted projects will be announced on April 3.

The N.Y. Times Releases Coronavirus Data Set

The New York Times Releases its comprehensive coronavirus case data in the United States after requests from researchers, scientists, government officials and businesses looking to better understand the virus and model how the pandemic might evolve. the datasets are available on GitHub.

the Time has been tracking cases since late January “after it became clear that no federal agency was providing the public with an accurate and up-to-date record of county-followed cases of people in the United States who tested positive for the virus, “the company said in a statement.

“We hope the dataset can help inform the ongoing public health response to the pandemic and ultimately save lives,” said New york times Editor-in-chief Dean Baquet. “We believe the data can help reveal how Covid-19 has spread across communities and clusters; what geographic areas may be most affected; and how its spread to hard-hit areas may provide clues to regions that may face larger epidemics in the future. “

CTI’s cybersecurity effort

A growing number of cybersecurity professionals calling themselves “CTI League“Grouped together to help hospitals repel hackers and other malicious cyber actors. The group now has approximately 500 members worldwide and was launched earlier this month by Ohad Zaidenberg, senior cyber threat intelligence researcher at the Israeli company ClearSky Security; Nate Warfield and Chris Mills, security researchers at Microsoft and Marc Rogers, executive director of security at Okta and organizer of the hacking conference DefCon.

“If a hospital is attacked by ransomware and cannot pay, people will die because they will not be able to get the medical services they need,” said Zaidenberg. tell NBC.

The CTI League, which is collaborating in its efforts using Slack, searches for vulnerabilities targeted by hackers, then searches for hospitals or other medical facilities that may be vulnerable. “The first thing we want to do is to neutralize the attacks before they happen. The second is to help any medical organization after their attack,” said Zaidenberg.

Rogers told DARKreading.com that the CTI League has members in 40 countries. “It is important to us that this is a global effort, because it is a global threat. This is why we launched this appeal worldwide and we were delighted when the world replied.”

Kaggle extols the challenge of machine learning

Kaggle, an online community for data scientists and a platform for competitions, has unveiled a new bonus challenge: the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge, or CORD-19.

CORD-19 asks AI and machine learning researchers to develop text and data mining tools to analyze a dataset that includes tens of thousands of articles on virology and infectious diseases. The goal is to help provide answers for 10 tasks, or lines of inquiry into the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

the price for each task in the challenge is $ 1,000, given in cash or as a charitable donation to search and rescue efforts.

Intel allocates $ 6 million for coronavirus relief

The Intel Foundation plans to provide $ 4 million to support coronavirus relief efforts in areas where the company has a significant presence and provides up to $ 2 million in matching funds for each regular full-time employee and part-time and retired American who wishes to contribute to the COVID-19 combat. Intel will match contributions made until April 10.

The $ 4 million donation goes to foundations and community organizations focused on food security, shelter, medical equipment and support for small businesses. Matching donations will go to food banks, school districts and children’s hospitals, helping local communities manage the impact of the pandemic.

In the United States, donations are made to several states, including Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas. Internationally, areas of donation include Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam.

Facebook offers Messenger

Social media giant Facebook March 23 unveiled two initiatives to help governments fight the pandemic using its Messenger chat service.

“We are partnering with our developer community to provide free services to government health organizations and United Nations health agencies to help them use Messenger to tailor their response to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Facebook. He highlighted the efforts Argentine Ministry of Health to provide updated and accurate information about the coronavirus.

UNICEF and Pakistan also use Messenger to share information and advice on coronavirus.

Facebook is also working with the Devpost hackathon project to fight COVID-19.

See also: Coronavirus invites manufacturers of collaboration tools to offer products for free and Free safety resources for home workers during the COVID-19 crisis

With reports from Serdar Yegulalp of InfoWorld and Amy Bennett of CIO.