Today’s topics include Samsung releasing the Galaxy Note 9 with a bigger screen and more storage, and researchers outlining what it takes to secure autonomous vehicles.
Samsung last week unveiled its stylus-equipped Galaxy Note 9 smartphone, which features a larger display, now 6.4 inches compared to the Note 8’s 6.3 inches, as well as a bump in onboard memory to a maximum of 512GB of internal storage, up from a maximum of 256GB for the Note 8.
Samsung also upgraded the integrated S Pen stylus, which gains Bluetooth Low-Energy connectivity for a wider range of on-screen presentation and creativity capabilities.
In addition, the Note 9 boasts a more powerful 64-bit octa-core processor along with a larger, more powerful battery. The 128GB Note 9, which comes with 6GB of memory, is priced at $1,000, while the 512GB model with 8GB of memory is $1,250. Both versions will be available starting Aug. 24.
At last week’s Black Hat USA 2018 event, researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek of GM’s Cruise autonomous ride sharing vehicle service detailed ways to secure autonomous vehicles.
There are four levels of automation when it comes to autonomous vehicles, and Level 4 automation—when a car is entirely automated without the need for a driver—has been the focus of the two researchers.
In their talk, Miller and Valasek said their goal is to get autonomous car makers to focus on the core elements of security that are already well-known in enterprise data centers. These include reducing the attack surface by removing any code or connections that are not needed, encrypting data and using Hardware Security Modules to store encryption keys.
They also suggest vendors have a clear separation of systems in the car so that less trusted devices cannot talk to more trusted devices.