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Tech
Elon Musk probably isn’t too happy that KU Leuven University security researcher Lennert Wouters has figured out how to hack a Starlink terminal and run custom code on the devices.
Wouters physically stripped down a dish he purchased and created a custom hacking tool – known as a modchip – that can be attached to the Starlink dish and once attached, he temporarily shorted the system to bypass security protections.
Now, Wouters is making his hacking tool open source on GitHub.
“I think it’s important to assess how secure these systems are because they are critical infrastructure,” Wouters told Wired.
“I don’t think it’s very far-fetched that certain people would try to do this type of attack because it is quite easy to get access to a dish like this.”
In all fairness he did tell Starlink about the flaws last year and the company paid him through its bug bounty scheme for identifying vulnerabilities and they issued an update, but Wouter says unless the company creates a new version of the main chip the underlying issue can’t be fixed, and all existing user terminals are vulnerable.
Mining tech company IMDEX has nabbed a three-year agreement for its BLAST DOG tech to be used at the Iron Bridge operations in the Pilbara – a JV between FMG (ASX:FMG) and subsidiary FMG Iron Bridge and Formosa Steel IB.
BLAST DOG provides material physical property measurements prior to blasthole drilling to inform decisions regarding blasting, screening, blending and stockpiling, among others, before these materials are subject to processing. These properties form the inputs to a tactical approach to ore characterisation and processing.
“This is homegrown technology designed to provide meaningful, quantifiable benefits for the mining industry,” CEO Paul House said.
“We are not aware of any other technology that has the capacity to produce the same quantity and quality of pre-blast rock data and provide as large an impact on downstream processes.”
IMDEX estimates the staged utilisation the tech will generate revenue of $13m over the initial term.
Plus, the company also announced today its full year results for FY22, with record revenue of $341.8m, up 29.3%.
“The strong uplift in earnings has been driven by an increase in integrated solutions to customers and the increasing percentage of revenue coming from our higher-margin sensors and software business,” House said.
“At the close of FY22, rentals and subscriptions represented 58% of revenue. Significantly, we achieved EBITDA margins of 31% and our third consecutive year of EBITDA margin expansion.”
The aerial imagery company has received a takeover interest from Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, to acquire 100% of the shares in Nearmap for $2.10 cash per share.
The company says the proposal implies a fully diluted equity valuation of approximately $1.05 billion for Nearmap, and represents an 83% premium to the closing price of $1.15 on Tuesday 5 July 2022.
The board has determined the proposal to be credible and sufficient to initially grant non-exclusive due diligence access to Thoma Bravo.
The company also announced an update on its financial performance for FY22, ahead of its full year results announcement on Wednesday, highlighting that the Group ACV portfolio is expected to be $159.9 million at constant currency, compared to $128.2 million as at 30 June 2021.
Group cash balance is expected to be $93.7 million.
Adveritas has flagged record annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $2.8m – a massive increase of 173% since June 30, 2021 – driven by new customer contracts across Mobile, Affiliate and Pay Per Click (PPC) products.
New blue-chip clients include gaming business Better Collective, global online travel company Lux Escapes, and global media and entertainment business Disney Streaming Services.
“Our recent contract wins reinforce the strength of our technology in adding value to companies investing in digital advertising,” co-founder and CEO Mat Ratty said.
“TrafficGuard is fast becoming the measurement and verification platform of choice.
“The recent contract signings open a huge growth opportunity to expand our client base via affiliate partner platforms.”
Adveritas also reported a record enterprise level sales funnel, driven by both direct sales and marketing initiatives, and the Google Cloud Marketplace – which is expected to translate to increased trials, conversions and revenue.
“Progressing with Google and Meta’s Facebook as key channels to sell into creates enormous global market opportunities that are expected to scale much more quickly than organic direct sales can,” Ratty said.
“We are already seeing early take-up on both channels with a building pipeline on the Google Cloud Marketplace and early adopters via Meta’s Facebook.”
Engineering player Matrix has been awarded a $16m contract to supply a subsea production buoyancy system for a major deepwater project in South America.
Basically, the buoyancy system will support the project’s production riser system, which transfers petroleum from the sea floor to the floating production system.
The system is designed to operate in water depths exceeding 2,000 metres using Matrix’s market leading materials technology and patented clamping system, with production to be completed by June 2023.
The company says the contract award will open up similar scale opportunities in the South American market.
Titomic has established a niche in the mining sector, with engineering company Brauntell purchasing D523 cold-spray systems which are expected to be on-sold to mining end users in New South Wales and Queensland.
The systems utilise high-velocity particle deposition to apply a range of metal coatings to metal parts, enabling rapid restoration of surfaces and geometries by hand or robotics.
Once sprayed, metal parts can be machined to final tolerance in-house.
The technology provides a simple, cost-effective repair and maintenance solution for mining, and MD Herbert Koeck says resellers will provide the company with an “efficient means of extending our reach into end users.
“With Brauntell, we’re able to leverage both their expertise and our novel technology to introduce competitive services to the market,” he said.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Adveritas is a Stockhead advertiser, they did not sponsor this article.
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