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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Wells Fargo Orders Employees to Remove China-Owned TikTok from Company Devices

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Banking giant Wells Fargo reportedly identified that a number of employees had installed the Chinese-owned TikTok app on company devices and requested that all employees remove the app due to “privacy concerns.”

Engadget reports that Wells Fargo has requested that all employees remove the Chinese-owned app TikTok from company devices due to “privacy concerns.” This news comes shortly after the New York Times reported that the e-commerce giant Amazon had requested that their employees also remove the app from their devices, a claim which Amazon responded to claiming the email was sent “in error.”

A Wells Fargo spokesperson confirmed that the company has instructed employees to remove TikTok from company devices, stating:

We have identified a small number of Wells Fargo employees with corporate-owned devices who had installed the TikTok application on their device. Due to concerns about TikTok’s privacy and security controls and practices, and because corporate-owned devices should be used for company business only, we have directed those employees to remove the app from their devices.

The New York Times recently reported that e-commerce giant Amazon instructed its employees to delete the Chinese-owned video and social media app TikTok from their mobile devices over “security risks,” according to an email sent to employees. In the email, Amazon officials instructed employees to delete the app from any devices that “access Amazon email.” Following the publication of the story, Amazon responded that the email was sent in error. An Amazon spokesperson told the Times: “There is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok.”

TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and has faced intense scrutiny in Washingtons for security reasons due to its ownership. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently advised all Americans not to download the app unless they want their private information to fall into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Pompeo stated on Monday that the Trump administration is considering blocking some Chinese apps, which he says are a threat to national security.

TikTok announced late on Monday that it would be withdrawing from Hong Kong where a new national security law from China was enacted. It was recently reported that TikTok has begun evaluating changes to the corporate structure of its business in order to avoid scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers.

Photo: Reuters

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/07/13/wells-fargo-orders-employees-to-remove-china-owned-tiktok-from-company-devices/

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