The announcement highlights China’s broader ambitions in South America at a time of ongoing geopolitical and technological tensions with the US.

The post TikTok to Invest $37B+ Into Brazil Data Center appeared first on TechRepublic.

The announcement highlights China’s broader ambitions in South America at a time of ongoing geopolitical and technological tensions with the US.

The post TikTok to Invest $37B+ Into Brazil Data Center appeared first on TechRepublic.

Adrienne Chan‘s pivot away from a career in tech could more aptly be considered a pirouette.

The former Microsoft product manager is the co-founder of a new ballet school in Redmond, Wash., where she’s reconnecting with the dancing she practiced growing up, and seizing on a desire to run her own business.

“I knew I had to do this because I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Chan told GeekWire. “I loved my job at Microsoft, and I wanted to do both … but 24/7 my mind was only thinking about the ballet school.”

Bellevue Classical Ballet opened in September in Redmond Town Center with a mission to serve students of all ages and skill levels. Chan is serving as executive director, and her co-founder, Eric Hipolito Jr., a former dancer and instructor with Pacific Northwest Ballet School, is artistic director.

Chan first interned at Microsoft in 2017 before spending almost four years at the tech giant working on Azure products. She left in 2022 to get her Master of Science degree in entrepreneurship from the University of Washington before returning to Microsoft for another 11-month stint.

While at the UW, Chan utilized her engineering background and worked on a dance education app as part of her degree program.

“Something still felt a little off for me,” she admitted. “I felt that maybe I wanted to stray a little bit more away from tech.”

She met Hipolito and made the leap back into dancing. And along the way, she found tech was still a suitable partner.

Intrigued by entrepreneurship

Chan grew up in Toronto and transitioned from gymnastics to ballet as a kid, falling in love with the art form at age 9 thanks to her teachers. She eventually took up other styles of dance in productions within the Chinese community in Toronto.

She studied systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and as an undergrad, her first internship was at a startup incubator.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Chan said. “The drive that people have, the motivation — they just want to get work done. They’re so passionate. And that really sparked my interest in entrepreneurship.”

Her feelings were lining up with memories she had of a “career class” she took in high school where she had to list 10 things she might want to be when she grew up. Engineering was on the list. And so was CEO of a dance company.

Although she wanted to pursue her master’s directly after undergrad, she had already committed to Microsoft and moved to Seattle to begin her career.

Adaptability, iteration and more

Chan’s parents and others were a bit surprised when she left a high-paying tech job to go back to school, and even more so when she left that job again to open a ballet school.

Even though she was touching products used by millions of people, Chan wasn’t connecting with those people on a day-to-day basis. She wasn’t using those products herself, and they didn’t align with her aspirations.

“I really did enjoy my job at Microsoft, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted long term,” she said. “I wanted something more meaningful, something that felt like I could make an impact on people.”

Chan is a big believer in the notion that everything has led her to where she is today. And she feels that her tech background is making an impact on the ways she thinks about running a small business — something she’s been writing about in posts on LinkedIn.

“If I pursued dance in college, I don’t think I would be as successful doing this now,” she said. “I think that tech background really helped me do this.”

Managing a product is a lot like managing a business, Chan said, calling out the ambiguity of both. At the ballet school, she finds herself leaning on the adaptability and decisiveness that helped her at Microsoft, and iterating as she goes — a mindset she calls very common in tech.

But she’s not using AI.

When she had to crunch 100 different schedule options for the school, Hipolito asked why she didn’t just throw all the variables into an AI model and ask for the best result.

“I said, ‘No, I want to use my brain,'” Chan said. “I trust my brain.”

Chan also chuckles at the irony of her life now — teaching the kids of Microsoft workers while some of those parents are outside her dance studio working on laptops, doing code reviews or whatever else.

When people call her a risk-taker or commend her courage for the change she’s made, Chan doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s stressful. But I’m stressing for what I really want to be doing, what really matters to me,” she said. “I don’t think that’s replaceable at all. I don’t think there’s any other option.

In this edited interview excerpt from a Bloomberg Technology report, Check Point Security Evangelist Micki Boland discusses a new U.S.-based ban on TikTok, shares security insider insights, and provides actionable data privacy tips.

As you know, select Texas universities have moved to block access to TikTok through campus wi-fi. What we’re hearing from users is that they don’t understand the risk. Is there a risk?

First, I want to say thank you so much for having me. At Check Point, we believe that everyone deserves the best cyber security. I would say that for end-users who are unsuspecting, and who really don’t understand the risk – yes, there is risk.

This is why we’re seeing organizations come together – agencies, enterprise, non-profits – who are actually doing a joint responsibility for risk. So we need to approach risk in such a way as to acknowledge both privacy and security.

We have privacy for data; for protected data, for end-user endpoints. Also for corporate assets. We have to protect our networks. People are riding our networks in order to get to these applications and our networks are vulnerable to attack by malicious actors and the threat of malware.

And then we have corporate assets and university assets, in this case, to protect. So it is a joint responsibility and we do need to help students understand the risks and to educate everyone.

In going back-to-basics, the argument is that ultimately, personnel in mainland China, might be able to access the personal data of TikTok users in the United States. The proposed solution for TikTok is to house the data of U.S. users on Oracle servers based in the U.S. Is that an acceptable mitigation of risk, in your opinion?

I hate to speculate about that, but I will tell you that our Check Point research division has looked into that. In 2020, we were curious about whether or not TikTok was delivering consistent privacy and security. And we did find several vulnerabilities.

We actually found a way to kind of circumvent registration using a mobile device, enabling us to use SMS spoofing for registration, there were API vulnerabilities…What I’m saying is that we need to demand that organizations offering social media applications uphold a consistent security and privacy policy that we can actually address.

Compare TikTok to other virally growing social media companies of olde – How many vulnerabilities does it have vis-à-vis competitors?

Across the board, I’d refer to our research team for that. To their credit, TikTok did actually fix the vulnerabilities that the Check Point Research team presented to them. In 2021, we worked together, and Check Point helped TikTok pen test those vulnerabilities.

I think that from the standpoint of examining the attack surface, these applications are going viral. I think, TikTok now has over a billion installs or downloads. In the U.S., there are now over a hundred million active users.

So, I think that we have to think that these social media platforms are going to be a huge, attractive attack surface for malicious actors.

We also have to take responsibility for our own personal data…

Yes, Micki, talk to us about that. If I can’t leave it up to TikTok, what do I do in order to protect myself?

If you go to an app store, and download social media applications, go read the details. What is their security policy? What is their privacy policy? What kind of data are they collecting on you? What kind of permissions are you granting to this application when you install it?

If you’re giving the application access to your camera, your microphone, your location, your calendar, and all of your contacts, this is probably too much information to share.

Then, you also have to read the fine print. What are they saying that they’re doing with the analytics being collected from you. And then, who do you trust? Ultimately, you have to have a certain level of trust in the application.

Any software can be exploited. It’s never going to be perfect.

Watch the interview – here.

If your organization needs to strengthen its security strategy, be sure to attend Check Point’s upcoming CPX 360 event. Register here.

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The post Why large U.S. universities are blocking TikTok right now appeared first on CyberTalk.