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KUWAIT: The Human Resources Group at National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) remains integral to the bank’s continued success, focusing on the development of human capital and the nurturing of professional talent. By fostering a work environment that inspires creativity and innovation, the department plays a critical role in advancing the bank’s strategic goals. Additionally, it is committed to attracting and providing job opportunities for young Kuwaiti talent, ensuring a strong workforce that supports the group’s ongoing growth and aspirations. Throughout the year, the Human Resources Group has tirelessly worked to foster creativity, innovation, and continuous development. Their unwavering support has been instrumental in helping employees build promising, sustainable careers, reinforcing the bank’s commitment to talent development and long-term success. The year 2024 marked a defining moment for the Human Resources Department at NBK, underscoring its central role within the group. The department achieved significant milestones, which were celebrated with multiple prestigious awards, further solidifying NBK’s leadership both regionally and globally. Emad Al-Ablani, General Manager–Head of Human Resources Group at NBK, remarked: “Throughout 2024, we successfully achieved all of our interim objectives, which focused on enhancing the capabilities of our workforce across all levels. These initiatives promoted diversity and inclusion in the workplace, attracted and nurtured young national talent, and emphasized a healthy work-life balance by offering flexible working hours. Ultimately, our goal was to create a more prosperous and supportive work environment for all our employees.” “The HR team played a crucial role in the bank’s successes this year, executing numerous initiatives with excellence that directly contributed to the achievement of our strategic goals and plans set at the outset of the year,” Al-Ablani added. Al-Ablani highlighted that the HR team spearheaded numerous initiatives throughout 2024. Furthermore, the team focused on enhancing educational infrastructure and expanding career development programs in collaboration with prestigious universities and global experts. More than just a workplace Al-Ablani emphasized that NBK is committed to cultivating a distinctive work environment, centered around the motto “More than just a workplace.” This approach not only enhances the overall well-being of employees but also prioritizes their mental and physical health, empowering them to perform at their best. Al-Ablani further highlighted that the bank’s human resources strategy is built on four key pillars: Ensuring the right competencies are placed in the right roles at the right time; preparing future leaders by fostering a culture of inspiration and empowerment; attracting top talent through effective recruitment, retention, and development practices; and creating a sustainable performance culture that supports diversity, inclusion, clear results management, and employee protection. “NBK stands out as one of the few institutions in Kuwait that provides a unique and ideal work environment on par with global institutions. This is due to the exceptional professional development opportunities it offers, as well as its commitment to employee welfare. Notable initiatives include the adoption of flexible working hours and the introduction of paternity leave, allowing fathers to stay home and bond with their newborns,” Al-Ablani added. He emphasized that education and training initiatives form a core element of NBK’s strategic plans. The bank has developed a robust framework prioritizing career development, mentorship, and a variety of professional growth opportunities. This comprehensive approach is designed to help employees shape their career trajectories and cultivate an environment where they can succeed and drive innovation. Investing in human capital NBK continued to support its young workforce in 2024 by offering top-tier training and development programs aligned with international standards. The goal was to cultivate a generation of highly skilled bankers across all fields, with a particular emphasis on digital disciplines. These fields have become increasingly essential as banking transactions evolve, driven by cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence. In 2024, the Learning and Development Department intensified its focus on specialized training to refine employee skills. Through a combination of initiatives, workshops, and educational programs, the department aligned its efforts with the dynamic changes in the banking sector. NBK provided a total of 101,463 training hours across the group, with 86,374 hours dedicated to employees in NBK-Kuwait and 15,089 hours allocated to employees in international locations. This effort engaged 3,476 employees, including 2,913 at NBK-Kuwait and 563 at international locations. Notably, the employee satisfaction rate for all training courses and development programs reached an impressive 90 percent. The first cohort of the NBK Tech Academy, the first initiative of its kind in Kuwait, successfully graduated 10 promising young Kuwaiti talents. Over a rigorous seven-month training period, these participants honed their skills in vital areas such as digital technology, data systems, cybersecurity, digital payments, and artificial intelligence. In addition to gaining technical expertise, the program also emphasized the development of personal skills, all aimed at equipping the graduates for impactful careers in the banking sector. The bank has also launched two distinguished sales team programs, the “NBK Pioneers Program” and the “Prime Program,” engaging 79 employees. Specifically tailored for sales channel employees and leaders, these initiatives target a select group of talented NBK staff with a proven track record of exceptional performance and leadership potential. The core focus of the programs lies in management and leadership specializations. In 2024, NBK Group achieved a remarkable improvement in engagement, with the overall response rate rising to 86 percent, and sustainable engagement reaching 84 percent. These figures exceed the global average for the financial services sector by 7 percent. As part of its commitment to advancing the capabilities of its workforce and fostering development based on the highest standards of excellence, the bank has entered an exclusive partnership with the renowned IE University, Spain. This collaboration focuses on several key areas, including talent development, driving institutional innovation, creating and implementing integrated solutions, and leveraging the university’s expertise in both applied and academic research. Women empowerment In 2024, NBK launched the second edition of the NBK RISE program, aimed at empowering and supporting women. The program saw the participation of 25 trainees from various professional backgrounds, including those from NBK-Kuwait, international branches, NBK Wealth, and several renowned regional companies. These included Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Ooredoo, Kuwait Banking Association, Abyat, Gulf Bank, Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz), J’s Bakery, and Intervest Capital Partners New York. This initiative further underscores NBK’s commitment to fostering gender equality and empowering women in the workplace. NBK RISE stands as a pioneering initiative, being the first program of its kind designed specifically to support women leaders. Its core objective is to enhance the leadership roles of women, equipping them with the skills and qualifications needed for top executive positions. This program is fully aligned with the bank’s broader strategy to elevate women’s leadership both within the organization and beyond—extending its impact to the country, region, and globally. Talent acquisition The Talent Acquisition Department continued its efforts to build a dynamic workforce to support the bank’s growth trajectory, successfully recruiting 373 new employees in 2024.This marked a notable increase in the bank’s local hiring efforts, with new female employees accounting for 36.4 percent of the total workforce. Additionally, the department managed 98 internal recruitment announcements across various bank departments. The bank’s commitment to nurturing talent positions NBK as the employer of choice for fresh Kuwaiti graduates, providing a pathway for future leadership roles within the organization. The bank remained dedicated to maintaining a strong Kuwaitization strategy throughout 2024, actively participating in seven career fairs where recruiting national talent was prioritized. Additionally, the bank took steps to exclusively recruit Kuwaiti nationals for certain specialized roles. The Kuwaitization rate rose to 77.1 percent in alignment with the Central Bank of Kuwait’s (CBK) requirements, reflecting the bank’s strategic focus on attracting and nurturing local talent. This approach ensures the sustainability of the workforce and supports the bank’s commitment to expanding the scope of national talent recruitment. NBK also adopts a distinctive approach to ensuring equal opportunities, guaranteeing fairness for all its employees without exception. This commitment is reflected in the fact that women represent 44.6 percent of the total workforce, a remarkable achievement within both the banking sector and the regional labor market. Sustainable practices As part of its ongoing efforts to integrate sustainability practices across all its operations, NBK Group’s HR department has introduced NBK HR Pedia, a digital assistant designed to provide employees with 24/7 access to HR support and information. This tool offers instant answers to HR-related inquiries, streamlining communication and enhancing efficiency. In addition, the bank has implemented an integrated archiving program that digitizes and secures employee documents in a sophisticated electronic system. This initiative not only ensures efficient information management and easy access when needed, but also plays a crucial role in reducing paper waste, aligning with the bank’s broader environmental sustainability goals and efforts to lower its carbon footprint. Furthermore, in 2024, the bank placed a strong emphasis on fostering a culture of continuous learning, leveraging automation and digital platforms to enhance performance quality. The Learning and Development team successfully rolled out the Prime Leadership Program, which focused on cultivating essential leadership competencies for branch and area managers. A total of 62 managers participated in this initiative, which covered key areas such as strategic thinking, market trend forecasting, informed decision-making for long-term growth, and developing high-performing teams. Additionally, the Professional Leader Program saw the participation of 106 leaders from various bank divisions. Prestigious awards Throughout 2024, the Human Resources Department’s continuous efforts were rewarded with six prestigious awards, further strengthening NBK’s global reputation for excellence. Notably, the bank received the Gold Award for “Excellence in Health and Wellbeing” from the US-based Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This recognition highlights NBK’s initiatives in promoting employee health, demonstrating an understanding of the link between well-being and productivity. The bank’s commitment to this cause is reflected in its health and wellness programs, which foster an environment that not only prioritizes employee well-being but also contributes to enhanced organizational performance. The bank was also honored with the title of Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion in Kuwait by the global financial publication, Euromoney. This award highlighted the effectiveness of the NBK RISE program, reflecting the bank’s unwavering commitment to empowering women and promoting their advancement into leadership roles within the organization. NBK also received the Excellence in Sustainable Investment in MENA award at the MEED Banking Excellence Awards 2024 for the third consecutive year. This recognition celebrated the NBK Academy program, a legacy of success spanning over 16 years. The program is designed to enable new university graduates from Kuwaiti youth to enter the banking sector. Furthermore, the bank received two esteemed accolades from the Brandon Hall Group of Excellence: recognition in the “Best Advance in Compliance Training” category for the NBK Highfliers program and as the Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion in Kuwait. Additionally, the NBK RISE program was honored with MERIT’s Special Recognition for Developing Women Leaders, underscoring the bank’s commitment to cultivating leadership and championing inclusivity across all facets of its operations. Added value for employees To enhance employee satisfaction and provide additional value, the HR Department has introduced new financial benefits tailored specifically to employees. These include exclusive fixed deposit interest rates and an extended interest-free loan program, enabling employees to apply for a second loan upon full repayment of the first. Additionally, working hours on Thursdays have been reduced by one hour, and employees are granted three days of welfare leave, reinforcing the Bank’s commitment to promoting work-life balance and employee well-being. The Strategic Business Support Partners Department has been instrumental in establishing the Digital Banking Group, a key driver of NBK’s digital transformation journey. This group is dedicated to developing innovative digital products, applications, and systems while attracting top-tier digital talent to the bank. By enhancing the expertise of these professionals and enabling them to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the department ensures alignment with NBK’s strategic vision for digital innovation and transformation. Moreover, the Human Resources Department has embraced Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to automate a variety of routine processes and procedures. By leveraging RPA as a digital workforce, the department has significantly enhanced operational efficiency, minimized human errors, and freed up employees to focus on complex, value-added tasks. The Human Resources Department introduced a bi-annual performance self-review process to enhance alignment and mutual recognition of performance between managers and employees. This initiative fosters a culture of transparency within the bank, encouraging open communication and collaboration while ensuring performance expectations are clearly understood and consistently evaluated.Giants face challenge in hosting Ravens, trying to end 8-game skid
by Shanthilal Nanayakkara Retired Principal Engineer, Digital Transition Division, Australian Communications and Media Authority A Japanese delegation recently announced the resumption of the previously stalled digital television project in Sri Lanka following a meeting with the newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The commencement of the digitisation project is now imminent. Once terrestrial television transmissions are digitised in Sri Lanka, it will replace the old analogue terrestrial television forever. Therefore, it is critically important that the final outcome is better than the current analogue television, if not far superior. Setting such a goal prior to the implementation of the project is crucial for its fruitful completion. To achieve this outcome, deficiencies in the current parameters in the Japanese Digital Plans need to be revisited and appropriately addressed for the benefit of all stakeholders. Otherwise, as it stands today, there is a high potential for rural and regional viewers in Sri Lanka to miss out on the digital coverage. (This is further illustrated below). Such an unwarranted outcome could become a highly ‘politically sensitive’ issue for the new government . Why Digital In analogue transmissions, radio waves encounter several problems. When radio waves are subjected to multipath, ghosting images appear on television screen. They are also subjected to cancellation of their own signals and interference. Digital technology overcomes these analogue transmission weaknesses and, as a huge value addition, is able to carry more information than its analogue counterpart. As this capacity enhancement feature helps carry multiple programmes on one frequency or channel, digital television transmission technology is considered to be highly spectrum productive. Once analogue is switched off, the vacant spectrum that can be harnessed, commonly known as Digital Dividend (DD), becomes an income earner for the Government, as spare spectrum can be sold to Telcos for broadband internet use. Thus, this digitisation project is effectively a self-financing venture for the government and a win-win for all stakeholders. Stakeholder benefits of digital Many countries in the world have now moved or are in the process of moving to the digital domain. Irrespective of the digital television transmission standard adopted in Sri Lanka, benefits of a conversion from analogue to digital television are many for the majority of stakeholders. These are listed below against the various stakeholders: * Government – a significant income from selling the vacant spare spectrum to Telcos, following full conversion to digital, provided appropriate modifications are made to the JICA plan; * Broadcasters – increased television channels and scope for increase of advertising revenue; * Viewers – increased number of television channels to facilitate a wider selection of content, with True High Definition (True HD) quality and potential 5.1 Surround Sound; * Content providers – opportunity to produce a wide range of programmes that are in demand; * Production houses – larger revenue from vastly increased niche productions; * Creators of social media and other internet-based content – opportunities to develop novel visual and aural media content; * Electronic Manufacturing/Testing – opportunities to manufacture digital television receivers and set up a receiver harmonisation/compatibility centre; * Broadcast Towers (similar to Lotus Tower) – Opportunities to establish and operate consolidated broadcast towers in the country; * Telcos- opportunity to purchase superior vacant spectrum for future fixed and mobile broadband applications. Funding arrangements or self-financing The current funding arrangement for digitisation of television in Sri Lanka is a ‘soft loan’ from the Japanese government, and it is tied up in ‘one bundle’ with loans for other projects. This loan is also based on the premise that the deployment of the Japanese digital television standard, Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) is mandatory. As the vacant spectrum can be sold after Analogue Switch Off (ASO), the venture could also be a self-financing project, albeit with bridging finance. Purpose of this essay The main purpose of this article is to suggest ways of optimising the benefits of the digitisation project while retaining the support of the Japanese government. If the bulk of problems for viewers and broadcasters can be removed by making appropriate adjustments to the current plans at a minimal cost, with broadcasters becoming willing participants, the digitisation of television in Sri Lanka would no doubt be a success for all stakeholders, including the new government. Otherwise, there is an urgent need to review the bi-lateral agreement that was signed previously. The broadcasting fraternity in Sri Lanka is fully aware that the Japanese system is not as efficient as the second generation European standard, Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2). Understanding Digital Simply put, digitisation of analogue vision and sound enables radio waves to carry more information within the same channel or bandwidth than in the analogue era. This allows producers of visual and aural content to be more creative than before. The technology also facilitates easy communication in both fixed and mobile environments and facilitates two-way communication more than in the analogue era. However, there are two main pitfalls that one needs to address in order to make the venture a success. They are as follows: Cliff effect (sudden loss of signal): – * to avoid the ‘cliff effect’ a robust signal (with higher reliability and availability at a receive location than in analogue era) is needed at the receiver to prevent momentary picture pixelation and/or sudden loss of signal; and * it is also necessary to ensure that all television digital services reaching viewer locations are of the same signal strength to ensure equity of services and therefore must originate from ONE location such as the Lotus Tower. * Absence of ‘graceful degradation’ and its effect on signal level – even with a degraded signal with ‘snowy pictures’, analogue signal is still watchable. It is not so with digital due to ‘cliff effect’. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that the digital coverage is the same or better than the existing watchable analogue coverage that is defined by a signal level of 43 dBuV/m in VHF Band III. This limit was adopted for digitisation in Australia. Deficiencies of the Japanese standard/plan In planning to deploy the ISDB-T system in our country, everyone should aim for a cost-beneficial outcome as it is of paramount importance to all stakeholders. There are several issues in the Japanese documentation of 2014/2018, which should be addressed to suit the needs of the public/consumers, broadcasters and government. They range from policy issues at the outset, technical areas during planning and management issues during the proposed phases of ASO and Digital Switch On (DSO). Spectrum for Digital: VHF/UHF issue In particular, the proposal to use only a part of the available broadcast spectrum has an impact on the eventual DD income for the Government. The Japanese have deployed both VHF and UHF spectrum in Brazil, strangely not offered to Sri Lanka. In that context, it is not clear why the Japanese team has not proposed a VHF and UHF combined solution as deployed in Brazil. This was pointed out by the writer when a Japanese team, including a senior Embassy official Sato Takefumi, met him in 2017 in Colombo to discuss Lotus Tower issues (after his disclosure in an article in The Island about the Lotus tower) and digitisation in general. Their response was ‘no one asked for it’. As it stands today in Sri Lanka, analogue television transmissions are based on frequencies using both VHF and UHF Bands, but the proposed Japanese digital conversion is not utilising the VHF Band. In particular, VHF Band III exhibits superior propagation characteristics, while contributing to lower the consumption of electricity by the transmitters. More importantly, VHF radio waves carry longer distances than UHF due to lower propagation losses, are able to travel around obstacles comparatively and therefore VHF is more suitable for wide coverage transmissions. Currently, the VHF spectrum is occupied by three television broadcasting networks i.e. Rupavahini, ITN and TNL. These networks will lose their inherent wide coverage VHF Band advantage. They also have the additional burden of occupying a digital channel in the UHF spectrum, especially when the earmarked UHF channels for digital are almost at the bottom of the UHF Band V, where propagation losses are higher than in UHF Band IV. ISDB-T New Coder H.265 It is a known fact that the Japanese ISDB-T standard, in payload capacity terms, is second to the second generation European Standard DVB-T2 that provides 45 Mb/s capacity. However, the Japanese standard can only carry about 1/2 of the European standard per channel at 23 Mb/s. But as the Japanese are now offering to change the content source coder to H.265, they will be able to provide HD at 1080P at a rate of 2-4 Mb/s. This change would now allow all HD TV ready broadcasters to provide True HD content at 1920 x 1080P and possibly can accommodate all television channels in Colombo. But the downside is that the receivers are going to be more complex with the new coder. This may then lead to more expensive ISDB-T receivers or STBs in Sri Lanka. Vacant VHF Band III The unused VHF Band III is likely to reduce the DD for the government though the Japanese strategy is to achieve some productivity by the use of single frequency networks in the UHF Band (SFNs-a technique to use the same frequency multiple times to improve spectrum productivity). However, in practice receiving of SFNs is not simplistic as the reception of SFN signals are subject to receiver complexities. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) may be exclusively reserving the VHF band for future digital radio, but the same band could be co-shared with digital television without any problems. For example, Australia is co-sharing VHF Band III for both digital television and radio without any issues. Once all analogue transmissions are switched off with the deployment of UHF band per se for digital, the unused VHF Band III spectrum, where 7 MHz bandwidth, 8 VHF Frequency channels exists, will become vacant. This is clearly a waste of unused spectrum. Additionally, as Restacking [restack is the re-arrangement of frequencies ideally in the two bands of VHF and UHF, to maximise the spectrum productivity] is in the Japanese Plan, additional expenditure on broadcasting infrastructure is also on the cards. Where are the funds coming from? There is no mention of new funding arrangements for Restacking of the spectrum, and it also raises questions about the STB/Receiver specifications as frequencies may need to change after Restacking. If some broadcasters are not keen to use ISDB-T, they may canvass for the opportunity to use the vacant VHF Band for the potential deployment of DVB-T2 standard. This MUST be avoided at all costs! If this happens, there will be two digital systems in Sri Lanka. This issue, in particular, could become another potential headache for the government as it is likely to be under heavy pressure from commercial broadcasters to release the vacant VHF Band III for the more efficient DVB-T2. This issue, too, was pointed out by the writer when another Japanese team consisting of a Senior Engineer from Yacheo Engineering along with Sato Takefumi of the Japanese Embassy met him in 2017/2018. Unless there are plans to use the vacant VHF Band III by Restacking the spectrum, this spectrum specifically allocated for broadcasting would go to waste. Digital Signal Reliability & Availability Unlike in the analogue domain, television signal reliability and its availability becomes crucial in digital reception. In the analogue era, television broadcasting service field strength was planned for 50% of the locations and 50% of the time at a receiving height of 10 m. But in digital this becomes 80%-95% of the locations and 90% of the time to ensure reliability and availability of the digital signal. Hence the planned field strength would need to be adjusted to ensure the required reliability and availability at a higher field strength. In Australia, field strength used was 50 dBuV/m for Band IV and 54 dBuV/m for Band V frequencies in a rural environment However, it is not clear from the published documents of the Japanese plans 2014/2018 whether this issue had been addressed or otherwise. The signal level at 51 dBuV/m identified in the 2018 Japanese documentation is certainly not adequate for a rural grade of service in the UHF Band! It ought to be in the region of 54-74 dBuV/m in the UHF Band V. For example, the Australian Broadcasting Planning Handbook for Digital Television Broadcasting has clearly identified these requirements and provided information on how they were derived. Duplication Parameter The potential impact of the proposals for duplication of coverage is illustrated in the diagram. (See Figure 01) The signal threshold of a planned analogue coverage is 50 dBuV/m for VHF Band III. However, some regional and rural viewers in Sri Lanka are currently receiving watchable analogue signals well below this value. If, as planned by the Japanese studies in 2014, the analogue coverage is converted at the planned cut-off level of 55 dBuV/m, then the majority of regional and rural viewers, who are currently watching the analogue television with no issues, will not be able to receive digital television coverage. This could potentially become a political nightmare for the new government. Therefore, the cut-off signal level, as illustrated above, should be lowered to 43 dBuV/m. Though Single Frequency Networks (SFNs) are a solution to mitigate this difference in coverage, it is not easy to implement them at the receiver-end due to the variation in receiver profiles of Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) and complexities in receiver SFN signal detection. The Japanese designers, while being aware of this issue, may have been heavily constrained due to the requirement for spectrum productivity. Most probably, given the limits of the available UHF spectrum for digital and the lower data efficacy of the Japanese ISDB-T standard, this higher limit of duplication may have been proposed by the designers in order to preserve some spectrum productivity. One Network Operator for Digital The advent of digital terrestrial television also signifies the end of individual transmission facilities for broadcasters, as several content feeds are carried on one frequency or the channel and the requirement to consolidate all transmissions at one site. A combined digital transmission service provider may, in the future, be an independent entity and the facilities may be offered to the broadcasters on a fee-levying basis, based on a pragmatic business plan. In a future digital broadcasting landscape, the broadcasters will essentially be ‘content’ providers. Perhaps, there ought to be some sort of protection provided to the existing broadcasters in the event new content providers also express a desire to use digital transmissions. Cost to viewers and broadcasters All consumer television sets require digital receivers to extract video and audio content from digital transmissions. Therefore, either in-built ISDB-T receivers or compatible STBs are required. For example, there are flat TVs that do not have in-built ISDB-T receivers. The cost of an STB for ISDB-T with H.265 decoders, is likely to be around US $ 50-100, depending on their complexity and economies of scale. If in the event, there is likely to be a Restack of frequencies including the VHF Band, two band STBs or receivers may be needed; one during the first phase and another after the Restack of channels with the ability to tune into the VHF Band. Additionally, at some household locations, there may also be a requirement for new receiver antenna installation to receive VHF/UHF channels. If so, this is also an additional cost to the viewer. There is also a significant cost to the commercial television broadcasters to provide HD ready studios, Outside Broadcast (OB)/Electronic News Gathering (ENG) equipment, and content feeding arrangements. However, once the commercial television broadcasters elect to use consolidated broadcast towers, analogue era transmission costs would also disappear as their independent transmission networks are no longer needed, in a digital environment. It is noteworthy to highlight that the Japanese financial proposal for digitisation of television is primarily for Rupavahini, and limited to funding the analogue to digital transfer of Rupavahini facilities, including the provision of a True HD studio, OB unit, Transmission equipment and a Central Command centre for the proposed Digital Broadcast Network Operations (DBNO) at the Lotus Tower. At this stage, there are no signs of any discussions with the broadcasters to develop a ‘road map’ to facilitate the smooth transition from analogue to digital of commercial channels. If Restack is to take place, there is likely to be additional costs but there is no mention of further Japanese funding for Restack of channels either. As additional costs to the commercial television broadcasters are likely, strategic government policy initiatives to compensate for the additional capital expenditure in a highly competitive market are in order. Way forward It is heartening to note that the Japanese plan has now incorporated the more efficient coder in H.265 with an intention to maximise the use of limited payload capacity of an ISDB-T channel, which then will result in providing True HD transmission (1920 x 1080P) for ALL licensed television channels in Colombo. If Japanese consultants can pay attention to the issues of using VHF Band III, changing receiving the field strength requirements to that of the ITU signal level requirements for UHF and address the duplication parameter issue, then ALL stakeholders including the government and broadcasters will no doubt look forward to the venture of digitisation of television in Sri Lanka.
Companies deploying generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models — especially large language models (LLMs) — should make use of the widening variety of open source tools aimed at exposing security issues, including prompt-injection attacks and jailbreaks, experts say. This year, academic researchers, cybersecurity consultancies, and AI security firms released a growing number of open source tools, including more resilient prompt injection tools, frameworks for AI red teams, and catalogs of known prompt injections. In September, for example, cybersecurity consultancy Bishop Fox released Broken Hill, a tool for bypassing the restrictions on nearly any LLM with a chat interface. The open source tool can be trained on a locally hosted LLM to produce prompts that can be sent to other instances of the same model, causing those instances to disobey their conditioning and guardrails, according to Bishop Fox . The technique works even when companies deploy additional guardrails — typically, simpler LLMs trained to detect jailbreaks and attacks, says Derek Rush, managing senior consultant at the consultancy. "Broken Hill is essentially able to devise a prompt that meets the criteria to determine if [a given input] is a jailbreak," he says. "Then it starts changing characters and putting various suffixes onto the end of that particular prompt to find [variations] that continue to pass the guardrails until it creates a prompt that results in the secret being disclosed." The pace of innovation in LLMs and AI systems is astounding, but security is having trouble keeping up. Every few months, a new technique appears for circumventing the protections used to limit an AI system's inputs and outputs. In July 2023, a group of researchers used a technique known as "greedy coordinate gradients" (GCG) to devise a prompt that could bypass safeguards. In December 2023, a separate group created another method, Tree of Attacks with Pruning (TAP) , that also bypasses security protections. And two months ago, a less technical approach, known as Deceptive Delight , was introduced that uses fictionalized relationships to fool AI chatbots to violate their systems restrictions. The rate of innovation in attacks underscores the difficulty of securing GenAI systems, says Michael Bargury, chief technology officer and co-founder of AI security firm Zenity. "It's an open secret that we don't really know how to build secure AI applications," he says. "We are all trying, but we don't know how to yet, and we are basically figuring that out while building them with real data and with real repercussions." Companies are erecting defenses to protect their valuable business data, but whether those defenses are effective remains a question. Bishop Fox, for example, has several clients using programs such as PromptGuard and LlamaGuard, which are LLMs programmed to analyze prompts for validity, says Rush. "We're seeing a lot of clients [adopting] these various gatekeeper large language models that try to shape, in some manner, what the user submits as a sanitization mechanism, whether it's to determine if there's a jailbreak or perhaps it's to determine if it's content-appropriate," he says. "They essentially ingest content and output a categorization of either safe or unsafe." Now researchers and AI engineers are releasing tools to help companies determine whether such guardrails are actually working. Microsoft released its Python Risk Identification Toolkit for generative AI (PyRIT) in February 2024, for example, an AI penetration testing framework for companies that want to simulate attacks against LLMs or AI services. The toolkit allows red teams to build an extensible set of capabilities for probing various aspects of an LLM or GenAI system. Zenity uses PyRIT regularly in its internal research, says Bargury. "Basically, it allows you to encode a bunch of prompt-injection strategies, and it tries them out on an automated basis," he says. Zenity also has its own open source tool, PowerPwn , a red-team toolkit for testing Azure-based cloud services and Microsoft 365. Zenity's researchers used PowerPwn to find five vulnerabilities in Microsoft Copilot . Bishop Fox's Broken Hill is an implementation of the GCG technique that expands on the original researchers' efforts. Broken Hill starts with a valid prompt and begins changing some of the characters to lead the LLM in a direction that is closer to the adversary's objective of disclosing a secret, Rush says. "We give Broken Hill that starting point, and we generally tell it where we want to to end up, like perhaps the word 'secret' being within the response might indicate that it would disclose the secret that we're looking for," he says. The open source tool currently works on more than two dozen GenAI models, according to its GitHub page . Companies would do well to use Broken Hill, PyRIT, PowerPwn, and other available tools to explore their AI applications vulnerabilities because the systems will likely always have weaknesses, says Zenity's Bargury. "When you give AI data — that data is an attack vector — because anybody that can influence that data can now take over your AI if they are able to do prompt injection and perform jailbreaking," he says. "So we are in a situation where, if your AI is useful, then it means it's vulnerable because in order to be useful, we need to feed it data." Veteran technology journalist of more than 20 years. Former research engineer. Written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. Five awards for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for coverage of the Blaster worm. Crunches numbers on various trends using Python and R. Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers and annual vulnerability trends.
Bowls miss out in 4 CFP teams in latest postseason twistShoppers have been left bemused after spotting Easter eggs on supermarket shelves before New Year’s Eve. With Easter Sunday falling on April 20 next year, customers shared their confusion on social media after finding chocolate eggs and hot cross buns already for sale in shops including Morrisons, Tesco and Asda. One user, @Jingle1991, shared an image of Malteser Bunnies in Sainsbury’s on Christmas Eve and pointed out: “Jesus hasn’t even been born yet.” Meanwhile, Gary Evans from Margate shared a shot of Creme Eggs on display in Morrisons in Margate on Boxing Day. “I just think its crazy that everything is so superficial and meaninglessly commercial... (there’s) something quite frantic about it,” the 66-year-old told the PA news agency. No Shame.Morrisons.Easter eggs.Boxing Day. December 26th.Peace on Earth pic.twitter.com/slGoIjOpRq — Gary Evans (@GaryEva04679693) December 26, 2024 Joseph Robinson found Easter confectionary including Cadbury Mini Eggs, and themed Kit-Kat and Kinder Surprise products at his local Morrisons in Stoke-on-Trent on Friday evening. “It’s funny, as they’ve not even managed to shift the Christmas chocolates off the shelves yet and they’re already stocking for Easter,” the 35-year-old admin support worker told PA. “I wish that Supermarkets weren’t so blatantly consumerist-driven and would actually allow customers and staff a time to decompress during the Christmas period.” @Morrisons It's not even a full 2025 and you're already stocking for easter.Kindly get in the bin pic.twitter.com/kLS7DGSRXt — Joseph (@stokegoblin) December 27, 2024 Asked if he was tempted to make a purchase, Mr Robinson added: “As a vegan it holds no appeal to me!” Mike Chalmers, a devout Christian from Chippenham, Wiltshire, was slightly less critical after spotting a display entitled: “Celebrate this Easter with Cadbury.” Easter is for life, not just for Christmas(Photo today in Morrisons!) pic.twitter.com/VmdJ31La9r — Mike Chalmers (@realMChalmers) December 27, 2024 “Christmas and Easter are the two centrepoints of the Christian good news story so it’s no bad thing to see the connections,” the 44-year-old said. “It’s about more than shapes of chocolate though!” Marketing consultant Andrew Wallis admitted he was surprised to see Easter eggs in the Co-op in Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire, but added it also illustrates “forward-thinking” from big businesses. Christmas isn’t even over, and Easter eggs are already on the shelves. Say what you want about it—but big brands don’t wait. They plan ahead and act fast. Are you doing the same? Your future self will thank you pic.twitter.com/Sl9qd7sOGS — andrewwallis (@andrewwallis) December 27, 2024 “It made me reflect on how big brands are always thinking ahead and planning early,” the 54-year-old from the Isle of Man, who provides marketing advice to the fitness industry, told PA. “My message to retailers would be: while planning ahead is important, it’s also essential to be mindful of consumer sentiment. “Some might feel it’s too early for seasonal products like this but others might see it as a sign of forward-thinking. “Striking the right balance is key to keeping customers happy.”None
White House pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds so it has enough troops to battle Russia
White House pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds so it has enough troops to battle Russia
