Study reveals how COVID-19 can directly damage brain cells

New research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience is the first to demonstrate how the SARS-CoV-2 virus can directly damage cells in the brain, showing vascular cells that comprise the blood-brain barrier can be destroyed by the virus.

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Artificial intelligence ethics policy

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for the appropriate use of ethics involving artificial Intelligence.

This policy can be customized as needed to fit the needs of your organization.

From the policy:

SUMMARY

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is on the rise in many organizations across various fields. Artificial intelligence has the power to help businesses as well as employees by providing greater data insights, better threat protection, more efficient automation and other advances.

However, if misused, artificial intelligence can be a detriment to individuals, organizations, and society overall. For instance, “bots” are now rampant among social media, generating political propaganda or “fake news” intended to adversely impact or unjustly inflate people’s opinions of various political candidates or personalities, thereby lowering the quality of discourse and public faith in reporting institutions.

Therefore, it is imperative to establish moral guidelines and boundaries for the use of artificial intelligence in business.

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Checklist: Onboarding and offboarding IT staff

Employees, contractors and even interns come and go. IT departments, of course, are tasked with ensuring the proper accounts, applications, services and permissions are assigned to each user. The process quickly becomes complex, considering the variety of corresponding elements that must be tracked for every onboarding and offboarding. But when enrolling or disabling an IT staff member’s accounts and services, individual required steps become that much more important.

Following a checklist, like the one provided by TechRepublic Premium, or even customizing the checklist for your organization, will ensure a smooth transition when onboarding and offboarding members of your IT staff.

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iCloud vs. OneDrive: Which is best for Mac, iPad and iPhone users? (free PDF)

Smart professionals know—maybe many learned the hard way—never to keep data in a single location. Although the temptation exists—insidiously alluring with its seduction of ease—to simply store files, especially work in progress, on a Mac desktop or in a local documents folder, phones are lost, iPads are stolen and Mac drives can fail. With such events, all locally stored information is lost and, at worst (if you’re not taking advantage of file encryption and device security features), available to unauthorized users.

Apple iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive provide elegant, cost-effective solutions to the problem and help prevent lost data. The question is no longer whether you should be using a cloud file storage solution, but which one. Find out more in this free TechRepublic PDF download.

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Mobile device security policy

More and more users are conducting business on mobile devices. This can be due to increases in remote workers, travel, global workforces, or just being on-the-go. This policy provides guidelines for mobile device security needs in order to protect businesses and their employees from security threats.

From the policy

Summary

Mobile devices are commonly used to conduct company business which can render them more susceptible to risk than desktop or even laptop computers. Desktops are routinely stationary devices and laptops are harder to lose than smartphones or tablets, being more sizeable. In addition, the same social engineering, phishing and application/operating system vulnerabilities which plague desktops and laptops are just as applicable to mobile devices.

With this in mind, it’s important to establish and follow specific, comprehensive guidelines for securing mobile devices from loss, attack, or misuse.

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for mobile device security needs in order to protect businesses and their employees.

This policy can be customized as needed to fit the needs of your organization.

Scope

All employees, whether full-time, part-time, contract workers, consultants, part-time staff, interns and temporary workers and other personnel are covered by this policy. It also applies to all company-owned drone equipment or material related thereto.

Exceptions

There are no exceptions to this policy except where permitted in writing by the HR and IT departments.

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Bring your own device (BYOD) policy

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement has helped business save money on technological spending by allowing employees to use their own mobile devices, tablets or other electronics to conduct company operations.

The convenience of letting users rely upon devices they are familiar with (and for which they have their own support) has also made workers more efficient and reduced their dependency on the IT department for trouble-shooting, repairing, or replacing devices.

Of course, this flexibility comes with another sort of price: The need to establish proper guidelines for usage and control of these devices as well as what they can access and what steps should be followed in the event of loss, theft, or employment termination. Since employees use their devices for personal and/or recreational activities, this can pose more risk for the organization than the exclusive use of business-owned devices.

This policy from TechRepublic Premium describes the steps that the company and its employees will follow when connecting personal computers and devices to organization systems and networks.

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Happy birthday, Google docs! Check out the apps 15 best features (free PDF)

Google Docs turns 15 years old this October 2021, since the app officially launched in October 2006, built on concepts initially implemented by the team behind Writely, which Google acquired. At the time, the real innovation of the app was multi-person document editing in a browser that worked. Years later, collaboration remains a core strength of Google Docs.

Over the years, the branding around Google Docs has changed. It’s been part of Google Apps for your Domain, Google Apps for Work and later, Google Apps (minus the modifiers). For a while it was part of G Suite. As of late 2021, Google Docs serves alongside other collaborative editors, such as Google Sheets and Google Slides, as a core component of Google Workspace.

To recognize the 15-year longevity of Google Docs, TechRepublic is highlighting 15 key aspects of the app. Many of these you may know, but I hope you find a few new-to-you features, as well. Find out more in this free PDF download.

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Argon fluoride laser could lead to practical fusion reactors

The US NRL is developing an Argon Fluoride laser that may one day make fusion power a practical by delivering the incredible temperatures required for a self-sustaining fusion reaction, with enough efficiency to make the process worthwhile.

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