The Harlow Report-GIS
2025 Edition
ISSN 0742-468XSince 1978
On-line Since 2000
GIS News Snippets
For the week of
July 14, 2025
Remember When?
A “Harlow Report” From July 15, 2024
The Still-Essential Skill of Cartography
by Jeff Thoreson is Editor-in-Chief of xyHt
When my kids were in high school, I made them learn to read a map. Their mother was incapable in this capacity, but still rode shotgun even though she had no ability to navigate us out of difficulty
When I got off course, I'd toss the map in the back seat and tell the kids to figure out how to get to our vacation destination or we would just spend the night in the car. With that kind of motivation, they became excellent navigators.
When they went off to college, the smart phone became a thing and no sooner had they mastered reading the impossible-to-fold paper map than it became obsolete, like the typewriter or landline--a useless relic of the past.
… I recently did a tour of several European cities, and streets that once would have required a stack of maps and atlases to navigate were all contained in our pockets. The deeper we get into the less maps become a necessity.
Read full story at xyHt…
Now back to 2025
Context Is Key: Geospatial Technologies and Digital Engineering Are Critical in an Increasingly Complex World
by Rosie Crampton
In this Guest Writer article, Peter Cameron, GIS Specialist at Aarvee, takes a closer look at geospatial technologies — explaining how they support today's complex infrastructure projects.
The infrastructure projects of today are being developed in an increasingly complex world. Between rapid technological advancements, competing land use demands, economic uncertainty, climate change, and ever rising interconnectedness, the landscape in which we must design and deliver projects is progressively challenging.
It is within this real-world context that projects are situated, surrounded by and overlapping with other infrastructure, land uses, environmental features, and communities. Infrastructure projects do not float in space, like a sketch on a drafting table, disconnected from the surrounding world.
Geospatial technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) provide context by placing infrastructure designs in their real-world locations. By overlapping spatial datasets, the interactions with surrounding features can be visualised, analysed, and quantified. Questions can then be explored and answered, such as:
Read full story at Rail Business Daily…
Cybercriminals Exploiting GeoServer RCE Vulnerability to Deploy Crypto Miners
by Mandvi
A surge in cyberattacks leveraging the GeoServer Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability (CVE-2024-36401) has been reported.
GeoServer, a widely adopted open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) server written in Java, has become a high-value target for threat actors following the public disclosure of the RCE vulnerability in 2024.
Despite security advisories and public documentation, many GeoServer instances remain unpatched, creating fertile ground for malicious activity.
Twin Threats in South Korea and Beyond
Recent attack campaigns have been observed in South Korea, where cybercriminals have exploited unpatched GeoServer installations to execute PowerShell commands remotely and deploy NetCat and XMRig CoinMiner. According to ASEC Report, these attacks begin with the delivery of malicious PowerShell scripts, such as “adminc.ps1,”that install NetCat a legitimate network utility often abused as a remote shell.
Read full story at CyberPress…
Esri Launches New E-Commerce Experience for Demographic Data
by Esri Insider
Organizations Can Purchase Updated, Authoritative Datasets Ranging from Census to Retail Demand
To further provide individuals and organizations with the authoritative demographic data they need, Esri, the global leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, has launched a new e-commerce experience for data in the Esri Store. A one-stop shop for enhanced, reliable information relating to people and geography, Esri's location data store is designed to make these resources more accessible for users that rely on spatial data.
“We are thrilled to launch our new e-commerce experience, making it easier than ever for customers to access the data they need to make better decisions,”said Rob Elkins, Esri director of product management. “Organizations will have access to current-year and five-year estimates for more than 2,000 demographic and socioeconomic characteristics in the US, as well as census and American Community Survey (ACS) information, consumer spending trends, market potential, and more available on demand to fit their workflows.”
Leaders in both the private and public sectors today must address challenges concerning people and places. A comprehensive understanding of specific locations integrated with population, age, income, and education data is critical for making better-informed decisions. Esri's new e-commerce experience provides users with benefits that include:
Read full story at Esri…
Google Is Tracking You. 3 Settings to Change Right Now to Take Back Control
by Jason Cohen
Google monitors your online activity, location, and ad preferences. Don't like it? These are the accounts settings I adjusted to reclaim my privacy.
Where you lead, Google will follow. The company can log your searches, watch history, and activity across various services, and while that might sound handy for looking back at your browsing history or revisiting a previous trip, it feels a little Big Brother to me. As a result, I've changed a few settings on my Google account to keep that monitoring in check.
Google uses this data to give you "more personalized experiences," which can include faster searches, but also "more helpful app and content recommendations." That's basically code for "we use your search, app, and map data to serve you ads."
You can head to Google's My Activity dashboard to view your data, but I use the Data & privacy section of my Google account dashboard to make changes, since it also gives me easy access to Personalized ads settings, for some extra privacy management. Even if you don't change much, this is a great way to see what information Google has on you, and start fighting back.
Read full story at PCMag…
Unlocking the Potential of GIS Needs Government Support
by Ian Murphy
Geographic Information Systems have the ability to unlock a wave of new innovation. What is needed to improve the use of GIS?
Modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a long way from their map forerunners. They offer easier ways to overlay complex data, making it easy to visualise. Despite this, many users fail to get the most out of their systems, which impacts their business and society.
As VertiGIS prepared to announce its latest solution, VertiGIS Neo, Enterprise Times talked with its CEO, Andy Berry . One of the biggest blockers to growth and effective use of GIS in the UK, according to Berry, is the lack of government investment. He sees that as a necessary driver for greater digitisation of assets, which will help deliver new benefits.
In the utility market, government investment in the UK comes with political challenges. Many utilities are publicly traded and owned by non-UK-based companies. The government’s investment in them would raise questions about competition. It also raises questions over why utilities are not investing.
Read full story at Enterprise Times…
Industry News
In Government
DoD Gets Millions for Cyber Capabilities Under GOP Reconciliation Package
by David DiMolfetta
The law's vast cuts to Medicaid, however, are putting rural healthcare groups on high alert.
The Republican domestic policy law, signed over the weekend, includes significant boosts for U.S. military cyber spending, including new investments in cyberdefense, offensive operations and workforce development.
The law establishes a $250 million investment for AI-related efforts at Cyber Command. Meanwhile, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would get $1 million devoted to offensive cyber capabilities. INDOPACOM's territory includes China, Russia and North Korea, which make up most of the top nation-state cyberspace adversaries targeting U.S. and Western interests.
Around $20 million is allotted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, while a separate $90 million tranche includes cybersecurity support “for non-traditional contractors.”
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard, a military service primarily managed by the Department of Homeland Security, would get $2.2 billion for cyber asset upkeep. It would also get $170 million for maritime domain awareness assets — the radars, drones, patrol boats and sensors that help the Coast Guard see what's happening in U.S. waters — that include tools related to cyberspace.
Read full story at NextGov/FCW…
No Surprise: The Public Sector Faces More Ransomware and Cloud-Based Attacks in 2025
by Michael Keating
Several factors leave cities and counties more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, including limited security budgets, less mature security programs and slower ability to adapt to evolving threats.
More cities and counties are at risk of ransomware attacks today, says Douglas McKee, executive director of Threat Research at SonicWall, a firm that builds, scales and manages security across the cloud, hybrid and traditional environments in real-time, and seamlessly protects against cyberattacks across many exposure points for increasingly remote, mobile and cloud-enabled users.
“Local governments are often treated the same as small and midsize businesses (SMBs) by threat actors. SMBs are facing a surge in ransomware (8% increase year-over-year in North America), business email compromise (33% increase), and cloud-based attacks as explained in the SonicWall 2024 Threat Report.”
Read full story at American City & County…
SAIC Books $928M Air Force Tech Prototyping Job
by Ross Wilkers
Air Force officials sought a technology integrator to work with an organization responsible for helping the military bring in solutions from the intelligence community.
Summary
Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) secured a potential five-year, $928 million task order to support the Air Force's Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (AF TENCAP) organization through the Hyper-Innovative Operational Prototype Engineering 2.0 (HOPE 2.0) contract.
This program, mandated by Congress, focuses on rapidly integrating intelligence community technologies into military operations. SAIC's role involves research, development, testing, and evaluation to create near-production-ready prototypes, enhancing decision-making in air, space, and cyber domains. The contract emphasizes sensor and data fusion, command-and-control, advanced materials, special operations needs, battlespace awareness, interoperability, and cyberspace capabilities.
SAIC will collaborate with nearly a dozen defense companies to deliver these technologies. According to Vincent DiFronzo, SAIC's executive vice president, HOPE 2.0 aligns with the Department of Defense's Software Acquisition Pathway, supporting national priorities like Pacific deterrence and America's Golden Dome. The contract underscores the need for a data-centric approach to integrate military, intelligence, and space communities, ensuring the U.S. military remains a global leader through rapid, innovative technology development.
Read full story at Washington Technology…
In Technology
16 Billion Passwords Exposed in Record-Breaking Data Breach
by Vilius Petkauskas
What does it mean for you?
Key takeaways:
- The largest data breach in history involves 16 billion login credentials
- The records are scattered across 30 different databases, and some records are or might be overlapping
- The data most likely comes from various infostealers
- The data is recent, not merely recycled from old breaches
- Cybercriminals now have unprecedented access to personal credentials and could exploit them for account takeovers, identity theft, and targeted phishing attacks
Read full story at Cybernews…
Jack Dorsey Just Released a Bluetooth Messaging App That Doesn't Need the Internet
by Lawrence Bonk
It's in beta for now.
Jack Dorsey just released a decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app that functions entirely over Bluetooth networks, as reported by CNBC. It's called Bitchat and doesn't need the internet to work, as there are no central servers. The Twitter co-founder calls it an experiment in “Bluetooth mesh networks, relays and store and forward models, message encryption models and a few other things.” It works by enabling encrypted communication between nearby gadgets. Basically, it sends messages directly from one device to another, but each device is also a node that widens the network a little bit.
Read full story at Engadget…
Robert Half Exec Details How to Use AI to Snag a Tech Job — and What Not to Do
by Lucas Mearian
While generative AI technology can help job seekers on their quest, real skills and a personal touch still matter more, says George Denlinger, operational president of Robert Half.
As tech hiring has slowed to a near standstill, organizations have begun using generative AI (genAI) to screen hiring prospects — or replace entry-level employees — and some are even using the technology to interview job candidates. The result is a topsy-turvy job market that has made finding work in IT more difficult than ever.
In April, employer hiring fell to its slowest pace in more than a decade, excluding the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Job cuts in the tech industry and at federal government agencies have led the way in layoffs in recent job market reports, driven by economic pressure, programmatic firings and AI-driven shifts in workforce needs, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.<
Read full story at Computerworld…
In Utilities
Alabama Power honored for innovative reliability analytics platform at SEE Conference
by Alabama Power Press Release
Alabama Power's commitment to reliability earned it the Chairman's Award at the Southeastern Electric Exchange's Annual Conference.
This commitment was recently recognized at the Southeastern Electric Exchange's (S.E.E.) Annual Conference in Orlando, where Alabama Power was honored with the prestigious Chairman's Award. This award is considered the “Best of the Best” and honors the project deemed most outstanding of all the category winners. Alabama Power's Power Delivery organization received the award for its work developing the Reliability Analytics and Monitoring Platform (RAMP).
RAMP is a cutting-edge, cloud-based application developed in partnership with E-Source. This innovative platform provides a comprehensive view of the power grid's performance, integrating reported values, customer experience data and device failure information. By leveraging these insights, RAMP identifies areas for improvement and pinpoints the root causes of reliability issues, marking a significant advancement in using data to enhance system reliability, operational efficiency and strategic planning.
Read full story at Alabama Power…
US Data Center to Add Batteries Without Lithium Mined Overseas
by Bloomberg
Data center builder Prometheus Hyperscale and startup XL Batteries have agreed to deploy a novel type of energy storage for the first time at a US data center.
A data center builder and a battery startup have agreed to deploy a novel type of energy storage for the first time at a US data center. It's the latest example of tech companies' search for ways to manage the soaring energy needs of artificial intelligence.
Prometheus Hyperscale and XL Batteries will install what's known as an organic flow battery at the one-gigawatt data center Prometheus is building in Wyoming. The project will begin as a small pilot in 2027 with plans to install another 25 megawatts of energy storage in 2028 and 2029. Organic flow batteries are unique because they don't require lithium and rely instead on pumping positive and negative electrolytes through stacks of power cells to store and release energy.
The data centers that run artificial intelligence and cloud operations already require massive amounts of electricity, and the need is set to grow further. US data centers will rise from 3.5% of total electricity demand today to 8.6% by 2035, according to BloombergNEF projections.
Read full story at The Business Download…
US Energy Firms Spend Record Sums on Power Plants for Data Centres — and More Top Energy Stories
by Roberto Bocca
Top energy news: Record spend from US energy firms on power plants for data centres; Energy transition momentum needs localized approaches; Google agrees to buy nuclear fusion power.
Summary
US energy companies are investing a record $212.1 billion in 2025, a 22.3% increase, to build power plants and transmission lines for data centers, driven by AI demand. By 2027, investments will hit $228.1 billion.
AI data centers consume vast electricity—some equaling 100,000 households, with the largest using 20 times more—yet AI also enhances energy efficiency, renewable integration, and grid resilience, creating an energy paradox. Globally, the energy transition requires localized strategies, as per the World Economic Forum's 2025 report, balancing equity, security, and sustainability with tailored approaches.
Google signed a deal for 200 MW from a Virginia nuclear fusion plant, aiming to be the first grid-scale facility. Malaysia cut green electricity tariffs by 80% to diversify business access. Northeast Asia boosted jet fuel exports to Europe. Eight EU nations formed a grid development alliance to support renewables. India's renewable output hit a 17% peak in June 2025. Brazil raised ethanol blends to 30%, supported by corn ethanol growth. Engie completed a 650 MW wind farm in Egypt, and African nations push for nuclear adoption to meet rising energy demands.
Read full story at World Economic Forum…