2025 milestones: February

Tech highlights for February 2025 included: 

- Amazon introduced Alexa+, a version of its voice-powered virtual assistant Alexa that is powered by generative AI. The company has billed Alexa+ as "easy to talk to" and an assistant that will "turn talk into action".

Amazon Web Services (AWS) opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. This is Amazon's second corporate office in the country. 

- The Bybit cryptocurrency exchange lost US$1.5 B from an online Ethereum wallet, the largest thefts of digital assets from an exchange to date. According to Check Point Research, the cyberattack marked a major shift in crypto cybercrime as it focused on social engineering and user interface (UI) manipulation to get through, rather than exploiting code weaknesses. 

Said Oded Vanunu, Head of Products Vulnerability Research at Check Point Research: “The attack on Bybit is not surprising—last July, we uncovered the exact manipulation technique that attackers exploited in this record-breaking heist. The most alarming takeaway is that even cold wallets—once considered the safest option—are now vulnerable. This attack proves that a prevention-first approach, securing every step of a transaction, is the only way to stop cybercriminals from carrying out similar high-impact attacks in the future."

Check Point Research listed three takeaways from the heist:

• Multisigs, or requiring multiple signatures to perform an action on a cryptocurrency wallet, are no longer a security guarantee if signers can be compromised. 
• Cold wallets aren’t automatically safe if an attacker can manipulate what a signer sees. 
• Supply chain and UI manipulation attacks are becoming more sophisticated.

- DeepSeek was banned by the Australian government, which prohibited the AI model from all government systems and devices. This follows a ban by Taiwan on public sector use in January.  

Satnam Narang, Senior Staff Research Engineer, Tenable commented: “Various bans have been placed on DeepSeek, a large language model (LLM) developed by a Chinese startup, on government devices around the world including in the US (state of Texas), Italy, and now Australia. These actions are being taken due to the risks, specifically around usage of DeepSeek’s website and mobile app due to fears of exposure of sensitive information to the People’s Republic of China.

“Banning access to the DeepSeek website and mobile applications is straightforward. However, because the DeepSeek LLM itself is open-source, blocking access to it is less straightforward, as it can be run locally on a device, it can be run through a cloud environment, and installed via various apps or frameworks like ollama. It requires some extra legwork for users to set up, but it can be done.

“The local LLMs don’t require access to external servers, minimising the risk of leaking sensitive data. However, banning DeepSeek’s website and apps on government devices is only one barrier, because they are still accessible on personal devices, which could be used to share sensitive information. Another concerning aspect to DeepSeek is not just the exposure of sensitive information, but rather the model’s lack of safety features, as it could be used for harmful or nefarious purposes.” 

- Digital investments in Malaysia hit a high of RM163.6 B in 2024, against the previous record RM46.8 B in 2023.

Source: Photo by John Brecher for Microsoft. Majorana 1, the first quantum chip powered by a topological core based on a new class of materials developed by Microsoft. 

- Microsoft has introduced Majorana 1, the world’s first quantum chip powered by a new architecture that it expects will lead to quantum computers that can solve industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.  

The company also announced that it would be retiring its communications and collaboration tool Skype in May 2025 in favour of the newer Microsoft Teams (free). 

- New Zealand updated its guidance on AI use in the public sector.

- Oman launched three digital platforms. The National Platform for Suggestions, Complaints and Reports, codenamed Tajawub, is dedicated to receiving complaints and suggestions at government institutions. A National System for Planning, Evaluation and Performance Monitoring includes various government institutions and aims to align with Oman Vision 2040, while the National Unified Portal for Electronic Services, is a one-stop destination for all digital government services.

- OpenAI technology will be adopted by SoftBank and Kakao. OpenAI and SoftBank have also set up a joint venture and plan on co-developing solutions. Kakao will also co-develop solutions with OpenAI. 

The company also released a research preview of GPT‑4.5, its largest and best model for chat. The model has a broader knowledge base, improved ability to follow user intent, and greater “EQ”, and is expected to hallucinate less, OpenAI said.

- Singapore announced up to S$150 M for a new Enterprise Compute Initiative. Under this initiative, eligible enterprises will be partnered with major cloud service providers to access AI tools and computing power, as well as expert consultancy services. 

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in Singapore introduced advisory guidelines for cloud services and data centres. 

The Cyber Resilience Guide for Boards in Singapore, which provides advice about corporate cyber resilience, was launched. Up to 500 board directors will receive free training based on the guide, which is developed by the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) in collaboration with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) , ISTARI and NCS Group.

Explore

January 2025 milestones are at https://www.techtradeasia.com/2025/02/2025-milestones-january.html

Hashtag: #2025milestones