Technology

This IT pilot fish works with lots of sensitive data -- and that means really sensitive, such as child abuse investigations.

"Until a few years ago, I had access to all that data, so I could write ad-hoc reports against it," says fish. "We 'systems' people were given access to everything, so we could troubleshoot application problems for the users.

"Then one day I was called into the CEO's office. He told me that according to the logs, I did a search against the Child Welfare data for a particular family on a date and time six months earlier -- and wanted to know why I did the search."

As best fish can recall, he was doing the search to troubleshoot a particular report that one caseworker was trying to run. To do that, he used his own workstation to duplicate the steps that the caseworker took to get to the error.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have found that 3D printers have fingerprints, essentially slight differences in design that can be used to identify prints. This means investigators can examine the layers of a 3D printed object and pinpoint exactly which machine produced the parts.

&3D printing has many wonderful uses, but italso a counterfeiterdream. Even more concerning, it has the potential to make firearms more readily available to people who are not allowed to possess them,& said Wenyao Xu, lead author of the study.

The researchers found that tiny wrinkles in each layer of plastic can be used to identify a &printermodel type, filament, nozzle size and other factors cause slight imperfections in the patterns.& They call their technology PrinTracker.

&Like a fingerprint to a person, these patterns are unique and repeatable. As a result, they can be traced back to the 3D printer,& wrote the researchers.

This process works primarily with FDM printers like the Makerbot which use long spools of filament to deposit layers of plastic onto a build plate. Because the printers used in 3D printed guns are usually more complex and more expensive there could be less variation in the individual layers and, more importantly, the layers might be harder to discern. However, for some simpler plastic parts could exhibit variations.

&3D printers are built to be the same. But there are slight variations in their hardware created during the manufacturing process that lead to unique, inevitable and unchangeable patterns in every object they print,& said Xu.

PayPal this week announced an expanded relationship with American Express that will allow cardholders to use their Membership Rewards points when shopping from PayPal merchants, as well as more integrated experience within both PayPal and the Amex apps, among other things.

The deal is similar to those PayPal earlier struck withVisaandMasterCard., and follows a series of partnerships it has made across the industry, including others with Apple, Google, Samsung, and, most recently, Walmart, designed to increase its PayPalvisibility and adoption.

In addition to using points for purchases at PayPalmillions of online merchants, the new partnership will also allow Amex mobile app users to send money through PayPal or Venmo directly in the app. And they&ll be able to add their American Express cards to their PayPal wallet directly from the app, too.

On PayPalside, users will be able to pay their Amex bill with their PayPal or Venmo balance using the PayPal Instant Transfer feature, and it will more clearly identify users& specific American Express cards in the PayPal wallet using card-specific branding.

These agreements have represented something of a change of course for PayPal over the past couple of years. Before, the company had been pursuing its own brick-and-mortar strategy to see its payment mechanism integrated at point-of-sale. But those ambitions have died down, and now PayPal is focused on expanding its relationships other payment providers, like Apple Pay or major credit cards, turning former rivals into partners.

&This partnership is the product of our companies& strong commitment to create innovative payment experiences that utilize both organizations& core assets, including the ability for customers to pay with American Express Membership Rewards points and the integration of peer-to-peer payments into the Amex app,& said Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal, in a statement about the Amex agreement. &Our new partnership expands PayPalubiquity, and enables us to offer consumers and merchants new and innovative product experiences,& he added.

PayPal says it will also integrateinto the American Express Token Service, and continue its global card acceptance relationship, as part of this deal. The two companies will work together to implement the new features over the course of 2019.

These expanded agreements with stakeholders in the payments industry may be working.

The company also reported earnings this week, noting the addition of9.1 million accounts during the quarter and a 25 percent increase in total payment volume. Payment volume in Venmo was also up 78% in Q3. PayPaltotal revenue grew 14% in the quarter to $3.68 billion, while earnings were up 26 percent.