Harmonizing human insight with AI: The future of tax and finance in the digital era
In common with many industries, the digital transformation era has ushered in a paradigm shift in the tax and accountancy sectors. This has placed automation and artificial intelligence (AI) at the center of operational innovation, efficiency and competitive advantage. In doing so, these and other technologies are redefining the way industry professionals approach their work, with profound implications for the future.
Among the key questions this creates are: what does this all mean for human skillsets and expertise, and how can businesses balance these changes with uniquely human capabilities, ensuring that one complements the other? In looking for answers, there are several key areas to consider:
The bridge to the future
Unless there is easy and seamless connectivity between different blockchain-based asset types on different platforms, the full benefits of tokenization will not be realized. However, achieving this interoperability has proven a significant obstacle. The blockchain bridge has emerged as a promising solution, albeit one that has historically carried cost and risk. But recent advancements have made these bridges accessible, secure, and cost-effective.
Blockchain technology, which captured the imagination of the public some 15 years ago, promised to revolutionize the financial world. With each passing year, new and use cases have emerged, slowly but surely attracting a growing user base. Although the exact timeline for mass adoption remains a topic of debate, many in the industry agree it is an eventuality.
We tried Brave's AI chatbot Leo: It talks a lot about privacy, but is it truly private?
In early November, Brave, best known for its privacy-focused browser, launched its own AI chatbot called Leo. The chatbot is built into the desktop version of the browser (Brave says it will be coming to mobile soon), and was made available to all users for free. We at AdGuard, always eager to explore new AI-powered tools, and aftertesting Bing AI and playing with others, we couldn't resist the chance to check out Leo and assess its smartness and privacy features.
By default, Leo is found in the sidebar. To summon the genie AI-powered assistant, one simply needs to type 'ask Leo' in the address bar and it will materialize on the right side of the screen.
Undertaking a data diet this Black Friday
Like every year, Black Friday marks the start of the end-of-year shopping season, and with it a significant increase in online sales. Although it's very much an American event, Black Friday in the UK has grown in popularity in recent years. In 2022, UK consumers spent a record £9.42 billion over the Black Friday weekend. Of this, 61 percent was spent online.
For e-retailers in the UK, the cyber weekend represents a significant increase in activity and traffic, leading to an accumulation of data generated and collected by e-commerce sites, requiring large storage capacities with a high environmental impact.
Will Quantum Computing change the way we use encryption?
Today, encryption is a cornerstone of our cybersecurity practices. It protects everything from cell phones and SMS messages to financial transactions and intellectual property.
However, a new challenge in the complex landscape of encryption has recently emerged, thanks to the advancement of quantum computing. What challenges lay ahead? Here is the breakdown:
Mitigating fraud risks when expanding internationally
Global expansion is the way forward for businesses looking to upscale in 2023 and beyond. The past few years have laid the foundation for international expansion, and now more and more merchants are embracing the opportunities.
But as they’re venturing into new markets, certain challenges appear along the way. One of them is cross-border payment. While businesses might be familiar with the fraud situation in their home market, new territories present new fraud obstacles. Here is why fraud familiarization is key to success and what are the fraud profiles of some of the major markets.
The CISO view: Navigating the promise and pitfalls of cybersecurity automation
Cybersecurity automation has steadily gained traction as organizations seek to improve efficiency, address talent gaps, and keep up with escalating threats. However, our latest State of Cybersecurity Automation research shows that while more businesses are utilizing automation, they continue to grapple with obstacles that prevent them from fully capitalizing on its benefits.
In our recent study surveying over 700 cybersecurity professionals, we uncovered several persistent pain points in implementing automation. The research found that a lack of trust in automated outcomes, insufficient expertise among users, and poor communication between teams have hampered automation success. As a result, organizations are struggling to build confidence in automation and maximize its effectiveness.
Why good cyber hygiene is a strategic imperative for UK SMEs
No company is immune from a cyber-attack, with large and small being targeted. As technologies advance and cybercriminals hone their skills, evolve their tactics, and find new vulnerabilities to exploit, companies can no longer ask the question of if a cyber attack will occur but when and how it will happen.
While the number of data breaches is cause for concern, the cost associated with them is equally alarming. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the global average cost of a cyberattack has ballooned to $4.45 million, increasing by 15 percent over the past three years. Even more sobering is that it shows no signs of easing, as global cybercrime costs are projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
The next evolution of AI: From conversations to interactions
Chatbots such as ChatGPT and voice assistants like Siri and Alexa have become ubiquitous parts of our daily lives. Millions of people regularly converse with these AI-powered tools to get information, set reminders, control smart devices, and more. However, while chatbots and virtual assistants represent an important early milestone in the development of artificial intelligence, they remain limited in significant ways.
These conversational agents can only engage in simple, narrow tasks operating in an isolated, disembodied way, devoid of richer context and unable to leverage external data sources.Moreover, most common AI tools only utilize rigid text or voice-only interfaces, restricting more natural interaction. The true promise of AI lies in building assistants that can seamlessly interact with us and other applications in an integrated way to accomplish complex, multi-step goals.
The human element -- cybersecurity's greatest challenge
The stark reality of cybersecurity today isn't merely a question of advanced software or strategic counterattacks. It's about people.
The financial impact is undeniable with cybercrime costs projected to reach an astonishing $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Yet, beneath these figures lies a more pressing issue: the exploitation of human psychology.
People, process, technology: How to shift security testing left successfully
The benefits of shift-left security are clear. It puts security testing in the hands of the engineers who write the code, enabling vulnerability fixes to occur before software hit production. This provides fixers with faster feedback loops on vulnerabilities found, as well as ensuring more efficient time to feature delivery and cohesive teamwork between security and development teams. With all the benefits that come with shifting API and web application security left, it’s no wonder that 57 percent of security team members have either already shifted their security strategy left or are planning to do so this year, according to a GitLab survey.
So, how do organizations implement a shift-left security strategy successfully? The answer lies in the popular three-legged stool analogy: assessing the process, people, and technology behind this major organizational change, and how they all can work together interdependently.
4 best practices in cloud security to strengthen national defense in the automation age
In the era of digital transformation, national security faces complex and multifaceted challenges. To address these challenges, the Department of Defense (DOD) is taking a vigilant approach to fortify the security of cloud infrastructure.
This approach seamlessly aligns with overarching national cybersecurity initiatives, which are focused on countering a multitude of emerging threats in the age of automation. Collaboratively, the DOD and other government agencies are dedicated to strengthening the ever-evolving cloud ecosystem, while navigating an increasingly intricate threat landscape.
The role experience plays in risk mitigation
Without intending to be trite, there is a very important role that experience plays in the mitigation of risk. Experience comes into play when you are tasked with prioritizing risks. If you have zero experience in cybersecurity risk management, two critical vulnerabilities have equal weight and importance. But not all critical vulnerabilities can or will be weaponized and exploited. And not all critical vulnerabilities will result in a breach or security incident. This is the difference between a priori (independent from any experience) vs a posteriori (dependent on empirical evidence) vulnerability management.
To be effective at mitigating risk, we need to find ways to make intelligent use of experience in running infosec programs. We need to use not just our own experience, but also the experience of others. This is a form of collective resilience that is crucial to defending against nation states, organized crime and, like it or not, bored teenagers attacking and breaching companies just for the lulz like LAPSUS$. This piece aims to help identify some ways in which we can better prioritize our efforts.
OpenAI's big announcement: Why enterprises should pay attention
OpenAI held its first dev day conference last week, and announcements there made huge waves in technology and startup circles. But it’s enterprises that should be paying attention, and here’s why:
OpenAI made significant improvements to ChatGPT -- ones that address critical flaws that made it unsuitable for enterprise use cases because the results were inaccurate, non-credible and untrustworthy. What’s changed is that OpenAI has integrated retrieval augmented generation (RAG) into ChatGPT.
APIs -- The hidden cause of data breaches
APIs are unseen. They are not typically a technology that end users interact with directly and are somewhat hidden from their day-to-day activities. Therefore, user understanding of API vulnerabilities and the impact an API security incident could have, when it comes to data breaches, is often lacking.
While data breaches are big news, what regularly isn’t reported is the way in which some of these incidents happen. But the reality is that for many data breaches, the weak links, more often than not, are APIs and improper security around those APIs.
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