We're living in a 'post-breach era' and no company is safe
The infamous Equifax data breach dominated headlines in 2017. The social security numbers, driver's license numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses -- and in some cases credit card numbers -- of 148 million individuals were exposed. With over half of the U.S. population affected, the credit reporting giant spent $1.4 billion in damage control, including paying customers out up to $20,000 and providing them with ongoing fraud assistance and monitoring.
This wasn’t the first breach of its kind to occur, and it certainly won’t be the last: Uber, Facebook, and Google have also been hit, to name a few. But perhaps the most alarming part about attacks like the Equifax breach is that -- at just over four years post-breach -- we’re still not out of the woods yet. And we might never be full. Major breaches leave us vulnerable long after the dust has settled. With more people’s personal identifiable information now readily available to be exploited, it’s only a matter of time.
How to protect your business from loyalty fraud
Today, businesses are realizing that a top-notch customer experience is the key to staying one step ahead in a highly competitive market. Enterprises are investing in loyalty schemes to elevate the online shopping experience for their most valued customers.
Unfortunately, fraud rings have shifted towards account-based vulnerabilities and target loyalty schemes through sophisticated fraudulent techniques. Not only that, but individual customers and internal staff can also exploit loyalty schemes and commit fraud, according to Signifyd’s ecommerce data report. We explore how to protect your business from loyalty fraud to reduce both brand reputation and customer relationship damage.
How can AI transform the way we collaborate and connect?
The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is predicted to reach $267 billion by 2027. But concerns have been raised about whether these advancements could replace humans in jobs as technology is being used to simulate human intelligence processes. In fact, approximately 68.5 percent of college graduates think that the development of AI could either take their job away or make them irrelevant in the next few years.
But AI can offer many benefits for human connections and collaborations. Here, we delve into the outcomes of AI and how it can benefit businesses.
Why moving to the cloud is right for government agencies
Over the last few years in enterprise IT, the fight between on-premise software and cloud services has been dominating tech conversations. Today, many businesses realize we will never return to the in-office routine we experienced before the pandemic. As remote and hybrid work becomes the norm, constituents now expect to be communicated through various channels, including mobile.
The introduction of mobile-focused operations showcases the need for technology system improvements within the public sector.
Will quantum computing ever be available off-the-shelf?
It goes without saying that quantum computing is complex. But people buy extraordinarily complex things through simple processes every day. After all, few smartphone buyers know how their devices work. Even a humble bar of soap arrives on the shelf only after the raw materials are extracted, refined, manufactured, packaged, shipped, and stocked.
The question is: will quantum computing’s complexity ever be contained to the point where end users can buy it "off-the-shelf"? The answer is: that depends on what you mean by off-the-shelf.
Europe is getting tough on big tech -- when will the US do the same?
In March, the European Union (EU) took a significant step toward reining in Big Tech offenders with the Digital Markets Act. Targeting the gatekeepers of today’s digital economy, the law is a historic piece of legislation and is a critical next step in the broader fight to level the playing field.
However, this watershed moment has failed to reach the US, which continues to fall short in protecting consumers and innovative small businesses from predatory tech companies. Congress must stop playing catch up with Europe and take a leadership role to protect its constituents. Courage and cooperation across the aisle are needed to strengthen the laws that protect the majority. Big tech, their lobbyists, and those seeking to fund their next election are far too cozy as mega-companies continue to exploit their dominance and suppress innovation. The lack of US action is embarrassing, as our friends across the pond take decisive steps.
How the Okta breach exposed organizations' cybersecurity immaturity
In early March 2022, authentication security company Okta reported that there had been an attempt to compromise the account of a third-party customer support engineer from Sitel in January. The organization released a statement claiming that the matter had been investigated and contained.
Okta CSO David Bradbury later admitted that up to 366 customers may have been breached, apologizing for not notifying customers earlier. In the weeks since the attack, Okta has released a conflicting statement arguing that the attack affected just two customers, although this is perhaps naïve and hard to prove. Okta has said it recognizes the broad toll this kind of compromise can have on customers, but there is little to suggest that the attackers aren’t already lying dormant inside the networks of further customers.
CCleaner 6 is here, complete with better updating mechanism and a unique Performance Optimizer
In the world of system optimization and clean-up utilities, there are lots of names vying for attention, but it is CCleaner that wins the popularity contest. It has been a while since the app received a significant update but that changes with the release of CCleaner 6.
There is a lot to talk about in this latest release, but the headline grabber is the new, unique and patented Performance Optimizer feature. While many performance optimization techniques found in other apps make only a subjective differences, the boost given by this new feature can be measured in benchmarks.
Turn data into knowledge to accelerate innovation
Blackberry, Nokia, Blockbuster and Kodak: these are just some of the once-successful companies that failed because they failed to innovate. In our digital world, the difference between sinking and swimming often rests on a business’s ability to provide continuous digital innovations to its customers.
But consumer demands for new technologies and experiences also come with a stipulation: the availability of digital instant gratification must remain uninterrupted. After all, our digital economy doesn’t have normal business hours. It’s always running, and consumers expect to digitally access, interact and purchase at their convenience, at any hour of the day. Digital apps and services must always remain on. And facing an outage or poor system performance, consumers will just switch to another company that provides a better digital experience.
Tackling the problems of the future with today's data: What the Government can do to prepare itself
How can we best use data to reach our goals? This is a question that every business and public sector organization often asks themselves. Data is an incredible asset, and Government has some of the richest data sets available. The potential of data to drive efficiencies, improve policy making and, ultimately, drive better outcomes for citizens, is well documented.
The UK Government’s National Data Strategy shows its commitment to placing data at the heart of a concerted national effort to improve citizen services. There are numerous Initiatives focused on helping improve the use of data across government. One such example is the collaboration between the Global Government Forum, the Office for National Statistics, NTT DATA UK, and the Cabinet Office, to produce the Civil Service Data Challenge (CSDC), which pushes data innovation a step further.
What it takes to build a successful remote team in today's climate
You've probably spent the majority of your career in an office. The commute, the quick chats at the coffee maker, the cleanest bathroom on the third floor -- these trivial details became as much a part of your workday as spreadsheets and meetings.
Then, just like that, everything changed. IT teams scrambled to find a secure way to keep people working from home. Managers questioned how to keep productivity up, and the C-suite kept a wary eye over everything (that, at least, didn’t change).
The great balancing act: How to manage your workloads amidst ongoing change
Amidst the ongoing skills gap and permanent move to hybrid working, workloads are continuing to grow. Two and a half quintillion bytes of data are generated every day, often scattered between the cloud, data silos, and on-premises storage as employees work from a range of locations. Although this flexible approach to working has many benefits -- increased productivity, improved employee wellbeing, and a better work-life balance -- it also can create a sprawl of data.
Left unattended and unmonitored, workloads stack up and enterprises are left with a balancing act to manage data stored in multiple places. Whilst this can be maintained in the short term, it is not sustainable in the long term and will eventually spill over. Many will remember offices before the widespread use of computers and technology, when stacks of paper were piled up on desks and filing cabinets were full to the brim with important documents. Trying to find the single piece of paper with the information you needed was a difficult task that wasted valuable time. Having a disparate IT environment has a similar impact on today’s business operations.
Countering the risk of ransomware with operational continuity
In recent years, organizations all over the world have been hit by increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks. For some, the impact is so severe that normal business operations experience major disruption with a knock-on effect on customers and revenue. For others, the impact can last weeks or even months as they seek to restore IT services and access to vital data.
Since the start of last year, for example, organizations across a huge range of sectors -- from oil and gas to food -- have seen their services impacted by ransomware. KP Snacks suffered an incident that brought its supply chain to a halt, with the company unable to process orders and dispatch products. And most recently of all, The Works, a retailer with over 500 stores across the UK, was forced to close some outlets after an employee reportedly fell victim to a phishing email that introduced ransomware to their infrastructure.
How to continue the growth of open source in the UK
Open source adoption rates are growing globally, with non-propriety code proving to be both efficient and cost-effective for a variety of organizations. Approximately 82 percent of IT decision-makers are more likely to choose a vendor that actively gives back to the open source community, according to a recent report from Red Hat. In the UK in particular, much of the reason for this open source drive is down to increased public cloud usage, the growing demand for rapid digital transformation and a greater understanding of open source’s cybersecurity resilience.
To help continue this open source upsurge in a sustainable manner, organizations utilizing the technology need to be contributing back to the community, to best enable the development of the technology.
How the Ukraine-Russia conflict affects international remote employment
Russia invading Ukraine is just the latest large-scale crisis and source of consternation on the world stage. The effects of a lingering pandemic, decimated economies and the threat of spiraling global war add up to a fraught situation for employees, recruiters, managers and business leaders.
This is a brief look at how the Ukraine-Russia conflict is affecting the stability, availability, culture and safety of international remote employment.
© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.