Daily Tech Digest - June 11, 2017

What it takes to build artificial intelligence skills

AI skills -- again, which blend expertise n programming, data, and business development -- may continue to be in short supply, .... AI is "not something a solitary genius cooks up in a garage," they state. "People who create this type of technology must be able to build teams, work in teams, and integrate solutions created by other teams." This requires a change in the way programming is taught, they add. "We're too often teaching programming as if it were still the 90s, when the details of coding (think Visual Basic) were considered the heart of computer science. If you can slog through programming language details, you might learn something, but it's still a slog -- and it shouldn't be. Coding is a creative activity, so developing a programming course that is fun and exciting is eminently doable."


What exactly is a Cloud Architect and how do you become one?

If you are thinking of becoming a Cloud Architect you will have hopefully already had a strong background in a similar technical area. The following list, will hopefully give you some indication of whether you can begin to contemplate heading down the path of becoming a Cloud Architect. If you feel comfortable with most of the following concepts or at least some of them then you are probably on the right track, otherwise , maybe some initial study or work in these areas would be a better strategy before you tackle the Cloud Architect Role. ... The possibilities are endless and with the Cloud Market expected to grow exponentially over the next few years we think that becoming a Certified Cloud Architect is definitely a step in the right direction as both a career choice and as a chance to get on board any future new and exciting technologies that are bound to emerge in the Cloud arena.


The Transformation Of Insurance

The front office is being revolutionised with apps and portals that allow brokers and agents easier information access and the ability to customise their offerings. Artificial Intelligence based chat-bots are helping customers not just buy better, but also stay connected through the insurance life-cycle to better manage their policies, and file and track claims.  Mobile apps are helping enhance customer engagement and providing specific insights to create real stickiness. ... The back office is seeing a significant technology enabled leap too. Automated claims processing - leveraging Machine Learning and increasingly complex rules engines - is becoming more and more the standard. Intelligent Automation is not just reducing costs and streamlining operations, it is increasingly being linked to front-end customer facing portals and apps to leapfrog service experience.


Unstructured data: turning data into actionable intelligence

This information enters your organization. But it doesn’t enter your organization via the helpdesk or contact center. The customer’s request gets looked at follows the traditional path of approval. It does take some time and the customer gets a bit impatient. Who does he call? Not Ghostbusters. And not the people who deal with the loan request. No, he calls the contact center. Or he sends a mail, maybe to say he sent you a mail with an attachment, for instance a copy of his application form. This is just one possible scenario but it shows the challenges. If your contact center has no insight in the processes which are happening in the back end, in this case, the status of the approval, he/she can’t help immediately. And if you have no unified approach with a capability to capture the important data hidden in the unstructured forms of communication (emails, Twitter messages) he/she is blocked as well. The result: a very frustrated customer.


Infrastructure Software Vulnerabilities Raise Concern Among Cybersecurity Experts

Most of the world's high-profile cybersecurity incidents involve theft of consumers' personal information from retailers, insurers and other businesses or so-called "ransomware" like the "WannaCry" attack that compromised more than 200,000 computers in 150 nations last month, Leyman said. But many cyberattack victims are reluctant to contact the FBI due to fears of bad publicity damaging the reputation of a business or government agency if reports of the attack become public, but the FBI is barred to publicly disclosing the victim or details of the attack, he said. "Our goal is the identify and prosecute the bad guy. We need to find out who did what to whom. The biggest issue in getting victims to report incidents is fear of public disclosure. We aren't allowed to do that. We can't identify and prosecute the perpetrator unless we know about the incident," Leyman said.


The benefits of microservices for mobile, and how Node.js can help

Novak explained that certain development frameworks may be particularly helpful in allowing teams to bring legacy services over to microservices. Node.js has proven to be a particularly helpful framework for making this switch and creating connections with back-end infrastructure, he said. "In our experience, Node.js is going to be a good platform for them to convert those services over to microservices," Novak said. ... In addition to Node.js, Novak said plenty of other frameworks software development kits are available to help facilitate microservices development, such as Ionic, Angular JS, Bootstrap and Backbone.js. However, he warned that, while these frameworks and tools will certainly help organizations, there is no "magic bullet" when it comes to bringing legacy investments up to speed with a microservices architecture.


Docker Aims to Improve Linux Kernel Security With LinuxKit

"Security is critically important for Docker, and LinuxKit represents an opportunity for us to help move security forward," Nathan McCauley, director of security at Docker Inc., told eWEEK. Within the LinuxKit effort there are a series of incubated projects that are focused on improving the security of Linux, according to McCauley. Docker and the LinuxKit project are also focused on making sure that all the Linux kernel security work moves upstream into the mainline Linux kernel, he added. "We recognize that there are a ton of people in the Linux community working on security improvements, and we want LinuxKit to be a place where they can foster and grow their efforts," McCauley said. ... The market for container security technology is a growing one, with multiple vendors including Twistlock, Anchore, Aqua Security, NeuVector, Aporeto, Tenable and Capsule8, among others, building products.


Data Structures Are Antithetical to Functional Programming

Functional programmers are incredibly lazy. More precisely, we defer commitment as late as possible. In extreme examples like Haskell, we defer the computation of every part of every expression until the last possible moment. Even in less extreme cases, however, we push effects (such as input/output) to the edges of our program. With Monad Transformers Library (MTL) or FTL, we defer committing to specific effect types until our application’s main function. ... Ultimately, I’d argue that today’s programming languages are unnaturally obsessed with data. They are wedded to the idea of rigid layouts of bits in memory — for understandably pragmatic or historic reasons. Yet, the functions we develop in our code don’t usually require bits. Instead, they require capabilities. Some to construct, some to deconstruct.


How to stop spear-phishing cold

To be effective, a spear-phish must be well crafted, have an artist’s touch for similitude, and likely camouflage. Spear-phishing emails are getting more sophisticated all the time. One that Inky would have prevented, had it been deployed, was the DocuSign vector attack. DocuSign—which, among other services, vouches for electronic signatures—sends email notifications to parties to a contract, letting them know what steps they need to take next (e.g., review and sign). In this case, a hacker set up a domain that looked like DocuSign but was actually sent from a “typo domain”—docusgn.com (missing the “i”). Previously, the hacker had penetrated servers at DocuSign itself to obtain names and email addresses of actual DocuSign users, who then made perfect targets for a DocuSign spoofing attack.


The Internet Of Things Is Becoming More Difficult To Escape

"People's businesses, homes, cars and even their clothing will be monitoring their every move, and potentially even their thoughts," she says. "Connected cities will track where and when people walk, initially to light their way, but eventually to monitor what they do and say. The walls of businesses will have tiny sensors embedded in them, initially to monitor for toxins and earthquakes, and eventually to monitor for intruders and company secrets being shared. People currently strap monitors on their bodies to tell them how many steps they take. Eventually, all fluids in and out of bodies will be monitored and recorded. Opting out will be out of the ordinary and hugely inconvenient, just as not carrying a mobile device and not using a fast pass on the highway are today."



Quote for the day:


"If you need ownership and responsibility from core workers, patriarchy can't get you there." -- Peter Block


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