Why Russia’s CSD Believes Blockchain is a ‘Blue Ocean’ Opportunity
Yakovlev said a cross-discipline working body was soon created to unite NSD’s business leaders and IT specialists into a dedicated blockchain group, a tactic that is becoming increasingly common at major financial firms. From there, he said, five to six proofs-of-concept were proposed, with proxy voting emerging as the choice for the company’s experiments, as it “wasn’t achievable” in a centralized system, Yakovlev said. "The main problem with all e-voting solutions is, first of all, the voter is not able to verify his vote has not been modified before it is processed, or that votes are correctly counted. The transparency of blockchain and its distributed nature allowed us to create a voting process that provides a voter with [the] right tools to address both problems," he continued.
The fintech world beyond Silicon Valley and Europe: Emerging market contenders
Hitherto, most of the investments have occurred in the U.S. and Europe, with a marked exception this year when China’s Ant Financial completed a staggering $4.5 billion raise at a $60 billion valuation, making it one of the highest-valued private companies in the world. This recent raise may draw to emerging markets attention from the world beyond London, New York and Silicon Valley, which importantly house more than 90 percent of the world’s under-30 population. Countries other than the U.S. and U.K. have collectively spawned a range of visibly successful companies in search (Yandex, Baidu), e-commerce (Alibaba,Rocket Internet’s portfolio) and media (Naspers) by mostly applying tried and tested Western strategies to the local know-how. Reviewed below are some of the emerging market contenders across the fintech space.
Robots Are Invading Malls (and Sidewalks) Near You
Robots have been mingling with humans in several stores, too, including a Target in San Francisco, where a robot called Tally was used for a trial in which it trundled up and down aisles carrying out inventory checks—a mind-numbing task for humans. Tally detects when products are out of stock or moved so staff know to replace them. According to Tally’s creator, a startup called Simbe Robotics, it can complete an audit of a medium-sized store in around half an hour, with 96 percent accuracy. The same task would take a human 25 hours, and the company contends people are only about 65 percent accurate. Simbe Robotics CEO Brad Bogolea says that in order to make shoppers feel comfortable with robots wandering around the store, it’s important that the robots don’t look threatening.
Security Threats Hiding In Plain Sight
Almost anyone active online for a few years is likely to have received multiple breach notifications. So many businesses get hacked or reveal data through inattention that the details become a blur. The potential threat posed by insiders is well known, even if employees, contractors, and partners don't represent the most significant threat vector. According to Verizon's 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, 172 data breaches around the world last year were attributable to insiders and privilege misuse out of 2,260 breaches analyzed. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's database of data breaches suggests a relatively small percentage of breaches happened as a result of insiders: 13 out of 229 listed from 2015. Since the cause of many breaches is not publicly known, insider involvement could be greater.
Q&A: Indiana CIO Uses Data to Solve Big Problems
Dewand Neely spent more than a decade working in Indiana’s information technology department before becoming CIO in October 2015. He continues the state’s long tradition of hiring IT leaders from within, creating an organization built on stability. Now as CIO, Neely plans to advance the state’s groundbreaking Big Data project — an initiative that aims to lower Indiana’s infant mortality rate — to other areas. With its IT house mostly in order, the Indiana state government has shown the power IT has to improve citizen life. Neely recently talked with StateTech magazine about his top IT priorities, the future of data analytics and the importance of relationships.
Hot security startups to watch
This roundup of 13 such companies that we’re keeping an eye on runs the gamut from cloud security services to fraud prevention to protecting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and Internet of Things devices. These vendors clearly see the value of assessing the strength of network security architectures. Among them are four startups that simulate attacks against networks in order to test how well their defenses work and to help security staffers get the hang of what it’s like to get hit by a range of exploits and to hone their responses. AttackIQ, Cybric, SafeBreach and Verodin all have variations on this theme but all try to probe networks for vulnerabilities that could be strung together to create successful intrusions.
Silicon fingerprint on chips could make any gadget unhackable
Just as a human fingerprint is only a useful method for identifying someone once you know how to read it, the trick with PUFs has been to harness these production patterns for the purposes of encryption. A signature can be read simply by passing electricity through the chip – and then used to sign a message destined for just one place. But only recently has this technique become accurate and efficient enough to be built into cheap off-the-shelf devices. What’s more, because a chip’s fingerprint is only produced when current is flowing, the system is even more secure than most existing approaches – at least in theory. Securing a device such as a smartphone is usually done using a system based on digital keys stored on a hard drive. But there is a small – yet real – risk of the key being copied, even when the device is turned off. With PUFs, the fingerprint disappears without the current. “When you turn off the power, there is nothing left,” says Kennes.
Your phone may soon sense everything around you
If Tango fulfills its promise, furniture shoppers will be able to download digital models of couches, chairs and coffee tables to see how they would look in their actual living rooms. Kids studying the Mesozoic Era would be able to place a virtual Tyrannosaurus or Velociraptor in their home or classroom — and even take selfies with one. The technology would even know when to display information about an artist or a scene depicted in a painting as you stroll through a museum. Tango will be able to create internal maps of homes and offices on the fly. Google won't need to build a mapping database ahead of time, as it does with existing services like Google Maps and Street View. Nonetheless, Tango could raise fresh concerns about privacy if controls aren't stringent enough to prevent the on-the-fly maps from being shared with unauthorized apps or heisted by hackers.
How to build a thriving information security function despite the talent shortage
There is some hope on the horizon for resolving the talent shortage, with many colleges and technical schools expanding their programs to include security-specific curriculum. Many college students, recognizing the career potential, are taking advantage of those programs. Sadly, this won’t really help for at least a few years. If you manage information security in an organization faced with this talent shortage, you have likely already discovered that there is no easy button. Fortunately, there are some things you can do ... Don’t throw money at tools As I said above, the expensive tools generally require a good bit of care and feeding. While they may be useful in augmenting your security effort, they will in most cases make your staffing issues more acute. Buy tools when they are really needed, but take into account the related staffing requirements. Consider paying the vendor to perform installation and maintenance.
Securing Your Car From Cyberattacks Is Becoming a Big Business
RAlong with the relatively nascent automotive anti-malware industry, system security is further endangered because vehicle engineers typically do not use the most state-of-the-art hardware. Instead, carmakers opts for processors that may be a generation or two older in order to ensure reliability and robustness. That older hardware, however, may be able to run up-to-date security systems, which can expose latent vulnerabilities in the hardware, according to Navigant. The need for cybersecurity software is so critical that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers set up its own Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), which enables the sharing of data involving cybersecurity.
Quote for the day:
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts... for support rather than for illumination." -- Andrew Lang
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