Why risk assessment is important for financial institutions in a digital era
Given that financial institutions are custodians of significant amounts of
third-party data, much of which is personal and sensitive, it is imperative now
more than ever to manage and assess the risks and their impact on the existing
ecosystem to drive optimum value from their digital initiatives. The risks are
indeed multiplied where data is involved. With the ubiquity of online banking
apps and services, the likelihood of a breach is almost certain at some point
and that is when banks must be prepared. As the cadence of cyberattacks
increase, organisations can no longer hide internal dysfunction from external
stakeholders. “[When] an inevitable breach, audit or Royal Commission happens,
financial institutions will only survive the exposure if they can show that they
have actually taken all reasonable steps to protect themselves,” Greaves said.
Being in control of the high-risk data must be the first step in mitigating
these risks. “The key to treating information risk is to have full control of
that information. If an institution is unfamiliar with what data it has, who is
doing what to it, and where and how it is stored within its systems, it will be
unable to control it or protect it,” Greaves said.
How HR Leaders Are Preparing for the AI-Enabled Workforce
Predicting the nature of future jobs is, of course, difficult or impossible to
do with precision. And even if predictions are possible, they will probably
differ substantially from job to job. Nevertheless, some companies are embarking
on approaches that predict the future of either all jobs in the organization,
those that are particularly likely to be affected by AI, or jobs that are
closely tied to future strategies. ... Some companies are making specific job
predictions based on their strategies or products. In Europe, a consortium of
microelectronics companies is devoting 2 billion euros to train current and
future employees on electronic components and systems. General Motors is focused
on training its employees to manufacture electric and autonomous vehicles.
Verizon is focused on hiring and training data scientists and marketers to
expand its 5G wireless technology. SAP is focused on growing employees’ skills
in cloud computing, artificial intelligence development, blockchain, and the
internet of things. The raging bull of machine learning has turned out to be
slower and calmer than many people predicted a few years ago. But any rancher
knows you should never turn your back on a bull, no matter how docile it
seems.
Software Defined Everything Part 6: Infrastructure
SDxI must understand the appropriate context of users, applications, devices,
and locations related to the creation of a virtual machine, container, or even a
data flow or set of network attributes such as source/destination addresses and
tags. Advanced infrastructure needs to be able to provide data gathering on
context-relevant metrics for debugging, security and audit, performance
management, and billing and marketing. Historically, context-awareness was the
purview of specialized point products such as networking devices (primarily
Layers 4-7) that directed and processed traffic based on rules and inspecting
incoming data. But this processing only occurs at specific points in the
infrastructure. SDxI applications are more demanding and need holistic
context-awareness across networking, compute, and storage to optimize workload
placement in context of what a user, device, or app is trying to accomplish. For
example, efforts are underway to add contextual-driven automation to both
private and public cloud environments via OpenStack Heat. In this model,
external context-based triggers drive VMs and their computer, storage, and
network resources to spin up or down to maximize performance, minimize latency,
or meet appropriate business objectives.
5 fintech trends to watch out for in 2021
While digital banking has been around long before the pandemic, it spiked in
usage amidst the pandemic. Research shows that about 50 per cent of consumers
are using digital banking products more since the pandemic, with 87 per cent of
them planning to continue this increased usage after the pandemic. This shows
that digital banking has evolved from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have” solution
for consumers and businesses. However, despite the convenience in use that
digital banking offers, many consumers are still weary of the dangers that
digital banking solutions bring. ... Just as self-service solutions have
become rampant during the pandemic to avoid possible infection, autonomous
finance is expected to rise in 2021 as well. Several fintech solutions today
make it possible for people to manage their money, open accounts, apply for
loans, and more with just a click of a button. Thanks to AI and machine
learning, these solutions are now more accessible than lining up in traditional
banks and going through tedious processes. ... Bitcoin’s rising price is
due to various reasons, some of which include growing institutional interest,
usage as a hedge against inflation, and PayPal’s official entrance in the crypto
scene.
Navigating Data Security Within Data Sharing In Today’s Evolving Landscape
Successful cross-enterprise data strategies bring a unified approach to data
integration, quality, governance, and data sharing. Innovation is not through a
set of siloed products. It is a single platform that moves and manages different
types of data under one roof. To create a successful data management strategy
and avoid any data security mishaps, chief data officers (CDOs) and their teams
should start by setting up governance and establishing business rules and system
controls for access. CDOs report the most success when their data sharing
architecture is built on microservices that answer business questions. That is,
what data is needed to provide insights into the most difficult business
problems? For example, the CDO of a large Internet-based home furnishing company
recently shared that when they treat data integration as a business
transformation project, they receive better requirements about business needs,
data security and data trust, more focus from stakeholders, and broader adoption
across the organization and within roles. Another best practice approach that
both encourages sharing while also only labeling trusted, vetted data sources is
the concept of certified versus uncertified data sets.
Factorized layers revisited: Compressing deep networks without playing the lottery
The key principle underlying these two natural methods, neither of which
requires extra hyperparameters, is that the training behavior of a factorized
model should mimic that of the original (unfactorized) network. We further
demonstrate the usefulness of these schemes in two settings beyond model
compression where factorized neural layers are applied. The first is an exciting
new area of knowledge distillation in which an overcomplete factorization is
used to replace the complicated and expensive student-teacher training phase
with a single matrix multiplication at each layer. The second is for training
Transformer-based architectures such as BERT, which are popular models for
learning over sequences like text and genomic data and whose multi-head
self-attention mechanisms are also factorized neural layers. Our work is part of
Microsoft Research New England’s AutoML research efforts, which seek to make the
exploration and deployment of state-of-the-art machine learning easier through
the development of models that help automate the complex processes involved.
The Taboo Of Remote Working And Hiring In India
Barring some of India’s major cities, good Internet connectivity is still the
stuff of dreams. Fighting bugs while your strongest warrior is out cold due to
poor connectivity is every CTO’s worst nightmare. It’s just not about dire
circumstances though; many young developers live in shared accommodations
without a personal space to focus on work. Remote work can succeed only with the
implicit understanding that work time at home is as focused as work time in the
office. In addition to poor Internet, the lack of facilities such as a good work
desk, and a well-lit room also hamper productivity. One of the prime reasons why
developers are aching to come back to office is because coding while in bed and
in your PJs has an early expiry date. Then there’s connection. Indian workplaces
have traditionally depended more on verbal communication than written
documentation. We’d rather walk up to someone and provide feedback than write it
up in precise points in an email. With remote work, both developers and managers
need to adopt a different cadence of verbal and written communication that is
direct and constructive.
Behavioral Psychology Might Explain What’s Holding Boards Back
Boards can only be effective if they have the ability to come to a consensus. No
one wants to feel that the board is made up of factions with irreconcilable
differences. Even when the board undergoes a shake-up, like the addition of an
activist director, they tend to quickly reach a new equilibrium. But while
consensus-building is important, boards may be too inclined to seek harmony or
conformity. This can lead to groupthink, where dissenting views are not welcomed
or entertained. In fact, while most boards work to solicit a range of views and
come to a consensus on key issues, 36% of directors say it is difficult to voice
a dissenting view on at least one topic in the boardroom. This can point to
dysfunctional decision-making as the board members avoid making waves. In fact,
the most common reason that directors cite for stifled dissent on their boards
is the desire to maintain collegiality among their peers. Groupthink is also
magnified when the board is not effectively educated on a topic, or does not
have access to the right information. Board materials may come too late for
members to have any real time to review and reflect on the information before a
meeting.
Digital transformation: This is why CIOs need to stay brave and keep on innovating
Hackland recognises that it can be difficult for CIOs to gain funding for
innovative projects, especially in organisations with competing priorities.
But when there's a chance to try something new, the opportunity must be
grabbed – not just in terms of the potential benefits it might bring to the
company itself but also in terms of professional development. "You're learning
and your people are learning," says Hackland, referring to the importance of
experimentation. "They're engaged in something new, they're not just doing
lights-on, which I think is really important. They're getting to play with new
technologies." Which brings us back to Williams' recent foray into virtual
reality, which was one such attempt to try something new. The intention was to
allow users of a bespoke VR app to view and manipulate the new car in its
livery in 3D. The app, which was created by an external agency, was made
available for fans to download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
However, when pictures of the FW43B started appearing online, the team
couldn't be sure if only the image data for the new car had been unpacked or
whether the app itself had been compromised.
Platform Engineering As A (Community) Service
At its core, platform engineering is all about building, well, a platform. In
this context, I mean an internal platform within an organisation, not a
general business platform for external consumers. This platform serves as a
foundation for other engineering teams building products and systems on top of
it for end users. Concrete goals include: Improving developer productivity and
efficiency - through things like tooling, automation and
infrastructure-as-code; Providing consistency and confidence around
complex cross cutting areas of concerns - such as security and reliable auto
scaling; Helping organisations to grow teams in a sustainable manner to
meet increased business demands. Matthew Skelton concisely defines a platform
as “a curated experience for engineers (the customers of the platform)”. This
phrase “curated experience” very nicely encapsulates the essence of what I
have come to recognise and appreciate as being a crucial differentiator for
successful platforms. Namely, it’s not just about one technology solving all
your problems. Nor is it about creating a
wrapper around a bunch of tech.
Quote for the day:
“Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as
survival, but that’s exactly what it is.” -- Anita Roddick
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