Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

Daily Tech Digest - May 17, 2017

Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services: Opportunities and Challenges

Considering the future, while we realize that AI can prove to be invaluable to the growth of the fin-tech sector, the machines won’t take over just yet. While they may replace humans in some areas of functioning and play the role of personal assistants and digital laborers, there are challenges like bias, privacy, trust, trained staff and regulatory concerns that continue to be a hurdle to be dealt with. Augmented Intelligence, in which machines assist humans in their system functions, could be the more plausible answer. Another key area where AI will continue to play a pivotal role will be in big data. Sifting through and analyzing thousands of pages of data is a burden and a waste of human resource and more and more of these machines will be used to perform advanced analytics of patterns and trends.

Are CEOs Less Ethical Than in the Past?

Confidence and trust in large corporations and CEOs have been declining for decades. But the decline has accelerated since the financial crisis of 2007–08, the Great Recession, and the slow recovery that ensued. Corporations and executives received government bailouts, while seeming to suffer little in the aftermath. Although many companies paid large fines and settlements, few were charged criminally, even in instances where unethical and illegal activity was widespread and well documented. Media attention has also focused more and more on corporate tax avoidance and the offshoring of jobs, as well as record-high rates of executive compensation and rising income inequality in general. Those are the areas that, although not illegal, do not promote goodwill.

Automated Machine Learning — A Paradigm Shift That Accelerates Data Scientist Productivity

There is a growing community around creating tools that automate the tasks outlined above, as well as other tasks that are part of the machine learning workflow. The paradigm that encapsulates this idea is often referred to as automated machine learning, which I will abbreviate as “AML” for the rest of this post. There is no universally agreed upon scope of AML, however the folks who routinely organize the AML workshop at the annual ICML conference define a reasonable scope on their website, which includes automating all of the repetitive tasks defined above. The scope of AML is ambitious, however, is it really effective? The answer is it depends on how you use it. Our view is that it is difficult to perform wholesale replacement of a data scientist with an AML framework

The war over artificial intelligence will be won with visual data

This battle will be won by owning the connected camera. The majority of the data our brains analyze is visual, and therefore the majority of the data needed for artificial intelligence to have human (or better than human) skills, will rely on the ability for computers to translate high quality visual data. One of the business sectors that will be revolutionized by artificial intelligence is e-commerce. The Amazon’s Echo Look is a smart stake in the ground for Amazon. Adding a camera to their Echo validates a prediction of mine from last year called the Internet of Eyes which enables all inanimate objects to see. Inanimate objects with cameras enable companies to own the first step in gathering the data for computer vision and artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze.

What businesses are failing to see about AI

When machines take care of crunching data, conducting micro-analysis, and managing workflow, humans are free to focus on the bigger picture. Imagine a marketing team huddled around a table, plotting strategy. Right now, if they have a question, they might have to ask an analyst and wait hours or days for a response. In a few years, that team will be able to ask an AI chatbot and get an answer within seconds. That will allow them to brainstorm more productively. It’s still the humans’ job to come up with a brilliant marketing strategy — the robots just help them do it quicker. Or consider Kensho, a financial analytics AI system. According to a Harvard Business review, the program can answer 65 million possible question combinations — even off-the-wall ones like “Which cement stocks go up the most when a Category 3 hurricane hits Florida?”

Superintelligence: Myth or Pressing Reality?

All binary computers are literal at their core. Ultimately, they operate based solely on binary numbers, ones or zeros. Humans, endowed with true embedded neural networks with astounding connective complexity, tend to increasingly learn literate behavior. ... Humans are uniquely capable of ascribing specific amplifying context. This makes us capable of abstracting meaning to localized events and utterances that might otherwise be legitimately interpreted in myriad ways. These attributes of mind permit humans to form vast social networks, thus creating living societies and enduring cultures. This time-honored behavior tends to reinforce, grow, and replicate human intelligence. It underscores the essence of Type III AI. For example, the ability of a Type II AI self-driving car to adhere to navigation and physical rules of the road becomes secondary to the Type III AI that understands the reason for the trip. Here, theory of mind adjusts AI to meet a broader worldview.

How CISOs can answer difficult questions from CEOs

CEO: We hear all the time about bigger threats and greater urgency. How do we get security right for our organization – and for our customers?; CISO: Proactive engagement between key stakeholders before an incident occurs will ensure that the organization is able to respond quickly and effectively to modern cyber threats. In the end, what we mean when we say that it's really important to get security right is that we must lead by example. We can't do the same old thing. We can't tell customers that they need to get to the “next-gen paradigm shifts” if we aren't doing these things ourselves. We must think prevention first, reduce the attack surface within our own environments, augment with strong detect and disrupt capabilities, and we must continue to innovate in automating security into the business.

A guide on how to prevent ransomware

At its heart, ransomware is simply another form of a computer virus, albeit a very potent one. The methods it uses to infect a computer are the same ones other computer viruses employ. This article details several recommendations to help you in reducing the likelihood of future infection by ransomware, or indeed any other computer viruses or malware, against systems within your organisation. Note that each of these recommendations should be assessed for their applicability to your specific environment and you should conduct a thorough risk assessment to determine if the recommendations outlined in this document are suitable for your environment and are proportionate to the identified threat and risk. For ease of use the recommendations in this document have been divided into three categories and colour coded accordingly.

Machine learning in cybersecurity moves needle, doesn't negate threats

Only 6% of respondents said they're either not planning on or not interested in deploying these technologies. Forte said it's no surprise that the appetite for AI and machine learning in cybersecurity is strong. Tech vendors and their corporate clients are deploying these advanced technologies in a variety of functions within the enterprise, and starting to see returns on investment. He said early use cases show that these tools likewise have great potential in cyber defense, too. "There is a little bit of hype right now, but I think it's a promising hype," agreed Sebastian Hess, the immediate past CISO of Isabel Group, a Belgium-based financial firm. Hess listed the advantages that machine learning and AI platforms bring to cybersecurity.

Fog Orchestration for Internet of Things Services

Traditional Web-based service applications are deployed on servers within cloud data centers that are accessed by end devices such as tablets, smartphones, and desktop PCs. In contrast, IoT applications deployed within fog computing systems consist of the cloud, fog node, and “things,” as Figure 1 shows. In this context, a fog node is defined as equipment or middleware and is served as an agent that collects data from a set of sensors. This data is then transmitted to a centralized computing system that locally caches data and performs load balancing. Things include sensors and devices with built-in sensors. Similar to Web-based service applications, the cloud provisions centralized resource pools (compute, storage) to analyze collected data and automatically trigger decisions based on a predefined system logic.

Quote for the day:

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -- Mark Twain

Daily Tech Digest - May 16, 2017

What are the key functions to look for in API management platforms?

One of the most important questions to ask when weighing the pros and cons of API management software is this: Why is one unified platform better than multiple, targeted tools? If your organization already has an established API, it's entirely possible that you have a piecemeal solution in place for API management. Documentation, testing, security and scalability are all big areas where individual tools exist. While using multiple API tools might feel like less of a commitment, they can often leave something to be desired. These tools may lack in how they integrate with each other, and how accessible they are to employees outside of the engineering team. So, when ultimately considering the purchase of an API management platform, what features should you actually consider? While this might seem like a pretty loaded question, the answer isn't nearly as complicated as you'd think.

5 ways to reduce insider security risks

Policies can be as straightforward as 'employees shouldn't have more access to confidential data than their current job requires' and then implementing a program to review access on a regular basis. Too often employees accumulate access rights that aren't revoked when they move to new projects. Firms often roll out a 'privileged account management' tool to control what their IT admins do, and then ignore the far reaching risks associated with non-privileged employees: the call center reps accessing customer records, contractors accessing finance records, partners accessing design docs, etc. Strong security policies will follow the 'Mini-Max' rule - minimize access where possible, maximize monitoring of that same access, for unusual patterns."

The ‘cobots’ are coming. Is your IT team ready?

Meet today's robot workforce. Manuel is a collaborative robot (or cobot) that's helping Creating Revolutions build electronic tabletop devices for the restaurant industry. The startup didn't always rely on a gunmetal grey robot arm to assemble its devices, which allow restaurant customers to text requests to busy wait staff. But faulty assembly was causing double-digit failure rates. "The problem is you can't efficiently repeat a specific process the exact same over and over again as a human being," says Einar Rosenberg, CIO of Creating Revolutions. With Manuel on the payroll, Creating Revolutions has reduced its product rejection rate to nearly zero. Changes to manufacturing processes can be made in real time for greater flexibility. And by cost-effectively increasing production rates, Creating Revolutions has managed to reduce its overhead by double digits.

Be proactive to minimize exposure to cyberattacks

Recommendations from Shelhart included blocking some commonly used remote access tools; investing in file integrity monitoring systems to validate operating systems and software; locking out or segmenting vendors, whose data systems may be more vulnerable than your own; reducing the lateral movement of data within a company without crimping essential communication; and not spending a lot on “silver bullet” tools that may not work as advertised. Jeff Jensen, a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor now with the Husch Blackwell law firm, described 10 components of how to respond if a breach occurs. They included quickly securing an information system before the damage spreads, complying with breach notification laws, calling in a digital forensic expert, checking what insurance coverage is in place or getting coverage if it’s not, and thinking through how to respond to press and other inquiries.

Warren Buffett’s cybersecurity wake-up call — are we listening?

he government needs to heed Uncle Warren’s warning and treat cybersecurity with the utmost urgency. Here are four steps the administration can take immediately to better protect the government and industries it regulates from cyber threats. ... There are encouraging signs this could happen. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Clayton — who had spent more than 20 years working for Wall Street companies on mergers, acquisitions and federal regulatory compliance — said he did not think public companies were providing investors with enough information about cybersecurity. He also told the Senate Banking Committee he supports a Senate bill that would require companies to disclose whether their board of directors have a cybersecurity expert.

Medical Device Security Focus in Recent NCCoE Collaboration

A tiered risk management approach will also benefit organizations, the guide states. This involves reviewing the organization, the mission/business process, as well as the information system – the environment of operation. “Vulnerabilities may be present in infusion pumps and their server components since these devices often include embedded operating systems on the endpoints,” NCCoE wrote. “Infusion pumps are designed to maintain a prolonged period of useful life, and, as such, may include system components (e.g., an embedded operating system) that may either reach end-of-life or reach a period of degraded updates prior to the infusion pump being retired from service. Patching and updating may become difficult over the course of time.”

More disruptions feared from cyber attack; Microsoft slams government secrecy

In a blog post on Sunday, Microsoft President Brad Smith appeared to tacitly acknowledge what researchers had already widely concluded: The ransomware attack leveraged a hacking tool, built by the U.S. National Security Agency, that leaked online in April. "This is an emerging pattern in 2017," Smith wrote. "We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world." He also poured fuel on a long-running debate over how government intelligence services should balance their desire to keep software flaws secret - in order to conduct espionage and cyber warfare - against sharing those flaws with technology companies to better secure the internet.

Steps for Fortifying Your Organization’s Data in the Cyber War

The business of cyber war is changing and evolving rapidly. Through our direct engagements helping enterprises improve defenses and improve incident response we have seen direct evidence of how adversaries are evolving in their attacks. We can now view adversary actions in cyberspace as if it is a new, but evil, business market. The adversaries and their capabilities and actions have the same characteristics of actors in a business market and every executive should pay attention to how this horizontal is growing and changing. The evolution to a mature industry has started and will continue at an ever increasing pace as adversaries become more sophisticated. In the past, cyber attacks were aimed at single individuals- stealing your personal information for short-term gain.

Paying The WannaCry Ransom Will Probably Get You Nothing

"The odds of getting back their files decrypted is very small," said Vikram Thakur, technical director at security firm Symantec. "It's better for [the victims] to save their money and rebuild the affected computers." The WannaCry ransomware, also known as WanaDecryptor, broke out last Friday, infecting vulnerable Windows systems like a computer worm. More than 300,000 machines in 150 countries have been hit so far, U.S. homeland security advisor Tom Bossert said in a press briefing on Monday.The infection strikes by encrypting all the files on the PC and then displaying a ransom note demanding US$300 or $600 in bitcoin. Victims who don’t pay will have their files erased after seven days. Owners of these machines may be tempted to pay the ransom, but don’t count on getting your files back, said Matthew Hickey, director of security provider Hacker House.

Google moves Android out of the app and into the auto with Volvo, Audi partnerships

Drivers will not need to plug in an Android phone to access any of the system’s features, and car makers will have the ability to customize the controls, interface, and applications pre-loaded into the operating system, just like phone makers do. The version of the software that Bloomberg saw had “three main windows for users: a central panel for playing music, making calls and navigating; another with a grid of core car functions; and a third that lists installed Android apps. A button on the steering wheel and a voice command can activate the Google Assistant.” Google said it will be previewing the new Volvo and Audi Android Auto systems at I/O this week.

Quote for the day:

"When human judgment and big data intersect there are some funny things that happen." -- Nate Silver

Daily Tech Digest - May 14, 2017

Digitally transforming with the right cloud strategy

In recent years, a technological and material shift has led to customers seeking products and services that meet their specific, individual requirements. This has filtered through from the retail into the business community where many organisations are now looking to digital transformation as a means of offering the “single complete view of customer” that will allow them to hyper-personalise their interactions. In addition to implementing the data analytics that will provide the necessary insight, businesses must also take steps to “SaaSify” their products, and ensure their applications are supported by platforms sufficiently robust to cope with the peaks and troughs in demand that will come.

Are You Ready For The AI Revolution?

Developers have to anticipate numerous variables, program rules, and defined inputs to anticipate what users will say to machines and what machines may say (or do) in response. Consequently, AI conversation will not thrive until it can understand not just the words a person is using but also their underlying meaning. For example, someone speaking a dialect of southern U.S. English might ask a friend to “carry” her to the store. Any native speaker would know that this person is asking for a ride in the friend’s vehicle. Someone not familiar with this expression would certainly request a clarification. An effective AI system needs to possess enough awareness to be able to understand the intent of a question or a command or, at least, when to ask for clarification that will result in the desired action or outcome.

In Digital Transformation, Culture Change Goes Hand in Hand with Tech Change

The digital transformation effort then uses strategic education, mentoring, and specific activities (these might be hackathons, MOOCs, certification efforts, reverse mentoring, and #changeagents outreach) to proactively shift mindset across the organization and build the requisite digital skills and ideas. These include counter-intuitive notions that can be hard to otherwise learn: Designing advantageously for loss of control and using the intrinsic strengths of digital technology to change more rapidly and scale out faster. As the organization comes together and engages together on the change platform, it then generates the framework to identify their starting point and guide the ongoing process using rigorous measurement and action-taking, which are two other key success factors, though proactive communication remains the most important action to take.

5 new jobs of the robot generation

While some robots may be out to take our jobs, there’s a big skills gap in the AI-fueled services industry just waiting to be filled There will be two major drivers around the jobs of the future. The first will be what can be automated, and the second will be what level of comfort do we have for things being automated. However, far from the widespread fear that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will make human workers redundant, it seems people are becoming more comfortable with the idea of automation and AI in the workplace every day. Recent research conducted by Adecco Group reveals that many employees feel AI will have a positive impact in creating a future workplace with a myriad of opportunities for more flexible, rewarding work. So if our current roles in the workplace are set to be replaced, what will we be doing instead?

Apple acquires AI company Lattice Data, a specialist in unstructured ‘dark data’

What exactly is dark data? Our connected, digital world is producing data at an accelerated pace: there was 4.4 zettabytes of data in 2013 and that’s projected to grow to 44 zettabytes by 2020, and IBM estimates that 90 percent of the data in existence today was produced in the last two years. But between 70 percent and 80 percent of that data is unstructured — that is, “dark” — and therefore largely unusable when it comes to processing and analytics. Lattice uses machine learning to essentially put that data into order and to make it more usable. Think of it in terms of a jumble of data without labels, categorization or a sense of context — but with a certain latent value that could be unlocked with proper organization.

Implementing IoT Technology: 6 Things to Know Before You Start

Organizational and Cultural Changes Are Often Underestimated. This is the number one challenge we hear about when we talk to end-users who have implemented IoT projects and ask them about their biggest lessons learned. Take the German cleaning machine manufacturer Kärcher, for example. Their director of digital product, Friedrich Völker, mentioned that when they started rolling out their connected fleet management solution “our team had no experience in pitching software and virtual offerings to the customers. Rather than making a one-off sale, they are now in continued talks with the customer regarding the ongoing performance of the machine. This change in mindset, as well as the education of the sales team, takes time, and it is just one of many organizational challenges we are faced with.”

New Trends in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Data is anticipated to be the ruler of the digital world in the coming years. It is observed that the world’s data doubles every 18 months while the cost of cloud storage decreases at almost the same rate, which suggests that data will be available in abundance after a few years. This availability of high amount of data will open the doors of better and extensive machine learning experiments as well as deployment. With the use of the improved machine learning services we will be able to get a hold on more refined data. Ultimately the users of these services will increase which will give us more data. This data flywheel will keep on rolling and expanding. For instance, Tesla’s data flywheel is planning to release a self-driving car by 2018, and for that project they have collected a massive driving data of 780 million miles and are adding a new million within every tenth hour.

New Stanford biodegradable wearable takes your data to its grave

The need for biodegradable tech in an era when new gadgets are constantly being introduced and quickly discarded, causing tons of electronic waste, presented the key concern and main focus for the team of researchers who have shared this new device. ... Having a biodegradable wearable option presents an answer to the privacy problem that occurs when new devices are discarded in favor of new ones, hoping that the cautionary measures taken to erase old data are effective enough to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. The decomposing polymer that the device is made of ranks as one of the thinnest and lightest electronic gadgets that’s ever been made. The team has synthesized the biodegradable semiconductor by utilizing a molecule taken from tattoo ink, and has created a base by weaving plant fibers into a new, extra-thin film. Inside the structure are embedded electronics.

Towards the dynamic governance of digital assets

Systemic methodologies allow us to study systems, to model them, and to therefore use them as a communication vehicle. A systemic methodology that seems promising to apply to the governance of IT is the viable system approach, which focuses on active learning, adaptability, and control. This methodology is deemed useful for the understanding and governance of complex phenomena. Digital disruption is a major concern for many contemporary organizations, and provides challenges that, due to their digital nature, should ultimately be accounted for in the IT governance system. Failure to adapt to constantly-changing circumstances can be problematic for organizations, as was the case with Eastman Kodak. It is said that their collapse was primarily induced by their inability to keep up with technology change and digital disruption.

Understating value characteristics toward a robust IT governance application

IT systems and services procurement must be decided and approved, and the management should disclose the proper investments regarding infrastructure and competencies by confirming assigned responsibilities, ensuring appropriate ways and means, and having sufficient expertise to uphold and care for the IT schemes and systems Zhang & Harte, which are accompanied by a smart investment in workforce and proper IT-related human resource planning and recruitment, and a planned retention scheme of skilled IT staff. RM is documented in various learning studies such as in the study by Drucker as the critical essentials in manipulating the productivity and innovation in an organization, where it can be seen as the key activities to be implemented in the organization. RM entails performing risk awareness, risk understanding, and assessing the organizational desire for risk.

Quote for the day:

"Half of the harm done in this world is due to people who want to feel important." -- T.S. Eliot

Daily Tech Digest - May 13, 2017

The Cybersecurity Legacy of James Comey

Cryptography expert and cybersecurity author Bruce Schneier suggests Comey, as leader of the FBI, should have spent more time building the bureau's cyber forensics skills rather than advocating for an encryption bypass. Cyber forensics skills, Schneier contends, have been lacking at the FBI for a generation. "They had 20 years of not having to learn real forensics, and that's the average career length of an FBI officer," he says. "Comey has no legacy here. He didn't do anything good or bad." But the Council on Foreign Relation's Knake says Comey has left his mark on the FBI beyond the encryption battles. In some respects, Comey's leadership help foster improved cooperation with the private sector on cybersecurity.

Major ransomware attack hits hospitals in England, shutting down IT systems

Hospitals across England have been affected, including those run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust, Barts Health in London, Essex Partnership university NHS trusts, the university hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust, Southport and Ormskirk hospital NHS trust and Blackpool teaching hospital NHS foundation trust, as well as GP surgeries in Manchester and Liverpool. "We are experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals. We have activated our major incident plan to make sure we can maintain the safety and welfare of patients," Barts said in a statement. Barts, East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust and Colchester General Hospital are postponing all non-urgent appointments for today, with Barts also diverting ambulances to neighbouring hospitals.

Blockchain exchange bids to disrupt artworks trading

Blockchain technology promotes transparency and therefore makes it more difficult for dishonest actors to play their games. We don’t expect changes to happen overnight, but we believe that the art finance industry needs to be more open and fair, and blockchain technology is a step in the right direction. ... This didn’t resonate much with our audience, and very quickly we realised that we had to focus on the core value proposition and not so much in how the technology works. Talking about the issues we address creates much more engagement than explaining how we address them. ... One of our goals is to democratise access to fine art. We believe that by significantly lowering the barrier of entry to art investment combined with transparency, openness and a seamless user experience we will see a much wider audience participate in the art market.

Q&A with Paul Daniels and Luis Atencio on RxJS in Action

RxJS is ideal for software that needs to handle inputs that come in from multiple angles such as lots of user input, API calls, websockets, etc., all coming in at once and factoring into your business logic. When faced with such a heterogeneous data set, RxJS is powerful in that it can easily consume and consolidate these event streams under a single programming model. If you don't have such a need. In other words, if the level of user interaction is minimal, or your data is driven from a few database calls, then RxJS may be overkill. ... Building banking software is no different than any other application. With Observables like functional programming you want to think about what the input to your program is and what the output is.

Hybrid IT Has Arrived: John Lombard, CEO, Dimension Data APAC

In the world of hybrid IT, companies are acquiring capabilities from a variety of different sources. Some may be provided by the in-house IT department, and some might be software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications such as Salesforce. It’s likely that much of it will be infrastructure-as-a-service, delivered from cloud providers. Now the burning question is: ‘How do I bring these services together securely, and deliver a single cohesive experience to my customers and employees?’ This will in turn affect the way employees communicate and collaborate with each other as we see the emergence of countless different tools and offerings by vendors to address these demands. In fact, holographics, augmented reality, and virtual reality will also begin to move from B2C into B2B as well – driving a fundamental transformation of the workspace.

Playing the Networks Game Successfully with SD-WAN and NFV

With ongoing shifts and developments in technology capabilities, software is no longer constrained by the structure that delivers it and networks should not have these constraints either. In a world where users can get started on a cloud platform in minutes, we need technology that connects us securely to that cloud within seconds, making SDN key to building networks of the future. SDN is an enabler of innovation, allowing enterprises to develop new kinds of applications, services and business models, thereby creating new streams of revenue for the company. Dynamic network services support businesses viably because they can be used on a per-consumption basis and can be deployed as a trial service first. This means enterprises can now manage technology investments in a more cost-effective way, taking the necessary time they need to get used to the idea and run projects, as opposed to making upfront heavy investment in technology.

Artificial Intelligence: Cybersecurity Friend or Foe?

We as an industry also will see the growth of cross-platform autonomous malware designed to operate on and between a variety of mobile devices. ... This new variant of autonomous malware includes a learning component that gathers offensive intelligence about where it has been deployed, including the platform on which it has been loaded, then selects, assembles and executes an attack against its target using the appropriate payload. Transformer malware is being used to target cross-platform applications with the goal of infecting and spreading across multiple platforms, thereby expanding the threat surface and making detection and resolution more difficult. Once a vulnerable target has been identified, these tools can also cause code failure and then exploit that vulnerability to inject code, collect data and persist undetected.

Trump Finally Signs Cybersecurity Executive Order

The executive order calls on the secretaries of commerce and homeland security, working with other agencies, to assess the scope of efforts to train the American cybersecurity workforce, including cybersecurity-related education curricula, training and apprenticeship programs, from primary through higher education. ... "One key to this [executive order] is a robust federal cyber R&D program through the academic community to educate and cultivate a pipeline of next-generation computer scientists and front-line defenders, as well as the tools and technologies to support them," says Signal Group Executive Vice President Greg Garcia, a former DHS assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications.

Six Ways CIOs Can Drive Digital Transformation

Digital transformation can’t be accomplished in a silo. Currently, the bulk of the work is carried out by IT teams—without the involvement of cross-function teams within the company. The focus on IT is partially because they were cited by 53 percent of Forbes and Hitachi’s survey respondents as the most prepared for digital transformation. Only a third of the survey respondents viewed other company functions as ready. Instead of focusing solely on IT for digital transformation, companies should empower IT teams to collaborate with other departments on ways to digitize their systems. By partnering with other departments, IT teams can make an efficiency and revenue impact across the organization. If digital transformation continues to live in a silo, its effectiveness will remain limited.

The Future Of Data Monetization

Banks and credit card companies hold a wealth of data around their customers’ financial habits that are invaluable to retailers in particular. They have access to real transaction data – what consumers actually do, as opposed to just what they say they do. Their information can help to build a complete consumer profile, revealing where and when customers are spending money, where they go on vacation, when they are moving house, insurance information, and so forth. Retailers can leverage this in a variety of ways, from predicting sales volumes so they can adjust supply accordingly, leading to lower inventory costs and a more efficient supply chain, through to target relevant promotions according to location and trends. Another industry holding data particularly useful to retailers is telecoms.

Quote for the day:

"The way to success is strategically along the way of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance." -- W. Sherman

Daily Tech Digest - May 10, 2017

Using OpenStack: Leveraging Managed Service Providers

There are many ways that users can consume OpenStack to help benefit their IT business, whether it’s built on premises or off. However, one option that has come from this maturity, is the option for a “managed” cloud, being delivered by a managed service provider (or MSP). This option allows customers to maintain a private cloud, either on premises or off, but leave the burden of deployment, configuration, and day-to-day management to a hired, experienced team of experts. And while this does cost you a monthly/annual subscription to retain their services, it relieves you from the complexities of having to do this yourself. Many businesses may find that their internal IT teams may be understaffed, unskilled, or simply better off utilizing their resources elsewhere.

Google Fuchsia: A very, very early first look

Google has been a bit mum on actual Fuchsia details, but we do know its purpose. It's designed for "modern phones and modern personal computers with fast processors, non-trivial amounts of RAM with arbitrary peripherals doing open-ended computation." That's a bit of a mouthful, but it essentially means it's intended to be THE future OS for current Google-powered devices like smartphones and laptops. If you're not crazy about Armadillo it's time to start hoping Google is still experimenting. If not you're going to have to get used to this new, card-based, minimal operating system. Luckily, you may not have to wait long to find out what Google intends: Google I/O 2017 is happening in a week's time and Fuchsia could take center stage. There's no mention of Fuchsia or Armadillo in the I/O schedule, though there are several events centering around Magenta and Flutter.

Using Blockchain to Secure IoT

A decentralized approach to IoT networking would solve many of the questions above. Adopting a standardized peer-to-peer communication model to process the hundreds of billions of transactions between devices will significantly reduce the costs associated with installing and maintaining large centralized data centers and will distribute computation and storage needs across the billions of devices that form IoT networks. This will prevent failure in any single node in a network from bringing the entire network to a halting collapse. However, establishing peer-to-peer communications will present its own set of challenges, chief among them the issue of security. And as we all know, IoT security is much more than just about protecting sensitive data. The proposed solution will have to maintain privacy and security in huge IoT networks and offer some form of validation and consensus for transactions to prevent spoofing and theft.

PokitDok teams with Intel on healthcare blockchain solution

If you’re wondering why Intel is involved in such a project, Mike Reed, who heads up blockchain technology for the chip maker, says Intel uses these projects as a springboard for its chip business. “Intel has a long history of contributing to open source, and working with Linux and the hyperledger project allows us to work across multiple market segments,” he explained. In addition to the open source software, as you might expect, Intel has also contributed to the broader blockchain ecosystem with a technology they call SGX. “One key piece is Intel SGX, a method [we’ve built into our chips] to improve the scalability, privacy and security of blockchains,” Reed said. He added that PokitDok has taken advantage of this capability.

An untold cost of ransomware: It will change how you operate

Even if the backup looks promising, there is no easy button. The people creating ransomware know that backups can stand between them and their payday. There are a lot of cases where Microsoft Volume Shadow Copies have been destroyed by ransomware. If you leave your backups online so you can have quick recovery, you may find that ransomware can actually delete or corrupt your backups. This is not uncommon; ead the user groups from various backup companies and you’ll see the sad tales of woes. If you are not concerned enough, there are other potential dangers to your backups. They need to be airlocked from systems your users have access to. Before you bring your backups online, make sure the affected computers are off of the network. You need to be absolutely certain that those systems can’t access the backup.

Excel 2016 cheat sheet

If you're working in a workbook you've saved in OneDrive or SharePoint, you'll see a new button on the Ribbon, just to the right of the Share button. It's the Activity button, and it's particularly handy for shared workbooks. Click it and you'll see the history of what's been done to the spreadsheet, notably who has saved it and when. To see a previous version, click the "Open version" link underneath when someone has saved it, and the older version will appear. And there's a very useful difference in what Microsoft calls the backstage area that appears when you click File on the Ribbon: If you click Open, Save or Save As from the menu on the left, you can see the cloud-based services you've connected to your Office account, such as SharePoint and OneDrive. Each location now displays its associated email address underneath it.

With Security Awareness Money Talks

Undercutting the incentives for employees to do the right thing for security purposes is the fact that the vast majority of email attachments from a boss will in fact be a legitimate email attachment from the boss. Even with rampant phishing attacks happening today, most attachments are legitimate, in the same way that most people ringing your home doorbell are not homicidal maniacs. Statistical reality aside, employees’ perception is that the odds are dramatically against them opening a contaminated attachment and having damage result and having that damage traced back to the employee’s actions. In short, employees are rushed and they think it’s a decent gamble to open attachments that at least look legit.

Why Cyber Attacks Will Continue until Prevention Becomes a Priority

Cybersecurity is often described as an arms race between security professionals and skilled attackers, as both parties rush to gain the upper hand. While even cutting-edge defenses are inevitably thwarted by determined attackers, cybersecurity professionals are able to quickly react and nullify attacks. But many businesses don't keep tabs on the front lines of cybersecurity development, leaving them several generations behind with regard to best practices and current threats. For example, while multifactor authentication has been recommended for more than a decade, many organizations are only now adopting the technology across their applications and platforms. Making matters worse, many organizations fail to follow best practices for maintaining and protecting their current environments, creating countless avenues of attack for even inexperienced attackers.

Microsoft fixes 55 vulnerabilities, 3 exploited by Russian cyberspies

Fifteen of the vulnerabilities fixed in Microsoft's patch bundle for May are rated as critical and they affect Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, and the malware protection engine used in most of the company's anti-malware products. System administrators should prioritize the Microsoft Office patches because they address two vulnerabilities that attackers have exploited in targeted attacks over the past two months. Both of these flaws, CVE-2017-0261 and CVE-2017-0262, stem from how Microsoft Office handles Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) image files and can lead to remote code execution on the underlying system. ... Also known as Snake or Uroburos, the Turla group has been active since at least 2007 and has been responsible for some of the most complex cyberespionage attacks to date.

IBM bolsters enterprise app security with behavioral biometrics

"SecuredTouch technology provides a strong, risk-based, user-centric security check that keeps customers engaged, automatically delivering complete security and privacy while remaining completely transparent to the user, eliminating hassle, registration, and education," according to a press release. "The integration allows IBM customers to implement behavioral biometrics directly into their apps without any additional steps." Potential use cases include second factor authentication in financial applications, or adding another layer of enterprise security for corporate apps. The goal is to enhance the user's digital experience and reduce the friction caused by using passwords and tokens. It can also enable more transactions via mobile and reduce false positives, the press release stated.

Quote for the day:

"Nothing gives so much direction to a person's life as a sound set of principles." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson