Central bankers, regulators and risk managers have for the past decade tried to shore up banks’ ability to withstand financial shocks as happened to the Lehman Brothers back in 2008. But now, the new culprit may not be a financial shock, but a cyber-attack. Such an attack may disrupt financial services such as worldwide payment systems. Cybercrime is already worth a trillion dollars globally in terms of loss to countries. Losses could be similar to those from hurricanes such as Katrina or Sandy. One of the sources for this could be from a rogue state such as North Korea. Another scenario could be where an amateur launches malware without proper understanding of the circumstances. Even central banks may not be well-prepared to handle such circumstances. The financial services ecosystem needs to agree on this threat and work as a unit, because all will suffer together. Coordinated corporate training programmes aimed at implementing systems to stop cyberattack contagion have to be initiated.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/09/how-a-cyber-attack-could-cause-the-next-financial-crisis

Uploaded Date:10 November 2018

Cybersecurity will hold massive importance in the year 2019, due to the spiraling quantity of digital transactions worldwide. So, some trends have been identified which will hold sway next year. First of all, this cybersecurity will need to be aligned with data science, as the proponents of the latter are best placed to ward off such attacks. Internet-enabled devices are now ubiquitous. This adds to the security threats but also presents massive opportunities for mega-scale data warehousing. Two-factor authentication or 2FA will see a spurt in demand. This will include passwords, authentication apps and even fingerprints. The cyclicity of businesses means that older threats or opportunities remain new again. The STRIDE Threat Model for example developed by Microsoft about a decade back, remains relevant till now.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/11/05/top-four-cybersecurity-trends-for-the-year-ahead/#5320fafc4921

Uploaded Date:08 November 2018

The traditional legacy companies have always believed in the mantra of positioning their brands in the consumers’ minds. Digitally forward-thinking startups have gone one level ahead by positioning their brands in the consumers’ ‘lives’. Marketing research was jointly conducted by brand design agency Siegel+Gale along with Shift Thinking and SAP to understand the digital transformation effected by such successful digital-native brands. These companies are behaving as end-users themselves rather than as consumers. As a result, their focus has been on after-purchase brand loyalty rather than sales and pre-promotion as practiced by the legacy firms. They have an almost fanatical approach towards ensuring the ultimate experience, rather than merely on the revenue. This does not mean that the legacy firms have lost their relevance, rather these are the brands that people look up to. But, the newer brands were credited with making users’ lives easier. Another point of difference is that the older firms were more heard of on traditional media such as TV, but the newer ones are more active on social media, which is their main outlet for digital marketing.

Source:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/318683

Uploaded Date:16 October 2018

One of he biggest gainers in the ongoing digital age is the supply-chain and logistics industry. The ability to track and verify goods was seen as a competitive advantage, but now this and much more is possible thanks to the use of the Internet-of-Things (IoT). It has managed to integrate technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and business analytics. This is how factories of the future too will look like. Instead of manufacturing plants, they will have IoT-driven networks. The Forbes Insights survey was conducted over 700 executives to find out the application of IoT to business, and an overwhelming percentage of them responded positively. IoT integration brings some major advantages to businesses such as improving in product development through analysis of the huge chunks of data. The quality of the product too improves as one has better insights on what has failed or won’t work. Inventory replenishment is another such area thanks to the specific business intelligence being procured from these data-backed networks. The same networks will also aid in maintenance through predictive analytics.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/insights-inteliot/2018/09/14/cover-your-assets-the-rise-of-the-super-intelligent-supply-chain/#50173d099858

Uploaded Date:16 October 2018