Month: May 2020

Categories
Business

Are Employment Websites Hacker’s New Target?

The pandemic opened up a new world of opportunities for many people. There’s a record number of individuals leaving their jobs in the Great Resignation. Companies face an incredible amount of their talent leaving, and the number one reason is pay.

Professionals are turning to websites like LinkedIn, looking for new jobs. But, there’s a hidden danger in the mix if you’re a job seeker. Cybercriminals are targeting people through sophisticated campaigns to have you install malware.

What’s going on?

Hackers are always thinking of new ways to harm. Employment websites like LinkedIn are the latest targets. It’s extremely easy to create a profile and make it look like you’re a professional in a specific niche. Usually, hackers represent themselves as part of HR for a particular company, and they publish fake job posts or contact users via direct messages. Here’s how the scenario usually plays out.

You receive a connection request from a recruiter that works for a renowned company that you know about. After you accept, they send you a message about a new position that would perfectly match your skills.

As you read through the requirements, it really looks like the ideal job. However, the hacker has already scanned your profile and purposefully made it that way. In addition to the message, they send you a file, usually ending with a “.exe” or a “.zip.” They claim you need to open the file to see the test trial or task.

Not expecting anything particular, you download the file and execute it. Suddenly, your computer starts to lag, and your screen freezes. The file was a backdoor trojan that started downloading even more malware files. When you allow access, multiple bad things could happen.

Your identity, credentials, and banking info can get stolen. If it’s ransomware, the hacker will ask for cash to unfreeze your device. That never happens. They could also sell your data or use the device as part of a botnet for a DDoS attack. Since thousands of people are looking for jobs, this activity is quite problematic.

What’s the solution?

You need to be extra careful when downloading files. Of course, everyone uses employment websites to find work. Conversations always start with a feeling of pressure, but you always think you’re talking to a genuine and authentic person.

Sites like LinkedIn have improved their defenses, and there are both automated and manual ways for them to look for fraudulent activity. But that doesn’t mean that some accounts won’t pass through the filters.

Be wary of files that end with “.exe” or “.zip,” especially if they have spelling errors. One of the best ways to be protected is to use a USA VPN with built-in threat protection. The VPN feature scans a file for malware whenever you select a file to download. That’s incredibly useful and could save you from a potential hack.

Another way to avoid scams is to treat the messages in your inbox as emails from an unknown source. That way, the chances of you falling for a phishing attack fall drastically. Also, accept connection requests only from people you know or have tons of mutual connections.

Can you get hacked if you click on a link?

Even though it’s not that common, you could get hacked if you click on a link. A “drive-by exploit” can do a lot of harm if you’re using older versions of browsers like Internet Explorer.

If you’re using something like Firefox, Opera, or Chrome, cybercriminals need to know something about you before launching an attack. Visiting their site and entering basic information could be enough if they’re experts. If you’re not using a VPN, they can read your IP address, which helps them immensely.

When they get your IP, they can either launch a DDoS or a MITM attack. The first one renders your device useless, while the latter is used to steal sensitive information. VPNs help because they hide your actual IP address while giving you a fake one. That way, the cybercriminal’s efforts will be in vain.

Another scenario is a fake link leading you to a spoofed version of a popular site. It will look exactly like the one you know, but when you enter your credentials, the hacker can use them to log in to your account. With access to your email account, they can enter your social media profiles and banking apps. If you don’t have two-factor authentication enabled, the attack will be like a walk in the park.

Categories
Business

2022 Cloud Computing Trends Business Owners Should Know

According to Australia’s Sovereign Cloud IaaS Provider, AUCloud,  cloud computing allows businesses to access required computing resources through the internet, reducing IT infrastructure expenses significantly. Cloud computing has spawned virtual workplaces through cloud collaboration platforms and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), resulting in hybrid working patterns.

“The evolution of technology, company operations, and IT expenditures may all be seen in cloud computing trends. Users of the public cloud-like us can save money, time, and IT specialist skills by not having to buy and maintain on-site infrastructure or manage IT upgrades,” says small business loan specialist from Max Funding.

Access to on-demand computing resources, scalable and secure platforms, and flexible IT spending have transformed the cloud from a fad to a need.

There are different cloud servers, each of which has a unique feature and purpose. These are the following:

1. Public Cloud Services

Anyone who needs their services is delivered via the Internet by a third-party cloud service provider.

2. Private Cloud Services

A company’s data centre serves only a few users via the Internet or a proprietary internal network.

3. Hybrid Cloud Services

By transferring data and apps between public and private clouds, you can integrate them.

Advantages Of Cloud Computing

Businesses of all sizes and industries are embracing cloud computing. According to market studies, companies that moved to cloud computing have witnessed a boost in revenue. As a result, cloud computing appears to be a viable commercial tool today. Some, but not all, of cloud computing’s advantages are as follows:

1. An Asset For The Company

While more businesses are utilising cloud computing, others still prefer traditional methods. But they will get there sooner rather than later, as they become aware of the world-class technology and high performance that a cloud environment will provide. Switching to cloud computing now will put your business ahead of the competition.

2. Easy To Access

Smartphones, laptops, and other devices with internet access can access cloud servers from anywhere, at any time. Because the data is stored in one location, it assures that all users have access to the same data in real-time and facilitates data exchange. This ensures data quality and accessibility for all users, regardless of location.

3. Lower Expenses And Improve Efficiency

Using cloud computing eliminates the need to invest in facilities, hardware, or the construction of a data centre. It also decreased energy use and prices, resulting in lower costs. It also prevents data loss due to an office’s enormous volume of documents.

Use Cloud Computing To Leverage Your Business Success!

In our fast-changing world, individuals and businesses must be flexible and adaptable to changes in their environment. Keeping your workplace technologies up to date will provide your company with a competitive advantage in your field.

Categories
Data

Is business intelligence the same as data science?

Data science is growing immensely in today’s modern data-driven world. Business intelligence and data science are two recurring terms in the digital era. These involve the use of data that are totally different from each other. Data science is a bigger pool that contains huge information; business intelligence can be considered as a part of the bigger picture. These are both data-focused processes, but there is some difference between the two. Business intelligence focuses on analyzing things, whereas data science aims to predict future trends. Data science requires an effective technical skill set as compared to business intelligence. 

Power BI certification allows interested candidates to explore Power BI concepts such as Microsoft Power BI desktop layout, BI reports, dashboards, power BI DAX commands, and functions. Microsoft Power BI is a widely used business intelligence platform, and this follows a hands-on applied learning approach. 

 

Business Intelligence:

This is a means of performing descriptive analysis of data with the help of technology, skills for allowing one to make informed business decisions. The tools which are used for business intelligence collect, govern, and transform data. This allows decision-making by enabling data sharing between internal and external stakeholders. The main aim of BI is to derive actionable intelligence from data. BI enables acton such as gaining a better understanding of the market, uncovering new revenue opportunities, improving business processes, and staying ahead of competitors. This has shown its impact on cloud computing. Cloud has made it possible to collect data from resources and use this efficiently. This deals with the analysis of structured and unstructured data, which paves the way for new and profitable business opportunities. Business intelligence tools enhance the chances of enterprises entering a new market as this helps in studying the impact of marketing efforts. 

Importance of business intelligence:

As the data volume is increasing, business intelligence is more essential than ever in providing a comprehensive snapshot of business information. This provides guidance towards informed decision-making and even identifies the area of improvement, which leads to greater organizational efficiency and even increases the bottom line. 

 

Data science:

Data science mainly involves extracting information from datasets and creating a forecast. This involves the use of machine learning, descriptive analytics, and other sophisticated analytics tool. This is a process of collecting and maintaining data. Further, this involves the process of data via data mining, modeling, and summarization. After this, data analysis is conducted, etc. After analyzing the data, the patterns behind the raw data can be discovered to forecast future trends. Data science is used in different industries. Companies can use a devised approach to develop new products, study customer preferences and predict market trends. Here high volume of data can be collected from electronic medical records and individual fitness trackers. 

Importance of data science:

Data science in different companies is able to predict, prepare and optimize their operations. Data science plays an important role in the user experience; for many companies, data science is what allows them to offer personalized and tailored services. 

 

Business intelligence vs. Data Science: Is it the same or different?

Business intelligence and data science play a key role in producing companies’ actionable insights. Let us check on some common attributes between the two:

  • Perspective: business intelligence focuses on the present, while data science looks toward the future and further predicts what will happen next. Business intelligence works with past data in order to determine the responsible course of action, while data science creates predictive models which recognize future possibilities. 
  • Data types: business intelligence works with structured data, which is typically data warehoused or stored in data silos. Data science works with structured data and further results in greater time, which is dedicated to cleaning and improving the data quality. 
  • Deliverable: reports are used when it comes to business intelligence. Different deliverables for business intelligence include creating dashboards and performing ad-hoc requests. Data science deliverables have similar end goals and focus on long-term projects. These projects include creating models in production instead of working from enterprise visualization tools. 
  • Process: the difference between the processes of both comes back to the time, same as how this influences the nature of deliverables. Business intelligence mainly revolves around descriptive analytics. This is the first step of analysis and sets the stage for what happened in the past. Here non-technical business users can understand and interpret data via visualization. Data science would take the exploratory approach and means investigating the data via its attributes, hypothesis testing and exploring different trends, and answering questions on a performance basis. 
  • Decision making: business intelligence and data science are used for driving decisions, and this is central to determining the nature of decision-making. The forward-looking nature of data science is used at the forefront of strategic planning and determines the future course. These decisions are preemptive instead of responsive. Business intelligence aids in decision-making based on previous performances which have occurred. These fall under the umbrella of providing insights, and this supports business decisions.

 

Conclusion:

Both business intelligence and data science have differences, but the end goal of these are ultimately aligned. It is important to note the complementary perspective of both. From the company perspective, both data science and business intelligence play similar roles in business processes that provide fact-based insights and support business decisions. Data science and business intelligence are facilitators of each other, and it is said that data science is best performed together with BI. These are required to have an efficient understanding of company trends which are hidden in the large amount. 

In order to summarize simply, data science and business intelligence are not the same things, but this represents the evolution of business intelligence; thus placing data into introspective plays a central role in the business. Data science and business intelligence are equally vital roles on the same team. The individual roles are different, and when together, they serve the broader business analytic world. Though there is a difference in the way data science and BI handle objective tools, the end game is the same. 

Categories
Data

How Real Estate Agencies Can Make Data Driven Decisions With Geospatial Data

No matter what type of business you are in, there is no denying the importance of geospatial data as it relates to literally every area of your company from marketing to planning and everything in between. In terms of real estate, in the coming years any real estate agency that doesn’t make use of and rely heavily on geospatial data will almost certainly be left behind. In order to understand that rather marked and definitive statement, it is first important to understand exactly what geospatial data is, how it is collected, and why it is especially relevant in real estate.

 

A Brief Definition of Geospatial Data

In its simplest definition, geospatial data is that which is descriptive of any event, object or feature located on or very near the earth’s surface. It is typically a combination of:

  • Location (coordinates)
  • Characteristics (relating to objects, phenomena, or events)
  • Temporal Information (point in time or lifespan)

All of which play a significant role in reading data with the intent of forecasting future events or movement.

For example, let’s look at how geospatial data helped to track and forecast the movement and spread of the SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19 pandemic. Temporal data gave us a short-term location of what was to be the pandemic in late 2019. We know that the location was Wuhan, China and thought to have originated at one specific market which then became ground zero on the geospatial chart. From there a long-term progression of the pandemic showed its movement outward which are temporal and location data. Along with characteristics such as how it was spreading, scientists became better able to forecast its movement around the globe and as early asMarch of 2020 a global pandemic was announced. 

Even then, it was too little too late because some of the much-needed data was not forthcoming soon enough to predict an accurate geographic spread and rate of spread. Had geospatial data been shared better in the early days, many virologists and epidemiologists believe the pandemic may have had better outcomes earlier on. With that, you can see just how important it is in forecasting business dynamics going forward.

 

How Real Estate Can Benefit

In the real estate market properties for sale have always been valued primarily on location and what we knew about that that particular property in terms of the condition it was in and what was going on around it in the general vicinity. Were there plans for future development and if so, how would that affect a particular property that an owner wanted to list for sale. Realtors and assessors would look at other properties in the area to see what they had sold for in order to relate that price to the property in question. This is how comparables were calculated and how an actual list price and marketability were determined.

With advances in technology, geospatial data can actually have a profound effect on the profitability of a piece of commercial property. Instead of using historical data to predict a given market going forward, temporal data gathered and analysed in real time can indicate what that property is worth today in the here and now. To be specific, comparables calculated even a week previous to a major break in a pipeline may not be relevant today. That property would be greatly devalued if the repairs would be weeks or months in coming. Real time data can affect the price today and that’s why the real estate market will, at some point in time, need to rely on what is happening on the ground at a very precise location.

 

A Key Selling Point

Conversely, if new schools are being built, for example, and an influx of families are moving into a neighbourhood, a commercial venture for a theme park might want to jump on a parcel of land zoned commercial. Satellite imagery would show that kids are out playing in fields and on side streets with few parks and nothing in the way of entertainment. It would take weeks, if not longer, to collect that kind of data without the benefit of a literal bird’s eye view from above and a poor data set can have a terrible effect on the real estate market.

AI could possibly collect data on the types of commercial or public properties families might frequent already in existence, but even that isn’t quite as all-encompassing as actually seeing movement on the ground. Just because a property exists doesn’t mean it is being frequented by the locals. Satellite imagery would document that and indicate whether or not there is a need for family entertainment at this time.

Imagine what a real estate agent could do in the Greek Islands with information like that? As a popular tourist destination, geospatial data could indicate what kinds of attractions are being frequented, which are ignored, and what types of venues would do well in areas with currently high levels of traffic. It’s interesting to imagine just how this type of data can, and will, affect the real estate market going forward. One thing is for sure. Geospatial data will almost certainly replace the archaic system of buying and selling real property based on comparables. That’s a given.