If you have not known yet, Google Drive is not completely free anymore. If you check your gmail accounts and Google tells you that your storage is running out, that is because Google has brought down the capacity for free users to 15GB of storage. 15GB of storage is really not a lot and runs out pretty quickly.
Google Photos used to also offer unlimited photo storage, as long as you are not demanding for a full-resolution photo backup. Google ended that service in June and users would have to start paying for storage services under the Google One storage subscription package. Users can start with 100GB plan for MYR 8.49 a month onward. Users can opt for up to 30TB in cloud storage too for up US$ 150 (MYR 624*) onward.
The subscription plans are quite robust for users though. You can opt for 200GB, 2TB, 10TB, and 20TB storage options, if 100GB is too little, or 30TB too much for you. There was nothing between the jump between 2TB and 10TB options before this though, and that puts users in a bit of a pickle.
Google has an answer now with a 5TB Google One package. They also have priced it exactly in between the 2TB and 10TB options at US$ 25 (MYR 104*). There is a small caveat here though.
Source: Google
Eagle eyed viewers might find that most of the prices quoted are in US$. That is not on purpose though, Malaysia only gets the Google One storage at up to 2TB. You can subscribe to the 2TB Google One plan for MYR 42.99/month, or MYR 429.99 for an entire year’s worth of 2TB storage. There are no mentions on when Malaysia will get a higher tier Google One plan, if it ever happens at all.
As mentioned, the Google One storage plan is built to be Google’s answer to Google Photos backup and Google Drive. You still get to use Google Drive for free, but you are limited to 15GB in storage. The Google Drive app is also available for free on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Maxis is working hard on delivering a full complement of services to their customers – be it consumers or businesses. This week saw the launch of one of their newest offerings: Maxis Right Cloud, a one-stop solution for the management of multi-cloud operations developed in-house at Maxis.
Maxis Right Cloud will enable adopters to manage their business clouds from a single platform. Naturally, being a convergent platform, Maxis Right Cloud is cloud-agnostic. This means that it supports not only services from Maxis but also from leading private and public cloud providers like Amazon web services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google. It will allow companies to use a single dashboard to access all the information needed to run the business.
Source: Maxis
The platform is supported end-to-end by Maxis’ very own, in-house expertise. Everything from assessing, designing, migrating, building, securing, and managing cloud infrastructure will be easily accessible on Maxis Right Cloud. Right Cloud is complemented by the company’s competent technical team who have been certified by companies like AWS and Microsoft for their expertise. In addition, the company has also acquired the necessary expertise to complement its workforce from recent acquisitions such as its acquisition of ICMS and Peering One not too long ago.
The Maxis Programmable Network (MPN) provides the backbone for the new offering. The MPN is the first programmable software-defined network with Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) 3.0 certification. This backbone provides a level of scalability and customizability that allows users to be agile and adapt to the fast-changing IT environments without having a lapse in performance.
When it comes to cost, Maxis is looking to adopt a pricing structure similar to leading cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft. Typically, this would entail a pay-as-you-go pay model which should enable SMEs and startups to benefit from the offering.
The introduction of Maxis Right Cloud comes as the latest in series of announcements that gear Maxis to be one of the foremost providers when it comes to converged solutions. The company has been building its capacity to leverage its infrastructure to spur digitization efforts and prepare businesses in Malaysia for 5G adoption.
vivo seems to be doubling down on its commitment to delivering the best imaging on mobile devices. The company only recently signed an agreement with ZEISS to co-develop camera technologies for mobile. Now, it is looking to spread its wings into creating imaging processors. Vivo announced its first foray – the Imaging Chip V1 – last week in Shenzen, China.
The Imaging Chip V1 is the result of over two year’s of research and development by over 300 personnel. vivo is viewing the Imaging Chip V1 as its first step towards pushing the image processing envelope forward. The company will be focusing on four strategic tracks to achieve its ambitions; image system, operating system, industrial design and performance. While the announcement comes in the midst of a chip shortage, vivo’s Executive Vice-President and COO, Hu Baishan, remains confident that vivo is able to meet its own needs and demands, ruling out collaborations at this time.
The announcement of the Imaging Chip comes as the latest in a series of collaborations and announcements from vivo as it looks to cement itself as a leader in mobile imaging technologies. That said, the company hasn’t revealed any details of the capabilities of the chip. However, if rumours are to be believed, the upcoming X70 series of smartphones will be the first to have the Imaging Chip V1. We won’t have to wait very long as the X70 series is expected to launch in October.
Xiaomi is no stranger to the mobile and tech market. The company has built an empire spanning smartphones to smart home items and it achieved this in a relatively short time. The company emerged and grew in the span of a little over a decade. In fact, Malaysia’s first Xiaomi device was the popular Mi 3. It’s been nearly a decade since – and it looks like things are about to change.
According to a statement to XDA Developers, it looks like Xiaomi will be streamlining its branding. As part of the move, it looks like the “Mi” branding that we know and love is going to be retired. In its statement, the company highlighted that the recently announced MIX 4 was the first device to have its new, streamlined branding.
The move to retire their “MI” branding marks a close in a very important chapter in Xiaomi’s history as it moves to be a more international company from its humble beginnings. Xiaomi’s first product wasn’t a smartphone – it was MIUI, the Android fork that is now a hallmark feature of all its products. Today, the company has become one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world with a smartphone literally built for everyone.
With the retirement of the “Mi” brand, new flagships will come under their “Xiaomi” name. This should bolster the recognition of their brand worldwide. However, Xiaomi now has the task of differentiating itself in a market saturated by so many. In addition, it also has POCO and Redmi under its belt. The two brands are wildly popular in their segments but do little when it comes to Xiaomi’s branding.
Xiaomi now has the behemoth task of maintaining its dominance in the mobile space. The market has always been ruled by big guns like Apple and Samsung. However, just recently, Xiaomi dethroned the companies as the largest OEM in the world.
Today is a funny world of memes and GIFs. Pronounce ‘GIF’ however you want, but you cannot deny its popularity and its significance in modern communication. It has become a tool to quickly express yourself in certain moments with your friends, and even with the world of social media. You can even create your own GIFs these days with your smartphone or even the web. One of the most popular platforms for virtually unlimited GIFs is Giphy.
If you are not aware, Facebook currently owns Giphy (what else do they not own?). They made a bid of US$ 400 million earlier in 2020 for Giphy and now owns at least a major part of Giphy. Facebook’s acquisition of the popular GIF platform should not come as a surprise though. After all, GIF is now a large part of social media and Facebook has been relentless in their quest to be a one-stop-shop of all things social media. The acquisition of Giphy also allows Facebook to directly access Giphy’s database and develop APIs that would seamlessly integrate Facebook’s platforms to Giphy, which is a big win for WhatsApp users at least.
It seems that not everyone agrees with Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy though. The Competition and Markers Authority (CMA), an anti-competition regulator in the United Kingdom (UK), launched an investigation following the acquisition of Giphy last year. Yes, last year, not this year. They finally came to a finding that was released yesterday though that might be alarming for Facebook.
Their statement (as per The Verge and quoted below) raises concerns over how Giphy is a platform of choice for many of the other social media platforms that are currently not owned by Facebook. CMA argues that Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy might affect that access from other social media platforms; in other words, CMA thinks that Facebook will cut off access to Giphy making it a Facebook exclusive instead of the open platform that it is currently known for. CMA also cited that Facebook could also acquire more user data that was previously not available to it from other social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter via Giphy. They also argued that Giphy was on its way to building their own ads business model that could be a possible competition to Facebook, and those plans were derailed with Facebook’s acquisition. They will be producing a final report on the issue in October 2021.
“Millions of posts every day on social media sites now include a GIF. Any reduction in the choice or quality of these GIFs could significantly affect how people use these sites and whether or not they switch to a different platform, such as Facebook. As most major social media sites that compete with Facebook use Giphy GIFs, and there is only one other large provider of GIFs – Google’s Tenor – these platforms have very little choice.
The CMA provisionally found that Facebook’s ownership of Giphy could lead it to deny other platforms access to its GIFs. Alternatively, it could change the terms of this access – for example, Facebook could require Giphy customers, such as TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat, to provide more user data in order to access Giphy GIFs. Such actions could increase Facebook’s market power, which is already significant.”
Of course, Facebook did not sit still with the investigation that was launched last year. They have since made a few submissions to CMA claiming that Giphy had “no meaningful audience of its own”. They also claimed that Giphy relies on Facebook for most of its traffic anyway. To be fair too, Giphy has not been posting any profit numbers in its 8-year history, even with some US$ 150 million raised over their course of existence. Since the acquisition too, Giphy’s employees have not been integrated into Facebook and everything has been kept at status quo at the moment.
So far then, it is still business as usual on both ends. That also means that you still can enjoy Giphy on any platform of your choosing, for now. If the deal still goes through though, CMA’s fears could come true, and your source of never-ending GIFs will be exclusive to Facebook apps sooner than later. At the same time, Giphy needs money to keep operating, and in that case, who would keep Giphy funded if Facebook is not allowed to own Giphy?
When I was a young boy growing up in Jersey in the British Channel Islands, I’d turn on the grainy TV to warm up so I could watch sports with my father and brother. FORMULA 1 racing was the most exciting sport for us, even though the cars often sped by faster than the camera operator and the technology could keep up.
Now, racing is covered in a far richer and more engaging way, especially since F1 launched F1 Insights powered by AWS in 2018, bringing data analytics as a live feed to my screens. Watching on my phone in Singapore, I love the real-time Car Performance Scores, which include thousands of data points streamed every second from every car on the track, giving me a much better understanding of where my favorite car ranks in the field – and what’s driving its performance.
It’s exactly this type of real-time information that businesses need to understand their performance, so they can make decisions rapidly and keep up with market changes. During the pandemic, we have learned that speed matters, whether you’re a digital native or a more traditional organization. As all businesses faced social distancing measures, those who survived the pandemic adopted new ways to do business, and they adapted fast using the cloud.
Some moved faster than others. Some enterprises with legacy systems seem resigned to moving slowly. Even today, I often hear comments like, “It’s just the nature of our size and heritage.”
We must debunk that myth. Speed is not preordained by heritage. Speed is a choice that any organization can make if it is prepared to harness the cloud. As a recent McKinsey article put it: “For CEOs, cloud adoption is not just an engine for revenue growth and efficiency. The cloud’s speed, scale, innovation, and productivity benefits are essential to the pursuit of broader digital business opportunities, now and well into the future.”
Culture Change
Many organizations can look for ways to change their culture and embrace speed, creating an environment that values urgency. In a culture designed for speed, people are actively encouraged to experiment and are rewarded for it. Although, flipping a switch won’t suddenly deliver speed – companies have to build muscle while they learn how to innovate at pace, all the time.
Amazon has been around for nearly 27 years, and to this day we maintain what we call a “Day 1” culture – approaching everything we do with the entrepreneurial spirit of being on the first day of your organization. We do this by giving our teams autonomy, on the understanding that they operate within the guardrails of our culture.
We believe the more we can equip people to make high judgment decisions at all levels, the better off we, and our customers, are. We encourage employees to make high-velocity, high-quality decisions by setting the vision and context for teams. Since Amazon was founded in 1994, we’ve consistently operated based on three big ideas that every employee knows. The first is to obsess over customers. This is cemented in our mission statement to be “earth’s most customer-centric company.” The second is that if we focus on the customer it will force us to innovate – to look at new ways of solving problems on behalf of our customers. The third is to be stubborn in sustaining our long-term vision while being flexible in how we get there.
As Jeff Bezos explains, “In a traditional corporate hierarchy, a junior executive comes up with a new idea that they want to try. They have to convince their boss, their boss’s boss, their boss’s boss’s boss and so on – any ‘no’ in that chain can kill the whole idea.” Systems and processes that identify, validate, and approve new ideas from within the business are invaluable in democratizing company-wide idea exploration and driving experimentation in business as usual. For example, at Amazon, we make it easy for those closest to our customers to raise ideas for speedy review. Imagine a time-wasting process or one that results in a poor customer experience. People complain about it regularly, but they know that it can be so hard to implement change, that it’s not worth the effort. The problem is put in the “too hard” basket and no one says anything. Now, imagine actually rewarding teams for suggesting a fix. Imagine if the process was fast and painless and resulted in change. How many great ideas would happen every week?
Thinking Big and Acting Small
Thinking big is the hallmark of innovation. But, as we look to move quickly and embrace greater experimentation, we should also look to de-risk the process. This means recognizing that the most powerful innovations often come through simplification. One small, seemingly insignificant cost or time-saving can drive enormous benefits for both companies and their customers when applied at scale. Thinking big also means starting big ideas with very small, reversible experiments. At Amazon, we look for “two-way doors.” If an experiment fails (as they often do), we can back out of the decision rather than being committed to moving ahead through a “one-way door,” which can be expensive and difficult to undo. This way, you learn quickly with very low stakes.
A great example of innovative thinking in the face of legacy technology is FashionValet. As the modest fashion brand grew, its multi-environment hybrid technology infrastructure was unable to keep up with demand during product launches. In 2019, FashionValet went all-in on AWS to optimize processes and meet growing demand. With Auto Scaling Groups and RDS Aurora features, FashionValet can now run 10x more servers during product launches to meet demand, then scale down automatically with no downtime. Using this technology, FashionValet has also accelerated their product development timeline by 200% and reduced their infrastructure management costs by 75%.
Companies don’t have to bet their business on innovation, but they shouldn’t let legacy thinking hold them back. By actively empowering teams, clearing the path to “Yes,” and using small experiments, companies can build capability to promote high-velocity decisions – helping them operate at the speed of F1.
Businesses today are not conducted in the office anymore. Business deals are also not sealed in a meeting room most of the time these days. Instead, if you consider the 2020/2021 pandemic situation, businesses and deals are conducted and sealed at home. But even before that, businesses and deals are done outside of the office environment like coffee shops and even restaurants, public spaces.
Portable computing solutions like notebook PCs play a big role in the rising trend in moving out of the office to get your work done though. At the same time, laptops are also getting more sophisticated, especially when they start becoming more function specific. For example, the ASUS ExpertBook line-up that ASUS just launched are built specifically for the modern road warrior.
ASUS ExpertBook B1
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
A thin and light notebook PC does not need have to come with a heavy price tag. The prime example of an affordable thin and light notebook that is also versatile is the ASUS ExpertBook B1 (B1400 & B1500). They are thin (19.2mm for B1400, 19.4mm for B1500), and they are not exactly back breaking (1.45kg for B1400, 1.73kg for B1500). While they may not be the lightest laptops available today, you do have to remember that the B1400 ExpertBook B1 is a 14-inch notebook, while the B1500 ExpertBook B1 is a 15.6-inch notebook.
The display size is the only thing that separates the two notebooks in the series though. The ExpertBook B1 notebooks come with up to the 11th Generation Intel Core i7 1165G7, a powerful CPU with Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. Alongside up to 8GB of RAM, the ExpertBook B1 makes short work of any sort of documents you need to get through for the day anywhere.
It is truly a laptop you can take anywhere with you with little worry that it will work in any condition. ASUS built the ExpertBook B1 to MIL—STD 810H military standards to ensure that it can withstand all the kinds of drops and bumps it will go through in its lifetime. At the same time, it has versatility like no other with a slew of I/O ports that could prove useful in a lot of conditions. It has a full HDMI port, an RJ45 LAN port, a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port, three USB Type-A ports (2 x USB 3.2, 1 x USB 2.0) one MicroSD card reader, a VGA D-SUB port, and an Audio combo 3.5mm AUX jack.
Physical connection, while much appreciated is secondary these days when it comes to networking today. The ExpertBook B1 comes with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. These things mean that the ExpertBook B1 will have a stable and fast connection to any wireless internet line, or when you need to transfer data between two Bluetooth devices.
Of course, security is a big concern in the corporate world. To ensure only the right people gets access to the ExpertBook B1, ASUS includes a fingerprint sensor that integrates to the power button for Windows Hello’s biometric security measures. It is seamless too, with users only needing to turn on the device with the power button to simply log in. At the same time, Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM 2.0) ensures that the ExpertBook B1 is more secure than ever. As a bonus, it is Windows 11 ready with TPM 2.0.
ASUS ExpertBook B5
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Next up is the new standard in convertible notebook PCs, the ExpertBook B5. To be fair, there are two flavours in the ASUS ExpertBook B5 line-up – a convertible flip variant, and regular clamshell variant. They are basically the same notebooks though, on paper at least, with the flip convertible ExpertBook B5 Flip being the heavier one of the two (1.11kg vs 1kg).
The MIL-STD 810H aluminium and magnesium-alloy constructed body is light while containing a lot of power. It packs a lot of punch with up to an 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU with the proven integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics. 8GB of RAM ensures that the ExpertBook B5 maintains its speed and power through any sort of work you can throw at it.
The 16.9mm ExpertBook 5 series still packs up to 512GB of SSD that gives you ample storage for all kinds of documents you need for work. SSD speeds also allows you to quickly access any files you need at any time. Dual-band WiFi 6 should also supply the ExpertBook B5 with enough networking speeds when needed.
Of course, security and privacy are not forgotten with the ExpertBook B5 series. The 720p HD webcam comes with a physical shield to cover the webcam when not in use. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor for super quick log in to Windows 10 Pro. At the same time, you can get the ExpertBook B5 with TPM 2.0 which also means that it would be compatible with Windows 11 when it is available.
At up to 1.11kg, the ExpertBook B5 series is made to be travelling with you to all corners of the world. This is also while providing you the power to get any sort of work done anywhere and anytime with up to 14-hours of battery life from its 66Wh battery. When you run out of battery, charge quickly via USB Type-C using the provided 65W charger that you can also use to charge your smartphone, if needed.
ASUS ExpertBook B9
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
Source: ASUS
The start of the show is none other than the ExpertBook B9. The most premium device in the ExpertBook line-up offers the world’s lightest 14-inch business laptop experience at 880 grams. At 14.9mm, it is not exactly thick either.
ASUS managed the weight and also achieve MIL-STD 810H military build standards with a unique magnesium-lithium-alloy chassis mix. They still manage to fit a 33Wh battery in the 880g variant of the notebook for an impressive battery life. For a full day of battery life though, there is the 1005g variant that packs double the battery size at 66Wh. Both of which are still contained in a 14.9mm thick body.
The 14-inch display is an LED-bakclit, IPS panel that projects 1080p Full HD resolution at up to 400nits in brightness and up to 1005 of sRGB colour gamut. To keep Windows 10 Pro and all its applications running happy on the ASUS ExpertBook B9 is a powerful 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU with integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics. With up to 16GB of RAM too, the new standard in thin and light can multitask like a champ.
You get WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 as standard in the ASUS ExpertBook B9 notebook for high-speed and stable networking. The only way to extract more speed for the ExpertBook B9 is to connect the notebook to an RJ45 line, which is possible with the laptop via the micro HDMI port (adapter included). At the same time, you have up to 1TB in SSD to store all your important files and documents while maintaining the speed to access needed files.
Instead of writing off the 3.5mm AUX combo jack though, ASUS manages to keep the headphone jack in the ExpertBook B9. Alongside the AUX jack are two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a single standard HDMI port alongside a micro HDMI port. This also means that the ExpertBook B9 can handle up to two 4K displays at the same time.
Security is handled by a combination of hardware and software implementations on the ASUS ExpertBook B9 to make it the most secure business notebook you can find in their line-up. There is the fingerprint sensor that is integrated with the power button. At the same time, the 720p HD webcam also comes with an IR sensor for Windows Hello’s biometric facial recognition feature. TPM 2.0 comes standard in the platform for encryption. ASUS Business Manager and ASUS Control Center apps allows you to monitor and control all the security features and even drive access on the ExpertBook B9.
Price and Availability
All ASUS ExpertBook laptops come pre-installed with Windows 10 Pro. There are no colour options on the new notebook PCs unfortunately, but they all come in a shade of grey that could blend into any workspace easily.
The ASUS ExpertBook B1 will be available in 14-inch and 15.6-inch trip equipped with either an 11th Generation Intel Core i7 or Intel Core i5. Prices start from 3,599 (B1400 with Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) and tops out at MYR 4,399 (B1400 with Core i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB). The 15.6-inch trip only comes in an 11th Generation Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 512Gb storage option at MYR 3,759.
The ASUS regular clamshell ExpertBook B5 will be available in either an Intel Core i5 (256GB) trim or an Intel Core i7 (512GB) trim. It will be priced at MYR 4,299 and MYR 5,199 respectively. The convertible variant of the ASUS ExpertBook B5 comes with a sylus too. It will be priced at MYR 4,999 (Core i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB) and MYR 5,599 (Core i7, 8GB, 512GB).
The ASUS ExpertBook B9 in Malaysia will only be available in the slightly heavier 1,005g option that comes with 66Wh battery that could last you a full working day. You get 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage as standard too with the top-of-the-line business notebook from ASUS. All these will set you back MYR 7,989. More information on ASUS’ ExpertBook series can be found on their website.
Edge computing is the ability to give life to the transformative use cases that businesses are dreaming up today and bring real-time decision making to last-mile locales. This can include a far-flung factory or train roaring down the tracks, someone’s connected home, or their car speeding down the highway or even in space. Who thought we’d be running Kubernetes in space?
This shows that edge computing can transform the way we live, and we are doing it right now.
Why Collaboration Is Critical
Edge technologies are blending the digital and physical worlds in a new way, and that combination is resonating at a human level. This human resonance might sound like an aspirational achievement, but it is already here. A great example is when we used AR/VR to improve safety on the factory floor.
Continued collaboration, however, is necessary to keep enabling breakthrough successes. Across industries and organizations, we are all highly dependent on one another. Thinking about the telecommunications and industrial sectors, in particular, there is a mutually supportive, symbiotic relationship between these industries—5G development cannot be successful without industrial use cases, which, in turn, are based on telco technologies.
However, numerous challenges remain: reducing network complexity, maintaining security, improving agility, and ensuring a vibrant ecosystem where the only way to address and solve those is by tapping into the collective wisdom of the community.
With open-source, we can unify and empower communities on a broad scale. The open-source ecosystem brings people together to focus on a common problem to solve with software. That shared purpose can turn isolated efforts into collective ones so that changes are industry-wide and reflect a wide range of needs and values.
The collaboration that open source makes possible continues to ignite tremendous change and alter our future in so many ways, making it the innovation engine for industries.
If we collaborate on 5G and edge in this manner, nascent technologies could become exciting common foundations in the same way that Linux and Kubernetes have because when we work together, the only limit to these possibilities is our imagination.
From Maps to Apps and Much More
Do you remember having to use a paper-based map to figure out driving directions? Flash forward to today: Look at the applications we take for granted on our phones or in our homes that allow us to change our driving route in real-time to avoid traffic, or to monitor and grant access to our front doors—to the point that these have shaped how we interact with our environments and each other. Yet not too long ago, many of these things were unimaginable. We barely had cloud technology, we were in the transition from 3G to 4G, and smartphones were new.
But there was important work being done by lots of people who were improving upon the core technologies. The convergence of three technology trends, as it turns out, unlocked a hugely disruptive opportunity: a cloud-native, mobile-device-enabled transportation service that picked you up wherever you were and took you wherever you wanted to go.
This opportunity was only possible because each trend built on the others to create a truly novel offering. Without one of these trends, the applications from the ride-sharing apps of the world would not have been the same or as disruptive. Imagine yourself scrambling to find a WiFi hotspot on the street corner, whipping out your laptop outside a restaurant while standing in the rain, or starting your business by first constructing a massive data centre. The convergence of smartphones, 4G networks, and cloud computing has enabled a new world.
Today we are creating the next set of technologies that will become the things so embedded in our lives and so indispensable to our daily habits that we will wonder how we ever got by without them. Are you ready to be wearing clothes with sensors in them that tell you how healthy you are?
The possibilities with edge technologies are equally as exciting. It starts with the marriage of the digital world with the physical world. Adding in pervasive connectivity—leveraging a common 5G and edge platform—we can transform how operational technologies interact with the physical world and that changes everything.
The Future Is Now
We are creating this new world that is hard to imagine, yet it is not so foreign because we have seen how this story has played out before. Expect these new technologies to have profound implications for humanity—in our daily lives, how we interact with one another, and the social fabric of our world.
We have only to look at how open source has empowered collaboration and how working together has helped people across organizations and industries build more robust, shared platforms more quickly and differentiate on top of them—with apps and capabilities built on the foundation of Kubernetes and Linux, for example.
In just the first four months of 2021, Trend Micro’s Research team detected 113,010 ransomware threats in Malaysia. Ever since the first detected case of ransomware infection in 2005 globally[1], ransomware has evolved. Over the years, ransomware has evolved and has resulted in the emergence of what is often termed modern ransomware; which is even more targeted and malicious in nature.
The recent attack on enterprise technology firm Kaseya[2], where hackers demanded US$70 million (RM290.92 million) worth of bitcoin in return for stolen data, is a stark reminder of the sweeping damage and disruption that modern ransomware is capable of.
Traditionally, ransomware attacks were conducted through a “click-on-the-link” that leads to compromised websites or spam emails. This was typically aimed at a random list of victims to collect moderate pay-out.
Today, threat actors have evolved their strategies to inflict greater damage on a company’s reputation and potentially collect larger pay-outs from high-profile victims. This is what is becoming known as a “double-extortion” strategy in modern ransomware attacks. According to Trend Micro’s research[3], criminals take these steps to personalize the attacks:
Organize alternative access to a victim’s network such as through a supply chain attack;
Determine the most valuable assets and processes that could potentially yield the highest possible ransom amount for each victim;
Take control of valuable assets, recovery procedures, and backups;
Steal and threaten to expose confidential data;
In Malaysia, Trend Micro found that the industries most targeted by ransomware are government, healthcare, and manufacturing[4]. As these sectors continue to play a role in driving economic growth in the country, it is clear that a multi-layered cybersecurity defence system is necessary. These enterprises will need to create such a defence to defend their networks and protect their business-critical data to keep up with the ever-evolving ransomware landscape.
In order to keep up with the ever-evolving ransomware landscape, among the three most important must-dos for Malaysian organizations are:
Maintain IT hygiene factors: Security teams should ensure that proactive countermeasures, such as monitoring features, backups, and trainings in security skills, are in place to enable early detection. Alongside that, everyone in an organization should also have the latest security updates and patches installed.
Work with the right security partners: Start by clearly defining the needs and priorities around enterprise security in an organization. Then, collaborate with a security vendor that aligns with these priorities to create a solid security response playbook to be used on an ongoing basis.
Have visibility over all security layers: In order for security teams to be able to detect suspicious activity early-on and to respond to cyber attacks quicker, organizations should utilize tools such as Trend Micro Vision One, which collects and automatically correlates data across email, endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, and networks. By putting the right technologies in place, enterprises can also help reduce the alert fatigue commonly faced by security operations centers (SOCs), with 54% reporting that they are overwhelmed by alerts[5].
In today’s world of constant attacks, cybersecurity should be a top priority for everyone across the entire organization; and not just be the sole responsibility of the security team. While an organization can eventually recover its data or financial resources post-attack, the loss of trust among customers and partners will be a difficult challenge to remedy. All stakeholders must collaborate, invest in proper resources, and take proactive steps to transform workplace culture and best practices in order to stop pernicious ransomware threats at the door.
Zoom just made an announcement earlier today that they will be acquiring Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions (KITeS). While an acquisition of another firm may not sound like much, this is a significant acquisition for Zoom. This acquisition should improve the experience and the interface that is Zoom.
Zoom has been an immensely popular platform since its rise in the recent pandemic situation. In the situation that is the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us are driven to work-from-home measures. That also means that communication with your colleagues and friends are limited to phone calls, online chat platforms, mobile text messaging, and video calls for more intimacy. Hence, the boom in Zoom’s popularity last year.
The company has also been facing plenty of challenges and criticisms when it comes to its user friendliness and, most of all, the platform’s overall security. Of course, the ever so popular video conferencing solutions provider responded to all the security issues pointed out by its users as swiftly as they can. Most of the issues have been rectified, according to Zoom.
The pursuit to the best video conferencing experience is a never ending one for the likes of Zoom though. Recently, Cisco’s Webex have been updated with new interfaces and features. One of the includes a live transcription and even instant highlights of the video call with the help of a clever integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI).
KITeS is a developer of a real-time translation and transcription software, or AI. In some ways, the technology that KITeS is working on mimics the capabilities that Google wants for its Google Translate software except that everything is sort of integrated. At the same time, the technology does sound promising for companies like Zoom.
Source: Zoom
Zoom already has their own real-time transcription algorithm integrated within Zoom though. The only issue with the real-time transcription function in Zoom is that it only works with English and no other languages. That is the problem that Zoom’s latest acquisition looks to solve.
With the acquisition of KITeS, Zoom hopes to integrate their clever AI into their video conferencing app to ensure that real-time transcriptions are more accurate than before. On top of that Zoom hopes that the AI would also allow real-time translations from other languages to eliminate the language barriers altogether in international video conferencing.
Zoom did not provide a timeline to when the said functions would make it to Zoom. We also know that Zoom will not be the only video conferencing solutions provider that is looking to integrate more accurate real-time transcription and translation functions in their app. Platforms like Google Meets has already integrated real-time translations into the platform thanks to their clever Google Translate. Microsoft’s Translate algorithm is also integrated into Microsoft Teams, if you are wondering.
Zoom is available for free on all major computing and mobile platforms in the world. Of course, free membership also means limited access to Zoom’s functions. Free membership also means that your video calls are only limited to 40 minutes at a time. Paid subscriptions range from US$ 14.99 a month to US$ 19.99 a month with differing access to features in Zoom. You can find more information on Zoom in their https://zoom.us/.
