Protecting an organisation from a data breach could save tens of millions of euros, says Sumeet SinghThe motives for security attacks still remain varied. Attackers may be looking for payment card data or sensitive commercial information, or may simply wish to disrupt business, but whatever the motive - all have an impact on a business. Protecting an organisation from a data breach could save tens of millions of euros, help maintain customer loyalty and shareholder confidence. But can we really quantify the true cost of a data breach?As a part of Verizon's "2015 Data Breach Investigation Report" we have sought to build an alternative-and more accurate-approach to estimating loss as a result of a security incident. We have based the approach on actual data and consider multiple contributing factors - importantly not just number of records.We realised that the cost of breach doesn't follow a linear model and shouldn't be reported as such. In reality, the cost per record falls as the number of records lost increases. So instead of using a simple average, we modelled how the actual cost varies with the number of records. We believe that this provides a much more reliable indicator. And our model can be used to estimate the cost for breaches experienced by all organizations.Analysing The True Cost Of A BreachVerizon security analysts used a new assessment model for gauging the financial impact of a security breach, based on the analysis of nearly 200 cyberliability insurance claims. The model accounts for the fact that the cost of each stolen record is directly affected by the type of data and total number of records compromised, and shows a high and low range for the cost of a lost record (i.e. credit card number, medical health record). For example, the model predicts that the cost of a breach involving 10 million records will fall between $2.1 million and $5.2 million (95 per cent of the time), and depending on circumstances could range up to as much as $73.9 million. For breaches with 100 million records, the cost will fall between $5 million and $15.6 million (95 percent of the time), and could top out at $199 million.Interestingly, this shows that a company's size has no effect on the cost of a breach. The headline-making losses reported by larger organizations can be explained by the fact that these involved the loss of more records. Breaches with a comparable number of records have a similar cost, regardless of organisation size.We believe this new model for estimating the cost of a breach is ground-breaking, although there is definitely still room for refinement. We must never forget that it's rarely, if ever, less expensive to suffer a breach than to put the proper defense in place.Comprehensive security isn't a business luxury, it is a daily necessity.The author is Head - Security Engineering, Asia Pacific, at Verizon Enterprise Solutions
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We recently reported that OnePlus will be announcing a new flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 2 on the 27th of July. The company has already given hints to some of its feature including a fingerprint scanner, a Snapdragon 810 processor and a USB type-C port. But the biggest piece of information was that the announcement will be the first event ever which will be completely done in VR. OnePlus also showed off its very own branded Cardboard VR headset and interestingly, the company has just announced that it will be selling it in India via Amazon for just Rs.99 a piece. The simple but innovative idea made its first presence at Google I/O last year and is just a cardboard box which can accommodate a smartphone on one end and the other end has eye-holes to give you an experience that is similar to virtual reality. According to OnePlus the headset meets the specs of the new version of the headset that was unveiled at Google I/O this year and includes some upgrades like a stronger and thicker material, compatibility of devices up to 6-inches, a spill resistant coating and strong and high-quality Velcro.The headsets will be available in the third week of July from Amazon.in which will be just in time for the official launch of the OnePlus 2 and assumingly this strategy will draw in more participation for the launch event.
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The launch of a beta version of the DigiLocker is but one step in the larger scheme of things. A national rollout of the scheme is awaitedWhat would you do if en route to a college for admission, you realise that you have lost all original documents you were carrying? By the time copies of thetranscripts arrive, the admissions would have closed.Your only hope then would be that the college takes a lenient view of the tragedy that befell you. The Digi Locker Scheme, a national Digital Locker scheme, recently launched in its beta form by the Department of Electronics and Technology, under the Ministry of communications and IT would hope to reduce such dependence on luck. Images(or URI) of your documents can be uploaded accessedthrough your account, which will be linked to your Aadhaar card and mobile number.When the application is completely rolled out, up to 1 GB of space will be available per account, up from the10 MB currently available. But then how is it any different from, let’s say Dropbox? It’s different in its being official and government agencies would use it for issuance of documents as well. Upon execution of an e-KYC (Know your customer) by UIDAI, a person would be able to view the URI of any document uploaded by various issuers (e.g. Registrar Office, Income Tax Department). These could also be shared with agencies such as the Passport Office or a University should the need arise. A secure temporary access will be made available for documents stored in the repository to these offices. Further, the e-sign feature that is part of the system is another move to reduce reliance on physical documents. Currently, a digital signature can be used at par with a traditional signature and requires a person’s identity verification and the issuance of a physical dongle that is secured using a password. Clearly, it would be too costly to scale this effort to the entire population. Instead, the E-sign facility uses Aadhaar e-KYC services to authenticate a signer. This move to go paperless is indeed a remarkable move towards digitization, both for governance and delivery, but is wanting in guidelines and laws. The launch of a beta version is but one step in the larger scheme of things. A national rollout of the scheme is awaited, and so is the identification of which government agencies are to be on board. An implementing agency should be entrusted with architecture, implementation and operations, while an apex committee and a management unit to deal with governance issues needs to be underway. But perhaps in the aftermath of the global surveillance disclosures against agencies like the NSA, what interests us most is the privacy of our data. A crucial first step in this process is defining what privacy is. In this case, it would be to ensure that the access to these documents remain secure, and for the eyes of the concerned agencies only. Safeguards need to be implemented for the use of this data and proper transparency and oversight guidelines need be established. A healthy mix of policy and technology may be needed to optimize any benefits that may accrue from this push towards digitization. The authors, Devanshi Kulshreshtha & Devvart Poddar, are analysts at Collaborative Policy Consultants.
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HTC has already announced two flagship smartphones for India and it seems that the company is not quite done. The One M9+ was a full metal flagship and the One E9+ was a larger plastic version of the device, but now there is another high end device which is a combination of the two. The One ME is brand new high-end device from the Taiwanese smartphone maker priced at Rs. 40,500 which falls between the M9+ and the E9+.The HTC One ME uses the metal finish from the One M9+ on the front and the plastic finish at the back from the One E9+. The One ME runs on the same hardware as the One M9+ and even features the same fingerprint scanner below the display. The blend of plastic and metal is done well and HTC has used a seamless design. Even the flaps covering the slots (SIM and MicroSD) flush in with the body. The back is just like the E9+ and also houses the same 20MP camera with a dual-tone LED flash, ditching the dual-lens system from the M9+, which is a good decision by the manufacturer. The display is also the same as the One M9+ (5.2-inch, 2650x1440) so you can expect a sharp and vibrant picture on it.The octa-core MediaTek chip works well just like the M9+ and doesn’t heat up all that much. You also get all the same software goodies including the new Sense UI over Android Lollipop, BlinkFeed, Zoe and so on. The camera performance is similar to the E9+, so it isn’t the most impressive camera out there, but definitely a fast one. Overall the experience on the One ME is exactly the same as the previously announced flagships apart from the looks. The One ME is just another high-end option for consumers if they weren’t impressed with the looks of the One M9+ or the E9+. It is priced slightly higher than the E9+, but this is the HTC flagship that you should consider as the design feels a bit more refined than the other two.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India speech paints a compelling picture. One that I so badly want to believe in. Listening to him, one cannot help but be impressed with the sheer understanding of how much the world has changed today because of technology. Much like the invention of electricity and the industrial revolution, the technological revolution and the internet have changed the world forever. Except they haven't finished yet, as each day there seem to be more revolutionary advances centering around mobile. Pointing out that mobile access had barely touched the surface in India, the Prime Minister issued a loud and clear warning about how the country would be irrevocably left behind if it didn't immediately prepare to go digital in every way. Even war, he warned, would now be fought in a bloodless way in the digital domain. No Indian leader in recent times has had such a visionary and large-scale plan for the betterment of the country - and one that is actionable. Rather than empowering ordinary citizens, leaders have been concerned with solely their own empowerment. IT corporations and the country's biggest companies immediately pledged massive amounts in the building of this digital India. And why not. It's an opportunity beyond all opportunities. Some components of the Digital India initiative have already kicked in and may not be so difficult to achieve as other aspects. The Digital e-locker, for example, and the paperless initiatives that extend to school text books, hospital records, identity documents, and more. So is the accessibility of civic authorities to the common man.Except that the common man in India is an uncommon mix, living in widely varying circumstances, as we all know. The biggest piece of the jigsaw puzzle that will come together to make Digital India is connectivity, reaching the furthest corners of this vast land. And that's where I find myself stirring awake from this dream. Because, after all, the implementation of the backbone that is needed for a country strongly connected by information highways, is still in the hands of those who are responsible for the existing mess. Today, nearly 20 years after mobile phones came in, I have had to reactivate my landline. This is in the heart of the capital city, not in a challengingly remote hilly village where fiber hasn't reached yet. Flitting between our two largest cellular service providers has been to no avail. While everyone worries about call drops, I find myself mirthlessly joking that I don't have that problem - I can't get or make calls for them to drop in the first place. Internet connectivity is a distant second to that. All the same, the speech, the intention, the understanding, all give me hope that we will achieve at least some of that digital life that will make things easier, provide jobs, and create transparency and accountability in the way all business is done. While exemplary smart cities may be a way off yet, at least some of the digitisation that will be empowering is beginning.
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When you talk about Twitter today, you see one side of the picture. The side that’s given ordinary citizens a voice, the part that has made customer truly the king, the we-won’t-take-this-lying-down aspect that has governments worried. It’s on Twitter that outrage became a verb, allowing anyone to speak their mind. Or did it? While governments, CEOs of companies large and small and customer service departments may have adapted to the idea of netizens having the right to express their opinions, the “trolls” haven’t. Express a religious view one way or the other and you’ll attract a spate of accusatory comments, practically abusing you for daring to have a view at all. You’re either for us or deserve to be dead, seems to be the message. Mala BhargavaAs someone who watched social media take root from the very beginning and had great hopes for how it would transform society for the better, I find it unsettling that it has also exposed, belly up, the ugly side of society. And this has been amply demonstrated in the recent case of the SelfieWithDaughter campaign taken up by none other than the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. It will take much more than a Twitter hashtag and people posting photos with their daughters to even put a dent in the gender inequality that seems to have become apparent afresh in the country, but the campaign would have at least done no harm. It’s a message, a small gesture of support. But it’s the Prime Minister’s own professed followers who negated the gesture. If you missed it, look for Kavita Krishnan on Twitter and her timeline. You’ll soon encounter vicious verbal attacks on her, calling for her to be gangraped, suggesting she was ‘retarded’ and should not have been allowed to be born, and other shockingly disturbing comments. Actor Alok Nath lost his cool and was first off the mark to abuse Ms Krishnan. The attack gathered enough momentum to have become a trending topic rather quickly and it stayed there for at least a day. Kavita Krishnan’s crime? She believed the SelfieWihDaughter campaign to be rather hollow and she made a reference to the expose the PM’s alleged stalking of a young woman, popularly referred to as Sahebgate or Snoopgate. Ms Krishnan did not refer to something that was not known. She wasn’t polite, not at all. Yet, the attack on her was out of proportion prompt, intense, and widespread. There was a similar attack on actress Shruti Seth who suggested the Prime Minister leave aside selfies and try some reform. Ironically, the trolling attacks come from those who purport to be supporters of the Prime Minister and the BJP. In one fell swoop, their attack had the effect of derailing the Twitter campaign as the abuse began to assume a greater traction than the selfie surge. It’s dying down now, but not without leaving any Twitter user with a bad taste and the distinct feeling that social media isn’t that wonderful after all. It’s obvious that users of social networking are as quick to unleash malintent as they are to participate in positive change. In the end, the trolls who tried to defend the Prime Minister and the SelfieWithDaughter campaign only laid out before us just how widespread the intolerance for women and their opinions is in India, cutting across all social levels.
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Facebook has just launched its 2G-friendly app on Android. The social giant says demand for the app is strong in India and many have downloaded through workarounds even before it’s been available officially on the Play Store. Facebook Lite’s Vijay Shankar talks about how Lite is different from regular and Facebook’s plans for the app.
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Atos, digital services company, has completed the acquisition of Xerox's ITO (Information Technology Outsourcing) business. The net purchase is priced $ 966 million (€ 811 million), composed of $950 million and an additional amount of $50 million following the occurrence of certain events prior to closing, plus $100 million representing the estimated present value of future tax benefits to Atos.Net debt items and closing adjustments amounted to $ 134 million to be confirmed within 90 days.Since the announcement of the acquisition in December 2014, Atos and Xerox ITO teams have worked together to ensure operational readiness on the first day after closing. As a result, Atos now has the ability to offer its European and US clients the necessary presence to better support their digital transformation needs anywhere in the world. Atos will leverage the Xerox ITO customer centric approach and Atos’ industrial capacities and portfolio of cutting-edge services and technologies, particularly in Cloud, Big Data, Cyber-security, and in High Power Computing to support clients handle the massive volumes of data generated in the digital world.Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO, said, “Today marks a major step in the development of the Atos Group, as we welcome 9,600 Xerox ITO employees to Atos. With the US now our largest market, we have a stronger and more balanced global presence, which combined with our digital skills, allows us to be the trusted partner for our clients’ digital journey anywhere in the world.”The net purchase price totaled $966 million (€ 811 million), composed of $950 million and an additional amount of US$ 50 million following the occurrence of certain events prior to closing, plus $100 million representing the estimated present value of future tax benefits to Atos. Net debt items and closing adjustments amounted to $134 million to be confirmed within 90 days.With circa $2 billion revenue, North America becomes the largest geography for Atos where it is now ranked number 9 in ITO services.Atos today enters into a worldwide strategic collaboration with Xerox – a global business services, technology, and document management company – and becomes one of Xerox’s primary IT services providers.Michel-Alain Proch, Group SEVP, who has been appointed CEO for North America operations added: “Together with Xerox teams, we have worked extensively to be ready from day one post-closing and we are now fully operational to ensure continued delivery of services to our clients while at the same time leveraging the combined strengths of the two groups for profitable growth.”
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