It was meant to be an event that gave a glimpse into the future of advertising. Perhaps it was only appropriate that Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer, Google Inc. strode in wearing the right accessory – the Google Glass!Well, the Google Glass, when one tried it on, gave an immediate sense of one’s bearings in the present. It told you about the traffic situation in Delhi, for instance. But future gazing - or guessing - was left to Arora, who took on questions on where advertising was headed in the age of Digital.Pointing out that the platform shift to digital media was the most disruptive media shift ever in advertising history - bigger than radio to TV – Arora said that we are headed towards a future where advertising control would be with the user. The user will decide which ad to view and when – so advertisers would have to reconcile to that. We are also headed to an age of personalisation where advertisers would have to look at each screen and figure the context of usage and deliver ads accordingly. “We all live in a multi-screen environment but unconnected screens will soon become useless,” said Arora.Asked if this degree of personalisation and context setting would spell the end of mass production and delivery of ads, Arora said perhaps not. He said it’s impossible to imagine an advertiser creating 6 million unique ads tailored to each user although with artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms it could be possible. “But I would say, mass will not go away – perhaps 3 million ads would be customised and 3 million delivered mass,” he said.That set the ball for the next question. With technology making it possible to generate accurate user profiles and deliver relevant context based advertising, would that spell the death knell for big agencies dishing out traditional creatives?To that Arora said brand building would always need a creative mass push while performance marketing would rely on technology.And of course, the showstopper of the event – the stylish and surprisingly comfortable Google Glass - did sidetrack the discussion a fair bit. To the million dollar question as to when we would see it launched in India, Arora firmly ruled out a commercial push here or elsewhere in the world any time soon. “At the moment we are only sending it out to developers to work on it,” he said. Google’s 5 Cs On The Future of AdvertisingCHOICE: Ad views will be voluntaryUsers today have lots of choices - millions of sites, millions of Yutube channels and there will be millions of apps - all just a click away. There are also new technologies like DVRs, and ad blocker. We need to move to a choice based economy, where users choose what they see -- not just for content but for ads.CONTROL: Users will participate if we provide enough value and controlWhen we give users control, we know they take it. For example, Ads Preferences Manager EX. Twice as many modify their ads preferences so they can receive more relevant ads, than choose to opt out.Our industry’s current tools are world-leading but can still be improved. It’s vital that we invest in the next generation of user control.CHARM: Ads will be more interactive and beautiful — at scaleThe internet offers an incredible medium of sight, sound and motion. We have many examples of beautiful interactive ads but they are mostly one offs. It takes a lot of energy and resources to create these. We need to enable beauty to run at scale.CONNECTED: Ads will help people live their lives on the goAlready it’s getting hard to tell if something is a mobile, tablet, or desktop...What are they? Not sure? Doesn’t matter. We should be focused on the usersMobile and smart phones are so new that many of the ad models are still being worked out.CALIBRATION: All ads will be measured -- and clicks will only be one measurement typeIn order for marketers to create ads that users love, we need to improve how we measure ad performance. So we need metrics for brands that are as meaningful as the click has become for performance advertisers.
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Back in the 1980s Americans feared that they were being bought out silly by the Japanese, who were investing top dollars to buy out anything that looked like a constructed structure. Japanese financial institutions and companies sunk almost $300 billion into high-end properties that Americans hated to lose. They included the Rockefeller Centre in New York. The US real estate chase stopped after some years, as Japan slowed.It is now the turn of the Chinese to launch a buying spree in the United States – only they are being smarter. Chinese are not buying high-end real estate; they are buying into American companies. The Chinese know that they are not trusted by the Americans, so they don’t want too much publicity. It’s fine to buy slowly, but surely. China has the appetite, and with $3 trillion in its national kitty, bandwidth too. It is not in a hurry either.The momentum slowed last year over national security concerns, but it seems to be picking up again. According to the New York-based Rhodium Group, which tracks China’s overseas investments, Chinese companies came out firing all guns in the first quarter of this year after a slow previous quarter, concluding eight mergers and acquisitions and nine green-field investments totaling $2.2 billion.Chinese firms bought energy companies, a battery maker, a solar technology company and finalixed green-field projects in power generator manufacturing, real estate and high-end technology. Rhodium also said potential acquisitions that are under discussion or awaiting government approvals were worth more than $10 billion. Interestingly, private Chinese firms are investing more than that state-owned enterprises that earlier led the race.According to Rhodium, Chinese entities have invested just over $25 billion in the United States since 2000, small change when compared to what the Japanese spent on buying concrete and steel structures. The maximum Chinese investment has gone into the energy sector.Are Americans getting scared? Yes, they are. Should they be? That’s for them to decide, but given that there is little that can be done to stop money from flowing across boundaries, it is probably best to accept that Chinese finances will muscle their way into the United States just as American money jumped across the Great Wall.Business interests are eventually linked with political and strategic interests. Some years ago there was a huge furor in the United States when a Dubai-based company was stopped from taking control of American ports which were part of a large European company it had acquired. Public opinion forced the government to take decisions that it otherwise wouldn’t have. People, scared stiff after the 9/11 attacks, feared Islamic terrorists would attack the ports.Last year, two Chinese telecom companies with global play were summoned before a House intelligence committee on fears that their equipment could be used to spy on American interests. Similar fears have been raised in India too, where government agencies have warned phone companies against using Chinese telecom hardware and instead use locally-produced equipment.Political compulsions and fears over a rising China will continue to drive the US stance on Chinese investments into that country. Allegations of cyber-attacks and espionage do feed into a view that China and its influence need to be curtailed from a strategic point of view.However, there are times when potential economic benefits can and should be used to overturn the political debate. China is a large economy and Chinese companies – for long sequestered within their boundaries – are keen to get out and acquire not only businesses, but also technology and expertise which in short supply in a country where the state controlled business for the longest. Despite the fact that China produces more steel and cement than many countries put together, and is the world’s biggest market for televisions, refrigerators, mobile phones and cars, Chinese companies are hard up on technology and management expertise. They also need to diversify.A large, developed market with a fully-developed financial system, which China lacks, is always an attraction for any company whether it is from China or India. And for China, with its huge financial muscle, it is only natural to be attracted to the US market; merely a flip end of how American companies see the Chinese market.At the end of it what matters is whether a foreign company is making an investment that would help the local economy. If Chinese companies can create jobs in countries they go to, including the United States, and contribute to the local economy without impeding on national security, so be it. They have as much interest in getting to new markets as anybody else.(The columnist, a former newspaper editor, is President, Public Affairs, Genesis Burson-Marsteller and co-founder of Public Affairs Forum of India. He has a keen interest in China and Southeast Asia. Views are personal)
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There is a needless debate in the industry about HR being core to business or partnering function or support function, feels Anand Bhaskar, Vice President, People Success, Sapient India. There is no business which can run without people or intellectual capital. When it comes to selection, the biggest challenge is to maintain a balance between "business’s urgency to hire talent" vs. "availability of right quality talent", says Bhaskar. Though he counts his days in industrial relation (IR) early in his career as the biggest achievement in his career, it is in enabling people to make success of their careers at Sapient that he has found his forte. Excerpts: What made you to choose HR as a profession?When I had to make a career choice at the young age of 16, I was clear about what I did not want to do. No science, no arts… so that left me with only one option way back in 1985 which was commerce. I loved maths and business always interested me. Hence, I chose to pursue commerce. Since, it was something I loved, I excelled and completed my Honors in Financial & Cost Accounting with distinction in 1989. The second career choice I had to make while in Business School was marketing, finance or HR. While my first love was finance, I chose HR for three reasons: (a) the finance batch only had a class of 2 people, (b) I did not want to do marketing & (c) HR had better placement opportunities. During the period of 1989-91, campus placements weren't easy, so one had to be more pragmatic. Interestingly, when I think of my career choices in hindsight, it was through a process of elimination followed by selection.What has been the biggest achievement in your career?When I think of achievements, I do not prefer to categorise achievements as bigger or biggest. I believe a career is a journey and there will be peaks that one would scale at a given point in time. Each one is valuable and close to my heart. However, some of my big achievements have been in the space of employee relations and achieved at considerable risk to self and family. I used to work for a reputed MNC as a cluster HR Manager leading HR for a cluster of five factories in Pondicherry between 2002 and 2004. This was probably the most challenging assignment ever in my career as I had to deal with close to 10 Unions, 2,000 workmen, hundreds of contract workers, a hostile local environment surrounding the factories, unhelpful government etc. Besides, the unions had not signed wage agreements with the management for over 2.5 years and there was huge industrial strife in all the Units. Within five months of taking charge, we succeeded in not only signing agreements in all factories with unions, we also signed prospective wage agreements, introduced productivity linked wages, got the unions to agree to TPM (Total Productive Maintenance, a JIPM methodology) to improve productivity and over a period of next 2 years, led three of the five factories to TPM Level 2 certification. This was a record in its own right during that period. We also introduced a significant culture change initiative using the CAP Model (Change Acceleration Process Model), which introduced Factory Development Committee (FDC) in these factories, united multiple unions which were often at conflict with each other and united the workmen for their own benefit. During this period, there was significant level of tension and some violence, which resulted in a near fatal attack on one of my colleagues. I was a high risk target during that entire period and having spent 2.5 years in an extremely challenging and stressful environment under constant life threat makes me think of this as one of the most challenging assignment thus far in my career.What have been the primary traits/qualities that have helped you attain your present position?There are many qualities that have helped me over the years in my career. Besides the foundational traits of honesty, hard work and value based leadership - I have learnt to adopt different leadership styles for varied situations. I have also learnt to use styles like – directive, coaching, pace setting, inspirational and leading from behind etc. depending on situations. I have learnt that as we grow, we need to reinvent ourselves and that a few qualities that have got us to a certain place, may not help us to get to the next level. Hence, constantly revisiting one's strengths and critically evaluating what one needs to build afresh has been my simple success formula. Having said that, one quality/trait that I hold very closely to my heart and would never give up is "leading with authenticity" at all times. No matter what price I have paid for the last 22 years in my career, I have never compromised on being "authentic". I always have had the best interest at heart for the other person. I have no regrets if that resulted in slower growth at times in my career, since I think it kept my conscience clear and I could sleep well at night.What are the challenges you are facing in your organisation?Sapient has had an incredible growth story for the last so many years. The company is led by value based leadership, has a strong culture and is very people centric in its philosophy. Sapient has mostly grown organically and now has business in more than 16 countries across the world. This has created unique opportunities for the company and also a few challenges. Creating a strong internal leadership pipeline is both an opportunity and a challenge given where Sapient is today. Talent development agenda is today central to the business strategy and its future success. Sapient's leadership continues to believe in the philosophy to grow leadership from within and this has resulted in adoption of talent review processes and leadership development as a key focus area. What are the steps a company should take to develop and motivate future leaders?Leadership is a scarce resource in today's highly competitive world of talent. Gone are the days when companies could acquire ready leadership talent and allow them to lead. Business models are no longer unique. Even if they are, the uniqueness is short lived as another company easily copies and replicates the business model and strategy. What makes a company uniquely positioned is its culture. Hence, by acquiring leadership from outside one cannot retain and grow one's own culture. Therefore, companies that are willing to think long term, should invest in developing leaders from within, who understand and promote its culture. A few tested industry practices like talent reviews and succession planning are relevant to all companies. An enhanced value in such processes is likely to be seen when it is aligned to the company’s cultural attributes. The trick is in getting this alignment right. Further, to develop and motivate future leaders, it is about taking bets on people. There is no way to scientifically assess 100 per cent readiness of any future leader. Assessment Centers are indicative and provide data points to predict probability of success of a particular leader if deployed in role. However, the key is "betting" on such people and providing them with an "ecosystem" in which to succeed. Entrusting people with higher order responsibility is a huge method of motivation. In all these decisions, HR has a key role to play in both enabling the decision and supporting the leaders as they work through the emerging challenges in their role. What is your rate of attrition? How do you prevent it?Sapient's attrition is far below the IT industry average. At Sapient, we believe in promoting engagement rather than preventing attrition. We have team based engagement surveys that we conduct through the year and keep a tab on our engagement scores. We leverage these surveys to understand the issues our people face and work with them to address the same. We also have internal social network community called Vox, where people express their thoughts openly. At Sapient, we have an open culture and encourage our people to express themselves at all times. This has helped us in knowing what is top of mind of our people and we make all efforts to address concerns if any. How do you retain talent in your company?At Sapient, we do not offer jobs, we offer careers. We have many tenured people at Sapient. Most of our leadership is home grown and have been with the company for 10-17 years (of its 22 year history). We have a culture of betting on smart people and supporting them to be successful. We offer multiple job rotation opportunities for people, which enable them to grow both horizontally and vertically over time. It helps them build capability and also grow in their careers. What sets your company apart from other companies as far as work culture goes?Sapient has a unique culture. It has a culture of true openness, non-hierarchal working style, open offices, deep client centricity and people focused environment. Our focus on people is so strong that we call the HR function, “People Success”. HR is not considered a good word at Sapient, since we do not think of people as resources. We think of them as just people. Our language describes how we think and feel about our people. We believe HR exists to enable peoples' success, hence the name, There are many companies that propagate openness but having worked with some of the most respected names in the industry for 20 years in my career, I can say with utmost conviction that Sapient has a different level of "openness", which clearly makes it stand out from the rest. What is the biggest challenge you face when selecting people?In today's world, the biggest challenge is not about finding talent, it is about finding the "right talent". There are many engineers who do not know enough of engineering; many MBAs who do not understand basic concepts of management; many specialists who are not deep enough in their domain.There are plenty of problem areas with regard to talent. So when it comes to selection, the biggest challenge is to maintain a balance between "business’s urgency to hire talent" vs. "availability of right quality talent". How has HR been important to the bottom line of the company?In a services company like Sapient, all that we have is "talent". So our ability to attract, develop, engage and retain talent becomes the key to our success. Sapient is what it is today due to its people processes and ability to grow leaders from within. For any company measures of work by the HR function is linked to how HR manage its investments in talent, E.g. Revenue per employee; people cost as a percentage of revenue or profits; profit per employee etc. as measures which show direct correlation to bottom line. Other intangibles such as how many new leaders grown from within, succession planning indices of the company (which is a measure to the leadership pipeline of a company) etc. are other measures which have indirect correlation to the bottom line and revenue growth of the company. How has the downturn affected HR?Any economic downturn has only enhanced HR's relevance to business. In a difficult environment the key is to retain your talent, manage your people processes better, invest in the right talent and grow them etc. Therefore, HR each time has played a key role in ensuring both business sustainability during the crisis and thereafter its revival. How should HR be integrated with the core line of business?In my mind, HR is an integral part of the business. There is a needless debate in the industry about HR being core to business or partnering function or support function etc. The true test is that there is no business which can run without people or intellectual capital. HR brings in these people, grooms them and grows them. In that case, how can HR not be a part of business? (As told to Poonam Kumar)
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Scindia House in the South Mumbai area of Ballard Pier is a far cry from the typical government office. For one, it is spacious and well maintained. The few visitors are usually in suits. And, you will be hard-pressed to find paan stains. Most importantly, for the better part of the day, the officers seem to be at work. The offices in the building are roomy, some even bigger than in private sector tax firms. Scindia House is home to the international tax division of the income tax department in Mumbai. By some estimates, its FY13 tax mop-up will bring in Rs 25,000 crore.
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The next time you go to a KFC or a McDonald’s or any five-star hotel and wondered how standards are maintained here, chances are that Ecolab’s products are being used. Ecolab has been a pioneer in the hygiene chemicals business for over 70 years now. It has become an industry leader in helping corporates provide their customers clean water, safe food and clean energy. Two years ago, Ecolab acquired Nalco, a water and energy solutions company, for $5.8 billion. This allowed Ecolab, a $7 billion company, to focus operations in emerging markets. Darrell Brown, executive vice president of the APAC region, and Mahesh Rao, MD of the India business spoke to BW | Businessworld’s Vishal Krishna on why water management solutions were needed in markets with high growth.What is your strategy in emerging markets where consumption of water is the single largest concern?Darrell Brown: Our strategy has been to follow the large corporate companies across the world. These are companies that consume a lot of water and also energy. The acquisition of Nalco is like a marriage made in heaven. Nalco has technology that can not only just assess the consumption levels of water- both inbound and outbound- but control optimal entry of chemicals and water therefore optimizing the usage. Ecolabs itself works on several business models such as build, operate, maintain and transfer. But the challenge to get local corporates in emerging markets to use such technology requires a lot of education and awareness. The key is sustainability, it is a central issue that is being discussed all over the world and our technologies can help reduce cost and protect the environment. But everything is dependent on the appetite for change. Mahesh Rao: We have several large companies that can use our services. The small and medium businesses strategy is absolutely necessary in a country like India. We have so many droughts and water scarcity in many cities. And it is not just water, our solutions can tell you about hygiene in farm animals, trace e-coli and bacteria, maintain freshness when the produce is transported to factories and retail chains. That apart we have HVAC technologies because large manufacturing companies need ambient clean air for both product and people. India is a large automobile hub now. We can play a major role in processing paints, make better coolants, make the paint shop use less water and dispose the paint in dry form. Our products fit in to every cycle of the automobile industry. What will be high growth markets as the world economy has slowed down and what roles should government play for sustainable policies?Darrell Brown: The government needs to set standards and regulations. Be it India or China, it is the job of different stake holders to start at the grassroots level. There is a clear need to move towards sustainable economies because going green for us is not another credential; we are a company that focuses on green technologies. In the current scenario China, India and Indonesia will be key growth markets for us. Mahesh Rao: There is need to drive innovation and every government wants water resources to be made available. The possibilities of providing water are endless; desalination plants in Chennai use our membranes in filters and it is only a matter of time before sea water gets transported through long distances. But before all that happens, industry in emerging markets has to adapt to best practices when it comes to safe food, clean water and environment. Our Indian business is growing 17-22 per cent CAGR and the turnover is between Rs 300-400 crore. We can be a large company in India within five years because using clean technologies is a necessity to be globally competitive.What role does the subsidiary Kay Chemical Company play?Darrell Brown: Kay is primarily in to providing sanitising solutions for retail and food businesses. Helps provide guest safety by creating clean environment in hotels. The company supports various institutions such as hospitals. How important can the farm-to-fork connect be in India?Mahesh Rao: We have so many co-op farmers in the country that supply to large companies like Mother Dairy and Amul. The farm-to-fork business is here to stay in India and we can support the business through the supply chain. The main reason for our involvement would be to improve the quality of the product and reduce costs for the Corporate. businessworldonline (at) gmail (dot) com
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Deep in the recess of the World Wide Web resides a proud community of money dealers which calls itself the Mavrodians. Its lineage is not particularly kosher, but it makes no bones about that either. Its website warns you in no uncertain terms that it is a financial pyramid. In red, bold letters. Thrice.
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The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, reveals that India has seen a 280 per cent increase in bot infections which is continuing to spread to a larger number of emerging cities in India. With the prevalence of such infections, it is not surprising that the country accounts for nearly 15 percent of global bot-net spam, responsible for disseminating an estimated 280 million spam messages per day worldwide. In addition the report highlights a 42 per cent surge during 2012 in global targeted attacks, as compared to the prior year. Designed to steal intellectual property, these targeted cyber espionage attacks are increasingly hitting small businesses, which are the target of 31 per cent of these attacks across the world. Small businesses are attractive targets themselves and a stepping stone to ultimately reaching larger companies."This year's ISTR shows a clear focus among cybercriminals at targeting individuals, systems and organizations where the highest profits can be made," said Anand Naik, Managing Director-Sales, India & SAARC, Symantec. "India continues to rank high in the list for even the most basic threats, pointing to an urgent need for improved awareness levels and security measures, even as the country's adoption of Internet and mobile technologies is on the rise." Emerging Indian Cities Remain on Cyber Attackers' RadarWhile cities including Bhubaneswar, Surat, Cochin, Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Indore continue to see bot infections, some of the new entrants inducted to the list of bot infected locations in 2012 are Kota, Ghaziabad and Mysore. Bot infected computer activities can be classified as actively attacking bots or bots that send out spam such as spam zombies. Spam zombies are remotely controlled, compromised systems specifically designed to send out large volumes of junk or unsolicited email messages. The email messages can be used to deliver malicious code and phishing attempts. Globally, India is ranked first for spam zombies with 17 per cent of spam zombies located in the country. Evidently the country is responsible for disseminating into cyberspace an estimated 280 million spam messages per day. Small Businesses Are the Path of Least ResistanceTargeted attacks are growing rapidly among businesses with fewer than 250 employees. Globally, small businesses are now the target of 31 per cent of all attacks, a threefold increase from 2011. Attackers hone in on small businesses that may often lack adequate security practices and infrastructure. An indicator of this trend extending to India is that small businesses received the highest number of phishing and virus-bearing emails. One in 661 emails was a phishing email for small Indian businesses and one in 248 emails carried a virus, while for larger Indian enterprises with 1,000-1,500 employees, one in 4,751 emails was a phishing email and one in 1,611 carried a virus.Increase in Cyber Espionage : Knowledge Workers Face Targeted AttacksThe global average number of targeted attacks per day in 2012 was 116, compared with 82 in 2011 and 77 in 2010, recording a 42 per cent increase in targeted attacks. Targeted attacks such as Disttrack in 2012 are commonly used for the purposes of industrial espionage to gain access to the confidential information or intellectual property on a compromised computer system or network.Worldwide, the targets for attack in 2012 were knowledge workers who create the intellectual property that attackers want (27 per cent of all targets in 2012) and those in sales (24 per cent in 2012). The presence of a large number of knowledge workers makes India, a potential target for attackers, with IT services featuring in the top list of industries targeted for spam, phishing and viruses. In fact, India was home to 16 percent of viruses and globally, it ranked second for virus prevalence, just behind the United States. India also ranked third for overall malicious code.Mobile Malware Put Consumers and Businesses at Risk Symantec's recent mobility surveys reveal that 68 per cent1 Indians are addicted to their mobile devices and 72 per cent2 of Indian businesses faced mobility incidents due to malware infections, spam incidents, exposures of information, breach of information due to lost/stolen devices and phishing/social engineering instances. The focus on exploiting mobile devices will only grow with the increasing dependence on mobile devices for everything from simple email to critical apps and even mobile payments. In fact, Symantec predicts that 2013 will be a watershed year for mobile malware.Last year, mobile malware increased by 58 per cent, and 50 per cent of mobile malware created in 2012 attempted to steal information or track movements. Symantec believes that whether cybercriminals are attacking computers, mobile phones or social networks, their ultimate goal is to obtain personal information including banking details, phone numbers and email addresses of friends and business associates, and even steal the target's identity.
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The explosive growth of smartphones and tablets have kept cybercriminals commensurately busy in 2012 and there is scope for more to come in 2013. The very latest one, keeping with times, carries out social engineering attacks, says a Symantec report.India is one of the biggest mobile phone markets in the world, with 860 million mobile subscribers. A recent Symantec report found that 69 per cent Indians connect to the internet with their mobile phones. Last year, across the world mobile malware increased by 58 per cent, and 50 per cent of mobile malware created in 2012 attempted to steal information or track movements, according to the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report volume 18. But the biggest threat so far in 2013 has been the social engineering attack.In April 2013, Symantec was alerted to a series of sophisticated social-engineering attacks. India ranked among the top 10 countries in the world targeted by this new threat and this is how it works:The victim receives a phone call from the attacker who impersonates an employee or business associate, asking them in French to process an invoice received via email. However, the email typically contains a malicious link or an attachment, which is actually a variant of W32.Shadesrat, a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). W32.Shadesrat (a.k.a. Blackshades) is used by a variety of attackers of varying skill levels. A publically available Trojan, it can be licensed for as little as $40-$100 a year. In June 2012, as part of a global sting operation carried out by the FBI, one of the contributors to the Blackshades project, Michael Hogue (a.k.a. xVisceral), was arrested. However, this RAT is still under active development.These attacks began as early as February 2013 though it was only in April that phone calls were placed before sending the victim the phishing email, possibly to increase the chances of success. This reflects that even as spam and phishing continue to grow in volume, they are becoming more targeted. According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, It was estimated that 280 million spam messages were disseminated from India in 2012. For Indian SMBs, one in 661 emails is a phishing email and one in 248 emails carries a virus.The victims of these attacks generally tend to be accountants or employees working within the financial department of organisations, providing access to sensitive company account information. These employees may also have the authority to facilitate transactions on behalf of the organisation. Since handling invoices is something they would do on a regular basis, this lure has the potential to be quite convincing. The employees would also provide a useful source of information to use in subsequent social-engineering attacks. Invoices and contract agreements would provide the attacker with all of the elements (email, phone, and relevant purchase/sales agreements) to continue executing these well prepared attacks.Each element of this attack requires careful planning and contributes to the overall success rate of the attack. The obviously carry out a close study of the target and obtain not just the email ID but phone number as well.How Can Users & Organisations Protect Themselves?These attacks are continuing to this day and organisations need to be aware of these increasingly sophisticated social-engineering attacks. The attacker may have limited information, so asking additional questions on a call may help to determine the legitimacy of the request. Organisations also need to be aware that personally identifiable employee information that exists outside of your enterprise, even in the form of an invoice, can be used against you if a business associate becomes compromised. Employees working with very sensitive information should store this in a secure location, ensure that it is encrypted, and only access it from a fully patched computer with adequate security solutions in place.
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