IT — the two simple letters that under the wrong circumstances strike fear into the heart of even the most level-headed entrepreneur. Networks, software, and databases are not the reason that most people start up their own business. The flipside, of course, is that if handled well, IT can turn what is merely a good company into a truly great one.Any entrepreneur knows that running a business from scratch takes time, effort, commitment and most of all, passion. Unfortunately, to stay grounded in reality, it also takes sound fundamentals, and a sturdy infrastructure. Today, IT is inevitably a big part of that. Not even the very smallest of businesses can get away without having some kind of technology to help them run.So what the new generation of entrepreneurs needs must be reliable, efficient and cost effective.The real trick is getting something in place that works reliably and efficiently and doesn't cost a lot of time and money to install or maintain. Business these days is not only global, fast-paced and demanding but employees now demand a lot more of the systems they use to do their jobs. The pace of technology innovation in the consumer world has had an impact on the business environment - employees want to use systems at work that replicate the experience they have at home. A generation used to posting and sharing photos online, instant messaging with friends and interacting online for a good chunk of their spare time is having an impact on expectations in the workplace.Internet is bringing a significant shift in the way organisations buy and use technology: This is where the power of the Internet comes into play. The Internet provides the flexibility to create, share, access and collaborate with other people at work. Email, spreadsheets, calendars and presentations suddenly become accessible quickly and securely wherever you are. Not only that but the fact that everything is online means that multiple users can access and work on documents simultaneously and edit in real-time. In short, no more emailing backwards and forwards with attachments. This means a lot when you're working at the kind of pace required as a start-up.Hosted solutions have better acceptability now, to the extent that many large companies are entrusting their entire email and anti-virus services to third parties: And then there is the issue of the bottom line cost of IT to a business. Again, once you're hooked up to the web this is all but eradicated because it's possible to effectively 'rent' these applications from a third party. Having your IT applications hosted over the Internet means no investment in hardware or software and no issues with upgrades or installing new features because that all happens automatically. It also means you can concentrate on your core business without needing to worry about the day-to-day issues of running an IT infrastructure. A suite of web-based communication and collaboration products for small businesses now comes for $50 per user per year. (Less than a cup of coffee a week!)Web is a better way of doing business: As your business evolves it's important that your IT evolves along with it. The Internet is more than just a resource for finding information and start-ups are in an excellent position to harness its full potential - without an existing infrastructure to cater; for you are effectively working with a blank canvas. Used thoughtfully, your IT environment can provide you with an interesting competitive edge.At the end of the day, for any start-up on the first rung of the business ladder, putting a sound IT system in place should be a concern but never a worry.(The author is Country Head, Enterprise Sales, Google India)
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India, a fast maturing cloud market with many new entrants, has been estimated to have grown in the region of $535 million in 2011 by IDC, with over 70 per cent growth expected for 2012 and almost 50 per cent growth forecast for the next 3 years. While a broad range of investments/solutions are playing key roles in the Indian cloud ecosystem, public cloud still lags way behind the private cloud adoption in the country.The India Cloud Market Overview, 2011-2016 released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) provides a reality check and detailed understanding of the adoption in India, the future potential and major trends the market is witnessing. The research also addresses the attitudinal and purchase behaviours of end users and what is influencing them in their choice for adoption.Business priorities have changed in the recent troubled economic times and are influencing the way IT is being looked upon as a strategic tool to grow faster. 2012 has been a tough year so far, but it is rapidly starting to get to a point where mature companies with careful planning and focus on business/ operational efficiency are fast moving into the leadership spots. These companies have been proactively looking at various “disruptive technologies” that will ensure that IT is elastic enough to meet the business needs and growth. Cloud models and the flexibility they bring are definitely featuring high there.IDC’s Research focuses on offering the readers an insight on how the cloud market landscape is evolving and how companies are taking advantage of the new mode of IT usage. In this report, IDC has not limited the discussion to what is currently happening in the marketplace, but gives actionable recommendations to IT/Cloud vendors on areas of focus and user needs/expectations."We have definitely seen cloud cross the inflexion point in end 2011; use cases especially in IAAS & SAAS areas provide testimony to that. With proper messaging from key vendors and due diligence of opportunities which exist in the cloud delivery models, the market will grow much faster in the coming years" says Nirupam Chaudhuri, Research manager – Software & IT Services, IDC India. "Alliance with key channels and enablement will further intensify the growth for major cloud providers and gradually we will see even core applications moving to cloud much faster. Users need to feel much more comfortable with fewer inhibitions like security and ownership concerns" added Nirupam.Cloud providers also need to strengthen their capabilities to understand the business requirements of the organisations and come up with apt value propositions. “Organisations are more likely to work with firms that understand their business processes better and industry dynamics, and hence are better suited to overseeing the transition of the organisation to a cloud environment without disruption of the business processes”, says Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Senior Market Analyst- IT Services, IDC India.The research pointed out that cloud providers also need to act as partners for the organisations in assessing their cloud readiness, and accordingly recommending a cloud adoption roadmap. This is absolutely essential for a seamless integration of the IT infrastructure into the cloud environment. “Organisations, even the larger ones, are on an increasing level feeling the pinching need to assess their cloud readiness and maturity levels. This would provide a boost to cloud consulting services in the coming 12-24 months. A direct corollary is that vendors need to have robust Cloud Consulting capabilities in place for making a foray into this space”, added Sharma.IDC is a premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.
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Even though Symantec with its online security solutions brand, Norton, has been present in the Indian market for a number of years now, it is only this year (FY 2012-13) that the software security major is aggressively focusing on reaping high growth returns from India, harnessing the "opportunity that 1.2 billion (potential consumers) possibly provide." And it is the twin phenomena — a quantum leap in mobile internet (m-commerce) usage and a steep rise in the number of cyber crimes in India — which is fuelling this ambition. Incidentally, instances of cyber crime in India are substantially higher than its global counterparts. In fact, the Norton Crime Report 2011 documents that the country lost a whopping Rs 34,110 crore last year and 80 per cent of internet users were affected by it. While 60 per cent were victims of viruses and malware attacks, 20 per cent became the targets of online scams and 19 per cent suffered due to phishing.However, "the sets of cyber crimes that Indians fall prey to are also fortunately the most preventable, says Effendy Ibrahim, Norton Internet Safety Advocate and Director, Asia, Symantec. Globally, Symantec claims to have blocked 5 billion internet security threats last year; which translates into about 17 threats per second. "In the past people would say if you go to a website and don't download anything you're safe. That is not true today, there could be reputed sites where as soon as you enter a malware starts to download," informs Ibrahim. In India, 1 in 4 malware attacks are bot infections: they comprise malware that lodge themselves in a PC and do nothing till they receive a command from their master to either send back data or use the computing power of the machine to send out spam, for instance. This menace is fast engulfing Indian tier 2 cities as well. Today cyber criminals are not sending viruses just to infect machines; they instruct printers to keep on printing, target personal information, logins, passwords and also selectively erase data.All factors taken into account, Symantec considers the need to invest in India is imminent. At present, the company has more than 3,500 employees across the country. They have a security response — one of the 11 around the world — in Pune (set up in 2006). In addition, the company has security operation centres in Chennai and R&D centres in Pune, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Ibrahim quotes that 35 per cent of Symantec's R&D comes from India and Pune is their biggest innovation centre. Thirteen per cent of the annual revenue is earmarked for research.With their infrastructure in place, the company aims to double the number of consumers and triple the numbers of channel partners (currently 155) to improve their distribution network by also tying up with major mobile product distributors across. Apart from large format retail stores, such as Tata Croma, Symantec has, over the last few months established partnerships with e-tailers such as Flipkart.com and others. Effendy Ibrahim "Currently we are in talks with a number of government organisations to encourage their employees to use Norton products," states Ibrahim while refraining to divulge the names of companies in question. A multi-city road show to 20 top cities in India (distribution centres that need to be explored further) is also on the cards. With more than 50 per cent people confused or unwilling to invest in online security, the challenge, according to Symantec, is in convincing people to move beyond remedial measures (from cyber crime affliction) and investing in long-term solutions. Key To IntegrationIt is estimated that an average Indian spends 30 hours a week using the internet as against the global figure of 24 hours a week. Among them 48 per cent access the internet through their mobiles. The Norton Mobile survey 2012 finds 3 out of 5 Indians susceptible to cybercrime on their cell phones. Yet even as there is an alarming 93 per cent increase in mobile threats, the actual number continues to be dwarfed by other online security breaches. Even as ramping up mobile security products is very much the plan, (Norton India survey, February 2012) data has yielded that almost half the population (of respondents) would welcome a simple security solution that they can use across devices and platforms; from Macbooks to Android smartphones and Windows PCs. "In the current scenario, if you want to protect all your data, you would have to buy a separate security product for each device which is costly and cumbersome. With Norton's multi-device product, a single subscription can protect any type of device. Six months down the line if you choose to replace your Windows PC with an Android tablet, you can move your licence from your PC to the new tablet in a very flexible manner," Ibrahim explains. The product, Norton 360 Everywhere, will be launched in India over the next few months and will cover Windows and Android at the moment. The second phase will include iOS as well and that is likely to happen towards the end of this year. As of now Symantec remains silent about the prince point of this product as well.Symantec is keen on promoting free software such as Norton Safeware: a software that determines whether or not a website is safe to visit even before it is opened, Norton Security Scan and Norton Power Eraser (for infected computer systems). When it comes to mobile security, Ibrahim is emphatic in mentioning that "our mobile security products are not antivirus software per se, that is only one of the features of our mobile security products." Mobile security is oriented around anti theft, more photos on mobile than pc, data protection, the ability to lock your phone, wipe data, anti phishing for mobile and privacy features, among others. Norton Mobile Security for Android devices, is available on GooglePlay Store and any of the others Norton mobile software are accessible on Apple and Samsung app stores. One of the new features the company is working on, at present, is recovery of contacts ( from phone memory) in the event of mobile theft. Globally a partner of Samsung, Symantec is now working towards collaborating with major telecom service providers in India.
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When the internet came to India on 15 August 1995, nobody could have imagined the progress and reach it would garner in more than fifteen years of its existence. Seventeen years and 121 million users later, the internet has become the harbinger of information, communication and technological revolution in the country. The medium which has engaged people from varied walks of life has now become an intrinsic source of revenue generation within the economic setup and accounts for a considerable chunk of traffic across the financial spectrum of the country. Indians are now more confident in using the online domain for doing business, banking and shopping and are increasingly employing social connections to reach out to their near and dear ones. Herein lies the pull of the social media revolution that has hit the country and has taken over the virtual world with approximately 45+ million regular users of social media services available in the country. It is a well known fact while Indians have embraced social media wholeheartedly, they have also started using this platform as an extension of their personal lives. According to the annual Global Customer Service Barometer study released by American Express, Indians are far ahead of their global counterparts when it comes to using social media for customer service. Of those surveyed in India, 54 per cent said that they had used social media at least once in the past year to get a customer service response. This is more than twice the average 20 per cent of consumers in other markets revealed in the findings of the study, which was conducted in India and 10 other countries.It is in this regard that the significance of social media can be fully understood through a small example that elucidates the relevance of this medium. A decade ago, while Pyra labs was building the first blog engine, a lot of internet users did not have an idea of what the medium was or what it could possibly become in the near future. Ignored for most part of its existence, blogs have now become a veritable resource house of information which, in comparison to other resource material, carry more matter than traditional website content.Another example that illustrates the significance of the social media revolution in the country is the curious case of ‘Kolaveri Di'; a song that became an instant rage in the country within hours of it being uploaded on a famous video sharing site. With millions of views adding in every minute, it went onto become the most heard song of the 2011 while also becoming a slang term across the country, thereby turning its singer Dhanush into an instant celebrity. The success of the song demonstrates the power of social media and the clout it commands across its followers.Not just in India, but the world over, social media has become a tool for bringing about social(often systemic) changes, as has been well documented during the Egypt Uprising last year, where protestors and rebels kept up with latest developments across the country over a popular social networking and a social micro-blogging site, so much so, that fearing the medium's potential, other regimes cracked down on the social media before cracking down on the protestors themselves. These incidents while showcasing the influence of the nuovo media also attests to the reach and impact of this medium which is emboldened by the fact that eighty-six per cent of the young generation views social media as ‘a potent force for change', in the new millennium.An interesting fact that emanates from the aforementioned study is social media's relevance to the economy of today. Info-stats that claim ‘Social media in India reaches out to 60 per cent of the online Indian audience', ‘Facebook and Orkut, together cater to about 90 per cent of the users in the social media space' and ‘The highest number of active users are from the 15-24 age group', point to the vast potential for prospective businesses in the social media sphere. They also indicate that India is a fast growing market and its relevance in the global social market is humongous to say the least. According to a slew of recent studies, social media is becoming an essential element of the global media utilisation. Coupled with the interest of the young generation of today this can work wonders for the businesses. With positive attributes such as affirmative customer engagement, positive brand building and lost cost-high return model, social media can in work as an upbeat PR medium for the business. It is said that in times to come, digital or social media will become an integral part of the marketing initiatives of every business wherein a major chunk of the revenue creation will be channelised towards social media initiatives. All this can be achieved keeping in mind the fact that in today's time indirect propagation works more potently than direct advertising. Thus, the magnitude of digital media activation will become very specific to the businesses. It is here that one needs to bring in the marketing aspect in the social media ecosphere of today as well. We all know that social media marketing is absolutely necessary in today's times. While for larger business setups, social media marketing helps with bringing in eyeballs into the setup which is forever dogged by different verticals, it is also favourable for a small business setup as it helps in taking word out to the masses and thus adds to visibility. Bringing in other positives, the social media marketing module works in tandem with customer activation and thus creates a win-win situation for both the business and the consumer. Positives like greater audience penetration, wherein presence across social networking sites guarantee greater eyeball count, creation of an awareness module where simple internet activation ensures greater reach which coupled with low tech savvies acts as a pertinent add-ons to the medium. In my view, a great beneficiary in this context would be the start-up businesses of today who will greatly gain from the low-cost and low-barrier-to-entry advantage that social media offers to the start-ups. While they have flexible policies, the advent of social media will help them in easily accepting social media activations and will help them easily reach out to potential clientele and thus build on a hugely flourishing brand legacy. In India the total penetration of the Internet domain is only about 10.2 per cent, which leaves a seemingly empty ground for internet to grow and consecutively social media to spread its wings as well. While expecting the digital medium to grow in times to come it is now safe to say that with shifting power echelons in the digital ecosphere in today's times, it is now imperative that the future of social dynamics in India will be largely fuelled by digital tools, which will thus transform the Indian economic ecosphere in the times to come. The author is the COO of Percept Profile & Buzzinga (A Division of Percept Limited)
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Online healthcare portal, BookMyDoctor.com recently announced collaboration with more than 6000 doctors in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), where patients can book their appointments online, in advance. Through a simple registration process on www.BookMyDoctor.com , patients can reach doctors/hospitals area wise and book appointments as per their convenience without any cost. It also lays down detailed insights on various health topics and offer online consultations. The site also includes information on medical events, seminars, health checkup camps, discounted health packages and more. "Every time the doctor may not have time to answer all the queries of his patients, or even patient may forget to ask an important question from him. Many doctors feel comfortable to serve their patients online to learn more," says Dinesh Arora, Director of BookMyDoctor.com.With timings restricted from 10am to 6pm, the portal functions only on weekdays where one can search doctors, doctors with their specialty, nutritionist, physiotherapist, hospitals and clinic and pathology labs, gyms/spa and beauty clinics. On the website there are various articles available on health and diseases, food, diet and nutrition.
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The June edition of the Symantec Intelligence report reveals that India is not only positioned higher than the global average as a target for spammers but is also the top source of spam globally (15 per cent of the total spam). India is followed by Vietnam, Brazil, Pakistan and Canada.The report also observed that globally the defence industry has been the biggest target of cyber attacks in the first half of the year, with an average of 7.3 attacks per day. According to CERT-In, which handles computer security incidents, it has been observed that some hacker groups are launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDS) attacks on websites of government and private organisations in India. The attacks are being launched through popular DDoS tools and can consume bandwidth requiring appropriate proactive actions in coordination with service providers. In fact, intellectual property intensive industries such as chemical/pharmaceutical and manufacturing are the top industries that experienced targeted attacks. Cybercriminals target intellectual property such as design documents, formulas, and manufacturing processes as much money can be made from compromised corporate intellectual property (IP). The attackers first research desired targets and then send emails specifically to the target. The purpose of the attacks appears to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage.It is important to remember that although on the increase, targeted attacks are still very rare. Targeted attacks use customised malware and refined targeted social engineering to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information. The next evolution of social engineering, in targeted attacks, victims are researched in advance and specifically targeted.Targeted AttacksThe Nitro attack is focused on the chemical sector with the goal of obtaining sensitive documents such as proprietary designs, formulas, and manufacturing processes.Stuxnet, which is a computer worm designed to target industrial control systems used to monitor and run large-scale industrial facilities. Its final goal was to manipulate the physical equipment attached to specific industrial control systems so the equipment acted in a manner programmed by the attacker, contrary to its intended purpose. Such an outcome could have several underlying goals. India was home to the third highest Stuxnet infections.In June 2012, the following pattern of attack was seen:Spam: 66.8 per cent (a decrease of 1.0 percentage points since May)Phishing: One in 467.6 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May)Malware: One in 316.5 emails contained malware (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May):Malicious Websites: 2,106 websites blocked per day (an decrease of 51.7 per cent since May)The Symantec Intelligence June 2012 report includes data from January through June 2012.
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When it comes to analysing online search behaviour among Indian consumers, education may not (yet) be the topmost preference — losing out to gadgets, automobile, travel — among Google’s list of 10 most searched categories. However, the exponential growth in education related searches in the country is nothing short of extraordinary. While India was ranked 8th, globally, in terms of education related queries on Google four years ago, quantum leaps in the growth of internet traffic have catapulted the country to the number 2 spot globally when it comes to absolute volume of education search queries in 2012 ,second to the US. This phenomenon is congruent with the wider reality that the number of internet users in India has increased forty fold from 3 million in the year 2000 to 120 million in 2011 (which roughly translates into 10 per cent of the total Indian population), thus making India the third largest internet market in the world which is growing at 38 per cent YoY. 54 per cent of these internet users fall within the age bracket of 18-35. Given the fact that the growth rate of education queries on Google is an impressive 46 per cent (YoY), the search giant recently published a study called ‘Students on the Web,’ based on the combined data of Google’s internal research and an offline survey conducted by market research firm ,TNS Australia, on behalf of Google. “The need to embark on this study was triggered by the need to understand exactly what it is that students are searching for when it comes to education and how the digital medium is impacting their final decision,” explains Rajan Anandan, VP and Managing Director of Google India while adding that “with more and more users getting online every day, internet is the biggest catchment area for youth and we hope this study will help advertisers realise the potential of the digital medium.” Case in point, Google’s advertising revenue from educational institutes comprises a small percentage: Of the 1,500 crore spent by the private education sector in India last year, only 5 per cent was earmarked towards online advertising. Google is however optimistic that the figures will escalate to 15-20 per cent in the next 2-3 years. Gaurav Kapur, Industry Head (Emerging Business Group) at Google is confident that “advertisers can’t avoid internet as a platform” and goes on to emphasise how Google Adwords can provide the much needed nexus for “hundreds of thousands of universities/ institutes and educational forums to connect with students.” When it comes to searching for Private universities, Sikkilm Manipal tops the list with Amity University catching up as a distant second, followed by Nirma, Lovely professional University and Sharda University., Google search data from January to June 2012 reveals. Not surprisingly, IT and vocational and largely computer courses dominate when it comes to students’ options for higher education at 44 per cent. Bachelors, primarily engineering college enquiries stand at 40 per cent while 16 per cent students explore masters (predominantly MBA) courses online where the IITs and IIMs are the most searched respectively. The striking, qualitative finding of the TMS study is that 5 out of 6 people are influenced by the online medium (and the options explored) when taking the final decision about their choice of institute, which thereby testifies to the kind of credibility the online domain has achieved. Anandan believes it is the feedback mechanism —user reviews, open group discussions—that gives internet its revered status. The TMS study was administered on a respondent base of 2,229 people (within the ages of 18-35: 67 per cent of them were within the demographic of 18-24) across 7 Indian tier 1 cities: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad. For 60 per cent of the population internet is their first and most important source of information when it comes to educational needs. Predictably enough, placements (at 56 per cent) remain the most decisive factor when it comes to zeroing in on a particular institute or course. Faculty comes in second as 49 per cent of the students consider it important to acquaint themselves with the academic profiles of faculty members before enrolling in an institution. This is connected with the greater demand for more education related video content voiced by 46 per cent of the respondents’ who feel that videos on placement trends, faculty, classroom sessions and student as well as alumni documentaries. At present there is very little multimedia content on education (in the Indian context) available online. Conspicuously through, NPTEL (National Programme on technology Enhanced Learning) a joint initiative between 7 IITs and IISc Bangalore, funded by the ministry of HRD, is the most popular educational channel on YouTube with over 1 lakh subscribers and more than 70 million views. The channel features video lectures on different streams of engineering and core sciences. Since 66 per cent of students use their mobile/smartphones for their education research, 7 out of 10 of them assert that is ‘essential’ for educational institutes to have a mobile site. Very few actually do. Mobile educational search activity in India is growing at an astonishing rate of 135 per cent YoY and thus there is tremendous scope for education service providers to leverage this trend by developing mobile apps, Anandan speculates. Social media is another underutilised arena within the online domain that needs to be tapped for educational purposes. Google plans to develop more studies on internet practices in the context of education but the focus this time would be on user behaviours in tier 2 cities and also include (search) data on public institutions. They are certain these analytics would reveal a completely different picture, soon.
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Spammers have been using interest around the Olympic Games to scam internet users into spreading and downloading malicious content, online security company Symantec has found.Symantec's July Intelligence Report found that attackers had been using Olympic-themed "hashtags" on Twitter to spread malicious code. Attackers are also attempting to compromise mobile devices by taking Olympic mobile apps and rebundling them with threats.This is not a new phenomenon, however. Similar sporting-themed attacks took place during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Some of the Olympic-related threats and scams are:Twitter BotsAttackers have been actively using Olympic-related trending topics on Twitter recently in order to entice people to click on malicious links. The Tweets appear to be generated by bots, with poorly constructed, ambiguous sentences.The shortened URLs lead to fake pages that appear to cover a variety of topics, including business strategy tips and health-related themes. However, the real purpose of these sites is to spread malware. An attack toolkit is set up on the back end of the pages and will attempt to install trojan back doors or fake security software on vulnerable computers that visit these Web sites. For instance, the attack might play out similar to this video.The accounts themselves are generally created the day the tweets are sent, rarely have any followers, and rapidly post a few Tweets each minute using a wide variety of hash tags linked to trending topics. Twitter has been quick to identify these accounts and suspend them, generally within a few hours of their creation.Fake Olympic ScandalsThere also have been a few instances of spammers attempting to trick users into downloading malware. For example, one spam email hints at a doping scandal, and includes a link to a website that mimics YouTube. The video in question is meant to be about the supposed scandal, but instead of playing the video, it tells the user to install a new version of Flash player. If the user clicks OK and runs the executable, they will infect the computer with a trojan. Android.OpfakeThe attackers behind Android.Opfake are going after apps related to the London 2012 Olympics. They are bundling their threat with a copy of a legitimate Olympics application. The legitimate app, a game promoting some of the more popular Olympic sports, was copied and repackaged with the trojan and then distributed on a Russian Android app marketplace.Olympic-themed Spam And ScamsThe spam rate has increased steadily for the most part, effectively doubling from late May to late July, when the Games began.The scams behind these spam runs are generally focused on gathering personal information from the user. Phishing AttackEven before the Summer Olympic Games began on 27 July 2012, online scammers had already taken the opportunity to target users. Phishers masquerading as a MasterCard promotion, created an eye-catching phishing site. The phishing pages, hosted in Brazil, included several fake offers such as “Win Free Trips to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London!”, “Participate and win laptops, cameras and many great prizes.” etc . On clicking a button, customers are redirected to the next phishing page that asks for the user’s confidential information. Fake Visa Gift CardsSpammers have also been targeting customers by using fake gift cards from Visa, reportedly worth $1,000. By clicking a link provided in the spam mail, the user would be redirected to a fake survey page where the user is required to answer questions related to the London Olympics. After the survey is complete, users are prompted to enter their email address to win the exciting gifts.
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The June edition of the Symantec Intelligence report reveals that India is not only positioned higher than the global average as a target for spammers but is also the top source of spam globally (15 per cent of the total spam). India is followed by Vietnam, Brazil, Pakistan and Canada. The report also observed that globally the defence industry has been the biggest target of cyber attacks in the first half of the year, with an average of 7.3 attacks per day. According to CERT-In, which handles computer security incidents, it has been observed that some hacker groups are launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDS) attacks on websites of government and private organisations in India. The attacks are being launched through popular DDoS tools and can consume bandwidth requiring appropriate proactive actions in coordination with service providers. In fact, intellectual property intensive industries such as chemical/pharmaceutical and manufacturing are the top industries that experienced targeted attacks. Cybercriminals target intellectual property such as design documents, formulas, and manufacturing processes as much money can be made from compromised corporate intellectual property (IP). The attackers first research desired targets and then send emails specifically to the target. The purpose of the attacks appears to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage.It is important to remember that although on the increase, targeted attacks are still very rare. Targeted attacks use customised malware and refined targeted social engineering to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information. The next evolution of social engineering, in targeted attacks, victims are researched in advance and specifically targeted.Targeted AttacksThe Nitro attack is focused on the chemical sector with the goal of obtaining sensitive documents such as proprietary designs, formulas, and manufacturing processes.Stuxnet, which is a computer worm designed to target industrial control systems used to monitor and run large-scale industrial facilities. Its final goal was to manipulate the physical equipment attached to specific industrial control systems so the equipment acted in a manner programmed by the attacker, contrary to its intended purpose. Such an outcome could have several underlying goals. India was home to the third highest Stuxnet infections.In June 2012, the following pattern of attack was seen: Spam: 66.8 per cent (a decrease of 1.0 percentage points since May) Phishing: One in 467.6 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May) Malware: One in 316.5 emails contained malware (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May): Malicious Websites: 2,106 websites blocked per day (an decrease of 51.7 per cent since May) The Symantec Intelligence June 2012 report includes data from January through June 2012.
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LetsBuy woke up on Friday morning to empty warehouses, dropped shutters and employee-less offices. May 31 was officially the last day for everyone at the two-year-and-nine-month-old company, which was acquired by Flipkart in February 2012.On May 28, four HR executives from the Flipkart team accompanied by VP Business Development Vaibhav Pandey visited Letsbuy's Kirti Nagar warehouse in Delhi. Founders Binny and Sachin Bansal kept themselves away from the difficult job of announcing the shut down and so Pandey was handed over the task. By now it was certain Flipkart was all set to kill the Letsbuy brand – selling out on earlier promise of keeping the brand name alive. The only questions left unanswered were – by when and what will happen to the 450 LetsBuy employees? (See Businessworld article "It's death by takeover" ) It was announced 31st May will be the official day for wrapping up all operations and hand over everything to Flipkart. For the first time Flipkart has officially accepted that it has brought down the shutters at LetsBuy offices and warehouses. "Yesterday was officially the last working day for LetsBuy. Some people will be there for fulfillment roles and some people will be called to work in teams like Finance etc," says Flipkart's VP Marketing Ravi Vora. Last Monday brought in some amount of distress among the LetsBuy employees. Employees present at the warehouse revealed that only a handful of them were given offers to join the Flipkart team. They suggested that some of the employees were offered jobs at 50 per cent cut while most were offered a month's severance and asked to quit."Of the 50-55 people working in the Kirti Nagar warehouse, only three people will be joining Flipkart," says a senior officer at LetsBuy on condition of anonymity. "Out of the 400 odd employees, about 15–20 people have been offered jobs in Flipkart. Employees are furious and disheartened," he adds.However, Flipkart has a different story to tell. "Our first preference is to absorb the employees since we have constant requirement of an efficient workforce," says Vora. But he suggests that given the location constraints, Flipkart has struggled to absorb some people internally and thus it has helped them get a job in other organizations. Being headquartered in Bangalore, most of Flipkart's marketing, operations and HR team is based out of Delhi. However, LetsBuy is largely based in Delhi-NCR. "Of the overall workforce, 50-60 per cent of the employees have been placed either internally or have been helped with outplacement," Vora says.Vora says only in the cases where an employee did not match Flipkart's hiring criteria, was he offered a month's severance and offered full and final settlement before being asked to quit.However, through all this exercise, founders Hitesh Dhingra and Amanpreet Bajaj have preferred to remain quite.
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