Data Analytics: Efficient risk management

Category: Cyber Security, Data Management, Machine Learning, Management

“The risk management needs to lift up from risk control to risk intelligence which can identify the potential business growth opportunities.”― Pearl Zhu

Businesses need to constantly upgrade themselves to handle the risks emerging from a dynamic environment that is fraught with risk globally. They need to do a deep dive into their risk management strategies and look at fostering a culture of change for unlocking their business potential and achieving better business outcomes. Organizations need to think beyond traditional risk management methods through organisational transformation by adopting advancement technologies like advanced analytics. Let’s look at some of the ways by which it can be achieved. 

As a first step employees from the different levels of the organization need to actively participate in this journey for building their core competency and redefining the business processes. This would help in breaking the functional silos and unearth the value of data for building effective data models for forecasting future trends through collaboration and knowledge sharing. Customer is king and leveraging on new age analytics would help understanding the changing customer behavior by establishing customer models and identifying underlying patterns. By leveraging on data mining techniques large quantities of data can be analysed for better client engagement, revenue growth and cost optimisation. Using big data and analytics would also help businesses rethink their marketing campaigns by understanding customer behavior. 

Analytics help in assessing the exposure of the organization’s risk and its ability to measure and predict likely scenarios through forecasting techniques. In this process the analysts would come across huge volumes of data which could be structured or unstructured. Structured data are more qualitative in nature that would include numbers and values sourced form online forms network and server logs etc with limited usage and storage options. These can be used with the help of Machine Learning algorithms by business users. Unstructured data include posts in social media, website, internet of things which is gaining widespread importance due to its native format and scalable storage options. The availability of data can be both internal and external to the organization. Risk analytics helps in integrating them for deriving valuable business insights vand effective decision making. 

By analysing myriads of data sets and repetitive trend risk analytics helps In identifying and detecting any threats in their businesses, example frauds. Leadership can track the changes that resulted in transformations to the industry and take appreciated actions in the midst of crisis. It would help in preventing any damage done to the corporate identity and protect the brand image of the company. Organisations need to learn from the mistakes of their past and ensure that they are not repeated. Analytics help in understanding the reasons behind such mistakes and preventing them from happening again by applying preventive measures. All companies irrespective of their vintage or size need to have a dedicated team of risk managers who can use big data and analytics to evaluate risks in real time and quickly what gears and take appreciated actions during uncertainty. Creation of alerts for monitoring deviations in real time would help in identifying any outliers for problem solving and evaluating performance. 

Conclusion

We at Newlineinfo Corp make use of latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of things for evaluation risks and manage them proactively with the help of risk analytics tools for achieving business growth and resilience.

Remote Work Cyber Security Risks

Category: Business, Cyber Security, Digital Enpowerment, Organisation

“Cybersecurity is a new area where equality will exist to allow intelligence to succeed.” – Ian R. McAndrew

Businesses have adopted new ways of working in the current pandemic situation and remote working has become the order of the day. The digital workforce needs to be wary of the cyber security risks associated with remote working and companies need to equip their staff with adequate knowledge and skills required to safeguard themselves from data leakage and other vulnerabilities. Let’s look at some of the key risks involved in remote working which needs to be remediated with due diligence and caution. 

Phishing attacks and spams continue to be a major threat in remote working. Fraudsters masquerade themselves as reliable entities and gain access to sensitive data and critical information. This can result in severe reputational and financial losses to the staff and the organization. The leadership team needs to ensure that multiple training sessions are conducted to enhance the knowledge levels of staff on social engineering and its impact. Everyone needs to understand the implications of phishing threats and learn to identify any potential phishing emails and malicious activities. Newsletters and broadcast messages can be shared on a regular basis to sensitise the staff about their downside risk. 

Despite strong firewalls and secure VPN connection, hackers leverage human error and negligence to gain access over systems for stealing sensitive data and information. Repeat passwords used by remote working staff can provide easy access to fraudsters who try to capture the information at keystroke level through keyloggers, screen scrapers and ransomware. This paves the way for cracking the code and opens the floodgate for misuse of personal and company information. Use of passphrases, avoiding usage of personal information in password and repeat passwords would help in data loss prevention for oneself and the business. Staff must be made fully aware of the password protection, code of conduct policy and ensure everyone abides by the laid down guidelines without any deviations. 

Data threat via phone and email is another sensitive area that needs to be addressed. Staff need to follow compliance standards to ensure that client data shared internally and externally are properly encrypted by following the established security protocols. This would help ensure confidentiality by safeguarding client information and keeping cyber interceptions at bay. Contact list, e-mail attachments, voice mail information needs to be protected with the help of encryption platforms. Secured file sharing software can be used for file synchronisation that provides enhanced authentication through secure socket layers. 

Conclusion

Businesses can reduce the risk of cyber security threats by adapting themselves to Desktop-as-a-service. This would allow employees to connect to the company network with their personal devices and virtual desktops remotely over the network and access all the files through their workstations. This would mitigate the risk of data threats. Thanks to the virtualisation that is centralised on the premises rather than end point devices. The IT security team can also look at disabling access to USB and printers as part of their surveillance and access control measures. We at Newlineinfo Corp have a strong and well defined cybersecurity framework that aims at protecting the client’s sensitive information from any external threats and vulnerabilities. 

Cybersecurity trends to watch for in 2021

Category: Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Deep Learning, Machine Learning

“Cybersecurity is a new area where equality will exist to allow intelligence to succeed”. – Ian R. McAndrew, PhD

The advent of new technologies poses serious security threats due to increasing cybercrimes and attacks by cyber criminals. Inorder to mitigate the threats and vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity landscape businesses can embrace Artificial Intelligence in their modus operandi. Let us look at some of the key implications of AI in Cybersecurity.

AI helps in faster detection of cyber risks and augments the recovery rate in the event of any cyberthreats through analytics and integrating the data sources with threat intelligence. AI sources huge amounts of risk data through research, blogs etc and provides sharp insights about cybersecurity alerts that helps in effective surveillance and staying ahead of any potential threats by raising the standards of Cybersecurity framework. Latest technologies like Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques help in deciphering cyber risks and provide valuable inputs related to IP addresses of fraudsters and criminals. Security analysts can make informed decisions on the malicious code based on the inputs provided by AI and this saves the time and effort required to pursue large data sets for the cybersecurity professionals.

Due to the skyrocketing costs of recovering the system from  data breaches, businesses need to be prepared to handle any advanced cyber attacks in unforeseen circumstances. Creating a multi layered security system will help in securing the network infrastructure resulting in tightened control and adherence to compliance protocol. AI powered security tools and modern firewalls helps in proactive monitoring of network traffic and identifying the malicious file. Antivirus software can be used to remove the malefic content and viruses in the network infrastructure followed by regular backup procedures for demonstrating effective resilience and disaster recovery. 

AI and Machine Learning can be used for automating threat detection and building threat modelling by leveraging on observational data indicators. Deployment of powerful AI tools like Expert systems and neural networks would help in deploying threat models for identification of cyber threats.  AI and Machine Learning helps in consolidating the knowledge with the help of data analytics for building effective threat models. Business leaders and cybersecurity professionals need to actively engage in building a strategic framework for risk and management for safeguarding any cyber attacks like data poisoning in federated learning and circumvent malicious participants.

Cyber criminals use sophisticated techniques like distributed spam distraction, phishing etc.. for digital attacks with malefic intent. Such digital attacks can take place through emails or email attachments posting false URLs for the purpose of data mining and inflicting malware into the system resulting in financial frauds through business email compromise. The Machine Learning capability in AI helps in blocking the access to malicious links by scanning the images of the fake login pages and using visual indications to establish the genuineness of the login page. AI uses behavioural analytics and secured authentication to identify any fraudulent attempts in the digital landscape. AI upgrades it’s capabilities for detecting any phishing attacks from open source intelligence and it’s identification of phishing efforts breaks all geographical barriers and boundaries.

Development and promotion of ethical guidelines for AI systems would make it more reliable by promoting a culture of transparency, data privacy and adherence to safety standards. Businesses and researchers should be open for sharing ideas related to research carried out in AI for free flow of information and exchange of new ideas. This will help in raising the bar for reaching better heights in the use of the AI in Cybersecurity through collaborative efforts and research work for countering any sophisticated cyber attacks in the future. Businesses need to identify the scope of AI in their business and ensure that adequate testing is carried out before deploying AI. This would help in unearthing any potential risks and flaws that would go unnoticed.

Conclusion

Disposition of AI in cybersecurity provides critical information about potential threats and vulnerabilities. Businesses can now manage the cyberattacks proactively and minimize their threat exposures that help in ensuring business continuity by demonstrating their resilience. AI can help in identifying gaps in the security framework by analysing the effectiveness of infosec controls. Prescriptive controls offered by AI would help in building robust controls and enhancing the quality of cybersecurity governance. At Newlineinfo Corp have a dedicated workforce and driven by our passion to provide world class service delivery to our clients and stakeholders.

Low code/ No code Solution to Digital Transformation

Category: Business, Cyber Security, Digital Enpowerment

“Change is the voyage which needs to continually discover its own landscape, avoid potential pitfalls and enjoy unique scenes of digitalization.” – Pearl Zhu

The IT department is the nerve centre of daily operations in the digital world and businesses are heavily dependent on no code to fix issues faced on a day to day basis. This overt dependency and reliance on code results in delays in bug fixing, creating backlogs and piling up IT requests that could take an inordinate amount of time for resolution. Inorder to mitigate the challenges faced by code and enable digital agility businesses are embracing no code development platforms that promises to be a game changer in IT enterprise.

Despite rapidly increasing challenges in the digital space there is only limited source available to manage and troubleshoot IT issues faced by companies. Inorder to meet the high expectations of stakeholders and provide faster resolution businesses need to foster a culture of innovation by building applications at a rapid pace with the help of no code that would give them the competitive advantage for delivering value based product offerings and services.

A no code development platform helps new entrants, start-ups and non programmers to create application software through drag and drop visual elements for assembling applications. It allows business users without any technical background to develop software through drag and drop tools and integrate them with web services, cloud platforms and utilities for developing fully functional applications without any coding. Both developers and first time users can now leverage on the no code for process mapping, workflow automation and streamlining their business processes in an agile and efficient manner.

IT staff need to focus on new changes, development and bug fixes. No code platform allow users to create their own app and reduces the reliance on IT staff. IT staff can now spend their quality time focusing on critical issues that affect the front line and the clientele. This helps in reducing the waiting time and provides speedy resolution for key issues that demand programming expertise exacting immediate attention. Ni code helps in effective utilisation of resources through need-based allocation and deployment resulting in enhanced productivity and workforce optimization.

The consumerization of the IT industry has given rise to development of many applications resulting in potential threats and vulnerabilities in the landscape of cyber security. The burgeoning shadow IT has resulted in security gaps that possess a huge risk to data confidentiality and challenges related to cyber governance. The deployment of no code solutions would help the IT team to establish a robust compliance framework to monitor and mitigate the impact of shadow IT through digital empowerment.

The complexity of code poses big challenges for change management and remains to be a pain point in traditional coding. No code development has accelerated the velocity of change and is getting companies to rehash their change management process through inclusivity without any disruption. Thus helps in building a better collaboration between IT and business units by reducing the downtime and maintaining business continuity.

No code enables businesses to deliver scalable business solutions and superior customer service through experiential learning and development. Businesses can measure customer feedback and responses and cater to the dynamic needs of the customers by optimising their business processes and workflows. This would help in identifying bottlenecks and remove inefficiencies resulting in reduced operational costs and boosting revenue.

Conclusion

We at Newlineinfo Corp have an engaged team and are committed to delivering high end digital capabilities through seamless business solutions and service delivery.