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Category: Technology

  • Telecom Security: The Rising Stakes of Digital Infrastructure Protection

    Anirudha Shekhar Karandikar

    A comprehensive research paper by Anirudha Shekhar Karandikar, a cybersecurity expert from a Fortune 500 company, reveals the critical challenges and innovations in protecting telecommunications infrastructure. The study provides detailed insights into the evolving landscape of telecom security in our increasingly connected world.

    The Digital Explosion

    The telecommunications boom is transforming global connectivity. 5G technology serves as the primary catalyst, revolutionizing data transmission speeds and enabling new applications in IoT, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities. The projected growth to $1.8 trillion reflects increasing demand for high-speed internet, mobile services, and cloud computing. This rapid expansion is particularly evident in emerging markets, where mobile penetration is accelerating. The staggering data transmission rate of 150,700 gigabytes per second demonstrates our increasingly connected world and hints at future infrastructure challenges as demand continues to surge.

    Innovation in Threat Detection

    Modern telecom security is being revolutionized by artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. These systems can now process up to 100 Tbps of traffic and reduce attack surfaces by 95%. Advanced AI-driven traffic analysis can identify and mitigate 99.9% of DDoS attacks within 10 seconds of onset, representing a significant leap in protection capabilities.

    Smart Defense Against Insider Threats

    The industry has developed sophisticated behavioral analytics systems that can detect anomalous activities with 96% accuracy. Role-based access control systems have proven highly effective, reducing unauthorized access attempts by 85%. Regular security awareness training programs have shown remarkable success, cutting insider-related incidents by up to 70%.

    Data Protection Breakthrough

    New encryption technologies are transforming data security in the telecom sector. The implementation of AES-256 encryption for stored data and TLS 1.3 for data in transit has reduced unauthorized access risks by 92%. Additionally, innovative tokenization and data masking techniques have demonstrated the ability to reduce sensitive information exposure by up to 98%.

    Infrastructure Resilience

    Micro-segmentation has emerged as a powerful defense mechanism, capable of reducing the impact of DDoS attacks by up to 60%. This technology, combined with AI-driven threat detection, has significantly enhanced the industry’s ability to protect critical infrastructure and maintain service continuity during cyber attacks.

    Financial Impact and Innovation

    The financial stakes of telecom security have never been higher, with the average cost of a data breach reaching $4.54 million in 2023. This has driven innovation in protection mechanisms, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies have proven crucial in detecting and preventing attacks before they can cause significant damage.

    The Future Outlook

    The telecommunications industry continues to evolve its security measures to match the sophistication of cyber threats. Advanced security measures have become essential as the industry manages data for over 8.6 billion mobile connections, with each user generating approximately 1.5 GB of data daily. The implementation of new security protocols has helped address growing privacy concerns and maintain user trust in digital communications.

    Critical Infrastructure Protection

    The sector faces increasing challenges from cybercriminals, with an average of 1,483 cyberattacks per week, representing a 41% increase from the previous year. The stakes are particularly high for critical infrastructure, as successful breaches can result in an average downtime of 6.5 hours per incident, potentially affecting millions of citizens.

    In his concluding remarks, Anirudha Shekhar Karandikar emphasizes that the future of secure digital communication depends on the industry’s ability to stay ahead of evolving threats while maintaining the delicate balance between innovation and security. As telecommunications continue to underpin critical services such as military communications, emergency response systems, and financial transactions, the importance of robust cybersecurity measures becomes increasingly vital for maintaining the integrity of our interconnected world.

  • UiPath positioned as the highest-designated leader in the Everest Group intelligent automation platforms PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024  – CRN

    UiPath positioned as the highest-designated leader in the Everest Group intelligent automation platforms PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024  – CRN

    UiPath announced that it has been positioned the highest in the Leader category in the inaugural Everest Group Intelligent Automation Platforms PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024.

    UiPath enables businesses to understand, optimise, and automate complex processes end-to-end, unlocking new levels of growth, efficiency, and innovation at lower cost and less risk. It combines leading UI and API-based automation with state-of-the-art AI for tasks like intelligent document processing (IDP), process discovery, and orchestration. The platform offers many features, including ease of integration with other ecosystems, access control, and enterprise-grade security and governance. The UiPath Platform is also accelerating a shift toward a new era of automation—agentic automation—by combining AI, automation, and orchestration, which gives agents the power to plan, work, and make decisions with minimal human oversight. The combination of robots and agents extends the scope and impact of automation. Agents can complete critical business processes and tasks that were not previously possible to automate due to their ability to act independently and make dynamic decisions.

     “UiPath has been positioned the highest in the Leader category due to its strong vision, continuous investments in product innovation and capability expansion, and increased market share,” said Amardeep Modi, Vice President at Everest Group. “UiPath has seen strong YoY growth, focus on customer success and enablement, and continuous investments in M&As and strategic alliances for enabling a holistic intelligent automation solution, are some of the key factors that contributed to its position.”

     “Guided by our vision to become the leading platform for agentic automation, UiPath is continuing to deliver transformational outcomes and drive innovation for our customers by helping them solve their most complex workflows and brand-new scenarios.” said Graham Sheldon, Chief Product Officer at UiPath. “I believe we earned our Leader position in the Everest Group Intelligent Automation Platforms PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024 because UiPath is best positioned to drive this transformation by providing the flexibility, scalability, orchestration, and trust to support the agentic automation of end-to-end workflows”

    Recent UiPath Platform capabilities include:

    • Agent builder: in private preview, Agent Builder allows users to build and customise agents, either from scratch or a prebuilt template in the UiPath Agent Catalog, that work in collaboration with robots and humans.
    • Autopilot for everyone: a cross-platform, conversational agent that helps employees enhance their productivity through customisable prompts, vast automation libraries, and leverages specialised AI models for specific tasks such as document processing and semantic copy-paste.
    • Autopilot for Testers: accelerates every aspect of software testing by leveraging GenAI to refine and improve requirements, generate step-by-step tests from those requirements, and uses those tests to create coded automations.
    • Autopilot for Developers: uses the power of GenAI and NLP in UiPath Studio to create workflows, generate expressions, and help build automations.
    • Autopilot for Apps: allows users to quickly and easily build forms through a simple natural language text prompt, a PDF, or an image.
    • AI Trust Layer: enables the governance of GenAI features and agents across the UiPath platform, providing comprehensive management, reporting, and controls.
    • Context Grounding: a feature within the UiPath AI Trust Layer that enables customers to query and interact with business-specific data, grounding all GenAI prompts with the most relevant information to improve the accuracy and reliability of GenAI predictions.
    • UiPath DocPath and CommPath LLMs: provide improved data extraction by enabling out-of-the-box processing of any document or message, with increased accuracy, speed

    Everest Group Intelligent Automation Platforms PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024 is an industry assessment providing analysis and insights on intelligent automation platform vendors and products to assist enterprises in their selection processes. These findings—which are based on an evaluation of vendors’ impact on the market, overarching vision, and product capabilities and support, innovation, and significant performance improvement—are seen as benchmarks in standards and quality for the industry. As part of the evaluations, vendors are classified into Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants, based on key dimensions.

  • How to use Circle to Search with Google on Galaxy Z Fold6

    icon of a clockBy:

    Ever find yourself needing more information about a product or service or reading a sign in an unfamiliar language? Circle to Search with Google makes getting the information you need much simpler.

    Circle to Search with Google, featured on Samsung’s latest Galaxy AI* mobile devices, is a unique, user-friendly way to search the internet quickly and easily. Look up something while viewing social media, learn more about a picture or video, or browse web content. Now, you don’t even need to type it into your device. Instead, use your finger. Simply press and hold the home button, circle or highlight the object — image or text — then tap it to launch a search. Circle to Search with Google is a faster, smarter way to explore. Here’s how to use it.

    Find the location behind stunning photos and videos

    Did you spot an incredible location in someone else’s picture or video? Now, you can use Circle to Search with Google to find its real-world counterpart. Using your Galaxy Z Fold6:

    1. Save the image, then open it on-screen.
    2. Long press on the screen to freeze the image.
    3. Use your finger to circle the object.
    4. Tap “Find it” to pull up search results showing possible locations.
    5. Swipe up on the preview to browse location options until you find a match.
    6. Tap a result to learn more or add it to a map.

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    Use the camera to explore in real time

    Circle to Search with Google makes a great travel companion and navigator. If you’re out on a job and curious to learn more about a place, try this:

    1. Open your Galaxy Z Fold6 camera and frame the scene.
    2. Long press to capture it.
    3. Circle the area or place with your finger.
    4. Tap “Find it” to generate options.
    5. Swipe up on the preview to scroll through the results.
    6. Tap on one to see more information.

    Interpret another language

    Traveling for work is always an adventure. But what if you’re having trouble understanding a sign, label or menu written in the local tongue? Circle to Search with Google makes translating text a breeze, helping you convert written content into familiar terms. Here’s how:

    1. Focus your Galaxy Z Fold6 camera on the text you wish to translate.
    2. Long press to capture the image.
    3. Tap “Interpreter” [‘Interpret’ button icon].
    4. Using your finger, circle the text you’d like to understand.
    5. Tap “Find it” to bring up results in your preferred language.
    6. Swipe up on the preview and scroll.
    7. Click on a match to learn more.

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    A convenient new way to explore, right at your fingertips

    Galaxy Z Fold6 lets you broaden your search capabilities as wide as your business needs to go. Whether you’re navigating your surroundings, trying to translate a foreign language, or just browsing for something online, Circle to Search with Google has you covered.

    Wherever you are, whatever you see — just circle, search and find it!

    Learn more about how mobile AI is unfolding before our eyes. Sign up for a Samsung Business Account to get exclusive offers, including volume pricing discounts, on Galaxy Z Fold6 today.

    *Galaxy AI features by Samsung will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.

  • OnePlus 13 series, new Buds Pro 3 variant launching on January 7; new info emerges

    OnePlus 13 series, new Buds Pro 3 variant launching on January 7; here's what we know

    OnePlus 13 series, new Buds Pro 3 variant launching on January 7; here’s what we knowOnePlus

    OnePlus is all set to launch its new flagship smartphones, the OnePlus 13 series, and a new variant of its flagship earbuds, OnePlus Buds Pro 3, on January 7. This announcement comes as the company celebrates its 11th anniversary. OnePlus 13 series is expected to feature a slim design, an elegant camera layout following the golden ratio, and three stunning new colourways: Black Eclipse, Arctic Dawn, and Midnight Ocean.

    OnePlus 13 Series

    The Midnight Ocean variant is going to be the first phone to feature micro-fiber vegan leather, offering a luxurious hand feel while providing desirable resistance to corrosion and scratches. The Arctic Dawn colourway introduces an industry-first surface-based glass coating, for a comfortable, silky smooth touch and a fingerprint-resistant surface.

    OnePlus 13 series is going to be powered by the newly-released OxygenOS 15, known for its advanced AI features designed to deliver a lighter, smarter, and smoother experience. These AI enhancements are applied across key areas of the devices, simplifying daily interactions, boosting productivity.

    OnePlus 13 launch confirmed; full design revealed ahead of January release

    OnePlus 13 launch confirmed; full design revealed ahead of January releaseOnePlus

    AI and OnePlus Buds Pro 3

    Key highlights include Intelligent Search, letting you search across your local files using natural prompts, so that you don’t have to open the file one by one, or read a long file yourself, and AI-powered photography tools, enhancing everyday tasks.

    The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 will also come in an elegant Sapphire Blue colorway, complementing the OnePlus 13 Midnight Ocean. The Buds Pro 3 will introduce AI Translation in collaboration with the OnePlus 13 Series, offering seamless convenience for everyday communication and office tasks.

    As the OnePlus 13 series launch approaches, it also marks a significant milestone for OnePlus—its 11th anniversary. This anniversary celebrates the Never Settle spirit that has defined the brand since its inception and its strong community.

  • Latest Aerospike Vector Search keeps data fresh for accurate GenAI and ML decisions regardless of scale – CRN

    Latest Aerospike Vector Search keeps data fresh for accurate GenAI and ML decisions regardless of scale – CRN

    Aerospike Inc. unveiled the latest version of Aerospike Vector Search featuring powerful new indexing and storage innovations that deliver real-time accuracy, scalability, and ease-of-use for developers. These advancements simplify deployment, reduce operational overhead, and enable enterprise-ready solutions for just-in-time generative AI (GenAI) and ML decisions.

    One of the three most popular vector database management systems on DBEngines, Aerospike unlocks real-time semantic search across data, delivering consistent accuracy no matter the scale. It lets enterprises easily ingest vast amounts of real-time data and search billions of vectors within milliseconds—all at a fraction of the infrastructure costs of other databases.

    Durable self-healing indexing

    The latest release of Aerospike Vector Search adds a unique self-healing hierarchical navigable small world (HNSW) index. This innovative approach allows data to be ingested immediately while asynchronously building the index for search across devices, enabling horizontal, scale-out ingestion. By scaling ingestion and index growth independently from query processing, the system ensures uninterrupted performance, fresh, accurate results, and optimal query speed for real-time decision-making.

    Flexible storage

    Aerospike’s underlying storage system also provides a range of configurations to meet customers’ needs in real time, including in-memory for small indexes or hybrid memory for vast indexes that reduces costs significantly. This unique storage flexibility eliminates data duplication across systems, management, compliance and other complexities.

    “Companies want to use all their data to fuel real-time AI decisions, but traditional data infrastructure chokes quickly, and as the data grows, costs soar,” said Subbu Iyer, CEO, Aerospike. “Aerospike is built on a foundation proven at many of the largest AI/ML applications at global enterprises. Our Vector Search provides a simple data model for extending existing data to take advantage of vector embeddings. The result is a single, developer-friendly database platform that puts all your data to work—with accuracy—while removing the cost, speed, scale and management struggles that slow AI adoption.”

    Easily start, swap, and scale AI applications

    Application developers can easily start or swap their AI stack to Aerospike Vector Search for better outcomes at a lower cost. A new simple Python client and sample apps for common vector use cases speed deployment. Developers can also add as many vectors as they want to existing records and AI applications with the Aerospike data model.

    Aerospike Vector Search makes it easy to integrate semantic search into existing AI applications through integrations with popular frameworks and provider cloud partners. A Langchain extension speeds the build of RAG applications, and an AWS Bedrock sample embedding example speeds the  build-out of your enterprise-ready data pipeline.

    Multi-model, multi-cloud database platform

    Aerospike’s multi-model database engine includes document, key-value, graph, and vector search all within one system. This significantly reduces operational complexity and cost and lets developers choose the best data model for each specific application use case. Aerospike’s graph and vector databases work independently and jointly to support AI use cases, such as retrieval augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, recommendations, fraud prevention, and ad targeting. The Aerospike multi-model database is also available on all major public clouds, giving developers the flexibility to deploy real-time applications wherever and however they like, including in hybrid environments.

  • 94 pc of Indian desk workers feel urgency to master AI: Report

    94 pc of Indian desk workers feel urgency to master AI

    Amid the rising influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, 94 per cent of desk workers in Indians feel the urgency to master the advanced technology, according to a report on Tuesday.

    Slack’s new Workforce Index showed that AI adoption is on the rise in India with 61 per cent of Indian desk workers using AI in their jobs and 80 per cent excited about the prospect of AI replacing some tasks.

    India’s progress in AI adoption underscores the growing prioritisation of AI among its executives and reflects a heightened sense of urgency among business leaders to unlock its transformative potential.

    The report, based on a survey of 1,029 desk workers in India, showed that although 94 per cent workers are keen to skill up on AI, 40 per cent have spent less than five hours total learning how to use the technology. About 30 per cent of global workers said they’ve had no AI training at all, including no self-directed learning or experimentation.

    Indian workers are leading the way on AI adoption globallyScott Graham from Unsplash

    “India’s workforce is leading the way in AI adoption, with 61 per cent of desk workers already integrating AI into their roles. This enthusiasm highlights the transformative potential of AI and its alignment with leadership priorities for innovation and upskilling,” said Rahul Sharma, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce India.

    “However, to fully harness AI’s benefits, there remains uncertainty that agents can address. By introducing AI agents with clearly defined roles and guidelines, businesses can reduce worker anxiety and foster seamless integration into daily tasks,” Sharma said.

    While Indian workers are leading the way on AI adoption globally, the research points to some uncertainty and discomfort around AI usage. About 21 per cent of Indian workers report feeling uncomfortable admitting AI use to their managers for fear they might be seen as incompetent, lazy, or cheating.

    To realise the benefits of AI, employers need to encourage employees to use the technology and equip them with the training and guidance needed to work successfully in this new era, the report suggested.

    (With inputs from IANS)

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  • 4 ways SSDs can reduce enterprise costs

    icon of a clockBy:

    For modern organizations, storage isn’t just an investment, it’s a business driver, supporting critical capabilities that create and use more data than ever. However, today’s enterprise SSDs can not only capture and serve up mountains of data at higher speeds than ever, they can also deliver tremendous ROI, lowering costs while improving business outcomes.

    Here are 4 key ways SSDs can drive enterprise costs down while giving your organization a boost across multiple workflows.

    1. Enhanced performance

    The leap from HDDs to SSDs brought exponentially greater speeds, with SSDs performing up to 35 times faster than older, spinning disk technology. Today’s PCIe 4.0 drives leave even yesterday’s top performers in the dust. Each generation of the PCIe standard doubles the throughput, so PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives, like the Samsung PM9A3, can hit random write speeds of up to 200,000 IOPS and random read speeds of up to 1,100,000 IOPS.

    Faster performance by the SSDs in your server rooms and data centers means that systems become more responsive: application load times shrink while data access is quicker than ever. These outcomes can limit costs by increasing efficiency, minimizing delays, and potentially eliminating the need to add more servers and other infrastructure.

    2. Reduced energy needs

    SSDs draw significantly less power than HDDs. The mechanical nature of HDDs, with their spinning platters and moving arms, requires more energy to operate and creates more heat to control. This delivers multiple benefits. Lower power requirements from SSDs mean a smaller electricity bill. Also, cooling requirements can be greatly reduced, saving on additional power needs and costs.

    This is why Samsung’s data center SSDs are designed for exceptional power efficiency and lower heat generation. The PM9A3 (U.2 form factor) with 960 GB to 7.68 TB capacity draws up to 11 watts for active reads, up to 13.5 watts for active writes and up to 3.5 watts at idle. For data centers and server rooms using SATA drives, Samsung’s 2.5-inch PM893 with 7.68 TB capacity uses just 2.1 watts for active reads, 3.2 watts for active writes and 1.5 watts at idle. No matter which interface you require, Samsung SSDs can help reduce power consumption and heat, with the potential for significant savings.

    3. Optimized space usage

    Rising real estate and construction costs mean space is always at a premium. Using higher capacity SSDs in a variety of form factors enables enterprises to maximize the rack density. Thanks to innovations such as vertical NAND (V-NAND), introduced commercially by Samsung in 2014, more storage can fit in less space while keeping power consumption low. V-NAND density has increased dramatically since that first generation, growing from its original 32 layers of flash memory chips to 176 layers today1 — 5.5 times the density, with greater reliability than older NAND memory.

    This means you can potentially fit an additional server per rack, since both the space and power requirements won’t exceed the rack’s limits. On a macro scale, this also reduces the need to grow your facility’s footprint while keeping overall power and cooling needs under control.

    4. Minimize downtime and maintenance costs

    SSDs are much more reliable than spinning platter HDDs, so they can reduce downtime costs while helping keep employees more productive. Also, since SSDs have zero moving parts, they require less maintenance, which saves significant time for IT staff.

    Some SSDs are even designed to ensure greater dependability and resilience. The PM9A3 enterprise SSD has reliability features built in, including enterprise power loss protection, which prevents data loss in case of unexpected power outages or shutdowns. This can not only get your data center back up faster after a power-related incident, but your organization can also protect against the long-term economic impact of lost or corrupted data.

    As organizations ramp up new, data-intensive capabilities, from analyzing massive amounts of customer and supplier data to adding AI-powered tools into critical workflows, faster, more efficient storage with higher capacities is crucial to productivity and efficiency. Samsung SSDs are built to deliver the power modern businesses demand while helping to deliver a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) — enabling enterprises to scale, adapt and respond to new challenges and opportunities more effectively than ever before.

    Discover more about Samsung’s full range of high-performance, cost-effective SSDs for your enterprise. 

      1In the Samsung 990 PRO SSD

  • Trend Micro Predicts Emergence of Deepfake-Powered Malicious Digital Twins – CRN

    Trend Micro Predicts Emergence of Deepfake-Powered Malicious Digital Twins – CRN

    Trend Micro Incorporated, warned that highly customised, AI-powered attacks could supercharge scams, phishing and influence operations in 2025 and beyond.

    Sharda Tickoo, Country Manager for India & SAARC, Trend Micro: “As generative AI makes its way ever deeper into enterprises and the societies they serve, we need to be alert to the threats. Hyper-personalised attacks and agent AI subversion will require industry-wide effort to root out and address. Business leaders should remember that there’s no such thing as standalone cyber risk today. All security risk is ultimately business risk, with the potential to impact future strategy profoundly.”

    Trend’s 2025 predictions report warns of the potential for malicious “digital twins,” where breached/leaked personal information (PII) is used to train an LLM to mimic the knowledge, personality, and writing style of a victim/employee. When deployed in combination with deepfake video/audio and compromised biometric data, they could be used to convince identity fraud or to “honeytrap” a friend, colleague, or family member.

    Deepfakes and AI could also be leveraged in large-scale, hyper-personalised attacks to:

    • Enhance business compromise (BEC/BPC) and “fake employee” scams at scale.
      Identify pig butchering victims.
    • Lure and romance these victims before handing them off to a human operator, who can chat via the “personality filter” of an LLM.
    • Improved open-source intelligence gathering by adversaries.

    Capability development in pre-attack prep will improve attack success.
    Create authentic-seeming social media personas at scale to spread mis/disinformation and scams.

    Elsewhere, businesses that adopt AI in greater numbers in 2025 will need to be on the lookout for threats such as:

    • Vulnerability exploitation and hijacking of AI agents to manipulate them into performing harmful or unauthorised actions.
    • Unintended information leakage (from GenAI)
    • Benign or malicious system resource consumption by AI agents, leading to denial of service.
      Outside the world of AI threats
    • The report highlights additional areas for concern in 2025, including:

      Vulnerabilities
    • Memory management and memory corruption bugs, vulnerability chains, and exploits targeting APIs
    • More container escapes
    • Older, simpler vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injections

    The potential for a single vulnerability in a widely adopted system to ripple across multiple models and manufacturers, such as a connected vehicle ECU

    Ransomware
    Threat actors will respond to advances in endpoint detection and response (EDR) tooling by:
    Creating kill chains that use locations where most EDR tools aren’t installed (e.g., cloud systems or mobile, edge, and IoT devices)
    Disabling AV and EDR altogether
    Using bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) techniques.
    Hiding shellcodes inside inconspicuous loaders
    Redirecting Windows subsystem execution to compromise EDR/AV detection.
    The result will be faster attacks with fewer steps in the kill chain that are harder to detect.

    Time for action

    • In response to these escalating threats and an expanding corporate attack surface, Trend recommends:
    • Implementing a risk-based approach to cybersecurity, enabling centralised identification of diverse assets and effective risk assessment/prioritisation/mitigation
    • Harnessing AI to assist with threat intelligence, asset profile management, attack path prediction, and remediation guidance—ideally from a single platform.
    • Updating user training and awareness in line with recent AI advances and how they enable cybercrime.
    • Monitoring and securing AI technology against abuse, including security for input and response validation or actions generated by AI.
    • For LLM security: hardening sandbox environments, implementing strict data validation, and deploying multi-layered defenses against prompt injection.
    • Understanding the organisation’s position within the supply chain, addressing vulnerabilities in public-facing servers, and implementing multi-layered defenses within internal networks
    • Facilitating end-to-end visibility into AI agents.
    • Implementing Attack Path Prediction to mitigate cloud threats.

  • Decoding Customer Value: Innovations in CCP and CLV Metrics

    Gopi Unni Krishnan

    Understanding and enhancing customer value is vital for success in the dynamic retail industry. Gopi Unni Krishnan, an expert in retail analytics, explores the evolution of Composite Contribution Profit (CCP) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) metrics, highlighting their increasing importance. This article examines groundbreaking innovations that refine these metrics, offering deeper insights into customer behavior and relationships while showcasing their potential to drive engagement, retention, and long-term profitability in a competitive landscape.

    A Paradigm Shift in Measuring Customer Value
    Traditionally, CLV was a financial snapshot, focused on predicting the direct profit a customer would generate. Today, innovations have expanded this scope, incorporating indirect and intangible contributions to form CCP—a more comprehensive view. This metric accounts for referrals, brand advocacy, feedback, and cost efficiencies, providing a nuanced understanding of customer relationships. The shift from CLV to CCP represents a move toward a holistic, relationship-centered approach to measuring value.

    Harnessing Advanced Analytics for Enhanced Insights
    The integration of advanced analytics has revolutionized CCP and CLV calculations. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, retailers can now predict customer behavior with unprecedented accuracy. These models incorporate data from diverse sources, such as purchase histories, browsing patterns, and social media interactions. AI-driven tools also enable real-time calculations, empowering businesses to dynamically adjust strategies for personalized customer experiences. These innovations are not just theoretical; they are driving tangible increases in revenue and engagement rates.

    Adapting to Omnichannel Complexities
    The rise of omnichannel retailing has added layers of complexity to CCP and CLV modeling. Customers interacting across multiple touchpoints—online, in-store, and through mobile apps—present a challenge in data consolidation. Yet, they also offer an opportunity: omnichannel customers typically demonstrate higher lifetime values. To harness this, retailers are adopting Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) that integrate diverse data streams, enabling a unified customer view. This integration is critical for accurately assessing customer value in a fragmented digital landscape.

    Personalized Marketing: A Direct Application of CCP/CLV
    Personalization, informed by CCP and CLV metrics, has emerged as a cornerstone of modern marketing strategies. Retailers can now identify high-value customers and tailor offers to maximize engagement and retention. Proactive campaigns targeting at-risk customers with high CCP have been shown to reduce churn significantly. Furthermore, these metrics guide acquisition strategies, ensuring marketing investments align with long-term profitability rather than short-term gains.

    The Future: AI, Sustainability, and Privacy
    As consumer behavior evolves, so too must CCP and CLV metrics. AI is set to play a dominant role, enabling more granular and dynamic insights. Real-time CLV calculations allow for innovations like dynamic pricing and AI-powered virtual assistants, which enhance customer experiences. Sustainability and data privacy are also shaping the future of these metrics. Incorporating eco-friendly behaviors into value assessments can attract environmentally conscious consumers, while privacy-preserving techniques ensure compliance with regulations without sacrificing predictive accuracy.

    Empowering Strategic Decisions Across the Board
    Beyond marketing, CCP and CLV metrics play a transformative role in key business decisions, from resource allocation to inventory management and customer service strategies. By prioritizing high-value customers, businesses can streamline support, elevate satisfaction, and drive efficiency. Additionally, these insights shape loyalty program designs, enhancing retention rates and nurturing stronger, more enduring customer relationships that significantly contribute to long-term profitability.

    In conclusion, Gopi Unni Krishnan emphasizes the pivotal role of CCP and CLV metrics in driving retail success. These innovations reflect shifting consumer expectations and the integration of advanced technologies. By adopting cutting-edge analytics and responding to trends like sustainability and data privacy, retailers can unlock new levels of profitability and customer loyalty. As the retail landscape evolves, strategically applying CCP and CLV will remain crucial for achieving sustainable growth, innovation, and a competitive edge in the market.

  • Healthcare industry faces rising cybersecurity threats, reveals Seqrite in ‘India Cyber Threat Report 2025’ – CRN

    Healthcare industry faces rising cybersecurity threats, reveals Seqrite in ‘India Cyber Threat Report 2025’ – CRN

    The healthcare sector in India has emerged as the most targeted industry for cyber threats, according to the latest cyber threat report released by Seqrite, the enterprise security arm of Quick Heal, a global provider of cybersecurity solutions. The report, prepared by researchers at Seqrite Labs, India’s largest malware analysis facility, in collaboration with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), highlights a concerning trend, with healthcare accounting for 21.82% of all detected cyber threats in 2024, surpassing other high-risk industries such as hospitality (19.57%) and banking, financial services, and insurance (17.38%).

    The report, titled ‘India Cyber Threat Report 2025’, also reveals that the healthcare industry experienced an average of 37.29 detections per endpoint, the highest among all sectors analysed. This vulnerability is attributed to several factors, including the sensitive nature of medical data, outdated systems, and the rapid digitisation of healthcare services such as electronic health records and telemedicine platforms. These elements have made healthcare organisations attractive targets for sophisticated cybercriminals.

    Malware detections in the healthcare sector were dominated by Trojans, which accounted for 43.38% of all threats. Infectors followed at 34.23%, while worms constituted 8.43%. These malicious programs often exploit vulnerabilities in legacy systems or use phishing tactics to gain unauthorised access to networks. The report also noted that ransomware, though comprising a smaller percentage of detections at 0.30%, remains a significant threat due to its potential to disrupt critical healthcare operations.

    Geographically, Telangana recorded the highest detection rate in India with 55.90 detections per endpoint, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi. The report also highlights the vulnerability of major urban centres, with Surat leading at 69.34 detections per endpoint, followed by Bengaluru and Jaipur. The prominence of these regions reflects their advanced digital infrastructure and high concentration of technology-driven industries, which inadvertently increases their exposure to cyber risks.

    Emerging threats targeting the healthcare sector included Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), vulnerabilities in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), supply chain attacks, and AI-powered attacks. These sophisticated threats exploit the increased digitisation and interconnectedness of healthcare systems, posing significant risks to patient data and critical healthcare services.

    To combat these evolving threats, Seqrite recommends conducting regular security audits, employee training on cybersecurity best practices, implementation of advanced threat detection systems, and collaboration with cybersecurity firms. The findings of the ‘India Cyber Threat Report 2025’ underscore the critical need for the healthcare industry to prioritise cybersecurity investments and strengthen defences against the growing tide of cyberattacks.

    The implications of these findings extend beyond the healthcare sector, highlighting the need for a comprehensive, nationwide approach to cybersecurity. As India continues its digital transformation, protecting critical infrastructure, including healthcare systems, becomes paramount for national security and public health. The joint report prepared by Seqrite and DSCI serves as a wake-up call for healthcare providers and policymakers to bolster their defenses and adapt to the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape.