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Huspy buys two mortgage firms to transform UAE’s proptech sector

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Huspy buys two mortgage firms to transform UAE’s proptech sector
  • The founders and employees of both businesses will join Huspy and create further benefits for home buyers in the UAE.

The UAE-based proptech startup – Huspy – has acquired two mortgage brokerages –Just Mortgages and Finance Lab for an undisclosed amount.

The two deals follow Huspy’s acquisition of Home Matters in January this year.

The founders and employees of both businesses will join Huspy to enhance the processes of getting a mortgage with technology as well as provide home buyers with market-leading financing offers.

The acquisition follows as the UAE’s property market continues to witness record-breaking demand with 25 per cent increase in sales in the second quarter of this year.  

“The addition of these two businesses will create further benefits for home buyers in the UAE and build on the experience that Huspy is recognised for. We look forward to partnering with more like-minded market players in the future,” Ankit Shah, Head of M&A, Mortgages UAE at Huspy, said.

Consolidation

Joining Huspy is a dream come true, Ramesh Khemani, founder of Just Mortgages, said

“Together, we can scale and achieve better results for the clients and partners,” he said.

Manish Bhagnari, CEO and Founder of Finance Lab, said that his banking experience across various functions and roles has helped build the foundation.

“We’ve been working closely with Huspy for the past 18 months and have witnessed phenomenal growth. This partnership will more value to our clients and partners. I’m certain that this deal will help other market players initiate the discussion for consolidation and provide further confidence to partner with Huspy.”

Baby boomers and Gen X increase exposure to cryptocurrency

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Baby boomers and Gen X increase exposure to cryptocurrency
  • Survey shows that they are actively planning to invest to some degree in digital currencies before the end of the year.
  • Older generations are starting to acknowledge that crypto is the future of finance and they don’t want to miss out.

Nearly half of all baby boomers and Generation X already own cryptocurrency or are planning to buy it before the end of the year, a global survey by deVere Group revealed.

The survey, with respondents from North America, the UK, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, Australasia and Latin America, all born between 1965 and 1980, comes  at a time as the prices of Bitcoin and others including Ethereum, dipped this week due to inflation concerns and the policies of central banks to try and tame it.

The survey shows that 48 per cent of the over 700 clients polled said that they already had exposure to crypto or that they are actively planning to invest to some degree in digital currencies before the end of the year. 

 “The survey confirms that older generations are increasingly recognising the massive potential of cryptocurrencies,” Nigel Green, deVere Group CEO and founder, said.

‘Digital native’ generations

Baby boomers and Gen X too, Green said are becoming ever more aware of the intrinsic value of digital, global, borderless, tamper-proof and unconfiscatable currencies in an increasingly tech-driven and uncertain world. 

“It’s easy to assume that it’s just ‘digital native’ generations who are investing in digital assets, but this is not the case. Like the growing number of institutional investors – including pension funds, mutual funds, investment banks, commercial trusts and hedge funds – these older generations are starting to acknowledge that crypto is the future of finance and they don’t want to miss out,” he said.

Due to the demographic cohort that was polled, the deVere CEO said that it is reasonable to make several assumptions about the respondents’ motivations for their responses.

“We expect that many boomers and Gen X are increasing their exposure to crypto as part of a wider retirement planning strategy. Why? Because not only is Bitcoin already the best-performing asset of the decade, it will, due to its fixed supply, only continue to appreciate over the long-term.”

In addition, he said that crypto exposure can typically deliver a legitimate diversification tool – which is how investors can seize opportunities and mitigate risk, especially during periods of higher volatility.

However, Green warns that the sector is still highly speculative.

“As this year has proven again, the crypto market remains known for its volatility.  Therefore, retirees or those on the cusp of retirement need to bear this in mind and not over-commit, as this could put the wider retirement strategy in jeopardy.

“As ever, the best way to benefit from the huge potential of crypto is to seek professional advice,” he said.

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India’s PC market outlook for 2022 is bleak

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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India’s PC market outlook for 2022 is bleak
  • The industry registered a 17.8% growth in shipments to 3.7m PCs in second quarter of this year.
  • The upcoming online festivals might be a ray of hope in the consumer segment.
  • The strong momentum in the government segment and the existing pipeline in the enterprise segment are something to look up to in the commercial segment.

India’s PC market outlook for 2022 is bleak due to increased channel inventory and slowing demand from consumer and commercial segments.

 “Increased channel inventory and slowing demand is a matter of concern in both the consumer and commercial segments. High inflation, fear of recession, and dollar price fluctuations might slow PC procurement, especially among startups,” Navkendar Singh,   Associate Vice-President for Devices Research at IDC India, South Asia & ANZ, said.  

However, he said that big enterprises are buying but delaying their purchases.

“Still, the upcoming online festivals might be a ray of hope in the consumer segment, while the strong momentum in the government segment and the existing pipeline in the enterprise segment are something to look up to in the commercial segment.”

However, the PC market, which includes desktops, notebooks, and workstations, had a strong second quarter, registering a 17.8 per cent year-on-year growth to 3.7 million units due to a strong spillover orders from government segment but the other segments are slowing, with channel inventory increasing.

Desktops continue its bull run

According to research firm IDC, the notebook category continued to be the volume driver with 2.6 million units, its growth rate reduced to 7.3 per cent year on year compared to over 30 per cent year on year on average for the last three quarters.

The desktop category, however, continued its strong run, shipping more than one million units for a second consecutive quarter.

The demand for PCs was rather positive through April, but it slowed in the second half of the quarter, as the reopening of colleges got pushed to the third quarter.

Online channels often

The enterprise segment grew by 14.9 per cent, much lower than the previous three quarters as order materialisation got delayed.

Similarly, the SMB growth rate was lower than in the previous two quarters, and channel inventory increased considerably as demand tapered.

 “Online channels have been softening over the last few quarters. While high footfall in offline channels led to a positive quarter for consumers, the growth tapered as schools started to open, thereby leading to reduced remote learning demand,” Bharath Shenoy,  Senior Market Analyst, PC Devices, IDC India, said.

As the opening of colleges got delayed to the third quarter this year, he said that vendors are still hoping that back-to-college promotions will bring back consumer momentum.

“Online sales are also expected to start at end of the third quarter. However, high channel inventory is a matter of concern, and an inventory correction is inevitable in the next few months.”

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Number of exploits for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office suite increases 

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Number of exploits for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office suite increases 
  • Accounts for 82% of the total number of exploits across different platforms in second quarter.

The number of exploits for vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Office suite increased in the second quarter of this year, accounting for 82 per cent of the total number of exploits across different platforms, a Kaspersky report showed.

In the first quarter of this year, vulnerabilities in Office suite accounted for 78.50 per cent.

Old versions of applications remain the main targets for attackers, with almost 547,000 users in total being affected through corresponding vulnerabilities in the last quarter.

Moreover, the number of users affected by the Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution vulnerability, which was previously spotted in targeted attacks, skyrocketed eight times.

Social engineering techniques

The zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer’s engine MSHTML was first reported in September 2021.

The engine is a system component used by Microsoft Office applications to handle web content. When exploited, it enables the remote execution of malicious code on victims’ computers.

 “Since the vulnerability is quite easy to use, we expect an increase in its exploitation,”  Alexander Kolesnikov, malware analyst at Kaspersky, said in a statement.

Moreover, he said that criminals craft malicious documents and convince their victims to open them through social engineering techniques.

“The Microsoft Office application then downloads and executes a malicious script. To be on the safe side, it is vital to install the vendor’s patch, use security solutions capable of detecting vulnerability exploitation, and to keep employees aware of modern cyberthreats.”

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Steps to prevent identity-based attacks in cybersecurity

Contributor
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Steps to prevent identity-based attacks in cybersecurity
  • Organisations lack the awareness necessary to prevent it until it’s too late.
  • Organisations that revamp their identity security approach will be best positioned to stop breaches and maintain business continuity in an age of increased identity-based threats. 

The evolving threat landscape is making identity protection within the enterprise a top priority.

According to the 2022 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report, nearly 80 per cent of cyberattacks leverage identity-based attacks to compromise legitimate credentials and use techniques like lateral movement to quickly evade detection.

The reality is that identity-based attacks are difficult to detect, especially as the attack surface continues to increase for many organisations. 

Every business needs to authenticate every identity and authorise each request to maintain a strong security posture. It sounds simple, but the truth is this is still a pain point for many organisations. However, it doesn’t need to be.

An urgent priority for leaders

Mike Sentona, Chief Technology Officer at CrowdStrike.

We have seen adversaries become more adept at obtaining and abusing stolen credentials to gain a foothold in an organisation.

Identity has become the new perimeter, as attackers are increasingly targeting credentials to infiltrate an organisation. Unfortunately, organisations continue to be compromised by identity-based attacks and lack the awareness necessary to prevent it until it’s too late.

Businesses are coming around to the fact that any user — whether it be an IT administrator, employee, remote worker, third-party vendor or customer — can be compromised and provide an attack path for adversaries.

This means that organisations must authenticate every identity and authorize each request to maintain security and prevent a wide range of cyber threats, including ransomware and supply chain attacks. Otherwise, the damage is costly.

According to a 2021 report, the most common initial attack vector — compromised credentials — was responsible for 20% of breaches at an average cost of $4.37 million.

How zero trust helps 

Identity protection cannot occur in a vacuum — it’s just one aspect of an effective security strategy and works best alongside a zero trust framework.

To realise the benefits of identity protection paired with zero trust, we must first acknowledge that zero trust has become a very broad and overused term.

With vendors of all shapes and sizes claiming to have zero trust solutions, there is a lot of confusion about what it is and what it isn’t. 

Zero trust requires all users, whether in or outside the organisation’s network, to be authenticated, authorised and continuously validated before being granted or maintaining access to applications and data.

Simply put, there is no such thing as a trusted source in a zero trust model. Just because a user is authenticated to access a certain level or area of a network does not necessarily automatically grant them access to every level and area.

Each movement is monitored, and each access point and access request is analyzed. Always. This is why organisations with the strongest security defenses utilise an identity protection solution in conjunction with a zero trust framework.

In fact, a 2021 survey found that 97 per cent of identity and security professionals agree that identity is a foundational component of a zero trust security model.

It’s time to take it seriously  

As organisations adopt cloud-based technologies to enable people to work from anywhere over the past two years, it’s created an identity crisis that needs to be solved.

This is evidenced in a 2021 report, which found a staggering 61 per cent of breaches in the first half of 2021 involved credential data. 

A comprehensive identity protection solution should deliver a host of benefits and enhanced capabilities to the organisation. This includes the ability to:

  • Stop modern attacks like ransomware or supply chain attacks
  • Pass red team/audit testing
  • Improve the visibility of credentials in a hybrid environment (including identities, privileged users and service accounts)
  • Enhance lateral movement detection and defence
  • Extend multi-factor authentication (MFA) to legacy and unmanaged systems
  • Strengthen the security of privileged users 
  • Protect identities from account takeover
  • Detect attack tools 

Identity protection is sometimes seen as the last line of defense for organisations, which is why it should be a key component of an organisation’s security posture.

Organisations that revamp their identity security approach will be best positioned to stop breaches and maintain business continuity in an age of increased identity-based threats. 

  • Mike Sentona is the Chief Technology Officer at CrowdStrike.

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Matter to have positive impact on smart home adoption next year

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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0
Matter to have positive impact on smart home adoption next year
  • Omdia forecasts about 424m devices that could be Matter capable in 2023.
  • Brands to produce devices that combine advanced features like facial recognition and video analytics with door locks and the inclusion of radar technology in smart speakers and thermostats.
  • More brands will find themselves on the brink, like Insteon and Wink, threatening to leave millions of users with unusable paperweights.

The open-source standard – Matter – will have a positive impact on smart home adoption and sales next year after experiencing consecutive years of softening growth.

The impending release of the Matter standard, building upon Internet Protocol (IP), to create more connections between more objects, simplifies development for manufacturers and increases compatibility for consumers.

Research from Omdia attributes the downward trend to a combination of factors including wage stagnation, increased unemployment, and a large decline in projected retail sales, especially in 2022.

Strong growth, on par with pre-pandemic levels, is expected to return starting in 2023, driven by increased demand for energy management solutions.

However, Blake Kozak, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia, said that the impact of Matter is expected to be more gradual than originally anticipated.

Exciting time

When considering the device types that will be part of Matter 1.0, Omdia forecasts there will be about 424 million devices that could be Matter capable, assuming 100 per cent of those devices shipped in 2023 are Matter compatible. This equates to about 44 per cent of global device shipments in 2023. 

Considering devices like home appliances, he said that security cameras and robot vacuums, to name a few, won’t be part of the release of Matter 1.0, the initial impact will be slow, especially after considering that many brands will not have 100 per cent of their devices compatible with Matter.

 “It is an exciting time for the smart home industry as brands rapidly innovate and produce devices that combine advanced features, like facial recognition and video analytics with door locks and the inclusion of radar technology in smart speakers and thermostats,” he said.

Brands are also making moves in terms of partnerships and acquisitions, like ADT acquiring Sunpro Solar and IOTAS. Advancements in connectivity standards like ultra-wideband, Thread and NB-IoT will also bring new use cases to the smart home market, improving both accuracy and distance.

The next few years, he said will also prove difficult for many brands as costs continue to rise.

Increased price pressure

“The price of services may increase (Wyze and Ring) as brands grapple with ongoing costs while one-off hardware sales face increased price pressure from low-cost brands (thermostats), meanwhile Matter’s impact on commoditisation has yet to be seen,” Kozak said.

Moreover, he said that more brands will find themselves on the brink, like Insteon and Wink, threatening to leave millions of users with unusable paperweights.

“Nonetheless, the smart home market has proven to be resilient, and the latest trends offer up ample opportunity for brands to focus and grow market share in the coming years,” Kozak said.

Smart speakers, with 195 million shipments, had the most global shipments in 2021, followed by lighting, plugs/switches and connected health devices.

The devices forecast to grow the fastest over the next five years include water leak sensors/shutoff valves, connected major home appliances, plugs/switches, air quality monitors and smart door locks, all projected to have an annual growth rate greater than 30 per cent from 2021 to 2026.

In terms of market share for unit shipments last year, Xiaomi was estimated to be the market leader, followed by Alibaba, Amazon, Google, and Baidu. All of the top-five brands specialise in smart speakers, while the next four brands, IKEA, Sengled, Ledvance and Signify, specialise mostly in lighting applications.

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