E-Vision’s newly launched TAM service to identify audience’s selections, trends and desires from its IPTV service – eLife.
The facility will measure audience reach, ratings, share and viewing time for over 530 channels, and will cover both live and catch-up viewing across all viewers.
Broadcasters, agencies, advertisers, consultants and industry experts will be able to subscribe to the data and log in to access a wide range of reporting tools.
UAE-based telecom operator Etisalat’s E-Vision has launched a new initiative to identify the audience’s selections, trends and desires from its IPTV service – eLife.
For many years, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) TV industry had to rely on telephone surveys for audience information, whilst broadcasters around the world have had access to people metering (direct recording of TV viewing) to measure and understand audience nature.
Television Audience Measurement (TAM) system identifies the number of views and the interests of TV viewers, so that TV stations can develop their programs to match the desires of their audience and to air them at the most appropriate timings.
The TAM system will measure audience reach, ratings, share and viewing time for over 530 channels, and will cover both live and catch-up viewing across all viewers.
Subscribers to the TAM system will be able to monitor viewing of any period, ranging from same day to previous years and have access to a variety of configurable reports within the TAM system, offering them a fully detailed analysis and reports with channel-related filters.
“We are proud to be leading the way in the MENA region by offering exceptionally powerful audience analytics tools to industry professionals,” Olivier Bramly, CEO of E-Vision, said.
By giving broadcasters insights about the interests and desires of its viewers, he said that they are providing them with the tools they need to make their channels more relevant and attractive towards their viewers and more efficient towards agencies and advertisers.
E-Vision has partnered exclusively with ChannelSculptor to manage the distribution and client support of the TAM system.
Broadcasters, agencies, advertisers, consultants and industry experts will be able to subscribe to the data and log in to access a wide range of reporting tools.
Gmail is ranked the first, followed by Apple ID, Instagram and Microsoft Windows 10.
One of the biggest problems people face online is remembering the passwords for respective accounts and applications such as emails and social media platforms.
According to a study conducted by Reboot Online Marketing, utilising online analytics tool Ahrefs, found that Gmail is the online account/application people tend to forget the most – 454,100 global searches per month for ‘forgot Gmail password’, an equivalent of 14,648 online searches a day.
In the second place is Apple ID with 308,250 global searches each month for ‘forgot Apple ID’, followed by Instagram with an average of 118,000 global online searches every month, Windows 10with an average of 86,300 and Facebook with 78,500.
In the 10th place is Amazon with an average of 32,900 global online searches a month.
With people having hundreds of applications and accounts, remembering the passwords is a tedious process and retrieving it after forgetting is another tedious process.
Tips to create strong and memorable passwords
Think of memorable sentences/song lyrics: We are more likely to remember something that has some personal value to us and often some sentences/song lyrics we have a strong sentiment towards. So, with that in mind, take the first letter of every word in a sentence or song lyric that is very memorable to you and add a few numbers and/or special characters to the end of it to create a password that is complex yet unique to you.
Utilise your keyboard for inspiration: Use your imagination to create meaningful patterns across your keyboard to enable you to come up with a robust password. Try to make it a geometrical shape and make sure to include letters alongside numbers when envisioning your geometrical shape on the keyboard.
Consider a reputable password manager: With so many well-developed password managers now available, why not take the hassle of having to remember the login credentials of each of your online accounts/applications and entrust them to a password manager. Password managers store your login information for all your online accounts/applications in one place and help you log into them automatically. They encrypt your password database with a secure master password (the only password you will have to remember).
China is accelerating investment in next-generation enabling technologies to reduce its dependence on the US.
China has set a target of becoming 70% self-sufficient in semiconductor production in the next 10 years.
Of the 2,440 IoT-related patent applications in 2020, China alone is responsible for 69% with 1,683 applications.
Arrival of Swiss-based open-source chip architecture opens up vast opportunities for Chinese semiconductor companies.
China is racing ahead of various developed countries, in terms of IoT innovation, and is expected to emerge as a key player in chip technology over the next two to three years, an industry expert said.
“When it comes to leading-edge IoT chips, China will require more time and effort to free itself from the US dependence. The IoT market, morphing into the AIoT market (where AI is integrated with the IoT), will be huge in China in terms of the number of devices that will carry embedded chips,” David George, Director of Services for Thematic Research at GlobalData, said.
To reduce its dependence on the US and to counter the geopolitical challenge, he said that China is accelerating investment in next-generation enabling technologies.
Against this backdrop, the country is well-positioned to lead in the emerging Internet of things (IoT) arena, as chip technology is one of the key enablers for IoT, he said.
As a result, China has set a target of becoming 70 per cent self-sufficient in semiconductor production in the next 10 years.
In 2020, a $1.4 trillion state program was announced to support R&D in key enabling technologies, including semiconductors, AI, robotics, 5G, 6G, cloud, supercomputing, and quantum computing over the next five years.
An analysis of GlobalData’s patents database shows that China is the top assignee for IoT patent publication. Of the 2,440 IoT-related patent applications in 2020, China alone is responsible for 69 per cent with 1,683 applications.
“The ensuing trade war is a pressing concern for companies operating in semiconductors, industrial robots and machinery, computer storage devices, electrical components, imaging systems, and networking equipment. This is impacting IoT companies from a supply chain point of view, and the whole IoT ecosystem from an innovation and R&D point of view,” George said.
However, he said the arrival of Swiss-based RISC-V architecture – an open-source chip blueprint technology – opens up vast opportunities for Chinese semiconductor companies to play a leading role in the IoT ecosystem.
Focus, passion and time management are crucial skills to have.
In 2020, businesses across industries worldwide had to readjust strategies and services almost overnight in response to global lockdowns and pandemic-forced restrictions and were forced to work from homes.
With no clear data showing when everything will be back to normal or will it, think of starting a business from your home as it can offer a number of advantages.
It can offer flexibility to focus on getting the business started and can help reduce costs by being able to get started with a laptop, internet connection, and a website.
Yet, when choosing a home business idea, priority should be given to what you are passionate about and not one based solely for potential profits.
Selina Bieber, senior regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey at GoDaddy.
Starting and running a home business can be “challenging” at times.
That is why having passion, discipline and determination can help to serve you well to help reach your goals for your business.
By doing what you are passionate about, work can transform from hard labour, stress and anxiety to a joyful daily activity that you look forward to every day.
GoDaddy wants to help facilitate the entry and growth of new ideas into the marketplace by supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs with innovative easy to use and affordable online products and services, as well as knowledge and expert advice and wants to see small businesses and entrepreneurs grow and inspire others, who dream of making their ideas a reality.
To help launch and grow a new business from your home, GoDaddy shares five tips to keep in mind and what are they.
Allocate an office space
Dedicate a space at home to be your office. It is where you will spend several hours of your day working, so try as much as possible, to ensure that the space you have chosen is relatively quiet and comfortable so you can focus and avoid any distractions.
Set working hours for yourself
Make your working hours, as well as your free hours, known to your family. Be strict about your working hours and use planning tools to boost productivity. It is of great importance that you maintain your focus and productivity, while keeping a work/family balance through proper time management.
Take home business serious
Working from home does not mean that you are not a serious business. You have to do what it takes to make your business a success.
By investing in it through creating a professional website and a sound business structure, can help to make your business recognized and credible.
You can use GoDaddy Arabic Website Builder, along with its support tools and dedicated technical support team to launch a highly appealing and professional website easily and in a short amount of time.
GoDaddy Arabic E-Store gives you the ability to sell your products and services directly online to customers, with an appealing online store to sell around the Region and around the world.
Build professional network
One of the key factors of success for a home business is having a proper network of professionals who can support you deliver to your customers.
Running a home business does not mean that you have to do everything by yourself.
Sometimes, hiring professional content creators and social media platforms managers can enhance quality, boost image and generate further growth for your business.
An expanded network of professional support is not necessarily expensive if you consider hiring freelancers. Stay connected with other like-minded entrepreneurs online and offline, to help you feel less isolated and more connected.
A strong network can help inspire you and invigorate your entrepreneurial spirit.
Look after yourself
Working from home can get you drawn into the tasks in hand that you could completely lose track of time and not pay attention to your most essential needs such as eating; drinking; standing up or taking a much-needed break.
Using time management tools such as electronic calendars and alarm clocks, you can plug in time slots in your schedule for your physical needs.
It is important to stay hydrated, move, stretch and take frequent short breaks to refresh and regain focus. It is also very important to celebrate successes by doing something fun to take a break in your busy schedule.
Finally, take advantage of technology tools to help you grow your business.
Selina Bieber is the senior regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey at GoDaddy.
Self-paced learning has become more common especially with students attending classes from their homes.
Educators are planning to develop many games through VR that will improve the learning experience whilst retaining the quality of education.
The education industry has witnessed a dramatic shift in its way of operating since the outbreak of coronavirus.
Be it producing learning material or the delivery of the class, educators and students are foreseeing a rise in the use of technology in education.
According to the latest reports, digital spending in the market is expected to reach over $350 billion by 2025.
Across the different segments of the sector, the adoption of technology has increased massively.
Considering its pivotal role in the industry, it is crucial to address the question – what are these EdTech trends, and how will they potentially shape the market?
Artificial intelligence
Dr Vikas Nand Kumar Batheja, Co-Founder and Director of Capital University College.
In recent years, artificial intelligence has dominated the tech industry. Across diverse sectors, millions have found multiple uses from AI. One of the common uses of AI is facial recognition. Therefore, this can be a useful tech tool to secure the campus infrastructure from authorised bodies.
This can also be used to track attendance and prevent students from falsely claiming their presence. Other implementations could be during exams where invigilators could use AI for the identification of cheating. Such a digital tool can solely conduct exams without the intervention of teachers or invigilators.
Some ways to do so is by incorporating the feature of video proctoring that will allow remote invigilation to capture the candidate’s actions and sounds. While this may seem slightly far-fetched right now, it wouldn’t be a surprise when students are monitored by technology in the near future.
Self-paced learning
Learning is a very subjective process that differs from student to student as it mainly depends on their strengths and weaknesses. With the aid of technology, traditional classroom-based learning can be overcome.
Studying at one’s own pace is almost like a student’s secret wish as it does not put immense pressure on them, but at the same time, allows them to truly understand the subject. Thanks to these tech-driven tools, self-paced learning has become more common especially with students attending classes from their homes.
With universities incorporating online courses, students can effectively grasp concepts with personalised and online learning methodology.
Moreover, many higher education institutions have come up with a range of new short programmes that are exclusively delivered in the online mode. In such programmes, students can view the recorded sessions, participate in live chat with both professors and classmates.
Virtual reality
For most industries, virtual reality has become one of the most cost-effective tools to experience active learning.
Through VR, students can produce a simulated environment that resembles a similar environment. This can be extremely useful for students who are pursuing their higher education.
For instance, medical students can use VR to imagine a 3-dimensional skeleton. With special aid, students will be able to experience and understand the subject better, thus, enhancing one’s learning experience.
With VR becoming cheap, educators are planning to develop many games with this concept that will improve their learning experience whilst retaining the quality of education.
Under the umbrella of edutainment where both learning and entertainment are fused to better equip the students with both academia and practical knowledge.
Video-based learning
According to a report by Cisco, by the end of 2023, an average population of 66 per cent will have access to the internet. This means the total number of internet users will grow to 4.7 billion by the end of 2021.
Another research analysis suggests that 7 out 10 youngsters use the YouTube platform to find insights or fixes to small issues. This means video has become one of the most evolved and popular streams of viewing content.
Hence, it wouldn’t come as a surprise when higher education providers invest in building educational videos with an array of interactive elements. Due to the pandemic, video-based learning has become one of the highly efficient forms of teaching.
Along with this, such methods of learning improve student imagination, enabling students to test their creative flair through the medium of learning. In line with this, many corporations are building video-making tools and applications hoping to form mutually beneficial partnerships with universities and schools.
In the coming years, we can see higher education institutions will quickly adapt to the changing technology and can implement it effectively, thereby, building a reputable education brand. While it is a hard time for most industries on the business front, perhaps the education industry will be redefined with the strong support of technology and other digital tools.
Dr Vikas Nand Kumar Batheja is the Co-Founder and Director of Capital University College, serving over 20 years in the industry, and an Award-Winning Entrepreneur. He is on the Advisory Board for several colleges including London College of Arts and London College of Management.
Incredible demands of the past year encourage CISOs to make their voices heard, loud and clear.
The apparent disconnect between CISOs and the rest of the C-suite is that many feel they are unable to perform to the best of their ability.
Two-thirds of CISOs believe that cyber-crime will be even more profitable over the next two years.
Two-thirds of CISOs believe they are at risk of suffering a material cyberattack within the next 12 months.
Two in three CISOs believe they will be better able to resist and recover from cyberattacks by 2022/23.
Cybercriminals ramped up the pressure on chief information security officer (CISOs) during 2020 by a constant stream of threats, old and new, but it has elevated the importance of the CISOs and encouraged them to make their voices heard, loud and clear.
“Adding to the demanding and often thankless workload of the CISO is a perceived lack of support from the boardroom despite continuing to feel the pressure of excessive expectations,” Lucia Milica, global resident CISO at Proofpoint, said.
Lucia Milica, global resident CISO at Proofpoint.
Despite the unprecedented disruption of the past year, there are many positives to take forward.
To gauge the mood of the industry during this pivotal time, Proofpoint surveyed 1,400 CISOs from around the world and invited them to share their first-hand experiences during the past 12 months and offer their insights for the next two years.
Less than two-thirds of global CISOs agree that they see eye-to-eye with the board on cybersecurity matters and this figure aligns with company headcount, highlighting the difficulties faced by CISOs at smaller organisations.
Budgets to increase
“As a CISO, you need to address and explain risks to the board as well as to the tech people to be effective. You need to understand the technical side as well as the strategic side of the organisation. You are like one of a handful of spiders in a big web that feels the vibrations or influences them at the edges,” Roeland Reijers, CISO at University of Amsterdam, said.
According to the survey, 59 per cent of global CISOs agree that their reporting line can hamper their job effectiveness and this view is most prominent in the world of technology, where three in four CISOs agree with the sentiment.
“The results of this apparent disconnect between CISOs and the rest of the C-suite is that many feel they are unable to perform to the best of their ability. Nearly half of global CISOs do not believe that their organisation positions them to succeed. Even more alarming, 24 per cent strongly agree that this is the case,” Milica said.
While the challenges of their role are felt worldwide, she said that CISOs still find fulfilment in many ways, although perhaps not in the areas that many outside cybersecurity teams would expect.
The majority of CISOs expect to see cybersecurity budgets increase by at least 11 per cent over the next two years while almost a third (32 per cent) are expecting budgets to decrease between now and 2023.
“Larger budgets are not the only reason behind the collective optimism of the world’s CISOs. There is a common view, held by 64 per cent of respondents, which public awareness of cybersecurity risks will increase in the future. There is also a belief that cybersecurity regulations will become more specific and less outcome-based. This bright outlook for the immediate future appears warranted. Tighter, more manageable regulation, increased user awareness, and bolstered technical controls should all increase organisational security,” Milica said.
2020 was a bumper year for cybercriminals and they are more emboldened than ever in their efforts to harm organisations around the world.
Two-thirds (63 per cent) of CISOs believe that cyber-crime will be even more profitable over the next two years, and those that fall victim may suffer even greater consequences while 61 per cent of CISOs believe that organisational penalties for being breached will increase in 2022 and 2023.
The pandemic placed an enormous strain on the global economy, and cybercriminals took advantage of this disruption to accelerate their nefarious activities.
The conclusion of 2020 dealt a final blow with the SolarWinds hack, which highlighted supply chain and ecosystem vulnerabilities. With thousands of organisations impacted, what has been dubbed “the most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen” has reignited the “assume compromise” philosophy among CISOs.
Material cyberattack expected
“We were inundated with cyberattacks, both new and familiar, from pandemic-themed phishing scams to the unwavering march of ransomware. All of this occurred while transitioning to working from home on a grand scale, literally overnight,” Milica said.
Moreover, she said that cybersecurity teams around the world were challenged to enhance their security posture in this new and changing landscape, literally overnight.
“This required a balancing act between supporting remote work and avoiding business interruption while securing those environments. With the future of work becoming increasingly flexible, this challenge now extends into next year and beyond,” she said.
Almost two-thirds of surveyed CISOs believe they are at risk of suffering a material cyberattack within the next 12 months.
Of these, one in five believes this risk to be very high.
What should concern all business leaders, Milica said is the finding that 66 per cent of CISOs globally do not believe that their organisation is prepared to cope with an attack.
“While technical controls may offer broad protection against common threats, user security training must be targeted to avoid information overload. However, this isn’t possible when CISOs are unsure exactly where the next attack is coming from,” she said.
Over half of CISOs are more concerned about the repercussions of a cyberattack in 2021 than they were in 2020 – with one in four strongly in agreement, she added.
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the struggle to stay secure last year, the survey showed that most CISOs are hopeful in their outlook for the years ahead.
People-centric approach needed
Ryan Kalember, executive vice-president of cybersecurity strategy for Proofpoint.
“Assuming appropriate strengthening and strategising, two in three (65 per cent) CISOs worldwide believe they will be better able to resist and recover from cyberattacks by 2022/23. However, the outlook is somewhat bleaker for the organisations that fail to adapt to the new normal,” the report said.
Ryan Kalember, executive vice-president of cybersecurity strategy for Proofpoint, said that CISOs hold a business-critical function, now more than ever.
“The findings emphasise that CISOs need the tools to mitigate risk and develop a strategy that takes a people-centric approach to cybersecurity protection and emphasizes awareness training to address ever-changing conditions, like those experienced by organisations throughout the pandemic,” he said.
Key findings from the UAE:
68% of CISOs feel at risk of suffering a material cyberattack in the next 12 months. The types of attacks they expect to face, insider threats (29 per cent), phishing (28 per cent) and Business Email Compromise (25 per cent) topped the list.
72% feel their organisation is unprepared to cope with a targeted cyberattack in 2021.
71% are more concerned about the repercussions of a cyberattack in 2021 than they were in 2020, the highest percentage across the 14 surveyed global countries.
70% of CISOs still consider human error to be their organisation’s biggest cyber vulnerability.
66% agree that remote working has made their organisation more vulnerable to targeted cyberattacks, with 76% revealing they had seen an increase in targeted attacks in the last 12 months, the highest among the surveyed countries.
70% believe that cybercrime will become even more profitable for attackers, while 64 per cent believe that it will become riskier for cybercriminals.
77% believe they will be able to better resist and recover from cyberattacks by 2023.
Top three priorities across the board for UAE CISOs over the next two years are: addressing supplier risk (29%), supporting remote working (28%), as well as enabling business innovation (28%).
CISOs in UAE (76%) and Saudi Arabia (69%) have seen the biggest increase in targeted attacks since switching to widespread remote working.
More than two-thirds CISOs agree that penalties for breaches will likely grow.
