Microsoft's Strategy To Seduce Android And iOS Users

One of the many points of interest that has come out of Microsoft’s recent Build Conference for developers is the continued push to have Microsoft’s services include and entice iOS and Android users. Windows Story Remix - which takes your images and allows you to edit them into short sharable videos - is a good illustration of this approach.
It is one that should be familiar to any keen watcher of Microsoft’s current mobile strategy. Windows Story Remix (which will be available in the Windows Creator Update) pulls in the images either from the host device or the OneDrive cloud storage portion of a user’s Microsoft account. Given that OneDrive is available for Windows 10, macOS, iOS and Android, and can be set up to automatically sync any photos or videos taken to the cloud; Story Remix becomes another hub that allows Microsoft to work with any of the major operating systems of 2017.
And the intention is for the Story Remix creation app to be available on iOS and Android as well as Windows 10.
Once more, Microsoft is offering a service as an application that effectively ignores your personal choice of operating system. You can start work on a Story Remix project on one device, move to another device and still have the work-in-progress available to you. Naturally you’ll need a Microsoft cloud account to make this work which means that there’ll be a nice mix of new sign-ups to the service or a reinforcement of the account’s value for existing users.
And that increases Microsoft’s chances of having a serious contender in the cloud-based platform revolution.

Source: https://www.forbes.com

Read More

FinTech Startups in MENA Region Raised $100 Million in Last Ten Years, to Double by 2020

The report, The State of Fintech, by business support organization Wamda and online payment gateway Payfort, states that a sharp increase in funding activity will be expected this year with MENA startups aiming to raise $50 million in 2017. This is a significant rise from the $18 million it raised last year and a clear indicator that the region is keen to provide greater visibility to the sector.
The growth of the industry can already be seen. From 2012 to 2015, the number of fintech startups in the MENA region doubled from 46 to 105, with half of that number having been launched since 2012. This was driven by the fact that 86 percent of the MENA adult population don’t have access to a bank account. It’s projected that by 2020 there will be 250 fintech startups with the UAE placed among Asia’s most promising financial technology hubs.

// Get exclusive analysis of bitcoin and learn from our tutorials. Join Hacked.com for just $39 now. //
According to the report, almost three in four fintech companies are based in four countries. It found that four out of 12 countries host 73 percent of all MENA fintech startups. The UAE leads with 30 startups followed by Egypt with 17, and Jordan and Lebanon both of which have 15.
Payments Remain the Biggest Sector
Across all MENA countries, payment startups remain the most prominent industry with payments and lending startups representating 84 percent of the MENA fintech market.
Unfortunately, one of the barriers that fintech companies are experiencing in the Middle East and North African countries is the fact that they lack the trust that banks already have.
Not only that, but a lack of awareness of financial technology services or an understanding among the banked population means companies are losing out on the untapped potential market waiting for them.
Plans for Expansion
Of those surveyed, 98 percent (or 40 out of 41) fintech startups in MENA have said that they plan to enter new markets in the next two years. While the UAE remains a popular location, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are expected to become the next populous ones.
However, according to Faisal al Bitar, assistant investment manager at Oasis500, in Jordan:
One of the key challenges in Jordan is the lack of a fintech sandbox.
Supporters argue a national sandbox for Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt would benefit not only startups, but also banks and policymakers cautious about the impact of fintech on the stability of the financial system.
Source : https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com

Read More

Security and Privacy Concerns Need to be Addressed When it Comes to IoT in the Financial Industry

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is rapidly transforming the way banks interact with their customers. According to Jim Marous, Fintech expert and publisher of The Financial Brand, IoT is set to improve the customer experience and consequently, its relationship with its customers, by increasing agility and response time towards changing market needs.

With reduced reliance on manpower, it also helps banks lessen operating costs, he noted.
“The world of IoT is a network of Internet-connected sensors that can be embedded into physical devices that collect data and share it across the web with people, applications and other devices. The ability to measure and apply insight contextually has the potential to augment and disrupt commerce and entire industries,” said Marous.
In an IoT report by information technology consultants Cap Gemini, it cited General Electric who said the Internet of Everything had the potential to US$10 to US$15 trillion to the global GDP in the next 20 years. The report also quoted IDC, whose research estimates that by 2020, more than 40 percent of all data worldwide will be comprised of data gleaned from digital devices communicating with one another.

Keeping data secure

But concerns of security and privacy remain, as the use of IoT devices become more varied and more interlinked. A hack could spell widespread disaster for end users’ privacy, as attackers target unsecured web-connected devices such as webcams.

This is particularly so for the finance industry, as banks sit on sensitive data such as account numbers and past transactions. And many executives still see security as a barrier to IoT growth, in some cases even more so than interoperability and generating a positive return on investment.

“The ability to take advantage of the opportunities of IoT requires the banking industry to overcome consumer concerns around data security and privacy. With massive amounts of data being collected, security is the top concern for both banking institutions and consumers,” said Marous.

What should the finance industry take note of?

One area banks can focus on is collaboration, according to Cap Gemini. The report noted that IoT devices, will need to communicate within context among each other and among users. Once interoperability issues are resolves, the devices can effectively communicate with each other.

Devices will grow smarter over time, but until then, it could be risky to have IoT devices initiate actions without some governance, it added.

Cap Gemini noted that while the banking industry is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to safeguarding customer data, the challenges are increased exponentially when you take into account connected devices and multiple processors of insight.

Part of this challenge can be addressed through consumer education around how IoT can actually improve authentication and security.

For example, with IoT, devices can be used to track a person’s health. And as IoT devices evolve and grow smarter, they could detect whether a person requires medical assistance and intervention. This would ultimately save health insurance companies money

Source: http://fintechnews.sg

Read More

What Is Microsoft's Grand Plan for Phones?

It has been nearly two years since Microsoft introduced a new Windows phone. Sure, HP is still making Windows phones and marketing them to businesses, but Microsoft has been basically silent on the subject of its flagging mobile platform since 2015. There have been zero flagship devices, despite the persistent rumors of a super Surface phone. Logic dictates that Microsoft needs to get in the game here. People are increasingly moving away from their laptops and onto their smartphones, and if Microsoft wants to keep up with Apple and Google, it will need a convincing phone platform.
The company apparently has something in the works. According to Windows Central, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed as much on the Marketplace podcast Make Me Smart earlier this week.
“I’m sure we’ll make more phones,” Nadella told host Molly Wood, “but they will not look like phones that are there today.”

Let’s step back for a moment. Windows 10 on a phone today has two things going for it. First, the interface is gorgeous—sleek and minimalist, without any of the cutesy affectations that iOS and Android have collected over the years. Second, the phones function as mini PCs thanks to Continuum, so you can phone during the day and then dock it at your monitor and keyboard for a traditional PC experience at night. But the current version of Windows on mobile phones, Windows 10 Mobile, was introduced waaaaaay back in 2015 alongside Microsoft’s last flagship, the Lumia 950. (You’ll recall that Microsoft took over the Lumia brand from old Windows Phone stalwart Nokia in 2013.)
It’s no surprise the next flagship is slow to appear. Windows for a phone was already late to the scene when Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 in 2010. By then, Apple was a powerhouse with the iPhone, and Google had forged a worthy competitor with great Android devices like the Motorola Droid. But Microsoft’s mobile look was so radically cool, it conceivably had a chance to be a true contender.
At the time, even Gizmodo was enraptured. “Everything’s different now,” we wrote.
In a way that proved very true. Only instead of radically disrupting the mobile phone market, Microsoft saw itself playing a distant third fiddle to the titans, Apple and Google. Everything really was different. Microsoft was accustomed to making the best-selling OS, and its failure to find its way into the lucrative mobile market left Microsoft scrambling. First there was the massive Windows 8 redesign that spanned mobile and desktop devices. Then Cortana came in 8.1, giving Windows phones a digital assistant to rival Siri. In 2015, Microsoft introduced Continuum, which let phone users plug their devices into a monitor and keyboard and get a Windows experience similar to the one enjoyed by desktop users.
But as cool as Microsoft’s attempts at competing have been, the company has failed to break into the elite mobile OS inner ring. By the time it arrived, users had already bought into the Android and iOS ecosystems, and developers, who were already building apps for two mobile operating systems, had little desire to add a third, far less lucrative one to their roadmaps. Sure, the many iterations of Windows for phones looked nice enough, and had the backing of Microsoft, but its constant game of catch up with Apple and Google made the phones built for the platforms unappealing. “There’s just no reason to choose a pricey Windows handset when Google and Apple offer way better options,” Gizmodo’s Mario Aguilar said back in 2015. That hasn’t changed, and it’s one of the reasons why, just last month, Android overtook Windows as the most installed OS in the world, according to one estimation.
Hopefully, this two-year-long news void in the mobile phone market is the result of Microsoft working like hell to make something new. Microsoft can’t gain a measurable share of the smartphone market (and thus interest from app developers) without first making a product consumers really want to buy, and it can’t do that without wildly wowing us with hardware radically different than what the likes of Apple and Samsung currently provide.
As we noted last year, smartphones have become universally so good they’re boring, and they’re also so expensive now, that people are moving away from the two-year purchase cycle. Microsoft not only has to make a great phone, it has to be a disruptive one—and there’s no clear path to such a device apparent in the stable of phones on the market.
In other words, Microsoft needs to blow our collective minds.
So what would a future Windows phone look like? Ahead of Microsoft’s hardware event last week, we might have hoped for a cloud-based phone, but that dream was shuttered when the long-rumored Windows 10 Cloud was officially named Windows 10 S. Instead of being a window into the cloud computing future, Windows 10 S resembles lightweight Windows variations like Windows RT and Windows 8.1 with Bing. It’s not cloud-based, but rooted in the computer and inextricably linked to Windows’ wasteland of an app Store.
And that Store isn’t going to just improve overnight. As already noted, Microsoft needs a robust stable of developers in order to bring in mobile users, but developers want a large user base before they dedicate time and money to a platform. So Microsoft is left at a frustratingly cyclical impasse. Which means whatever we see is going to have to be so different, so wild, that neither developers nor consumers will care.
Get cracking Microsoft. We’re ready for that Surface Phone.
Source: http://gizmodo.com

Read More

Testing is key to IoT security, says researcher

“The most important point is that when we are thinking about security in IoT, let’s not over-focus on the embedded technology hardware, which is what researchers, testers, companies and customers tend to do,” he told Computer Weekly.
“It is important to include the whole ecosystem of a product. All the pieces that make an IoT solution work need to be considered, not just the device hardware, when we are thinking about the overall security model and risk of the product.”
These elements typically include things like network communications, the radio frequency communications, cloud APIs (application program interfaces), mobile apps, cloud services, and command and control applications found in the mobile and cloud-based pieces of an IoT system.
According to Heiland, it is not uncommon to find issues with every one of these elements making up an IoT system, but they are typically at different levels of severity.
Device manufacturers are the most obvious organisations to have security testing processes in place to assess products and services before going to market, which can alleviate “a massive amount” of the risk, said Heiland.
Allied to this, manufacturers need to ensure they have effective patching or software updating mechanisms and processes in place, so problems can be fixed when they arise.
“Vulnerabilities are never going to go away, but – like Microsoft did – this problem can be tackled by having an effective patching process to greatly reduce the risk, which consumers, both organisations and individuals, should expect and demand from manufacturers,” said Heiland.
“Before organisations commit to particular devices and services, they should demand proof that the products have been security tested to avoid exposing the organisation to unnecessary risk.
“Large organisations working on larger implementation projects should also ensure they have an effective testing process, and some are already following this approach.”

Discovered security issues

Heiland has worked with several organisations on testing IoT systems and has helped them to work with manufacturers to resolve and disclose discovered security issues.
One example of this was a GPS-style tracking device to enable parents to find their children if they became lost.
“The cloud APIs tied into this product had more security issues than you could imagine,” said Heiland, which meant total strangers could access all the GPS tracking data from the device, phone numbers associated with the device, other contact information, and even the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number of the device.
Anyone with an account on the system could also access other accounts and alter or reconfigure devices remotely because of the poor security of communications via APIs from the device to the associated web interface.
“The cloud APIs and the web services suffered a number of security vulnerabilities that allowed pretty much anyone to get access to the data and anyone with an account to alter the data,” said Heiland.
Although smaller companies are unlikely to have the skillset required to do security testing, he said that just being aware of the potential risks attached to all the components of an IoT system can help them implement IoT systems in a more secure way.
“By thinking about the pieces making up the ecosystem, smaller companies can identify appropriate ways of mitigating the risks of their particular environment by following best practice and mandating specific policies and processes,” said Heiland, adding that it is rare for just one piece to have a vulnerability.
In order to develop an effective testing process, organisations must first understand the structure of a typical IoT ecosystem, learn general testing methodologies of IoT systems, and be familiar with common vulnerabilities in IoT systems, he said.
Although Heiland believes an effective security testing process is essential and should be implemented as soon as possible, he also feels that the security fears around the IoT have been over-hyped.
“In the short term, there is certainly the huge risk to life and limb as some have suggested, but as IoT systems become more common, especially in healthcare and private vehicles, we need to ramp up the way we approach security,” he said.
Heiland described many of the security issues currently being discovered in IoT systems as “typical growing pains” associated with any new technology.
The big difference with IoT, however, is that the volumes involved are much greater than ever before. The number of IoT devices and systems is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, and the IoT is likely to be found in just about every area of life in the not-too-distant future.
“There are security challenges, just like with any technology, but it is not the end of the world because there are solutions around the corner that the industry is working on,” said Heiland.

Effective patching mechanisms

He believes effective patching mechanisms and processes are perhaps the best and quickest way to resolve many of the security risks in IoT systems, particularly once systems have been implemented.
“Most of the vulnerabilities that I and others have found follow pretty much the same pattern,” he said. “They are typically things that could have been resolved easily and that should have been picked up in testing so that they never made it on to the market in the first place.”
An effective testing process would get rid of all the common, easily-resolved security risks, which would enable researchers to concentrate on finding less-obvious, harder-to-find, more complex risks, he said.
“Security researchers want to dig deeper without wasting time finding all the simple stuff that a good testing process will find, so they can find the more hardcore stuff to make IoT systems and devices even more secure,” said Heiland.
Finally, he said organisations need to ensure they have an effective scanning system in place to enable them to identify any rogue or unauthorised IoT devices that may be connected to the company network, so they can assess and mitigate any associated risk.
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com

Read More