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IBM Unveils New Enterprise Intelligence Analytics to Fight Cybercrime as Losses Hit $445Bn

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IBM has unboxed a new solution that provides deep analysis across hundreds of terabytes of disparate data to uncover hidden criminal activity in just seconds.

The solution unveiled at the ongoing IBM Insight 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA is a high-speed analysis and criminal investigation software that is designed to uncover hidden criminal threats buried deep inside massive volumes of disparate corporate data.

IBM i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis (EIA) can find non-obvious relationships masked within hundreds of terabytes of data and trillions of objects in just seconds.

By fusing together these multiple data sources, organizations can gain complete visibility into threats across the enterprise, giving companies the ability to transform how they protect themselves from increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Organizations across industries face endless threats from cybercrime and other criminals in pursuit of private customer information, employee records, financial data and intellectual property.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that cybercrime costs the global economy $445 billion each year.

But companies are overwhelmed with an increasing volume and diversity of data to protect, giving cybercriminals the ability to hide their covert activity for months after an attack.

The proliferation of connected devices and machines – from mobile phones to smart cars to remote oil rigs – only compounds the problem by opening new avenues for criminals to penetrate the enterprise.

Operating at high speeds and massive scale, i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis accelerates the data-to-decision process by uncovering new insights into criminal threats against the enterprise that intelligence and security analysts might otherwise not have realized for days, weeks or months later. EIA analyzes huge amounts of disparate data to discover weak-signal relationships that reveal the true nature and source of an attack.

The solution unravels these hidden connections that can be divided by as many as six degrees of separation between disparate sources – from corporate records and social media chatter to data accessed by remote sensors and third-party applications.

As developments unfold, EIA provides always-on recommendations that proactively alert analysts to new related abnormalities at the speed of attack.

For example, consider a national retailer that hasn’t yet realized hundreds of its customers’ credit card account numbers have been stolen and sold on the black market.

Any illegal transactions can be easily lost in the noise of typical day-to-day activity – such as a transaction denial, a billing dispute or multiple purchases at the same store.

But when connected together, EIA can immediately spot commonalities that reveal the specific store branches that were breached.

This insight allows the retailer to take action before millions of accounts are compromised and any significant damage is done.

“Organizations can’t afford to take a reactive approach to cyber defense, nor can they do it alone. The speed of threat is too great, and today’s attackers are far more technically advanced, proficient and organized than ever,” said Maria Vello, president and CEO of The National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA), a non-profit role model organization for collaboration, information and resource sharing between public and private organizations in the fight against cybercrime.

“Threat analysts and investigators need the ability to look at every possible data set and relationship – no matter how distant or unrelated they may seem – and be able to make key associations and correlations in seconds. The new IBM i2 offering is an impressive tool in its ability to quickly analyze these massive data sets in near real time to paint a complete picture of the threat.”

Built on IBM Power Systems, IBM i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis can complement existing security or fraud solutions with additional features, such as:

Enhanced visualization capabilities: With multi-dimensional visual analytics, investigators can gain a better understanding of an attack by visualizing a comprehensive situational overview of all possible related elements for a more easily digestible viewpoint.

Open, modular architecture that scales as needs change: IBM i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis is fully customizable with fast integration with third-party applications and features, such as natural language processing and complementary analytics at the tactical, operational and strategic levels.
    
Interoperability inside and outside the organization: The open design not only integrates with existing infrastructure and other apps  but also allows users to easily share critical threat information across the company and with partners, customers and other organizations.
    
Out-of-the-box functionality: Out-of-box functionality reduces the training, maintenance and deployment costs while allowing organizations to quickly begin protecting their infrastructure.

“While most organizations understand how big data can help prevent the ever increasing threat of cybercrime, they are so overwhelmed by massive data volumes that they can’t act fast enough to turn it into meaningful intelligence to stop criminals,” said Bob Griffin, General Manager, i2, Threat and Counter Fraud, IBM.

“With IBM i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis, we’ve changed the ability of investigators to find that illusive needle in a haystack that helps them detect a cyber attack. This provides any organization with always-on analytics that turns massive amounts of data into real-time insights in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.”

IBM has established the world’s deepest portfolio of Big Data and Analytics technology that spans research and development, solutions and software. IBM has invested $24 billion to build its capabilities in Big Data and Analytics through R&D and more than 30 acquisitions. Today, more than 15,000 analytics consultants, 6,000 industry solution business partners and 400 IBM mathematicians are helping clients use big data to transform their organizations.


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E-Business

StarNews, Global Black Economic Forum Launch Business Competition In Partnership with MTN & USAID

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Africa’s leading video streaming platform, StarNews Mobile and the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF), have announced a call for applications for the launch of their Business Competition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Held in partnership with MTN and United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative will empower Nigeria’s most promising businesses that are classified as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with invaluable investment and partnership opportunities from the USA.

Held over 10 weeks between April 8th to June 14th, hosted exclusively on the StarNews Biz Channel on the StarNews platform, this competition offers a platform for emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and gain national visibility.

With subscribers voting for their favourite candidates, the top 20 contestants will seize the spotlight and make their mark on the business landscape.

The StarNews Business Competition in partnership with GBEF delivers a unique opportunity for thriving Nigerian SMEs to access mentoring, funding, partnerships and socio-economic development tools through the Global Black Economic Forum.

With the prospect of securing cash prizes through StarNews worth up to NGN5,000,000, getting access to StarNews’s network of investors and the opportunity to gain national visibility by having their business on the StarNews web platform.

The top three winners will also receive coaching from GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence and become part of GBEF’s ecosystem of global leaders committed to social and economic justice across the Black Diaspora.

Previous speakers at GBEF convenings from the entertainment sector include Wyclef Jean (Haitian Musician & Activist), Debra Lee (Former CEO of Black Entertainment Television – BET) and Ceci Kurzman (Founder of Nexus Management Group). Applications will close on April 5th 2024.

Speaking on the competition’s launch, Guy Kamgaing, Founder and CEO at StarNews Mobile, says “The StarNews Business Competition is a passion project close to our hearts at StarNews Mobile.

It’s about discovering the most promising business entrepreneurs and creators in Nigeria, opening up global opportunities for them and providing them with the resources and tools to achieve their goals.

By partnering with MTN, USAID and GBEF, we want to be a platform of empowerment for these SMEs by helping them give back to the communities that are supporting them.”

According to the US Embassy and Consulate for Nigeria, over 80% of Nigerian startups are incorporated in the United States and more than 60% of venture capital funding in Nigerian startups accounted for by the US.

In 2023 alone, Nigerian startups raised a total of $398mn however, this signalled a 66% funding decline compared to 2022 due to the global economic downturn, reinforcing the massive need for a fresh injection of capital and business support for Nigeria’s emerging SMEs.

Alphonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum notes that, “Our partnership with StarNews Mobile is a critical resource as we continue to build the collective strength of entrepreneurship across the Diaspora.

“Building a sustainable ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs in the United States and across the African continent is essential to create a future that makes economic opportunity and economic freedom a reality for all.”

A sister company to ESSENCE, GBEF advances its work by convening global summits and conferences, bringing together world leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities and civic leaders to address the most challenging problems facing our communities.

GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence facilitates workforce and leadership development strategy, addressing the talent pipeline & employee lifecycle, providing leadership development & coaching, and conducting institutional assessments & research.

GBEF also develops and implements economic and social justice policy recommendations with partners ranging from civil and human rights organisations to government entities and corporations that advocate for economic opportunity, social justice, and health equity through thought leadership, advocacy and litigation.

Launched in 2017, StarNews Mobile empowers African content creators with the unique opportunity to monetize their work through a subscription model, boasting over 4 million subscribers and a thriving community of more than 120 content creators.

With a strong presence across six countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Congo, Benin and Ghana, the platform has also established key partnerships with major telecom operators such as MTN and Orange.

To-date, StarNews Mobile has secured over $8mn in funding with its most recent raise – a $3mn pre-Series A funding round in October 2023 – led by Janngo Capital with participation from French football players Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jules Koundé and Mike Maignan.

 


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Companies Invest More than $100,000 Yearly to Upskill their Cybersecurity Teams – Study Reveals

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Over 70% of businesses pay more than USD $100,000 for additional training annually to keep skills of their cybersecurity employees up to date, a recent global Kaspersky study has revealed.

However, the surveyed companies also highlighted that there was a lack of relevant courses covering new challenging spheres in the educational market and stated that training does not always bring them the expected result.

In its recent study ‘The portrait of the modern Information Security professional’, Kaspersky examined the topic of the global cybersecurity staff shortage, analysing the exact reasons businesses lack cybersecurity experts, and identifying the ways they evaluate and upskill their cybersecurity workforce¹.

According to the research, companies are investing significant amounts in upskilling their cybersecurity teams: 43% of organisations globally say they usually spend between $100,000 and $200,000 per year on information security courses, while 31% even invest over $200,000 for training programs. The remaining 26% state they usually pay less than $100,000 for educational initiatives².

However, cybersecurity practitioners also note that the educational market is struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and fail to deliver the necessary training programs on time.

Survey results for the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region shows that the scarcity of courses covering new challenging spheres (48%) was the main problem for those searching for cybersecurity training.

50% of respondents from the META region also stated that trainees tend to forget what they learned because they had no opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge, therefore the courses were useless to them.

The need for special training pre-requisites such as coding and advanced mathematics, which were not specified at the pre-registration stage were also problematic for 37% of practitioners from the META region.

“With a constantly evolving threat landscape, businesses should continually improve the skills of their cybersecurity personnel in order to be well prepared for sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Developing high-profile specialists within the company and building internal expertise can be an effective strategy for organisations that aim to retain existing employees and allow them to grow professionally, instead of constantly hunting for new candidates and checking their professional backgrounds and practical skills.

“For organisations served by Managed Service Providers it is also important to maintain a pretty high level of expertise internally and use the same language when discussing the scope of services and Service Level Agreement with them,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, VP, Center of Corporate Business Expertise at Kaspersky.


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Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

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Heirs Insurance Group, Nigeria’s fastest growing insurance group, has launched a new website that delivers the most user-friendly insurance experience in the industry.

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

In addition to its features that aid simple navigation, the website also personalizes the insurance experience taking customers through a short journey that enables them to make decisions quickly on the best insurance plan to support their personal and business success, or access competent insurance advisors to speak with.

According to Ifesinachi Okpagu, chief marketing officer, Heirs Insurance Group, the website, www.heirs insurance group.com, embodies the ethos of the brand: the delivery of simple, quick, and accessible insurance service that delights customers and brings the uninsured much closer to taking up insurance plans.

She said: “Today’s customers want simplicity and this new website delivers on that request, ensuring that people find the right insurance solutionsfor their needs in a few minutes. We are empowering customers to take control of their lives, their businesses, assets, and their most cherished people.” Heirs Insurance Group has been at the forefront of pioneering a new era of insurance solutions since its launch with the roll-out of various initiatives including a seamless mobile app, USSD; Prince, its intuitive chatbot; InConnect, its partnership portal Digital Experience Centre; and more. With the launch of this website, Heirs Insurance Group solidifies its position as the leading digital insurance company in Nigeria, democratising access to insurance for all.


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