President appoints commission on fourth industrial revolution

By TheWAY - 4월 24, 2019

President appoints commission on fourth industrial revolution

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed members of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

“The commission will assist government in taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the digital industrial revolution,” the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday, 9 April 2019.

The task of the commission, which will be chaired by the President, is to identify relevant policies, strategies and action plans that will position South Africa as a competitive global player.

The Deputy Chair of the Commission is University of Johannesburg Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, whose expertise spans the theory and application of artificial intelligence to engineering, computer science, finance, social science and medicine.

In his State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of Parliament on 7 February 2019, President Ramaphosa said South Africa had chosen to be a country of the future at a time when the world was changing at a pace and in a manner that was unprecedented in human history.

He said revolutionary advances in technology were reshaping the way people work and live.

“Unless we adapt, unless we understand the nature of the profound change that is reshaping our world and unless we readily embrace the opportunities it presents, the promise of our nation’s birth will forever remain unfulfilled,” said the President.

In the same address, the President announced the establishment of a Presidential Commission on 4IR.

In establishing the commission, a public consultation process was undertaken to attract eminent people, who possess the relevant skills and knowledge required to drive 4IR.

The 30-member commission comprises eminent persons from different sectors of society and reflects a balance in gender, youth, labour and business, including digital start-ups as well as digital entrepreneurships.

The commissioners (whose profiles can be viewed in an annexure at https://bit.ly/2ELYzQ8) are:

Prof Tshilidzi Marwala (Deputy Chair)
Prof Chris Michael Adendorff
Beth Arendse
Thulani Humphrey Dlamini
Abdul Razak Esakjee
Dr Bernard Lewis Fanaroff
Michael Gastrow
Xolile Christopher George
Charmaine Houvet
Dr Prince Senyukelo Jaca
Tervern Liaan John Jaftha
Mohamed Shameel Joosub
Marinda Kellerman
Nomso Kana
Baxolile Mabinya
Rendani Mamphiswana
Lindiwe Matlali
Calvo Mawela
Busisiwe Mbuyisa
Nomvula Mkhonza
Vukani Mngxati
Joseph Ndaba
Andile Ngcaba
Dr Nompumelelo Happworth Obokoh
Rendani Praise Ramabulana
Leon Desmond Rolls
Dr Sibongiseni Thotsejane
Gerhard van Deventer
Ben Venter
S’onqoba Vuba

Operational support to the commission will be provided by a secretariat of officials of various national departments, led by the Department of Communications.

President Ramaphosa wished the commission well in its endeavours and expressed his appreciation to commissioners for availing themselves to serve the nation in an important determinant of South Africa’s development trajectory in the coming years and decades.

“Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who is the coordinator of government’s 4IR programme, is due to convene an induction session with appointed commissioners, after which the commission will have its inaugural meeting with the President,” said the Presidency.

SOURCE : https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/831/189620.html

0 Comments

Regulating the IoT: Impact and new considerations for cybersecurity and new government regulations

By TheWAY - 4월 22, 2019

Regulating the IoT: Impact and new considerations for cybersecurity and new government regulations

In 2019 we have reached a new turning point in the adoption of IoT – more markets and industries are migrating to a cloud-based infrastructure, and as the IoT continues to gain popularity and more devices and data move online, lawmakers and legislators around the globe are taking note.

An often-critiqued part of IoT growth is its impact on cybersecurity and concerns around the ability to keep networks secure from cyber-attacks as they grow in size and complexity.

In recent years, legislators have been attempting to address the issue of cybersecurity in the IoT. In the U.S., this has manifested through bills like the IoT Consumer TIPS Act of 2017 and the SMART IoT Act – but not much traction was gained until 2018.

Last year, California became the first state in the U.S. to pass a cybersecurity law covering IoT devices: SB-327, set to be put into law in 2020. The law requires that manufacturers of a device that connects directly or indirectly to the internet must be equipped with “reasonable” security features that are designed to prevent unauthorized access, modification or information disclosure. The bill aims to protect consumers as a first step, but could also potentially be applied to larger, enterprise solutions with future revisions.

The bill, though greatly lauded as a significant first step for legislative-protected connected device measures, doesn’t come without critics. Many cybersecurity experts argue that the bill is too vague and could allow for manufacturers to leave security holes like ones that helped the Mirai botnet attack of 2016 spread.

Most recently, members of the U.S. Senate introduced a bill – the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 – that looks to address cybersecurity in connected devices from a federal perspective. It would require agencies within the federal government and contractors and vendors providing IoT devices to the government to be more transparent in communicating any cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with the devices.

From consumer cybersecurity to enterprise systems used by the federal government, legislators in the U.S. are starting to take action to better control the issue of security between IoT devices and the ever-growing cloud.

Global measures

From a global perspective, both the UK and Japan have made commitments to addressing IoT cybersecurity and developing guidelines and regulations for manufacturers and industry stakeholders. In 2018, the UK government launched a Code of Practice (CoP) for the Internet of Things security, aimed at improving baseline security and advancing an industry-wide ‘security by design’ approach for those contributing to the IoT. The security by design approach encourages manufacturers to develop IoT devices with security as a central component of its use, rather than working backwards to try and create security measures via software updates or other tactics.

Where the UK’s measures are more passive, Japan’s recent measures are more radical and designed to aggressively approach the issue of unsecured IoT devices across the country. In February of this year, Japanese officials from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology announcedthat they would start an investigation into 200 million IP addresses across the country in an attempt to find devices that have poor or compromised security. Its goal is to help Internet Service Providers and telecoms better understand vulnerabilities in their networks and devices, so they can more effectively create revised cybersecurity measures, whether it be through firmware updates or cloud-based.

These efforts from global leaders like the UK and Japan offer a vision of the future where cybersecurity for IoT devices are prioritized and used to drive change with manufacturers, vendors and others with a stake in the IoT.

Other IoT cybersecurity considerations for lawmakers

Best practices, baseline standards and requirements for better dissemination of information are all a good first step in addressing IoT cybersecurity from a legislative perspective. Manufacturers, vendors and those contributing widely to IoT growth should be held to certain standards and requirements for protecting customers and end-users. But there is a lot of complexity to be found in protecting the IoT – and much of the legislature being introduced today doesn’t provide a deeper look into various solutions that could also help vendors protect their devices for various applications.

Lawmakers and those responsible for developing new cybersecurity regulations should look at security beyond the software level, looking at end point or embedded devices.

An IoT device can either be protected by the network using tools such as router rules and firewalls or by using the security built into the CPU to detect and block attacks, authenticate access, analyze communication, and utilize TEE or secure-boot etc.

Today’s device security is dependent on the CPU to protect against multiple vectors of attack and adapt to a dynamic environment that introduces new risk all the time. In many cases a security breach comes from simple oversight by the manufacturer or the user. But this oversight also brings up the important consideration of active versus passive protection for connected devices and which is better for current and future IoT management. Active protection requires network managers to recognize the attack and actively take measures to prevent it and passive protection, where attacks are automatically blocked, requiring no manual or automatic action to take place.

A flash-based approach

Network protection is vulnerable since it’s impossible to identify all entry points to an IoT edge device. Many of these devices are out in the public domain that could allow an adversary to have physical access. An example is a traffic camera. These devices have low computational power and standard protection practices such as anti-virus software does not apply. Today’s device security is dependent on the CPU to protect against multiple vectors of attack and adapt to a dynamic environment that introduces new risk all the time. In many cases a security breach comes from simple oversight by the manufacturer or the user.

Intel Spoiler, Meltdown and Mirai botnet are recent attacks that uncovered fundamental issues with CPU designs. While chip vendors tried to regain trust from the market by developing software patches, these too have limited efficacy against current and future breaches due to internal design flaws, coding errors, and external hacking.

An innovative approach is to protect the flash itself, even from the processor and the software that is running on it: Creating a gatekeeper in the secured flash that blocks write operations to the protected memory blocks, making it impossible for attackers to alter the firmware with any malicious code even in cases where the attacker gain full control of the host / OS. This approach is agnostic to the processor and any software that is running on the device and avoids any latency at boot time or run time.

Of course, today’s devices require updates. Protecting the flash creates a secure channel between the device’s flash all the way to the cloud that neither the network nor the software and processor within the device can breach, thereby extending the trust beyond cloud-to-processor to cloud-to-flash and allowing for a secured update of the protected flash without exposing it to its host.

With billions of IoT endpoints that will ultimately make up society’s crucial infrastructure, a new approach is needed to protect the memory of edge devices without depending on the integrity of the CPU controlling it.

It is necessary for the entire IoT industry to identify an end-to-end solution that secures the entire chain of vulnerability from deeply embedded endpoints, to the cloud, and up into the enterprise management layer by identifying the single critical path that a persistent attack must pass through and recognizing the fact that many new threats will be presented utilizing human tendency to error and introduce bugs, mismanage passwords, etc. By offering increased awareness of alternate solutions such as cloud-to-flash, passive hardware base cybersecurity and management, both legislation and vendors can come together to develop more stringent, granular solutions for helping manage the future of the IoT.

source : https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/04/11/iot-regulation-2/

0 Comments

Big data bias threatens financial services’ ethics

By TheWAY - 4월 20, 2019

Big data bias threatens financial services’ ethics

Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing financial services. In light of the rapid growth of big data, ICAEW has issued a warning over potential ethical pitfalls

Data can be harvested from various sources such as social media, location data, personal photos and YouTube habits. Business models, including those for financial services, are changing to incorporate data that can pinpoint consumers.

If the vast swathes of data that are available to businesses go unregulated, financial products like credit or insurance risk losing their true social purpose, ICAEW says.

Using data unethically could lead to unfair discrimination, or could be used to exploit vulnerable consumers. Information on an individual’s gender, ethnicity, or health condition might be found in data held on them and used to exclude them – illegally – from credit or insurance.

Where a person shops, whether they pay with cash or by card, and where they live, could all be unfairly taken into account and used to bar an individual from a product designed to have social purpose.

Since data reveals an individual’s habits, there is a risk that vulnerable consumers could have their behavioural bias exploited, in the absence of an ethical code.

ICAEW points out that the industry is taking on new technology at the same time that one in six borrowers are in financial distress, and many consumers are in difficulty.

Philippa Kelly, head of financial services at ICAEW, says, “ICAEW’s ethical framework will help make sure banks, insurers and other financial services providers don’t take unfair advantage of this information, and it is used for designing more tailored and suitable products to meet consumers’ needs.

“The array of ways we can now invest, borrow and spend money makes things more complex for people and the potential harm to consumers is greater. The ethics of using data and AI in ways that might be optimal for a business but harmful for consumers need to be front and centre.”

Some intervention on the back of access to data has been helpful – such as problem gamblers being allowed to block gambling sites. Still, the ability for banks and financial services to act in such a way needs to be tightly controlled by an ethical framework, as Kelly argues.

“This could be a dangerous road. If society wants banks to control how people spend their money for moral reasons beyond the law, then they need a clear remit and there needs to be a wider ethical framework for doing so,” she added.

SOURCE : https://economia.icaew.com/news/april-2019/big-data-bias-threatens-financial-services-ethics

0 Comments

The importance of big data in business

By TheWAY - 4월 18, 2019

The importance of big data in business

BUSINESS NEWS | 11 hours ago | CAROL TREHEARN

Before we start getting on the nitty-gritty details of why big data is important for businesses today, let’s take a brief look at the definition of the term itself. To put it in simple words, big data refers to humongous sets of data that can be both structured and unstructured in nature. In industry, big data is explained and handled with a 3V model, so we will start with understanding the model first.

The 3V Model: Volume, Velocity, and Variety

Volume – This is the methods involved in the storage of collected and accumulated data.

Velocity – Velocity is how we use real-time data that is time-sensitive and must be utilized immediately.

Variety – Big data comes in a variety of text and media (image, audio, and video) formats, so the arrangement of the data accordingly is important to processing it for results.

The Relationship Between Interpreting Big Data and Understanding Market Conditions

When you have access to data regarding how your target customers are spending their money and on what, you gain an immediate understanding of market conditions. This enables you to prepare your own products/services in line with what is selling.

Predicting Market Trends of the Future is Made Possible by Big Data’s Availability

It is possible for data scientists and business analysts to process and interpret big data to not just understand what the current market trends are, but also to predict what future trends are most likely going to be. In order to do so with maximum accuracy though, you will need a certificate in data science. This will give you the knowledge and skills necessary for accurate analysis and prediction of large data sets. Given that a comprehensive online course in data science or business analytics from Merrimack College can be completed right from your home, it’s a lucrative career path to consider due to the importance of big data in current and future business, which we are discussing today.

Interpretation of Big Data is Key to Improving Business Reputation

In a customer-centric market, delivering true value to one’s customers is essential to maintain a reputation, and reputation is of absolute importance as far as success is concerned. Large sets of data regarding customer opinion do not just help businesses in determining what kind of reputation they have in the market, but it also helps them understand where they are doing well and what they need to improve upon. This is particularly true in the case of online businesses, but it certainly isn’t exclusive to them either. Data from offline sources are also uploaded and become part of the big data in general.

There is no denying that collection, storage, and interpretation of big data can be expensive at the beginning for SMEs, but in the grand scheme of things and for businesses that are here to stay, those expenses are well worth it, especially as new technology continues to get better at helping us collect and decipher big data.

SOURCE : https://azbigmedia.com/the-importance-of-big-data-in-business/

0 Comments

4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Be More Strategic, Dynamic And Productive

By TheWAY - 4월 16, 2019

4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Be More Strategic, Dynamic And Productive

By Florian Frey, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer of Ruum by SAP

Widespread job loss, autonomous robots, humanity being rendered virtually useless as people are thrown into the depths of poverty.

This isn’t the description of some post-apocalyptic film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger or Will Smith. These are the very real fears of many workers across the world as automation and artificial intelligence (A.I.) grow in prominence across all industries and companies — including burger flipping — in what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Hands of robot and human touching on global virtual network connection future interface. Artificial intelligence technology concept.

According to a study done by the University of Oxford, researchers estimate that in the next 20 years, nearly 47% of U.S. jobs will be impacted by automation. Additionally, a 2014 Breugel analysis reported that nearly 54% of E.U. jobs were at risk of computerization.

When looking at these numbers, people are understandably concerned about the future of work.

But the future of work isn’t as bleak as these statistics claim. In fact, it’s pretty bright.

Yes, automation and A.I. have disrupted the job market. And yes, they have both changed the ways we define and do work. However, in doing so, both technologies have allowed humans to tap into cognitive skills that many haven’t explored before. And let’s face it, there are certain cognitive abilities and capacities that we possess that are, and will probably remain to be for some time, better than that of our robot counterparts.

Beyond that, automation and A.I. can help us work more effectively and efficiently. Just like the ways we collaborate on a team and have team members bring different valuable skills to the table, so can A.I. and automation. Both technologies are already enabling machines to assist humans with complex tasks like forecasting and have taken over dangerous tasks like stocking the shelves of a warehouse.

But the perks of A.I. and automation aren’t limited to industrial warehouses. They can also be used to make the life of the everyday professional easier. In the same vein of using A.I. to take on tedious tasks like inventory replenishing, these technologies can help the modern worker simplify their workload and help them focus on the bigger picture instead of the little things.

And it doesn’t stop there.

By taking on these functions, they’ve given human workers a chance to explore new growth opportunities and to update their skillset — basically upgrading ourselves like an iPhone to the latest iOS. And even though our personal upgrade won’t give us new emojis (as fun as they are), it’ll ultimately make us more decisive, collaborative, and efficient.

Here are four ways A.I. can help you upgrade your workflow to be more strategic, dynamic, and productive.

Scheduling

A lot of people complain about the amount of time they spend in meetings (virtual and in-person) but scheduling them can be just as much of a pain. A.I. can help break the scheduling shackles by not only finding free time on your and your team’s calendars but also managing attendee responses and feedback. Thus, freeing up your time and inbox so you can give your attention to things and to-do’s that matter.

Being on top of your schedule is essential for team leaders. Regular one-on-one meetings between managers and employees can boost team morale as well as provide full transparency between all team members, which will build trust between all people involved.

Routine one-on-ones don’t just lead to more engagement, but more productivity.

Customer Service

When it comes to customer service, a human touch is sometimes needed. In other cases, not so much. This is where the chatbot comes in. Teams and companies can use a chatbot to handle basic customer service issues and inquiries like simple how-to’s or troubleshooting an issue.

Many chatbots are programmed with natural language capabilities to either directly respond customer requests or to route the client to a human representative if needed. Incorporating chatbots into your team eliminates the mundane issues that usually make up most customer requests for representatives, while simultaneously streamlining the process for clients. That way, customer service representatives can spend their time and energy on high-priority tickets and concerns.

E-mails

Drafting and sending e-mails can be a drag — especially when the content in each message remains more or less the same with a few tweaks here and there. This is especially true for marketing and sales teams, where following up on leads and speaking with customers sometimes follows more of a template than a natural conversation. With A.I., the banality of e-mail is nearly banished from everyday tasks.

A.I. features like predictive personalization for e-mail recipients, smart segmentation, optimized e-mail subject lines, e-mail automation workflow, and more can help increase open rates and click-through rates. With these techniques you can spend less time in front of a blank e-mail message trying to figure out what to write and how to write it.

Your Own Personal Assistant

If you consider Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa one of your BFF’s, then you’re quite familiar with the concept behind A.I.-powered personal assistants. From recipe directions to telling you what the weather is in Berlin, A.I. personal assistants have been built to make your life easier. This same notion can be applied to aspects of your workday as well, with A.I. assistants taking over your calendar, setting reminders for your to-do list, and sending meeting requests on your behalf.

It’s time to work smarter, not harder.

SOURCE : https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2019/04/10/4-ways-artificial-intelligence-can-help-you-be-more-strategic-dynamic-and-productive/#1313c2f57d06

0 Comments

Artificial intelligence may take your job, so political leaders need to start doing theirs

By TheWAY - 4월 11, 2019

Artificial intelligence may take your job, so political leaders need to start doing theirs

Over the next decade up to 40% of jobs could be replaced by automation. That’s according to a forecast from the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia.

Risk of job automation by country. In New Zealand, for instance, the median worker has 39% chance of their job being automated.OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper No. 202

Other estimates are less dire. A report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says only 14% of jobs across its member nations are “highly automatable”, though another 32% are likely to change significantly.

Despite this uncertainty about the exact number of human jobs that will disappear, it is certain the impacts of automation driven by artificial intelligence (AI) are potentially profound.

If the new jobs that emerge as a result are fewer and less rewarding than those lost, we face a period of social dislocation.

Yet there is little evidence of any strategic planning and forward thinking by Australia’s federal and state governments to minimise the potential downside. The recent federal budget, for example, was silent on this issue.

It is analogous to the lack of a strategic plan on climate change.

Read more: Your questions answered on artificial intelligence

Our concern about the policy vacuum is based on an extensive search on government websites, the media and budget speeches, which disturbingly yielded very little.

We think AI should be an election issue, because there is virtually no job that won’t be affected by AI-driven automation. Being ready for this technological and social revolution should be at the heart of any government’s economic and educational reform agenda.

Workers that never rest

The activities at which AI is expected to outperform humans by 2030 include translating languages, writing high-school essays and driving trucks. By mid-century it is expected AI could be capable of writing a bestselling books or performing surgery.

Researchers believe there is a 50% chance AI will outperform humans in all tasks in 45 years and that almost all current human jobs can be automated in 120 years.

Robotic farmhands in agriculture. www.shutterstock.com

The World Economic Forum may argue that AI and automation “is about empowering people, not the rise of the machines” but there are good reasons to think some people will lose out.

Read more: Careful how you treat today's AI: it might take revenge in the future

Machines have many attractions to employers. They do not need rest, holidays or take sick leave. They will never complain about overtime or join a union.

A report published last month by management consultancy McKinsey Australia suggests, if proactive measures are not taken, the unemployment rate could increase by 2.5 percentage points, based on up to 46% of jobs being automated by 2030.

The industries likely to experience the greatest disruption are retail, administration and government, health and social assistance, construction, manufacturing, and accommodation and food services. Australia Statistics, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), ONED, BLS, Oxford Economics

Inequality will also increase, the report says. To what extent depends on “how much Australia steps up its efforts to retrain and redeploy its surplus service, administrative and manual workers”. Without large-scale retraining, Australia’s Gini coefficient (the standard measure of income inequality) could increase from 0.32 to 0.41.

Questions for policymakers

The stakes are high. Employment is so much more than just an income. A decent job provides purpose and dignity. It enables security, health and well-being. Joblessness hurts the individual, families and the wider community. If fewer people have work, and more people get paid less, the federal government will have to contend with falling income-tax revenue and rising welfare spending.

With intensifying global competition and rapid technological change, all governments need to be strategic. They need long-term policies to help business and workers gain the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to seize the opportunities and mitigate the threats.

Read more: Artificial intelligence can now emulate human behaviors – soon it will be dangerously good

There are three key questions for policy makers:

To what extent will AI-driven automation increase unemployment and underemployment?
How can governments and employers take advantage of AI and create the jobs of the future?
How can government, employers and educators equip employees and graduates with the skills to have jobs alongside robots, instead of competing with them?

The growth in AI and machine learning need not pose a threat to jobs and our standard of living, but without a strategic and shared effort, we will repeat the mistakes of previous technological revolutions, which imposed a terrible price on some in the name of progress.

SOURCE : http://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-may-take-your-job-so-political-leaders-need-to-start-doing-theirs-103764

0 Comments