Have Hackers have won the Cyberwar? Does privacy exist?

The chances are is that your details are sitting on a list that you don't know about . 

You may not know that person...... but they know you !!!!

• At Equifax names and personal details  (including credit cards , emails etc ) of up to 143 million people in the United States (half the USA population) U.K. and Canada have been hacked ,
• One of Britain's largest retail franchises, CEX, disclosed it has been hit by a data breach that could have compromised the information of as many as 2 million customers – including personal details like names and addresses.
• Online spam bot - A security researcher in Paris has unearthed an open web server hosted in the Netherlands that contains as many as 711 million usernames and passwords
• London healthcare group - Bupa has suffered a data breach (13 July 2017) affecting 500,000 customers on its international health insurance plan.
• Zomato, which provides users with an online guide to restaurants, cafes and clubs, reported that data from 17 million users had been stolen, including email addresses and hashed passwords.
• Security researchers at the Kromtech Security Research Center discovered a massive database of 560 million login credentials which is believed to come from up to 10 popular online services such as LinkedIn and Dropbox, obtained during previous data breaches
• Payday loan company Wonga has fallen victim to a large data breach that could have hit as many as 245,000 of its customers including bank account numbers and sort codes
• A major breach of Three network customer upgrade database revealed last November is worse than the network operator initially thought, when their network was accessed using an employee login. They said 200,000 of their 9 million  was compromised.
• Sportswear retailer Sports Direct failed to tell its entire workforce that they might have had their personal credentials stolen in an internal security breach
• Tesco Bank, the consumer finance wing of the British supermarket giant, froze its online operations – after as many as 20,000 customers had money stolen from their accounts.(up to 40'000 accounts compromised 
• Accounting software provider , Sage could turn out to be one of the most important in UK data breach history if its scale is confirmed. According to the firm, the employee data of up to 280 UK customers representing a large number of individual users could be at risk - this could represent the entire UK population! 
• Kiddicare's customers were getting spammy Sms's - and they realised their data was compromised - they   played down the fact it had let names, addresses and contact details of up to 800,000 people
• CEO of TalkTalk initially struggled to confirm how many of its four million customers were affected after hackers exploited a reported weakness in the firm's website - the ceo said it was only a mere 157,000 (was one of them you?)
• A serious attack in which a hacker was able to get his or her hands on 1,163,996 credit and debit card records from online holiday firm Think W3
• two breaches at Yahoo -- the bigger one involved 1 billion accounts, the lesser impacted 500 million 
• a hack at Myspace that involved 360 million accounts

And the list goes on!!!!

In my view, knowledge is no longer a valuable commodity. It's out there in abundance. It's how you use it that's valuable.

What do you think? 

12 key takeouts of why Steve Jobs was successful

Why Steve Jobs  was successful:- 

  

1. Focus
2. Simplify - Make it simple - UX is key
3. Create an ecosystem - end to end
4. When behind, leapfrog - No CDS - straight to iTunes 
5. Put products before profit - r and d and innovation is key
6. Don't be a slave to focus groups - trust your intuition 
7. Bend reality - make the impossible possible - find a way
8. Push for perfection
9. Have the brightest and the best - and work as a team 
10. Engage face to face - collaboration is key - shit happens when you connect and KLT
11. Know the big picture and the tiniest details 
12. Be human and humourous - liberal arts:science and technology - the crazy ones that can think they can change the world are the ones that they invariably do 

Productivity and technology

The AI pacman is gobbling up the medical and finance industries

The Bob Pritchard Column 

The most exciting, far reaching and awe-inspiring technology advances in recent times have been in healthcare, the financial area and artificial intelligence which is driving much of this dramatic change.   AI is impacting nearly every industry imaginable. Intelligence and consciousness are prerogatives of the living, and the inevitability of their existence in machines is hard for most of us to understand.

 

We need to understand that AI is dramatically altering both medicine and finance. 

While the industries are indispensable to our economies and to our lives, many people that work in them, however, are replaceable with AI guided robots performing everything from routine medical functions to major operations and Blockchain absolutely decimating the finance, insurance, banking, share trading and associated industries.

 

 

Let’s begin with the automated diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. IBM’s artificial intelligence machine, Watson, is now as good as a professional radiologist when it comes to diagnosis, and it’s also been compiling 30 billion medical images to aid in specialized treatment for image heavy fields like pathology and dermatology.  Cardiology is also being overhauled with the advent of artificial intelligence. It used to take doctors nearly an hour to quantify the amount of blood transported with each heart contraction, and it now takes only 15 seconds.  With these computers in major hospitals and clinics, doctors can process almost 260 million images a day in their respective fields, which means finding skin cancers, blood clots, and infections all with unprecedented speed and accuracy, not to mention billions of dollars saved in research and maintenance.

 

Currently, aside from Blockchain, there are almost 15,000 startups working to actively disrupt finance. They are creating computer-generated trading and investment models that blow those crafted by their human counterparts out of the water. Many major hedge funds are already cutting staff. The 100 expensive senior executives in the even more expensive suits who can’t talk business except in expensive, elite restaurants are just 5 minutes from being replaced by one scruffy, personality deprived techie whose normal lunch is coffee and a bag of crisps.

 

The result is billions of dollars made with fewer people, greater certainty, and much more comfortable work attire.

 

So where do we go from here?  At least 40% of U.S. jobs can be swallowed by artificial intelligence machines and if we aren’t careful about the degree to which we automate them, we are looking at an incredibly serious domestic threat.   

Get excited about what AI can do for us, and think very deeply about how it can integrate with us, otherwise we could have major issues.

A hotel run almost entirely by robots is expanding internationally

The Bob Pritchard Byte

In Sasebo, Japan, a hotel run almost entirely by robots has been so successful in the last two years that owners are to open 100 more locations. The initial aptly named Weird Hotel is part of an amusement park but business has been so good that they plan to expand internationally within the next five years.
 
The huge saving in labor cost keeps the hotel affordable. They plan to add 1,000 more similar hotels in the future with robots making up 90% of the total staff.
 

 

 

Having robots in charge throughout the hotel makes it the most efficient hotel in the world.  To check in, arriving guests can either talk with a humanoid robot who speaks Japanese or a dinosaur who speaks English. To make sure no one steals the prehistoric receptionist — or any other robot — humans are also on staff as security, making beds and monitoring the hotel at all times.

 

Apart from the  life-sized dinosaur in the lobby there is  a roving recycling bin for guests to keep the hotel tidy.

 

The hotel staff waits patiently for guests to complete the check-in process. (They have to. They are robots.)   Floor robots, also becoming very popular in Japanese airports to assist weaker travelers, carry guests' luggage to their rooms. Guests can leave their luggage in a cloak room, manned by a cloak room robot who can store unused luggage until checkout.  

 

Each room comes stocked with Tuly, a hotel concierge robot that can help guests find nearby restaurants, recommend events, can control room temperature, change channels on the TV and answer any other question you may have.

 

For just $80, the general public can spend a night with the dinosaurs and the robots.

 

No one thought a supermarket could be run entirely by robots  and AI until Amazon Go, then insurance companies came along, autonomous public transportation and now the hospitality industry is joining the long list.

 

We're going to become caretakers for the robots. That's what the next generation of work is going to be. Let's not kid ourselves here, robots already run most of our world. We'll be their butlers soon enough

 

This is why I love what I do!

Thanks Tim Buzza

15 predictions by Bill Gates 18 years ago

No. 1: Price-comparison sites.

“Automated price comparison services to find the cheapest product in all categories.”

• You can search on NexTag and PriceGrabber specifically to compare prices.

No. 2: Mobile devices.

“Small devices will you to constantly stay in touch, check the news, check flights, get financial information, do business from wherever you are.

• Smartphones, and now smartwatches, do all of this.

No. 3: Instant payments, financing and better healthcare through the web.

“People will pay bills, manage their finances, and communicate with their doctors over the internet.”

• ZocDoc makes finding a doctor and scheduling easier. One Medical and Forward offer monthly memberships for online and data-driven healthcare.  You can borrow money online through Lending Club and make payments through PayPal and Venmo.

No. 4: Personal assistants and IoT.

“Personal companions’ will sync all your devices and allow them to exchange data. The device will check your email or notifications, and instantly present the information that you need.

• Smart devices like Nest collect data on your daily routines and automatically adjust your house’s temperature.   Voice-controlled devices, like Amazon’s Echo and the Google Home, can read your email to you or guide you through recipes as you cook.

No. 5: Online home-monitoring.

"Constant video feeds of your house will become common, informing you when somebody visits while you are not home.”

• Dropcam’s home-surveillance camera, Ring’s smart doorbell camera lets you remotely see who is at your door. PetCube lets you play with your pets while away.

No. 6: Social media.

“Private websites will allow you to chat with friends and plan for events.”

• Two billion people use Facebook and Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and others that cover this prediction.

No. 7: Automated promotional offers.

“Software that knows you’ve booked a trip and can suggest activities, discounts, offers, and cheaper prices at your destination.”

•  Expedia and Kayak offer deals based on your past purchase data. Google and Facebook offer promotional ads based on your location and interests. Airbnb offers specialized trips at destinations so you can live like a local.

No. 8: Live sports discussion sites.

“TV sports will allow you to discuss the action, and enter a relevant contests.”

• Twitter being the clear leader and streaming some games. You can leave comments in real time on sites like ESPN.

No. 9: Smart advertising.

“Devices will know your purchasing trends, and will display advertisements tailored to your preferences.”

• Online advertising services target users based on your click history, interests, and purchasing patterns.

No. 10: Links to sites during live TV.

Prediction: “Television broadcast will include links to relevant websites and content that complement what you are watching.”

• Almost every commercial has a callout asking the viewer to go to a website, follow the business on Twitter, or a scan a QR code to add it on Snapchat.

No. 11: Online discussion boards.

“Residents of cities and countries will have internet-based discussions concerning issues that affect them.

• News sites have sections for live discussions, and interactive forums. Twitter and Facebook played roles in political revolutions in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.

No. 12: Interest-based online sites.

“Online communities will be influenced by your interest, not your location.”

• News sites and online communities focus on single topics, include separate verticals, offering more in-depth coverage on a given topic, focusing on interests rather than who you know or where you are.

No. 13: Project-management software.

“Project managers will be able to go online, describe the project, and receive recommendations for available people who would fit their requirements.”

• Tons of workflow software in the enterprise space revolutionizing how you recruit, form teams, and assign work to others.

No. 14: Online recruiting.


Prediction: “People will find employment opportunities online by declaring their interest, needs, and specialized skills.”

• LinkedIn allows users to upload résumés and find jobs based on interests and needs.

No. 15: Business community software.


 “Companies will bid on jobs, be it a construction project, a movie production, or an advertising campaign. This will be efficient for outsourcing work, looking for new clients, and being a go-to provider for the said service.”

• Users can reach out and start conversations that could lead to bigger projects directly within their apps. Sites like Upwork, enables connection with freelance designers, writers, or engineers.

 

Bill Gates - what are the next 15 predictions In the next 15 years?