Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 20, 2021 - December 26, 2021

NEWS

Vulnerable coastal cities can now take climate action with the CORVI Data Portal

Data integration and analytics specialist Qlik has partnered with The Stimson Center, a non-profit think tank, to launch the CORVI Data Portal.

The portal is a central data hub showcasing the risks that coastal cities around the world may face due to climate change. It aims to provide hyper-local, data-driven recommendations to leaders of at-risk coastal cities, especially those that may not have sufficient local resources to make climate-smart investments.

The data can play a crucial role in helping these leaders understand where and how they are most vulnerable and what actions will have the largest impact as they cope with the climate crisis.

Digi offers discount for digital tools

Digi Business is offering discounts until Dec 31 for small and medium enterprises to adopt digital tools.

These include free smartphone upgrades with Digi’s Go Digi Business Postpaid Plans, a 50% discount for the Digi WiFi Broadband and a 50% discount for businesses that switch to Digi Business Fibre.

Business owners are entitled to claim all Digi Business year-end specials under the SME Digitalisation Grant (Penjana) when they sign up for any three plans of their choice.

Public edge cloud service to help managed service providers hyperscale their business

Zadara has expanded its Federated Edge programme, the world’s first public edge cloud, to Malaysia. This allows managed service providers (MSPs) to hyper-scale their businesses by leveraging the infrastructure of other MSPs around the world on demand to serve customers anywhere.

Edge cloud technology enables data to be stored, accessed and processed close to where the data is being generated and consumed. This reduces bandwidth cost and addresses latency concerns. It could also ensure greater data privacy and sovereignty with local networks.

The programme, which has a fully managed distributed cloud architecture, features over 400 cloud points globally. It functions as a consortium of MSPs that are powered by the company’s Edge Cloud Services.

MSPs can easily scale their businesses without having to invest in new data centres or physical facilities in various locations. They can also unlock a passive revenue stream by allowing their infrastructure to be utilised by MSPs from abroad.

Trend Micro prediction report forecasts cyber-fightback in 2022

Trend Micro Inc, a global cybersecurity leader, predicts that global organisations will be more alert and better prepared for security breaches in 2022, thanks to a comprehensive, proactive, cloud-first approach to mitigating cyber risk. Research, foresight and automation are critical for organisations to manage risk and secure their workforce.

Trend Micro blocked 40.9 billion email threats, malicious files and malicious URLs for customers in the first half of 2021 alone — a 47% increase year on year (y-o-y). In Malaysia, Trend Micro detected and blocked 232,701,368 attacks, over half of which were email threats, registering a 24% y-o-y increase.

Trend Micro researchers predict that in 2022, threat actors will focus ransomware attacks on cloud and data centre workloads and exposed services, to take advantage of the large number of employees continuing to work from home. Vulnerabilities will be weaponised in record time and chained with privilege escalation bugs to drive successful campaigns, according to the report.

Internet of Things systems, global supply chains, cloud environments and DevOps functions will be in the crosshairs. More sophisticated commodity malware strains will be aimed at small and medium businesses. However, Trend Micro predicts that many organisations will be ready for the challenge as they build out and implement a strategy to proactively mitigate these emerging risks.

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands to invest over RM100 mil in Malaysia

Una Brands, an Asia-Pacific focused e-commerce aggregator, seeks to invest over RM100 million next year to acquire local e-commerce brands and grow them into regional and global household names.

Malaysia’s e-commerce income jumped 17.1% in the third quarter of this year. Despite this growth, local micro, small and medium enterprises cite difficulty in managing cross-border supply chains, international logistics and high operating costs as the most critical challenges.

Under Una Brands, brands gain dedicated in-house access to critical areas of supply chain management and performance marketing, as well as channel and geographic expansion. With its vast sourcing network and global logistics partnerships, coupled with optimised inventory management and streamlined operations, Una Brands aims to solve the operational challenges faced by local brands, allowing them to focus on new product development, branding and expansion.

Una Brands focuses on multiple platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee and Tokopedia, and has an on-the-ground presence in seven Asia-Pacific markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, China and Australia.

Making insurance a bit more SenangSikit with GHL

GHL Systems Bhd and Senang, a home-grown insurance technology company, have extended their strategic partnership to provide Malaysians with easier access to a first-in-Asean micro-insurance coverage on non-conventional retail purchases that are not commonly insured.

SenangSikit is a faster, simpler but optional way of obtaining insurance coverage against accidental damage to purchases with just two clicks at checkout. The insurance plan works like a product warranty, providing coverage for myriad non-conventional retail products ranging from electronic items, footwear, car accessories, fashion clothing, furniture and more. The plan is valid for up to a year from date of purchase with a minimum payment of as low as RM2.50 a day.

Meanwhile, merchants using GHL’s smart terminals, can now offer their customers an improved buying experience with insurance coverage on their purchases. The insurance platform also gives merchants, especially micro, small and medium enterprises, the opportunity to earn referral income — merchants only need to have a GHL terminal without having to invest in extensive training.

The inclusion of Senang’s technology in GHL’s product offering will enable customers to purchase the SenangSikit insurance (provided by The Pacific Insurance Bhd) at any retail outlet’s payment counter that uses GHL’s smart terminal.

Visa launches crypto consulting services

Visa has launched a new consulting and advisory service to help its clients navigate the world of cryptocurrencies.

The Visa Global Crypto Advisory Practice, an offering within Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA), is designed to help clients and partners advance their own crypto journey.

For financial institutions eager to attract or retain customers with a crypto offering, retailers looking to delve into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or central banks exploring digital currencies, understanding the crypto ecosystem is a vital first step, says Visa.

A study conducted by the company found that 94% of people have some level of awareness of cryptocurrency, while nearly one-third have used it as an investment or medium of exchange. More than 6,000 people globally were surveyed for the research, which was conducted in partnership with marketing services firm LRW.

From Oct 1, 2020 to Sept 30, 2021, Visa had processed US$3.5 billion (RM14.8 billion) in digital currency transactions through its crypto-linked card schemes, CNBC reports.

Amazon kicks off new elder care service

Amazon has launched Alexa Together, a subscription-based service helping caregivers provide remote support to elderly family members.

The service uses Amazon’s range of Echo devices with new features like fall detection and 24/7 emergency assistance, supporting the health and well-being of older users.

Family members can choose to receive notifications through the Alexa app when the senior uses their device for the first time each day, and will be contacted along with emergency services if the user calls for help.

The service, currently only available in the US, also offers fall detection integrated with third-party devices from Assistive Technology Service and Vayyar Care. If the person falls in range of the device, the Echo will call for urgent response and notify a family member.

While only one family member can currently link their device to receive alerts from their loved one through Alexa Together, Amazon says it plans to allow up to 10 people to provide remote support.

‘Bodyright’ symbol against online violence

The United Nations has launched a campaign to stop violence against women, girls, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ and other marginalised communities who are more likely to have their images abused online.

The campaign is aimed at highlighting sexualised abuse that includes non-consensual sharing of intimate images (also known as “revenge porn”, an objectionable term that suggests a survivor deserved retribution or consented to making pornography), deepfakes (manipulation of imagery using machine learning or artificial intelligence) and upskirting (taking non-consensual images up a skirt or dress).

The campaign, which comes with a symbol added to social media posts, seeks to highlight that corporate logos and copyrighted intellectual property often receive greater protection online than people.

“Online misogyny and violence are widespread human rights violations, yet tech companies and policymakers place greater value and protection on copyright than on the rights of human beings online,” says UN population agency UNFPA on the campaign website.

“Those who infringe copyright face legal penalties and swift removal of content by digital platforms, while survivors of online violence face barriers and have few legal rights.

“This is why UNFPA is launching Bodyright, a brand new ‘copyright’ for the human body. It demands that images of our bodies are given the same respect and protection online as copyright gives to music, film and even corporate logos,” it says.

RinggitPlus introduces digital financial literacy module for university students

RinggitPlus and Saito University College are collaborating to launch a digital financial literacy module, the first of its kind, to help students make better financial decisions when they enter the workforce.

The module is designed to help students at Saito University College make a positive change to their lives and their communities. It consists of 10 topics with 30 hours in total of guided learning, covering the key aspects of personal financial management, including effective financial planning, smart budgeting, debt management, emergency saving, investment strategies, risk management and retirement planning.

At the end of the course, students who pass the final examination will not only receive credits for their undergraduate or postgraduate programmes, but also the opportunity to apply for an internship with RinggitPlus/Jirnexu Sdn Bhd or its affiliated companies to further expand their knowledge and experience by working in a fintech institution.

Malaysia recorded 11,207 new bankruptcies from March 2020 to September 2021 since the Covid-19 pandemic began in the country, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said on Dec 8.

AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region launched in Indonesia

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Inc has launched AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region, allowing customers to run workloads and securely store data in Indonesia while serving end-users with even lower latency.

Developers, start-ups, entrepreneurs and enterprises, as well as government, education and non-profit organisations can run their applications and serve end-users from data centres located in Indonesia, leveraging advanced AWS technologies to drive innovation.

Organisations across Indonesia that have moved their mission-critical workloads to the cloud include Adskom, Amartha, Anter Aja, Asean Foundation, Bhinekka, Bizzy, Bridestory, Bank Commonwealth Indonesia, Dinas Komunikasi dan Informatika Jawa Barat, Elevenia, FinAccel, Happyfresh, Haldin, Hara Token, Halodoc, Jawa Pos, Kumparan, Kompas, Lion Air, MNC Group, Mamikos, Optik Melawai, Optik Seis, Sayurbox, Sekolah.mu, Shipper, SiCepat, Simak Online, Sociolla, The Body Shop, Tokopedia, Traveloka and XL Axiata. AWS is planning to invest an estimated US$5 billion (RM21 billion) in Indonesia over the next 15 years through AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region. This includes capital expenditure on the construction of data centres, operational expenses related to ongoing utilities and facility costs, and the purchase of goods and services from regional businesses.

The investment is also estimated to sustain an average of 24,700 direct and indirect jobs annually during this time. These jobs will be part of the AWS supply chain in Indonesia, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering and telecommunications, and within the broader Indonesian economy. It is estimated that the construction and operation of AWS infrastructure in Indonesia will add more than US$10 billion to Indonesia’s gross domestic product over the next 15 years.

 

PEOPLE MOVES 

James Ong heads Value Partners Group in Singapore, Southeast Asia

Hong Kong-based asset manager Value Partners Group Ltd has appointed James Ong as head of Southeast Asia and CEO of Singapore.

This senior appointment is part of the group’s efforts to bolster its Southeast Asia business to capture further growth in the asset and wealth management market in the region.

Ong was previously the managing director and head of Southeast Asia at State Street Global Advisors, where he oversaw the firm’s institutional and intermediary businesses in the region. Before that, he was client director at HSBC Asset Management and director at UOB Asset Management, among others.

Google Cloud appoints Sherie Ng as country director for Singapore, Malaysia

Formerly Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific general manager of public, Sherie Ng is the new Google Cloud country director for Singapore and Malaysia. She will be responsible for leading the revenue and go-to-market strategy and operations for Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace.

Ng has over 25 years of technology leadership experience. During her more than three years at Microsoft, she spearheaded business engagements and partnerships with public sector institutions — government agencies, state-owned enterprises, healthcare and education institutions.

 

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Bored Ape NFT

A Bored Ape NFT was accidentally sold for US$3,000 instead of US$300,000 because of a misplaced decimal point. The NFT’s owner Max (or maxnaut) listed the NFT for sale on Saturday and had meant to price the NFT at 75 ether (around US$300,000) but accidentally typed 0.75 ether instead (roughly US$3,000). Before they could correct the mistake, the NFT had been snapped up, apparently by a bot programmed to find and buy undervalued listings. 

 

“This account is a decade of my life and work. I didn’t want my contribution to the metaverse to be wiped from the internet that happens to women in tech, to women of colour in tech, all the time.” — Thea-Mai Baumann, an Australian artist and technologist.

Baumann started an Instagram account with the handle @metaverse to showcase her creative work and build an augmented reality company called Metaverse Makeovers. On Nov. 2, she got locked out of her account with a message from the platform saying, “Your account has been blocked for pretending to be someone else.”

After a month of appeal and when The New York Times contacted Meta to ask why it had been shut down, a spokesperson apologised and restored her account without explanation.

 

TECH BOOKS

Stoic Philosophy and the Control Problem of AI Technology: Caught in the Web (Values and Identities: Crossing Philosophical Borders) by Edward H Spence

To what degree is technology in the form of products and processes capable of contributing to human enhancement and well-being?

In cases where the impact of a technology on society is not only negligible but mostly negative and harmful, what is the technology good for?

To answer these questions, author Edward H Spence develops and applies a normative model based on rationalist and virtue ethics as well as Stoic philosophy.

Its primary purpose is to determine the essential conditions that any normative theory that seeks to assess the impact of technology on well-being must adequately address in order to be able to account for, explain and evaluate what contribution, if any, technology is capable of making to the attainment and enhancement of human well-being.

Through developing this model, Spence offers a novel and important examination of the benefits of technology to our society as a whole. Available on Amazon.

 

WHILE YOU WERE WORKING 
(FROM HOME)

Make standout creative content with Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Adobe has launched Creative Cloud Express, a unified task-based, web and mobile product that makes it easy to create and share multimedia content — from social media posts and stories to invitations and marketing materials such as logos, flyers and banners.

Creative Cloud Express enables drag-and-drop content creation, allowing users to express their creativity with just a few clicks. It offers thousands of high-quality templates, 20,000 premium Adobe fonts and 175 million licensed Adobe Stock images.

Creative Cloud Express leverages Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning framework, and the cutting-edge technology behind its flagship applications such as Photoshop, Premiere and Acrobat.

“From students to social media influencers to small business owners — everyone is a creator. Whether they are making a school presentation, sharing experiences with friends on social media, growing a business or building a brand, people want to express their ideas. As a growing number of individuals and businesses look to monetising their content and goods and services online, they are looking for easy-to-use, template-driven tools to promote their products and themselves,” says Adobe in a statement.

For all Creative Cloud subscribers who already use the company’s flagship applications, Creative Cloud Express adds significant value to the ideation process, from creating mock-ups to ensuring brand consistency and publishing content on social media.

Key features:

• Simple drag-and-drop functions to quickly customise thousands of beautiful templates

• 20,000 premium Adobe fonts and 175 million royalty-free licensed Adobe Stock images

• Advanced search and discover capabilities, powered by the Adobe Stock Marketplace

• “Quick Actions” powered by Adobe Sensei to remove background features from photos, trim and merge videos, turn videos into GIFs and convert/export PDFs in a few clicks

• Shared Templates and Shared Brands to ensure brand consistency across teams

• Seamlessly manage social media publishing workflow with ContentCal features, once integrated with Adobe

• Integration with Creative Cloud Libraries

Creative Cloud Express is free to start and available immediately to everyone. It is available on the web at adobe.com/express and as a free app from Microsoft Store, Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The premium plan contains additional features, and is available for US$9.99 per month. Creative Cloud Express for Enterprise and Teams is coming in 2022.

 

EDITOR’S MUST-HAVES

An organised desk is an organised mind — Deskboard Buddy

The average person will typically have more than 6,000 thoughts in a single day. Keeping them organised is essential to boosting productivity.

The DeskBoard Buddy, a desktop whiteboard, does just that. It features a scratch-resistant and non-absorbent glass design that maintains a clean surface and never stains with marker smudges.

Its wide surface offers enough space to quickly and easily jot down reminders and notes, and its stainless erasable surface means you can wipe the slate clean and start again the next day.

It comes with a built-in handphone stand and iPad dock, which allows you to extend your laptop screen or view important apps. The DeskBoard Buddy can be used as an angled keyboard tray for comfortable typing.

It also features a hidden accessory storage compartment for your essential office supplies. Available at https://deskboardbuddy.com/ from RM301.

 

DIGITIONARY

Outta Pocket

A slang term that originated from the term out of pocket, outta pocket is when a person is acting out of line or behaving in a way that is disrespectful or engaging in an outrageous act. It was used in the context of infidelity in the past, but rose to prominence after African-American rappers used the expression to refer to bad behaviour or a bad situation.

Now it is often used on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok when people are talking about how someone is acting crazy or behaving badly; sometimes, it is even used endearingly to express admiration.

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