By Ian C. Woodward, Dubai Whether you are a leader of today or tomorrow – and no matter your field – thinking consciously about leadership is essential, as this will affect your choices, decisions and performance. In my research and teaching, I spend most of my time with very senior global C-suite executives taking courses…
Peace in the Korean Peninsula is not viable without denuclearization and the dismantling new missile defense system in South Korea, which accounts for the Chinese – and Russian – unease in the region. After a decade of policy failures, South Korea’s strategic U-turn and Washington’s increasingly ominous tone, tensions are escalating in the Korean Peninsula…
Traditionally, executives have used standard metrics, such as cash flow, inventory turns and operating income, to get a broad sense of the health of their firm. However, the game has changed with the rise of digital business models centered on the user. New metrics need to be devised based on the core user actions that…
Most forms of disruption today are about digitisation. Netflix has revolutionised the way people experience videos, providing non-linear viewing (unchaining us from TV guides) and easy access (no DVD rentals). But there are a multitude of ways digital products, data and processes can be used to create novelty and value without necessarily “disrupting”. It’s worthwhile…
If you are familiar with mafia movies then you’re familiar with extortion – the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. Extortion has been around for centuries – well before “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas.” Even cyber extortion, which extends this criminal activity into the digital world, isn’t new. What is new, however,…
On September 7, credit reporting agency Equifax announced “a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting approximately 143 million US consumers.” To put this in context, at this time, this incident is almost seven times larger than the Office of Personnel Management breach of 2015. Equifax discovered the unauthorized access on July 29 and determined that the intrusion…
Exploit kit activity is waning. Collectively these malware distribution tools used to be a prominent method of infection. They rely on compromised websites, malicious adverts and social engineering to direct web traffic to their landing pages and attempt the exploitation of vulnerable software. Operated by various actors and groups, exploit kits possess different features, use…
We’ve all heard the phrase: “When one door closes, a window opens.” You can bet that as you’re reading this, those engaged in cybercrime on the dark web are looking for that next ‘market place window’ to open. The takedown of AlphaBay by an international law enforcement investigation, followed soon thereafter by the takedown of…
The AlphaBay dark web marketplace has been inaccessible since July 5, 2017. With no substantive explanation from the site’s owners, users have speculated that either an exit scam (where administrators steal user cryptocurrency deposited to the marketplace and shut down the services) or law enforcement action has taken place. Dark web market exit scams are…
The Petya ransomware attack that hit computers around the world recently, the second in two months, is yet another reminder that computers play key roles in most enterprises, and that it does not take much to disable those computers. Irrespective of how robust your information security systems are, users are still the weakest link in your…
