Diana Nabi

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The disruption of internet services across parts of US was caused by a huge cyber-attack where regular internet connected home devices were used as weapons. This all happened last Friday where hackers used internet of things devices, such as printers, digital recorders, webcams and other IP address contained devices. They weaponised these devices with malware –botnets– and blocked some of the most popular websites like Spotify, Twitter, Netflix, Reddit and many more. The aim of such an attack is to overflow an online service with useless, incomplete data to keep the servers occupied. Isn’t it scary that your own device may be infected with this malware and is used to attack someone?

webcam device

Hackers use these devices because of their bad security, they have no protection software or difficult passwords and no updates are being made to increase their security. The malware exploits these vulnerabilities to cause enormous damage on the web. These devices are also online most of the day which makes it easier for hackers to use. “It’s remarkable that virtually an entire company’s product line has just been turned into a botnet that is now attacking the United States,” she told security researcher Brian Krebs (The Guardian, 2016). Hackers scan for vulnerable devices and create the botnets through the devices.

All in all, it is hard to know if your device is being used for botnets. Internet connection can be slow during music or video streams and gaming is suffers too if an device is infected. It would be wise to change default passwords if possible on your devices and always install the updates, if this is not possible to do, switching devices off would be a good idea when it is not in use. What do you think about this? Are you aware of how protected your devices are?

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37738823

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/22/cyber-attack-hackers-weaponised-everyday-devices-with-malware-to-mount-assault

http://www.nu.nl/internet/4339768/cyberaanval-vs-maakte-gebruik-van-internet-of-things-apparaten.html

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Apps are not that special anymore. As research points out, 2.2 million apps were available for Android users alone. IPhone users can choose between 2 million apps, making Apple’s App store the second largest app store. For that fact alone, it becomes harder and harder to discover new apps because of the great availability.

According to Pew Research Center, smartphone users spend most of their time to 5 apps only. Since two years this trend also changed to using messaging apps more frequently than social networking apps. This is a devastating trend to companies as they are using social networks and apps to reach their customers. To access a wider range of people companies need to embrace the trend and implement it in their social strategy.

Chatbots are the answer to this trend for companies to continue reaching their customers daily. They can bridge the gap between users who only use their smartphone for messaging and make them able to be updated about their favourite brands and interests. Many people don’t use different apps for every interest that they have, but they still text or use WhatsApp to keep in touch with friends and family. To engage chatbots in their text use, companies can reach these people because it is more conversational and human by design.

Chatting with companies instead of calling them for questions, not using different apps to search for that particular information and having a more personal connection with your favourite online interests are all appealing advantages for consumers. To visualize this, let’s have a look at Joy. This company tracks your moods every day by asking you on Facebook messenger how you are doing today and providing you with tips against stress. This is of course not very necessary to use, more fun for people who like to have these tips daily. A more useful example is the KLM booking confirmation on Messenger function. Everyone is very busy these days, how easy is it to just send a message to KLM and have your booking details and boarding pass quickly available?

Many other companies as for example, Zalando, CNN and eBay are already using these Chatbots and these numbers will only grow in the future. Companies cannot stay behind and must be reachable to their customers at different moments of the day. The popularity of Chatbots will depend of the purpose it serves, but I think it will be useful and easy if I just can send a text or WhatsApp to a Chatbot for small and urgent information. How about you? Would you use Chatbots? Or do you think this is too personal and you would rather use different apps or google for information?

Sources:
www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/
www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/
www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Messaging-Reach-14-Billion-Worldwide-2015/1013215
www.hellojoy.ai/

Dangers of IoT devices

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