Hikacker's new tool- Ransomware

Online frauds and data theft are things of the past – A new weapon in criminal’s kitty is ransomware - a popular and reliable business model for criminals.
Using a new sophisticated malware (ransomware) visa email or websites, your personal data – photos, videos and business documents are automatically encrypted. Getting those files back means paying a fee to the criminals who control the malware—and hoping they will keep their side of the bargain by decrypting them.

A recent article in MIT’s Tech review  suggests -
The latest ransomware requests payment via the hard-to-trace cryptocurrency Bitcoin and uses the anonymizing Tor network. Millions of home and business computers were infected by ransomware in 2014. 

If we look closely in history, these malwares became active sometime in last 10 years. But the real concern now is the effectiveness and sophistication they have achieved with latest versions.
I am sure, each of us would have got into a situation, which demanded applying new anti-virus or becoming member of a website to unlock your computer. The message would tell us to pay the amount within 3 days to unlock the data.

With law enforcement from multiple countries- US,UK and Europe many of such malicious companies were identified and shut-down only to have dozens other cropping up again. Many security companies and academics were shocked to find stash of encryption keys used for this ransom activity.

Another piece of ransomware, CTB Locker, is the fastest-growing today. It uses stronger encryption than previous specimens, the same Tor trick as Cryptowall, and even a clever “freemium” design: victims get a chance to decrypt some of their data for free to demonstrate that paying up really will work. CTB Locker comes in several versions, in languages including Italian, Dutch, German, and Russian, as well as English. It is spreading most rapidly in Germany, Poland, Mexico, and South America, says Dawda.

The best way to keep ransomware off your computer, experts say, is to follow best practices by keeping software updated, using antivirus and other security software, and being careful about where you click and what you install. Backing up data on a separate hard drive or using a cloud service could save you from being held for ransom if an infection does occur.

Source : MIT Tech Review

Marriage of CMO and CTO work life...

In a recent study by Gartner, It was striking finding that  “By 2017, a CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.”

Deep rooted is how the world has evolved and changed tilting towards Big Data and new approach towards how customers are reached out to. Over the years, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) products were the winners, mainly sprouted from back-offices to cater to needs of manufacturing, HR and Sales functions of business. Marketing was never thought to quite fit the bill of a process or at least never thought to be usefully served by automatic function. Even though in last 15 years, sales functions were automated but marketing functions are under penetrated by ERP software. 

Until recently, marketing automation was seen as “process” and not as “data”. But recent waves of technology penetration in marketing has led to automation of certain functions such as email marketing material to clients or running a full campaign.

Historically, the challenge with marketing automation is that it has always been about “process,” not about “data.” More recent categories, such as email marketing or marketing automation, are focused on process automation — how to take a set of manual tasks and streamline them, track them or automate them.

Until recently, marketing data was not used strategically or even customer data was never about prospects. But with the advent of web, and new tools related to big data, tracking customers and their preferences have become easier and more meaningful.

Also, new software target the complete life cycle of customer engagement to customer lifetime value. This has made targeting new customers segments easier and financially viable.

I think biggest push will come from social networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedin and Tinder. Soon, we will see world with marketers and technocrats under same rood led by their CMO and CTO towards a new breed of marketing campaign.

How Technology is leading Marketing!!!

In a recent study by Gartner, It was striking finding that  “By 2017, a CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.”.

Deep rooted is how the world has evolved and changed tilting towards Big Data and new approach towards how customers are reached out to. Over the years, ERP ( Enterprise Resource Planning) products were the winners, mainly sprouted from back-offices to cater to needs of manufacturing, HR and Sales functions of business. Marketing was never thought to quite fit the bill of a process or at least never thought to be usefully served by automatic function. Even though in last 15 years, sales functions were automated but marketing functions are under penetrated by ERP softwares. 

The focus of marketing automation has always been about the "process" and not the "data". More recently, there has been a drive to make certain marketing functions automatic - email, running campaign.

Historically, the challenge with marketing automation is that it has always been about “process,” not about “data.”. More recent categories, such as email marketing or marketing automation, are focused on process automation — how to take a set of manual tasks and streamline them, track them or automate them.
Some ways how technology is inculcating strategy in marketing is as follows:

1) Now with web tracking, it is easier for businesses to find how and when customers are checking important aspects of products such as - prices, quantity and preferences.
2) With technology, right from customer reach to customer acquisition to customer setup in system has become a seamless work.
3)Needless to say, social networking sites such as Facebook, Tinder and Google+ are new source of information to understand customers in new lights as never before.

Finally, I see a future of teams exclusively consisting of Marketers and Technologists, led by CMO and CIO.