Cybersecurity – intalio

Data Security and the Future of Digital Transformation

Marketing — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:58:26 +0000

With the constant technological innovations, changes in work cultures, and increasing market and customer demands, companies are finding themselves under the pressure of adapting and transforming. One of the most common transformations is Digital Transformation.

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into everyday corporate tasks, processes, or assets, to optimize workflow, customer experience, and risk management. It is the migration from an offline environment to a digital environment; it could be as complex as transforming into a digital enterprise, or as simple as integrating a mobile application

Cyber digital transformation cannot happen overnight as it needs a clear strategy set by these business leaders. Digital strategies are also a personalized process as no two companies will ever have the same needs, goals, assets, and tools; however, for a strategy to be successful, it needs reinforced Cybersecurity to be able to transform its digital environment securely. This stems from the need to remain relevant in a hyper-competitive business environment that has come to be due to the new age of data analytics and artificial intelligence.

However, the more companies are adopting these changes, the more they are becoming prone to Data Security Threats or vulnerable Cybersecurity. More and more cybercrime stories are immerging of how companies are losing millions of dollars through Ransomware attacks or breaches in security, causing business leaders to take a second look at how to protect their digitalization processes.

Today, almost all organizations are trying to find security solutions that would stop any cyber-attack and protect them from losses. This brings us to a new challenge that business leaders need to manage: creating a Cybersecurity Strategy to protect their data – A cyber resilience.

Top Security Challenges of Digital Transformation

There are many security challenges hindering the process of digital transformation, and perhaps the most prominent is the expanded attack surfaces and the increased value of data.

Since digital transformation and processes of information are increasing the number of data loads and applications, digitalization opens new network entry points such as mobile and cloud, which ultimately lead to more opportunities for cyber-criminals to attack. Before opting for new strategies or programs, companies should introspect on whether they are ready to face new risks or not.

Data today has become the new oil, which explains why security incidents such as data breaches are exponentially growing. As the awareness of data analytics is increasing in companies as they learn how to use data for their customer services by analyzing their behavior, markets, patterns, and so, they are also becoming more attractive to cyber-attackers who could also use or sell the data they have found. The main causes for digitalization, such as the growing volume of structured and unstructured data as well as the need to access information whenever and wherever are the same causes for vulnerabilities in data security.

Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity

Although speed is the main objective of digitalization, however, it is also the main risk exposing companies to security vulnerabilities as it compromises security controls and overlooks underlying risks when undergoing security transformation, as the rush to achieve this transformation increases the risks of data breaches by 72%. Those risks, however, can really only be determined and foreseen when all entities within a company synergize together – such as security, IT, procurement, administration, finance, and so on.

Cybersecurity and Cybercrimes

Cybersecurity is the process of protecting systems, software, devices, networks, and so on from digital attacks, unauthorized access, or cybercrime. Cybercrimes are usually done to access, change, or destroy sensitive information that could disrupt business processes and even extort money from users.

Cybercrimes can be large enough to cripple businesses of all sizes. Not only can these attacks cost companies financially, however, it can also reflect on brand loyalty when users feel that their privacy is being violated or is vulnerable to exposure. If users feel that their information is in no way being protected, they are prone to taking their business elsewhere – where they feel safe – which can lead companies to lose sales and profits. Not to forget that, in the case of a cyberattack, it can lead to legal consequences, especially in light of the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR regulatory sanctions.

All businesses, across all fields, have an obligation to ensure that their company is up to date on security threats (such as impersonations, data leaks, fraudulent e-mails and viruses, even loss of intellectual property), and ransomware (malware that encrypts data and is only unlockable after the exchange of a specific fee), and have acquired the best methods to protect data – From training personnel to investing in security solutions.

Customers are trusting companies with their data, and in return, companies must be well-equipped to protect that data, which can only be done with the help of a strategic cybersecurity strategy.

Though the intentions of corporations are pure when it comes to overcoming security threats while undergoing a cyber digital transformation, however, they will encounter multiple challenges as they do – challenges that are unique to their business.

Top Cybersecurity Challenges Faced by Corporations as They Undergo A Digital Transformation

The procedure may be tedious and be mistaken as not important: while the focus of digitalization will be on speed, innovation, workflow optimization, and automation, cybersecurity may be seen as an extra-cost instead of being recognized as a fundamental requirement.
The procedure may slow down digital transformation: While the speed of transformation increases risk, adopting security measures may slow down that process due to regulations, training, and so on – an unwanted aspect by business leaders – which is why there needs to be a security team working within the corporation, involved in every aspect of the enterprise.
The complexity of the process: cybersecurity, unfortunately, isn’t a click of a button on an app, but rather, it consists of a strategy and a comprehensive system instead, aiming to identify potential cyberattacks.
The undermining of data: we find sometimes, that companies undervalue their data and information for lack of better knowledge. They fail to recognize them as a source of revenue and a chest of hidden potential, which causes them to fail to see how not protecting their data can cost them in the long run.

A Brief Outlook on What Elements A Comprehensive Cybersecurity Strategy Pertains

Awareness:

Understanding and being aware of what the company assets are as well as what their weak points could be can help predict possible cyberattacks.

Response System:

Companies should be equipped with the proper tools that provide an automated counter-attack and stop any incoming threats.

Updates and modifications:

any security framework should constantly be updated and modified to keep up with the digital era trends.

Fast big-data platforms:

Equipped Big Data platforms produce results in real-time, able to detect real-time risks.

Addressing the Threats of Cybersecurity in Digital Transformation

Companies have a responsibility to protect and maintain their consumers’ privacy and data, which is why they need to have a multi-leveled strategy comprised of the following:

Procedures and Policies:

A set of standards of procedures and integrated policies that are incorporated into everyday tasks, or a blueprint for security processes.

Database:

A Vulnerability and risk database that includes the vulnerabilities that the corporation needs to take into consideration.

Product Solutions:

The use of security solutions that are either standalone product solutions, features, or available resources that employees at every level can use.

Decentralization:

The process of decentralized information and transactions protects information in case one information site has been breached, securing the rest of the data while security is being heightened to fix the original breach.

Solution Automation:

Finally, the automation of cybersecurity solutions which get implemented into AI systems in order to detect threat patterns and automatically counter-attack any breaches.

Conclusion

As technology develops, it pushes corporations to improve consumer experiences, causing companies to rush into digital transformation, leaving them increasingly more vulnerable to data security threats. Especially post-pandemic, It is highly important for organizations to make security a founding stone of digital transformation, and not an afterthought, as digital transformations will keep developing with the times and becoming more complex. This is why security approaches are so fundamental to make sure data protection cannot be breached.

However, the journey of a thousand steps starts with one: understanding the importance of your data and why it is valuable and prone to attacks. In case you still haven’t found the answer, Intalio offers you a set of products and solutions such as Records Management, Digital Signature, Data Insights or others which may add another security consideration to your information

Visit our website now to find more tools that turn your data into gold.

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Ready to be part of the “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” movement? We Are!

Ronald Cortbawi — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 07:58:15 +0000

Artificial Intelligence in Action!

So we cannot deny the fact that Artificial Intelligence has become the talk of the region in the past month. With the UAE assigning a minister for artificial intelligence and KSA giving full citizenship to Sophie the robot, it only makes me wonder, are we witnessing the start of the artificial intelligence takeover?

Allow me to start briefly discussing Sophie the robot. So as you might have heard or read somewhere that the first humanoid robot which was created in April 2015, who by the way also happens to look like Audrey Hepburn, was recently given the Saudi citizenship! Sophia is currently the only robot who has been granted citizenship.

Sophia was developed by Hanson Robotics to look and act like humans with the objective of allowing her to work with humans eventually. She can serve in healthcare, therapy, education, and customer service application. What might be the purpose of this citizenship do you think?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has very recently announced that they wish to create an industrial zone known as NEOM and it will focus on industries including energy and water, biotechnology, food, advanced manufacturing, and entertainment. Rumor has it that this zone will have robots for labor, therefore giving Sophie citizenship was seen as the first investment towards this initiative.

Now let’s travel from KSA to the UAE. So after assigning a Minister for happiness last year (how cool), the UAE recently assigned a minister for artificial intelligence as so it seems they are officially acknowledging that technology is about to change everything around us, not that is hasn’t already, but it will continue in doing so, this time through Artificial Intelligence. This announcement comes just a few days after the UAE announced its UAE 2031 AI strategy, which aims to make the government more efficient and streamlined by relying on AI technologies.

Intalio and Artificial Intelligence

Intalio provides its clients with advanced and modern Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) which is the core foundation of the smart government wave of projects if we want to take Smart Government as an example.

Intalio’s new microservice architecture includes a modernized application layer for building content-centric applications and interfaces. We offer solutions that can perform high-volume, computerized tasks reliably without fatigue and deep advanced analytics with the capabilities to acquire, merge, manage, and analyze unstructured content and big data.

But governments do not become smart in a day. It requires a long-term vision and a set of milestones that need to be achieved through a phased approach. This is why governments have been devising long-term plans and visions over the past years. Examples of which are The Saudi National Transformation Program 2020 and the “2030 Vision”, Qatar National Vision for 2030, launched in October 2008 aiming at “transform Qatar into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development” by 2030…. On the other hand, the UAE, leaders in Smart Government Initiatives in the region has already transformed many of its emirates to smart ones (such as Smart Dubai), and has topped it with its latest announcement of Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2031, along with a set of additional strategies and milestones for 2040, 2050, etc…

Let us now get back to practicalities and put the visions and strategies aside. Practically speaking, the first step of the transformation process starts with the complete elimination of paper-based documents, and government paperwork, while transforming internal government entities to paperless entities through a process of automated capture and storage of documents for archiving purposes. This process is coupled with the automation of all back-office processes including correspondences and government resource planning. Transforming from a government to an electronic government (e-government), involves a very large number of heterogeneous institutions connected together to provide organizations and citizens with easy access to Government information and services (government e-services), and this involves communications between Central Governments and Local Governments through G2G, Between Governments and Businesses through G2B and Between Governments and Citizens through G2C.

Converting to electronic, and exposing data to citizens, businesses, and other governments requires a high level of security measures to prevent data-theft through the cyber-attacks and ransomware wave we have been witnessing lately. Therefore Cyber Security measures must be taken ensuring the secured exchange of information and documents. This brings us to the last milestone: a Smart Government, how is it achieved, and what’s it’s relation with Artificial Intelligence, which is initially our main topic in this article.

Advanced Content Analytics, speech management, Internet of Things, Biometrics, and others have now become integrated into our daily lives and highly adopted in government programs.

Predictive analytics is heavily integrated into national government programs, through advanced search, citizens feedback monitoring programs, anticipative analysis, trend, and temporal analysis…
Speech Management: storage and indexing of Speech files, voice annotations, understanding and analyzing public speeches, integrating voice commands into daily applications,
IoT and devices integration for video analysis, traffic and pollution poles,
Integration with Biometric devices for Face recognition, ANPR, Fingerprints… through the use of Biometrics enabled enrolment applications…

All those are the main components of a smart government waiting to achieve National Transformation providing territorial shelters and ensuring national security and safety.

At Intalio we assist and facilitate this digital transformation towards smart cities and we have been leading the government’s digital transformation programs in the Gulf for the past decade.

This is innovation. This is how smart cities are made and why Artificial intelligence has been the talk of the region. Are you Interested in joining the AI movement? We can help you. Get in touch with us to learn more, or even register to receive our guides. Let us build smart cities together.

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How Technology and Digital Transformation Help Reduce Corruption

Ronald Cortbawi — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 13:24:47 +0000

Intalio Technology and Digital Transformation vs Corruption

The world is leaning towards digital transformation and automated processes in its government transactions, aiming to improve the communication between citizens and public institutions. Technology, being a significant tool to change the rules of dealing with corruption, helps in developing and implementing effective anti-corruption policies and procedures which is essential to reduce, fight and control corruption.

How Does Technology Help?

Technology aims to facilitate the work process in a way that contributes to the completion of transactions and the development of departments and reduces human intervention, which limits the charging of bribes, favoritism, and intermediaries.

According to the United Nations, easy-to-access data will improve policy decisions and increase accountability. A study published at the World Economic Forum on the impact of technology in combating corruption and waste, shed light on how technology contributes to transparency in government institutions by creating precise algorithms in government transactions and developing innovative programs to detect and deter fraud and deception.

In this context, several programs were pioneered that contribute to the detection of corruption and transparency through the use of big data technologies and open data, as well as the use of complex data processing algorithms.

The Role Intalio is Playing…

Big data analytics, artificial intelligence, mobile applications and other software are valuable tools to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute corruption. Intalio has launched several platforms that help regulatory bodies and government institutions monitor the work of departments and institutions and allow the detection of fraud, administrative negligence, and bribes. The systems also provide effective access to the information of each department, its regulations and related documents.

Intalio creates solutions that enable analysts to identify deviations, detect fraud, deception, file manipulation, and predict the overall behavior of employees by integrating anti-corruption analyzes into rules and regulations. Intalio AI-based software can filter text messages, audio files, e-mail and other data in manageable groups and uncover potential relationships among them, helping to frame and reduce corruption.

All content management solutions from Intalio support the security and safety of the entity and its data. SAIF (Safety, Analytics and Investigation Framework) for example operates with Intalio iFile, a full-featured secured solution that supports key business processes and workflows. SAIF allows organizations and governments to communicate securely under one intelligent file and to file, process, route track and monitor all types of content.

Another anti-fraud solution, Intalio inspection. This full-featured solution manages the on-site inspection procedures and routines for different sectors (construction, road safety, healthcare, hospitality…). The solution is designed to help inspectors collect accurate information and perform a list of predefined tasks in order to accomplish comprehensive inspection operations necessary to ensure compliance with the standards and codes set by the organization.

Being a world-class software vendor, Intalio developed a data analysis program that reviews data from various public and private institutions. This Anti-corruption software is developed specifically to detect and respond to fraud, including data mining for data sets and administrative procedures.

Intalio uses mobile technology and applications to harness data and gain insight into the work of departments. This technology is used to empower citizens in remote areas, facilitate and simplify access to information without any hindrance. It contributes to the prevention of administrative corruption through enhanced analysis and actual measurement indicators and dashboards in real-time.

By building smart management and risk management software Intalio helps reducing financial and administrative waste. The dashboards of this software used to enhance data analytics, monitor the deviations present with predictive status, show the performance of private projects and tenders, compare them with established objectives, evaluate the performance of employee departments and keep all related documents, correspondences, and data archived in a safe repository for the future. This tool helps accordingly in making appropriate decisions to reduce fraud and deception in institutions.

Real Success Stories…

General Auditing Bureau:

The General Auditing Bureau (GAB), in collaboration with Intalio, successfully implemented SHAMEL, an electronic auditing platform, designed by Intalio that helps with the automation of its business procedures. This was part of the overall plan that the kingdom has initiated; Saudi Vision 2030 for creating smart cities. The objective of this project is to facilitate all necessary communications and eliminate errors, monitor all types of activities related to Auditing to fight corruption, fraud and embezzlement of funds.

Emirates Identity Authority:

Having to deal with numerous types of forms that correspondence may take, from paper documents, letters, emails, electronic documents, fax and web content, manually dealing with incoming and outgoing correspondence leads to higher processing time, inefficient information worker allocation and increased cost for managing and monitoring this massive amount of information, not to mention the risk of forging, misplacing, damaging, and losing documents.

To maintain a high level of safe and accurate services, EIDA decided to deploy Content Management Solution at the Enterprise level to cover Document Management and Information Lifecycle Management, managing the entire lifecycle of documents from the production to the storage stage, and Correspondence Tracking and Management to automate its correspondences within and outside the Ministry.

Future Expectations…

Fighting corruption grabs today’s headlines, especially in the region. The technology and digital transformation strategies established by Intalio in many countries worldwide have proved effective in developing the service and reducing corruption. These tools have become sophisticated enough to deal with fraud and extortion in government transactions, thus reducing the extent of corruption and eliminating it in the future.

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