IT News Week 5 Feb 2018

For IT News Week 2 Feb 2018.
  • PR - Feb 26, 2018 - MachNation Rates Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT a Leading Vendor in 2018 IoT Application Enablement Scorecard
  • PR - Feb 26, 2018 - McAfee Further Expands Collaboration With Samsung to Safeguard Devices
  • PR - Feb 23, 2018 - YAB Prime Minister witnesses launch of cashless ecosystem for Malaysia through Boost e-wallet
  • PR - Feb 21, 2018 - OutSystems Launches New Center of Excellence to Bring Artificial Intelligence to Application Development
  • PR - Feb 20, 2018 - Microsoft digital civility study shows online abuse often comes from people’s own social circles
  • PR - Feb 20, 2018 - Comment from InfoWatch on MCMC may have identified sources of massive data breach
  • PR - Feb 19, 2018 - Official Holding Statement From Sunway Lagoon with regards to Ruffa Gutierrez incident
  • PR - Feb 19, 2018 - Barracuda Security Insight Platform Reveals Highly Weaponized File Types
  • PR - Feb 14, 2018 - EXABYTES Acquires ICONZ-Webvisions Sdn Bhd
  • PR - Feb 6, 2018 - Tech M&A has generated US$ 22.7bn in 2017

PR - Feb 26, 2018 - MachNation Rates Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT a Leading Vendor in 2018 IoT Application Enablement Scorecard

Software AG, a leader in many innovative and digital technology categories, recently announced its Cumulocity IoT platform has been rated a leading vendor amongst 21 IoT vendors in MachNation’s 2018 IoT Application Enablement Scorecard. This reinforces the capabilities of Cumulocity IoT as the platform of choice for Asian enterprises who want to seize growth opportunities and transform their businesses through IoT.

With Asia Pacific’s IoT market expected to reach 8.6 billion connected devices by 2020 and 86% of companies in the region will have some form of IoT in place by 2019, Software AG has a comprehensive solution that has strengthened their position as a market leader that facilitates customers’ access to the IoT seamlessly.

PR - Feb 26, 2018 - McAfee Further Expands Collaboration With Samsung to Safeguard Devices

McAfee, the leading device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, has announced it is extending its long-standing partnership with Samsung to safeguard consumers from cybersecurity threats on the new Galaxy S9 smartphones, Galaxy Note8, Smart TVs, PCs and notebooks. This highlights McAfee’s unwavering commitment to helping companies build security in from the start, to help keep consumers stay protected.

As the cyber threat landscape has evolved and grown over the years, consumers have taken notice of new risks. In a recent McAfee survey, 61% of respondents claimed they are more worried about cybersecurity today than they were five years ago, and 73% either own or plan to purchase antivirus software.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note8 will come pre-installed with anti-malware protection powered by McAfee VirusScan and Samsung Secure Wi-Fi service, for which McAfee provides the backend infrastructure.

PR - Feb 23, 2018 - YAB Prime Minister witnesses launch of cashless ecosystem for Malaysia through Boost e-wallet

At the inaugural Axiata Group (Axiata or Group) townhall staged at the Axiata Arena with over 1000 Axiata and Celcom employees as well as partners, investees and beneficiaries, YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia today witnessed the launch of the Cashless Ecosystem for Malaysia through Boost in conjunction with some of its partners such as SME Corp, AmBank, PLUS, UTM and UiTM. This milestone partnership will serve to expand the cashless ecosystem in Malaysia and enable as many local businesses to tap into the card-less mobile electronic wallet lifestyle.

YAB Prime Minister witnesses launch of cashless ecosystem for Malaysia through Boost e-wallet

Boost is now a leading e-wallet with over 1.7mn users with online and offline merchants located in over 8,000 locations. Boost aims to revolutionize the way Malaysian consumers transact by creating a seamless payment experience without cash or cards. It serves the youth segment and mass consumers to merchants at selected pasar malam, food trucks, food courts and across various industries such as F&B, entertainment, transportation, online shopping and bookstores to name a few. As a lifestyle application, users can perform services such as buying prepaid top ups and digital vouchers as well as gifting them, free cash transfers and even “Go Dutch” with its unique split bills feature. They also get instant cash back when using the service with rewarding and addictive experiences.

Acknowledging Axiata as one of the leading drivers of Malaysia’s digital economy, YAB Prime Minister expressed his support of the Group in spearheading innovative digital and financial inclusion initiatives, especially in addressing small and micro businesses in Malaysia.

Hosted by YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Wira Azman Hj. Mokthar, Chairman of Axiata and YBhg Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and Group CEO of Axiata, the event was further graced by other dignitaries namely, Tan Sri Dato' Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, Chairman, PLUS Malaysia Berhad; Datuk Azman Ismail, Managing Director, PLUS Malaysia Berhad, YM Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, CEO, AmInvestment Bank Berhad, Tan Sri Ir. (Dr.) Mohamed Al Amin Abdul Majid, Chairman, SME Corp.; Prof Dr. Hj. Mohamad Kamal Hj. Harun, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UiTM; and Prof. Dr. Durrishah Bt Idrus, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UTM.

PR - Feb 21, 2018 - OutSystems Launches New Center of Excellence to Bring Artificial Intelligence to Application Development

OutSystems, provider of the number 1 platform for low-code application development, has begun a major initiative to bring artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to software development.

As part of the project, aptly named Project Turing after Alan Turing, father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, OutSystems will:
  • Build a new AI Centre of Excellence in Lisbon, Portugal
  • Commit 20 percent of its overall research and development resources to focus on this challenge
  • Partner with industry experts, technology leaders and universities to drive original research and innovation in the field of AI/ML

The new centre, launched on 19 February 2018, will initially focus on three big projects:
  • Developing new AI Assistants to further accelerate application development
  • Designing AI-based Analysers that will decrease application maintenance costs
  • Developing AI-based systems that automatically generate new feature recommendations for new applications based on large data sets of usage, error reporting, customer feedback, adoption rates, and business metrics

PR - Feb 20, 2018 - Microsoft digital civility study shows online abuse often comes from people’s own social circles

In conjunction with Safer Internet Day, Microsoft released its 2nd Annual Digital Civility Index (DCI) - a survey that examines people’s attitudes and perceptions about online behaviour and interactions. The survey found that:
  • 28% of Malaysians have been exposed to online harassment
  • 22% of Malaysians have experienced trolling
  • 20% of Malaysians have been exposed to a hoax, scam and/or a fraud

PR - Feb 20, 2018 - Comment from InfoWatch on MCMC may have identified sources of massive data breach

Recently, there was news report on MCMC may have identified sources of massive data breach.

Sergey Khayruk, InfoWatch Group’s Analyst would like to share the below:-

“Malaysia realized the need for information security discussions after a mega leak that compromised the data of 46+ million people. It is encouraging to see government, business, and society starting the dialogue at last and trying to address this long-standing issue. However, no panacea will ever be available here, and thus the stakeholders need to elaborate a multi-factor leak preventing strategy, i.e. review the existing legislation, adopt advanced tools against both intruders and insiders, and raise cybersecurity awareness and hygiene among employees of companies and government agencies. Although such strategy can leverage the world’s best practices, it should be tailored to national specifics.”

PR - Feb 19, 2018 - Official Holding Statement From Sunway Lagoon with regards to Ruffa Gutierrez incident

In response to a recent incident experienced by Ms Ruffa Gutierrez and her guests at Sunway Lagoon, the management would like to state that Sunway Lagoon has looked into this matter seriously and have also been closely in touch with Ms Gutierrez to help in this matter.

Sunway Lagoon is a family-fun theme park and our guests’ safety has always been our utmost priority, hence any unruly behaviour in the park will certainly not be tolerated and will be dealt with accordingly.

PR - Feb 19, 2018 - Barracuda Security Insight Platform Reveals Highly Weaponized File Types

Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions, today announced the availability of its new advisory platform - Barracuda Security Insight.

The new advisory platform offers detailed real-time threat intelligence and security risk information to help consumers and IT professionals remain aware of current global threat levels By analysing data collected from Barracuda endpoints all over the globe, Barracuda Security Insight helps determine the current cybersecurity threat level based on email, network, and web traffic flows. It provides summaries and detailed views of current threat campaigns that Barracuda tracks in real-time.

Some of the recent threat trends revealed by Barracuda Security Insight includes, PDF files represent the highest volume of weaponized file types to be transmitted through observed attack surfaces. PDFs scanned in the last three months showed nearly 41 million were part of an attack and often contained links to bad sites and active scripts.

Fleming Shi, SVP of Technology at Barracuda shares, “Organizations often become aware of vicious cyberattacks after the damage has already been done. By offering a free global advisory platform like Barracuda Security Insight, we can help heighten security awareness by proactively identifying the most current threats that should be on everyone’s radar.”

PR - Feb 14, 2018 - EXABYTES Acquires ICONZ-Webvisions Sdn Bhd

Exabytes Capital Group Sdn Bhd ("Exabytes") - the leading eCommerce and Cloud solutions provider in South East Asia, has completed its 100% acquisition of ICONZ-Webvisions Sdn Bhd on 9th February 2018 for an undisclosed amount.

Based on a statement by Exabytes’ Founder and CEO, Chan Kee Siak, this acquisition marks the 1st part of the Exabytes Group’s merger and acquisition roadmap for the year 2018.

PR - Feb 6, 2018 - Tech M&A has generated US$ 22.7bn in 2017

Tech M&A has generated US$ 22.7bn, just short of the equivalent value seen in YTD 2017. This week’s US$ 823m takeover of ThreatMetrix demonstrates the growing interest in cybersecurity in recent years.



According to Mergermarket data, tech M&A in 2017 reached its highest number of deals since 2001, the sector received 2689 deals worth US$267.7bn. Deal values, on the other hand, represented a 34.4% drop as dealmakers appeared to hunt smaller targets.

Please click here to see the full report.

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