Month: May 2019

Technology

Facial Recognition Could be The Next Access Point For Hackers

John Ejiofor / May 26, 2019

Facial recognition, a form of biometric technology is a biological measurement — or physical characteristic — that can be used to identify individuals. Researchers claim the shape of an ear, the way someone sits and walks, unique body odors, the veins in one’s hands, and even facial contortions are other unique identifiers. Because physical characteristics are relatively fixed and individualized — even in the case of twins — they are being used to replace or at least augment password systems for computers, phones, and restricted access rooms and buildings. Biometrics scanners are becoming increasingly sophisticated. For example, Apple’s iPhone X  which operates on the facial recognition technology incidents 30,000 infrared dots onto a user’s face in order to create a sequence of reflections which produce information about the 3D shape of the face, substantiating the user by pattern matching. The chance of mistaken identity is one in a million, according to Apple. This technological advancement should be a thing of joy as it’s supposed to go a long way in easing us of the constant worries of having to remember our passwords and also being very careful not to mistakenly drop them for cybercriminals. It is on record that in…

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Business, Technology

Larry Kim of MobileMonkey Answers Where Chatbots is Taking Businesses

John Ejiofor / May 23, 2019

One problem that has besieged marketers over the years has been how to engage their teeming customers at scale, but thanks to the advancement in technology, with the continuing research and development as well as the push to innovate, chatbots have come to redress this situation. Marketers now have chatbots, a unique and distinctive opportunity to engage their customers at scale. Chatbots have come to revolutionize the way customers’ questions are answered. Customers are the central point of any kind of business, therefore, all your effort should be geared towards ensuring that your customers’ pain points are addressed promptly. This requires a 24/7 service and there is no way you can do that without chatbots, especially with the world population estimated to be 7.79 billion by 2020. This could be the reason why Larry Kim the founder of one of the largest search marketing company(Wordstream) realized before selling the company to kickstart an entirely new company MobileMonkey that is centered on messaging. In an interview, Larry Kim granted Nature Torch, he bares his mind on what the transition has been like. 1.) What is the transition from founding one of the largest search marketing company(Wordstream) to building a Chatbot company…

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Technology

Can Blockchain Solve the Problem of Data Breaches?

John Ejiofor / May 21, 2019

We live in a dynamic and ever-changing world, with data breaches increasing and regulators looking to tackle the issue with strict restrictions on data management. One such regulation that has had a widespread impact is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) brought in by the EU. It is having an effect all over the globe, not just in the EU countries. Essentially, if you’re processing data that has even a single EU citizen involved, then you must conform to the regulation. These tight and strict regulations have been brought in to combat the ever-growing number of data breaches which have an impact on individuals and companies. In a digital age, where previously there was little to no regulation, privacy was an afterthought. Now, privacy is beginning to reshape the internet. So, it might just be that blockchain technology, the innovation powering the world of cryptocurrencies, holds the key to preventing data breaches. Major Data Breaches and Blockchain: Use Cases The case of 500 million compromised records You might be surprised to learn that around 5 billion records were compromised in 2018. According to the study conducted by RBS, the most vulnerable sector is the business sector – it accounts for…

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Business, Technology

High Churn Rate in Apps: 3 Causes And Remedies

John Ejiofor / May 20, 2019

Across all industries and as of the second half of 2018, 71% of all app users churn within 90 days. This high churn rate is very disturbing and frustrating to businesses taking into consideration that it can cost five times more to convert a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. The customer churn rate is obtained by dividing the number of customers you lost in a quarter by the number of customers you had at the beginning of that quarter. It’s a very important metric in understanding whether your company is experiencing a high customer churn rate. If you are surprised why your brand should be concerned about apps churn rate, users connected to iOS and Android devices spend 86% of there time on apps while they spend only 14% on browsers. What then are these 3 causes of high churn rates in apps? 1. Lack of qualitative value Why you use an app is because you want to solve a particular problem and if that problem persists, you may want to reconsider your initial decision. Meanwhile, the following apps are assessed based on what they do well, Uber – Helps people reliably secure transportation. Waze…

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Technology

3 Steps to Effectively Mitigating The Effects of Cyber Attacks

John Ejiofor / May 7, 2019

The fight against cyber attacks have basically been preventive but it has clearly dawned on brands that cybercriminals are not relenting on their assaults and are even becoming tech-savvier as days go by. Going by a new Ponemon Institute report that some 90% of critical infrastructure (CNI) providers’ claim that their IT/OT environment has been damaged by a cyber-attack over the past two years and that there were at least 2,100,480,045 records compromised in March 2019, it’s glaring that the attacks can be overwhelming and also cut across boards.. It, therefore, won’t be out of place if you have to reach a balance between preventative and recovery measures. You should operate on the premise that you may not outrightly be able to nip every future attack in the bud with preventive measures and for this reason, there must be a balance with recovery. If adequate resources are distributed over protection and recovery, you will put yourself in a much better position not only to fight cybercrimes but to also mitigate the effects if for any reason you suffer an attack. The following 3 steps will put you in good stead to effectively mitigate the effects of cyber attacks. 1. Incidence…

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Marketing, Technology

How Chatbots Improve Customer Engagement

John Ejiofor / May 3, 2019

Marketing revolves around customers and any brand that fails to leverage customer engagement is obvious to fail on customer expectations. Customers are the central point of any kind of business, and if you are facing very stiff competition from other players in the market, you can’t afford to toy with customer engagement. Today customers want to have their questions answered instantly. This necessarily means that you should be equipped to provide around the clock service. Since humans are known for certain frailties and cannot be expected to constantly provide 24/7 service, the coast becomes very clear for chatbots to effectively and efficiently engage customers. Chatbots technologically, are meant to only represent the natural evolution of a Question Answering system based on Natural Language Processing (NLP). The formulation of responses to questions in natural language is one of the most typical Examples of Natural Language Processing applied in various enterprises’ end-use applications. Chatbots outstandingly streamline interactions between people and services, thereby enhancing smooth customer engagement. At the same time, they offer businesses new opportunities to improve the customers’ engagement process and operational efficiency by distinctively lowering the typical cost of customer service. The following are ways chatbots effectively help brands in…

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