IBM Security today announced research from its IBM X-Force Research team which revealed the financial services industry was attacked more than any other industry in 2016 – 65 percent more than the average organization across all industries. 

Cyberespionage is now the most common type of attack seen in manufacturing, the public sector and now education, warns the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report.  Much of this is due to the high proliferation of propriety research, prototypes and confidential personal data, which are hot-ticket items forcybercriminals. Nearly 2,000 breaches were analyzed in this year’s report and more than 300 were espionage-related many of which started life as phishing emails.

Today Infosys, a well-known provider of consulting, technology, outsourcing, and next-generation services, has revealed Infosys Nia, the next-generation AI platform. Newly launched mechanism combines company’s first-generation AI platform, Infosys Mana and AssistAdge, its Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution.  

As part of its Ventures activities, BearingPoint has invested in the Oslo-based start-up Tribe. Tribe is an insurance provider that has developed an innovative business model and IT insurance platform. It enables customers to receive simple and fair insurance solutions by leveraging the trust among their networks of friends and families. BearingPoint and Tribe will enter into a long-term relationship to expand their respective service portfolios.

I have a keynote coming up on May 19 in Amsterdam with The Next Web, who I regularly write a column for now.  Here’s my latest one:

On May 19, Prague will host the largest conference in the Eastern Europe, dedicated to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies – Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Prague. One of its topics will be optimization of labor market with the help of blockchain.

The topic will be covered by Jonathan Chester (USA), the founder and president of the international service BitWage, and author of Fintech articles in Forbes.

123ContactForm, which has helped more than a million users worldwide build online forms and surveys, announced today that it now supports Square payments. Square, a leading payment gateway that also enables merchants to accept payments with a physical device for swiping credit cards, handles millions of transactions across Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Bitcoin may be the talk of the moment, but did you realize that Bitcoin is simply a tip of an iceberg as far as cryptocurrencies are involved? The huge achievement of Bitcoin has evoked the advancement of numerous cryptocurrencies, and which are oftentimes called Altcoins. The entire world of digital currencies is currently getting bombarded with these Altcoins.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing and the IBM Center for Blockchain Innovation (ICBI), a part of IBM Research, are collaborating to jointly develop a module on financial technology, to better equip students with essential knowledge and skill sets in this area.