Cybersecurity

Juniper Research’s new report, released this month, is a sobering read on rises in cybercrime and the increase in breaches. The Future of Cybercrime and Security predicts that over 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals in 2023 alone. This number represents an increase of 175 percent over the 12 billion records expected to be compromised this year. The predicted cumulative loss over the entire period from 2018 to 2023 is 146 billion records—a staggering number with significant economic impact worldwide.

To combat the stress and financial impact of international Wangiri fraud and scam calls, Vodafone UK has taken steps to protect its customers. It will now protect customers by blocking these widespread calls before they even reach its users. Meta Networks has joined the Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program (TIPP) in a collaborative effort to combat cybercrime and secure its cloud network-as-as-service.

Innovation

New initiatives to enhance innovation were revealed this month. Spirent announced its companywide “Promise. Assured.” business initiative to leverage its proven innovation to pursue emerging technologies and new industries and extend into service provider and enterprise networks. Spirent will focus on assuring customer performance and revenues with solutions for 5G, lifecycle service assurance and analytics, and cybersecurity and explore new business opportunities in virtualization, autonomous vehicles and automotive. Swiftpage, the provider of Act! CRM software, announced the launch of its Small Business Idea and Invention Scholarship, a new program that will award $2,500 to a student who submits an idea, invention, or app that helps small business owners grow their businesses and run them more efficiently. Microsoft has selected the eight winners of its third annual Airband Grant Fund to help bring broadband internet access to rural communities. Winners include CvWireless, Skylark Wireless, Tribal Digital Health, Numbers4Health, Mesh Power, Cold Hubs, Agsol, and ME Solshare.

Another new study from Juniper Research predicts blockchain deployments will enable banks to realize savings of over $27 billion in cross-border settlement transactions by the end of 2030—a reduction of more than 11 percent per on-chain transaction.

Infobip is launching a new communications channel—WhatsApp Business—that enables enterprise communications for WhatsApp, which has 1.5 billion users in 180 countries. The early access launch will onboard businesses and financial institutions gradually through a review process.

Video and Entertainment

Consolidated Communications is the first provider to partner with Philo on streaming service featuring live TV, DVR and on-demand services with entertainment, lifestyle and knowledge programming. Philo service will be available to all Consolidated Communications customers and can be viewed anywhere on any Internet-connected device. Philo carries programming from A+E Networks, Discovery, Scripps Networks, HGTV, HISTORY, Lifetime, TLC, Travel Channel and more. The Korea Content Platform (KCP), a joint venture between Korea’s three leading broadcasters, is celebrating the one-year anniversary launch of its Internet subscription service, KOCOWA, which streams the most popular Korean television programs on-demand in the United States.

The Federal Communications Commission announced proposed rules in August to implement a recent Congressional directive to reimburse certain Low Power TV (LPTV), TV translator, and FM stations for costs incurred as a result of the Commission’s incentive auction in 2012 under the new 2018 Reimbursement Expansion Act (REA). 

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