These Oculus Go deals make virtual reality even cheaper in January Sales

If you're curious about entering the world of virtual reality in 2020, you'll want to start with these excellent Oculus Go deals. The cheap VR headset is currently £50 less on Amazon, with the deal spanning both the 32GB and 64GB models, meaning you can pick up an Oculus Go deal for just £149 in the January Sales. 

You're getting access to an amazing world of virtual reality experiences, though you won't find the entire Oculus store available on the Go. This is a slimmed down experience with the price tag to match, so you'll still be playing fantastic games and have access to a wide range of virtual experiences and streaming but don't expect the full library of the Quest or Rift straight from the off. 

Instead, this headset is geared towards the curious or simply those who don't want to splash out on an expensive PC to run their virtual reality - which makes these cheap Oculus Go deals even better.

Today's best Oculus Go deals for January sales

It's not the first time we've seen these headsets at such low prices: the 32GB model reached £149.99 over Black Friday, and continues to hover around that price, though we expect it will shoot back up to its RRP before the year is out, if not very early in 2020.

The 64GB model is also only £199.99, down from £249.99 – we saw it drop briefly to £189.99 but it's still a decent saving on an entry-level VR headset, and less than half the price of the more premium Oculus Quest.

If you're not in the UK, you can see the cheapest Oculus Go prices in your region below:

December 31, 2019 at 05:58PM
Henry St Leger

Cybersecurity threats to watch out for

The internet can be a hostile environment. The threat of cyberattack is ever-present as new vulnerabilities are released and a commodity of tools are produced to exploit them. Therefore, the pressure on organisations (and their employees) to protect customer data and defend against attacks, is mounting.

But aside from using Firewalls and antivirus software, how can we expect businesses, especially smaller businesses with limited security budgets and skills, to keep on top of evolving threats? 

As our 2019 Nastiest Malware List highlights, cyberattacks are becoming more advanced and difficult to detect. From ransomware strains to cryptomining campaigns – that deliver the most attack payloads beyond phishing – cybercriminals are making better use of stolen, personal information available to craft more convincing and targeted attacks.

Ultimately, what this means is that doing nothing is no longer an option. It’s time that organisations step up, learning how to spot potential threats and the implications behind these attack tactics. This starts with understanding the ‘nastiest’ threats out there today that are leaving businesses at risk. 

Botnets: delivering mass disruption

Botnets have continued to dominate the infection attack chain in 2019. No other type of malware was responsible for delivering more ransomware and cryptomining payloads. 

Emotet, which was the most prevalent malware of 2018, held onto that notorious distinction into 2019. While it was briefly shut down in June, Emotet returned from the dead in September, and remains the largest botnet to date, delivering various malicious payloads.

Trickbot has been partnering with banking Trojan groups like IcedID and Ursif in 2019. Its modular infrastructure makes it a serious threat for any network it infects and, when combined with Ryuk ransomware, it's one of the more devastating targeted attacks of 2019.

Dridex was once one of the most prominent banking trojans. Now it acts as an implant in the infection chain with the Bitpaymer ransomware and is achieving alarming success.

The triple threat of Emotet, Trickbot and Ryuk

Ransomware has been around for nearly a decade and it should come as no surprise that it’s still a firm favourite amongst cybercriminals. Ransomware remains a top threat, adopting a more targeted model last year. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are easy prey and make up most of its victims. 

And one of the most menacing ransomware evolutions comes in the form of the ‘triple threat’ attack, involving Emotet, Trickbot and Ryuk. In terms of financial damage, this is probably the most successful chain of 2019. With more targeted, reconnaissance-based operations, they now assign a value to targeted networks post-infection will extort them accordingly after deploying ransomware.

As far as other ransomware strains are concerned, GandCrab is one of the most successful examples of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) to date, with profits in excess of $2 billion. While Crysis (aka Dharma) makes its second consecutive appearance on our Nastiest Malware list. This ransomware was actively distributed in the first half of 2019, with almost all infections we observed distributed through RDP compromise.

Personalised phishing

Email-based malware campaigns grow in their complexity and believability dramatically this year. Phishing became increasingly more personalised and extortion emails have begun claiming to have captured lude behaviour using compromised passwords.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks also surged in 2019. Individuals who are responsible for sending payments or purchasing gift cards were targeted through spoof email accounts impersonating company executives or familiar parties. Victims are often tricked into giving up wire transfers, credentials, gift cards and more.

What many employees don’t realise is that often, the biggest security concern at the office is one of their co-workers, not a hacker in some remote location. A lack of best practices like poor domain administration, being reactive, not proactive, reuse and sharing of passwords, and lack of multi-factor authentication all mean bad actors may already be ‘phishing’ amongst them.

Cryptomining and Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking (also called malicious cryptomining) is an emerging online threat that hides on a computer or mobile device and uses the machine’s resources to “mine” forms of online money known as cryptocurrencies. It’s a menace that can take over web browsers and compromise all kinds of devices, from desktops and laptops, to smartphones and even network servers. And according to Webroot’s research, these attacks rise and fall with the relative market cap of cryptocurrency price. The largest campaign of cryptojacking this year is through the ‘Retadup’ attacks and the most innovative was ‘Hidden Bee’. 

Hidden Bee tactics have a complex and multi-layered internal structure that is unusual among cybercrime toolkits, making it an interesting addition to the threat landscape. It first emerged last year with IE exploits and has now evolved into payloads inside JPEG and PNG images through Steganography and WAV media formats flash exploits. The additional difficulty in the analysis is introduced by the fact that the URLs and encryption keys are never reused and work only for a single session.

Whereas Retadup, is a cryptomining worm, that first started last year and was removed in August by Cybercrime Fighting Center (C3N) of the French National Gendarmerie, after they took control of the malware’s command and control server. It stealthily uses a computer’s processor to mine cryptocurrency, which generates money for the operators. It’s also able to run other types of malware, such as ransomware, and is commonly spread via attachments, file-sharing networks and links to malicious websites. Peak infection counts had Retadup on over 800k machines simultaneously.

Closing critical security gaps

These nastiest threats highlight how a comprehensive approach to endpoint security is needed now more than ever, to keep up with these various and complex attack models. Attackers may be using the same strains of malware, but they are making better use of stolen personal information available for more personalised threats. As a result, organisations need to adopt a layered security approach and not underestimate the power of consistent security training as they work to improve their cyber resiliency and protection.

After all, a business that practices good risk management not only protects its reputation, intellectual property and data, but will also offer its customers a measure of assurance making them attractive to do business with.

• We feature the best cloud antivirus here.

December 31, 2019 at 06:12PM
Tyler Moffitt

These Oculus Go deals make virtual reality even cheaper in January Sales

If you're curious about entering the world of virtual reality in 2020, you'll want to start with these excellent Oculus Go deals. The cheap VR headset is currently £50 less on Amazon, with the deal spanning both the 32GB and 64GB models, meaning you can pick up an Oculus Go deal for just £149 in the January Sales. 

You're getting access to an amazing world of virtual reality experiences, though you won't find the entire Oculus store available on the Go. This is a slimmed down experience with the price tag to match, so you'll still be playing fantastic games and have access to a wide range of virtual experiences and streaming but don't expect the full library of the Quest or Rift straight from the off. 

Instead, this headset is geared towards the curious or simply those who don't want to splash out on an expensive PC to run their virtual reality - which makes these cheap Oculus Go deals even better.

Today's best Oculus Go deals for January sales

It's not the first time we've seen these headsets at such low prices: the 32GB model reached £149.99 over Black Friday, and continues to hover around that price, though we expect it will shoot back up to its RRP before the year is out, if not very early in 2020.

The 64GB model is also only £199.99, down from £249.99 – we saw it drop briefly to £189.99 but it's still a decent saving on an entry-level VR headset, and less than half the price of the more premium Oculus Quest.

If you're not in the UK, you can see the cheapest Oculus Go prices in your region below:

December 31, 2019 at 05:58PM
Henry St Leger

Digital identity: enabling the new economy

As our lives become increasingly dependent on the internet, establishing trust becomes vital to society. Yet, the old ways of documenting and verifying trust are no longer fit for purpose: documents get faked; static data gets hacked; and consumers continue to opt for convenience over security. Hackers and malware remain ever present threats and consumers still need to use antivirus software.

Close your eyes, and picture Britain in 1939. Bracing for a Second World War, the country introduces military conscription and the National Registration Bill, requiring every citizen to carry a national identity card at all times. One single document – one piece of information – to verify that you are who you say you are. 

Fast forward 80 years, past multiple technological breakthroughs: the industrialisation of fossil fuels; commercial aviation; smart grids and electricity storage; global telecommunications; and of course, the internet. The march of technology never stops, and we’re now propelling ourselves towards post-digital life, living in smart cities and connected homes; working in the automated age; moving and spending across borders. 

These global shifts have already radically re-shaped the way we live. Yet, the ways we establish trust and verify identity remain stuck in the past, primarily still linked to government databases such as the electoral roll, and private sector datasets like credit scores. 

You could say that the internet, which emerged to become the dominant technological platform of our time – was built without identity in mind.

A connected world

As the public and private sectors wake up to the power and potential of a connected world, more and more questions arise. How can credit card processing truly be verified, when the seller can’t see the buyer? How can an organisation know you are who you claim to be, when you sign up for a new service online? And as we build our lives around an increasingly complex Internet of Things (IoT), a sprawling platform that anonymises and connects together our digital breadcrumb trails, how do we create trust? 

Where does this leave us today? In a clear transition phase. The private sector now walks the tightrope of balancing experience with endpoint security, as the public sector tries to keep pace and create governance that protects without hindering innovation. Meanwhile, technology pioneers are stitching together a new layer in our connected world – a layer of trusted, global data that bring the concept of identity into this century and future-proof it for the next.

This evolution in identity management means it’ll take a step-change in the data points we use and the way we use them, to power trust in the digital economy. A wave of new approaches and data sources will be used to not only protect both sides of each online and offline interaction, but also provide context around an individual’s background and behaviour. As our digital identity comprises an increasingly rich set of contextual data points, organisations will be able to verify not only identity, but authenticity – bringing a new type of trust to online interactions and enabling them to infuse due diligence with data intelligence.

Proving who you are with your biological characteristics is another next step we are seeing, in this evolution of identity. As the era of smartphones and wearables makes technology more personal than ever, advances in the availability and reliability of biometric technologies – that measure unique physical characteristics such as an individual’s face, fingerprint or behavioural biometrics – will bring us a lot closer to the ability to verify the identity of almost anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time.

Beyond biometrics

Other emerging, horizontal technologies will also become increasingly prevalent. Microservices linked up through a platform approach will connect disparate data and services together; static verification will power ongoing, ‘ambient’ authentication; distributed ledgers could become an effective way to decentralise ownership and balance the demands of privacy and convenience; Machine Learning (ML) and augmented intelligence will help organisations make faster, more accurate decisions on how best to identify their customers.

That’s not to say there won’t be risks, too. The implementation of new verification technologies won’t be seamless, and communicating their value will be key. Pilots of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, for example, have triggered the kind of backlash we often see when disruptive technologies begin to establish a ‘new normal’ in business and daily life. In this case, as our digital identity trails fragment and tracking crime becomes more complex, it’s hard to imagine a future where these technologies are not used widely. The private sector already embraces new forms of identity verification for employee monitoring, and it benefits consumers every single day from checking their bank balance to ordering a food delivery – the services they use are vastly more flexible, convenient and secure for it.

Clearly, through all of this transformation we will see a consistent debate over data privacy and a constant battle for data security. It will truly take a combined effort to educate citizens on the fundamentals of data security, and stay one step ahead of cyber-criminals – ensuring that contextual, connected identity intelligence is a safe, secure layer in the new economy and our post-digital world.

• Stay safe and anonymous online with the best VPN.

December 31, 2019 at 05:56PM
Gus Tomlinson

Cybersecurity threats to watch out for

The internet can be a hostile environment. The threat of cyberattack is ever-present as new vulnerabilities are released and a commodity of tools are produced to exploit them. Therefore, the pressure on organisations (and their employees) to protect customer data and defend against attacks, is mounting.

But aside from using Firewalls and antivirus software, how can we expect businesses, especially smaller businesses with limited security budgets and skills, to keep on top of evolving threats? 

As our 2019 Nastiest Malware List highlights, cyberattacks are becoming more advanced and difficult to detect. From ransomware strains to cryptomining campaigns – that deliver the most attack payloads beyond phishing – cybercriminals are making better use of stolen, personal information available to craft more convincing and targeted attacks.

Ultimately, what this means is that doing nothing is no longer an option. It’s time that organisations step up, learning how to spot potential threats and the implications behind these attack tactics. This starts with understanding the ‘nastiest’ threats out there today that are leaving businesses at risk. 

Botnets: delivering mass disruption

Botnets have continued to dominate the infection attack chain in 2019. No other type of malware was responsible for delivering more ransomware and cryptomining payloads. 

Emotet, which was the most prevalent malware of 2018, held onto that notorious distinction into 2019. While it was briefly shut down in June, Emotet returned from the dead in September, and remains the largest botnet to date, delivering various malicious payloads.

Trickbot has been partnering with banking Trojan groups like IcedID and Ursif in 2019. Its modular infrastructure makes it a serious threat for any network it infects and, when combined with Ryuk ransomware, it's one of the more devastating targeted attacks of 2019.

Dridex was once one of the most prominent banking trojans. Now it acts as an implant in the infection chain with the Bitpaymer ransomware and is achieving alarming success.

The triple threat of Emotet, Trickbot and Ryuk

Ransomware has been around for nearly a decade and it should come as no surprise that it’s still a firm favourite amongst cybercriminals. Ransomware remains a top threat, adopting a more targeted model last year. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are easy prey and make up most of its victims. 

And one of the most menacing ransomware evolutions comes in the form of the ‘triple threat’ attack, involving Emotet, Trickbot and Ryuk. In terms of financial damage, this is probably the most successful chain of 2019. With more targeted, reconnaissance-based operations, they now assign a value to targeted networks post-infection will extort them accordingly after deploying ransomware.

As far as other ransomware strains are concerned, GandCrab is one of the most successful examples of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) to date, with profits in excess of $2 billion. While Crysis (aka Dharma) makes its second consecutive appearance on our Nastiest Malware list. This ransomware was actively distributed in the first half of 2019, with almost all infections we observed distributed through RDP compromise.

Personalised phishing

Email-based malware campaigns grow in their complexity and believability dramatically this year. Phishing became increasingly more personalised and extortion emails have begun claiming to have captured lude behaviour using compromised passwords.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks also surged in 2019. Individuals who are responsible for sending payments or purchasing gift cards were targeted through spoof email accounts impersonating company executives or familiar parties. Victims are often tricked into giving up wire transfers, credentials, gift cards and more.

What many employees don’t realise is that often, the biggest security concern at the office is one of their co-workers, not a hacker in some remote location. A lack of best practices like poor domain administration, being reactive, not proactive, reuse and sharing of passwords, and lack of multi-factor authentication all mean bad actors may already be ‘phishing’ amongst them.

Cryptomining and Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking (also called malicious cryptomining) is an emerging online threat that hides on a computer or mobile device and uses the machine’s resources to “mine” forms of online money known as cryptocurrencies. It’s a menace that can take over web browsers and compromise all kinds of devices, from desktops and laptops, to smartphones and even network servers. And according to Webroot’s research, these attacks rise and fall with the relative market cap of cryptocurrency price. The largest campaign of cryptojacking this year is through the ‘Retadup’ attacks and the most innovative was ‘Hidden Bee’. 

Hidden Bee tactics have a complex and multi-layered internal structure that is unusual among cybercrime toolkits, making it an interesting addition to the threat landscape. It first emerged last year with IE exploits and has now evolved into payloads inside JPEG and PNG images through Steganography and WAV media formats flash exploits. The additional difficulty in the analysis is introduced by the fact that the URLs and encryption keys are never reused and work only for a single session.

Whereas Retadup, is a cryptomining worm, that first started last year and was removed in August by Cybercrime Fighting Center (C3N) of the French National Gendarmerie, after they took control of the malware’s command and control server. It stealthily uses a computer’s processor to mine cryptocurrency, which generates money for the operators. It’s also able to run other types of malware, such as ransomware, and is commonly spread via attachments, file-sharing networks and links to malicious websites. Peak infection counts had Retadup on over 800k machines simultaneously.

Closing critical security gaps

These nastiest threats highlight how a comprehensive approach to endpoint security is needed now more than ever, to keep up with these various and complex attack models. Attackers may be using the same strains of malware, but they are making better use of stolen personal information available for more personalised threats. As a result, organisations need to adopt a layered security approach and not underestimate the power of consistent security training as they work to improve their cyber resiliency and protection.

After all, a business that practices good risk management not only protects its reputation, intellectual property and data, but will also offer its customers a measure of assurance making them attractive to do business with.

• We feature the best cloud antivirus here.

December 31, 2019 at 06:12PM
Tyler Moffitt

These Oculus Go deals make virtual reality even cheaper in January Sales

If you're curious about entering the world of virtual reality in 2020, you'll want to start with these excellent Oculus Go deals. The cheap VR headset is currently £50 less on Amazon, with the deal spanning both the 32GB and 64GB models, meaning you can pick up an Oculus Go deal for just £149 in the January Sales. 

You're getting access to an amazing world of virtual reality experiences, though you won't find the entire Oculus store available on the Go. This is a slimmed down experience with the price tag to match, so you'll still be playing fantastic games and have access to a wide range of virtual experiences and streaming but don't expect the full library of the Quest or Rift straight from the off. 

Instead, this headset is geared towards the curious or simply those who don't want to splash out on an expensive PC to run their virtual reality - which makes these cheap Oculus Go deals even better.

Today's best Oculus Go deals for January sales

It's not the first time we've seen these headsets at such low prices: the 32GB model reached £149.99 over Black Friday, and continues to hover around that price, though we expect it will shoot back up to its RRP before the year is out, if not very early in 2020.

The 64GB model is also only £199.99, down from £249.99 – we saw it drop briefly to £189.99 but it's still a decent saving on an entry-level VR headset, and less than half the price of the more premium Oculus Quest.

If you're not in the UK, you can see the cheapest Oculus Go prices in your region below:

December 31, 2019 at 05:58PM
Henry St Leger

Digital identity: enabling the new economy

As our lives become increasingly dependent on the internet, establishing trust becomes vital to society. Yet, the old ways of documenting and verifying trust are no longer fit for purpose: documents get faked; static data gets hacked; and consumers continue to opt for convenience over security. Hackers and malware remain ever present threats and consumers still need to use antivirus software.

Close your eyes, and picture Britain in 1939. Bracing for a Second World War, the country introduces military conscription and the National Registration Bill, requiring every citizen to carry a national identity card at all times. One single document – one piece of information – to verify that you are who you say you are. 

Fast forward 80 years, past multiple technological breakthroughs: the industrialisation of fossil fuels; commercial aviation; smart grids and electricity storage; global telecommunications; and of course, the internet. The march of technology never stops, and we’re now propelling ourselves towards post-digital life, living in smart cities and connected homes; working in the automated age; moving and spending across borders. 

These global shifts have already radically re-shaped the way we live. Yet, the ways we establish trust and verify identity remain stuck in the past, primarily still linked to government databases such as the electoral roll, and private sector datasets like credit scores. 

You could say that the internet, which emerged to become the dominant technological platform of our time – was built without identity in mind.

A connected world

As the public and private sectors wake up to the power and potential of a connected world, more and more questions arise. How can credit card processing truly be verified, when the seller can’t see the buyer? How can an organisation know you are who you claim to be, when you sign up for a new service online? And as we build our lives around an increasingly complex Internet of Things (IoT), a sprawling platform that anonymises and connects together our digital breadcrumb trails, how do we create trust? 

Where does this leave us today? In a clear transition phase. The private sector now walks the tightrope of balancing experience with endpoint security, as the public sector tries to keep pace and create governance that protects without hindering innovation. Meanwhile, technology pioneers are stitching together a new layer in our connected world – a layer of trusted, global data that bring the concept of identity into this century and future-proof it for the next.

This evolution in identity management means it’ll take a step-change in the data points we use and the way we use them, to power trust in the digital economy. A wave of new approaches and data sources will be used to not only protect both sides of each online and offline interaction, but also provide context around an individual’s background and behaviour. As our digital identity comprises an increasingly rich set of contextual data points, organisations will be able to verify not only identity, but authenticity – bringing a new type of trust to online interactions and enabling them to infuse due diligence with data intelligence.

Proving who you are with your biological characteristics is another next step we are seeing, in this evolution of identity. As the era of smartphones and wearables makes technology more personal than ever, advances in the availability and reliability of biometric technologies – that measure unique physical characteristics such as an individual’s face, fingerprint or behavioural biometrics – will bring us a lot closer to the ability to verify the identity of almost anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time.

Beyond biometrics

Other emerging, horizontal technologies will also become increasingly prevalent. Microservices linked up through a platform approach will connect disparate data and services together; static verification will power ongoing, ‘ambient’ authentication; distributed ledgers could become an effective way to decentralise ownership and balance the demands of privacy and convenience; Machine Learning (ML) and augmented intelligence will help organisations make faster, more accurate decisions on how best to identify their customers.

That’s not to say there won’t be risks, too. The implementation of new verification technologies won’t be seamless, and communicating their value will be key. Pilots of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, for example, have triggered the kind of backlash we often see when disruptive technologies begin to establish a ‘new normal’ in business and daily life. In this case, as our digital identity trails fragment and tracking crime becomes more complex, it’s hard to imagine a future where these technologies are not used widely. The private sector already embraces new forms of identity verification for employee monitoring, and it benefits consumers every single day from checking their bank balance to ordering a food delivery – the services they use are vastly more flexible, convenient and secure for it.

Clearly, through all of this transformation we will see a consistent debate over data privacy and a constant battle for data security. It will truly take a combined effort to educate citizens on the fundamentals of data security, and stay one step ahead of cyber-criminals – ensuring that contextual, connected identity intelligence is a safe, secure layer in the new economy and our post-digital world.

• Stay safe and anonymous online with the best VPN.

December 31, 2019 at 05:56PM
Gus Tomlinson

Digital identity: enabling the new economy

As our lives become increasingly dependent on the internet, establishing trust becomes vital to society. Yet, the old ways of documenting and verifying trust are no longer fit for purpose: documents get faked; static data gets hacked; and consumers continue to opt for convenience over security. Hackers and malware remain ever present threats and consumers still need to use antivirus software.

Close your eyes, and picture Britain in 1939. Bracing for a Second World War, the country introduces military conscription and the National Registration Bill, requiring every citizen to carry a national identity card at all times. One single document – one piece of information – to verify that you are who you say you are. 

Fast forward 80 years, past multiple technological breakthroughs: the industrialisation of fossil fuels; commercial aviation; smart grids and electricity storage; global telecommunications; and of course, the internet. The march of technology never stops, and we’re now propelling ourselves towards post-digital life, living in smart cities and connected homes; working in the automated age; moving and spending across borders. 

These global shifts have already radically re-shaped the way we live. Yet, the ways we establish trust and verify identity remain stuck in the past, primarily still linked to government databases such as the electoral roll, and private sector datasets like credit scores. 

You could say that the internet, which emerged to become the dominant technological platform of our time – was built without identity in mind.

A connected world

As the public and private sectors wake up to the power and potential of a connected world, more and more questions arise. How can credit card processing truly be verified, when the seller can’t see the buyer? How can an organisation know you are who you claim to be, when you sign up for a new service online? And as we build our lives around an increasingly complex Internet of Things (IoT), a sprawling platform that anonymises and connects together our digital breadcrumb trails, how do we create trust? 

Where does this leave us today? In a clear transition phase. The private sector now walks the tightrope of balancing experience with endpoint security, as the public sector tries to keep pace and create governance that protects without hindering innovation. Meanwhile, technology pioneers are stitching together a new layer in our connected world – a layer of trusted, global data that bring the concept of identity into this century and future-proof it for the next.

This evolution in identity management means it’ll take a step-change in the data points we use and the way we use them, to power trust in the digital economy. A wave of new approaches and data sources will be used to not only protect both sides of each online and offline interaction, but also provide context around an individual’s background and behaviour. As our digital identity comprises an increasingly rich set of contextual data points, organisations will be able to verify not only identity, but authenticity – bringing a new type of trust to online interactions and enabling them to infuse due diligence with data intelligence.

Proving who you are with your biological characteristics is another next step we are seeing, in this evolution of identity. As the era of smartphones and wearables makes technology more personal than ever, advances in the availability and reliability of biometric technologies – that measure unique physical characteristics such as an individual’s face, fingerprint or behavioural biometrics – will bring us a lot closer to the ability to verify the identity of almost anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time.

Beyond biometrics

Other emerging, horizontal technologies will also become increasingly prevalent. Microservices linked up through a platform approach will connect disparate data and services together; static verification will power ongoing, ‘ambient’ authentication; distributed ledgers could become an effective way to decentralise ownership and balance the demands of privacy and convenience; Machine Learning (ML) and augmented intelligence will help organisations make faster, more accurate decisions on how best to identify their customers.

That’s not to say there won’t be risks, too. The implementation of new verification technologies won’t be seamless, and communicating their value will be key. Pilots of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, for example, have triggered the kind of backlash we often see when disruptive technologies begin to establish a ‘new normal’ in business and daily life. In this case, as our digital identity trails fragment and tracking crime becomes more complex, it’s hard to imagine a future where these technologies are not used widely. The private sector already embraces new forms of identity verification for employee monitoring, and it benefits consumers every single day from checking their bank balance to ordering a food delivery – the services they use are vastly more flexible, convenient and secure for it.

Clearly, through all of this transformation we will see a consistent debate over data privacy and a constant battle for data security. It will truly take a combined effort to educate citizens on the fundamentals of data security, and stay one step ahead of cyber-criminals – ensuring that contextual, connected identity intelligence is a safe, secure layer in the new economy and our post-digital world.

• Stay safe and anonymous online with the best VPN.

December 31, 2019 at 05:56PM
Gus Tomlinson

2019's 'Phone Deal of the Year' remains the best SIM only plan for the 2020 January sales

Ben Stokes, Olivia Colman, Margaret Atwood/Bernardine Evaristo. They all took home some prestigious prizes in 2019. And phone network Three joined in the back-slapping fun when it won the prize for 'Phone Deal of the Year' at October's Mobile Choice Consumer Awards.

Its unlimited data SIM only deal took home the gong for the second time in three years, which is obviously great news for Three. But the even better news for you is that you can still get the offer now.

So that means absolutely unlimited data, calls and texts for a mere £18 per month. In a SIM only deals market that seems to get fiercer and fiercer by the day, Three's all-you-can-eat offer remains our favourite of the lot.

We've got more details about the offer below or, if monthly bills of £18 still sound a bit on the high side, keep scrolling to see what other SIM only deals are out there right now.

• More like this: The best early January sales and deals for 2020

Three's award winning SIM only deal:

• Check out the best SIM-free phone deals to combine with these offers

What does a SIM only deal with Three offer?

If you haven't already been won over by this amazing offer from Three then you'll be excited to hear that the network doesn't shy away from offering up some extra incentives as well.

Whether that be free exclusive prizes or extra roaming. You can see all of best parts of a Three SIM only deal or Three mobile deals down below.

• Wuntu - Exclusive offers and freebies with Three's rewards app
• Go Roam - Roaming abilities in 71 worldwide countries at no extra cost
• Travel Swagger - Get travel upgrades with Easyjet with bag drop and early boarding

What other SIM only deals are out there?

£18 per month for unlimited data is undeniably great value, but you can trim your bills even more. In fact, you can get them all the way down to a fiver a month with iD Mobile, if you can manage on 1GB of data.

Our other go-to recommendation at the moment comes from the lesser-known Smarty. With two limited time offers, it is attracting swathes of new customers its way. Choose from either 30GB data for a tenner, or go all out on 50GB for £15 per month. Fantastic value that gets even better when you discover that you'll be put on a 30-day rolling contract that you can break whenever's convenient for you.

December 31, 2019 at 04:30PM
Adam Marshall

2019's 'Phone Deal of the Year' remains the best SIM only plan for the 2020 January sales

Ben Stokes, Olivia Colman, Margaret Atwood/Bernardine Evaristo. They all took home some prestigious prizes in 2019. And phone network Three joined in the back-slapping fun when it won the prize for 'Phone Deal of the Year' at October's Mobile Choice Consumer Awards.

Its unlimited data SIM only deal took home the gong for the second time in three years, which is obviously great news for Three. But the even better news for you is that you can still get the offer now.

So that means absolutely unlimited data, calls and texts for a mere £18 per month. In a SIM only deals market that seems to get fiercer and fiercer by the day, Three's all-you-can-eat offer remains our favourite of the lot.

We've got more details about the offer below or, if monthly bills of £18 still sound a bit on the high side, keep scrolling to see what other SIM only deals are out there right now.

• More like this: The best early January sales and deals for 2020

Three's award winning SIM only deal:

• Check out the best SIM-free phone deals to combine with these offers

What does a SIM only deal with Three offer?

If you haven't already been won over by this amazing offer from Three then you'll be excited to hear that the network doesn't shy away from offering up some extra incentives as well.

Whether that be free exclusive prizes or extra roaming. You can see all of best parts of a Three SIM only deal or Three mobile deals down below.

• Wuntu - Exclusive offers and freebies with Three's rewards app
• Go Roam - Roaming abilities in 71 worldwide countries at no extra cost
• Travel Swagger - Get travel upgrades with Easyjet with bag drop and early boarding

What other SIM only deals are out there?

£18 per month for unlimited data is undeniably great value, but you can trim your bills even more. In fact, you can get them all the way down to a fiver a month with iD Mobile, if you can manage on 1GB of data.

Our other go-to recommendation at the moment comes from the lesser-known Smarty. With two limited time offers, it is attracting swathes of new customers its way. Choose from either 30GB data for a tenner, or go all out on 50GB for £15 per month. Fantastic value that gets even better when you discover that you'll be put on a 30-day rolling contract that you can break whenever's convenient for you.

December 31, 2019 at 04:30PM
Adam Marshall

2019's 'Phone Deal of the Year' remains the best SIM only plan for the 2020 January sales

Ben Stokes, Olivia Colman, Margaret Atwood/Bernardine Evaristo. They all took home some prestigious prizes in 2019. And phone network Three joined in the back-slapping fun when it won the prize for 'Phone Deal of the Year' at October's Mobile Choice Consumer Awards.

Its unlimited data SIM only deal took home the gong for the second time in three years, which is obviously great news for Three. But the even better news for you is that you can still get the offer now.

So that means absolutely unlimited data, calls and texts for a mere £18 per month. In a SIM only deals market that seems to get fiercer and fiercer by the day, Three's all-you-can-eat offer remains our favourite of the lot.

We've got more details about the offer below or, if monthly bills of £18 still sound a bit on the high side, keep scrolling to see what other SIM only deals are out there right now.

• More like this: The best early January sales and deals for 2020

Three's award winning SIM only deal:

• Check out the best SIM-free phone deals to combine with these offers

What does a SIM only deal with Three offer?

If you haven't already been won over by this amazing offer from Three then you'll be excited to hear that the network doesn't shy away from offering up some extra incentives as well.

Whether that be free exclusive prizes or extra roaming. You can see all of best parts of a Three SIM only deal or Three mobile deals down below.

• Wuntu - Exclusive offers and freebies with Three's rewards app
• Go Roam - Roaming abilities in 71 worldwide countries at no extra cost
• Travel Swagger - Get travel upgrades with Easyjet with bag drop and early boarding

What other SIM only deals are out there?

£18 per month for unlimited data is undeniably great value, but you can trim your bills even more. In fact, you can get them all the way down to a fiver a month with iD Mobile, if you can manage on 1GB of data.

Our other go-to recommendation at the moment comes from the lesser-known Smarty. With two limited time offers, it is attracting swathes of new customers its way. Choose from either 30GB data for a tenner, or go all out on 50GB for £15 per month. Fantastic value that gets even better when you discover that you'll be put on a 30-day rolling contract that you can break whenever's convenient for you.

December 31, 2019 at 04:30PM
Adam Marshall

Top five trends that will shape the technology sector in UAE in 2020

With 2019 been a challenging and a transition year, how is 2020 going to be for the information and communications technology in the UAE and what the top trends are that will shape the industry.

Jyoti Lalchandani, vice-president and regional managing director for research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), told in an exclusive to TechRadar Middle East that ICT spending in the UAE is expected to increase by 3.80% to $16.84b compared to $16.22b a year ago.

The research firm has revised its forecast for this year from $16.7b due to a slowdown in the telecommunications sector.

He said that telecom services are feeling the impact of weak consumer confidence and a slowdown in mobile data services.

Even in 2020, the telecom sector is expected to grow the slowest at 1.01% while devices and infrastructure sectors are expected to grow close to 6% and software and IT services (hardware and support services, consulting services, training, education, system integration services, managed services, outsourcing) are expected to grow close to 8%.

 “Commercial segment is looking more positive than the consumer space. The consumer side is going to face pressure due to weak consumer confidence, uptake of trade between the countries, retail, real estate, hospitality,” he said.

On the commercial segment, he said that the services market is growing, driven by strong uptake in cloud-based services, interesting movements on the systems and storage side.

The shifting trends across the globe, he said is that enterprise customers are taking a more cautious approach when investing and in expanding. There is a number of variables such as assumption around global trade, will oil prices be flat or is it going to fluctuate, regional political uncertainty, cost of living index and economic growth.

However, he said that organisations are investing in technology to drive certain things.

“They are investing in technology to get operational efficiency, to cut cost and are investing in Opex-based models such as cloud, and create new revenue streams using AI and cognitive technologies,” he said.

Moreover, he said that people are looking at Expo 2020 and investments regarding it are almost done. 

With 5G gaining adoption, the industry is going to see a significant intake of AI and the internet of things.

Top five trends in 2020

1. Cloud

Public cloud services are seeing a big uptake. The public cloud market is expected to grow by 35% to $406m compared to $299m this year.

Two-thirds of the organisations will approach the cloud through a hybrid model. Organisations in public and government sectors, retail, utilities, transportation, wholesale distribution, hospitality are on the public cloud.

Due to some of the regulatory challenges, banking and financial services and some of the mission-critical applications rely on building their private cloud infrastructure.

The overall business environment is a strong driver for the uptake in cloud services. CFOs love it as it is opex-based and organisation line of business loves it because they get agility and speed. IT organisations love it because of the scale it provides while channels love it because of the “lift and shift” approach as companies move from on-premises to the cloud.  

The on-premise [non-cloud] spending is declining quite rapidly and a lot of spending is moving to the cloud as a subscription-based model. Speed and agility are the key drivers for the cloud.

There is going to be a consolidation in the public cloud space to key four or five players. Cost is going to be a key factor when moving to the cloud for organisations. 

2. Digital transformation

Organisations are getting a bit more aggressive on digital transformation. A lot of pilot projects will enter the mainstream.

A lot of projects and initiatives are around transforming the customer experience. Organisations are leveraging some of the technologies to enrich the customer experience.

Some of the traditional IT areas such as devices and infrastructure are slowing down and companies are using the investment to drive adoption of more disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, internet of things, big data analytics, blockchain and cloud to cut cost and drive more efficiency.

About 25% to 30% of large enterprises are currently in the process of digital transformation, investing in the third platform such as social, mobile, cloud and big data to do one of four things – to be operationally efficient, more agile, create new experiences for customers and create new revenue streams. It is a five to eight-year journey.

Initially, blockchain started off to facilitate a lot of trade financing deals between banks. It hasn’t got a lot of widespread adoption. A lot of the use cases happened in between banks to banks, Smart Dubai and Real Estate Regulatory Agency. The next phase is called the mature of a technology.

The blockchain technology will be matured when you have high volume and low-value transactions. Currently, a lot of the blockchain investments happen in low volume and high-value transactions.

In the next three to four years, blockchain will be embedded into the compute and that will open a significant amount of opportunities.

3. Cybersecurity

Security investments continue to be a major driver for growth. One of the reasons for that is companies are one of the most challenging areas for CIOs and IT.

Now, even CEOs have security as one of their top priority areas. 

Given the region in which we operate due to geopolitical issues and some of the malware that is taking place, security is becoming an important part of the agenda for banks and public sectors.

4. AI and cognitive technologies

Organisations are quite strongly investing in AI and cognitive technologies such as chatbots, analytics and robotic process automation to cut cost, boost operational efficiencies by taking out some of the repetitive tasks humans do and automating it.

The cognitive AI spend is expected to grow by 25.63% to $73.66m compared to $58.63m this year.

Banks, utilities, RTA, Dewa and public sectors have deployed AI and cognitive in a big way.

The AI and cognitive market in the UAE is set to grow between 25% and 30% year over year in the next two to three years. The impact of AI, along with 5G and IoT, will be extremely powerful.

IoT is already embedded into a lot of the technologies in manufacturing and production, fleet management, etc. IoT has become a part of the ecosystem now.

AI is going to automate several tasks and roles while creating new roles that are not yet defined today. It will create more jobs than eliminating.

To run AI and cognitive technologies, the industry needs a lot of data scientists and new skills that do not exist today. It will also force organisations to reskill some of their existing staff and resources. A lot of big organisations are already doing that and investing in training. In the autonomy phase, the machine decides, analyses and executes based on guiding principles that are set.

The overall economic situation is a key driver for that and due to lack of skills. So, these kinds of technologies play nicely into the story. It works 24/7 operation and lesser mistakes or risks compared to humans, so productivity and efficiency are a lot more at a lesser cost.

A lot of private and public sectors have leveraged some of these technologies to automate and cut costs. So, we are seeing an explosion in the digital workforce.

5. Restructuring

Organisations are making fundamental changes in their organisational focus areas and priorities. Several companies are resetting their plans, given the overall economic environment across the region, in rightsizing in several areas, especially in banking, retail, hospitality, banking and financial services.

Organisations need to rightsize in the next two to three years as it is going to be challenging. Organisations are holding back on investments and cutting staff to adapt to the business environment.

Consolidation is taking place in the banking sector and retail margins are under pressure, re-export from Dubai to other regions is down and there is an impact on financial [insurance] services and education sectors.

• AI is the fuel to develop non-oil industries in UAE
• Governments and businesses begin to realise the shift towards AI
• UAE banks are embracing financial technology to evolve and grow

December 31, 2019 at 03:57PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil

Telecommunications regulator to unveil UAE's 5G strategy for next five years

Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE will unveil the “UAE 5G Strategy” for the next five years soon.

Speaking to TechRadar Middle East on the sidelines of the “UAE 5G Conference” on Sunday, Tariq Al Awadi, Executive Director of Spectrum Affairs at TRA UAE, said the strategy will chalk out the roadmap to accommodate and implement 5G for the next five years.

“We will announce what kind of frequency bands will be assigned to operators every year based on use cases and verticals. By 2025, we will have 100% coverage of the UAE with 5G millimetre wave (24.25GHz to the 86GHz),” he said.

Telecom operators in the UAE, etisalat and du, are offering 5G services in the C-band (3.3GHz-3.8GHz).

When the technology is ready from the vendors, he said that telecom operators will provide the network and TRA will provide a good spectrum.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said that some verticals will get more priority if they have a 5G application and telco operators need to provide the network infrastructure.

“Dubai Silicon Oasis is testing autonomous cars right now. As it is a remote location and there is no real business use case, we are providing the 5G network,” he said.

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) has set a dedicated route for carrying the test-runs required in collaboration with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

DSOA and RTA have conducted a Leaders Category of the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport which included a series of placement tests that relate to endurance and authenticity and the ability to drive under traffic conditions simulative to reality such as water sprinklers, different sizes of road humps, sandblasting machines, etc.

According to the Dubai Future Foundation’s ‘Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy’, 25% of the total transportation in Dubai to be in autonomous mode by 2030, involving 5m daily trips, and save AED 22b in annual economic costs.

• GSMA expects cross-border data sharing to take off in Mena from next year
• Intelligent connectivity to drive huge economic growth and create value across industries
• GSMA looks into interoperability of 5G equipment from networking  vendors 
• 5G adoption will reach 6.3% of total connections in Mena in 2025

400MHz of C-band to be allocated to telcos in 2020

Al Awadi said that there are some use cases for 5G but “we are still in the early stages. Organisations are still working on developing 5G standards and one of the big challenges for 5G is to develop standards,” he said.

Beginning of 2020, he said that TRA will allocate 400MHz of the C-band to the telecom operators and the 5G committee at TRA will be restructured to focus only on verticals.

Al Awadi said that the UAE had issues with satellite operators such as Thuraya and Yahsat in the C-band but has made some technical arrangements on how to protect their air stations.

“Satellite operators are using the 3.4GHz to 4.2GHz spectrum and we are taking from them 400MHz and giving them 400MHz spectrum. In the 400MHz, satellite operators have Vsat (very small aperture terminal or air stations (Thuraya and Yahsat).

Moreover, he said that the area surrounding the satellite operators’ space will be protected and that space will not have 5G coverage.

“We have told Vsat to move from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz,” he said.

However, he said that the 5G business model is different from 3G and 4G and the UAE is ready for the fourth industrial revolution and the spectrum is ready.

“The devices for verticals such as manufacturing, utilities, healthcare, retail, agriculture and

Automotive, etc. are not yet ready but the network will be ready. The new use cases are the ones which will make 5G a success,” he said.

Telcos urged to partner with public and private sectors

To make 5G a success, he urged telecom operators to make government entities and private sectors as partners and not as customers.

“If you treat them as ordinary customers, you [telcos] will not succeed. You need to work with them and see their needs and treat them as partners,” he said.

When asked whether UAE will provide a dedicated 5G private network for universities and industries as in Germany, he said that only Germany does it and that is because they have big industries.

“Right now, we are offering only the spectrum to telecom operators and not to private networks. If we do that, then we will not have a very good 5G network in the UAE,” he said.

December 31, 2019 at 03:40PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil

Top five trends that will shape the technology sector in UAE in 2020

With 2019 been a challenging and a transition year, how is 2020 going to be for the information and communications technology in the UAE and what the top trends are that will shape the industry.

Jyoti Lalchandani, vice-president and regional managing director for research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), told in an exclusive to TechRadar Middle East that ICT spending in the UAE is expected to increase by 3.80% to $16.84b compared to $16.22b a year ago.

The research firm has revised its forecast for this year from $16.7b due to a slowdown in the telecommunications sector.

He said that telecom services are feeling the impact of weak consumer confidence and a slowdown in mobile data services.

Even in 2020, the telecom sector is expected to grow the slowest at 1.01% while devices and infrastructure sectors are expected to grow close to 6% and software and IT services (hardware and support services, consulting services, training, education, system integration services, managed services, outsourcing) are expected to grow close to 8%.

 “Commercial segment is looking more positive than the consumer space. The consumer side is going to face pressure due to weak consumer confidence, uptake of trade between the countries, retail, real estate, hospitality,” he said.

On the commercial segment, he said that the services market is growing, driven by strong uptake in cloud-based services, interesting movements on the systems and storage side.

The shifting trends across the globe, he said is that enterprise customers are taking a more cautious approach when investing and in expanding. There is a number of variables such as assumption around global trade, will oil prices be flat or is it going to fluctuate, regional political uncertainty, cost of living index and economic growth.

However, he said that organisations are investing in technology to drive certain things.

“They are investing in technology to get operational efficiency, to cut cost and are investing in Opex-based models such as cloud, and create new revenue streams using AI and cognitive technologies,” he said.

Moreover, he said that people are looking at Expo 2020 and investments regarding it are almost done. 

With 5G gaining adoption, the industry is going to see a significant intake of AI and the internet of things.

Top five trends in 2020

1. Cloud

Public cloud services are seeing a big uptake. The public cloud market is expected to grow by 35% to $406m compared to $299m this year.

Two-thirds of the organisations will approach the cloud through a hybrid model. Organisations in public and government sectors, retail, utilities, transportation, wholesale distribution, hospitality are on the public cloud.

Due to some of the regulatory challenges, banking and financial services and some of the mission-critical applications rely on building their private cloud infrastructure.

The overall business environment is a strong driver for the uptake in cloud services. CFOs love it as it is opex-based and organisation line of business loves it because they get agility and speed. IT organisations love it because of the scale it provides while channels love it because of the “lift and shift” approach as companies move from on-premises to the cloud.  

The on-premise [non-cloud] spending is declining quite rapidly and a lot of spending is moving to the cloud as a subscription-based model. Speed and agility are the key drivers for the cloud.

There is going to be a consolidation in the public cloud space to key four or five players. Cost is going to be a key factor when moving to the cloud for organisations. 

2. Digital transformation

Organisations are getting a bit more aggressive on digital transformation. A lot of pilot projects will enter the mainstream.

A lot of projects and initiatives are around transforming the customer experience. Organisations are leveraging some of the technologies to enrich the customer experience.

Some of the traditional IT areas such as devices and infrastructure are slowing down and companies are using the investment to drive adoption of more disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, internet of things, big data analytics, blockchain and cloud to cut cost and drive more efficiency.

About 25% to 30% of large enterprises are currently in the process of digital transformation, investing in the third platform such as social, mobile, cloud and big data to do one of four things – to be operationally efficient, more agile, create new experiences for customers and create new revenue streams. It is a five to eight-year journey.

Initially, blockchain started off to facilitate a lot of trade financing deals between banks. It hasn’t got a lot of widespread adoption. A lot of the use cases happened in between banks to banks, Smart Dubai and Real Estate Regulatory Agency. The next phase is called the mature of a technology.

The blockchain technology will be matured when you have high volume and low-value transactions. Currently, a lot of the blockchain investments happen in low volume and high-value transactions.

In the next three to four years, blockchain will be embedded into the compute and that will open a significant amount of opportunities.

3. Cybersecurity

Security investments continue to be a major driver for growth. One of the reasons for that is companies are one of the most challenging areas for CIOs and IT.

Now, even CEOs have security as one of their top priority areas. 

Given the region in which we operate due to geopolitical issues and some of the malware that is taking place, security is becoming an important part of the agenda for banks and public sectors.

4. AI and cognitive technologies

Organisations are quite strongly investing in AI and cognitive technologies such as chatbots, analytics and robotic process automation to cut cost, boost operational efficiencies by taking out some of the repetitive tasks humans do and automating it.

The cognitive AI spend is expected to grow by 25.63% to $73.66m compared to $58.63m this year.

Banks, utilities, RTA, Dewa and public sectors have deployed AI and cognitive in a big way.

The AI and cognitive market in the UAE is set to grow between 25% and 30% year over year in the next two to three years. The impact of AI, along with 5G and IoT, will be extremely powerful.

IoT is already embedded into a lot of the technologies in manufacturing and production, fleet management, etc. IoT has become a part of the ecosystem now.

AI is going to automate several tasks and roles while creating new roles that are not yet defined today. It will create more jobs than eliminating.

To run AI and cognitive technologies, the industry needs a lot of data scientists and new skills that do not exist today. It will also force organisations to reskill some of their existing staff and resources. A lot of big organisations are already doing that and investing in training. In the autonomy phase, the machine decides, analyses and executes based on guiding principles that are set.

The overall economic situation is a key driver for that and due to lack of skills. So, these kinds of technologies play nicely into the story. It works 24/7 operation and lesser mistakes or risks compared to humans, so productivity and efficiency are a lot more at a lesser cost.

A lot of private and public sectors have leveraged some of these technologies to automate and cut costs. So, we are seeing an explosion in the digital workforce.

5. Restructuring

Organisations are making fundamental changes in their organisational focus areas and priorities. Several companies are resetting their plans, given the overall economic environment across the region, in rightsizing in several areas, especially in banking, retail, hospitality, banking and financial services.

Organisations need to rightsize in the next two to three years as it is going to be challenging. Organisations are holding back on investments and cutting staff to adapt to the business environment.

Consolidation is taking place in the banking sector and retail margins are under pressure, re-export from Dubai to other regions is down and there is an impact on financial [insurance] services and education sectors.

• AI is the fuel to develop non-oil industries in UAE
• Governments and businesses begin to realise the shift towards AI
• UAE banks are embracing financial technology to evolve and grow

December 31, 2019 at 03:57PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil

Top five trends that will shape the technology sector in UAE in 2020

With 2019 been a challenging and a transition year, how is 2020 going to be for the information and communications technology in the UAE and what the top trends are that will shape the industry.

Jyoti Lalchandani, vice-president and regional managing director for research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), told in an exclusive to TechRadar Middle East that ICT spending in the UAE is expected to increase by 3.80% to $16.84b compared to $16.22b a year ago.

The research firm has revised its forecast for this year from $16.7b due to a slowdown in the telecommunications sector.

He said that telecom services are feeling the impact of weak consumer confidence and a slowdown in mobile data services.

Even in 2020, the telecom sector is expected to grow the slowest at 1.01% while devices and infrastructure sectors are expected to grow close to 6% and software and IT services (hardware and support services, consulting services, training, education, system integration services, managed services, outsourcing) are expected to grow close to 8%.

 “Commercial segment is looking more positive than the consumer space. The consumer side is going to face pressure due to weak consumer confidence, uptake of trade between the countries, retail, real estate, hospitality,” he said.

On the commercial segment, he said that the services market is growing, driven by strong uptake in cloud-based services, interesting movements on the systems and storage side.

The shifting trends across the globe, he said is that enterprise customers are taking a more cautious approach when investing and in expanding. There is a number of variables such as assumption around global trade, will oil prices be flat or is it going to fluctuate, regional political uncertainty, cost of living index and economic growth.

However, he said that organisations are investing in technology to drive certain things.

“They are investing in technology to get operational efficiency, to cut cost and are investing in Opex-based models such as cloud, and create new revenue streams using AI and cognitive technologies,” he said.

Moreover, he said that people are looking at Expo 2020 and investments regarding it are almost done. 

With 5G gaining adoption, the industry is going to see a significant intake of AI and the internet of things.

Top five trends in 2020

1. Cloud

Public cloud services are seeing a big uptake. The public cloud market is expected to grow by 35% to $406m compared to $299m this year.

Two-thirds of the organisations will approach the cloud through a hybrid model. Organisations in public and government sectors, retail, utilities, transportation, wholesale distribution, hospitality are on the public cloud.

Due to some of the regulatory challenges, banking and financial services and some of the mission-critical applications rely on building their private cloud infrastructure.

The overall business environment is a strong driver for the uptake in cloud services. CFOs love it as it is opex-based and organisation line of business loves it because they get agility and speed. IT organisations love it because of the scale it provides while channels love it because of the “lift and shift” approach as companies move from on-premises to the cloud.  

The on-premise [non-cloud] spending is declining quite rapidly and a lot of spending is moving to the cloud as a subscription-based model. Speed and agility are the key drivers for the cloud.

There is going to be a consolidation in the public cloud space to key four or five players. Cost is going to be a key factor when moving to the cloud for organisations. 

2. Digital transformation

Organisations are getting a bit more aggressive on digital transformation. A lot of pilot projects will enter the mainstream.

A lot of projects and initiatives are around transforming the customer experience. Organisations are leveraging some of the technologies to enrich the customer experience.

Some of the traditional IT areas such as devices and infrastructure are slowing down and companies are using the investment to drive adoption of more disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, internet of things, big data analytics, blockchain and cloud to cut cost and drive more efficiency.

About 25% to 30% of large enterprises are currently in the process of digital transformation, investing in the third platform such as social, mobile, cloud and big data to do one of four things – to be operationally efficient, more agile, create new experiences for customers and create new revenue streams. It is a five to eight-year journey.

Initially, blockchain started off to facilitate a lot of trade financing deals between banks. It hasn’t got a lot of widespread adoption. A lot of the use cases happened in between banks to banks, Smart Dubai and Real Estate Regulatory Agency. The next phase is called the mature of a technology.

The blockchain technology will be matured when you have high volume and low-value transactions. Currently, a lot of the blockchain investments happen in low volume and high-value transactions.

In the next three to four years, blockchain will be embedded into the compute and that will open a significant amount of opportunities.

3. Cybersecurity

Security investments continue to be a major driver for growth. One of the reasons for that is companies are one of the most challenging areas for CIOs and IT.

Now, even CEOs have security as one of their top priority areas. 

Given the region in which we operate due to geopolitical issues and some of the malware that is taking place, security is becoming an important part of the agenda for banks and public sectors.

4. AI and cognitive technologies

Organisations are quite strongly investing in AI and cognitive technologies such as chatbots, analytics and robotic process automation to cut cost, boost operational efficiencies by taking out some of the repetitive tasks humans do and automating it.

The cognitive AI spend is expected to grow by 25.63% to $73.66m compared to $58.63m this year.

Banks, utilities, RTA, Dewa and public sectors have deployed AI and cognitive in a big way.

The AI and cognitive market in the UAE is set to grow between 25% and 30% year over year in the next two to three years. The impact of AI, along with 5G and IoT, will be extremely powerful.

IoT is already embedded into a lot of the technologies in manufacturing and production, fleet management, etc. IoT has become a part of the ecosystem now.

AI is going to automate several tasks and roles while creating new roles that are not yet defined today. It will create more jobs than eliminating.

To run AI and cognitive technologies, the industry needs a lot of data scientists and new skills that do not exist today. It will also force organisations to reskill some of their existing staff and resources. A lot of big organisations are already doing that and investing in training. In the autonomy phase, the machine decides, analyses and executes based on guiding principles that are set.

The overall economic situation is a key driver for that and due to lack of skills. So, these kinds of technologies play nicely into the story. It works 24/7 operation and lesser mistakes or risks compared to humans, so productivity and efficiency are a lot more at a lesser cost.

A lot of private and public sectors have leveraged some of these technologies to automate and cut costs. So, we are seeing an explosion in the digital workforce.

5. Restructuring

Organisations are making fundamental changes in their organisational focus areas and priorities. Several companies are resetting their plans, given the overall economic environment across the region, in rightsizing in several areas, especially in banking, retail, hospitality, banking and financial services.

Organisations need to rightsize in the next two to three years as it is going to be challenging. Organisations are holding back on investments and cutting staff to adapt to the business environment.

Consolidation is taking place in the banking sector and retail margins are under pressure, re-export from Dubai to other regions is down and there is an impact on financial [insurance] services and education sectors.

• AI is the fuel to develop non-oil industries in UAE
• Governments and businesses begin to realise the shift towards AI
• UAE banks are embracing financial technology to evolve and grow

December 31, 2019 at 03:57PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil

Telecommunications regulator to unveil UAE's 5G strategy for next five years

Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE will unveil the “UAE 5G Strategy” for the next five years soon.

Speaking to TechRadar Middle East on the sidelines of the “UAE 5G Conference” on Sunday, Tariq Al Awadi, Executive Director of Spectrum Affairs at TRA UAE, said the strategy will chalk out the roadmap to accommodate and implement 5G for the next five years.

“We will announce what kind of frequency bands will be assigned to operators every year based on use cases and verticals. By 2025, we will have 100% coverage of the UAE with 5G millimetre wave (24.25GHz to the 86GHz),” he said.

Telecom operators in the UAE, etisalat and du, are offering 5G services in the C-band (3.3GHz-3.8GHz).

When the technology is ready from the vendors, he said that telecom operators will provide the network and TRA will provide a good spectrum.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said that some verticals will get more priority if they have a 5G application and telco operators need to provide the network infrastructure.

“Dubai Silicon Oasis is testing autonomous cars right now. As it is a remote location and there is no real business use case, we are providing the 5G network,” he said.

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) has set a dedicated route for carrying the test-runs required in collaboration with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

DSOA and RTA have conducted a Leaders Category of the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport which included a series of placement tests that relate to endurance and authenticity and the ability to drive under traffic conditions simulative to reality such as water sprinklers, different sizes of road humps, sandblasting machines, etc.

According to the Dubai Future Foundation’s ‘Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy’, 25% of the total transportation in Dubai to be in autonomous mode by 2030, involving 5m daily trips, and save AED 22b in annual economic costs.

• GSMA expects cross-border data sharing to take off in Mena from next year
• Intelligent connectivity to drive huge economic growth and create value across industries
• GSMA looks into interoperability of 5G equipment from networking  vendors 
• 5G adoption will reach 6.3% of total connections in Mena in 2025

400MHz of C-band to be allocated to telcos in 2020

Al Awadi said that there are some use cases for 5G but “we are still in the early stages. Organisations are still working on developing 5G standards and one of the big challenges for 5G is to develop standards,” he said.

Beginning of 2020, he said that TRA will allocate 400MHz of the C-band to the telecom operators and the 5G committee at TRA will be restructured to focus only on verticals.

Al Awadi said that the UAE had issues with satellite operators such as Thuraya and Yahsat in the C-band but has made some technical arrangements on how to protect their air stations.

“Satellite operators are using the 3.4GHz to 4.2GHz spectrum and we are taking from them 400MHz and giving them 400MHz spectrum. In the 400MHz, satellite operators have Vsat (very small aperture terminal or air stations (Thuraya and Yahsat).

Moreover, he said that the area surrounding the satellite operators’ space will be protected and that space will not have 5G coverage.

“We have told Vsat to move from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz,” he said.

However, he said that the 5G business model is different from 3G and 4G and the UAE is ready for the fourth industrial revolution and the spectrum is ready.

“The devices for verticals such as manufacturing, utilities, healthcare, retail, agriculture and

Automotive, etc. are not yet ready but the network will be ready. The new use cases are the ones which will make 5G a success,” he said.

Telcos urged to partner with public and private sectors

To make 5G a success, he urged telecom operators to make government entities and private sectors as partners and not as customers.

“If you treat them as ordinary customers, you [telcos] will not succeed. You need to work with them and see their needs and treat them as partners,” he said.

When asked whether UAE will provide a dedicated 5G private network for universities and industries as in Germany, he said that only Germany does it and that is because they have big industries.

“Right now, we are offering only the spectrum to telecom operators and not to private networks. If we do that, then we will not have a very good 5G network in the UAE,” he said.

December 31, 2019 at 03:40PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil

Telecommunications regulator to unveil UAE's 5G strategy for next five years

Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE will unveil the “UAE 5G Strategy” for the next five years soon.

Speaking to TechRadar Middle East on the sidelines of the “UAE 5G Conference” on Sunday, Tariq Al Awadi, Executive Director of Spectrum Affairs at TRA UAE, said the strategy will chalk out the roadmap to accommodate and implement 5G for the next five years.

“We will announce what kind of frequency bands will be assigned to operators every year based on use cases and verticals. By 2025, we will have 100% coverage of the UAE with 5G millimetre wave (24.25GHz to the 86GHz),” he said.

Telecom operators in the UAE, etisalat and du, are offering 5G services in the C-band (3.3GHz-3.8GHz).

When the technology is ready from the vendors, he said that telecom operators will provide the network and TRA will provide a good spectrum.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said that some verticals will get more priority if they have a 5G application and telco operators need to provide the network infrastructure.

“Dubai Silicon Oasis is testing autonomous cars right now. As it is a remote location and there is no real business use case, we are providing the 5G network,” he said.

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) has set a dedicated route for carrying the test-runs required in collaboration with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

DSOA and RTA have conducted a Leaders Category of the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport which included a series of placement tests that relate to endurance and authenticity and the ability to drive under traffic conditions simulative to reality such as water sprinklers, different sizes of road humps, sandblasting machines, etc.

According to the Dubai Future Foundation’s ‘Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy’, 25% of the total transportation in Dubai to be in autonomous mode by 2030, involving 5m daily trips, and save AED 22b in annual economic costs.

• GSMA expects cross-border data sharing to take off in Mena from next year
• Intelligent connectivity to drive huge economic growth and create value across industries
• GSMA looks into interoperability of 5G equipment from networking  vendors 
• 5G adoption will reach 6.3% of total connections in Mena in 2025

400MHz of C-band to be allocated to telcos in 2020

Al Awadi said that there are some use cases for 5G but “we are still in the early stages. Organisations are still working on developing 5G standards and one of the big challenges for 5G is to develop standards,” he said.

Beginning of 2020, he said that TRA will allocate 400MHz of the C-band to the telecom operators and the 5G committee at TRA will be restructured to focus only on verticals.

Al Awadi said that the UAE had issues with satellite operators such as Thuraya and Yahsat in the C-band but has made some technical arrangements on how to protect their air stations.

“Satellite operators are using the 3.4GHz to 4.2GHz spectrum and we are taking from them 400MHz and giving them 400MHz spectrum. In the 400MHz, satellite operators have Vsat (very small aperture terminal or air stations (Thuraya and Yahsat).

Moreover, he said that the area surrounding the satellite operators’ space will be protected and that space will not have 5G coverage.

“We have told Vsat to move from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz,” he said.

However, he said that the 5G business model is different from 3G and 4G and the UAE is ready for the fourth industrial revolution and the spectrum is ready.

“The devices for verticals such as manufacturing, utilities, healthcare, retail, agriculture and

Automotive, etc. are not yet ready but the network will be ready. The new use cases are the ones which will make 5G a success,” he said.

Telcos urged to partner with public and private sectors

To make 5G a success, he urged telecom operators to make government entities and private sectors as partners and not as customers.

“If you treat them as ordinary customers, you [telcos] will not succeed. You need to work with them and see their needs and treat them as partners,” he said.

When asked whether UAE will provide a dedicated 5G private network for universities and industries as in Germany, he said that only Germany does it and that is because they have big industries.

“Right now, we are offering only the spectrum to telecom operators and not to private networks. If we do that, then we will not have a very good 5G network in the UAE,” he said.

December 31, 2019 at 03:40PM
Naushad K. Cherrayil