科技新闻

政府已于2017年9月15日推出「创科创投基金」。该计划现正接受风险投资基金申请成为共同投资伙伴(截止日期:2018年1月15日)。简介会将于2017年10月3日于香港科学园举行，欢迎风险投资基金出席。

DHL has released the fifth edition of the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI) – a detailed analysis of globalization, measured by international flows of trade, capital, information and people.The latest edition of the GCI saw Singapore rank second in the world for trade connectivity, the result of policies that leverage global connectedness as a cornerstone of its economic development strategy. Singapore is also one of the five countries where international flows exceeded expectations; other countries include Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique and Vietnam.The new GCI report represents the first comprehensive assessment of developments in globalization across 169 countries and territories since the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the 2016 presidential election in the United States. Despite growing anti-globalization tensions in many countries, connectedness reached an all-time high in 2017, as the flows of trade, capital, information and people across national borders all intensified significantly for the first time since 2007. Strong economic growth boosted international flows while key policy changes such as US tariff increases had not yet been implemented.The 2018 index measures the current state of globalization, as well as individual rankings for each country, based on the depth (intensity of international flows) and breadth (geographical distribution of flows) of countries’ international connections. The world’s top five most globally connected countries in 2017 were the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates. Eight of the top 10 most connected countries are located in Europe, helping make it the world’s most connected region, in particular for trade and people flows. North America, the leader in capital and information flows, ranked second among world regions, followed by the Middle East and North Africa in third place.“As one of the world’s most open and connected economies, Singapore is expected to benefit from the continued implementation of initiatives set forth in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Master Plan on Connectivity 2025, which aim to improve logistics, harmonize regulations, reduce non-tariff barriers and improve mobility of people,” said Christopher Ong, Managing Director for DHL Express Singapore. “This includes the ASEAN Single Window, which will expedite cargo clearance and promote ASEAN economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of trade-related documents among ASEAN Member States.”“Furthermore, global trade pacts including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is expected to be concluded this year, are also likely to help increase ASEAN’s trade connectedness and economic integration moving forward.”At the global level, the GCI shows that even after globalization’s recent gains, the world is still less connected than most people think it is. For example, just about 20% of economic output around the world is exported, roughly 7% of phone call minutes (including calls over the internet) are international, and only 3% of people live outside the countries where they were born. The report also debunks the belief that distance is becoming irrelevant. Most countries are much more connected to their neighbors than to distant nations.Emerging economies remain less connected than advanced economiesThe GCI continues to reveal vast differences between levels of globalization in advanced versus emerging economies. Emerging economies trade almost as intensively as advanced economies, but advanced economies are more than three times as deeply integrated into international capital flows, five times for people flows, and almost nine times with respect to information flows. Additionally, while leaders from large emerging markets have become major supporters of globalization on the world stage, emerging economies’ progress catching up in terms of global connectedness has stalled.Southeast Asian nations beat expectationsThe five countries where international flows exceed expectations the most are Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique, Singapore, and Vietnam. Four of these top five countries are located in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian countries benefit from linkages with wider Asian supply chain networks as well as ASEAN policy initiatives promoting economic integration. This is positive news for the region, because deeper global connectedness can help accelerate countries’ economic growth.

Adobe has unveiled new customer experience management (CXM) enhancements designed to automate and simplify the delivery of customer experiences in Adobe Experience Manager, part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud.New capabilitiesBrands are under pressure to deliver more personalized content to more channels, and quicker than ever before, says Adobe. This poses challenges for both marketing and IT to deliver rapid personalization at scale.The new features are designed to enhance content agility and personalization, and include enhanced workflows to help marketers, IT and creatives work faster and smarter. It also taps on Adobe Sensei, the company’s AI and machine learning technology to automatically deliver the right content to the right individual.For a start, marketers can now design and deliver experiences on digital displays of all sizes in physical venues, such as in-store screens or kiosks. This includes support for massive scale signage networks and publishing and approval workflows designed to speed up delivery and ensure consistency of in-store campaigns.Videos can also be easily optimized for any channel, with support for vertical video usage on channels such as Instagram and WeChat for smartphone-friendly video clips. Adobe Sensei powered Smart Crop capability will speed up and simplify this process, ensuring a great video experience for users regardless of a smartphone’s current orientation.Elsewhere, organizations can now embed interactive content in customer communications faster, including advanced charting functionality and simplified data integrations for more engaging and data-driven personalized customer communications.“Personalization at scale across every customer touchpoint is the holy grail of [CXM]. It requires the unification of content, data and insights that only Adobe can provide,” said Loni Stark, senior director of strategy and product marketing at Adobe.“New innovations in Adobe Experience Manager make it easier for marketers and IT professionals to delight customers and create memory-making moments every time a customer interacts with the brand,” she said.Further reading:Adobe: Why it pays to be an experience businessAdobe unveils analytics for offline and online audioAdobe announces new AI-powered features for personalized customer experiences Caption: Brad Rencher, executive VP of Adobe Experience Cloud on stage at Adobe Symposium Singapore 2018. Image credit: Adobe

Too few CMOs are significantly involved in their firm’s digital transformation, according to new research from analyst firm Forrester, with less than two in 10 (16%) CMOs responsible for leading the execution of their firm’s digital transformation.There are several reasons why this is the case, according to the new study titled “CMOs: Define your role in digital transformation”.Struggles of CMOsFor a start, CMOs have the dubious distinction of both the highest turnover and the shortest tenure in the C-suite. This means that they struggle to simultaneously deliver both short-term customer satisfaction and long-term digital transformation.Moreover, too few of them command the delivery of all brand promises, and they also struggle to keep pace with fast-evolving data and technology skills required to adequately discharge their roles.When it comes to keeping brand promise, they must also compete with multiple new roles that compete with resources and customer touchpoints.Thomas Husson, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester explained this in a blog post: “Too many new roles have emerged in the C-suite — think growth, digital, experience, and customer officers — that prevent the CMO from acting as the voice of the customer and the conductor of the brand experience across the organization.”To succeed, Husson suggests that CMOs should command their customers’ experience to get a seat at the digital transformation table. In addition, getting the right employee and retaining talent are also crucial linchpins that CMO must get right.“I think CMOs have to turn their company’s brand values into a call to action for employees and to work much more closely with HR and IT together to manifest the brand for employees and prospects,” he summed up.Further reading:                                                                                            The death of customer loyalty as we know itMarketing in 2019: Businesses will focus on customer outcomes, says ForresterForrester: The power of customer-centricity Caption: Image credit: iStockphoto by Getty Images

HKBN Enterprise Solutions and Microsoft are offering joint voice and video conferencing solutions for Hong Kong businesses of all sizes

Weaknesses in Cisco's HyperFlex hyperconverged data-center gear could allow command-injection exploits

Over the next three years, more smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and Cortana will move into the office

Featured CIO speakers at our annual forum will share with industry peers how to surmount the difficulties in helping their organization pivot towards a digital-first business

Beta release of person-to-merchant service aimed at competing with Alipay, WeChat Wallet

MyDoc, an Asian value-based digital managed care platform, has announced its partnership with Homage, a provider of personalized nursing services. The partnership will integrate nursing care into MyDoc to make it more affordable for employers and insurers to offer higher quality and comprehensive onsite healthcare. Meanwhile, through MyDoc, Homage will be able to offer its community of patients enhanced outpatient healthcare support.At Budget 2019, Singapore’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat spoke about making quality and cost-effective healthcare available to the country’s pioneer generation, as well as those in the general population suffering from chronic conditions, regardless of income. A key pillar of MyDoc’s strategy includes simplifying healthcare to catch chronic diseases before it is too late. Using a data-driven clinical triage, MyDoc aims to deliver the right care at the right time to employees and their families in Singapore. The company selectively trains and integrates strategic partners with capabilities to enhance the patient experience and steer patients onto effective personal care pathways that help each individual get well, stay well and out of hospitals.There will be two patient care models as a result of this partnership:Expanding Onsite Clinics staffed by nurses who are supported by remote doctors Expanding Clinic Care Capabilities to enable patient follow up care at home and better distribution of patient load from one clinic to another less busy oneMyDoc will train Homage nurses and certify telenurses to monitor patient oxygen levels, heart rate, respiration, blood glucose and more. Patients will be able to contact their nurses through MyDoc to get help. Nurses will also be able to launch teleconsults with doctors from patients’ homes or offices to provide comprehensive doctor and nurse care, just like in brick and mortar clinics or hospitals, but at an affordable cost for each onsite visit and consult.“MyDoc remains focused on building a healthier society while reducing the cost of healthcare,” said Dr. Vas Metupalle, CIO and co-founder of MyDoc. “Adding nurses to the MyDoc CARE team is a natural step in our strategy to enhance our patient-centric primary care continuum. Nursing care at home would be a significant value add to patients who need post hospital discharge follow up services like wound reviews, dressing changes, intravenous therapies and vital monitoring.”Gillian Tee, CEO and founder of Homage said, “Ultimately, it is our goal to enable wellness and recovery for our care recipients through the delivery of personalized caregiving services and we see working with a trusted partner like MyDoc on providing a marquee, integrated solution as a key step in making healthcare more holistic, accessible and affordable in this region.”In a 2018 joint study by the Lien Foundation and the National University of Singapore (NUS), it was found that home care services are overtaking nursing homes as a primary form of long-term care in Singapore – especially as the country is estimated to possess an aged population of around 1 million people by 2030. However, the report also cited the remaining challenges of the high costs of care as well as the need to establish proper safeguards that ensure quality and measurable care outcomes for patients.Homage is the most recent addition to MyDoc’s value-based digital healthcare platform. Other strategic partners in the region include Guardian, IHP, Acumed, Aetna, AIA Vitality, Cigna and more.  

MVL Foundation (Mass Vehicle Ledger, MVL), the company behind blockchain-based ride-hailing application TADA in Singapore, will be working with real estate agency OrangeTee & Tie to empower their agents to enhance their customer service capabilities.Through this partnership, agents working for the OrangeTee & Tie will be able to enjoy TADA’s ride-hailing services through the agent mobile application, giving them access to TADA’s 28,000 vehicles, where they can book a ride for themselves or their clients for meetings.“MVL is committed to improving the mobility experiences for all Singaporeans, and this partnership will help benefit the OrangeTee and Tie agents in their daily work, allowing them to do their jobs more efficiently. This will also allow our drivers to have an additional opportunity to receive ride bookings,” said Kay Woo, CEO of MVL.“Customer service is an integral part of how our agents go about their business. With access to the TADA platform through Agent App, they can provide better customer experiences by conveniently hailing a ride for their customer to a property for sale. They can also call for a ride themselves easily through Agent App which they are already doing work on, saving much valuable time in the process,” said Steven Tan, Managing Director of OrangeTee & Tie.The platform-to-platform integration between OrangeTee & Tie and TADA is expected to be completed by Q3 2019, and will see both teams working closely together to help OrangeTee & Tie bring additional value to their existing and prospective clients. 

Check Point Software Technologies has published its latest Global Threat Index for January 2019.The index reveals a new backdoor Trojan affecting Linux servers, which is distributing the XMRig crypto-miner. The new malware, dubbed SpeakUp, is capable of delivering any payload and executing it on compromised machines.The new Trojan currently evades all security vendors’ anti-virus software. It has been propagated through a series of exploitations based on commands it receives from its control center, including the 8th most popular exploited vulnerability, “Command Injection over HTTP”. Check Point’s researchers view Speakup as a significant threat, as it can be used to download and spread any malware.In January, the top 4 most prevalent malware variants were cryptominers.Coinhive remains the top malware, impacting 12% of organizations worldwide. XMRig was once again the second most prevalent malware with a global impact of 8%, followed by Cryptoloot miner with an impact of 6% of organizations globally. While there are four cryptominers in January’s index, half of all malware forms in the top ten can be used to download further malware to infected machines.Maya Horowitz, Threat Intelligence Group Manager at Check Point commented: “While January saw little change in the malware forms aimed at enterprises worldwide, we are beginning to see new ways to distribute malware. Threats like these are a stark warning of bigger threats to come. Backdoors like Speakup can evade detection and then distribute further, potentially more dangerous malware to compromised machines. Since Linux is used extensively in enterprise servers, we expect Speakup will be a threat that will grow in scale and severity throughout the year.”January 2019’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Malware*The arrows relate to the change in rank compared to the previous month1. ↔ Coinhive – Crypto Miner designed to perform online mining of Monero cryptocurrency when a user visits a web page without the user’s knowledge or approval the profits with the user. The implanted JavaScript uses a great deal of the computational resources of end users’ machines to mine coins, and may crash the system.2. ↔ XMRig – Open-source CPU mining software used for the mining process of the Monero cryptocurrency, and first seen in-the-wild on May 2017.3. ↑ Cryptoloot – Crypto-Miner that uses the victim’s CPU or GPU power and existing resources for crypto mining – adding transactions to the blockchain and releasing new currency. It is a competitor to Coinhive, trying to pull the rug under it by asking a smaller percentage of revenue from websites.Hiddad, the modular backdoor for Android which grants privileges to downloaded malware, has replaced Triada at first place in the top mobile malware list. Lotoor follows in second place, while Triada has fallen to third place.January’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Mobile MalwareHiddad – Modular Backdoor for Android which grants super user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps it to get embedded into system processes.Lotoor – Hack tool that exploits vulnerabilities on Android operating system in order to gain root privileges on compromised mobile devices.Triada – Modular Backdoor for Android which grants super user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps it to get embedded into system processes. Triada has also been seen spoofing URLs loaded in the browser.Check Point researchers also analyzed the most exploited cyber vulnerabilities. CVE-2017-7269 remained in first place with a global impact of 47%. Following closely behind, Web Server Exposed Git Repository Information Disclosure was in second place and OpenSSL TLS DTLS Heartbeat Information Disclosure followed in third, impacting 46% and 45% of organizations around the world respectively.January’s Top 3 ‘Most Exploited’ vulnerabilities1. ↔ Microsoft IIS WebDAV ScStoragePathFromUrl Buffer Overflow (CVE-2017-7269) – By sending a crafted request over a network to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 through Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0, a remote attacker could execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service conditions on the target server. That is mainly due to a buffer overflow vulnerability resulted by improper validation of a long header in HTTP request.2. ↑ Web Server Exposed Git Repository Information Disclosure – An information disclosure vulnerability has been reported in Git Repository. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an unintentional disclosure of account information.3. ↓ OpenSSL TLS DTLS Heartbeat Information Disclosure (CVE-2014-0160; CVE-2014-0346) – An information disclosure vulnerability exists in OpenSSL. The vulnerability is due to an error when handling TLS/DTLS heartbeat packets. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to disclose memory contents of a connected client or server.Check Point’s Global Threat Impact Index and its ThreatCloud Map is powered by Check Point’s ThreatCloud intelligence, the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime which delivers threat data and attack trends from a global network of threat sensors. The ThreatCloud database holds over 250 million addresses analyzed for bot discovery, more than 11 million malware signatures and over 5.5 million infected websites, and identifies millions of malware types daily. 

A global survey of C-suite executives and finance professionals commissioned by BlackLine has revealed that over half (55%) of global respondents and 19% of local respondents are not completely confident they can identify financial errors before reporting results.BlackLine commissioned independent global research firm Censuswide to survey over 1,100 C-suite executives and finance professionals in large and midsize organizations across the world to establish accuracy confidence levels in financial data and perceived impact of errors on business. This includes 50 C-level and 50 finance professionals in Singapore from companies earning a minimum revenue of S$20 Million.Not only is there evidence of a disconnect between C-suite respondents and finance professionals when it comes to confidence in the accuracy of financial data, but more than seven in 10 respondents in Singapore believe that their organization has made significant business decisions based on inaccurate data. Many identified this as a hidden problem, with close to half (45%) stating concern over errors that they know must exist, but of which they have no visibility.The BlackLine survey results show an overwhelming acknowledgment that inaccurate financial data has negative implications both externally and internally, yet also shows that many organizations continue to be challenged by human error, ever-increasing volume of data sources, as well as outdated technology.“It is concerning that so many organizations are not confident in their ability to identify errors and ensure accurate reporting,” Mario Spanicciati, chief strategy officer at BlackLine, said.  “The high profile misreporting scandals we see in the news could be just the tip of a larger financial inaccuracy iceberg. It seems clear that not only are reporting errors prevalent, but that many of these inaccuracies remain hidden below the surface. There is no longer any excuse for not having full visibility into accurate numbers from which to report and drive business forward.”Survey highlights include:Misplaced C-suite trust in the numbersAlthough almost four in ten (36%) of respondents in Singapore still claim to completely trust the accuracy of their own financial data in general, there is a significant discrepancy between the views of the C-suite and that of finance professionals. While 40% of C-suite respondents claimed to completely trust the accuracy of their financial data, only 32% of finance professionals said the same. Globally, a higher percentage of 54% respondents claim to completely trust the accuracy of their own financial data.Many organizations are betting their business on inaccurate financial dataMore than seven in 10 (74%) of respondents in Singapore think that either they themselves or their CEO has made a significant business decision based on out-of-date or incorrect financial data as compared to a lower percentage of 69% globally. 18% in Singapore and 36% globally cite that this has definitely occurred in their organization.Low confidence levels in ability to spot errors to ensure accurate reportingAbout six in ten (62%) of respondents in Singapore said that a company they’ve worked for had to restate their earnings due to inaccuracies in financial data that weren’t identified prior to close. Only 27% of respondents agreed that they could trust that their finance team/CFO had identified all errors to ensure they are reporting accurately. Respondents cited human error (51%), complexity of collecting and processing data (50%),  multiple data sources (40%) and clunky technology (39%), as well as the lack of awareness of competence for co-workers who inputted data (32%) as contributing factors to their lack of trust.Counting the cost of hidden inaccuraciesNearly all (98%) C-level respondents and finance professionals in Singapore agreed that if inaccuracies in financial data were not identified prior to reporting, the impact would be negative. These negative impacts included significant reputational damage (52%), spending considerable time reworking the accounts (47%), increasing debt levels (45%), and an impact on their ability to secure additional investment (45%). Many global large organizations are constantly having to fix financial errors in their accounts – in almost a quarter (22%) of cases, C-suite respondents said it takes up to 10 days per month for their organization to identify errors and make adjustments, potentially wasting as many as  days each year. Singapore respondents shared that seven in ten (70%) takes up till five days to identify potential errors and record the necessary accounting adjustments.Accepted margins of error worryingly wide, despite recognition of pressure to close accuracy gap54% of respondents in Singapore acknowledged that the acceptable margin of error with accounts is decreasing in today’s technology-driven world. Despite this, 39% indicated that their organization still wouldn’t consider USD$2 billion of accounting errors reported in their financial statements as material.The research suggests that CEOs are making business decisions on numbers in which they are confident, but the people preparing the statements and reports are not.  The result is a heightened and unnecessary level of risk for many large organizations.The implications of this are potentially severe. They include not only the financially negative impact of strategic decisions based on inaccurate numbers, but also the repercussions of failing to comply in an ever-expanding regulatory global business environment.Spanicciati concluded: “Unless there is recognition that this is an unacceptable and unnecessary level of risk, we can expect to see an increase in large-scale financial misreporting. Business leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the processes and technology are in place to enable continuous visibility and accuracy of financial data. At a time when advanced tools to help automate controls and ensure accuracy are available and proven, there’s really no excuse.” 

Hong Kong based MVI Systems and South Korea's KT will collaborate to offer AI-powered smart hotel services in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East

A plurality of Hong Kong CIOs believe that in-house training is the best method of alleviating the city's IT skills shortage

Bloomberg reports that Apple’s ‘Marzipan’ will make it easier for developers to write cross-platform code