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Month: January 2019

How Does Touch ID Scam Work

Smartphones are coming up with new features every day, touch ID scan being one of them. This feature allows you to unlock your phone, approve a purchase or protect access to applications using a fingerprint or face scan instantly. It is highly beneficial as it prevents people from accessing your critical apps & personal information if they happen to lay hands on your unlocked device.

However, off lately cybercriminals have come up with touch ID scams to exploit users and steal away their confidential information.

How Does The Scam Work?

Since touch id scan is a convenient option, people are using it for more than just unlocking the phone. Nowadays, touch ID is being used for authentication on various apps. However, once you press your finger against the home button, there is generally no additional prompt to confirm whether you want to purchase the app or not.

The scam apps often pose as health assistants and invite users to use a touch ID to track calories, heart rate, etc. When you scan your fingerprint, an in-app purchase pop-up appears on the screen. Consequently, the screen is dimmed to make it hard to see the prompt. Once authorized, it usually charges you somewhere between $90 to $120 and the user is victimized by a touch ID scam.

How To Avoid Falling Prey To A Touch ID Scam

  • Double Check If It Looks Suspicious: If any app functions in a way other than normal, then be wary of it and avoid it altogether. The app might ask you to hold down your finger longer than usual, register your fingerprint in different ways, might not support fingerprints that you have saved with android/iOS or ask you to do a fingerprint scan numerous times to authenticate.
  • Check Reviews: Make sure that you read the reviews before downloading a new app. To some extent, this may help you know if the app is legitimate or not. However, if you decide to download it, then stay a little cautious and report it if you find any problem.
  • Disable Fingerprint Or Face Authentication For Purchases: The best way to stay safe is to disable fingerprint as well as face authentication for purchases. Even though you will have to type the password manually, it will give you extra time to consider if you wish to purchase an app or not. This is unlike fingerprint authentication where pressing the home button prompts the purchase.
  • Prefer Trusted Developers: When downloading an app, it is always preferable to buy the one that has been developed by trusted companies. Reputed apps usually have thousands of downloads and their developers have a significant online presence on websites & social media.

For more information, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Understanding Cyber Risk Insurance

Every industry makes use of internet to ease its operations. It helps in increasing efficiency of the business; however, it also serves as a gateway to cyberattacks. Cyber insurance does not guarantee protection from a cybercrime, but it ensures financial stability if such an event occurs. Thus, getting a cyber insurance is a way to transfer risks.

What Is Cyber Insurance?

Reports of high profile cyber risks have driven the need for cyber insurance to financially protect businesses from cybercrimes. Given the soaring rates of cyber-crimes, gross written premiums for cyber insurance will be $7.5 billion by 2020; as estimated by PwC.

Also referred to as cyber risk insurance or cyber liability insurance, the primary aim of cyber insurance is to help organizations mitigate risks by compensating for losses arising due to cyber related security breaches. Cyber insurance is meant to protect businesses from internet based risks such as data breaches, network security breaches, loss of privacy, theft of intellectual property, etc.

However, the cyber insurer does a thorough evaluation of the security systems & procedures of the organization before providing a cyber insurance.

What Does Cyber Insurance Cover?

It usually covers first party expenses as well as third party claims. Following are some expenses that are covered by cyber insurance:

  • Business Losses: The insurance policy might cover monetary loss caused due to business interruption, data loss recovery, network downtime, cost incurred on re-establishing the reputation, etc.
  • Privacy & Notifications: It covers liability arising due to loss of private & confidential information of the customers, employees, clients and other parties. It also includes the cost of notifying the third parties affected by the data breach as mandated by laws of the state.
  • Investigation: A forensic investigation is conducted to determine the cause of data breach. It is vital to know the source of breach to infer the way to repair damage. Also, it helps in ascertaining preventive measures needed to avoid any cyber breach in future.
  • Extortion & Lawsuits: Cyber insurance covers the legal expenses arising due to release of confidential information, legal settlements, regulatory fines, etc. Costs of cyber extortion such as those arising from a ransomware are also included in it.
  • Data Restoration: This coverage provides for the cost of restoring the lost data.

Things To Consider Before Taking A Cyber Insurance Policy:

  • Risk of data breach
  • Financial resources available
  • Coverage options available
  • Deductibles

Thus, cyber insurance provides businesses a smooth funding for recovery from major losses. However, the first step is to create a cyber risk profile for your company. List down all the expenses including first party & third party costs that you wish to get a coverage for.

For more information about cyber insurance, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

More About Industrial Espionage

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How AI Impacts Education Sector

Artificial intelligence (AI) has unlimited potential and its applications are far reaching. It has made a positive impact in the field of education too. AI has changed the traditional approach of learning by making education more accessible to students as well as automating various learning tasks.

Let us understand in detail the ways in which AI impacts education sector:

  • Automating Administrative Tasks: AI has helped education sector by expediting the administrative tasks. It is being used to perform tasks like evaluating & grading the homework, measuring student responses, etc. This not only helps in saving time and effort of teachers as well as evaluators but also paves the way for creating more systematic and organized records. Machines such as OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) reader are already being used to grade tests with multiple choice questions. However, soon there will be machines that will reduce human effort and would be able to check descriptive response work as well. This will streamline the administrative processes and reduce the workload.
  • Create Smart Content : With AI, it is possible to create digital content with the same competence as humans. Ever since AI has entered the classrooms, the traditional outlook has undergone a humungous change. From digitized textbooks, customizable learning, digital interfaces that condense the textbook content to audio/video content; AI has automated the whole process.
  • Outside The Classroom Support: Students might need help with the academics post school, however teachers may not be available at that time. This is when AI based programs come to their rescue. Since the tools are quite advanced, they help students understand the basic concepts easily. AI based test modules can choose level and test content based on previous test results of the user.
  • Virtual Lectures & A Learning Environment: Automation in the field of education has brought a major breakthrough. These days you can often find virtual human guides and facilitators who act like humans by using gesture recognition technology. Not only this, they respond to both verbal and nonverbal cues.
    The digital environment that we persist in, has enabled learning through computer animation and social interaction with the character of the story. With the collaboration of education & augmented reality, virtual facilitators will soon become a part of modern classrooms.
  • Enables Personalization: It is often a challenge for a teacher to keep pace with the learning speed of each student. However, AI enables a personalized teaching pattern by interacting and predicting the speed of each individual. Thus, the content presentation and speed is adjusted as per the student.

AI based classrooms are the future of education which will benefit students, teachers as well as administrators.

For more information, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

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