Yonas Tibebu

An artificial personality (AP) is a collection of characteristics, tendencies and behavioral quirks assigned to a chatbot, digital assistant, robot or video game character. A primary goal of adding personality to digital entities is to encourage end users to interact with programming on an emotional, as well as a logical, level. Personalities are especially significant for voice-activated digital assistants such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana because they are intended to take the place of human assistants. Google has hired a creative team to give its unnamed assistant personality, while Siri was purposely designed early on to be a little sassy. Cortana was modeled after real-life celebrity personal assistants and Alexa now offers a skill that allows her to be disrespectful. People don't expect their digital assistant to pass the Turing test and be mistaken for a human being, but developers have found that the additio...

Privileged access management (PAM) is the administration of accounts that have access to an organization's most critical information and resources. Privileged user accounts are significant targets for attack because they have elevated permissions and access to confidential information. If compromised, a large amount of damage could be made to organizational operations. In many organizations, system administrators are the only ones who are granted privileged access. PAM software aggregates credentials for privileged accounts into a secure repository to isolate their use and log their activity. The separation is intended to lower the risk of "admin" credentials being stolen or misused. PAM software typically provides the following features: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrators. An access manager that stores permissions and privileged user information. Audit logging tools for compliance. Session tracking once privileged access is granted. ...

Cloud repatriation, also called unclouding or de-clouding, is the retrieval of applications and data from a cloud computing platform in order to run the workloads locally. In recent years, organizations ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises have turned to the cloud as a cost-effective way to run information technology workloads. Sometimes, however, an organization may elect to uncloud one, a few, or possibly all of its cloud-based assets. Cloud customers cite a number of reasons for wanting to move applications and data back from the cloud, including governance and liability concerns. Frustrated expectations concerning the cloud's cost-efficiency may also influence de-clouding decisions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that customers citing cost as a factor may elect to move workloads to an in-house, hyper-converged infrastructure as a more cost-efficient, economic choice. During the process of unclouding, the cloud customer (or a channel part...

A customer data platform (CDP) is a type of software application that provides a unified platform for customer information so it can be collected, viewed or accessed by other systems. A CDP unifies customer information in a central location so that it is accessible to marketing, sales, customer support and finance teams. It combines customer data from internal and external sources in a variety of formats, including structured and unstructured data, to create a single profile for each customer. Unlike a data warehouse that is developed and managed by an internal IT team, a CDP is packaged software or software as a service (SaaS) that is sold by a vendor. Because a CDP is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, it is quicker to implement than an internally-sourced, custom development project. In addition to being able to handle queries like a regular database, CDP software can also include tools for data management and operations, along with ancillary features, su...

A customer data platform (CDP) is a type of software application that provides a unified platform for customer information so it can be collected, viewed or accessed by other systems. A CDP unifies customer information in a central location so that it is accessible to marketing, sales, customer support and finance teams. It combines customer data from internal and external sources in a variety of formats, including structured and unstructured data, to create a single profile for each customer. Unlike a data warehouse that is developed and managed by an internal IT team, a CDP is packaged software or software as a service (SaaS) that is sold by a vendor. Because a CDP is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, it is quicker to implement than an internally-sourced, custom development project. In addition to being able to handle queries like a regular database, CDP software can also include tools for data management and operations, along with ancillary features, su...

White box testing is a software testing methodology that uses source code as the basis for designing tests and test cases. White box testing takes an inward look at the framework and components of a software application to check the internal structure and design of the software. White box testing is also called transparent, clear and glass box testing for this reason. This test type can also be applied to unit, system and integration testing. White box testing usually involves tracing possible execution paths through the code and working out what input values would force the execution of those paths. The tester, who is usually the developer that wrote the code, will verify the code according to its design- which is why familiarity with the code is important for the one initiating the test. Code is tested by running input values through the code to determine if the output is what should be expected. Testers can work out the smallest number of paths necessary to test, or "cov...

A  gig economy  is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. A study by Intuit predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors. There are a number of forces behind the rise in short-term jobs. For one thing, in this digital age, the workforce is increasingly mobile and work can increasingly be done from anywhere, so that job and location are decoupled. That means that freelancers can select among temporary jobs and projects around the world, while employers can select the best individuals for specific projects from a larger pool than that available in any given area. Digitization has also contributed directly to a decrease in jobs as software replaces some types of work and means that others take much less time. Other influences include financial pressures on businesses leading to further staff reductions and the entrance of the ...

Statistical noise is unexplained variability within a data sample. The word "noise" has its roots in telecom signal processing; in that context, noise describes unexplained electrical or electromagnetic energy that can degrade the quality of signals and corresponding data. In both telecom and data science, the presence of noise can significantly affect sampling. Sampling is an analysis technique in which a representative subset of data points is selected, manipulated and analyzed to identify  signals , which are patterns in a larger data set. Signals are important because they are the patterns the analyst needs to examine in order to draw conclusions. Noise can interfere with signals, however, and cause the analyst's attention to be misdirected. A popular solution is to use algorithms that can help separate noise from signals, but even this can be problematic. In machine learning (ML), for example, statistical noise can create problems when algorithms are not...

Cybersecurity insurance, also called cyber liability insurance, is a contract that an entity can purchase to help reduce the financial risks associated with doing business online. In exchange for a monthly or quarterly fee, the insurance policy transfers some of the risk to the insurer. In the United States, most major insurance companies offer customers cybersecurity insurance policy options. Depending on the price and type of policy, the customer can expect to be covered for extra expenditures resulting from the physical destruction or theft of digital assets. Such expenditures typically include costs associated with the following: Meeting extortion demands from a ransomware attack. Covering damages to hardware from fire or flood. Notifying customers when a security breach has occurred. Paying legal fees levied as a result of a privacy violation. Hiring computer forensics experts to recover compromised data. Traditional insurance policies typically excl...

Ransomware as a service (RaaS) is a low-code software delivery model for malicious software. In this delivery model, programmers who develop software for carrying out ransomware attacks make the software available, sometimes for purchase, on the dark net.  RaaS provides criminals with a minimal learning curve for carrying out extortion attacks. The software is designed to be user-friendly and typically provides the user with a graphical user interface (GUI) that looks very much like traditional e-commerce dashboards. An RaaS dashboard will typically feature drag-and-drop modules to help the criminal customize payloads, as well as metrics for monitoring infections and the current price of bitcoin. The software as a service (SaaS) delivery model has proved to be beneficial to the criminal because it allows them to lower their own risk profile. With RaaS, they now have a choice to either become a silent partner in an extortion attempt or remove themselves entirely and simpl...

Data storytelling is the process of translating data analyses into layman's terms in order to influence a business decision or action. With the rise of digital transformation and emphasis on data-driven decisions, data storytelling has become a much-talked-about skill in the world of data science. The goal of data storytelling is to help line-of-business (LOB) decision makers connect the dots and understand the context and importance of the data that is being shared. To be considered successful, a data story should: Provide the audience with information in a way that is believable and easy to understand. Allow the audience to quickly grasp and absorb the meaning of the data. Inspire audience members to share the data story with others. Encourage audience members to take action. To date, there is no set of best practices on how to tell compelling data stories, but experts often describe data storytelling in traditional storytelling terms, whic...

Ghosting is to cease communications without notification. The use of the word "ghost" as a verb originated in social media in reference to dating, but the term is now used by employers to describe employees and potential employees who suddenly disappear. Typically, ghosting is used to describe: Job candidates who suddenly stop responding to messages. New hires who fail to show up for their first day of work. Employees who do not show up for a shift. Employees who leave work in the middle of the day and never come back. Some analysts blame ghosting on millennial entitlement. The reasoning is that members of the millennial generation have been brought up to feel they are special -- so special, in fact, that they do not need to follow conventional rules of behavior. Other analysts, however, maintain that ghosting behavior stems from changes in the job market and the phenomenon is simply a reflection of the laws of supply and demand in a healthy jo...

A data scientist is a professional responsible for collecting, analyzing and interpreting extremely large amounts of data. The data scientist role is an offshoot of several traditional technical roles, including mathematician, scientist, statistician and computer science professional. In business, data scientists typically work in teams to mine big data for information that can be used to predict customer behavior and identify new revenue opportunities. In many organizations, data scientists are also responsible for setting best practices for collecting data, using analysis tools and interpreting data. The demand for data science skills has grown significantly over the years as companies look to glean useful information from big data, the voluminous amounts of structured, unstructured and semi-structured data that a large enterprise or internet of things produces and collects. In job postings, necessary skills typically include the following: Advanced degree, with a sp...

WPA3, also known as Wi-Fi Protected Access 3, is the third iteration of a security certification program developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WPA3 is the latest, updated implementation of WPA2, which has been in use since 2004. The Wi-Fi Alliance began to certify WPA3-approved products in 2018. WPA3 support will not be automatically added to every device, but WPA3 devices will be backwards-compatible with devices that use the WPA2 protocol. While WPA3 is more secure and comprehensive than WPA2, the the Wi-Fi Alliance will still support and update the WPA2 protocol for the foreseeable future. WPA3 vs WPA2 When compared to the WPA2 standard, WPA3 adds the following notable features: Individualized data encryption. Bigger session keys. Stronger brute force attack protection. Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) support. Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP) support.

A proxy firewall is a network security system that protects network resources by filtering messages at the application layer. A proxy firewall may also be called an application firewall or gateway firewall. Just like a proxy server or cache server, a proxy firewall acts as an intermediary between in-house clients and servers on the Internet. The difference is that instead of simply intercepting Internet requests and responses, a proxy firewall also monitors incoming traffic for layer 7 protocols, including HTTP and FTP. In addition to determining which traffic is allowed and which is denied, a proxy firewall uses stateful inspection technology and deep packet inspection to analyze incoming traffic for signs of attack. Proxy firewalls are considered to be the most secure type of firewall because they prevent direct network contact with other systems. Because a proxy firewall has its own IP address, an outside network connection will never receive packets from the sen...

Spyware is software that is installed on a computing device without the end user's knowledge. Any software can be classified as spyware if it is downloaded without the user's authorization. Spyware is typically delivered through infected websites, free mobile or desktop apps and email attachments. Once installed, spyware runs silently in the background, collecting the information it was designed to gather. Types of spyware include the following: Spyware can be difficult to detect; often, the first indication that a user has been infected with spyware is a noticeable reduction in network connection speeds, battery life or bank account balance. To prevent spyware from being installed, users should create strong passwords, only download software from trusted sources, read all clickwrap agreements when installing software and regularly update all operating systems, web browsers and software apps -- especially anti-virus applications.

A data scientist is a professional responsible for collecting, analyzing and interpreting extremely large amounts of data. The data scientist role is an offshoot of several traditional technical roles, including mathematician, scientist, statistician and computer science professional. In business, data scientists typically work in teams to mine big data for information that can be used to predict customer behavior and identify new revenue opportunities. In many organizations, data scientists are also responsible for setting best practices for collecting data, using analysis tools and interpreting data. The demand for data science skills has grown significantly over the years as companies look to glean useful information from big data, the voluminous amounts of structured, unstructured and semi-structured data that a large enterprise or internet of things produces and collects. In job postings, necessary skills typically include the following: Advanced degree, with a ...