Yearly Archives: 2019

The 3 June 2019 core update has started to rock and roll. It is the second big Google Update in 2019. The Google Update in March 2019 affected search queries that are covered by the acronym E-A-T (Expertise, The 3 June 2019 core update has started to rock and roll. It is the second big Google Update in 2019. The Google Update in March 2019 affected search queries that are covered by the acronym E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust).

This time around, Google wants to be more pro-active with this kind of information and let people know in advance to avoid them only finding out after the update has occurred and then asking lots of questions.

To quote Google: “As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.”

“There’s no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.”

Early reports indicate that Daily Mail lost over 50% of daily search traffic and so did NFL and Vimeo. The gainers were the Mirror, the Sun, and HuffPost.

The rollout is still ongoing, so these findings are quite preliminary. It’s unclear what exactly was changed to cause certain spikes and drops, but publishers do seem to be feeling the tremors.

The world of SEO is ephemeral. In 2018 alone, Google reported incredible 3,234 improvements to search. So why is this one so significant, you might ask? Largely because it is a core update and changes the search algorithm in terms of ranking criteria that are given more significance in determining search results.

According to Sharad Agarwal, CEO of GuestPosts.biz, “Core Updates are Google Updates that do not have a clear specific focus on a certain kind of search query or particular website characteristics. Instead, they make more subtle changes ‘under the hood’. Clearly, Google is giving more importance to backlinks that are established from credible and high traffic sites. If your web pages have good links from related websites, they will rank higher than other pages that do not have these links. It is about quality, not quantity.”

Also, Google continues to reward sites that are ‘Responsive’, secure and quick to download. Content remains ‘King’ and user experience is ‘Queen’.

If you have any questions about improving your site’s visibility in search and attracting more customers, Cyber Gear can perform a website audit and assist you in providing a roadmap for achieving fantastic search results.

Whether you plan to travel with your kids, by yourself, or with friends, traveling can be stressful. But traveling doesn’t always have to be so difficult. Traveling can be a relaxing time for people who do it correctly. 

There are tons of tech tools to help with vacations. These apps help to decrease the stress of planning a trip and even help to plan activities while on vacation. Here are 5 of the best tech tools you need to use when vacationing:

Hopper

Planning flights for a trip can be extremely stressful and expensive. Trying to find good, trustworthy flights for an affordable price can be challenging. Hopper can help decrease the rate of plane tickets and also decrease the stress of getting them. Hopper can predict the best time to fly and when to get tickets at the cheapest price point.

Also, Hopper can alert you when the prices of your wanted flight drops.  But Hopper does not only get you cheap flights. Hopper can give you personalized trip recommendations for trips they think you might be interested in going on. Hopper is a great app and can save you lots of time and money.

Word Lens

When traveling or vacationing internationally, it can be difficult to read things like menus or signs or just writings in general. Word Lens helps with that. Word Lens can translate printed words from one language to another. It can be done extremely fast. All you have to do to be able to use this app is use the camera on your phone to take a picture of what you want to translate. Another plus to this app is that no network connection is needed to use it.

This means you can practically use this app anywhere you would like. Words Lens Supports 27+ languages. Although when traveling internationally, you should have some knowledge of the language of your destination, Word Lens can help when maybe you just forget or do not know.

Uber

Finding ways to get around a new and unfamiliar place can be difficult. When traveling, you may not always be able to bring a car for transportation. Also, renting a car can be very expensive, so just use Uber. Uber bids peer to peer transportation. It operates in 785 metropolitan areas worldwide. 

Not only does Uber allow for you to get rides, but it also allows you to use Uber Eats to get food delivered straight to you. It also can offer Urban Air transportation. Uber is more efficient than a taxi would be because it saves you money, time, and secures safety for you and your driver. Uber is a fast and efficient way to get rides for cheap. You can use Uber tons of places.

Pack Point

Packing can be very stressful. From not knowing what to pack to what not to pack for vacation. You should pack only what you really need, but sometimes it may be challenging to understand what you need. Pack point can help decrease the stress put into packing.

Pack point creates a personal packing list for you based off weather, your itinerary, and activities you plan to do on your trip. It helps you to remember the basics you will need for your trip while allowing you to add more items to your list.  Pack point can help prevent you from forgetting anything while packing for a vacation.

Hotel Tonight

Sometimes when traveling, you may have to book things last minute. Trying to book hotels last minute can be a complicated ordeal. Hotel Tonight helps you find open hotel rooms last minute and also find discounts on the rooms. This app is exceptionally user-friendly and easy to use. It also helps to book rooms fast and efficiently. 

 You can search for open rooms by city, attractions, or on the map. You can see photos and read reviews about hotels before booking rooms. Also, Hotel Tonight has excellent customer service that is offered 24/7. This app works throughout the Americas, Australia, and Europe. This app helps save time by not scouring the internet for last minute hotel rooms at reasonable prices; Hotel Tonight does all the stressful work for you.  

Also, it can give a personalized list of hotels to meet your needs. An example is, if you need a hotel that allows pets, Hotel Tonight will find one for you. Hotel Tonight is a great app and is a necessity for booking hotel rooms quickly and for cheap.

Conclusion

Traveling can be very stressful. It may seem that a relaxing vacation is not worth all the stress that comes with it. But traveling doesn’t always have to be stressful if you do it correctly. Using these tech tools can help to save you lots of time and money. This ends up resulting in a stress-free fun vacation for you and anyone else. So take that fun vacation you have always wanted to go on and don’t stress, because, with these tools, you can have a stress-free traveling experience.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a painless and non-invasive scan that produces detailed images of organs and body tissue. Its invention was a revolution in medical science, allowing for examination of internal organs without the use of invasive tools or surgeries. Doctors often use mri for cancer detection, but they can also be used for a variety of purposes. Some of these include but are not limited to detecting cysts, identifying joint abnormalities, detecting diseases of the liver and other organs, and evaluating causes of pain. Recent advancements have included new types of scans, simplifications for existing processes, and software solutions. The following are some of the most interesting advancements in MRI technology.

Lung MRIs are possible

MRI scans rely on hydrogen atoms in order to produce their images, which is normally no problem since hydrogen atoms are abundant in water and fat — two things the human body is composed of. Lung MRIs, however, have been difficult because air moving through the lungs means that there is a low density of the hydrogen atoms required for the scan. Because of this, computed tomography (CT) has been the traditional method for lung imaging.

In 2015, Toshiba introduced the Ultrashort Echo Time sequence, which allows for viewing of tissues with short relaxation times that would normally cause signals to disappear before an MRI scan could complete.

Multi-contrast images from a single scan

GE Healthcare’s MAGiC software enables scans to create eight contrasts from a single scan at a faster rate than traditional scanning. This essentially gives doctors the ability to manipulate and study images retrospectively, which saves time and money by eliminating the need to rescan. The more detailed scan also lets doctors make a more accurate diagnosis in a fraction of the time. Clinicians now have the advantages of multiple scans in one.

Greatly reduced brain scan times

The new Siemens Simultaneous Multi-Slice application allows for simultaneous creation of multiple MRI images instead of being limited to a sequence, which significantly reduces scan times. Their GOBrain application allows specifically for faster scan times of the brain. This is increasingly important as 1 in 4 MRI scans are of the brain, and the number is expected to climb.

These technologies allow clinicians to bring the time for MRI brain exams down to those of less complex scans. This is particularly useful for patients who have a low tolerance for longer scans, such as children or geriatric patients.

Cardiac MRI

Up until the past few years, cardiac MRI was extremely limited, making up a mere 1 percent of MRI scans. This was largely due to its relative complexity compared to other scans, as well as its long scan times and high cost. GE Healthcare’s ViosWorks software helps automate the process of creating a full 3D chest scan that includes the full motion of the cardiac cycle. This software manages to bring what would be a 70 minute scan down to approximately 10 minutes. These are high data scans, and the software is paired with a cloud computing service to speed up the process.

Silent MRI

This is a smaller quality of life enhancement for patients but one that is surely appreciated. GE Healthcare has expanded on its noise reduction technology to reduce noise even further during MRI scans. Silent scanning is available with muscular and spinal scans, as well as brain exams, and is compatible with a wide variety of machines.

Technology has advanced significantly since the first machine was invented, and there have been many improvements over the years. The quality of medical imaging has become much more enhanced. Machines are now more comfortable for patients, and studying MRIs has become instrumental in scientific research to explain body functions. 

Atlanta, Georgia had the most call center employees of any US city as of 2017, with an estimated 121,480 workers. Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa, and Houston rounded out the top five. But that doesn’t mean all the call center employees in Atlanta or Dallas are doing the same type of work.

For instance, there are critical differences between telemarketing and telesales. To the untrained ear, “telesales” and “telemarketing” are the same thing, but they require different strategies and different skill sets live casino go. Here’s what you should know about the key differences between telesales and telemarketing.

Telemarketing is broader

Telemarketing covers a wider range of activities than telesales. Someone who is a telemarketer has to do more than just sell something to the other person on the end of the line. They’re also trying to find out as much information as possible about who, exactly, is on the other line. When they do that, they have a better chance of pulling off a successful call.

Let’s use cold calling as an example. Cold calling is a staple of call centers, but it works a bit differently depending on your objective. For instance, someone who is making a telemarketing call might approach the call like this: “Hello, this is (name) with (company). We’re calling to talk about your (service) today.”

They first want to find out if the customer is happy with how things are going before trying to sell them on something new. It may help to think of telemarketing as a bit like what happens when you walk into a clothing store and someone asks, “Can I help you with something today?” They’re trying to let you direct the call, at least a little bit.

But telemarketers must be careful as well. If they don’t phrase things in just the right way as soon as the call begins, they’re taking a risk. Fewer people are answering their phone because they’re concerned about spam calls.

It’s up to you to prove right away that you have something valuable to offer. If someone picks up an unfamiliar number, you may only have a few seconds to convince them to stay on the line.

Telesales are more focused

You have to stick to a script, at least at first, and this is especially vital with telesales. As you may have guessed, telesales are more focused on selling something.

It’s OK to view telesales as more goal-oriented, because in many ways, it is. You want the person on the other end to hear what you’re saying, but you’re probably not going to say things like, “Can I call back later to discuss this with you?”

With telesales, everything feels more immediate. In a call center, that means you need all your equipment to be up and running. It can’t let you down just as you finally sense the person on the other end is interested in what you have to say and the product you’re selling.

That’s why the best telesales and telemarketing operators have one thing in common: call center integration through an omnichannel platform, like what you’ll find with an Oracle contact center. These contact centers give your operators access to things like real-time statistics.

Real-time statistics are vital when you’re trying to figure out if an approach is working or backfiring. This call center solution can integrate with your cloud to give you more flexibility.

In a call center, you can never lose sight of the person on the other end of the line. That’s true of both telesales and telemarketing. Personalized solutions help you serve your customers better without overwhelming your operators. A call center is always going to be fast-paced, but that doesn’t mean the people who work in them should be hitting a wall or burning out.

Brand Intimacy is defined as the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. Top Intimate Brands outperform top brands in the S&P and Fortune 500 indices for revenue and profit. Consumers are also more willing to pay price premiums for Intimate Brands and less willing to live without them, according to the 2019 Brand Intimacy Report.

Brands that are within the ecosystem score higher in emotional connection overall than brands that are not. Ranking 9 out of 15 places, Apps and social platform brands have an opportunity to increase their intimate bonds and emotional relationships with their users given their usage and importance”

Other notable findings from the apps & social platforms industry include:

• 40 percent of consumers felt an immediate emotional connection with the industry.

• 73 percent of users in the 18- to 34-year-old (millennial) demographic felt an immediate emotional connection with Facebook.

• The apps & social platforms industry as a whole ranked #2 for africa casinos industries people can’t live without, right behind Tech & Telecom, which was #1.

• Three of the top four brands in this category this year—WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram—are owned by Facebook.

• Uber ranking went from #5 to #10 from 2018 to 2019.

• Instagram demonstrated solid growth, moving up from #7 to place at #4.

• WhatsApp ranked #1 for the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, males and high income users surveyed.

• GoogleMaps was ranked first among the 35- to 64-year-old demographic and female users.

To download the full apps & social platforms rankings, please click here. To download the full 2019 Brand Intimacy Report, please click here.

With modern science advancing at the current pace, many dreams of early 20th century science fiction writers such as Jules Verne have already become commonplace technologies. As of 2019, we may be just several decades away from megacities, artificial worlds, moon colonisation, digital immortality, and other ideas devised by Douglas Adams, Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein. Below are the top 5 technologies from science fiction we can witness in the nearest future.

1. Alternative Medicine and Treatment

Science fiction novels are full of alternative medicine and treatment methods. With the growing scarcity of diagnosticians, general practitioners, and nurses, the Star Trek-style self-diagnosis and self-healing concepts can become a reality of modern medicine. The wide popularity of alternative medicine and treatment is largely substantiated by the accessibility of these methods in many areas of the world where traditional medical services are not available. While their effectiveness for treating serious illnesses is highly controversial, some of them provide good analgesic results. Why not boost their actual effectiveness with telemedicine and remote learning used to transform local alternative practitioners into therapists capable of diagnosing dangerous disease symptoms and calling for a professional intervention? This initiative may also be assisted by such disruptive innovators as Michael Laufer who successfully produce modern pharmaceutical drugs with portable MicroLab pill synthesis laboratories sold for mere $30. So, in some 15 years, an AIDS-positive kid in Africa may walk into a hut of a local healer and come out 30 minutes later receiving an acupunctural treatment for pain symptoms and a pill of generic Daraprim for conservative treatment. However, the new therapy and diagnostic methods will have to be thoroughly tested in order to be covered by national health insurance systems.

2. Education

The rapid development of VR devices can make ‘Ready Player One’-style classrooms a reality in the next 10-15 years. This would fully disrupt the current classroom system (which is not necessarily a bad thing) transforming the world into a real ‘global village’. A virtual yellow school bus may gather Angolan, Spanish, Argentinian, and US learners in a single educational environment reducing the need for excessive transportation or building new schools in rural areas. Remote learning resources such as Khan Academy can also facilitate the students who cannot access the ‘virtual classroom’ during specific hours. This may also be convenient for increasing the number of PhD students in developing countries and poor environments. With the launch of the global Starlink Internet programme by SpaceX in 2020, young talents living in rural Africa may get the possibility to submit their dissertation drafts for review to academic tutors from Oxford or the MIT. You can only imagine what boost this may provide to global development programmes.

3. Health-Aiding Implants

While cell-like nanorobots replacing human T-cells and fighting cancer tissues and bad cholesterol still remain a thing of the future, internal monitoring systems may well become a part of our reality before the 2050s. The regular measurements of arterial pressure, artery plaque buildup, and other critical indicators of our physical being are very important for preventing heart attacks or blood clotting. However, the main question posed by some scientists is whether we should monitor these things from the outside. Installing small devices with wireless charging under our skin may provide for accurate measurement results and unlimited methods of using the collected data. Imagine that internal sensors located close to your heart can send emergency signals to a nearby hospital minutes before your organism gets into an acute condition. They can also provide longitudinal diagnostic data to your doctor on a daily basis. Some of the presently developed solutions may even include small adrenaline containers or shock devices to kickstart your heart in the case of heart failure.

4. Neuromancing and Advanced Bodyhacking

The previous idea is perfectly in line with the concepts of bodyhacking, artificial organs, and neural implants described by the cyberpunk genius William Gibson. In 2017, scientists at ETH Zurich learned how to 3D-print artificial body tissues and even human organs such as the heart. Imagine replacing your old blood vessels with molecularly superb ones preventing cholesterol plaques or blood clots accumulation. Do you want a heart that does not have a beat and will last you 150+ years? Or would you prefer a Heart 2.0 with several performance profiles fine-tuned for office hours, sports activities, and night recuperation? Besides the competition for ‘body upgrades’, these technologies can also make the waiting lists for organ donors obsolete. The invention of Autodoc medical systems from late 80s sci-fi movies makes the cyberpunk ideas of installing a new retina for augmented reality on your way home or selling an extra liver to pay for your rent perfectly realistic.

5. Transhumanism and the Mars Colonisation

The capability to purchase new organs and prolong your life through advanced body management inevitably brings the questions of transhumanism to the table. With late XXI century geriatrics, a 40-year old person has good chances of becoming as physically adept as his 20-year-old counterpart. Or, would you say, competitor since he is already ahead of him or her with 20+ years of skills and industry experience. In this context, expanding into other planets of the Solar system can become a cure for unemployment rather than a science fiction dream. Luckily, SpaceX had this humanity dream covered as well with its SpaceX Mars programme. While the most optimistic results promise a first colony set on Mars by 2050, the development of new materials and technologies may speed up this process.

While driverless vehicles and medical advancements do not look especially gruesome, we should also think about the negative outcomes described by the great visionaries of the past. The brave new world may put us one step closer to a utopia but charge its price in terms of social consequences. However, with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and increasing pollution levels, the main dilemma of humankind progress is still, “Can we not be running all we can do, to merely keep in the same place?”.

Author Bio

Anna Clarke is the owner of online writing company 15 Writers. She is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in freelancing, academic dissertation writing consulting, specialising in Business, Economics, Finance, Marketing and Management.

Choosing your internet service provider is a major decision. After all, the internet service provider that you choose will determine how easy it is to use your computer, and choosing the wrong service can result in frustrating headaches whenever your Wi-Fi disconnects.

However, those who are in the initial stages of searching may not know what to look for. Are you on the hunt for a new internet provider and scouring through internet providers Ontario to find the right one? If so, here are some desirable qualities that you should be looking for in your next potential internet provider.

Internet service speed

Speed is arguably the most important aspect of your internet service. If you are trying to get work done on a slow internet connection, the odds are stacked against you, especially if you’re out in a place like Ontario. You must make sure that the internet plan you intend to purchase will be able to handle all of your daily habits and needs.

Take a look at your provider’s website — and more importantly, look for online reviews — to get a sense of how great their speeds are. As a general rule, you can handle light web browsing and other activities such as playing games and watching movies at internet speeds of anywhere from one to eight megabytes per second.

If you’re downloading and uploading information constantly and planning to use your internet for your job or for a business, you will need speeds up to 50 megabytes per second. These speeds are the first things you should look for when evaluating a provider’s website.

Upfront costs, hidden costs, or limitations

A lot of providers provide great internet connection speeds, but they may not be providing it to customers at an affordable price. Or worse, they may have hidden prices related to fees and limitations that come with using their service.

The first thing you should check is the overall price of the service. How much will they be charging you monthly? How does it compare to other service providers in the province? Next, you should see what the fees are, and whether they are clearly stated or hidden in the fine print. Do they charge anything extra for installation? Are there fees for going over a certain data limit?

After you’ve seen these prices, you should see if there are any limitations that come with using the service. Is there a data cap that you are not able to pass once you reach it? Do they slow down your internet after so much use? These things are all important, as you are paying for the service and you should get the most bang for your buck.

Security and support

Internet providers give you a service, but your service should also come with a desirable experience. You should expect to have an internet service that is secure and safe from any outside dangers.

In addition, you should expect your provider to be supportive during the installation and use process, and you should expect them to be helpful to you throughout the entire time that you are with them. If they are known for poor support and their service doesn’t keep you and your information protected, they are not a provider that you should choose.

As with any other major purchase you make in life, you need to do your research to avoid making a decision you later regret. Use the list of desirable traits above to help you make an educated decision during the purchase process so that you get the best internet service possible.

Artificial Intelligence or commonly known as A.I. is one of the most promising technologies available today. So, Artificial Intelligence is basically the ability of computers to perform human tasks without human interference.

In our everyday life, we can find several uses of Artificial Intelligence such as our smartphones, smart cars or drones, social media feeds, online ad services and many more. You might not notice it but we are surrounded by AI apps and devices everywhere.

The main motive of the introduction of AI to us is to help us in our day to day tasks. Currently, the AI technology is getting improved by each passing day and in the coming few decades the whole world might be covered with AI chips and programs.

So, a question might pop up in your mind, what are the current trends in Artificial Intelligence? To answer that question, here are the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence in 2019 and you can learn these from the latest books and buy them using Flipkart Offers Today.

1. AI- Enabled Chips

Artificial intelligence mostly relies on chips rather than the computer to work efficiently. Manufacturers such as Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, etc are willing to invest their time and money in new improvised chipsets in their respective device.

As we already mentioned that the AI chips cannot be enhanced by using any software so, the hardware improvisation will be required. After these enhancements, these new generation chips will speed up their execution and sectors such as Healthcare and Automobile industries will definitely have huge profits.

2. Combination of IoT and AI

In 2019, AI meets IoT at the edge figuring layer. A large portion of the models prepared in the open cloud will be sent at the edge. Modern IoT is the top use case for man-made reasoning that can perform exception location, underlying driver examination and prescient upkeep of the hardware.

Propelled ML models dependent on profound neural systems will be improved to keep running at the edge. They will be equipped for managing video outlines, discourse combination, time-arrangement information and unstructured information created by gadgets, for example, cameras, receivers, and different sensors.

IoT is good to go to turn into the greatest driver of man-made reasoning in the endeavor. Edge gadgets will be furnished with the uncommon AI chips dependent on FPGAs and ASICs.

3. Introduction of ONNX

Information researchers and engineers need to pick the correct tool from plenty of options such as Caffe2, PyTorch, Apache MXNet, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, and TensorFlow to design the right Framework. When a model is prepared and assessed in a particular framework, it is hard to port the prepared model to another framework.

The absence of interoperability among neural system toolboxes is hampering the selection of AI. To address this problem, AWS, Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up to manufacture Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), which makes it conceivable to reuse prepared neural system models over different frameworks.

In 2019, ONNX will turn into a basic innovation for the industry. Most of the people in the AI industry will be relying on the ONNX as the standard choice for their tasks in the industry.

4. Automated Machine Learning

One new innovation that is going to change the mostly everything regarding ML-based arrangements on a very basic level is AutoML. It will enable business experts and engineers to advance AI models that can address complex situations without experiencing the commonplace procedure of preparing ML models.Moreover, advance knowledge is also helpful in this regard and one can get them from books and buy them using AliExpress Cashback Offers.

When managing an AutoML stage, business experts remain concentrated on the business issue as opposed to losing all sense of direction all the while and work process.

AutoML consummately fits in the middle of subjective APIs and custom ML stages. It conveys the correct dimension of customization without driving the engineers to experience the intricate work process. Not at all like intellectual APIs that are regularly considered as secret elements, AutoML uncovered a similar level of adaptability however with custom information joined with convenience.

5. Automation of DevOps with AIOps

Present day applications and framework are producing log information that is used for ordering, seeking, and investigation. The huge informational indexes acquired from the equipment, working frameworks, server programming, and application programming can be amassed and related to discovering bits of knowledge and examples. At the point when AI models are connected to these informational indexes, IT activities change from being responsive to prescient.

At the point when the intensity of AI is connected to activities, it will redefine the manner in which framework is overseen. The utilization of ML and AI in IT tasks and DevOps will convey insight to associations. It will help the operations groups perform exact and precise underlying driver examination.

AIOps will progress toward becoming standard in 2019. Open cloud merchants and endeavor are going to profit by the union of AI and DevOps.

We can say that the year 2019 is the year of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning(ML) is going to play a prominent role in this innovation and enhancement of the AI.

Cybersecurity is a critical aspect of doing business, yet it tends to be tossed in the back burner — particularly by startups and small businesses who think they’re less of a target to hackers.

The truth is, the impact of a cyber-attack is even worse for small, ill-prepared companies.

According to statistics, 60 percent of small businesses collapse within six months following a cyber-attack.

As far as the likelihood of being targeted goes, just remember that DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attacks are now sold on the dark web for around $25 per hour. That’s actually an incredibly low price, given that such attacks result in a double whammy of crippled sales and a stained brand reputation.

You might be surprised with the lengths dirty competitors will go to deal with threats.

In this post, we’ll discuss the strategies to prevent this scenario without breaking the bank.

Let’s begin.

1. Pick a Web Host with Robust Security
When building a website for your online business, one of the first challenges is picking a suitable host.

Although one-dollar hosting companies are highly tempting for aspiring website owners, they could spell trouble for your sustainability in the long-term.

Bear in mind that the ability to get a site up and running shouldn’t be the only item in your web hosting checklist. You also need reliable customer service, a streamlined control panel, and loads of security features to keep your website protected against online threats.

It’s not just about the bandwidth capabilities and uptime guarantees.

Below are some of the security features that you should look for when choosing a web hosting company:

Scheduled Backups and Easy Restore Points
24/7 Network Monitoring
Protection Against Malware and Viruses
Account Protection Tools
Built-In DDoS Protection
Web Application Firewall
Regular Updates to PHP, MySQL, and Other Systems

2. Get SSL
Speaking of web hosting security, some companies throw in a free SSL or Secure Sockets Layer for establishing encrypted connections between servers and users. This effectively stops digital eavesdroppers from intercepting sensitive information in transit.

Having an SSL certificate on your website also has a couple of other benefits that make it a worthy investment:
Better Conversions
If you sell products online, here’s an interesting fact:

A survey by the Baymard Institute reveals that 18 percent of customers left a website during the checkout process because of cybersecurity concerns. More specifically, they didn’t trust the website with their extremely sensitive credit card information.

Having an SSL certificate gives them reassurance in the form of a security validation. This is indicated by the closed lock icon to the left of your domain URL.

Higher Search Engine Rankings
In case you’re unaware, search engines like Google put great user experience above everything else in their ranking algorithms. This encompasses the security of users, which is why the use of SSL certificates is recognized as an important ranking signal.

If your hosting plan doesn’t come with an SSL certificate to boot, you may purchase one instead from a third-party vendor like Sectigo.

In addition to the certificate itself, Sectigo also offers a “secured seal,” which you can showcase on your website to boost the confidence of prospective customers — ideally in your home, product, and checkout pages.

3. Hire a DPO
For businesses that cater to EU residents, including those that aren’t based there, you’re probably already familiar with the GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation.

Put simply, the GDPR presents businesses a list of requirements geared for the data security of EU citizens, such as documenting the movement of data in your company, requesting for the consent of users for cookie usage, and designating a DPO or Data Protection Officer to oversee GDPR compliance, collaborate with data protection authorities, and so on.

The good news is, small businesses can now outsource a DPO from UK-based security organizations like Bulletproof — a much more cost-effective way to ensure GDPR compliance.

Of course, having a DPO in your company improves data security awareness among your staff. They’re also tasked with conducting regular security audits to deter potential breaches and review GDPR compliance.

DPOs are also responsible with the education of your data subjects — your EU-based customers — when it comes to your organization’s data privacy policies, security protocols, and their right to have their personal information deleted.

4. Use Two-Factor Authentication
While DDoS attacks can potentially, single-handedly demolish a small business, all it takes is one successful brute force attack to seal any company’s fate.

A brute force attack is when a hacker leverages a tool to generate heaps of consecutive password guesses, which will then be used to gain unauthorized access to an account.

If you let them brute-force their way into your systems, you’re basically handing them the keys to your online business.

Fortunately, you have a number of options when it comes to incapacitating these hackers.

An example is to use two-factor authentication to incorporate another verification step, typically using a one-time password sent via email or SMS.

This renders your website virtually impervious to brute force attacks.

However, implementing two-factor authentication on your website involves different steps based on your website platform. WordPress users, for example, can use a plugin like Two Factor Authentication to implement the feature without writing a single line of code.

Another way to stop brute force attacks is to limit the number of failed login attempts users can make before additional verification is required.

The usual route is to integrate CAPTCHAs as a verification step, which are designed specifically to stop bots from having any more login attempts once they’ve exceeded your limit.

5. Keep Your Software Updated
Last but not least, software vendors regularly publish patches that fix detected vulnerabilities in their product’s previous versions or expand its security features. This applies to everything, from content management systems to antivirus applications.

A good practice is to enable automatic software updates — at least in your crucial online business applications like security tools, operating systems, and so on.

By staying up-to-date with your software versions, you can improve your chances of weathering a zero-day attack. This is a type of cyber-attack wherein hackers exploit a vulnerability in an application before the developers and cybersecurity companies even find the issue.

Conclusion
For online businesses, capable cybersecurity is no longer an option in today’s world.

It’s never too early to invest in your endeavor’s protection against online threats. Remember, preventing cyber-attacks from causing damage is always more preferable than mitigating and cleaning up their effects later on.

Contributed by Zach Webber

In the disruptive age of Uber, Amazon and Airbnb, today’s consumers are accustomed to easy-access, high-quality services tailored to meet their needs. It is this experience with private sector technologies that is shaping their expectation for government service delivery.

In turn, the transforming government and citizen relationship has necessitated a radical rethink of government services. The ‘smart citizen’ demands an alteration of government service paradigms – shifting from services to focus on the experience. And it is precisely to examine this shift that the Government Experience (GX) – a new global framework for government service excellence from the UAE – is being launched at the seventh World Government Summit (WGS 2019).

Launched by the Emirates Government Service Excellence Program, the Government Services Forum will convene senior leaders from the public and private sectors to engage in a dialogue on the future of government services. Centered around the theme of ‘Powered by Experiences’, the Forum will explore multiple aspects including changing citizen expectations and their impact on government services, how governments around the world are meeting these expectations and addressing challenges in delivering exceptional service experiences, and how government services will evolve over the next 20 years.

His Excellency Mohammed Bin Taliah, Assistant Director General for Government Services Sector and Assistant Director General for Corporate Services Sector at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and The Future, said: “The time has come to unlock the extraordinary potential of governments to empower their people and communities. Equipped with new tools and a new mindset, leaders around the world can reimagine how they engage with and support their people. Much like the UAE, governments around the world have a renewed focus on citizen happiness. A responsive government environment offers tremendous opportunities for collaboration and participation.”

A unique platform, GX aims to unite government decision-makers, global practitioners and renowned innovators to re-examine and re-define the Government Experience for the present and the future. Across the all-encompassing initiatives that fall under the GX umbrella – the GX Services portal, GX Talks, and the GX RoundTable – the leading minds in today’s government services domain will explore and assess where the world is heading and look at the best practices that benefit the global citizen in the most impactful and positive way.

“Today, people expect the highest standards of customization, impactful personalization, quality and speed of delivery in all engagement. However, the concept of citizen-centric reform is not new. For some years there has been a greater push to align government services with the distinct needs of individual citizens and communities, made possible by the relatively affordable advances in technology and data analytics that have opened new digital channels and enabled greater customization and localism geared towards personal requirements,” Bin Taliah added.

According to Deloitte’s ‘A Government Perspective: Tech Trends 2018,’ governments are no longer looking at implementing ‘one-off IT initiatives’ in a single domain. Instead, there is today a more forward-looking approach to harnessing disruptive technologies that can work in harmony across an agency, department or multiple departments.

Boston Consultancy Group’s (BCG) 2018 insights on ‘A Blueprint for the Government of the Future’ states that we are seeing governments respond not in the traditional hierarchical and siloed way, but rather by fundamentally re-examining structure through creating priority clusters, establishing functional accelerators that build expertise in critical areas, adopting agile ways of working, using cross-functional teams and creating a streamlined, one-stop shop where people can access the services and assistance they need.

But this technology boom has implications on the skills required to replace the jobs that are being automated and made redundant. BCG recommends governments create functional accelerators that bring together talent in critical emerging areas such as big data and advanced analytics, behavioral economics, AI, and robotics.

Governments that are already experimenting with the accelerator model include the UAE and Canada. The UAE created a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, mandated to promote AI both within and outside of government. Recently, Canada set up an Impact and Innovation Unit within the center of government to help transform the operations of the public administration. The UK and the US too have set up functional accelerators to advance their digital expertise. In the UK for instance, websites of 25 ministerial departments and 385 other agencies and public bodies have been merged into a single website, Gov.uk, which has begun offering e-services.

When redesigning the future of government service experiences, the essential pillars upholding the new paradigm remain the adoption of shared services across functions, leveraging third-party, private-sector providers to deliver some government services, and of course, stronger association not just between federal and local governments, but between public and private enterprises as well.

The Emirates Government Services Excellence Program was launched in 2011, in line with the vision of the UAE to be one of the best countries in the world by the year 2021. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai launched the program in order to raise the efficiency of government services to a seven-star level, by focusing on customer centricity and enhancing government efficiency.

The World Government Summit 2019 will run from February 10 to 12 at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. The landmark event is set to convene more than 4,000 participants from 140 countries, including heads of state and governments, as well as top-tier representatives of 30 international organizations.