How To Stay Safe Online, Making Data Analytics Work & More in This Week’s Top Reads
In this week’s top reads, we covered how people and businesses can stay safe online this holiday season. We also covered how to do data analytics right, and separating trends from fads in the tech industry.
Tis’ the time for festivities, and with the FIFA 2022 World Cup coinciding with the upcoming holiday season and the pandemic fading away, there’s plenty for people to cherish and splurge on. This year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the U.S. are estimated to top the $20 billion figure, according to Adobe Analytics, and consumer sentiment is expected to stay strong despite inflation.
The rush to make the most of holiday season discounts and offers also attracts the attention of fraudsters and online scammers. According to Better Business Bureau, online purchase scams made up 30% of all scams reported in 2022, and there is no evidence to suggest that scammers will slow down during the holidays. Considering the stakes, this week’s top stories from Spiceworks News & Insights covered the top FIFA World Cup-themed scams and cybersecurity experts’ advice on staying safe online.
We also covered how IT decision-makers can distinguish a genuine trend from fads and insights from Veronika Selitskaya, Data Analyst, Oxagile, on potential reasons for failed data analytics and what moves businesses should make to avoid poor results, even if they’re data-driven.
Here’s a look at this week’s top reads from Spiceworks News & Insights.
The top World Cup-themed scams & best practices to stay safe online
The Soccer World Cup attracts more attention worldwide than any other sport. With over a billion people closely following the tournament online, it is the time of the year for online scammers and fraudsters to put their dark arts into practice and bring their best-laid plans to fruition.
In one of this week’s top reads, we covered the top four FIFA World Cup-themed scams – ticketing scams, merchandise scams, fake surveys, and FIFA World Cup employment scams. We also gauged expert insights on why they work, the scale at which they are carried out, and the potential ramifications of such scams.
In another must-read, we covered insights from several leading cybersecurity experts about the most prevalent threats posed by cybercriminals during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas festivities and what people need to do to keep their data and devices safe while making the most of the holiday season.
During the holiday season, organizations will also be at the receiving end of sophisticated cyber attacks in various forms and shapes. We also made sure to bring in insights from leading cybersecurity experts on the threats organizations should expect to face in the days ahead and what they need to do to keep their networks, customers, and information safe.
Click here to learn more about the top World Cup-themes scams and the best practices for people and organizations to stay safe during the holiday season.
Making data analytics work for your business
In an insightful article for Spiceworks News & Insights, Veronika Selitskaya, Data Analyst at software development company Oxagile, lists potential reasons for failed data analytics and the steps businesses should take to avoid poor results, even if they’re data-driven. With today’s digital-first companies relying on state-of-the-art data analytics to make business decisions, doing data analytics right can help save plenty of time and effort and ensure profitability in the long run.
Selitskaya lists some of the major roadblocks that prevent data analysts from bringing accurate insights and results from the data they have. She also talks about erroneous practices that give decision-makers the wrong picture, thereby forcing them to make the wrong decisions.
“To avoid being blocked by organizational matters relying solely on data analytics with necessary practical skills, a company should care about having and timely updating comprehensive documentation – data dictionaries and data lineage. On the one hand, this source of truth will protect you from the mistakes data analysts could make trying to look into the system specifics on their own. On the other hand, delayed data updates get us back to the data quality issue – old data will entail wrong conclusions,” she says.
Click here to learn more about how to do data analytics right and make your business prosper.
Separating the trends from the fads
The tech space is often riddled with fads in the garb of trends, says Vladislav Maličević, CTO of Jedox, in an insightful article for Spiceworks News & Insights. “If you look at pop culture, MySpace and Vine (which shuttered its doors after a brief run in 2017) are examples of a fad without a sustainable foundation for understanding market demand or the ability to adapt to market changes.”
Maličević says that the urgency around digital transformation has accelerated since the pandemic, and tech leaders are looking to onboard transformative solutions. However, not everyone understands how to differentiate between trendy solutions that solve timely problems and fad solutions that create more problems.
In his writeup, Maličević lists some top tips on how tech leaders and IT professionals can separate genuine trends from a mountain of fads that enjoy temporary popularity. “Falling for a fad can be costly both in terms of time and resources, so it’s important not to have the “technology for technology’s sake” mindset,” he says.
Click here to read Maličević’s top tips on how to identify a trend in a sea of tech fads.
As always, we invite you to explore our expansive coverage of the latest in the tech industry on Spiceworks News & Insights.
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