We live in an increasingly connected world. It’s estimated that there will be about 260 million internet-connected devices in the U.S. by 2020, and the next wave of these devices will push our data demand even further. New Bluetooth advancements, for instance, enable devices to perform within a range that’s four times greater, twice the speed, and eight times the bandwidth of traditional Bluetooth devices.

Besides this, connected and automated devices in the home are already ubiquitous given the popularity of smart home installations: Vacuums, thermostats, lights, and pretty much anything else with a plug can now be controlled using phone apps and voice commands. But this increasing connection isn’t limited to the home; the workplace is automating as well. A majority of businesses are exploring automation for its potential to drive efficiency, productivity, and innovation, and this will only increase as the Internet of Things continues to expand.

Advancements like these will lead to a world that’s connected everywhere you go — meaning society’s data demand is growing. What’s more, streaming subscriptions have already surpassed cable. Many streaming services are already available on mobile devices as well, which increases connectivity and data demand even further.

As a society, our demand for data is increasing at a rapid pace — but the internet in the U.S. isn’t poised to keep up with demand. 

As it stands now, the U.S. ranks 10^th in the world for its fixed broadband speeds, falling behind the fastest global speed by more than 64 megabits per second. High connectivity and automation rely on rapid and consistent data transfers, but the U.S. internet in its current state isn’t likely to support this.

One Problem: Not Enough Competition Among Internet Service Providers

U.S. internet speeds pale so much in comparison to other countries’ in part because the internet is currently offered in highly oligopolized or monopolized markets. Most online traffic travels through coaxial cables maintained by regional ISPs with few competitors. Some traffic still travels through even slower copper phone lines of the DSL days.

Only so much data can be crammed through coaxial cables and copper wires, and ISPs know that. The problem is that our data-processing infrastructure hasn’t improved alongside our technologies. But given the lack of competitive pressure, companies have no incentive to make improvements — and so they rarely do.

In a more open market, heightened competition might push ISPs to offer the latest innovations in data transmissions (fiber-optic networks, for example) to maintain a healthy market share.

This would push companies to upgrade and innovate, and it’s likely that new technologies would emerge at a faster rate than they would in closed markets. A natural solution to this problem might seem to be opening the market to more providers and putting more competitors in the space in order to motivate ISPs to innovate. But this solution comes with challenges of its own.

Competitors struggle to enter the space at all, largely because of a lengthy and costly right-of-way approval process that creates barriers to entry.

ISPs have to work with local governments to gain access to public rights of way that allow them to place broadband wires. Placing these wires is expensive because ISPs must pay exorbitant fees to rent space for them — whether the wires are on utility poles or in underground conduits. These fees alone can double the cost of network construction. This, along with antiquated laws that aided in creating regional monopolies, means that competition is pushed out and that only a few big players remain. To change that, local governments would need to change their approval processes and allow easier entry into the market for new ISPs.

As an alternative, ISPs and governments could form public-private partnerships to create a new entry into the market. Essentially, a publicly funded, privately run organization would enter the ISP arena to boost competition — and therefore, innovation — while driving down prices. The private sector can bring new opportunities to cities that don’t have the resources to develop solutions on their own.

Should the Internet Become a Public Utility?

Another option on the table for advancing the internet enough to take on the next wave of automation is classifying internet service as a public utility. Utilities can be strictly regulated for quality and cost controls because these services are considered too important to leave entirely up to market forces.

Consider what internet service would look like if it were a public utility similar to electricity or gas.

ISPs would still be private companies, but governments could mandate specific internet speeds to reach and put a ceiling on costs. The idea is that the private sector is likely better at service delivery, but the existence of strict government controls would prevent ISPs from exploiting their near-monopoly status.

Additionally, because internet access is now widely considered necessary for people functioning in the modern world, it would make sense for the government to set up a baseline of internet service for low-income or underserved communities. This could push ISPs to offer better service because people would default to the public service if they saw no greater benefit from using other ISPs instead.

Ditching Land-Based Infrastructure

Another option is eschewing land-based internet infrastructure altogether and moving to space instead. In fact, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is already constructing a constellation of satellites — Starlink — to provide space-based internet access. SpaceX has launched 60 satellites into space so far, and its internet service is already available in several places on the planet (this includes Musk’s home, where he was able to send a tweet through space). The U.S. Air Force is also testing this technology.

This option is still in the early stages, but SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink’s broadband service could be available in the U.S. as early as the middle of next year. If all goes well with its current testing and future launches, Starlink could offer high-speed internet access to consumers and avoid countless infrastructure challenges in the process.

IoT is expanding, and the world is becoming more connected at home, at work, and on the go than ever before. With the growth of modern technology and connectivity, it makes sense that the internet should evolve alongside it. If its growth stays stagnant, however, we won’t see new tech advancements reach their full potential. It’s time to reevaluate the U.S. internet service infrastructure before innovation is truly stifled.

The post The Automation Boom is Coming. Will the Internet Be Ready? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Starting a business is not an easy decision to make. Building a company requires work and money as well, and time. The resources of time, work, and money mean you will have to make sacrifices to start your business. It takes someone who has a lot of passion and confidence to establish a startup. These young people have proved that anyone can create a business at any age. However, some fantastic young entrepreneurs had the fortitude and strength in them to build their businesses in their teenage years. Here are five teen AI entrepreneurs that will amaze you.

1. Sofi Overton

It is disappointing that when you are wearing leggings or socks, there are no pockets. When you are wearing leggings, you need a place you can put your phone and keys because you don’t have a pants pocket. Sofi Overton was able to solve that problem when she established Wise Pocket when she was 13 years old. Sofi products were making leggings and socks with pockets in them.

Sofi wanted to establish this business when she was out and about one day with her cousin. Sofi noticed the problem with not having pockets while wearing her leggings. Her cousin ended up putting her phone inside of her boot — a lousy place for a phone. Once Sofi identified a need, she immediately set about working to establish Wise Pocket.

2. Richard Black

There are plenty of people who are hearing as well as vision-impaired. These individuals face many challenges because of their disabilities. More than anything, all people need, want, and deserve the chance to be independent. Richard Black, 17 years of age, made this possible.

By utilizing the latest AI technology, Richard established Halfcode that sells gadgets for people with vision and hearing impairments become independent and navigate the world much easier.

3. Asia Newson

Asia Newson loved candles when she was very young. And she had ideas on how to create unique and fun homemade candles, and that is how she became passionate enough to establish her own handmade candle business, Super Business Girl, at the age of 14.

People all over the world were inspired by Asia, and she was featured on America’s Got Talent as well as on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Asia also was a keynote speaker for TEDxDetroit. Asia’s parents have begun to work in the business as well. They have become the director of sales, and one parent has taken the role of president.

4. Miracle Olatunji

During her mid-teens, while she was in high school, Miracle Olatunji wanted to help her high school peers get connected to opportunities that would help them find interest in a career. That is why she established OpportuniMe, which is a platform to help high school students find opportunities to help them get into the jobs they want or to help them know that there are well-suited careers for them.

The idea of this platform is also to help high school students find their desires and passions for what they want to do in life before they go to college. Not only is Miracle at the age of 19 still involved, but she is now the director of innovation at Thrive and wrote the book, Purpose: How to Live and Lead with Impact.

5. Maddie Rae

Maddie Rae found slime to be funny and had a passion for doing something with it.  Maddie felt that to make slime, useful — she would have to turn the slime into glue. At age 12, Maddie was able to established Maddie Rae’s Slime Glue. Her company takes slime and glue mixed together — the results have been a substantial hit among all age groups. She was able to expand her online store, quickly becoming successful.

Maddie Rae’s Slime Glue Company sells slime glue, slime, as well as many progressive accessories having to do with everything slime.

After reading about these amazing teenagers that had the passion and dedication to start their own businesses, you can do something about your own passion and turn it into something amazing.

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Paper is an essential commodity for office operations. Most conventional offices rely on paper for completing the simplest tasks. Even after digitization, the dream of a completely paperless office is far from reality. Humans are used to a standard form of note-taking and documentation. Here is how to achieve paperless operations and document automation with AI and ML.

Progressive technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning help enterprises achieve their goal of paperless offices. Using these technologies, the issues associated with managing large volumes of data documented on paper can be efficiently solved.

Concept of Paperless Enterprises

Paperless enterprises run on digital devices with minimum paper consumption. In a digitally connected world, this gives businesses an unprecedented edge. All data is stored digitally, on the cloud or on-premise, which can be used in real-time to derive valuable insights about operational efficiency, marketing campaigns, employee engagement and a lot more.

Machine Learning (ML) is making it possible to achieve next-gen digital transformation by automating several business operations, that requires filling up loads of paper documents. Already, businesses are making an effort to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence to go digital and achieve higher efficiency.

Growing Penetration of Machine Learning in Modern Enterprises

Source: https://www.fingent.com/blog/machine-learning-to-accelerate-paperless-offices

Benefits of Paperless Operations

Automation can offer several benefits to modern enterprises. Not only the tedious task of filing and storing a large number of documents can be minimized, but organizations can improve their data discovery and utilization capabilities. Here are some of the benefits of adopting paperless processes:

• Efficient Document Organization

Digitization through artificial intelligence and machine learning allows companies to organize all information in easily accessible formats. This saves time as employees don’t have to waste hours searching for a document. Also, this promotes remote working culture and bring next-level authentication as the origin of digital information can be identified.

• Enhanced Security 

One of the biggest drawbacks of paper-based data storage is associated with the security and safety of data. Conventionally, office cultures were not serious about data protection and stored critical information either in filing cabinets or any similar method.

All these methods are prone to data theft or damage due to unavoidable circumstances. Paperless office enhances the security measures as companies can take a backup of data, secure data through passwords and take steps to enforce security measures.

• Reduced Overheads

Storing data using paper-based techniques is a cumbersome and costly affair. Companies can save millions of dollars annually by eliminating the need for paper, copier equipment, and maintenance. Also, companies don’t have to waste valuable real estate for storage of files and other documents.

Paperless digitization promotes easy accessibility from anywhere, which means less money is spent on the physical transmission of data using conventional methods.

• Real-time Insights

Digitally stored data serves as a massive data pool to derive real-time insights from available data. This means that the information available to an enterprise can be put to better use for boosting efficiency. Marketing managers can utilize real-time data gathered from various campaigns; production teams can understand customer preferences.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence can enhance data analysis capabilities and make organizational processes closer to the customer’s needs and preferences.

Industry Use Cases: Who will Benefit the Most?

1. Legal firms

AI/ML-based paperless workflows will significantly improve the productivity of law firms. Traditionally, the legal profession is seen as a labor-intensive task- browsing through thousands of legal case files, reviewing past case studies, examining legal contracts and more.

AI can reduce manual intervention for data analysis and processing, leaving more time with advocates, lawyers and legal firms to advise their clients and appeal in courts. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to keep a record of legal contracts and provide real-time alerts on renewals, proofreading legal documents and locate valuable information in seconds. For the legal system, artificial intelligence is the key to paper-free litigation and trials in the future.

2. Automobile industries

The automobile industry is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI/ML innovation. Machine learning has allowed automobile factories to create autonomous systems for managing large volumes of data generated during the manufacturing process.

Moreover, AI is reducing the effort required for filing claims in case of shop-floor accidents as data is digitized and form filing can be automated. Also, ML algorithms allow customers to get real-time diagnostic support without needing to file paper-based forms as a vehicle can be directly connected to the manufacturer via cloud infrastructure. This means that repairs, service and general performance issues can be reported in real-time without the need for paper.

3. Insurance

The insurance sector can use machine learning to automate claims will prove delightful for customer service processes. Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be leveraged to create sophisticated rating systems for evaluating risks and predicting an efficient pricing structure for each policy. All this can be automated, which reduces the need for manual intervention from human agents for classifying risks.

Also, artificial intelligence can streamline workflow by managing a large volume of claims data, policy benefits, medical/personal records, digitally. The data stored on the cloud can be used by an AI algorithm to derive real-time insights about policyholders and bring efficiency to the fraud detection process.

Wrapping Up

Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize workspaces like never before. With the help of an AI development company, small, medium and large-scale enterprises can make a substantial move towards a paperless future. Not only will it reduce the cost of operations but it will boost the overall efficiency of the existing business processes. The industry use cases suggested above is just the tip of a massive iceberg.

The possibilities are limitless. An AI-driven product development company can understand your existing business processes and suggest custom solutions that can be a suitable fit for your business operations.

The post Achieving Paperless Operations and Document Automation with AI and ML appeared first on ReadWrite.

Nowadays most companies are doing SEO, PPC, and Content Marketing. Yet sometimes the company’s are not getting the leads they need. Some businesses get leads — but not quality leads, or they don’t get the leads that fit their expectations.

The main reason a company doesn’t get the leads they need is that they are not completing the actual process of generating leads correctly. If the process is done correctly, the combination of SEO, PPC and content marketing will bring you the leads that you need.

SEO is the process of improving the ranking of your website, and getting traffic on your site. SEO is not just about ranking and not just about traffic. But it’s all about conversions.

If thousands of visitors come to your website — and not a single visitor becomes a lead — then it’s not a great deal.

What you want for your website is:

Ranking + Clicks + Conversions

You will want to move toward the best formula for generating leads is as easy as ABC:

A= Attract the Customers
B= Build the Audience
C= Conversions

A= Attract customers.

1) Write a blog.
2.) Target traffic to that blog.

• First, you’ll want to write three articles of at least 2000 words. Make sure that the article is in your niche and that the writing has to do with your business. Make sure you write well, research your content, and put proper keywords in the article. Have the piece edited.
• Make sure to have the proper keyword and topic selection for your blog,

Tools for keyword research.
Google Keyword Planner
Answer the Public
UberSuggest
Keyword.Io

• Second is getting the targeted traffic to your blog. You will want to pull quality traffic to your site.

1.) Social Media Promotion.

Share your blog on targeted social media groups like LinkedIn groups, particular niche facebook groups,
Twitter also helps you to generate instant and quality traffic,
Also Read: https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-build-a-winning-social-media-campaign-for-a-global-audience/

2.) Paid Promotion.

Start PPC campaign for your blog,
By setting the proper research campaign, you gain traffic as we wanted,
And the main thing is that our blog is already well keyword research, so we have also more chances to gain free organic traffic
Here our first task is completed,

B = Build The Audience

Now, after getting traffic to our site our second goal is build the audience who visited our blog, either it is paid audience, either it is free organic audience or either it is the audience that is generated by social promotion,
If you don’t know how to store the data that who visited your blog then you have to refer this official blog
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2611404?hl=en

C = Conversations

Now, this is the final task that is getting leads,
After building the audience, it’s time to Provide lead magnet to those who visited your site,

Lead Magnet :

A lead magnet is generally offered free content like ebook, Checklist, Whitepaper, Video, and brochure in exchange for getting users email id’s name and number,

Or We can say that anything that provides the customer to free with the purpose of fill the form and get their details,
Believe me guys the most number of successful company use lead magnet for getting leads,

For providing a lead magnet to your visitors, you perform two activities.

1.) Whenever customer arrived at your blog either your customer come via PPC, wither it comes via Social Media or either they come via organic results. You must show them a popup and show the lead magnets after 40 seconds.

2.) You have to do remarketing (Remarketing is a very very effective technique).
Please refer to this blog written by @Neil Patel for fantastic techniques about how to set a remarketing campaign.

Remarketing helps you to converts your visitors into purchase free lead magnets, It continuously follows your customers until they didn’t purchase your lead magnet. Once your audience starts purchasing, your database is filling up with the quality names, numbers, and emails.

The conversion ratio of this data is too high, because we know this is the audience that comes via an article. They are purchasing our lead magnet means that the audience is interested in our services.

Now you start email marketing.

Now it’s time to sending your business proposals to those people — data (the name, number, and email id) whom you getting by lead magnets. The data generated by the lead magnet is very powerful. The more information you get with the name and number by a lead magnet the more you convert a lead.

If you are CEO, you can share data with your BDE, Lead Generator, or marketing department, and they can easily convert leads by this data. I often call this the 100% genuine technique.

Nowadays most people know how to SEO, PPC, and remarketing. But, try these mixtures and a technique for generating leads.

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“Breathing would be delightful,” the director of products told me in our kickoff. His startup was growing fast. It had a bunch of new funding, the pressure was on to ship, and the team was underwater. I was there to help and take the pressure off so they could breathe. “Let’s begin to think strategically about the future,” I told them. Here is successful scaling and how to grow without tumbling back down.

Scale is the problem you want — and one many companies never get to experience. It’s a sign of a good team and a good product when you can scale and scale quickly. Ironically, growing can be what destroys you. Your team can lose sight of the goal and group dynamics can get thrown off.

Systems can crack under pressure that they were never designed to support. Leadership will often become frustrated with their teams, wondering why they can’t keep up with the onslaught of new ideas and tasks. Worst of all, confusion can infiltrate your product, impacting the customer experience and even your reputation.

Product Management and UX are more difficult to scale than engineering. Engineering has commonly accepted and uses ratios and patterns for scaling. Product Management and UX trends to add people when it becomes painfully clear the current team is overwhelmed. Then the team hire and onboard new people while doing everything else.

How to Avoid Problems and Implement Successful Scaling

The reality is that scaling looks different for every company and team. Here are some constants that have guided us over the years as we’ve helped grow teams from small strike forces to significant success stories:

Direct the train

Product and UX need to direct a train that is already running. There is little to no appetite at most companies for engineering to slow down so product and UX can figure things out. As simply and often as you can, tell everyone where we’re going, why it matters and what it will look when they are there so they can make decisions without needing detailed documentation. We teach everyone at 3Pillar about the Product Mindset and how we need to build for outcomes like revenue and engagement.

Contain the whack-a-mole effect

Success breeds success – and ideas generate ideas. If things are going well with your company, it’s likely that you’ve had at least a few brainstorming questions, looking to generate new strategies and concepts.

“Hiten Bombs” is what they called at KISSmetrics when founder Hiten Shah dropped new ideas on the team and in a very brave post he wrote about how his ideas blew up progress on the team.

One of the core principles of our Product Mindset is to excel at change. It’s tempting to try and make all these exciting new ideas a reality, but the fact of the matter is that if you listen to everything, you’ll never get anything done. Systematically collect ideas, review them, select the most promising ones – and move on.

Fix your movement patterns

I’ve taught skiers with a chapter of Disabled Sports USA for many years. A skier needs to get down the hill without hurting themselves or others, and they adopt a movement pattern that will get that job done. But it doesn’t mean that it’s efficient or effective as they want to get on harder terrain. My job as an instructor is to understand their goals and how they move and start to replace their old movements with new ones that will help them progress.

The same principle is true of businesses: The patterns that served a small business won’t necessarily serve it well as it scales.  Figure out what habits are holding your team back and forge new ones. It might be awkward at first, but it can save you time, money and talent in the long run.

Create simple rules

There’s a place for the comprehensive, big, bound employee handbook – and, more often than not, it’s in a wiki no one reads. What we need are ways to help our teams use their judgment to make better decisions. Researchers from Stanford found that simple rules help employees make decisions in a world of complexity and change. 

Nine times out of ten, if someone struggles with effective decision-making – whether it’s on dress, hours, remote work or benefits – they need coaching, not a detailed policy. Keeping things simple will keep you nimble as you expand.

Listen carefully to your new hires

It’s hardly conventional wisdom; if anything, new hires are the ones who need to do the listening. But hearing their expectations will give you greater insight into interpersonal dynamics, and listening to their past experiences of what worked and what didn’t could supply you with new approaches and tactics.

Own your day

In the flurry and flutter of change, it’s easy to spend all your energy putting out fires and ensuring that everyone gets through the day intact. Take time – each quarter, each month, each week, each day – to consciously and concretely advance your long-term goals, even if it’s just by a fraction. If our experience shows anything, you won’t be able to do this every day. But on the days you can do it, you’ll feel all the more accomplished and centered on what it is you do and who it is you are.

At the end of the day, if you keep your eye on the big picture, a bigger team can be a stronger team. If you set clear roles and clear expectations for your employees, foster an environment of trust and collaboration through strong leadership and tackle growth step-by-step, you can successfully scale without losing sight of how you got there.

The post Successful Scaling: How to Grow Without Tumbling Back Down appeared first on ReadWrite.

In the past, we’ve all witnessed sim-jacking attacks that allow a hacker to impersonate the targeted victim to steal the phone number. Hackers can gain access to unauthorized information related to the victim using the vulnerability, ‘SimJacker’ was that vulnerability.

Recently there’s a similar vulnerability that has popped up, which uses the same SMS-technology to track users’ devices by exploiting little-known apps that are running on a sim-card.

The new attack namely, WIBattack is similar to Simjacker. Folks at mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile disclosed that attack vector.

Both attacks are similar in the way they work, they even grant access to the same commands. The main difference between the two attacks is the fact that they target different applications running on the sim-card.

Mainly, Simjacker executes commands using the S@T Browser app. Whereas WIBattack sends commands to the Wireless Internet Browser (WIB) application.

Telecommunication companies have both java-applets pre-installed on sims to provide management to customer devices and their mobile subscriptions. Cybersecurity is evolving at a fast pace and AI is being considered to be implemented in it to tackle exploits that humans will have difficulties preventing.

Remote access being insecure is the cause behind the WIB vulnerability, in my opinion. Here are 3 important strategies to protect yourself from cyber threats.

The History Of WIB Attack

AdaptiveMobile, a mobile security firm released a report that disclosed details about a company involved in sending rogue commands to the S@T Browser application running on sim-cards. The company had ties with the government and was executing those commands to track individuals.

Recently a report was published by GinnosLab, that disclosed information about the WIB app being vulnerable to similar attacks. Attackers start by sending a specially formatted binary SMS also known as an OTA SMS to target WIB and S@T applets. The SMS executes sim-toolkit instructions on the device, which grants hackers the ultimate access.

The sim-cards that do not have special security features pre-enabled by the telecommunication companies are vulnerable to those malicious instructions.

The applets installed on the sim-card supports the execution of the following commands:

• Get location data
• Start call
• Send SMS
• Transmit SS requests
• Send USSD requests
• Launch an internet browser with a specific URL
• Display text on the device
• Play a tone

According to GinnosLabs, Since the attack is fairly similar to Simjacker, it can be abused to track victims. One of the possibilities of this attack method is that a skilled hacker can start a call and listen to nearby conversations which can get quite scary if you think about it.

Exploitation After Gaining Persistence

If the hacker establishes persistence and exploits the vulnerability, then things go downhill faster. The hacker can execute social engineering attacks using the victim’s vulnerable sim-card. For instance, phishing links can be forwarded to the victim’s contact list causing small-scale personal data breaches unless the victim is an important personality, the effects can be major.

It is essential for anyone working towards data security and privacy to be aware of the different types of data breaches. Knowing the enemy is the first step in retaliating. The fact that technology has progressed so far also means the attack vectors are also adapting and evolving.

Phishing is one of the attacks, hackers can execute overtime after they establish persistence. Human-generated phishing links are the past now. AI-generated phishing techniques are the future and are more dangerous. Not only that there are many cyber threats emerging rapidly that can completely change your perspective on what’s secure and what’s not.

What Is Over The Air (OTA) Technology?

Since this vulnerability utilizes “Over The Air” technology, it is essential for us to know what it is and how it works. Telecommunication companies use OTA technology to download, manage and modify the data on sim-cards without being physically connected to it. In other words, remotely.

It enables a network operator to introduce new services or modify existing ones in a cost-effective manner. It uses the client-server architecture where your sim-card serves as the client and the operator’s back-end system serves as the server which might include:

• Customer care services
• Billing system
• Application system

How Does OTA Work?

The operator’s back-end system is responsible to send service requests through an OTA gateway. The OTA gateway converts the requests into Short Messages that are transmitted through a Short Message Service Center (SMSC). It is responsible to circulate the messages to one or more sim-cards in the field.

Proving the point that OTA doesn’t require you to commute to a retail outlet to modify something on your sim-card.

The components required to implement OTA technology are listed below:

• A backend system to process and send requests.
• An OTA gateway that converts the requests in a suitable format for the sim-card to understand.
• An SMSC to send requests through a wireless network.
• A bearer to transport the request, in this case, it’s the SMS-technology.
• Mobile equipment to receive the request and pass it on to the sim-card.
• A sim-card to receive and execute the current request.

OTA SMS can be transmitted from peer-to-peer. In simple words, from one mobile subscriber to another.

What Would Be A Typical Attack Scenario?

Knowing how a hacker would attack your system is essential to counter it. Here’s how a typical hacker would execute this attack to exploit vulnerabilities on your sim-card.

The “Wireless Internet Browser” (WIB) is the leading sim-based browser that provides a menu that can be managed or updated using OTA technology.

The attack starts with an SMS sent from the attacker’s device to the victim’s mobile phone. The message is a malicious OTA SMS that contains WIB commands.

Once the victim receives the OTA SMS with the WIB commands. The WIB browser receives the transmitted commands on the victim’s phone. WIB responds to the requests made in that malicious SMS and sends back a proactive command such as initiating a call, sending SMS, etc.

Attackers can execute other commands that can track your location geographically.

How Many Devices Were Caught In This Vulnerability? 

SRLabs the veterans in mobile and telecom security developed two applications, one for desktop and the other for mobile to tackle this situation.

The apps being SimTester and SnoopSnitch. The first one being the desktop application and the other one being the Android application. To test if you are vulnerable, you need to have a rooted phone.

Researchers used telemetry from both applications to analyze the extent of SimJacker and WIBattack vulnerabilities. They managed to gain data from 800 sim-cards globally. The results are fairly good because telecommunications companies are now shipping sim-cards that do not have the vulnerable applets running on them.

The statistics provided by SRlabs are as follows:

• 4% of the tested sim-cards had the S@T applet installed.
• 5.6% of total sim-cards were vulnerable to SimJacker. The cause being security levels set to 0.
• 7% had the WIB applet installed.
• 3.5% of sim-cards were vulnerable to the WIB Attack.
• 9.1% of the total sim-cards tested were either vulnerable to S@T Attack or WIB Attack.

Data of 500,000 users that installed SnoopSnitch revealed that only a few number of people received those malicious OTA SMS’es.

Important Countermeasures to Be Aware Of

It is important to have information about the attack vectors but the process doesn’t end there. If only knowing about the attack protected you from the negative effects, you wouldn’t need cybersecurity experts.

Knowing the problem is one half of the picture. The other half is knowing how to counter it or mitigate its effects properly. Here’s what you can do if you’re dealing with an insecure sim-card.

There are two ways to look at this problem, one is from the perspective of the network operator. The other is the perspective of the end-user.

For network operators, it is essential to deploy relevant solutions to tackle this problem. Some of the solutions may include, replacing the vulnerable sim-cards to give the end-user 100% security. Another solution that might be worth looking into is filtering OTA SMS’s.

As far as the subscriber is concerned, if the sim-card that the subscriber is using is vulnerable. The best thing to do is to replace the sim-card and invest in a few bucks to ensure 100% security, it’s because if you go roaming to other networks, your network provider won’t be able to ensure your security.

How Does The Vulnerability Affect You?

The question that comes up to the surface is how does it affect an average consumer? Well, It can be labelled as the invasion of privacy, data breach, and spying.

WIB browser executes commands that can easily provide enough information about the target’s surroundings, its location and even about the device he’s using.

The WIB browser vulnerability is as scary as it seems. Imagine talking to your friend but someone’s eavesdropping on your conversation. The exploit can be used to gain intel and possibly be used to harm people if not completely taken care of.

It seems like the movies, where the hacker can practically track everything that you do. It is true, nobody leaves their home without their phone. People are too dependent on gadgets and that dependency is capable of harming them.

Final Thoughts

The WIB attack is fairly similar to SimJacker. Both of these attacks are capable of executing the same kind of commands, the only major difference is the apps that they exploit. GinnosLab reported the vulnerability to the GSM association.

No need to be concerned about being vulnerable. The sim-cards in the market do not have the vulnerable applets anymore. If you want to test your sim-card you can utilize any of the listed applications above.

Not to mention, that data security is important in any aspect of technology. The details of the vulnerability were declared this year. It is essential to take the proper countermeasures so that you are not the victim of such attacks.

The post WIB Vulnerability: Sim-Card that Allows Hackers to Takeover Phones appeared first on ReadWrite.

In line with new evolving computer technologies, a lot of issues previously found complicated are now seen as an easygoing task, for example, e-commerce, contactless payment, secured online transactions, and ride-hailing. All thanks to blockchain, a new technology that massively revitalized all-around sectors, equipping the financial industry with enhanced solutions with less or no additional fees.

Kicking off as the underlying technology of digital currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), blockchain technology has interestingly gone far beyond the concept of serving as a public transaction ledger, to affecting the way we pay, play and work.

Blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that efficiently keeps records of transactions permanently.

“BlockChain,” as it was initially called, constitutes a growing list of records known as blocks, which are linked using cryptography. In a simpler term, Each block holds data either about financial transactions, voting results, contracts, medical reports, trades, and so on, within blockchain network in cryptographic form. The blocks are usually interconnected and lined up in a chain to create a new block.

The idea allows for the distribution of digital information that cannot be copied, thereby creating a foundation for a new type of internet.

While the technical communities around the world are seeking other potential applications of this technology, blockchain has already ignited changes.

While there are nonobvious industries that blockchain will likely affect, we will highlight in this article, how blockchain-based technical solutions can enhance operational systems in sectors such as:

• eCommerce
• Finance
• Government Administration
• Healthcare
• Education
• Agriculture

1. Blockchain in eCommerce

With blockchain being heralded as the foundation of Web 3.0, it would not be wrong to expect that the innovative technology has as much impact on the multi-trillion eCommerce industry as the internet had on commerce in general.

Among other possible applications, blockchain technology could revolutionize eCommerce by:

• Simplifying payments
• Monitoring the supply chain
• Introducing decentralized marketplaces.

Payments and Loyalty Rewards

Adopting cryptocurrencies (an offshoot of blockchain technology) can allow a merchant to receive payments in real-time. There is no need for a middleman such as banks or expensive payment processors, while also serving an international audience.

Crypto payment processors like BitPay or BTCPay typically charge a 1% fee for helping merchants collect cryptocurrencies with the option to receive the fiat equivalent in their bank accounts or crypto in their wallets.

Although cryptocurrencies fluctuate in value and as such could decline massively in the space of a few minutes, other variants such as Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) are stablecoins and could help merchants accept payments seamlessly.

Meanwhile, the use of tokens issued on a blockchain can revolutionize the idea of reward loyal customers more transparently. For instance, customers who purchase a specific number of items monthly could receive tokens that can be redeemed for other products or invitations to local events.

Supply Chain Monitoring

Many of the largest retailers and commercial banks, including the U.K based Lloyds Bank has adopted blockchain-based solutions to monitor supply chain in trade finance.

The use of blockchain helps merchants eliminate paper and manual work while also keeping an eye on their shipments as they travel across the world, to the doorstop or port of the recipient.

Decentralized Marketplaces

A blockchain-powered decentralized marketplace is the modernized version of P2P eCommerce sites, with the primary difference being that a single cryptocurrency could serve as the unit of payment.

In other cases, members of the network could stake cryptocurrencies to receive rewards or serve as judges on rare occasions where two transacting parties cannot reach consensus regarding a sale.

2. Blockchain in Finance

Recent advances in blockchain opened up several arrays of decentralized and distributed systems, notably revolutionizing fintech and the capital market.

For instance, several processes involved in the financial institutions have dramatically improved by DLT, resulting in security, speed of transactions, and simplicity. Famous U.S bank JP Morgan Chase recently created a cryptocurrency to enhance its internal operations.

On another hand, it is fair to note that the current capital markets infrastructure is relatively expensive, slow and often requires more intermediaries. Although the bureaucratic nature complicates the performance and receiving of financial services, the concept of DLT holds solutions to this problem.

Following the advent of crypto tokens as a tool for raising capital in 2017, the market has mostly evolved to allow businesses to raise money by distributing blockchain-based tokens (security tokens) representing the investor’s ownership in the company.

According to a report from industry researcher, BlockState, 64 companies that used this method raised nearly $1 billion between the start of the year and July, meaning that there is potential for more adoption of this funding mechanism.

3. Blockchain in Government Administration

Looking at the cross-cutting potential of blockchain — the technology has moved from relative obscurity to mainstream adoption in the governmental sector, from the improvement of public services to the resolving of political issues like the storage of voting records.

One good thing about this technology is that the public sector organizations and governments all over the world now acknowledge the transformative advantage of blockchain to do away with antiquated processes and legacy systems and instead achieve responsive structures.

While we continue to note a growing number of potential public sector blockchain applications, a few hundreds of leaders in government are reportedly joining several blockchain groups. These groups include the General Services Administration’s (GSA) blockchain working group, to share use cases and best practices.

Governments are incorporating blockchain to build trust with her citizens, following an attribute of blockchain-based solutions, accounting for transparency through decentralization. The idea enables participating parties to see and verify data too.

Launching a blockchain solution for the citizen services will trigger independent verification of legal claims.

The governments of Estonia, Sweden, and Georgia are conducting a test on blockchain-based land registries, allowing different parties to hold copies of the record securely.

This model of sharing access to records helps in addressing property disputes and potentially decrease distrust while promoting the trust between the citizens of a country and the government.

Deploying this technology helps to protect sensitive data in governmental departments. The fact that governments exist as a default record keeper for the country makes them a prime target for hackers.

In 2017 alone, Bloom reported that 143 million different personal data such as full names, birthdays, driver’s license numbers were exposed aside from other significant major data breaches through the years.

Instead of accepting such breach from hackers, the issue can rightly be resolved through the responsible integration of blockchain data structures. Blockchain supports data structures that harden network security, reduce single-point-of-failure risk, and renders any attempts to have the info prohibitively challenging.

According to a statement from Doughlas Maughan, an official of the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS), “blockchain technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we manage online identity and access the internet; this R&D project will help bring this potential closer to reality.”

4. Blockchain in Healthcare

The fact that blockchain much works as a tool in securing and saving patients’ confidential data, cannot be overemphasized. The possibilities for the application of the technology in different hospitals, clinics, the laboratory has begun to be tested across various pilot projects around the world.

In 2018, Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting, based in the United States, implemented a blockchain-supported pilot platform, which aims at assisting the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Translational Sciences to learn possible ways blockchain can be applied in the healthcare data management.

The pilot project uses Ethereum to manage data access through VPNs, and it is currently being operated at four major hospitals. The plan reduces data duplication from off-chain cloud components by using a cryptographic algorithm to enable user sharing.

This finding indicates that the latest digital platforms supported by blockchains are rapidly emerging, not just for the government and financial institutions only, but for healthcare as well, as it enables a fast and seamless interaction amongst data providers, including the patients.

Decentralized applications (DApps), as well as distributed apps built on the blockchain platforms, allows patients and physicians to easily participate in telemedicine without paying for a middleman costs except for the minimal charges of the Ethereum network. This idea allows for the empowerment of patients.

The fact that maintaining a typical healthcare Information system comprises several advanced operations such as performing backup storage services, ensuring up-to-date fields, and having recovery mechanisms in place, is the fundamental reason for the application of blockchain in the healthcare sector.

In a blockchain, there is no point of failure that can lead to an inherent backup mechanism, giving that data are distributed across the network. Also, each version of data is usually copied on every node of the blockchain.

This effort mitigates the burden on the healthcare ecosystems by reducing the volume of transactions that occur between any information system.

Thus, with the progress of healthcare institutions in the cloud healthcare data storage, patient data privacy protection regulations. Electronic health-related data gathering, opportunities are automatically popping up for daily health data management, allowing for easy access and sharing of patients’ health data.

5. Blockchain in Education

Education is another sector that is just as important as finance and healthcare, although there are lots of areas in this sector that could be enhanced using the technology.

Having a closer look at other industries that currently use blockchain technology, one can give a distinct prediction on how these networks could be used in the educational sector. However, it is also worthy to note that blockchain use in the education setting is still very new and unexplored.

Nonetheless, tremendous progress has already been made from little participation in this technology. Nowadays, blockchain solutions are deployed in simplifying the process of document verification in schools, e.g., Californian Holberton School and other institutions are considering the implementation of the network too.

The Russian platform Disciplina is arguably the first institution to harness the power of blockchain technology on the purpose of education and recruiting. One of the Disciplina applications dubbed TeachMePlease is considered a higher education marketplace that unites teachers and students.

Further, since technology makes it easier to keep track of and store information, schools can test the possibility of deploying blockchain to enhance Information services and libraries in schools.

Blockchain-based ride-sharing applications can also be utilized to arrange carpools for any students with special needs. This takes off the burden of parents or guardians, ensuring that their children get safe transportation since roadways are getting more congested.

Moving away from providing more security for humans, the verification of student records is becoming a significant problem on college campuses, even after students leave the school for work, due to existing vulnerabilities.

Data breaches on schools are mostly directed on student records, wherein the stolen pieces of information are used in creating fake identities by hackers.

To solve this problem, employing blockchain security protocols in the protection of school records renders such attacks on credentials near impossible. As a lot of schools are currently going digital, from kindergarten to university, harnessing blockchain is an unarguably essential tool in ensuring the student’s privacy.

With blockchain, verification of students’ credentials is made easy. As blockchain stores that information in a secure ledger, employers can detect whether the potential candidates have the qualifications stated on their resume before the students can enter the workforce.

6. Blockchain in Agriculture

Farming consists of complicated ecosystems, with a lot of moving parts, seasonal financing structures, as well as careful timing. Once a product leaves the farm to the market, it automatically becomes a part of the vast supply chain that involves a lot of intermediaries.

It becomes so much easier for people to know where the food has been produced through the concept of Blockchain Agriculture. The application of blockchain calls for transparent execution and tracking of pieces of information while making the process of growing and supplying food simpler.

The idea for the blockchain agriculture supply chain feeds all the parties involved with a single source of truth.

A blockchain pilot project financed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality called “Blockchain for Agrifood,” indicates that the technology allowed for the tracking of farm produces, right from the farm to grocery stores in a moment.

Another compelling use case of the technology is to help keep tabs on abundant commodities on the farm and mitigate the case of shipping fraud and illegal harvesting.

According to data released by the United Nations, food frauds cost the world economy a whopping amount of $40 billion yearly due to illicit trades that the use of blockchain could have significantly reduced.

On a final note, while it is true that most of the blockchain use cases that we’ve mentioned so far only exist theoretically, the level of industry growth that we’ve seen in the last decade raises confidence that the technology will outlive the hype and truly become the foundation for Web 3.0

Yes, with global blockchain revenue expected to hit a conservative $23.3 billion by 2023, one can only help but envisage how widespread the technology will become in the next few years.

The post 6 Industries Blockchain Technology Will Revolutionize appeared first on ReadWrite.

Marketing tactics change constantly. Each year new tactics become more impactful, and old ones fade into obscurity. Sticking to the same tactics is stale for your current customers and potential customers, too. Instead of just running the same growth tactics for years on end, it’s time to make a switch in 2020. Here are four unique growth tactics you can implement in 2020 to help you make the switch to growth.

1. Optimize Your Sales Pipeline For Engagement

Having a sales pipeline is nothing new. And you probably have a great one in place already. But there is always room for improvement. A significant issue I see in many sales pipelines is a failure to communicate effectively with prospects.

If you have great leads, you need to engage with them to build a relationship consistently.

As Gaetano Dinardi from Nextiva says:

“Engagement is the number one spot that most fall short in closing sales. Whether it’s poor timing on the engagement or simply not enough, engagement literally will make or break your sales. Within your CRM, ensure you are setting up reminders and checking outreach logs to engage often and with better accuracy.” 

Gaetano hits the nail on the head here. Engaging at the right time is just as critical as the amount you engage.

Many fail to engage in fear of “annoying” their prospects or being too intrusive. But engaging doesn’t have to be a sales pitch every single time. It can be as much as asking how you can help, noticing new solutions to their problems, or checking in.

A great way to increase engagement is to vary your engagement style. If customers aren’t receptive to email messages, try engaging them on a new platform, like social media, or SMS.

SMS has become one of my favorite ways to engage prospects throughout the sales funnel. It taps into the idea of conversational marketing, which has proven to be high-converting.

Here are some amazing example texts you can use to engage prospects in your funnel:

• Hey __, I think this article on social amplification would be a great fit for your (insert pain point).
• Hey __, I hope the holidays are going well. Did you find a fix for (insert problem they were facing)? If not, I think I have a few solutions.

Once you have scheduled SMS texts in your pipeline, you can start developing other ways to engage prospects for unrivaled growth.

Speaking of more engagement tactics, let’s jump into personalized landing page campaigns.

2. Run Personalized Landing Page Campaigns

Personalization is and will always be a stellar growth tactic. The more you can personalize (to an extent), the better. Your personalized campaigns, web pages, ad copy, are all fantastic ways to speak directly to your target market.

Rather than spinning up generic campaigns, personalized ones convert at higher rates. Why? The answer is because personalized campaigns help you speak directly to pain points, rather than using generalizations.

For example, which one of these value propositions sounds more impactful when speaking to students?

• Using our calendar scheduling tool, you will never miss an appointment
• Using our calendar scheduling tool, you can ensure that you find the time to meet with your professors that fits both of your busy schedules.

The answer is number two. Personalization is currently critical and will continue to be in 2020. But, how can you take it to the next level and create unique experiences for your potential clients to help you grow? By building personalized landing page campaigns.

What’s is a personal landing page?

Essentially, personalized landing page campaigns are used to sell to more premium and high-value target accounts in addition to specific niche segments. For example, if you wanted to land Microsoft as a client, you’d spin up a dedicated, personalized page for them on your site. Conversely, for less distinct target segments, you can still personalize landing pages.

Let me show you what a personal landing page looks like in action.

Take a look at this landing page from MailChimp: 

What do you notice? 

It’s not their standard homepage. Instead, it’s a near replica of its website homepage, just targeted via copywriting and images to focus on startups. Instead of generic copywriting and headlines, they focus the value proposition to startups. A value proposition is how you can convert at higher rates.

Compare the landing page to their homepage: 

Not much changed besides the copywriting and images. 

So, how is Mailchimp doing this at scale?

One of the best options (and my personal favorite) is to use website builders.

Why? Simply put — they are cheap, easy to use, and help you scale this for multiple targets or segments.

The folks over at Website Setup published a study where they mentioned some average costs:

“Building a good custom website could easily cost $2000 (on the low end). Making changes to the website can still require a freelance designer and a webmaster to help you continually update your site (read: you need to spend additional $$$).” 

Case and point: website builders are faster, much cheaper, and perfectly suited for this type of growth tactic.

The only problem is: which website builder do you choose?

There are currently dozens and dozens of website building platforms with different costs, tools, usability, skill level, and ratings. There’s a great breakdown of the best ones on Website Setup:

Pick one website builder that matches your price range and usability. Remember: you want to scale these pages fast and with templates / drag-and-drop. Look through the top building tools and pick one that allows you to do what you want to within your price range and usability.

You don’t need custom development to get the job done. When trying to close deals with major client accounts, you need to be able to run personalized pages fast. Going back and forth with a developer is usually far from fast.

Instead, implement a website builder and get the job done fast.

3. Build Authority Faster By Being a Journalist Source

Building brand authority is a growth tactic in and of itself. Without a brand name and social proof, growth can be extremely slow. When you think of inbound marketing, what comes to mind? HubSpot? That’s branding.

Branding helps you attract new customers by setting yourself apart from the competition, showcasing that your brand is the right choice.

One of the fastest ways to do your branding is by becoming a source for journalists. What does that mean? Essentially, you provide tidbits of information to help improve articles for journalists.

It often comes in the form of quotes and advice. For instance, take a look at this post from Incredo on SaaS Christmas marketing:

Many experts contribute their opinions and information to the article, helping both the journalist and their own brands. 

Thankfully, doing this is extremely easy, and it’s one of my favorite PR hacks.

Create a free account with HARO (Help a Reporter Out). HARO is a service that journalists use to list their article topics and what they need from experts, whether that be quotes, advice, or more. Once you sign up with HARO and create your account, you can decide which niches to get notified about.

If you want to contribute to general business, marketing, finance, health, etc. You can select specific segments. 

Each day you will receive emails listing out journalists who are looking for quotes:

Many of the journalists using HARO are writing for significant publications, too. For example, take a look at this query from a journalist at FastCompany:

Typically, cold emails to journalists at huge publications like FastCompany would result in deleted or ignored emails. But utilizing HARO, you can share your expertise and showcase your brand to potentially millions of monthly readers. With most contributions, you will also earn a link back to your website, driving direct referral traffic that converts.

In 2020, start focusing heavily on building more brand awareness. It’s one of the driving forces of purchase decisions.

4. Diversify Your Content Marketing Formats

Content is king. We all know this and experience it daily when searching for solutions on Google. Content is both useful and enjoyable to consume for business and pleasure. Everyone seems to be blogging and writing new content to drive organic traffic that converts. The problem is: blog content is often not unique for the majority of people producing it.

Millions of blog posts are published every single day, making them a common growth tactic. But in 2020, content is shifting from just written content to two more unique formats:

Podcasts and videos.

While blog posts garner just 15 seconds of attention on average, people are watching hours of video content and listening to hours more of podcast content daily. Now is the time to branch out into more than just keyword-driven blog content. Platforms like Spotify and Apple Music are goldmines for organic traffic and brand awareness.

Currently, there are nearly 100 categories on Apple for podcasts, let alone Spotify, SoundCloud, and other services.

(Image Source)

Any and every business can develop interesting podcast content that is easily digestible, driving more organic visits, brand awareness, and more. Don’t know what to talk about on a podcast? Or how to market your podcast?
Start by looking at your blog and analyzing the latest posts you have written:

For example, looking at the ReadWrite blog, I already notice multiple blog topics that can be repurposed into topics for a podcast.

• Why Productivity and Customer Experience go Hand in Hand
• Digital marketing in the government sector

If there is a category for your niche on Apple podcasts, there are eager listeners waiting for you to deliver stellar content.

Conclusion

If you want to grow your business in 2020, repeating the same overused tactics isn’t your best bet. While you can still hammer home the fundamentals — there are plenty of unique growth tactics at your disposal.

Implement these four unique growth tactics in the coming year for improved growth and success.

What are some of your favorite unique growth tactics? Which have had the biggest impacts?

The post 4 Unique Growth Tactics for 2020 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Looking for the keynote speaker for your next big corporate event? Finding the right speaker can make or break the success of your event. As you prepare to research and select a speaker, lay out some base information first: Who is your audience? What’s your budget? What’s the primary goal of the keynote session?

Pursuing a well-known speaker can deliver a big impact, but it can also come with a price tag to match. To make the most of your budget, consider choosing a speaker specific to your industry for a personalized experience that will resonate with your audience. Here are a few speakers who are leading the way in their industries.

Jonathan Keyser

Jonathan Keyser is a commercial real estate broker who’s disrupting the industry with a service-first approach. His team operates on the radical idea that you don’t have to be ruthless to win. The 15 core principles at Keyser are all centered around selfless service.

In fact, Keyser insists that his employees “give first” with the confidence that helping others in tangible ways will lead to personal fulfillment and success for the business. Keyser employees seek to build relationships and serve others long before they’re customers, knowing that a generous reputation and goodwill go further than any marketing tactic.

Lena Requist

Lena Requist is the creative force behind Driver’s Ed, a productivity course designed to put you in the driver’s seat of your own career. As president at Ontraport, Requist leads the company’s culture of ambition and curiosity, placing a high value on productivity, empowerment, and free thinking.

This unique culture has led Ontraport to be recognized by awards like Forbes’ Great Places to Work. Requist also leads Ontraport’s Women in Business community, which hosts monthly workshops about pertinent issues for businesswomen for its more than 300 members.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis has dedicated his career to understanding and humanizing digital trends to make them approachable and actionable. His mission is to make innovation meaningful and inspire business leaders to embrace the change demanded by today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Solis speaks on a wide range of topics, including the effects of digital distractions and how to foster an agile, disruption-proof culture in your organization. He was formerly a principal analyst at Altimeter, a research and advisory firm that seeks to understand the intersection of technology and the human side of business.

Chris Dyer

Chris Dyer is an innovation speaker and certified SCRUM Master who specializes in helping teams work through obstacles quickly and effectively. He focuses on a variety of challenges faced in the modern workplace centered on your most important asset: your people. Dyer hosts speaking sessions and workshops to teach business leaders how to retain top talent, encourage employees to learn from their mistakes, and navigate cultural barriers like generational diversity.

As CEO of PeopleG2, he leads his team with three principles in mind: mastery, autonomy, and purpose. Employees are encouraged to master their roles and given the autonomy to get the job done, always aligned with the company’s purpose of protecting clients.

Tracey Grace

Tracey Grace is a champion of workplace diversity, empowering women and minorities to rise through the ranks in male-dominated industries like tech. She’s a tech entrepreneur and speaker who’s won a multitude of awards, including AMEX’s “On the Rise” award.

As CEO at IT consulting firm IBEX, Grace not only prioritizes building diverse teams within the firm, but also continuously evaluates vendors and partners for diversity. In fact, she is a big proponent of industry-level action to create real change. She advocates this leadership approach as the only way to truly impact the entrenched inequalities that exist in some industries today.

Carrie Kerpen

Carrie Kerpen speaks on a variety of topics relating to women in business. Her sessions range from forward-looking trends in media to parenting in a digital age. As CEO of Likeable Media, she runs a team of passionate media pros who do it all, from consulting to creative to paid media and community management.

On her “All the Social Ladies” podcast, Kerpen hosts influential women in marketing to talk social media and more.

David Marquet

A U.S. Navy veteran, David Marquet focuses his speaking sessions on intent-based leadership. He’s known for rejecting the leader-follower structure so common in military organizations. In the Navy, Marquest observed that a system set up to encourage compliance rather than critical thinking often left people feeling marginalized and uninspired. Over time, he turned his ship from worst to best in fleet by seeking to create leaders, not followers. As a speaker and leadership coach, he urges leaders to stop giving orders and start giving people the room to excel.

Go Specialized With Your Next Speaker

Selecting a speaker for your event can be overwhelming. Narrowing your list of options to speakers within your industry is a great way to ensure your keynote session will pack a punch. As you research, look for speakers who — like those listed above — are applying their own principles to make waves in your industry. You’ll leave your audience buzzing with excitement long after the event is over.

The post 7 Keynote Leadership Speakers Bringing Fresh Insights to Their Industries appeared first on ReadWrite.