One of the greatest challenges for Telco’s and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the current climate, is how the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact the industry.

IoT has skyrocketed in terms of its application with connected devices, creating more entry points in the process.

Not all these points are patched properly, and they leave accounts for users, clients and companies exposed.‘47% of the most vulnerable devices are security cameras installed on home networks, followed by smart hubs (15%), like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, and network-attached storage devices (12%).’ – GDPR PrivSec ReportWhile some attacks are vindictive, an issue within telecom is that many employees/insiders are completely unaware that they are a threat in the first place.

Few within the industry receive training in cyber security measures.

And with over 30% of people now working remotely, connections to unsecured networks are higher than ever.Third parties, including vendors, partners, e-mail providers, service providers, web hosting, law firms, data management companies and subcontractors could easily be a backdoor into crucial infrastructure, for attackers to infiltrate.

Maintaining the security of your company, and the security of the providers involved in the business, can be tricky.

The constantly evolving threat landscape and the rising number of security breaches are making IT security quite complex for organizations.

Here, companies look towards managed services providers to guide and protect their companies’ data.However, to increase revenues, MSPs would need to sell beyond traditional security services – including basic antivirus, email security, or firewall.

Largely, because these services are easier to manage as compared to robust and holistic cybersecurity solutions.Today’s cyberthreat landscape is far more complex and sophisticated.Companies need robust defences and tools to reduce the risk of these calculated and targeted attacks.

That could be managed detection and response (MDR) tools, endpoint detection response (EDR), incident response, endpoint management, vulnerability management and patching, etc.There cannot be a better time to preach about the importance of business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) solutions than now, considering the state of the businesses who lacked a proper recovery plan during COVID.Backup and DR solutions are a must to ensure the continuity of a business in the face of a contingency.Here, small, and medium sizes businesses would indulge in managed backup and DR solutions to protect their data.

Managing backups internally is both complicated and time-consuming.As such, the demand for backup services is set to grow and MSPs with their expertise and resources are better positioned to help.MSPs need to include backup and disaster recovery solution in their portfolio to build a strong revenue stream.The future belongs to smart technologies.

They are everywhere – changing the facet of everyday life.

The basic necessity to become a cloud architect is to get a bachelor’s degree preferably in a science background as cloud architect need a lot of hard and technical skills to succeed.

The best way to get started is by getting a formal undergraduate degree to help you prepare for the unique challenges of the profession.A cloud architect isn’t an entry-level position.

Instead, it’s usually a mid-level or mid-senior level career.

Before you start your career as a cloud architect, you must have proper IT experience as it requires strong technical skills, leadership and team handling skills.A cloud architect isn’t just about getting experience.

Instead, it’s about enhancing their skills with the help of an online course.

There are multiple certifications to choose from, some of the best platforms are AWS, Great learning’s cloud architecture course, AWZ certifications, etc.

In a nutshell, telecom frauds are unfortunately common as they have continued to evolve at pace with telecom technology.

These myriad frauds have shown the potential to adversely impact the revenue of telecom service providers.

Also, along with revenue loss, this scenario is also tarnishing the reputation of telecom companies.As telecom operators continue to battle for customer loyalty, a key strategy to help them differentiate is offering subscribers consistent experiences across different touchpoints and interaction channels.While operators need to have the right people and processes to help shape customers’ experiences, it’s also necessary to have the right technologies in place.

Together, the people, processes, and tools will deliver a foundation for providing consistent experiences to customers across various channels cost-effectively.It also needs to be said that while focusing on measures that reduce customer effort seems the right thing to do, this alone will not take telecom operators to the next level of customer experience.

There are two reasons:They get caught up in fixing existing business models to solve the issues of today’s customers.

This restricts them from structurally reinventing themselves to meet the future expectations of customers.They are tackling only one driver (that is, customer effort) of customer experience.What more can be done to reduce consumer effort?

The telecom industry was the pillar that enabled the fast pivots that were required.

The industry was impacted very differently by the pandemic compared to most other industries.

More than a third of telecom providers indicate that it was either business as usual for them or that their business actually accelerated during the global crisis, according to Ecosystm research.Moving from a product or regional focus to an industry focus appears to be the “strategy du jour” for many technology vendors today.

For some it is a new strategy – with the plan to improve customer focus and increase growth; for others it is the pendulum moving back to where they were five or ten years ago as they bounce from being industry-centric to product-centric to geography-centric and back again.Getting your industry focus right is much harder than it seems – and has to be timed with client needs and market opportunity.

The need to focus on the industry varies for different technology products, services and capabilities.

For example, most technology buyers want their vendors to understand what their business does and how they add value to customers – that is a given and industry-aligned Sales teams make a lot of sense.

The reality is both more mundane and more alarming: Data theft is big business, increasingly carried by highly organized and well-funded teams.

They operate at state level in some cases, and in others have connections to global organized crime.

Top practitioners are actively headhunted and handsomely rewarded, in the perpetual arms race between the bad guys and the agencies who try to stay one step ahead and protect users.Much of the bad actors’ work is opportunistic, and so far as potential victims are concerned, completely random.

That’s because it’s so easy to do what they do at scale — send a billion phishing emails or brute-force a million passwords, and they only need a tiny proportion of recipients to take the desired action for success.Creating the automations and content around the backend of the scam takes all the effort and investment, much like the design of a legitimate marketing funnel, and sending it out to another million emails here and there is a marginal additional cost (the emails are doubtless stolen anyway).

So if you are the unlucky victim, one small upside is that it’s unlikely to be anything personal.Fortunately, there is much that information security professionals can do to ensure that the security features of VoIP phone systems are protected by intelligent usage and strong protocols on the user side, making VoIP security a shared responsibility and goal at all times.Because fixed VoIP numbers require an address, and therefore an owner, they’re regarded as more credible than non-fixed VoIP numbers.

This affects whether your customers will feel inclined to pick up calls from you.Moreover, scammers tend to prefer non-fixed VoIP numbers because the absence of an address requirement makes it easier to mask their identity.

The future of the telecommunication industry entails partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions with other service providers.

This will provide Telcos with a way to differentiate themselves, build new and enhanced service offerings, and create new business models that aim to provide customers with the value-added services that they are looking for.

By aligning with other network service providers, Telcos can deliver effective services and remain competitive.Telecom companies can also look to collaborations with different industries to develop industry-specific service offerings that answer to the needs of that specific sector as a way to create new and successful revenue streams.

These partnerships and collaborations allow for the creation of new diversified ecosystems that can work together to advance the industry and create more profitable business opportunities.Artificial Intelligence is being used in the industry to positively impact customer experience and service.

By using AI, Telcos can process and analyse large volumes of big data and gain access to actionable insights that can be used to enhance customer experience, improve operations and profitability.

This is done by using AI technology for network optimisation and automation which will enable Telcos to detect or predict any problems or issues with the network and will allow them to identify and fix the problem before it negatively affects customers.AI is also being used to connect, engage, and support customers through the use of virtual assistants.

We have come a long way from receiving P2P (Person to Person) SMS to receiving A2P (Application to Person) messages, i.e.

SMS from applications.Studies show that over 3.5 trillion A2P messages will be delivered by 2023, some forecasts predict 1.9 billion 5G subscriptions worldwide by 2024.As more companies realize the importance of digital transformation after last year’s pandemic, high-speed network connectivity will become a priority for everyone in 2021.It is a perfect time for network operators to ramp up their services and customize their customers’ options.

They have the power to change the way companies and individuals work and live.However, as the famous dialogue from the movie Spiderman goes – with great power comes great responsibility.According to Europol, operators could lose €29 billion in telecom fraud.

Frauds like SMS grey route, network spoofing, SIM jacking, and SMS phishing have increased.

So, while innovation is a priority, network security becomes an equally important area of focus.The onus lies on telecom and networking operators to prepare the network to combat frauds and threats that could occur with these innovations.Let’s look at what network operators can do to address these issues.How To Prepare For Network Frauds And Threats?SMS firewall solutionsSMS firewall enables operators to protect mobile networks against frauds and vulnerabilities.

All the messages are routed through a firewall where they are analyzed to detect potential frauds.

Awareness of over-sharing in social media quizzes and similar: “your pet’s name followed by the name of the first street you ever lived in, is your gullible fool name!” Just don’t do it!

All these kinds of questions are typically used to recover access to accounts in password resets, and should never be casually commented on in the public domain.How to secure personal devices appropriately, if they are used for business communications.

Ringover’s range of apps is great for enabling BYOD working and supporting users to collaborate from anywhere via their favorite tools, but with this versatility comes some user responsibility, in managing those endpoints securely.Awareness of how to handle casual requests for information, about themselves, the business, or their customers.

It is illegal to disclose personal information to a third party without a specific reason for doing so under relevant data protection law — so, no, you can’t confirm your boyfriend’s registered birthday so as to help someone plan a surprise treat.Understanding of how to verify requests for information, and confirm that enquirers are who they say they are.This final point can be actively tested and mystery shopped, and this is a good way to put theory into practice and identify remediation training needs.For example, a caller says they are from the IT department and need to check your password, or your bank phones to confirm details of a recent transaction — how does the recipient respond?They should be aware that no one will EVER ask them to share a password by phone or any other way, and that if someone says they are from your bank or other trusted third party, the only way to verify this is to call them back on a publicly available number.

If a patient phones to request results of a sensitive health screening, then they should be asked to provide proof of identity via pre-established security questions (preferably ones they haven’t shared in a Facebook quiz), before the result is disclosed.More info: noc engineer

This team’s size may vary depending on your business’ needs and resources—bigger companies with larger networks to protect will typically be able to add more people with a wider range of cybersecurity expertise.The process of building a team of people to internally handle your IT security architecture and the implementation of any security solutions can be slow and resource-intensive.

However, you may not have to build your team internally from scratch.

Some cybersecurity solutions providers offer IT staffing services that provide you with near-instant access to a team of experienced security professionals at a fraction of the cost of hiring such a team internally.Once you’ve built a team (either internal or external), be sure to verify who is responsible for each task on the team.

Setting clear roles and responsibilities for your data security strategy implementation helps you to manage it more effectively.Align Your IT Security Components with Your Business’ GoalsWhen considering what technologies and solutions you want to implement as a part of your new cybersecurity strategy, it’s important to make sure that all of the solutions you use will mesh well with your overall business strategy.

While having the “best” solutions (i.e.

the ones that provide the strongest security) may seem like the obvious choice, some solutions might make it hard for you to actually use your IT assets.For example, consider the application whitelisting.

The trick is to get your people to use it.

Whether the strategy is to harness best practices, tight integrations, effortless experiences, management buy-in, or top-tier reporting, the goal is to drive the highest adoption levels possible across the widest range of use cases.

After all, the more the technology is used, the higher your ROI.According to Google, 27% of the online global population is using voice search on mobile.

Consumers’ rising preference for voice has resulted in call centers focusing on making voice interactions more intuitive by combining voice and screen-based technologies.

Technology will be used to analyze live audio streams, recorded voice files, social media engagements, emails, or chats, storing this customer data to personalize the CX.

Based on the customer service trends we’re seeing, traditional text-based chatbots will give way to smart bots that are powered by voice recognition, and predictive speech analytics will be increasingly utilized to identify customer service opportunities and deliver an improved experience.In the last few years, the customer service domain has experienced an awakening with the rising awareness of the benefits of delivering a good customer experience.

At the moment, mobile network operators (MNOs) (Vodafone, T-Mobile, AT, Verizon, etc.)

are blazing a trail to 5G mass adoption.

To connect their IoT devices with the telecom network, MNOs rely on such 5G technologies as Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and CAT-M1 (aka LTE-M).

These are technologies that empower massive IoT allowing to connect low-cost and low-complexity devices with longer battery life and rather low throughput.

Here are all cellular IoT segments leveraging 5G capabilitiesAccording to the Ericsson study, 25% of 114 service providers have already rolled out both technologies (LTE-M and NB-IoT), forecasted to account for 52% of all cellular IoT connections by 2025.In the next four years, 5G-enabled IoT connections will grow by 1,400% (from over 500 million in 2020 to a staggering 8 billion in 2024).

5G IoT will be one of the leading telecom industry trends this and the following years allowing Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to finally monetize their IoT connectivity programs.

Analogue telephone lines provide users with limited functionality.

You can only have one telephone number per line (although you can have extensions, enabling you to have more than one handset), and you’ll only have access to basic call features.Analogue telephone use is declining in the UK, due to the increasing popularity of mobile phones and internet based telephony systems.

It’s likely to continue to fall as residential customers gain access to broadband services which don’t require them to have landline telephones, and those running businesses from home are able to modernise their telephone systems.Digital Business Telephone Lines – All About ISDNDigital telephone lines were first introduced in the late 1980s.

They quickly became attractive options for businesses, as they provide far more functionality than analogue lines.

Digital lines enable businesses to have multiple channels.

They also allow companies to allocate Direct Dialling In (DDI) numbers to different departments and individual employees, so customers can get straight through to the person they need to speak to.There are two main types of digital telephone lines in the UK: ISDN2 and ISDN30 lines.

US-based startup echoAR creates tools to facilitate 3D application development, improve its deployment, and manage related procedures.

The tools focus on cross-platform AR/VR programs development.

By making possible AR/VR products, deployable everywhere, the solution benefits brands and enterprises seeking to improve their consumers’ experiences.The increasing number of cyber-attacks and low-security IoT devices, new central processing unit (CPU) hardware vulnerabilities, and the growing dependence on computing infrastructure make tackling security risks challenging.

In any industrial network, systems are continuously managed in an attempt to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats, but these methods often conflict with the network’s core requirements of reliability and availability.

Startups innovate industrial networks by allowing systems to remain dynamic when faced with attacks or vulnerabilities.Cybersenshi rectifies Network WeaknessesCybersenshi is a startup from Saudi Arabia developing a cybersecurity tool that discovers and fixes customers’ website & network security weaknesses.

The database covers over 130.000 cybersecurity weaknesses of websites, networks, systems & databases.

The critical challenge with revenue protection is the long gap between revenue leakage detection and fixing it.

Considering the enormous volume of transactions produced in the present-day customer-centric world, telcos cannot afford such gaps.

With the new problems brought by IP networks and the sophisticated interconnection frauds, detecting, and redressing the glitches becomes even more important.Obviously, lessening the leakage exposure time can result in significant savings.

Also, revenue protection is linked to multiple processes, including data collection, billing, settlement, and operations.

Thus, coherent strategies for revenue protection can give telcos increased visibility into all aspects of subscriber data and help them to improve the Quality of Service (QoS).

This could help improve the subscriber experience and drive up loyalty.Subscriber management is a crucial element of revenue protection as it facilitates operators to handle customer attrition.

Inefficient yard or dock management often results in drivers waiting for hours to get the shipment loaded or unloaded.

This eats into their hours of service, which impacts revenue generation for carriers, creates congestion, and sometimes even results in accidents and fatalities on the road due to the driver’s aim to compensate for the lost time.

This can be avoided with the help of the image recognition aspect of ML, where docking station images captured can be fed as features or input data to machine learning models to identify docking station utilization.A company called, Locix has launched a product called Smart Dock that aims to use inward and outward wireless cameras called HD Vision Censors that, when connected to artificial intelligence platforms, help in tracking and analyzing activities and send alerts when necessary to supervisors.

This not only solves the issue of bridging the communication gap but also allows warehouse management to use this data to efficiently manage their resources and prioritize activities based on the traffic at the yard throughout the day.

This will also help in identifying peak hours, and yard managers can take proactive measures to seamlessly transition shipments during such rush hours.With OTIF (On Time in Full) been a critical KPI in the logistics industry, to the extent that failure to achieve it incurs a significant penalty.

Receivers must get accurate information about the arrival of the consignment.