Unemployment can be aheadache for anycountry. It is for thisreason that it takesproper long term
strategic planning by any Gov-ernment to invest in sustainableeducation and thouroughly per-pare our children for their futurecareers. ICT has been on theagenda since a decade and itseems there’s no intention thatthis will change.
In fact, the U.S Bureau ofLabour Statistics (BLS), predictsthat by 2020 employment in allcomputer occupations will in-crease by 22%. Malta is no lessthan any other fellow countryand the Government’s Agencyresponsible for IT does its utmostto encourage students of any ageto encourage students to embarkin the world of IT.
As part of this project, MITA iscurrently participating in theKSU Careers Convention 2015, inthe section dedicated to ‘Scienceand Technology Expo’. Univer-sity is a good platform for MITAto expose different career optionsin IT, varying from infrastructureto software development. Fromits end, MITA’s HR team will bepromoting employment opportu-nities within the Agency itselfand reasearch opportunties forstudents who are in the startingphases of their dissertations.
Another aspect which is ofMITA’s interest is to inspire stu-dents to become technology en-trepreneurs. During the careers’convention the EU & Interna-tional Affairs Desk will presentMITA’s positition with respect toEU and international policy on is-sues that fall within the Agency’sremit. It will also provide the nec-essary guidance in order to en-able the full and mostappropriate exploitation of EUfunding that may be available tothe Agency or through its initia-tives.
A project promoted by the EU &International Desk is one which isdesigned to solve latent needs in
civil society. Students will be en-couraged to team up to work onsmall proof-of-concept projectsaimed to demonstrate feasibilityof the proposed solution. Thewinning team will be awarded a12-week summer placementthrough the Student PlacementProgramme.
The Digital Outreach team willalso be present at the KSU Career
Convention from where they willbe promoting an ongoing projectwith the Faculty of Economics,Management & Accountancy(FEMA). Currently this faculty isoffering a study unit called ICTIndustry Insights which is target-ing second year students andprovides them with practical in-sight into the daily challenges ofa large ICT-servicing public or-
ganisation such as MITA. Stu-dents will be exposed to differentperspectives, uncertainties andfactors influencing nationwideICT programmes and projects.
Exposing different opportuni-ties to students at such a conven-
tion is a must. This is a good plat-form for students to realise thatICT can take different forms, andthis means that having a career inICT is very viable, and thusshould be encouraged and sup-ported.
The Malta Independent | Thursday 5 March 2015 1312 The Malta Independent | Thursday 5 March 2015
Today is the last day ofthe KSU Career Con-vention in whichMITA is participating.Professionals from
MITA will be providing studentswith information about the dif-ferent careers in the ICT sectorand the required specialisations(including at MITA), the MITAInnovation Hub as well describethe different EU funds available
for budding startups.The realities of a digital world
mean that more and more peopleand getting concerned of their se-curity online. Growing threatsfrom hacking groups, terroristsand government-sanctioned re-taliation has individuals fearfulof attacks and losses. A recentstudy shows that almost 50% ofpeople have in some way or an-other fell victim to some sort of
cyber crime in the past year.All mobile operators are giving
out specially reduced mobile de-vices to those who signup for acontract with them. A new studyhas shown that when consumersexperience problems with theirmobile device, they are very likelyto attribute that distress with themobile operator who providedthem with the device rather thanto the mobile device brand.
All ICT Features areavailable onwww.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
RoderickSpiteri
Roderick Spiteri is Marketing andCommunications Manager at
MITA and editor of MaltaIndependent ICT feature
MITA part of KSU’sCareers Convention 2015
Anew study reveals that46% have been vic-timised by at least onecyber crime in the lastyear alone. Credit card
fraud was the most prevalent formof such with 24% of respondents hitin the last year, followed by 16%having at least one social media ac-count breached or defaced. The in-dependent study was conductedfor GFI Software by Opinion Mat-ters and surveyed over 1,000 USadults, working for companieswith up to 5,000 staff that use acomputer or mobile computing de-vices.
The findings examine the busi-ness and societal impacts of cybersecurity issues and reveals starkconcerns over the increasing per-sonal and business risks posed bycyber crime and the growing likeli-hood that cyber crime acts will es-calate to physical retaliation. Withmultiple recent high-profile attackstargeting household names andlarge employers – including theSony hack, the Netflix-user dataleak and the hit on health insurerAnthem that exposed valuable em-ployee and member records - thesurvey shows that individuals in-creasingly fear cyber crime and itsresulting consequences at work aswell as at home.
43% stated that they see banks asthe main target for cyber criminalsin the coming year. 17% fear thatlarge business institutions will betargeted for crime and cyber espi-onage, but only 12% believe retail-ers will be a major target, despitethe potential for high levels ofcredit card data theft. Furthermore,with the increased digitalisation ofhealthcare data, 10% are concernedthat cyber criminals will target hos-pitals, HMOs (health maintenanceorganisations) and health insurersin the coming year.
The perceived threat from cyberattacks is hurting adoption of Inter-net of Things (IoT) technology,with almost 60% either viewing In-ternet-connected home devices astoo risky to own, or hesitating topurchase more devices. 57% of re-spondents believe malware stillposes the biggest threat to both in-dividual and business informationsecurity.
The Business Impact ofCyber CrimeThe research revealed that almostall cyber crimes have a noticeable,detrimental impact on businesses,with 88% of respondents believingthat a cyber attack against their em-ployer would have measurable fi-nancial and productivityimplications. An additional 6% be-lieve that a single cyber attackagainst their employer could easilyput the organisation out of businesspermanently.
“Cyber attacks have profoundconsequences for the business com-munity, whether companies are thetarget, or the victim of an attackelsewhere. In the last few monthsalone we’ve seen major corpora-tions targeted in systematic acts ofespionage and geopolitical retalia-tion, as well as hundreds of thou-sands - potentially millions - ofindividuals affected by the falloutof data being stolen and misused,”said Sergio Galindo, general man-ager of GFI Software. “Usernames,passwords, credit card data, healthrecords – malicious use of this databy criminals can quickly create fi-nancial hardship and significantstress for affected individuals,while the negative fallout for or-ganisations the data was stolenfrom can range from loss of reputa-tion to fines, falling sales, civil andcriminal legal proceedings andmore,”
Impact of Cyber Crime onPublic ServicesUntil recently, companies and indi-viduals rarely thought of hackersaccessing everyday public and util-ity services to wreak havoc. Suchservices are at much greater risk,however, with everything fromtraffic lights and CCTV cameras topower stations and smart metersbeing increasingly computerisedand networked to improve effi-ciency, centralise management andreduce cost.
As a result, nearly three quarters(71.5%) of those surveyed now be-lieve the hijacking of major services(utility services, traffic manage-ment, transport, etc.) by cyber crim-inals is a genuine threat to USnational security. In addition, 50%believe that increased cyber crimeis making life harder, by making itmore challenging to access every-day services, and 37% believe theheightened cyber crime environ-ment hinders productivity. Our re-liance on digital devices makes usmore of a target, according to 28%of respondents who believe thatour everyday use of technology hasleft individuals and businessesmore exposed than ever to virtualcrime. Most worrying is that morethan one third (35.3%) believe thatacts of cyber crime and cyber ter-rorism are likely to spill over intophysical acts of crime and terror-ism.
“Cyber crime is not a victimlessactivity – virtual acts of criminalityaffect real people, put jobs at riskand have lasting consequences foreveryone impacted by them,”Galindo added.
Taking steps to improveonline securityThe survey also revealed thatgrowing cyber security concernshave prompted people to take
more aggressive steps to protectthemselves and their online foot-print, both at work and at home:63% now regularly change pass-words for web sites and onlineservices; 56% have taken steps tostrengthen their anti virus pro-tection; 51% have activated PINor password protection ontablets and smartphones; 50%now avoid duplicating pass-words across multiple sites andservices and 32% have, wheresupported, activated two-factorauthentication for logging in.However,5.5% have done noth-ing to improve their online secu-rity.
“It is particularly encouraging tosee that one third of those surveyedhave embraced two-factor authen-tication. While some financial insti-tutions now insist on thistechnology to protect online bank-ing access, people are increasinglyactivating two-factor to protect so-cial networking, email, e-wallet andother online services,” saidGalindo.
Comparison with the UKThe same survey, conductedamong a parallel demographic inthe UK, produced broadly similarresults – with one interesting dif-ference: US respondents were be-tween 4-5% more securityconscious with regards to the stepstaken to secure personal data andprevent unauthorised access to on-line services.
In the UK, just over one quarter(27%) of those surveyed havebegun creating dedicated emailaddresses for use with specific on-line services in an effort to min-imise the impact of a securitybreach. In the US, the site of sev-eral high-profile username andpassword thefts, this number is ashigh as one third.
60% increase in UK cyber security concern
Within the last year, 7 in 10 con-sumers had experienced an issueor malfunction with their smart-phone and 12% of those wholooked to their mobile operator forhelp, would not return to that op-erator to purchase their next devicebased on their customer service ex-perience.
This was revealed in a globalstudy that examines the extent ofsmartphone users' service issuesand the business impacts of mobileoperators' customer technical sup-port abilities. The study was con-ducted by Cellebrite (a developerand provider of mobile diagnosticssolutions) and Ovum (providingindependent market analysis) andis based on a survey of more than4,000 consumers in the US, UK,China and Germany, and in-depthinterviews with executives in sixmobile operators in these markets.
Another point of concern for op-erators revealed in this study isthat software-related problems -which are outside operators' con-trol - have increased from 10% to40% of the proportion of totalfaults. No Trouble Found (NTF)claims, which fail to identify the ac-tual problem, account typically for1/3 of all handsets that are sent forrepair, at a cost to operators that insome cases reaches $300 (€ 270) per
unit.“The findings from this study re-
veal the extent of the challenge fac-ing mobile operators: a sizablepercentage of consumers are grow-ing frustrated with their mobileservice providers after experienc-ing problems that are completelyoutside of the operators' control,”said Angel Dobardziev andMichael Philpott, co-authors of thereport. “While hardware and oper-ating system faults have stabilised,software-related or ‘soft’ faults,caused by such issues as malware-laden and faulty applications, haveincreased four-fold, leading to increased customer service costs andaffecting customer satisfaction.”
The Ovum study's findings high-lighted the importance of an inte-grated, multichannel approachthat addresses “soft” issues quicklyand closer to the customer.Whether operators’ policies are toprovide a loaner device or to fur-nish a permanent replacement,these are costly options for the op-erator and consume resources onthe back-end. Further, the studycited three components of the tech-nical service function that will mit-igate costs and maintain customersatisfaction are self-help applica-tions, remote diagnostic tools andadvanced in-store technical sup-
port capabilities.“For the average consumer, the
smartphone has become an indis-pensable device for work and play,but with that higher degree of ca-pability comes added complexityand frustration when it fails,” saidAmir Lehr, Executive Vice Presi-dent of Products and Business De-velopment at Cellebrite. “Thisstudy validates feedback from agrowing number of our operatorcustomers: rapid and accurate di-agnostics do more than save cost asthey can save end user relation-ships at a critical time in the cus-tomer lifecycle.”
Additional highlights from thestudy include that mobile serviceproviders face a range of direct andindirect costs of not being able toidentify and address customer de-vice malfunction issues, regardlessof whether the operator is respon-sible for the actual fault. 68% ofconsumer respondents had experi-enced an issue or malfunction withtheir mobile device in the past 12months.
Approximately 1/3 of respon-dents suffering from battery andapplications-related malfunctionsclaimed they first turned to theirmobile operator or retailer for help.Consumers are calling for help and1 out of every 4 calls to operators’
customer care centres involve trou-ble with a phone.
34% %of consumers who re-sponded that they had experienceda software virus, and 39% of thosethat had experienced softwarecrashing, stated that it had ren-dered their device unusable.
Customer service is a top threereason for churn, cited by 25% ofusers that plan to changeproviders. 14% of respondentsstated that, based on the operators'inability to fix their problemquickly and satisfactorily, theywould look to purchase their nexthandset from a different provider.The number of consumers statingthey would purchase their nexthandset from a different provider,due to unsatisfactory technicalsupport, increased to 18% for re-spondents with an applications-re-lated fault.
37% of consumer respondents in-dicated that they suffered a mal-function after their devicewarranty period was over and ofthose respondents, 33% resolved toput up with the issue that arosewhen their device was out of war-ranty.
No Trouble Found (NTF) claims -no faults found with warrantiedhardware or software - typicallyaccount for 30% of all handsets sent
for repair. NTFs have a direct costto the operator in terms of admin-istrative services charges and insome cases handset loan and re-placement stock, as well as an indi-rect cost in terms of customersfrustrated by a lack of resolution.
Ill-equipped to identify the truesource of problems, technical sup-port staff often resort to brute forceresolutions – flashing the phonesoftware or resetting the device tofactory conditions. While offeringtemporary relief, problems resur-face when consumers, unaware ofwhat caused the original problem,reintroduce troubled apps or sub-optimal configuration settings.
Providers of mobile diagnosticsolutions, like Cellebrite, are mod-ernising the repair landscape forthe increasingly sophisticated mo-bile devices introduced on a neardaily basis. Diagnostic tools thatwork across all devices, operatingsystems, and points of customer in-teraction help operators and after-market service providers deliverthe effective, consistent, omni-channel experiences their cus-tomers demand no matter whereor when they encounter problems.
For the full study visit:http://go.cellebrite.com/MLC-Ovum
Smartphone problems leading to customer frustration
