41% of Cyber Attacks Are Now Done Through Cloud Servers, New Data Reveals

The sudden shift to remote work that was brought about by the global pandemic caused a lot of changes with respect to companies managed their operations. IT infrastructure proved to be a real challenge, since most workers who are working from home would not have access to the same kinds of high end cybersecurity that their employers have at the office.

Remote work made it necessary to increase cloud server adoption because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making collaboration easier. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it has also brought a host of problems with all things having been considered and taken into account. According to data that was just put out by Atlas VPN, it seems that 41% of companies who suffered from a cyber attack this past year reported that the point of origin was their cloud server.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this represents a ten percent increase year on year. Malicious actors are clearly enjoying the lax security offered by cloud servers these days, and the increase in attack volume is a testament to that.

It should also be noted that business emails were also a common origin point for cyber attacks. 40% of companies stated that compromised emails resulted in their security protocols getting bypassed, which just goes to show that cyber criminals have a wide array of tools in their kit.

The third most common channel through which cyber attacks are conducted are corporate servers. This goes against the notion that remote work is to blame for the rise in cybercrime. Corporations are clearly quite lax about their security, and data like this proves that they need to get their affairs in order.

Indeed, employee owned mobile devices were used in 31% of cyber attacks, so even official devices with security protocols loaded onto them are not safe from these attacks. More work should be done to hold the line against cybercrime against corporate entities.

Read next: Apple Dominates the Connected Device Market, Sees Fastest Growth
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Apple is looking to hire almost 4 times the number of people on its ads team, as compared to 2020 data

Ads, although an annoying experience for a majority of us, are a major source of revenue for many companies whether it is as big as Google or as small as a newly minted startup. Now, Apple, one of the largest technology companies with millions of people using its products throughout the world, is being highlighted for making a U-turn just so that they can get money from Google and Facebook. According to reports Apple has even been accused of Machiavellian-level plotting to achieve the same.

The latest report has stated that Apple has quadrupled its ad hires in just these past couple of years and it has also been predicted that the company’s revenue from ads could be worth 30 billion dollars by 2026.

However, for a bit of background on the situation, it should be noted that Apple has never turned away from ads. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, believed that in-app ads were a win-win for both the parties, the consumers and the developers, because it enables them to make money from completely free apps.

But, there is one specific point generating revenue from ads has never been a priority for the company. So when Steve Jobs was in charge, Apple only made a few hundred million dollars a year from ads. Now, however, the value has been estimated to reach over 5 billion dollars and is growing quickly.

According to a Financial Times report, Apple planned to almost double the number of people in its digital advertising business in less than 18 months by introducing unbelievable and ground-pulling new privacy changes in the policy that stumbled almost all of its bigger rivals.

The tech giant has nearly 250 people on its ads team, as revealed by LinkedIn data. And if we refer to Apple’s official careers website then it is looking for people to fill in the further 216 vacant spots available on the team. That is almost 4 times the 56 people it was looking to hire back in 2020, but Apple has denied these figures and has refused to elaborate on this topic.

Now, if we look at the bright side of things, this means that many people will be given job opportunities and many apps will have at least some place to advertise properly.

Read next: Study Reveals That Many Consumers Trust Apple Over Samsung In Terms of Privacy Policies
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

How Can You Make The Most Of YouTube Shorts? This New Guide By The App Says It All

With time, new trends take over the world of social media. And in case you haven’t noticed, Shorts are making head waves on the popular video platform YouTube.

It’s equivalent to Reels seen on other apps and without a doubt, it’s bringing in plenty of revenue for the company too. Therefore, YouTube wants users to know how they can make the most of their time and effort through this feature.

Today, more than 1.5 billion users are engaging on the platform through Shorts content each month. And when you actually come to think of it, well, that’s around 75% of the entire user base.

A point has come where many people are actually thinking about how this type of format could best benefit them. Will the strategy bring in more revenue than the classic content? If yes, how can regular users make use of the format to the best of their capabilities?

Thankfully, YouTube is answering all of these questions and more. Users can now avail of a detailed guide that overviews all sorts of common questions that may come across a user's mind.

Be it video clip creation, editing, tips and tricks, what’s trending, analytics, and more - they seem to have covered it all. While you can avail of the guide for free from the website, we thought it would be interesting to give our readers some highlights entailing what to expect.

For starters, there’s a basic guide overlooking Shorts and how to make the most of the Shorts camera. In addition to that, users can find a few advanced techniques linked to editing and content creation.

It’s similar to taking out recorded videos that are located inside camera rolls and incorporating them into Shorts clips. Other than that, the platform sheds light on a few pointers linked to the addition of music and sounds.

If you’re really into background checks, you’ll love how YouTube goes on to explain how features like Shorts discovery and content get highlighted to people on the app.

In the final section, YouTube is providing insight into trending tips on how your content can stand out against all others. This is also where you’ll find notes and a few case studies that put different ways on display through which users can utilize Shorts for maximal attention. This is the same way through which you can attain the best engagement from your audiences too.

All in all, we found this to be an extremely handy guide for content creators that really want to use Shorts to their best potential. But we must add that if you’re on the search to find secrets about how the app’s algorithms work in this regard or any similar insights, well, that’s not the case.

We do feel the guide gives you the basic overview on how to use Shorts to their maximal potential, in case you still haven’t joined the bandwagon.

Remember, there are nearly 30 billion views generated each day through Shorts alone. Hence, we feel there’s no better time to start than now.

Read next: The History of Meme Culture in the 2010s

Read next: YouTubers Unite Against ‘Unfair’ Copyright Strike System And Urge The App To Take Action

by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Study Reveals That Many Consumers Trust Apple Over Samsung In Terms of Privacy Policies

A study by NordVPN reveals that smartphone users trust Apple over Samsung where personal security and privacy are concerned.

I feel like a major reason for this boils down to Apple’s history of being, for lack of a better term, severe with third-party companies and the competition. Despite frequent knuckling from the likes of Meta and Google, the tech giant has rigidly stuck to its policies and demands, safe in the knowledge that the iPhones have established a monopoly of sorts in and of themselves. This behavior can most recently be noted in the iOS 14 Tracking/Transparency features, which caused a massive ruckus with Meta.

The social media conglomerate ran ad campaigns, threatened, and pleaded with Apple to absolutely no effect. It lost much of the Apple audience’s ad revenue, and iPhone users kept chugging along, safe in the knowledge that their data wasn’t being sold to third-party companies without their explicitly provided information. A lot can be stated against Apple and much of its other seedier practices (I don’t trust overseas unsupervised factories all that much), but the company pledges itself to provide cybersecurity safety for its customers.

Samsung, on the other hand, hasn’t established any sort of similar behavior. While the company is branching out into security features, with regards to its clipboard, for example, such small steps are largely overshadowed by the number of cybersecurity holes that users frequently encounter. One of the company’s biggest crutches is the Play Store. While Samsung has a separate app store, its popularity severely pales in the face of Google Play, which is typically regarded as the de facto online store for all Android smartphones. The downside of having Play boils down to its severe lack of platform maintenance, which leads to malware populating Android phones, and Samsung ones by association, by the thousands on a near-daily basis.

44% of the research's sample population believed that iPhones would keep them safer, and 24% felt safer with Samsung. Ultimately, much of this seems to boil down to perspective, as only 50% have ever read the privacy policies of their smartphone brands, and 47% bother to recheck privacy settings after updating their OS. On a more optimistic note, 83% of the populace do claim to know where their privacy settings are and are therefore competent enough to recheck and manage their phones to some extent.

Read next: Apple Dominates the Connected Device Market, Sees Fastest Growth
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Major Tech Companies Feel the Burn as Digital Ad Revenues See Multi-Billion Dollar Decline

Digital ads are a major source of revenue for most major tech companies, and they have been seeing a major decline this past year. Meta and Google continue to hold the lead in terms of digital ad revenue, but in spite of the fact that this is the case their profits have been decreasing after a period of growth seen throughout the duration of 2021. The first quarter of 2022 saw this revenue stream stagnating for almost every major tech enterprise out there.

Google holds a comfortable lead to secure the top spot, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that its Q2 2022 revenues are still down from the fourth quarter of 2021. Q4 2021 saw Google’s revenues from this source soar to $61.24 billion, but this quickly dropped to $54.6 billion in the next quarter and subsequently rose somewhat to $56.3 billion in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Meta has seen barely any growth year over year which is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up further dragging down the struggling company’s stock price. In the second quarter of 2021, Meta’s digital ad sales brought in revenues of around $28.58 billion, but after a year these revenues have decreased to $28.15 billion with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Amazon has also seen stagnant growth rates for its digital ads, with its Q4 2021 high of $9.72 billion proving to be a hard nut to crack. Its revenues for the first quarter of 2022 were $7.88 billion, and in the second quarter they managed to increase to $8.76 billion.

Twitter and Snapchat are going neck and neck, though this is a dubious distinction. Both companies have barely seen any growth, and their current quarterly revenues are hovering at just above the one billion dollar mark. That suggests that this will be a tough year for digital ad sales, and it will be interesting to see if next year brings some relief.

H/T: InsiderIntelligence
Read next: The History of Meme Culture in the 2010s
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

TikTok Confirms No Evidence Of A Security Breach Despite Hackers Claiming They Exposed User Data

A hacking group has alleged that it exposed popular video app TikTok’s user data with source code. But the company denied all allegations.

TikTok recently published a public statement that confirmed how its team failed to find any evidence of a security breach. The news comes as the hacking group even put up images as proof, depicting scenes of what it claims to be the app’s database.

As recently reported by Bleeping Computers, the hackers were seen putting up pictures of the hacked database on a public forum known for such behavior. They also claimed to have taken the data through a server that the app uses.

This particular server in question is known to encase more than 2 billion records and data consisting of nearly 790GB, as well as stats from the app, codes, and so much more.

The thread on the hacking forum with the samples of alleged TikTok data has been deleted and the user banned for “lying about data breaches” https://t.co/9ZKkKvu8JT

— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) September 5, 2022

A spokesperson for the company mentioned that all the samples of data were accessible to the public and hence weren’t on display due to some form of a security breach of the company’s systems.

Therefore, the app says users don’t need to worry or take on board any special measures for protection. They also continued to reassure how the app is committed to providing the best safety for its users present around the globe.

Most of this data that was headlined as being stolen is just general and public information that the app says has been scraped. Hence, other experts also jumped in to mention that it was beyond inconclusive to label it as being hacked.

Others referred to the data on display as being test samples or those linked to non-production sources that were most likely not gathered via a breach.

This particular hacking group in question that has arisen has labeled itself as ‘Against the West’. They appear to have taken up the data through a Chinese application called WeChat.

As of now, we’re not aware of any reports that refuted claims that any of the data had stolen information. At the same time, WeChat is yet to respond to all the queries being directed its way in regards to the matter.

This is not the first time we've heard about TikTok and WeChat coming under the radar. They’ve both been scrutinized for having links related to China. In case you didn’t know, TikTok’s parent firm is ByteDance whose origin is Chinese.

TikTok has reportedly taken a number of steps to help provide the world with reassurance that it doesn’t share user data with China which many see as a huge concern.

Read next: TikTok Offers Better Engagement Than Any Other Social Media, New Report Reveals
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Apple Car Is More Popular Than A Tesla Despite It Being Years Away From Release, Claims New Survey

We may know very little about the Apple car but that doesn’t mean its popularity isn’t growing with the masses.

Thanks to a new American survey that was recently conducted, we’ve got plenty of information regarding people’s taste in electronic vehicles. It’s amazing to see how buyers are anticipating Project Titan, despite news of its release being far away. And by that, we mean a few more years.

Tesla is already up for grabs in the market but the competition it faces from Apple’s innovative products is definitely a lot. Other than that, another interesting feature to note is how the project from Apple has been steeped in a lot of controversies and that’s what is giving us this huge delay.

From top executives resigning to huge turnovers regarding what the final project may look like, it’s certainly been through a lot. But whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure. People are hooked and the survey’s results managed to prove just that.

On average, the everyday US customer would be keener on purchasing a car from the leading Cupertino firm. This is in comparison to getting their hands on a brand new Tesla or even a Ford.

The survey featured owners of new vehicles. Around 200,000 people took place in the study by Strategic Vision. Shockingly, Apple ranked in the third position in terms of brand considerations. People said they would adore buying a car from the company.

Around 26% of respondents would ‘definitely consider’ the vehicle for the future. While in second place came Honda at 32%. The leader of the pack was Toyota, where 38% of respondents would consider this to be their vehicle of choice. Ford scored the fourth position at 21% while Tesla came in fifth at 20%.

Apple’s scoring third isn’t the only shocking ordeal here. The fact that any more would deem Apple as competition in the automobile industry without any releases so far is just mind-blowing. It’s like a unique love and loyalty that consumers have for the firm.

Other than that, it’s interesting to note how more than half of the people that already owned a Tesla said they would consider purchasing an Apple car in the near future.

The researchers of the study were quick to point out how Apple had the largest combined score in terms of two different factors. For instance, when it came to future considerations and impression of quality, Apple ticked all the boxes.

Around 26% of people would truly consider it while around 24% would adore it. This means the brand awareness that Apple provides, not to mention its great reputation, has really made people happy. And to such an extent that they’re not blindly trusting cars manufactured by the firm.

Strategic vision also shed light on how this is a clear warning for other leading automobile producers to pull up their socks because the competition is tough.

Apple says it still has a few years to go before it actually introduces its own vehicle. At the same time, they’re planning a new revamp edition for its CarPlay that will soon take over the screens of vehicles.

As far as Project Titan and the thought of a self-driving initiative is concerned, well, it’s definitely evolving with time. There are a number of engineers who have joined the team, moments after they resigned from Ford.

For now, the goals are plenty and they’re quite ambitious too. Apple wants to weigh out all of its options for its car release. This is rumored to be in 2025 so we’ve got a while to go.

Read next: More Than 50% Of The American Population Uses An iPhone Rather Than Android
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World