Monday, January 6, 2025

Cybersecurity in the Digital Age: A Global Business Imperative

Data has become the cornerstone of the global economy, often compared to gold for its value. As businesses increasingly transition into the digital world, they face a growing array of cyber threats. In this environment, cybersecurity is not merely an option; it is a necessity. This shift demands a proactive, agile approach to safeguarding digital assets. Furthermore, cybersecurity transcends local boundaries—it is a global issue that requires universal strategies.

The Global Nature of Cyber Threats

The interconnected nature of the digital economy means no business operates in isolation. Cyber attackers disregard national boundaries; a breach in one region can ripple across continents, whether through ransomware, phishing, or systemic data compromises. The rise of cloud computing, remote work, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices has further expanded the attack surface, presenting businesses with new challenges.

Global cybersecurity strategies must, therefore, address threats holistically, covering the entire digital infrastructure from cloud environments to mobile networks. However, technology alone is not enough. Expertise, continuous learning, and an adaptive approach are essential to counter the evolving tactics of cybercriminals.

Sweden’s Leading Role in Cybersecurity Innovation

Cyber security company Sweden has established itself as a leader in cybersecurity, boasting a robust technological landscape and innovative solutions. Among its key players is Accigo, renowned for its forward-thinking strategies and comprehensive protection against sophisticated cyber threats. Accigo’s approach exemplifies how Swedish cybersecurity firms are not just reactive but focus on future-proofing businesses.

By anticipating vulnerabilities and tailoring bespoke solutions, Accigo empowers organizations to thrive without the constant fear of cyber risks. Their services extend beyond mere protection—they instill confidence, enabling businesses to focus on growth and innovation.

Cybersecurity as a Business Imperative

Cybersecurity has evolved from a technical concern to a core business priority. Regardless of size or industry, every business is vulnerable to breaches that can incur substantial financial losses and irreparable reputational damage. In today’s digital economy, trust is paramount. Customers are increasingly vigilant about how their data is handled and gravitate toward businesses that prioritize proactive protection.

Accigo exemplifies the value of a trusted cybersecurity partner. By combining technical prowess with a deep understanding of global business needs, Accigo delivers tailored solutions that go beyond mere compliance. Their expertise spans cloud security, endpoint protection, and real-time threat detection, ensuring robust defenses against emerging threats.

Future-Proofing Cybersecurity with Innovation

Accigo distinguishes itself by focusing on resilience and adaptability. Instead of solely addressing current threats, their solutions are designed to evolve alongside technological advancements and emerging cyber risks. This forward-looking strategy ensures clients are equipped to navigate the uncertainties of the digital landscape.

By leveraging Swedish innovation, Accigo positions itself as a global leader in cybersecurity. Their commitment to protecting data, preserving business continuity, and maintaining customer trust highlights the critical role cybersecurity plays in the modern business ecosystem.

Building a Secure Digital Future

As businesses become increasingly reliant on digital infrastructure, the importance of robust cybersecurity measures cannot be overstated. Cyber risks are no longer confined to the IT department; they permeate every aspect of an organization, from the C-suite to customer-facing operations.

Organizations partnering with firms like Accigo gain a strategic advantage, benefiting from advanced cybersecurity solutions that align with their unique needs. To secure your digital future, explore how Accigo’s innovative approach to cybersecurity can safeguard your business and empower growth. Visit www.accigo.com to learn more about their services.

Image: Pexels / sora-shimazaki
by Web Desk via Digital Information World

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Study Finds AI Struggles with Patient Communication, Hindering Diagnosis Accuracy

Artificial intelligence helps us in countless things and it also proves itself to be of great help in healthcare systems. But according to a new study by Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, artificial intelligence cannot talk to the patients in a way that can lead to their accurate diagnosis. In the medical field, communicating with patients is an important thing so the doctors and healthcare specialists can understand what patients are feeling but AI is showing limitations in its communication skills when it comes to diagnosing patients.

The researchers used Conversational Reasoning Assessment Framework for Testing in Medicine or CRAFT-MD to test AI how well it can work during communication in healthcare. It is important to note how interaction with patience and AI can help the system understand the diseases or problems patients are going through, especially now that many people are turning to AI like ChatGPT for their health concerns. The result of the test shows that even though many AI chatbots were successful in passing medical exams, they struggle when it comes to basic communication with the patients.

During medical diagnosis, doctors need to ask questions at the right time to the patients, and list down the information the patient gives in a proper way to find out what is actually wrong. As AI cannot communicate well, it raises alarms of how well AI can actually do in medical settings. The researchers tested on four prominent AI models and gave them 2,000 medical cases. It was found that GPT-4 gave correct diagnosis 82% of the times when it was given case summaries, but the correctness of diagnosis dropped to 63% when it had to interact with the patient to gather information. The correctness level dropped more when AI models had to go through open ended questions rather than multiple choice questions.

The areas where AI models struggled the most were in gathering critical information, case history of patients and not asking questions that could help connect all the conversation going on. One of the researchers, Daneshjou, said that he is interested in working with AI in a clinical setting but right now the results AI is showing aren't satisfactory. CRAFT-MD framework is a great way to test AI responses in healthcare fields as it can monitor real time conversations. The researchers suggest that developers should work more on communication skills of AI and make it capable so it can handle unstructured conversation.


Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: AI Fact-Checking Results in Mixed Outcomes, Sometimes Boosting Misinformation and Distrusting Truthful News
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Generative AI Startups Set Record: $56 Billion Raised in 2024, Up 192% From 2023

The rise of Artificial Intelligence marks a new era, with everyone vying to stay competitive. As the time is passing, the hype of generative AI is growing steadily. People are also investing in generative AI because they know that it is going to bring a lot of opportunities for them. Pitchbook/TechCrunch conducted an analysis about the investments in generative AI and it was found that a total of $56 billion have been funded to AI companies from different VCs in 2024. These fundings have been done for various AI powered tools, like AI apps, services, images, videos, texts, speech, audio and much more. It just means that AI is going to be on everything soon and many companies are securing their future for that.

A total of 885 deals have been done in 2024 between different AI companies and VCs. In 2023, 691 deals had been done and only $29.1 billion had been invested in AI. Now, the investments have risen 192% from 2023, and it doesn't seem that it will slow down anytime soon. Many AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI have been taking billions of funds to make more generative AI based products. In Q4 2024, a total of $31.1 billion deals had been done. Some notable generative AI investments were Anthropic's $4 billion Strategic Investment from Amazon, Databricks’ $10 billion series J, OpenAI’s $6.6 billion round and xAI’s $6 billion Series C.

Generative AI Investments Surge: Venture Capital Funding Soars 192% to $56 Billion in 2024

There were only $951 million acquisitions and mergers of generative AI in 2024, with some deals made by Google, Amazon and Microsoft. $2.7 billion were funded by Google on CharacterAI’s staff’s hiring and licensing their technology. On the other hand, $650 million was given by Microsoft to the CEO of Inflection to license their AI models. Startups outside the USA took $6.2 billion of VC investments in 2024, with China based Monoshot AI taking $1 billion, Cologne based company DeepL taking $300 million and French based AI company taking $640 million.

In 2025, it seems that AI startups are going to become very saturated, and only some major AI developing coding assistants will be able to get big funds. Investors want to see good revenue growth in the companies they are investing in and there are some technical challenges too that may not let some startups make the cut for funds. Only the AI companies with good fundings will be able to grow as they need advanced technologies and data centers to produce AI products.

Read next:

New Survey Reveals How Much Nostalgic Americans Are About Early Internet Days and Old Websites
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Global Internet Shutdowns in 2024: A $7.69 Billion Wake-Up Call, With Pakistan Leading the Loss

$7.69 billion were lost in 2024 because of internet shutdowns, according to the latest data from Top10VPN with Pakistan being affected the most economically because of it. Pakistan lost a total of $1.62 billion due to internet lockdown in 2024, followed by $1.58 billion in Myanmar and $1.12 billion in Sudan. Though the global impact of internet shutdowns was still felt in 2024, it wasn't as severe as in previous years. In 2022, the losses totaled $24.61 billion, followed by $9.01 billion in 2023.

A Decline in Shutdown Costs, But the Question Remains: Why Are They Happening?

2024 marked the year with the highest number of countries being affected because of internet lockdown (28). 167 of the internet lockdowns were self imposed in those countries and it affected 648.4 million people.

The internet outages reported were 88,788 hours in total, which is a 12% increase from 2023. Even though there were some major internet shutdowns in 2024, there was a decline of social media blockages. X got shut down in Pakistan and that's why many people thought that there was an increase in social media outages but that wasn't the case.

When internet shutdowns happen, even VPNs cannot be of any help to bypass the restrictions imposed on citizens. Internet shutdowns are a result of the government imposing outages for a lot of reasons for example an incident that causes mass political unrest or to not let people talk about a certain issue.


Sometimes, governments shutdown internet in a specific area and sometimes, they shut down the whole country too. In the past year many areas of India got internet shutdowns where the government tried to shut down specific networks or even the whole infrastructure of the internet. This has many severe economic effects on the people who rely completely on the internet for their work.

Most of the internet outages reported in 2024 were because of civil conflicts. Iraq had the highest number of internet outages in 2024. But on the other hand, Pakistan had the biggest economic effect because of internet outages happening in the country due to anti-government protests and elections-rigging. Conflict was the main reason for internet outages in Sudan and Myanmar.

If there are any social media blocks by the government in the country, citizens can use VPNs to access that platform. As there have been a lot of internet shutdowns in 2024, VPN use has also increased. X and TikTok have been the most blocked apps in 2024 in some countries, so many people access them using VPN.

Read next: Survey Reveals US Consumers’ Nostalgia for Early Internet Days and Old Websites
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Saturday, January 4, 2025

New Survey Reveals How Much Nostalgic Americans Are About Early Internet Days and Old Websites

A new survey of 1,000 Americans by Hosting Advice found out how many people in the USA miss the old internet the most, and the results of the survey revealed that 63% of millennials Americans miss the initial era of the internet. There's a lot of nostalgia that comes with reminiscing about the era when technology was slowly gaining momentum, and 81% of the Americans surveyed said that they really miss the early internet days. Generation X was the generation that saw the era before the internet and how the internet evolution happened, with 30% feeling nostalgic about the early internet era.

The respondents of the survey said that they would definitely use the old internet websites if they came back, with Myspace being at top, followed by Instant Messenger/AOL and Napster. Most of the respondents said that the old internet era was the best because there was less commercialisation and they could use the internet in peace. Now 62% of the respondents said that they feel very annoyed by ads and AI generated content on websites. 46% also said that they miss the era of the internet when there were no political discussions on digital spaces, and they were just chatting amongst friends and loved ones without being bombarded with ads and irrelevant posts.

37% of the respondents also said that the internet in its early stages was more inclined to form connections between people and provide better opportunities than the internet today. It is because the internet wasn't gaining any profit back then and you could talk about different topics and cultures all while being anonymous. That's why 55% of the respondents also believe that the internet was more creative back in the day, but on the other hand 51% of the respondents are happy with the shirt from text heavy websites to more images and video content now.

9 in 10 Americans say that the use of early internet has shaped how they browse the internet today, with 58% browsing internet as a leisure activity and 53% thankful for early websites to help them discover their hobbies and interests. The Internet isn't only responsible for how people spent their time as it was a crucial way to help people learn, explore and engage with their interests freely and that's why many people are still attached to their digital past. Even though there are many new technologies, most Americans still feel nostalgic about their past internet habits and websites they used to love so much.


Read next: Urban Areas Show Higher 5G Radiation Baseline, But Rural Areas Experience More Intense Smartphone Exposure During Activity
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Meta Trashes Hundreds of AI-Generated Profiles From Facebook and Instagram

While AI is appreciated in many sectors, that’s not the case with the popular tech generating false and misleading information. This is why Meta is trashing hundreds of profiles found on its Instagram and Facebook apps.

The news comes after outrage from users who thought it was ridiculous to find fake profiles lurking around that could mislead others in many ways. Let’s not forget how simple they were to identify, as they came with the AI managed by Meta label that rolled out in September of last year.

This also came with the rollout of AI chatbots that were marketed using familiar faces but thankfully that’s also gone. It’s been several months now and we haven’t seen or heard about these profiles for a while now.

Thanks to a new interview published by the Financial Times, the company’s VP for Generative AI did confirm the news as to their sudden and mysterious disappearance. He spoke more in detail about the tech giant’s goals in this area which was to try and make the apps more lively and interactive. He explained how the profiles would work similarly to how regular ones do. Clearly, users didn’t agree with that goal and expressed dismay which is why they’re out now.

You could find the most bizarre usernames like Dating with Carter or Hello Grandpa Brain as well as AI-themed dating coaches quite frequently. They were mostly used for displaying different personalities and innovative interests but at the end of the day, they were fake.

Some called in unwanted AI spam that is becoming more and more common as time passes. There were even some personas sparking serious outrage online. One example was Liv found on Instagram who claimed to be a proud and queer Black mom of two. As per a leading columnist found in the Washington Post, Live published a series of posts that were inspired by a made-up character from The Modern Family and people weren’t happy.

Some spoke about ridiculous instances and conversations didn’t take long to anger many as they were inappropriate for several different reasons. If that was not enough, so many instances arose where you couldn’t block them. Instead of fixing the matter, the solution of Meta was to get rid of the experiment as a whole. They called it a bug that affected the way people could block AI on the app and they were working hard to fix the problem.

The trial did end up going in flames, the firm says it has zero plans to abort AI-based characters on apps which is shocking for many. During the year’s start, the organization teased some clones of real human creators made using AI. These even could carry video calls that were life-like in nature.

Creators would get the chance to train chatbots that could reply to followers without them actually being there. This would save them so much time and effort in the end. Other than that, experiments for adding AI images to user feeds on Facebook were also discussed.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Urban Areas Show Higher 5G Radiation Baseline, But Rural Areas Experience More Intense Smartphone Exposure During Activity
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Friday, January 3, 2025

Urban Areas Show Higher 5G Radiation Baseline, But Rural Areas Experience More Intense Smartphone Exposure During Activity

New research has revealed fascinating insights into how 5G technology affects our exposure to electromagnetic waves. Surprisingly, living in cities with a dense network of cell towers might reduce your exposure to radiation compared to rural areas with fewer towers. Here’s an easy-to-understand breakdown of this paradox and what it means for public health.

Why 5G Networks Are Different

5G networks operate on advanced systems that are very different from traditional mobile networks. These systems use something called massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Ma-MIMO) antennas, which are smarter and more efficient than older cell towers. These antennas employ a technology called beamforming, which works like a spotlight. Instead of broadcasting signals evenly in all directions (like traditional networks), beamforming focuses the signal directly on your device. This makes the network faster and more reliable.

The Study: Urban vs. Rural Areas

The research, part of Project GOLIAT, was conducted in Switzerland, one of Europe’s earliest adopters of 5G technology. Researchers measured radiation exposure levels in two cities (“Zurich” and “Basel”) and three rural villages (“Hergiswil,” “Willisau,” and “Dagmersellen”). To measure baseline exposure, they used mobile phones set to airplane mode to prevent data transmission.

Key Findings on Baseline Exposure:

Urban Areas (Higher Population Density): Exposure levels were higher. For example:
  • Zurich: 0.33 milliwatts per square meter (mW/m²)
  • Basel: 0.48 mW/m²
Rural Areas (Lower Population Density): Exposure levels were lower, around 0.17 mW/m².

This pattern makes sense because cities have more cell towers, which provide stronger and more uniform signals, increasing baseline radiation levels.

The Paradox of Active Phone Usage

The situation changes drastically when phones are actively transferring data (like downloading or uploading large files). During these tests, researchers found exposure levels could spike dramatically:

Data Usage Findings:

Urban Areas:
  • Downloading large files led to exposure levels of 6-7 mW/m².
  • Uploading files for maximum speed tests increased exposure to 16 mW/m².
Rural Areas:
  • Downloading large files raised exposure levels, but during maximum upload tests, exposure reached 29 mW/m² — almost double the levels in cities.
Why does this happen? In rural areas, phones must work much harder to maintain a connection with distant cell towers. This increases the energy emitted by the phone, leading to higher radiation exposure.

The "Paradox" Explained

Here’s the paradox:

In cities with more cell towers, baseline radiation is higher, but phones require less energy to stay connected, so exposure during active use is lower.
In rural areas with fewer towers, baseline radiation is lower, but phones emit much more energy during active use, resulting in higher exposure.

What This Means for Everyday Life

The study highlights how cell tower density and phone usage patterns influence radiation exposure. For most people:

City Dwellers: While baseline exposure is slightly higher, daily usage is less likely to result in extreme spikes in radiation.

Rural Residents: Baseline exposure is lower, but activities like streaming videos or uploading large files can significantly increase exposure levels.

It’s also important to note that these measurements were taken with phones placed about 30 cm from the measuring device. If a phone is held closer to the body, exposure could be up to 10 times higher, according to the researchers.

Future Research and Implications

This study is just the beginning. Researchers plan to expand their work to nine more European countries to explore how 5G technology is implemented and how it impacts public health. Their findings will help shape better network designs and guide public health policies.

Final Thoughts

5G technology is changing how we interact with the electromagnetic environment around us. While it offers faster speeds and better connectivity, it also brings new challenges for understanding radiation exposure. This study reminds us that network design plays a crucial role in balancing connectivity with public health concerns. Whether you live in a bustling city or a quiet rural area, knowing how 5G affects your exposure can help you make informed choices about your mobile phone usage.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World
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