To click, or not to click, that is the question. How do people make that decision?
Behavioural economics states that we think with both an intuitive mind and an analytical mind. Most of the time we rely on our intuitive mind to make those “quick and dirty” decisions such as fight or flight. If we see a tiger coming from a distance, we don’t need our analytical mind to list all the pros and cons before we know to quickly run away.
This also applies to cybersecurity, and with phishing specifically:
1) We have difficulty perceiving a threat. We may not see the tiger unless we’re aware it could also be in plain sight
2) many of us haven’t harnessed our intuitive thinking to create a habit of spotting and reporting phishing emails
While traditional security training tries to improve our analytical mind’s capacity, it doesn’t focus on sensing and handling dangers intuitively. The difference between what we know – and what we feel, can lead us to make a wrong decision.
Awareness
Greater phishing awareness from employees can help prevent phishing attacks. One study confirms that those with a deeper understanding of the web environment and how to correctly interpret URLs are less vulnerable to phishing attacks. But the perceived severity of consequences doesn’t predict behaviour. This suggests that education efforts should be trying to increase intuitive understanding, rather than just warning about risk (Downs, Holbrook, & Cranor, n.d.).
Since New Zealand is far away from the rest of the world geographically, we like to think we are better shielded and safer from any physical or virtual attacks. There is also a sense that because we are a smaller ecosystem, the chances of us becoming a target are reduced. Let’s not forget though, we are only ¼ second away from anywhere in the world online!
This illusion may make us even more ill-prepared when disaster strikes. The truth is that we are aligned with the rest of the world when it comes to phishing attacks, which includes our susceptibility, phishing as the primary data breaching method and damage impact of attacks.
Security mindsets are not natural for people, which is why an alarming percentage of employees still fall for a highly effective phishing scam just months after they were trained to watch for it.
Once people are aware of phishing dangers, it is time to build safe email/internet browsing behaviour into habits. We need to harness our intuition and be able to quickly and effortlessly handle most of the phishing attempts.
Habit formation is a powerful means to behavioural change. Scientists have found that habits are formed and operated separately from the part of the brain responsible for memory (Duhigg, 2012). Studies confirmed that we make unconscious choices without having to remember anything about decision making.
Our brains are constantly looking for new ways to form automatic routines. For example, riding a bike or driving a car requires over a dozen separate actions, but we do them daily without a second thought.
How can we leverage habits to avoid phishing attacks with our intuitive mind? By repetition. When we repeat an action enough times, a process known as ‘chunking’ will take place where the brain converts a series of conscious actions into an automatic routine.
The habit process:
1. Cue. A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which routine to use.
2. Routine. A physical, mental, or emotional behaviour that follows the cue.
3. Reward. Positive feedback to tell your brain that the routine works well and is worth remembering.
How to form the habit of defending against phishing
Let’s look at the case of checking emails and how we could tweak a routine to protect ourselves.
Security is a vast field. Often, it is mysterious, difficult and confusing. Frequent use of industry jargon among experts and in reports creates a barrier for people to discuss and understand. What is a SOC? What is a botnet? What are the different types of malware we should actually pay attention to? And why are we spending so much money and effort on something that may or may not happen?
Interestingly, people do know about phishing. They may not understand the logic behind it or the term itself, but most are familiar with those annoying emails asking for their details to claim a big prize.
These emails have been around for a long time. One of the first popular phishing emails was the Love Bug in 2000. All around the world, people received emails titled “ILOVEYOU”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU
The email body only had a one-liner: “Kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me”. Many were eager to find out whom their secret crush was and opened the attached file. The attachment unleashed a worm which overwrote the victim’s image files and sent a copy of itself to all contacts from the victim’s Outlook address book.
Since the Love Bug phishing almost two decades ago, the tactic and delivering of phishing remains fairly similar. People know all about it, yet still fall for it.
Phishing continues to be one of the most common and effective cybersecurity threats. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of the Office 365-based threats in 2017 (Microsoft Security, 2018). In New Zealand, there was a 55 per cent increase in phishing and credential harvesting in the fourth quarter of 2017 (CERT NZ, n.d.), 76 per cent of organisations say they experienced phishing attacks in 2017 (Wombat Security, n.d.) and, by the end of 2017, the average user received 16 malicious emails per month (Symantec, 2018). These scams cost organisations $676 million in 2017 (FBI, 2017). This begs the question:
How is this still a thing?
We will look at this issue from three angles; what motivates the attackers, why victims fall for it and how organisations perceive their own security programmes.
What motivates attackers:
Phishing is cheap, scalable and easy to carry out. Attackers favour this type of “low-hanging fruit”. An attacker can easily send phishing emails to 10,000 people and even if just 1 per cent click a link, their attack would be successful with 100 people.
A successful phishing campaign is generally the entry point for other attacks. Verizon reported that 92.4 per cent of malware is delivered via email (Verizon, 2018).
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that 80 per cent of cybercrimes come from organised activity (Steven Malby et al., 2013). Most organisations can’t expect employees to compete with organised criminals and be vigilant 100 per cent of the time.
Social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn enabled criminals to collect organisational and individual information much easier.
Verizon research found that 92.4 per cent of malware was delivered via email
Why victims fall for it:
There is still often a lack of awareness of phishing as a vector of compromise (Downs, Holbrook, & Cranor, n.d.).
Today’s ubiquitous technology creates constant interruption and leads to habitual multitasking. Both behaviours are linked to more frequent risky behaviours (Murphy & Hadlington, 2018). Especially for jobs that are multitasking in nature such as call centre staff.
Clicking on links provided in emails is part of everyday behaviour. Some may require us to log in with credentials. By targeting this process, legitimate looking phishing attacks often catch us when we are not fully paying attention (CERT NZ, n.d.).
Spotting phishing emails is not always a straightforward task, especially when it comes to the well-researched and targeted “spear-phishing” email.
It is no longer about spotting bad grammar and spelling mistakes. Instead, malicious emails are often polished, even exceeding employees’ copywriting skills. They would look like they are from an organisation or person that you trust and recognise.
We are optimistic. The optimism bias is an age-old human trait essential to our well-being. The optimism bias in cybersecurity, however, causes problems. For example, the mentality of “no one is interested in attacking me”. Due to the optimism, we tend to underestimate risks and engage unnecessarily in overly risky behaviours. When we receive emails designed to infect our machine with malware, we don’t necessarily treat them with the suspicion and wariness they deserve.
Here’s why organisations fall for it:
This same optimism bias also applies at the organisational level.
One PwC (2018) report found that executives were overconfident in the robustness of their security initiatives. Some 73 per cent of North American executives believed their security programmes were effective.
Organisations often opt for a “tool-first” approach. While tools are necessary, investing in technology before people can be troublesome. Spending millions on technology can certainly make you feel safe. However, cyber threats often aren’t technological driven but are a result of how human brains work. Our curiosity, ignorance, apathy, and hubris are often our vulnerabilities (Dante Disparte & Chris Furlow, 2017). So balancing technological measure with human-centred defences is crucial to preparing and preventing future cyber-attacks.
Investing in people could be more ambiguous than investing in tools. A sceptical executive could ask reasonably what the ROI on developing a training programme was – and question the value of taking people out of their regular jobs to get trained.
Phishing on steroids today
Email continues to be the most common vector (96 per cent) for phishing attacks (Verizon, 2018). Recently, the scam has spread to social media, messaging services and apps.
With the rise of social media, phishing attacks are now on steroids, since it has become so much easier for attackers to harvest personal information and compose more legitimate or tailored email (spear-phishing). Social media also becomes a phishing channel.
People are more likely to click on a link from their friends or families. It means that when an attacker harvests one social network credential, they can easily reach out to new “friends and families” and compromise even more accounts through the wonders of the network effect.
Mobile phishing is also on the rise when smartphones and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) at work are ubiquitous. This could be checking emails on mobile or “smishing” (SMS phishing or other messages from other instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, where you receive a link via a message).
There is an 80 per cent increase every year since 2011 of people falling for phishing attacks on mobile devices (Lookout, n.d.). Our devices are often connected outside of traditional firewalls and so have less protection. Lookout reported that 56 per cent of its users received and tapped on a phishing URL while on a mobile device. Attackers will no doubt continue to leverage new and popular services as they become available to break this human defence line.
Building a “human firewall”, making New Zealand digitally safe
Datacom’s goal is simple – to make New Zealand digitally safe.
The National Plan to Address Cybercrime clearly states that New Zealand businesses, other organisations and the overall economy would be affected if our nation fails to develop the capability to address cyber-attacks (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2015).
Experts believe we are experiencing the beginning of the next “cyber-arms race”. While continuous investment in defensive security, e.g. protecting our strategic infrastructure and electricity grid, is undeniably important; the overall growth of cybersecurity awareness among every one of us is equally critical for our national cyber defence. After all, we’re connected now more than ever – each of us is either part of the problem or part of the solution. The worst-case scenario would become even worse when we start living in smart cities with self-driving cars, surrounded by a myriad of Internet of Things devices. We cannot slow down the rate of technological innovation, and so we must speed up our collective preparedness.
In this series, we look at strengthening the “human firewall” from three different perspectives :
In part 1, we explore the “Why”. Why do we fall for phishing attacks from a psychological perspective, and how could we form and change our habits to protect ourselves and our organisations?
In part 2, we look at the “What”. Given the difficulties around defending against phishing from the human perspective alone, what are the components of a multi-layered defence system that can increase organisational resilience?
In part 3, we investigate the “How”. Specifically, how could we effectively run user awareness training and phishing simulations, and how do we balance “the carrot and stick”?
Murphy, K., & Hadlington, L. (2018). Is Media Multitasking Good for Cybersecurity ? and Everyday Cognitive Failures on Self-Reported. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21(3), 168–172. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0524
By Brett Roberts, Associate Director, Digital, Customers & Collaboration
How’s the culture in your company? Does it enable you to thrive? Or are you simply surviving? Worse yet, is it toxic?
While the world of work is changing rapidly, people still sit at the very heart of it. How do we get the best out of these people? And how do we ensure they get the best out of their roles?
A critical factor in this discussion is the concept of psychological safety in the workplace. If you as a leader can create an environment in which even the newest hire feels safe to voice their thoughts and opinions, then you are far more likely to get the best ideas out of your staff. This is incredibly important given that one of the underpinning requirements of an innovation culture is ideas and creativity.
Linda Hill, a Professor at Harvard Business School, is an expert on managing for collective creativity, and firmly believes that getting the best out of people requires a safe environment. She also comments that innovation is not about solo genius, rather it’s about collective genius and it’s collaborative and messy. Pixar took a very collaborative approach to the development of their first full length CG (computer graphics) movie, Ratatouille. It took nearly 20 years from inception to release, but CG films have really taken off since then!
Innovation requires imagination, but imagination can be stifled in a negative workplace. People can’t innovate in an environment where they feel fear (of embarrassment, of ridicule, of not being heard), so it’s crucial that business leaders foster an environment where people feel entirely safe to speak up. New junior staff members are sitting at the bottom of the pile, but giving them a platform to speak their mind in safety will help grow them – and quickly.
Professor Hill’s research concluded that leaders needed to stop giving answers, or providing solutions. They needed to look to people at the bottom of the pyramid, the young sparks, those that were closest to the customers as an often untapped source of innovation. Organisations need to invert the pyramid, transfer growth to lower levels, and unleash the power of many by loosening the stranglehold of the few.
Workplaces need to create an environment where there is a marketplace of brainstormed and debated ideas, and where it’s ok to have strong – yet constructive – views. Asking good questions, actively listening and advocating for their point of view are also critical skills for leaders and others to foster.
Psychological safety and teams
Google’s Project Aristotle showed that psychological safety is the number one determinant of highly effective teams. A culture of psychological safety enables everyone in the group to contribute regardless of hierarchy, role, or expectations. In this instance, we can draw upon the total collective intelligence of the group.
Author Dr Amy Silver commented that “If we don’t have psychological safety, we use fear to mediate our contributions to a team. We are not able to contribute whatever’s in our heads as we limit ourselves through the fear of judgment, the fear of being ridiculed, the fear of being discounted, or the fear of going against expectations. Without psychological safety, we don’t have collective intelligence. We have fear-based intelligence.”
Creating psychological safety through hackathons
Datacom has been using hackathons for the last seven years as a way to create environments where people from different backgrounds and experiences feel safe to ideate, experiment and create.
There are many ways in which we create a sense of safety during a hackathon, such as rituals around welcoming which leads to greater levels of understanding amongst team members, many of whom may never have met before. There is a strong need to take the time to meet, greet and understand each other as this fosters a sense of safety and empathy which ultimately leads to better outcomes. Having seen it many times, we also understand the need to support those people who feel strongly about a topic or issue. Having support around them is what makes their dream reality.
We’re seeing real examples of how psychological safety impacts on how people participate in hackathons. Just this year we had a number of tertiary students join our main internal hackathon. They felt so safe that two of them got up and pitched an idea to an audience of hundreds only a short time after arriving. In a regional hackathon we were involved in earlier in the year, one of the businesses brought along several of their own staff but instructed them to go into separate teams.
Datacom might not be experts in the science of psychological safety – we’ll leave that to Professor Hill and Doctor Silver – but we are huge believers in its importance and ability to fundamentally influence organisational culture and innovation not to mention improving employee engagement and retention.
Today, every company is thinking about and investing in workplace safety measures. The benefits are obvious and the downsides of not doing so are clear. We believe the same applies to the concept of psychological safety and would encourage your organisation to do the same if you’re not doing so already. The benefits are too clear to ignore.
By Kerry Topp, Associate Director, Transformation and Innovation
We can’t slow down the rate of technological change, change is rapid and all around us. The skills cycle, the rate at which skills are needed, is rapidly increasing both globally and in New Zealand.
We are at the crucible moment where leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand need to be proactive and responsible in the “right-skilling” or retraining of their workforce. For right-skilling, organisations need to have a strategic plan for talent to make the shift. Any good talent strategy should focus on retaining and training existing talent, as well as acquiring new workers.
In this context, what can we do as leaders to ensure our organisations, society and above all, our people, are future-fit and ready, now? In this post we will look at why we believe it is crucial for corporate leaders to increase their investment in employees’ skills today so New Zealand Aotearoa is able to increase the prosperity, wellbeing and capability of our people, organisations and country, tomorrow.
The Skills Revolution Is Here!
Recently Manpower, a global leader in contingent and permanent recruitment workforce solutions, asked 18,000 employers in 43 countries across six industry sectors how they expect technology will impact their business in the next two years, and how they are ensuring their workforce has the right skills and is ready to adapt – specifically, they looked at:
The likely impact of automation on headcount in the next two years,
Which functions will be most affected,
The strategies they are adopting to ensure they have the skills they need for technological advances.
“We are seeing the emergence of a Skills Revolution — where helping people upskill and adapt to a fast-changing world of work will be the defining challenge of our time.“– Jonas Prising | Chairman & CEO | ManpowerGroup
What Manpower found was that more than 90 percent of employers expect their organization to be impacted by digitisation in the next two years. In addition, on average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skillsets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today.
The World Economic Forum identified that skills cycles are shorter than ever before and some 65 percent of the jobs Gen Z will perform do not even exist yet. They also found that up to 45 percent of the tasks people are paid to do each day could be automated with current technology. We have of course adapted to the evolution of the labour market before — from tellers to customer service representatives, typists to word processors and personal assistants — disrupting, destroying, redistributing and recreating work is nothing new. The difference now is the life cycle of skills is shorter than ever and change is happening at an unprecedented scale.
“On average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today.” – World Economic Forum
The Conclusion Is Widespread
It is not just Manpower or The World Economic Forum that are drawing similar conclusions. The evidence of a skills revolution is also coming through loudly from the likes of the Big Four and research organisations, like McKinsey & Co, Gartner, PWC as well:
51 percent of all activities can soon be done without humans, impacting and changing 60 percent of current jobs [McKinsey, Future of Work 2017].
The future of the workforce will be dominated by those born between 1980-mid 90s. And what they want from work is different. A strong sense of alignment on values and purpose, over profit, is the main goal. According to PWC’s Managing tomorrow’s people: The future of work to 2020 report, 88 percent are looking for alignment on corporate social responsibility, with their personal values.
According to PWCs Workforce of the Future study, 74 percent of global employees are now actively up-skilling themselves to take advantage of the new economy.
A study by Mavenlink found that given the opportunity, 65% of workers would pursue contract work. Whilst it’s not a new addition to hiring trends, it’s still worth calling out that flexibility is key, with the option to work remotely influencing the likelihood of accepting a position for 68% of new workforce entrants. There are many more ways to ‘work’ emerging and becoming main-stream. Which opens up new and creative ways for organisations to run their HR budgets, and individuals to design a career with more flexibility.
Those With The Right Skills Will Thrive
Based on this research, it is clear, those with the right skills will increasingly be in the driving seat, create new opportunities and have the choice and flexibility to work where, how, and when they like. Those lacking the right skills will increasingly be left behind and the outlook for the future for them is not rosy. There is a continued polarisation of the population that is playing out right in front of all our eyes and it will, if not rapidly addressed, be costly for society and business.
How Do We Ensure NZInc Has The Right Skills To Thrive?
At Datacom, we believe that now is the time for company leaders to be responsive and responsible! We cannot slow the rate of technological advance or globalisation, but we can invest in employees’ skills to increase the resilience of our people, organisations but also society. I contend that we are seeing the emergence of what World Economic Forum calls, the Skills Revolution.
Yes, individuals absolutely need to nurture their ‘learnability’: their desire and ability to learn new skills to stay relevant and remain employable; but leaders in New Zealand need to take immediate action to fast track the upskilling and reskilling of existing employees to ensure New Zealand Aotearoa has access to a workforce with the skills required for the future.
So, let’s have a look at what we are doing to support the resilience of our people.
In a recent McKinsey survey, 75 percent of executives said they believed reskilling would fill at least half of their future talent needs, given the war for talent and hiring difficulties. The survey highlighted that people working in IT and customer-facing roles are likely to see the greatest increases in demand, but they also anticipated rapid growth in demand across almost all industries and geographies for data analysts required to make sense of big data, and for specialised sales, product and commercial managers to commercialise new digitised offerings.
At Datacom we firmly believe that from learning comes creativity and from creativity comes innovation. One of the activations we have in this space is Datacomp, our annual innovation hackathon, which has been running since 2012 and is designed to keep our people sharp and give them an opportunity to trial and test new skills and experiences in a safe environment.
One of the benefits of Datacomp is that every year each person in our business gets the chance to take part in a significant learning and development opportunity. Our goal in providing the program – called Datacomp StayingSharp – is simple, to add to our peoples’ C.V.s! Not because we want them to go, but rather, because we want them to stay.
Over the last seven years that Datacomp has been running we have seen over 1,000 people trained in lean canvasing, design thinking, presenting and pitching, plus get ongoing exposure to the latest technology and insights.
Having The Opportunity And Feeling Safe Are Important
Our view is that giving our people the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the latest trends, ways of working and tech is positive and inspiring for all – most importantly, our people and customers. We aim to give our people a safe environment to experiment and try new things, things that they don’t necessarily have the opportunity to do in their day job.
Winning team from Datacomp 2018
We don’t do this lightly. We are actively and deliberately seeking to lead our own people and also other organisations to keep up with the ever-demanding skills cycle.
“Remember, you’re not in charge. You are responsible for those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek | Founder | Visionary | Author | Speaker
As Simon Sinek, internationally acclaimed speaker and author, said leaders are not responsible for the job. Leaders are responsible for the people, who are responsible for the job.
If we accept that the pace of technological change has accelerated us to a crucible moment where leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand need to invest in employees’ skills today to increase the prosperity, wellbeing & capability of our people, organisation & country, tomorrow, then as a leader, I encourage you to ask yourself: what are you doing to deliver a brighter future for your people?
These are words we like to hear, both for Datacom and our customers – and these words ran strongly through last month’s GoogleNext conference. Google is committed to its partners, and it makes us here at Datacom all the more proud to be working with Google Cloud, and even more excited about getting our customers connected.
Google Cloud Next ‘18 was three busy days packed full of talks, boot camps and information that we’re now happy to share with you.
The Google Cloud platform is growing at an exponential rate, and we’re looking forward to what’s coming over the next year.
“We’re re-engineering how we do business, and that goes hand in hand with the journey to the cloud.” Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene said. “Tech now encompasses all business and all society, and IT has gone from being a cost centre to a key driver for the business.”
For those new to it, Google Cloud is a service that helps companies empower employees, serve customers and build what’s next for business. And it does all this with a level of security that is defining the tech industry.
As we learned at the conference, Google is more secure by design. We were thrilled to hear about the Google Service Platform, which combines Kubernetes and Istio. With this, Google simplifies security and management of microservices. And that Kubernetes engine? It’s going to soon available on-premise and accessible from the cloud.
This means that whatever your data and containers, you’ll be able to manage it all in one place. The Datacom Software team is committed to making it easy to modernise your applications and bring them to the cloud. With Google Cloud it’s never been easier, it lets you design your applications with a mix of on-premise and cloud-based microservices.
Google’s cloud offering is open source and multi-cloud. So it’s are not about locking you into one solitary option but working to provide the best service, so you can run a better, smarter business.
Given what businesses are already doing with Google, take a moment to think about the marketing side of your business joined with the power of Google Cloud. The combined data story gives you a singular, superior view of your customer. In the coming year, Datacom will be focusing on that potential with Google, and we’ll make sure to deliver these new services to you.
Google is also bringing its world-renowned search capacity to the Cloud for your enterprise or business. You’ll be able to search for whatever it is you need to find within your business, be it files or anything else on the premise.
Google is also leading the way on AI. There’s Contact Centre AI, which allows enterprises to use AI to augment and improve contact centres without the need for deep AI expertise. Powerful, deployable contact centres are on the horizon, and since it’s part of Google Cloud, it will connect with the rest of your data and business (and also carry that cutting-edge security).
With BigQuery ML and Edge TPU for IOT, Google is also making machine learning and AI more democratic. The work Google is doing will mean that every device or sensor will have the ability to run machine learning or AI without having to go back into the cloud.
You also won’t need to move your data out of your data warehouse for analysts to access information and make predictions. They’ll be able to strategically look forward without any prior knowledge about machine learning. What’s more, with a few lines of code, developers can use Google’s AI building blocks (such as Cloud Vision API) to take your business to the next level.
Machine learning changes everything we know about computers. It takes everything we can currently do, but makes it better.
Our advice after attending Google Cloud Next? Machine learning needs to be infused into every one of your business processes. Think of yourself now as a Machine Learning- or AI-first business. AI-first businesses are efficient, scalable and agile. It’s the next wave of business and is surpassing mobile- or social- first business models.
Our biggest takeaway? That the journey to the cloud has only just begun.
A multi-cloud strategy is now critical for every business.
Use the best-in-breed options for whatever it is you need to grow and don’t just go with one cloud provider.
Integrating a multi-service approach to better run your business and help your developers will make your business more efficient. And it’s that priority around efficiency that will help you move into being a stronger machine learning-first business.
And the more we learn, the more excited we are about the opportunities Google Cloud presents to Datacom and our customers. We can’t wait to help you access what is next!
For more detailed day-to-day rundown of what we learned, watch Paul’s daily vlogs here.
This post was written by Chris Coombs – Cloud Architect at Datacom, and Samual Brown, Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS. Datacom is an AWS Premier Partner providing migration, transformation and managed services across Australia and New Zealand.
At Datacom our Cloud Ops team now use AWS (Amazon Web Services) Systems Manager as the default task runner and desired state configuration tool for all new managed services customers. Our on-premise solution had served us well for many years, but required multiple platforms, each with its own licensing costs and scaling challenges. The previous solution also had a significant operational impact, requiring frequent updates to maintain vendor support and complex infrastructure for high availability. With AWS Systems Manager, we don’t need to worry about licensing or the underlying infrastructure, it just works.
Our transition to AWS Systems Manager was born out of a desire to focus more on the customer and less on the tooling. Once we migrated to AWS Systems Manager however, we have found that it provides even more value thanks to its extensibility and ease of use.
Whilst AWS Systems Manager has many uses, this blog post focuses on our hybrid implementation and the risk dashboard we built on top of AWS Systems Manager.
Activating AWS Systems Manager
When setting up the AWS Systems Manager agent on AWS EC2, you would usually create an instance profile to allow the agent to run. An often overlooked feature of AWS Systems Manager is that it will also run outside of AWS; however, as your on-premises hypervisor doesn’t understand IAM (Identity and Access Management), AWS provides another mechanism for configuring AWS Systems Manager – activation codes.
With activation codes, you can install the AWS Systems Manager agent prior to a cloud migration or as part of a multi-cloud strategy. What’s more is that you can also use the AWS System Manager activation codes in AWS itself, providing a standard setup for your entire fleet, whether it’s on AWS, on-premises or within other public cloud platforms.
Naming Instances
If we add an instance to AWS Systems Manager using activation codes, it appears in the management console with a funny looking ID, something like mi-1234. Don’t be fooled by the bit after the m (i-1234), that isn’t the AWS instance ID! So how do we map AWS Systems Manager IDs to AWS instance IDs (or some other on-premises ID)? Simple, we give it a name!
Managed Instances tab of the AWS Systems Manager console
We don’t give the instance a name during registration though, we actually have to specify the name during activation code creation. As such, we have to generate the codes in real time. We do this using an API backed by Lambda which we run as part of the instance UserData (or similar bootstrap script on non-AWS resources).
It might seem odd not to use the native IAM integration with AWS Systems Manager in AWS, but this method doesn’t require development teams to mess around with IAM, and treating all instances in the same way ensures that we have a single workflow for all instances, regardless of their location.
Stating the Risk
AWS Systems Manager provides a lot of power to operations teams for running scheduled and ad hoc commands against entire hybrid workloads at once, which is a time saver for Ops. Where AWS Systems Manager really excels is in its flexibility, for example we also use it to report on compliance and security risk in near real time, which provides huge customer value.
Datacom risk dashboard
With AWS Systems Manager we can run State Manager (a scheduled command of sorts) in either of two modes. First we run in a report only mode. This allows us to gather patching, anti-virus and compliance information from the entire fleet without breaking anything. We can then discuss this data (using our risk dashboard) with the business, who may accept some risks (e.g. a legacy application, which the vendor won’t let you patch) but may mandate others (e.g. AV). With this information we can then move some or all workloads into enforcement mode, and it’s as simple as switching the AWS Systems Manager tag from report to enforce!
This is great for migrations. We can run the agent on-premises, analyse the results and remediate any gaps (e.g. missing AV) using the Run Command prior to relocation, reducing both the risk of rollback and the duration of the migration window. It also has the benefit of providing real time insight into born in the cloud workloads, which disappear at night or scale massively during the day. What’s really powerful is that the business can see what the risk profile looks like at any point in time, they can set alerts and take action with their development teams as things change.
What’s Next?
The extensibility of AWS Systems Manager is one of its greatest features. With AWS Systems Manager you can build a solution using cutting edge AWS technology and run it anywhere, from AWS to traditional tin. What Datacom build next is up to you. The idea for our risk dashboard came from customer feedback, and we’d love to hear what challenges you’re facing and how we can help.
Imagine a world where core local government data was easily available and accessible. What radical changes could this create in the way councils deliver services to people in their community?
Councils hold a vast range of data on licences and permits (food, swimming pools, trade waste, outdoor dining for example), to applications for development approval, to property attributes, to parking, valuations, requests for services and rating information, to events, library services, geospatial and assets (roads, pipes, sewerage, parks, community halls).
But currently this data is often hard to access. It may be locked up in legacy systems making integration a time consuming and expensive proposition.
Why is it important to have better access to council data?
If this data was unlocked it could be linked to other available data such as real estate information, travel information, police, fire, health services, schools, social media sources, and environmental information from Internet of Things (IoT) devices. IoT works by using sensors through devices and objects, which are connected through an IoT platform that sends critical data. This data can be used to identify patterns, trends and make recommendations and highlight issues before they occur. Many councils use IoT information now, but it’s not joined up with other sources of information. That lack of connectivity limits the ability of the councils to make effective use of the data.
Typically a councils’ information strategy is reliant on having access to multiple data-sets and sources. The core council data, such as rating information, parking, valuations and requests for service etc provides a substantial foundation for including the community and assets in the information strategy. It also allows councils to include partners, such as not-for profit organisations that are providing services to their community.
With council data more accessible, the information could be used to provide big data analytics, utilise Artificial Intelligence, and potentially integrate with third party providers allowing a community to be innovative. The real benefit would come from breaking down the barriers between data silos, merging massive amounts of pertinent information from numerous sources, and then using available technology to analyse it and then take appropriate action.
The impact of technology
Being able to use different data sets has been difficult in the past, due to various systems storing data, making it more difficult and time-consuming to get a complete and accurate picture.
The challenge for councils is having data stored in various systems which has created silos and difficulty merging data to aid in the decision-making process. The problem for many councils is most legacy systems have very limited APIs and to create them would take significant time and money.
How to fix this issue?
New technological solutions developed natively for the cloud use Application Programming Interface (APIs), which means the system is open to receiving data from any source and system. Councils can use any systems they like and connect easily through APIs.
New solutions are being developed for local governments, and they have the potential to transform how a community operates and interacts with local councils.
Want to be ahead of the game? We asked experts at Datacom what’s going to be big in local government organisations in the year ahead.
Firstly it is important to be aware of the exciting, ‘behind the scenes’ types of technology which make these solutions possible. Here are the ‘big four’ main types of tech, how they intertwine and the solutions they can provide.
1. Artificial intelligence (AI)
What is it?
AI, essentially intelligence displayed by machines rather than by humans or animals, is a word most people have heard of, even if just from cult movies such as The Terminator or The Matrix.
Why does AI matter to me?
It has become much more mainstream with many organisations worldwide starting to work out how they can use it to improve the bottom line. As well as being scalable, portable, adaptable and fairly cheap, the main benefit is that it frees humans up to do more important tasks. In fact PWC has estimated that AI could contribute an additional 26% to local economies by 2030.
It also allows organisations to cater to customer demands outside of working hours. In this busy, modern world, people want immediate support, personal service, and around the clock availability. AI can help with all of this so over the coming years we will slowly see a change from a service economy to an AI economy.
Top uses within local government:
There are some really incredible uses for AI across the world. IBM Watson can tell you what your personality type is based on text or speech. Auckland University students are currently researching how this could be used to help with disabilities and mental health.
A machine has also managed to lip-read with 46.8 per cent accuracy after being trained from BBC footage. Machine learning, a technique involving AI where machines can learn by themselves without being programmed, was used to achieve this.
Within local government, uses haven’t been quite this spectacular, but there are still exciting developments:
Video analytics are already installed and operational in some cities. Not just for 24 hour surveillance but also for town planning such as roading infrastructure
Analytics of data and reports
A group of researchers from the US and the UK have used AI to predict natural disasters such as earthquakes
Customer service chat bots – they can be trained on the job with crowdsourced learning and be encouraged to be particularly proactive around popular topics. There are now multiple bots in local government worldwide including Enfield Council’s Amelia, their virtual assistant who was the first UK council chatbot when launched in June 2017. Datacom also developed an award-winning virtual assistant called Alex with IP Australia.
2. Internet of Things (IoT)
What is it?
IoT is the driving force behind smart cities, which was the buzzword of the 2017. Will Laugesen, IoT expert from Datacom, describes it as a ‘network of interconnected devices which can collect and transmit data’. IoT is now really affordable, even for organisations with the smallest budget and it is relatively easy to hook into existing systems and processes used, e.g. data collected from an ERP system.
Why does it matter to me?
There are so many benefits to IoT and it is being used frequently by councils worldwide already to solve issues within the community and to also give them some fantastic metrics on the people they serve.
Mark Macfarlane, Smart Cities expert at Datacom, says that 2018 will bring a strong growth in the collection of granular citizen data due to the increase in IoT smart city adoption. We will see a greater focus on the application of advanced analytics to look for citizenship behavioural patterns both within and between council jurisdictions.
The new focus for councils will be on how they understand this newly available data and how they can use smart city data to influence citizen behaviour and improve the citizen experience. Mayors throughout Australia have been trialling the GWI Smart City Matrix whereby councils can benchmark against each other to ensure they have the technological infrastructure in place to stay competitive in a changing economy
Top uses within local government:
Real-Time live data feeds for disaster prevention, such as water level monitoring
Automated road condition monitoring. Looking for potholes and other problems so they can be fixed before they cause issues
Automated underground infrastructure checking
3. Blockchain
What is it?
Blockchain has been around since 2008 and reached the public eye as the main technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It is essentially a ‘digital ledger of trusted transactions between multiple participants’ – dramatically increasing speed, efficiency and security in organisations with less reliance on intermediaries and manual record keeping and a reduction in costs. Transactions can nearly happen in real-time rather than taking days.
Why does it matter to me?
Deloitte says that governments in over 12 different countries including Canada, the UK, Brazil and China are developing block-chain based applications worldwide and this number is expected to rapidly grow. It is perfect for projects around open data and collaboration with other councils, third-party organisations and the community.
Top uses within local government:
Digital identity management to securely verify citizens when they use online services
Governments are exploring how blockchain can improve land registration in almost every continent worldwide. The registration or transfer of a land deed or title would be recorded on the ledger, making the process transparent and certain for everyone.
Voting is also an area currently going digital with pilots in New York, Texas, Denmark, Estonia, Ukraine, and South Korea and Australia in 2017. Blockchain makes the process cheaper, enhances security and increases the likelihood that people will vote as they can do it remotely. In Brazil they even have a web platform which allows citizens to participate in parliamentary debate and crowdsource legislation.
4. Autonomous Things
What is it?
A combination of AI and IoT, but a big enough deal in their own right, Autonomous Things incorporate any unmanned vehicle from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, to autonomous cars to home robots.
Why does it matter to me?
Autonomous things have the ability to solve lots of common problems worldwide including traffic congestion, Co2 emissions and people having to enter unsafe environments. Auckland Transport has suggested that over half of Auckland’s traffic will be driverless by 2055.
Top uses within local government:
Processes such as building consents can be sped up by using drones to perform property inspections, particularly on tall or difficult buildings
Drones can be sent into unsafe environments to come back with critical information and an aerial view of the area
Drones can also be used to filming tourism videos to attract people to the region
Driverless vehicles are currently being piloted by multiple councils worldwide including in the UK last year where the local government in Milton Keynes collaborated with an outside agency to pilot a driverless car scheme and show citizens that it could be safe, convenient and reliable.
Interested in how some of these solutions could work for you? If you need some inspiration, email us at lgsales@datacom.co.nzor find out more about our local government products including some impressive case studies here.
Datacom is now a certified Agile training provider!
We recently received our accreditation from the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile). Our fresh new approach to Agile training combines classroom theory with hands-on experience gained from using Agile in real-world projects every day across NZ. In addition to this new generation of certified courses, we also offer upskilling and refresher training, Agile coaching and mentoring, project facilitation, project health checks and organisational maturity assessments.
ICAgile is the largest accreditation and certification body in the industry. ICAgile works with corporations and training organizations to accredit courses based on their comprehensive and proven learning objectives. ICAgile’s rigorous accreditation process ensures that every ICAgile-accredited course will help people acquire the knowledge they need to build agile competence in a specific discipline.
Datacom’s new Agile training, coaching and consulting services create a unique and pragmatic approach that can be applied both in a classroom, and on the job with live projects.
The demand for a new approach to Agile training came from both inside our organisation, and via feedback from our customers. They struggled to find professional development for our project staff that was more than just rigid classroom theory.
Customer feedback also showed they were also unsatisfied with the current training options on offer, and wanted a more hands-on experience that could be delivered in conjunction with trained developers that could “lead the way” for their staff on live projects. Having actual developers and consultants on hand helps them bring that knowledge back into their businesses and embed it into their daily working lives.
A Datacom scrum team discussing their project during an Agile standup
Datacom’s specialist Advisory team worked closely with ICAgile to create a certified training course, that could be offered as part of an end-to-end suite of services alongside their consulting, assessment, coaching and development services.
These are now available to Datacom staff and customers in all of Datacom’s 21 locations across Asia Pacific:
• Certified Agile Professional (CAP) – ICAgile-accredited training course, resulting in the ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP) certification (2 days)
• Agile Refresher, Customised Training & Upskilling Courses (0.5 to 2 days)
• Agile Project Kick-off Facilitation (0.5 to 2 days)
• Agile Team Health Checks & Organisational Maturity Assessments (0.5 to 2 days)
• On-the-job coaching & mentoring of Agile teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Managers (POA)
What Is Agile?
Our world is constantly changing. The Agile development approach adapts to changes and manages uncertainties, by discovering and learning. This is achieved through iterative development, where the outcome and the solution to implement it are evolved through collaboration among self-organising, cross-functional teams. Agile has now moved beyond software development, making impact to the business and the entire organisation.
Find Out More
If you or your teams are not confident about what Agile really is or how to get the most out of it as a team, the Datacom CAP (Certified Agile Professional) course has been designed with you in mind.
Our goal is for your teams to feel comfortable holding Agile discussions with others, and to confidently and effectively take part in an any Agile projects. This is not “lecture-style” training; it’s fully hands-on and involves real-world applications to enhance the learning experience. We believe that Agile is best learned through ‘doing’, not just classroom theory.
If your organisation is already practicing Agile, but you’d like to learn how you can better streamline your development pipeline, then Datacom’s Agile Health Checks & Organisational Maturity Assessments are designed specifically for this scenario.
For customer training, consulting or coaching services, or for more information on any of our Agile services contact:
Ming Yii, Datacom Agile Practice Lead
Email/Skype/Yammer: Agile@datacom.co.nz
Phone: +6421533977
Course registration: Datacom Agile training web page
VP of the Australian Smart Cities Association, Brook Dixon travelled the world as a Churchill Fellow last year, studying the drivers of digital transformation in leading global cities. In this extract of his report, which he has curated and prepared for Datacom, he looks at the principles, which need to be applied to be considered a smart city:
The digital revolution is ablaze in cities around the world. The fires of big data, open government, smart city, digital innovation, cities 4.0, and the internet of things, burn bright.
But what is the object? How can cities most effectively engage with digital? And what lessons from international experience are there for Australasian cities?
These questions I explored last year as a Sir Winston Churchill Fellow, visiting eleven leading smart cities – Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Seoul, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, New York, Raleigh, Lima, San Francisco and San Jose.
This study trip was a remarkable journey of digital city exploration and discovery. From the evolution of civic democracy in Seoul, to partnerships in New York transforming 7,500 old pay phones into new digital hubs (unlocking billions of dollars in new value), to portable digital labs made from shipping containers for schools in Lima.
However, the key lessons relate less to such wonderful digital projects, which are specific to each city, but to the principles of purpose, planning and process, which can be applied in any city.
Principles such as – be a digital democracy. Easy to say. Much harder to do. But in Seoul, they are making real progress with initiatives such as mVoting. This digital platform (smart-phone app and website) allows rapid polling of citizen opinion through votes on policy and municipal matters. Polls can be targeted by various demographic factors and citizens can set preferences for areas of voting interest. mVoting has been used for hundreds of polls with direct influence on city policy, and enshrines Seoul’s philosophy of participatory democracy and ‘the citizen as Mayor’.
A second principle, and oh so important! Get a smart city plan! The digital cosmos is vast, its philosophy and technology concerns every part of the city – people, processes, services, administration, economy, and places. It covers infrastructure, networks, data collection and analysis. It can be applied to health, education, municipal services, utilities, justice, transport, the environment, and more.
Facing such breadth of scope, and depth of opportunity, without the focus and direction of a digital plan, digital actions will easily be fragmented. To plan is to examine the particular circumstances of each city, and to concentrate attention where digital transformation can make the most difference.
Beyond planning is dynamic reality, and the principle of innovation – being open to change, redesign, new ideas, doing things differently, and connecting things in fresh ways. So to be a digital city is to embrace innovation, and to be innovative embraces digital. This symbiosis is well understood by leading smart cities. And their efforts to encourage, promote and support innovation are a pillar of smart city plans the world over.
Barcelona has a beautifully expressed innovation goal of “creating a dialogue and experimentation agora” where anyone can progress smart city innovation and research.
This goal is epitomised by the Barcelona Urban Lab, which facilitates use of public space to trial innovative products and technology to support commercialisation and improve municipal services for the community. Pilot projects to date have included traffic lights adapted for the blind, remote utility meter readings, and smart street lights fitted with presence, vibration, temperature, humidity, sound and pollution sensors, GSM aerials, Wi-Fi Mesh access point and webcam for video surveillance functions.
Another principle, oh so important, but too dry for much attention here, is establishing strong leadership and governance. Leading cities universally attested the value of this principle; and where it lacked, it was lamented, and where it was sound, it was lauded.
Now a final principle for those with smart city aspirations, and much more exciting than governance: to leverage new business models. Think beyond the old paradigm of government spending and taxation, to new models of asset regeneration and shared value.
In San Jose for example, the Council recently partnered with Philips Corporation to upgrade 800 street-lights to modern LED luminaires, with big energy, financial and CO2 savings, and zero cost to Council. How? Because Philips installed micro cell equipment on 50 poles, and sold this data capability to the telcos. And so we see improvements to lighting amenity, public assets, energy efficiency, commercial opportunity, mobile connectivity, and budget sustainability. New value, created, captured and shared by leveraging a new business model and partnership.
