But, before this conclusive statement, let us understand the difference between the two:
Digitization refers to records created by digitizing physical data records, such as those found in books, videotapes, and CDs. These records are much easier to store, back up, share, edit, and analyze.
When computers were still a fresh invention, this was a big transition, since a lot of data was created and kept in “hard copy.”
Digitization has held its importance since its introduction, since it has helped many declutter their lives by digitizing the paper notes and records, they had horded.
However, digitization is no longer a crucial trend as trend as it used to be, taking into account that most of that data is already created in a digital format.
And here is when Datafication kicks in.
"Datafication" is the process of gathering data by quantitatively analyzing previously examined qualitative events. Datafication is different from digitization, because of the fact that so much data now originates and exists in digital form.
Datafication is significant because it reflects a compromise between internet users and the businesses that sell us products and services. The better those businesses understand us, the more they can improve the services they offer.
This is in turn a win-win situation. Online users' experience is possible when using the internet, and the better those experiences are, the more likely they are to support the businesses that make the websites they use accessible to them.
One of the reasons that make datafication so crucial in today’s world, in fact, the only reason that makes it significant is that people spend much of their time online than ever before. Not only this, the devices used today, to access online elements are becoming increasingly ubiquitous.
On a home desktop, information can be gathered from an online experience. With access to its user's camera, location, and other features, a mobile device may capture considerably more data. Additionally, many people use mobile devices more frequently than desktop PCs.
These trends are highly likely to increase. The methods used to store and manage personal data, however, may prevent a loss of privacy from being a natural consequence of an increase in data.
Currently, cookies allow users to customize the extent to which they exchange data for online efficiency, but many aspects are still beyond the control of the familiar may. This leaves the ‘developments in datafication’ a significant theme of conversation to look forward to.
But now data storage has witnessed a massive breakthrough in technology, thanks to cloud storage solutions. Some of the prominent cloud storage services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and Apple iCloud Drive made it dead simple to back up, store, and keep our documents synced across devices.
Although, this convenience came to the users at a cost of privacy. When we use any of the Big 4's major cloud services, we theoretically give them—or anybody who can hack them—access to whatever we keep on their cloud, including our financial and health information, as well as our photos, notes, and diaries.
One of the major reasons why user privacy is at stake is because all four prominent cloud service providers meagerly encrypt the documents while uploading. Since these documents are not end-to-end encrypted, it indicates that the user is the only one with the ability to decrypt.
Minimal encryption would mean that the service provider too holds the key to decrypt users’ documents, and is capable of doing so at all times. Moreover, in some severe instances, a hacker may as well get hold of the decryption key.
Out of the four major cloud services, Apple is the only service provider with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, launched recently, which enables users to choose to have their documents end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud Drive. This makes Apple void of any access to the files, ensuring the user’s privacy. However, this setting is still optional, making the merely encrypted iCloud Drive a default setting.
Since the remaining three major cloud storage providers are yet to provide users with the choice of end-to-end encryption and taking into consideration the exploded usage of such personal cloud services in recent years, billions of users are currently at risk of getting their sensitive documents exposed to the third party.
It is possible to use the popular cloud storage services while preventing anyone who gains access to your account from seeing the files stored therein by encrypting those files prior to uploading them. The best part? You do not require a computer scientist or a security developer to do so. With the numerous applications, that are available for free, one could encrypt any file on one's own.
One such well-known encryption program is Encrypto, sponsored by a company called MacPaw. You may drag a file into the program, give it a password, and then encrypt it using industry AES-256 encryption. The software then enables you to save a file with an encrypted version (.crypto file type).
After encrypting the files, the user can now upload the encrypted version of the file to their preferred cloud storage provider rather than the original file containing sensitive data. If your cloud storage is then compromised, the attacker should be unable to open the Crypto file without knowing the password the user has established for it.
Encrypto is a cross-platform tool that works on both Macs and Windows PCs, despite the fact that MacPaw is known for producing Mac-specific utility apps. The recipient merely needs to download the free Encrypto app to be able to open sensitive documents that have been sent to them over email and have been encrypted using Encrypto (and you need to let them know the password, of course).
Another nice feature that the app possesses is that it enables users to set different passwords for each file they create. One can even include a password hint in the encrypted file to remind what password is being used in the file. Users are advised to establish a password that would be difficult to decipher through brute force or something that would be difficult to guess.
This being said, no matter the choice of app, encrypting the files yourself before uploading them to Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or iCloud Drive adds an additional layer of encryption and security to the sensitive data while still maintaining to reap the numerous benefits of cloud storage.
The WEF Annual Meeting includes government leaders, businesses, and civil society addressing the state of the world, while also discussing the priorities of the year ahead.
“The most striking finding that we’ve found is that 93 percent of cyber leaders, and 86 percent of cyber business leaders, believe that the geopolitical instability makes a catastrophic cyber event likely in the next two years. This far exceeds anything that we’ve seen in previous surveys,” says WEF managing director Jeremy Jurgens during a presentation, highlighting the WEF Global Security Outlook Report 2023.
Adding to the unpredictability of the turn of events, Jurgens cited a recent cyberattack that was intended to disable Ukrainian military capabilities but inadvertently also shut down a portion of the production of energy across Europe.
In regards to this, Jürgen Stock, Secretary-General of Interpol, says that “This is a global threat[…]It calls for a global response and enhanced and coordinated action.”
According to him, the increased profit that various bad actors acquire from cybercrime should encourage world leaders into working in a collaborative manner, making it a top priority as they face "new sophisticated tools."
Albania, which recently experienced a significant cyberattack is now collaborating with larger allies to thwart the criminals, acting as a sort of laboratory for people to understand what is to come.
During the presentation, Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, illustrated on the industry's growth— from $3 trillion in 2015 to an anticipated $10.5 trillion in 2025. This, according to Rama means that if cybercrime were a state, it would have the third-largest global economy after the U.S. and China.
Cyber threats are evolving at a faster rate, with cybercrime underground turning into an organized cybercrime ecosystem. In order to effectively combat these threats, it has become essential to stay up-to-date on the trends in cybercrime, which will eventually reflect its future status in the cyber world.
Here, we are listing some of the trends that are likely to be prevalent in cybercrime tactics in the coming years:
AI and machine learning have the ability to boost attack automation, speed, frequency, and efficiency while also enabling the possibility of targeted attacks that are specifically aimed at particular groups. They might also speed up cyber detection, protection, and recovery systems from a cybersecurity perspective.
The innovation and immense usage of computing and data storage technologies in all sectors and services will eventually give threat actors more chances to exploit, gain unauthorized access to and disseminate illicit data.
Digitalized transactions could be manipulated for nefarious purposes, such as blocking them from being processed, since they are digitalized and processed by DLTs. DLTs may also be used to store inappropriate or disruptive content that is difficult to get rid of.
The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is connecting more and more devices to the internet, is also giving a massive opportunity for threat actors to conduct malicious activities. The increasing inclination towards bots and automated malware deployment tools have as well contributed as an aid to the attackers. These inexpensive and easy-to-use tools lower the skill level barrier for hackers to launch attacks.