#Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing previous data | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bimengusllp · 4 years ago

Text

Connecting field data with BIM data

Summary

§ Many AEC firms are focusing on adopting BIM-based processes and tools on the capabilities it offers

§ But there is a significant disconnect between onsite construction and an offsite BIM model.

§ A crucial question that requires an answer is – how efficiently is BIM being adopted onsite where physical construction takes place?

§ Project stakeholders like architects, engineers, owners, and others are under a pressing need to connect field data with BIM data

§ Putting BIM tools and technology in the hands of the onsite workforce will allow leverage of seamless & real-time data

§ Connecting BIM objects from the model to onsite activities help build a simplified and transparent digitally-supported built landscape

§ Along these lines, the BIM model will be reinforced with onsite data, and fundamental BIM data can be shared with the onsite workforce.

The goal of connected construction is to

1. Gather data

2. Standardize processes at an enterprise level

3. Enable teams to connect BIM objects to simplify processes

4. Leverage greater focus on project execution

Common challenges in construction management.

§ Construction management is an integral part of a construction project

§ Every construction project frames various challenges

§ Construction managers need to possess a strong acumen of the construction business and expertise – both onsite and offsite

§ Onsite and offsite activities are flooded with interests and feedback from various stakeholders viz. designers, engineers, contractors, owners, etc.

§ Difference in mindset can create issues that can inhibit the construction process

§ Lack of focus causing construction errors

§ Common challenges include –

1. Unrealistic project timelines

2. Building a synchronized mind-set

3. Poorly defined project goals

4. Insidious scope creep

5. Lack of project accountability

Connecting field data with BIM data using construction management tools.

§ The construction industry does not function on a one-size fit all solution

§ Connecting field data with BIM data requires an efficient construction BIM management platform

§ Although running applications on a computer is crucial, offsite and onsite personnel do need the power of mobility to enhance efficiency and productivity

§ The need to achieve operational excellence is absolute, thus the need to leverage accurate project data is crucial

§ Construction firms can leverage construction management software to plan, coordinate, and take control over the project

§ Construction managers, remodelers, specialty or general contractors, owners, etc. can take advantage of construction management applications for various construction projects

§ Based on a Market Study Report, the market value for construction management is said to reach 1620 million by 2024

Main benefits of adopting digital platforms that augment the construction process.

§ Build intuitive dashboards and daily reports for better BIM coordination and collaboration

§ Reduce the carbon-footprint by streamlining key processes

§ Enable quick & productive coordination and collaboration between onsite and offsite BIM teams

§ Share updates in real-time through document exchange

§ Improve productivity and efficiency through BIM visualization of project status

§ Capture and track onsite processes, planning challenges, and tasks for onsite work

Benefits of connecting field data with BIM data.

§ Real-time communication & collaboration builds a synchronized mind-set.

1. Overcoming team communication challenges is key to improve construction planning and coordination

2. Construction management facilitates connecting field personnel with the back-office BIM model and design personnel

3. This includes various team dashboards, task priorities, shared calendars, etc. for trades or levels data, etc.

4. Teams can leverage effective clash management by synchronizing model and onsite data

5. Leverage Issue management reports, RFI, and submittal reports

§ Clear defined project goals for improved budget management.

1. Connecting field data to BIM data also includes efficient budget management & forecasting

2. Project managers can leverage the broad capabilities of construction management software to prepare estimates for better project control

3. Historical onsite data from previous projects can be used to determine construction performance

4. This data can be used to calculate the cost of equipment, labor, and materials

5. Construction management software includes dashboards for budget, tracking time, and invoicing

§ Connected construction through document storage, access, and sharing.

1. Storing, accessing, and sharing documentation becomes easier between offsite and onsite teams

2. BIM data like models, RFI’s, transmittals, submittals, etc. can be stored, accessed, and shared securely through a private link

3. Onsite personnel can jump on a quick virtual meeting for a specific file or send building component information using QR codes

4. 360 images from the field help project stakeholders leverage a detailed view of the site. 360 photo storage on a centralized cloud platform helps document site conditions, track job progress, and validate contract documents

5. Decision-making becomes more streamlined with centralized document control

§ Proactive Onsite Support to meet project goals.

1. Given onsite complexities, the team at BIMENGUS and iFieldSmart Technologies helps project complete on budget and time

2. Onsite BIM support helps, leverage field data with BIM data through trade coordination, communication, collaboration, and more

3. Early coordination meetings help mitigate clashes in the early project lifecycle

4. Proactive solutions can be leveraged to enhance profitability and save on budget

5. These solutions include – clash detection, process workflows, trade coordination meetings, and adoption of collaboration tools

§ Auditing Installed vs Planned field operations to reduce scope creep.

1. For AEC projects to deliver positive outcomes, the evaluation of installed vs planned field operations is crucial

2. Clash identification, resolution, and assignment is key to ensure installed field operations comply with planned operations

3. Detecting and resolving clashes onsite can result in significant cost & time overruns, collaboration issues, and project delays

4. Tools and features from iFieldSmart technologies connect seamlessly across the board through quick Navisworks sync, finding and assigning clashes to different trades, renaming viewpoints, and much more

5. To make sure installed and planned field operations run seamlessly, construction managers, contractors, modelers, etc. can access trade sorted drawings from a single point of truth

6. Granular classification of models, clashes, or documents helps coordinate offsite and onsite activities better, and get accurate field data in the BIM model

7. Auditing BIM models through accurate annotation, actual material usage, the number of building components, etc. helps make the BIM model effective and efficient

8. Adding, searching, and printing RFI’s with detailed parameters helps various stakeholders like the RFI manager, contractors, designers stay on the same page

9. Contractors can leverage field data and close information gaps through better RFI handling and decision-making

10. Project submittals hold the key to knowing if the final deliverables conform with the design intent

11. Fabricators can leverage accurate submittals through the creation, review, and approval of shop drawings

12. Submittals can be created, stored, and processed in a single location for quicker revisions, analyzing codes and standards, structural capabilities, etc.

13. Project teams can share comprehensive submittal details with various participants for a quick project review & management

Conclusion.

· Connecting field data to BIM data through construction tools can seamlessly connect various processes to improve onsite operations

· Connecting field data with BIM data helps clear out project noise, and assists stakeholders with using the right data set for quick and quality project handovers

· With the right set of software tools, every project stakeholder stays on the same page and has access to updated data streams

· Collaboration tools help onsite and offsite personnel coordinate better through accurate and complete datasets

· Finally, for projects to complete on time, installations need to be accurate, thus contractors, designers, architects, etc. need to collaborate perpetually for better project outcomes

Visit us: - http://www.bimengus.com/

#BIMe #revit modeling services #Bim consulting Services #Bim consulting firms

0 notes

raysync · 5 years ago

Text

What is File Sharing Software and How Does it Work?

File sharing software applications can send files of any size under a powerful data protection layer to anywhere in the world. Send and share an unlimited number of files at the speed of light. You can submit the portal and customize the portal with language, brand, storage, etc. You can select a storage point, such as file transfer software, hard disk, or cloud storage.

How Does File Sharing Software Work?

It uses a local area network or network to send and receive multiple files in the form of text documents, videos, and images. After sharing, people with permission can access these files and even download them. They can also use the software to share these files with others on the network. It is very suitable for business people to distribute and share project documents. It uses four systems for storage, transmission, and distribution, such as distributed peer-to-peer networks, manual sharing of removable media, hyperlinked documents residing online, and local servers on computer networks.

It is also known as the Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution, which solves key file sharing issues related to data security, its control, and core operating procedures. Since it can be audited in compliance with regulations, organizations seeking secure transactions of files between remote data centers, trading partners, and cloud applications will find it very useful.

Is it Worth Investing in File Sharing Software?

Gone are the days when it was used to complete a paper-based file system to maintain official data. Now, even electronic money transfers are replacing check systems for reliability purposes. The current trend of "minimalists" does apply to file transfer systems within organizations. Digital files make it easy for users to access, edit, and send files from one person to another. Besides, the software also enables you to retrieve deleted files from backups and store them with a security layer just in case. If you can exchange all of these facilities for $200-300 per month, it is certainly worth the investment.

Before choosing any file transfer software, you must better understand their types so that you can easily make a decision.

You must understand the following four basic types of file sharing software applications:

System local file sharing software: You can run this software directly from the computer's operating system. Used for local network file sharing. Besides, the list of transferable files involves ordinary documents, pages, photos, and videos.

Client-server file sharing software: This type of file sharing software is used to transfer web pages, FTP sharing, and email. Data is stored in a central location, and people with permission can access them for use.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software: Unlike previous file sharing software, this type of file sharing software does not rely on any centralized server, but uses computers in the network as node servers and enables them to be between them Transfer files directly.

Cloud-based file sharing program: If you want to choose software with cloud functions, then this file transfer software is your ideal choice. You create a special folder, and then sync data to it, which can be accessed through a website or mobile phone.

How to Choose the Best File Sharing Software?

Some key requirements need to be met at least through file sharing software and shortlisted by the buyer. These basic requirements are as follows:

1. High-speed file transfer: Don't forget, speed is the main reason why we seek to replace traditional methods of file sharing. This is why if the software is not fast enough to transfer large files in less time, then the whole purpose of buying it is meaningless.

2. Ease of use: Ease of use is another major factor that determines how your employees or other users react. Fast file transfer software should also be a simple web-based system, anyone can easily use it without any additional training. Users should be able to easily access and share files without having to understand their complicated operating procedures.

3. Easy to deploy and manage: Your file sharing software should be very easy to deploy and manage. If you choose to use SaaS (software as a service) applications, you don't need to worry about the same situation. However, please make sure that the supplier is committed to the service aspect of SaaS.

4. Professional after-sales team: there is no guarantee that there will be no errors in any software. It is common for software to catch errors and failures. However, your supplier must have a dedicated team of managers that can complete the same work in minutes. They should provide world-class customer support to ensure your 24/7 availability.

5. Security: It is very important to understand your vendor's security practices for its software. As some high-profile security vulnerabilities have recently emerged, look for a vendor who is firmly committed to a security marking. Suppliers who follow in-depth security practices or consider security at all levels of the product should be your ideal choice.

6. Storage independence: The ideal file transfer software meets a range of storage options. You can choose an internal deployment or external deployment (cloud) storage option, which not only allows you to control assets but also protects assets from unnecessary security breaches. You can choose any option at any time, depending on the confidentiality level of the file at different stages of the content lifecycle.

7. Easy to customize: No two organizations may have the same use case, and the software should be able to meet the requirements through its easy-to-customize options. For example, you should be able to customize an unlimited number of browser-based portals for multiple clients, partners, and freelancers.

8. Worry-free report: Imagine a file transfer software that will enable you to view content flow analysis in real-time. Isn't that great? You can see which content has received the most attention and receive notifications every time you download. It can help you design your business strategy accordingly.

9. Supplier reputation: When choosing any software application, not only the application is important, but the reputation of the supplier is also very important. Just make sure that the supplier has some positive feedback on their kittens and the ratio of positive to negative comments is high. If possible, ask your social circle for advice, as this will help you make an easy decision.

Raysync large file transfer software, high-speed transfer system, provides FTP transfer acceleration service, file synchronous transfer, enterprise-level large file transfer protocol, solves the problem of slow big data transfer, cross-border transfer, and transnational large file transfer, helping companies Improve transmission efficiency.

Article From:

https://www.raysync.io/news/what-is-file-sharing-software-and-how-does-it-work

#file sharing software #what is file sharing software #file sharing program #best file sharing software

0 notes

globalmediacampaign · 5 years ago

Text

Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports SQL Server 2019

Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports Microsoft SQL Server 2019 for Express, Web, Standard, and Enterprise Editions. You can use SQL Server 2019 features such as Accelerated Database Recovery, Intelligent Query Processing, Intelligent Performance, Monitoring improvements, and Resumable Online Index creations. The purpose of this post is to: Summarize the new features in SQL Server 2019 that are supported in Amazon RDS for SQL Server Explain when and how the compatibility level of a database is set Describe changes to tempdb default configuration Review a few caveats with respect to some of the new features New Features Amazon RDS for SQL Server 2019 supports the following new features: Accelerated database recovery (ADR) improves database availability by reducing crash recovery time. ADR also allows for instantaneous transaction rollback and aggressive transaction log truncation, even in the presence of active long-running transactions. Intelligent query processing (IQP) features such as: Row mode memory grant feedback to automatically correct excessive memory grants based on real execution statistics. Row mode memory grant feedback is an extension to the batch mode memory grant feedback feature in previous version of SQL Server . This feature fine-tunes the memory grant sizes for both batch and row mode operator. Batch mode runs on rowstore, without requiring column store indexes. Scalar User Defined Functions (UDF) Inlining to automatically transform UDFs into scalar expressions or scalar subqueries. Table variable deferred compilation, to defer the compilation of a statement that references a table variable until the first actual use of the statement, resulting in actual cardinality use. Approximate counts with APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT to return the approximate number of unique non-null values in a group without having to scan the entire table. Interleaved implementation for multi-statement table-valued functions to pause the optimization until the applicable subtree runs and accurate cardinality estimates are received. Memory-optimized tempdb metadata improves scalability of tempdb-heavy workloads by moving system tables managing temporary table metadata into latch-free, non-durable, memory-optimized tables. Intelligent Performance features such as: OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY for index creation, which improves the throughput for high-concurrency inserts into an index. Forcing fast forward and static cursors provides Query Store plan forcing support for fast forward and static cursors. Indirect checkpoint scalability improvements to help DML-heavy workloads. Reduced recompilations for workloads running DML on temporary tables created by an outer scope batch. Concurrent Page Free Space (PFS) updates by using a shared latch instead of an exclusive latch. Scheduler worker migration enables the migration of long-running tasks across schedulers on the same NUMA node to provide balanced CPU usage. Monitoring improvements such as: A new wait type, WAIT_ON_SYNC_STATISTICS_REFRESH shows accumulated instance-level time spent on synchronous statistics refresh operations. LIGHTWEIGHT_QUERY_PROFILING to reduce the overhead of capturing performance data. COMMAND column of dm_exec_requests to show “SELECT (STATMAN)” for tasks waiting on a synchronous statistics update. Dynamic Management Function (DMF) dm_exec_query_plan_stats returns the last known actual query plan when LAST_QUERY_PLAN_STATS database configuration is enabled. DMF dm_db_page_info returns information about a database page. Mission-critical security features such as: Data Discovery & Classification to facilitate classifying and labeling columns basing on their data content. SQL Server Audit enhancements to view the new data_sensitivity_information column in the Audit Log. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is now also available on Standard Edition. The data truncation error message defaults to include table and column names, and the truncated value. Prior to SQL Server 2019, only resumable online index rebuild was supported. Resumable online index creations are also now supported. For more details, review the Guidelines for online index operations. Provisioning a SQL Server 2019 DB instance You can provision a SQL Server 2019 DB instance on Amazon RDS for SQL Server two different ways: Create a new RDS DB instance with the engine version = 15.00 Upgrade an existing DB instance to engine version = 15.00 Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports upgrading directly to SQL Server 2019 from all supported versions. The oldest supported engine version is SQL Server 2012 (engine version 11.00). We highly recommend testing database workloads on the new engine version prior to upgrading the DB instances. Amazon RDS for SQL Server makes this easy to do. Simply take a snapshot of the DB instance, restore the snapshot as a test DB instance, and upgrade the test DB instance to the new engine version. When the testing is complete, you can stop the test DB instance. For more information about testing and upgrading to new major versions, see Best practices for upgrading SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2016 on Amazon RDS for SQL Server. You can provision a SQL Server 2019 DB instance on Amazon RDS for SQL Server by using the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), AWS SDK, or AWS CloudFormation. While provisioning the DB instance, the engine version needs to be set to 15.00. Compatibility level The compatibility level defines the Transact SQL (T-SQL) and query processing behavior in SQL Server. For more information, see ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL) Compatibility Level. The compatibility level is set at the database level and the native compatibility level of a newly created database on SQL Server 2019 is 150. Irrespective of the provisioning method (creating a new DB instance or upgrading an existing DB instance), a newly created database on an RDS SQL Server 2019 DB instance has a compatibility level of 150 by default. On an upgraded RDS SQL Server 2019 DB instance, existing databases that were created on older engine versions prior to the engine version upgrade remain on the older compatibility level. For example, if an RDS SQL Server 2017 DB instance was upgraded to SQL Server 2019, prior to the upgrade, databases created on SQL Server 2017 had a compatibility level of 140. These databases continue to have a compatibility level of 140 even after the upgrade. However, after the upgrade, you can change the compatibility level using the ALTER DATABASE T-SQL command: alter database set compatibility_level=150 SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) provides an option to change the compatibility mode via the SSMS graphical user interface (GUI). This requires elevated privileges that aren’t available in Amazon RDS, so you can’t change the compatibility level using the SSMS GUI. Instead, use the T-SQL command to change the compatibility level. Changes to tempdb In Amazon RDS for SQL Server, starting with SQL Server 2019, the number of tempdb data files created by default has changed. Prior to SQL Server 2019, an RDS SQL Server instance had one tempdb data file across all editions and instance sizes. With SQL Server 2019, a newly created RDS SQL Server 2019 DB instance uses the following mapping for deciding how many tempdb data files get created. Edition Instance Class Size Number of TempDB Data Files Express All 1 Enterprise/Standard and Web db.*.xlarge and below Number of vCPUs Enterprise/Standard and Web db.*.2xlarge and above 8 The number of tempdb data files are decided during the creation of the DB instance. Post-creation, scaling a DB instance up or down doesn’t change the number of tempdb data files. For example, a newly created Standard Edition db.m5.xlarge DB instance has four tempdb datafiles. Scaling the instance to a db.m5.2xlarge doesn’t increase the number of tempdb files to eight. Using the new Amazon RDS for SQL Server features You can enable and use most of the new features as described in the SQL Server documentation, but there are a few exceptions. Multi-AZ deployments Multi-AZ deployments in Amazon RDS for SQL Server 2019 use one of two modes for synchronous replication: Always On or database mirroring, depending on the edition and upgrade path. Keep in mind the following: A newly created Multi-AZ RDS SQL Server 2019 Enterprise Edition (EE) DB instance uses Always On. Enabling Multi-AZ on a newly created Single-AZ RDS SQL Server 2019 EE DB instance uses Always On. Enabling Multi-AZ on a Single-AZ RDS SQL Server 2019 EE DB instance that was upgraded from any older engine version or edition uses Always On. A Multi-AZ DB instance upgraded from an older engine version to SQL Server 2019 uses the same mode it used on the older engine version. All Standard Edition DB instances use database mirroring. To check if a Multi-AZ DB instance is using Always On or database mirroring, on the Amazon RDS console, choose the database and navigate to its Configuration tab. On the Configuration tab, look for Multi AZ. For a Multi-AZ DB instance using Always On, the setting shows as Yes (Always On). For a DB Multi-AZ instance using database mirroring only, the setting shows as just Yes. To check using the AWS CLI or the AWS SDK, look for the ListenerEndpoint. Multi-AZ DB instances using database mirroring only have one endpoint. An additional ListenerEndpoint exists for Multi-AZ DB instances using Always On. You can change a Multi-AZ RDS SQL Server 2019 EE DB instance using database mirroring to use Always On by converting the DB instance to Single-AZ and then re-enabling Multi-AZ. Accelerated database recovery ADR is a SQL database engine feature that greatly improves database availability, especially in the presence of long running transactions, by redesigning the SQL database engine recovery. ADR achieves fast database recovery by versioning database modifications and only undoing logical operations, which are limited and can be undone almost instantly. Any transactions that were active at the time of a crash are marked as stopped and therefore concurrent user queries can ignore any versions generated by these transactions. For more information, see Accelerated database recovery. In Amazon RDS for SQL Server, ADR is fully supported on Single-AZ instances. On a Multi-AZ instances, ADR is supported on instances using Always On and is not supported on instances using database mirroring. As indicated in this bugfix, ADR is incompatible with database mirroring and trying to enable ADR on a mirrored database results in an error: Msg 1484, Level 16, State 1, Line LineNumber Database Mirroring cannot be set for database 'ADR_Mirroring' because the database has Accelerated Database Recovery enabled or there are still versions in the Persisted Version Store. If Accelerated Database Recovery is disabled, please run sys.sp_persistent_version_cleanup '' to clean up previous versions. On a Multi-AZ DB instance using database mirroring, enabling ADR on a newly created database results in Amazon RDS automation disabling ADR and enabling database mirroring. When enabling Multi-AZ on a DB instance wherein the mode is database mirroring, if ADR enabled databases are found, enabling Multi-AZ fails and the following notification appears: Unable to convert the DB instance to Multi-AZ: The database(s) ‘’ prevented the conversion because they have Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) enabled. Disable ADR for these databases and try again. Intelligent query processing All IQP features in SQL Server 2019 are supported in Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Apart from the Approximate Count Distinct feature, you need to enable all the IQP features at the database level using the following command: alter database scoped configuration set =on You can also enable some of these features on tempdb, and the Amazon RDS primary user has the permissions to do so. On Multi-AZ DB instances, enabling these features on tempdb needs to be done on the primary and secondary. This can be achieved in two ways: Enable the feature on the primary, reboot the DB instance with failover, and enable the feature on the new primary Convert the Multi-AZ DB instance to Single-AZ, enable the feature, and convert the DB instance to Multi-AZ In-Memory database Amazon RDS for SQL Server doesn’t support persistent memory (PMEM) devices and SQL Server native database snapshots. So, the enhancement to Hybrid Buffer Pool to use PMEM devices and In-Memory OLTP support for SQL Server native database snapshots are not supported. The memory-optimized tempdb metadata feature is supported in Amazon RDS for SQL Server. You can enable this feature by running the alter server configuration command. However, the Amazon RDS primary user doesn’t have access to run this command on an RDS SQL Server DB instance. Instead, you can set the parameter “Memory optimized tempdb Metadata” in the Amazon RDS parameter group. After applying the parameter group with the modified parameter to the DB instance, the feature is enabled on the DB instance. Intelligent Performance As part of Intelligent Performance, SQL Server 2019 brings some enhancements to Resource Governance. Given that Amazon RDS for SQL Server doesn’t support SQL Server’s Resource Governor feature, these enhancements are not supported. All other Intelligent Performance features like concurrent PFS updates, scheduler worker migration, and more, are supported in Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Mission-critical security Data Discovery & Classification introduces a new tool built into SSMS for discovering, classifying, labeling, and reporting sensitive data in databases. For more information, see SQL Data Discovery and Classification. Using SSMS version 17.5 and above, Data Discovery & Classification is achievable on Amazon RDS for SQL Server. You can also add data sensitivity labeling using the ADD SENSITIVITY CLASSIFICATION clause, and the Amazon RDS primary user has the necessary permissions to run this command. The data sensitivity information has been added to the SQL Server Audit file record under the new field data_sensitivity_information. You can enable SQL Server auditing in Amazon RDS for SQL Server using options groups. After the SQL Server Audit is enabled on the DB instance and audit specifications are created, you can read the Audit files on the DB instance using the function msdb.dbo.rds_fn_get_audit_file. This function also returns the new field data_sensitivity_information. You can read the audit files as long as they are on the disk. To change how long the audit files should be persisted on the disk, you can configure the parameter RETENTION_TIME while setting up the SQL Server Audit option. Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports TDE for SQL Server Standard Edition. TDE needs be enabled on the DB instance using option groups. For more information about enabling TDE, see Support for Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server. Conclusion In this post, we listed some of the new and exciting features of SQL Server 2019 that are supported in Amazon RDS for SQL Server, along with brief descriptions of the features. We called out cases where the features differ slightly, provided instructions on how to enable the features, and advised on any prerequisites they might have. A major engine version release like SQL Server 2019 brings significant changes to the engine—some visible and others not. We highly recommend testing database workloads using the Amazon RDS easy clone mechanisms as described in this post before upgrading to this new engine version. About the Author Prashant Bondada is a Senior Database Engineer at Amazon Web Services. He works on the RDS team, focusing on commercial database engines, SQL Server and Oracle. Sudarshan Roy is a Senior Database Specialist Cloud Solution Architect with the AWS Database Services Organization (DBSO), Customer Advisory Team (CAT). He has led large scale Database Migration & Modernization engagements for Enterprise Customers to move their on-premises database environment to Multi Cloud based database solutions. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/amazon-rds-for-sql-server-now-supports-sql-server-2019/

0 notes

payment-providers · 6 years ago

Text

New Post has been published on Payment-Providers.com

New Post has been published on https://payment-providers.com/ecommerce-product-releases-december-2-2019/

Ecommerce Product Releases: December 2, 2019

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late November from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on shipping, customer support, website builders, artificial intelligence, and shoppable videos.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email [email protected].

Ecommerce Product Releases

Sendle, a shipping carrier for small business, launches in the U.S. Sendle, a carrier focused on small ecommerce businesses, has launched its 100-percent carbon-neutral, flat-rate shipping service in the U.S. Sendle reduces the environmental impact of shipping by tapping existing shipping providers and filling their vehicles with packages to ensure every trip is as efficient as possible, as well as purchasing carbon offsets to address the remaining impact. The company also offers compostable packaging in Australia and plans to extend the offering in the U.S.

Sendle

BigCommerce launches GraphQL Storefront API. BigCommerce has announced the open beta release of its new GraphQL Storefront API for creating faster, personalized shopping experiences. With GraphQL, brands can quickly develop and launch commerce experiences that are both contextual and unique to each shopper by delivering data across multiple BigCommerce services in one API call. The GraphQL Storefront API enhances developers’ ability to leverage BigCommerce in a headless architecture through its open APIs for seamless integrations with their preferred content management system, digital experience platform, and progressive web apps framework.

Mailchimp launches website builder for small businesses. Mailchimp has launched a public beta of its website builder as part of its all-in-one-marketing platform, giving users the ability to build their own websites and the option to purchase unique domains to make landing pages look like a natural extension of their brand. Users will have the ability to create and publish a website with a free Mailchimp domain. Advanced features, such as custom branding and custom domains, are available for paid users. Mailchimp is also offering multi-page websites, enabling users to index more pages to market their products and services.

PayPal to acquire Honey to personalize shopping offers. PayPal has agreed to acquire Honey Science Corporation, a platform for shopping and rewards, for approximately $4 billion. The acquisition supports PayPal and Honey’s shared mission to simplify and personalize shopping experiences for consumers while driving conversion and increasing consumer engagement and sales for merchants. Honey will enable PayPal to reach consumers at the beginning of their shopping journeys and will enhance PayPal’s ability to help merchants acquire and convert consumers by delivering offers that are personalized, timely, and optimized across channels. Honey will accelerate its growth by driving adoption among 275 million active consumer accounts of PayPal and Venmo (PayPal’s mobile payment service).

Honey

Verizon Media and eBay launch campaign and shoppable videos. Verizon Media and eBay have launched a new campaign, “The Guy’s Guide to Nailing the Holidays,” to help men tackle the holiday season with ease and confidence. eBay will be the first advertising partner to sponsor Verizon Media’s new shoppable video format, integrating the online marketplace’s products from top brands into shoppable carousels beneath gift-guide videos. Verizon Media will roll out a series of videos featuring influencers, such as tech and gaming expert Brian Tong and reality TV star Tanner Tolbert, to highlight eBay products across lifestyle, tech, and sports.

Elavon acquires Sage Pay payment gateway. Elavon, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has agreed to acquire Sage Pay, a payment gateway. The acquisition is part of Elavon’s strategy to help its business customers as the global economy becomes more digital, and as businesses look to streamline their operations with software that includes payments capabilities. Elavon is the fourth-largest merchant account provider in Europe with a platform that allows it to do business in many countries and currencies. The Sage Pay acquisition extends Elavon’s market share in the U.K. and Ireland, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Ohi raises $2.75 million to provide brands with same-day delivery. Ohi, which enables ecommerce brands to offer same-day delivery, has announced the close of a $2.75 million seed round led by Flybridge Capital Partners. Ohi’s artificial intelligence helps growth-stage companies find fulfillment centers across the US, without the commitment of long-term leases and expensive integration. Ohi partners with landlords to convert commercial space into micro-warehouses in major cities. The company then offers those warehouses on flexible leases that can be as short as three months to help direct-to-consumer brands achieve same-day and next-day deliveries. Ohi charges brands a fixed monthly fee.

Ohi

Returnly enables online gifting for Shopify Plus merchants. Returnly, a post-purchase payments company for returns, has announced the availability of instant gift exchange for Shopify Plus merchants and their customers. The program enables gift recipients to immediately browse a site and purchase an alternative item, even before they return the original gift. According to Returnly, nine in 10 users have ordered a second item before they shipped the first item back, and they’re likely to outspend the original size of their order by 23 percent.

Gorgias raises $14 million to help ecommerce companies deliver customer service. Gorgias, a startup offering artificial intelligence tools for customer service and support, has raised $14 million in Series A funding. With the shift that brands are taking to sell directly to consumers, Gorgias provides tools to help customer service representatives respond quickly and upsell products and services. Using AI and customer data, Gorgias can automate responses to basic questions. Gorgias pulls data from a brand’s apps to display rich customer profiles next to tickets. Agents can respond to chats, emails, and Instagram comments while seeing previous conversations and order data. Flex Capital led the financing round. Gorgias will use the money to build out the product with new features while also bringing on more merchants.

Route raises $12 million to track packages with AI. Route, a package-tracking app that helps merchants with post-purchase satisfaction and offers shipping insurance to consumers, has raised $12 million through seed financing with Peak Venture Capital and Album VC. Route aggregates purchase and tracking into one place, synchronized with the customers’ Gmail accounts. Route’s insurance program enables customers to file lost, damaged, and stolen package claims from within the Route app. It’s free for brands to offer. The seed funds will help Route keep up with demand and add new features to its app.

Route

Source link

0 notes

its-harsh-me-blog · 6 years ago

Link

Global Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS) Market Report 2019 offers elaborated knowledge on the market parts like size, Key Regions, growth, trends, dominating firms, Major Manufactures | Business Industry Reports

0 notes

lawfultruth · 6 years ago

Text

Guest Post: The Bitcoin Plague Spreads to Retail

John Reed Stark

In recent days, a number of leading retailers have announced that they are initiating processes to allow consumers to complete purchase transactions using bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, takes a look at these developments in the retail industry. A version of this article originally appeared on Securities Docket. I would like to thank John for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.

*********************

Warren Buffett, perhaps the most celebrated investor ever known, refers to bitcoin as “rat poison squared.” I disagree. Bitcoin is worse than rat poison – it is more akin to the plague and mayhem that rats can spread if not properly contained. Now, the bitcoin plague has spread to U.S. shopping malls.

Thanks to a new initiative, several big name retailers, including Crate and Barrel, Nordstrom, and Amazon-owned Whole Foods, according to Fortune, will now reportedly accept bitcoin and three other types of digital currency.

At first glance, creating cryptocurrency payment arrangements for retail products might seem like a no-brainer, falling squarely in line with classic, basic and critical marketing principles. Consider all the benefits:

What better way to attract customers than to create a financially friendly environment where a customer’s cryptocurrency fanaticism is enthusiastically embraced;

Sharing the excitement of cryptocurrency offers a unique chance to bond with tech-savvy customers, especially those beyond borders;

The medium can become the message. By accepting cryptocurrency as payment, a retailer is demonstrating its commitment to creativity, modernization and originality – traits that customers might appreciate and find compelling;

Payment flexibility can attract business in and of itself. Given that accepting debit and credit cards online can make a retailer more appealing to current and potential customers, so too can accepting other forms of payment, including cryptocurrencies; and

Retailers can take advantage of the chance to demonstrate tangible support for a client’s libertarian financial preferences. By “putting your money where your mouth is,” retailers can prove themselves true believers in the future of technology-driven digital currency, setting themselves apart from their scribe competitors who remain content to observe the crypto-revolution from the safety and shelter of the sidelines.

But despite all of the crypto-hoopla, retailers should ignore the Marketing 101 crypto-lesson blather set forth above. Given its complete and utter lack of oversight and meaningful licensure, the cryptocurrency marketplace has spawned a growing global cadre of dangerous criminals, and the risks for retailers accepting cryptocurrency run a perilous gamut of legal, regulatory, financial, ethical and reputational dangers.

In short, accepting cryptocurrency from customers in today’s crypto-manic environment is, despite all of the high-tech allure, just not worth it – and a glaring exemplar of commercial ignorance; opportunistic corporate pandering; and sadly, plain old-fashioned executive avarice.

The Dark Side of Cryptocurrency

Need a fake I.D., a bottle of opiates, a cache of credit card numbers or a thousand social security numbers? Need a way to collect a ransomware payment? Need to fund terrorist-related activities? Need to hire a hitman? Need to finance an election tampering scheme? Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have become the payment method of choice for these, and a slew of other, criminal enterprises.

What exactly is bitcoin? Bitcoin is a virtual or digital currency that uses encryption techniques for governance and security and operates independent of any central bank. A token is a digital asset that can be used in many ways — for example, as a unit of value (or as means of providing access to and transactional value inside a particular blockchain system (e.g., retail allows access to electronic data storage space in Sia’s blockchain ecosystem). Tokens are built on top of blockchain technology, a form of distributive ledger technology, which is a digital database that is consensually shared and synchronized across networks spread across multiple sites, institutions or geographies.

Transactions in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are pseudo-anonymous, encrypted and decentralized by nature, offering a convenient method of transferring funds obtained from illegal activities without an audit trail. Cryptocurrencies also operate outside of traditional and established financial networks and are alarmingly unregulated. There is no central issuer of bitcoins, nor a Federal Reserve of Bitcoins monitoring and tracking transactions or controlling their value. In short, government surveillance and regulation of cryptocurrency is virtually nonexistent (no pun intended).

Thus, it should come as no surprise that bitcoin can trace its origins with criminals in the dark web marketplace. Indeed, cryptocurrency and criminal activity have remained inexorably linked ever since the 2011 launching of The Silk Road, who began using bitcoin as its main currency in their virtual marketplace for buying and selling drugs, weapons, and all things illicit on the dark web. Until shut down by law enforcement in 2013 and then again in 2014 and finally going offline in 2017 due to loss of funding, Silk Road served as a glaring example of the crimes so easily facilitated by cryptocurrency (in 2015 Silk Road’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison).

After Silk Road was shut down, bitcoin’s price plummeted, and many crypto-pundits expected bitcoin demand to dry up. But in the following years, the opposite seemed to happen. Recent data from Kapersky CiperTrace shows criminals have laundered $2.5 billion worth of criminally utilized bitcoin through cryptocurrency exchanges, and almost all of it ends up in countries with lax Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. The data, which spans from January 2009 to September 2018, indicates 97 percent of the bitcoin laundered through cryptocurrency trading platforms ends up in countries with lenient AML regulations. Kapersky CiperTrace deemed transactions to be of criminal nature if they came directly from, or with close connection to, sources such as “dark market sites, extortion, malware, mixer/tumbler/money laundering, ransomware, and terrorist financing services.”

Though bitcoin traversed from the digital to physical world with the first-ever bitcoin ATM at a Vancouver coffee shop in 2013, bitcoin’s use as a real currency has not truly caught on as a legitimate means of payment. Bitcoin ATMs remain mysterious, suspicious and enigmatic to say the least. Meanwhile the U.S. government has never recognized bitcoin as a currency – rather, bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies are simply property or, as lawyers would say, chattel.

Spotlight: Cryptocurrency and Ransomware Extortion Schemes

One of the more prominent criminal uses of bitcoin involves so-called “ransomware” schemes and provides a definitive example of how nefarious cryptocurrency has become.

Insurer Beazley Group in its May 2019 Beazley Breach Insights Report (BBR) claims its clients have reported twice the number of ransomware cyberattacks in the first quarter of 2019 as they did last year, with hackers targeting bigger companies and demanding bigger ransoms than ever before. The size of demands is also growing. According to the May 2019 BBR, in Q1 2019, the average ransomware demand reported to the BBR Services team was $224,871, an increase of 93% over the 2018 average of $116,324. Here is how a typical ransomware extortion scheme works:

Ransomware attackers break into a corporate system and encrypt, or lock-up, a corporate victim’s data. Most ransomware infections come from phishing attacks, in which unwitting users are enticed to open a file or click on a link containing the ransomware malware;

The ransomware attackers demand payment in cryptocurrency for the encryption key to enable the victim corporation to unlock the now inaccessible data;

The ransomware victim pays the cryptocurrency ransom to the attacker; and

The ransomware attackers move on to their next victim.

While ransomware attacks come in many forms, in each case they infect a computer and restrict users’ access to certain data, systems, and files, until a ransom is paid. A few particularly disturbing statistics about ransomware:

A new organization will fall victim to ransomware every 14 seconds in 2019, and every 11 seconds by 2021;

1.5 million new phishing sites are created every month;

Ransomware attacks have increased over 97 percent in the past two years;

34% of businesses hit with malware took a week or more to regain access to their data;

Cryptocurrency payments made to ransomware attackers increased nearly 90 percent in Q1 2019 over the previous quarter, according to Coveware’s latest report; and

In 2019 ransomware from phishing emails increased 109 percent over 2017.

What makes ransomware attacks so devastating is that many variants do not simply target individual endpoints, but rather establish a foothold on one device and then fan out across a corporate network, encrypting everything from shared drives and email servers to website platforms and backup servers. In this way, ransomware attackers can cripple significant portions, or even all, of a company’s technologically facilitated operations. Hence ransomware’s dirty little secret: most corporations pay the ransom.

How do most corporate victims of ransomware attacks pay the ransoms demanded? Bitcoin of course – it’s fast, reliable, verifiable, subject to little regulation, and virtually untraceable. Bitcoin is ideal for ransomware extortion schemes. The hacker can simply watch the public blockchain to know if and when a victim has paid up. Hackers can even create a unique payment address for each victim and automate the process of unlocking their files upon a confirmed bitcoin transaction to that unique address.

Unlike the sequence of events during a kidnapping scenario, where the exchange of money arguably places criminals in their most vulnerable position, ransomware attackers facilitate pseudo-anonymity by orchestrating a bitcoin transaction process. Rarely is there ever even an arrest, let alone a successful prosecution, of a ransomware attacker. Law enforcement remains virtually powerless, and has even fallen victim themselves to ransomware extortion schemes. Ransomware attackers have become yet another class of cybercriminal who continue to enrich themselves while, for the most part, law enforcement can only watch from the sidelines.

Once the ransomware attackers take possession of the bitcoin payment, it can now be laundered via the Dark Web – that is, until now. Now, ransomware attackers might have a new and better money laundering option: using ransomware proceeds to buy a pint of avocado ice cream at Whole Foods; a Nantucket Rug at Crate and Barrel or a Zegna Quindici Tie at Nordstrom’s.

Isn’t Cash Equally as Dangerous as Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin and other crypto-fanatics argue that criminals can use cash just as easily as they can use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to commit crimes. After all, in comparison to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, isn’t cash similarly anonymous; untraceable; and fungible? The answer is no – which is precisely why bitcoin has evolved into the currency of choice for criminals.

First off, in the U.S., pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), transactions involving traditional financial firms, such as banks, brokers and dealers, and money service businesses (MSBs), are subject to strict federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations aimed at detecting and reporting suspicious activity, including money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as securities fraud and market manipulation.

AML programs typically include a system of internal controls to ensure ongoing compliance with the BSA; independent testing of BSA/AML compliance; a designated BSA compliance officer to oversee compliance efforts; training for appropriate personnel; and a customer identification program. Thus, to ensure AML compliance, financial firms start by obtaining clearly identifiable information about a prospective client, and identifying any potential risks of association. This makes engaging in cash-related crimes challenging. Given in particular the tremendous technological innovation at financial institutions, moving or warehousing cash without detection and surveillance has become significantly challenging.

The same is not necessarily true for cryptocurrency transactions. Cryptocurrency transactions can create challenging hurdles for law enforcement to identify criminals. Theoretically, anyone with an Internet connection and a digital wallet can be part of any cryptocurrency platform, initial coin offering or other cryptocurrency financing endeavor operating anywhere on the globe – which, of course, opens the laundry room door for those with criminal motives.

For example, in July, 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted twelve Russian intelligence officials for allegedly attempting to influence U.S. elections in 2016. The indictment notes that the conspirators used bitcoin to fund the purchase of servers, register domains, and make other payments “in furtherance of hacking activity.” According to the indictment, the “use of bitcoin allowed the Conspirators to avoid direct relationships with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade greater scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds.”

The same rationale of secrecy and pseudo-anonymity unfortunately applies to terrorism financing. For instance, the Palestinian military-political group Hamas, which the U.S. government deems a terrorist organization, may be using the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange for fundraising. Similarly, in December 2017, a woman was arrested in New York for allegedly obtaining $62,000 in bitcoin to send to Islamic State. Around the same time, an Islamic State-affiliated Darknet site called Isdarat sought bitcoin contributions from supporters.

Wildly Absurd and Oft Manipulated Crypto-Valuations

In addition to becoming a facilitator for cryptocurrency transactions, by accepting cryptocurrency from customers, retailers are also indirectly endorsing cryptocurrency’s oft manipulated and wholly unregulated farcical valuations.

In fact, the criminalities associated with cryptocurrency’s use are almost as egregious and disturbing as the criminalities associated with its valuations. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency’s anarchistic valuations remain generally unregulated and without any meaningful oversight, leaving them easily susceptible to fraud and chicanery by insiders, management and better-informed traders and market participants.

For example, researchers from the University of Texas found that manipulation in the cryptocurrency market is rampant and much of the run-up in Bitcoin’s price during 2017 was due to manipulation orchestrated by the Hong Kong exchange Bitfinex. In a 66-page paper, the authors found that tether was used to buy bitcoin at key moments when it was declining, which helped “stabilize and manipulate” the cryptocurrency’s price.

More Illiquidity, Fraud and Manipulation Risks

For retailers to willingly subject themselves to bitcoin’s sinister and stealthy environment of illiquidity, fraud and manipulations makes little sense. Here’s why:

The logistics of accepting cryptocurrency are unique, complicated and problematic. It is not as if a retailer can stroll across the street and convert cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars, record the data in a firm’s accounting software, and be back in time for lunch. First, the retailer must identify a reliable and trustworthy financial institution to safeguard the cryptocurrency (and to convert the cryptocurrency upon demand. Where to find this kind of honorable, respected and U.S. financial institution? Not among Wall Street’s traditional ranks of federally registered, regulated and monitored reliable institutions.

The institutions servicing cryptocurrency clients are barely in their infancy. For the typical cryptocurrency trading platform, there is no central regulatory authority; no state or federal team of bank auditors and compliance experts scrutinizing transactions and policing for manipulation; no existing federal licensure – it’s not just the Wild West, it’s global economic anarchy.

Cryptocurrency intermediaries often give the impression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of national securities exchanges and that their operations are similarly transparent, reliable, trustworthy and bonafide. This is not true.

Although some of these platforms claim to use strict standards to pick only high-quality digital assets to trade, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the primary regulator of securities exchanges, does not review these standards or the digital assets that the platforms select, and the so-called standards should not be equated to the listing standards of national securities exchanges.

Likewise, the SEC does not review the trading protocols used by these platforms, which determine how orders interact and execute, and access to a platform’s trading services may not be the same for all users. Again, investors should not assume the trading protocols meet the standards of an SEC-registered national securities exchange.

Along the same lines, cryptocurrency trading platforms claiming to abide by AML, KYC and other similar safety standards and protocols are nothing like registered banks, national exchanges, broker-dealers. Given the identification and verification challenges associated with the global locations, pseudo-anonymity and historically criminal tendencies of typical cryptocurrency users, AML, KYC and other similar compliance procedures have little in common with the sophisticated technological compliance infrastructure at traditional U.S. financial institutions.

For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in April of 2019, that it has charged two individuals with bank fraud in connection to a system for depositing funds to cryptocurrency trading platforms. In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York alleged that Reginald Fowler of Arizona and Ravid Yosef, said to live in Tel Aviv, Israel, were part of a scheme that involved using bank accounts to move money into a series of unnamed cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Similarly, on April 26, 2019, after New York’s attorney general accused the owners of a prominent cryptocurrency trading platform, Bitfinex, of using illicit transactions to mask $850 million in missing funds. According to a 23-page legal filing, Bitfinex raided the reserves of a so-called stablecoin called Tether — a digital currency purportedly backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars—in order to pay out customers demanding withdrawals from the platform.

The New York AG filing also reproduces messages written by a Bitfinex executive which plead for capital from a Panamanian payment processor to which it had transferred funds. The exact identity of the Panamanian payment processor, Crypto Capital, is unclear. According to the attorney general, Bitfinex, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, relied on a shadowy network of money agents, including “human being friends of Bitfinex employees that were willing to use their bank accounts to transfer money to Bitfinex clients.”

Thus, for the most part, the various financial intermediaries operating within the cryptocurrency marketplace typically:

Are not registered with any federal government agency and has no liquidity, net capital or other depository or financial requirements of any kind;

Are not examined or audited by any federal agency such as the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);

Are not regulated by any quasi-government agency such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Warehouse property such as bitcoin (bitcoin is not recognized as an official currency), which is not insured by any federal agency, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation;

Do not have any federal accounting requirements with respect to their assets;

Do not report their financial condition in any form of official SEC filing, such as an annual report or Form 10-K;

Do not have any federal record-keeping requirements with respect to their operations, communications or any other aspect of its business;

Would assert that they have no specific federal requirements regarding the pricing of any cryptocurrency trading transaction, the use of employees of its payment systems or any federal anti-manipulation requirements; and

Would assert that they do not have the same federal compliance systems or code of conduct requirements of traditional financial institutions such as banks, investment companies, brokerages and other financial firms, who spend millions of dollars every year on internal compliance infrastructure and customer-protection-related infrastructure.

The bottom line: cryptocurrency financial marketplaces tend to believe that they have no federal licensing requirements to meet the bulk of the vigorous federal safeguards historically rooted and associated with U.S. financial institution registration and regulation. These standards and practices, formulated after decades of scrutiny, analysis and enquiry, are the hallmark of U.S. financial institutions.

Currently, when a customer has a problem with a cryptocurrency transaction, there also exists no established federal government watchdog, which causes further enforcement consternation. To exacerbate matters, typical cryptocurrency transactions are by definition irreversible – no anti-fraud guarantee from a financial institution and no reversing the charges, if any dispute or problem arises.

And even if there was a formal federal regulatory complaint filing structure, the pseudo-anonymous nature of virtual currencies, ease of cross-border and interstate transport, and the lack of a formal banking edifice creates enormous challenges for law enforcement to investigate and apprehend any individuals who use cryptocurrencies for illegal activities.

Price Volatility Risks

For retailers accepting bitcoin, they are encouraging their customers to take on tremendous price volatility risks.

Bitcoin started a decade ago but gained status as a household name during its 1,300 percent price rise and march to nearly $20,000 last year. Because the cryptocurrency’s value can vary drastically in a single day, its unprecedented volatility creates serious challenges to using bitcoin as a method of payment for retailers.

For instance, since January, bitcoin has fallen roughly 70 percent and recently fell below $3,500 for the first time in 14 months, losing 30 percent in over seven days. Bitcoin recovered slightly afterwards but continues to experience dramatic, unpredictable and startling price swings.

Enabling retail customers to pay via bitcoin is a not-so-subtle endorsement encouraging them to invest in bitcoin – which is replete with too many risks to mention, and seems irresponsible for any U.S. corporation.

Cybersecurity Risk

Transacting in bitcoin for a retailer and its customers carries with it extraordinary cybersecurity risk. Bitcoin’s true believers tout that cryptocurrencies provide a safe and secure way of making payments, but rarely have a clue as to how they work.

In 2016, hackers stole $72 million worth of bitcoin from exchange Bitfinex. And in 2018, hackers stole $500 million in digital tokens from exchange Coincheck. Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, just announced that hackers stole $40 million worth of bitcoin from them using a phishing and virus scheme, in what the company described as a “large scale security breach.” According to the Wall Street Journal, more than $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen over the years, most of which has come from exchanges and been centered around Asia.

Hackers have now become virtual bank robbers – except their break-ins can be done thousands of miles away from a dark and quiet basement, and then launder the proceeds through various digital wallets or their friendly neighborhood U.S. retailer.

Renowned security technologist Bruce Scheier explains in clear and simple terms the cybersecurity risks of cryptocurrency, emphasizing bitcoin’s (and blockchain’s) regulatory and enforcement vacuum:

“If your bitcoin exchange gets hacked, you lose all of your money. If your bitcoin wallet gets hacked, you lose all of your money. If you forget your login credentials, you lose all of your money. If there’s a bug in the code of your smart contract, you lose all of your money. If someone successfully hacks the blockchain security, you lose all of your money. In many ways, trusting technology is harder than trusting people.”

Say it Ain’t So Whole Foods

Benevolently branded Whole Foods seems the most incongruous of these purported crypto-friendly retailers. Loyal Whole Foods Market customers laud the company’s commitment to minimally processed products free of certain artificial ingredients, and foods that contain nitrates, harmful pesticides, artificial colors, antibiotics, and hormones. Whole Foods farmed seafood standards are the highest in the industry: antibiotics, growth hormones, preservatives like sulfites and phosphates, genetically-modified seafood, and land animal by-products in feed are all prohibited.

Several times a year, each Whole Foods holds “5% days,” where five percent of that day’s net sales goes to support local education, hospitals or non-profits. Whole Foods Market also sets an example in its use of wind power, solar power, company-wide recycling programs, green buildings for their stores, etc. Whole Foods markets their benevolence aggressively — and consumers love it.

But by accepting cryptocurrency, Whole Foods would be assisting in the growth of an increasingly sophisticated, dangerous and terrorist-minded gang of global criminals – which to me, seems far more menacing than the threats posed by genetically-modified seafood or feed containing land animal by-products.

Looking Ahead

Bitcoin resides amid a libertarian financial realm of competing bandits. That is why, ironically, one of bitcoin’s most useful criminal attributes is its use for the theft of other bitcoin. Retailers should think twice before lending an aura of legitimacy to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and consider carefully their role in supporting cryptocurrency growth and encouraging cryptocurrency use.

In the history of financial innovation, modernization and invention, there has always existed one constant: whatever the product, criminals will attempt to exploit its application. Bitcoin dramatically illustrates this axiom. Yet despite the treacherous reality of bitcoin’s predominant use, retail apparently wants in. It would seem that retailers have become so desperate for market share that they will resort to enabling terrorism, extortion and other criminalities.

It’s not just that bitcoin-friendly retailers have given little consideration to the myriad of victims of crypto-funded ransomware, terrorism, drug dealing and the like. Cryptocurrency’s liquidity risk; price volatility; cybersecurity vulnerabilities; commission fees; AML implications; ethical dilemmas; tax burdens; entanglement mishaps and the rest, create a situation that could be unmanageable or even untenable for a retailer’s shareholders, partners, affiliates and other fiduciaries. Not to mention that for the most part, the entire cryptocurrency system resides amid an unregulated, mysterious and sinister environment – a patently poor choice of virtual venue.

Cryptocurrencies purport to be items of inherent value (similar, for instance, to cash or gold) that are designed to enable purchases, sales and other financial transactions, and promise to provide many of the same functions as long-established currencies such as the U.S. dollar, euro or Japanese yen. But retailers should not be fooled.

Cryptocurrencies are mere computer-generated chattel, and Whole Foods, Nordstrom and Crate and Barrel should not agree to accept chattel from customers as consideration for their purchases. We are not living in the 1800s and this is not Deadwood, South Dakota.

Don’t get me wrong, the blockchain technology on which cryptocurrencies are based may turn out to be the most exciting, disruptive, transformative and efficiency enhancing breakthrough since sliced bread. But aside from complex issues of privacy, security, ethics and simple practicality, blockchain technology remains embryonic; has still yet to be proven; and happens to reside amid an economic ecosystem rife with fraud, deceit, dishonesty and thievery. Bitcoin is arguably blockchain’s most celebrated accomplishment yet much of bitcoin’s value, outside of mere speculation, is derived solely from its ability to facilitate criminal activity.

Moreover, just because some mythical engineer has discovered a potentially revolutionary manner to engage in and verify commercial transactions (e.g. replacing a traditional corporate entry recorded in an intermediary institution’s centralized ledger with a virtual entry recorded on a blockchain’s decentralized distributed ledger), it does not mean that criminals should be permitted to create their own form of currency to use to commit robbery, theft, extortion and even murder.

I can appreciate that bitcoin investors are merely ascribing to the historically proven greater fool theory, betting that there will always be a “greater fool” in the cryptocurrency marketplace poised to pay a price based on higher valuation for an already overvalued bitcoin. But the inherent scourge of bitcoin is an altogether different story. For retailers, where reputation is so critical, the risks of somehow becoming ensnared or even merely associating with the dark and seedy underbelly of cryptocurrency are considerable.

Director of the SEC Enforcement Division from 1974 to 1981; general counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981 to 1985; and U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia from 1985 to 2000, famed Judge Stanley Sporkin put it best when he said, “When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.”

When it comes to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the so-called “fintech” lawyers advising retailers contemplating crypto-cash registers should take heed of Judge Sporkin’s enduring admonition. Fintech legal advice should be plain and simple: bitcoin is a plague, so stay as far away from it as you can.

_________________________

John Reed Stark is president of John Reed Stark Consulting LLC, a data breach response and digital compliance firm. Formerly, Mr. Stark served for almost 20 years in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the last 11 of which as Chief of its Office of Internet Enforcement. He currently teaches a cyber-law course as a Senior Lecturing fellow at Duke Law School. Mr. Stark also worked for 15 years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught several courses on the juxtaposition of law, technology and crime, and for five years as managing director of global data breach response firm, Stroz Friedberg, including three years heading its Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Stark is the author of “The Cybersecurity Due Diligence Handbook.”

The post Guest Post: The Bitcoin Plague Spreads to Retail appeared first on The D&O Diary.

Guest Post: The Bitcoin Plague Spreads to Retail syndicated from https://ronenkurzfeldweb.wordpress.com/

0 notes

simonconsultancypage · 6 years ago