F-Secure report documents ransomware getting more fearsome, but there’s reason for optimism...

Cyber criminals continued a barrage of attacks in 2019, spurred on by botnets of infected IoT devices and by attacker interest in the Eternal Blue vulnerability. A new report from cyber security provider F-Secure, Attack Landscape H2 2019, documents a steep increase in attack traffic in 2019 that was unmatched by previous years.

F-Secure's global network of honeypots saw 2.8 billion attack events in the second half of the year. After 2.9 billion in the first half of the year, the yearly total rings in at 5.7 billion attacks. For comparison, 2018 saw just over 1 billion attacks, while 2017 saw 792 million.

Traffic was dominated by attacks hitting the SMB protocol, indicating attackers are still very much interested in using worms and exploits related to Eternal Blue. Telnet traffic and attacks hitting SSH were also high, indicating continued, high attacker interest in IoT devices. Malware found in the honeypots was dominated by various versions of Mirai.

While ransomware spam was observed to have dropped during the course of the year, ransomware itself became more targeted and impactful, inflicting greater damage, targeting enterprises, and demanding sums in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Modular malware employed a range of tricks, one of which was dropping ransomware as a second stage payload.

The report also features a look back at the past ten years of information security, a decade marked by spates of breaches, the emergence of nation state malware, and devastating supply chain attacks. But going forward, there is reason for optimism, says Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure.

“The last decade was pretty bad for information security, but the next one will be better,” says Hypponen. “It doesn't always look like it, but we are getting better. In the middle of news on major breaches and data leaks, it might look like it's getting worse, but it isn't. If you look at the level of security tools we were using in 2010 and today, it's like night and day. We are going in the right direction.”

The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...

An investment injection from Salesforce is set to advance ServiceMax’s focus on assset-heavy industries such as manufacturing and utlities. Mark Glover spoke to CEO Neil Barua after the news broke...

I initially wanted to use this space to focus on the much needed calls for drone advancement and how it has the potential to postively impact on last mile delivery.

However, news that ServiceMax had received a cool $80 million investment from their long-time platform partner Salesforce came to my attention and with that an opportunity to speak to CEO Neil Barua about the announcement.

“The money was probably the least important part of the news,” he told me. “It’s great to be able to fund our growth and development but it’s the strategeic partnership element and the acknowledgement by Salesforce [that] in asset-centric industries ServiceMax is the chosen leader and they’re supporting our innovation for our customers in those industries. It’s a very monumental time in the industry for that decision to have been made,” he said.

Rumours around ServiceMax’s relationship with Salesforce have been circulating for some time now, with some speculating the software firm were ready to show its platform supplier the door, however this news concretes their partnership.The funding injection, the firm says, will enable them to focus on asset-heavy sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas and utilities.

But it’s the firm collaboration with Salesforce that Barua was keen to extoll and in particular its place at ServiceMax’s varied board room table. “So we have a very dynamic board structure here at ServiceMax including Silverlake participants, incuding GE partcicpants and we’re now going to add Salesforce to that,” he explained. “So the adults in the room can look at things from a board perspective and make sure the two companies are thinking about what’s best independently but most importantly what’s best for customers.”

We shall see ultimately if this windfall affect ServiceMax’s end-user. Next month however my news focus will be drone-based and how that industry could do with $80 million to propel its offering.

... and Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, also reflects on what the big stories in the news are for him...

Having reviewed the big stories I think I am acrtually going to do the slightly crass thing and highlight our own involvement at the inaugral World Servitization Conference.

However, in my very best humble brag style, I’d really like to bring your attention to just how impressive the journey has been for my good friends at Aston University and the Advanced Services Group and just what an achievement launching the first World Conference is for Professor Baines and his excellent collection of colleagues.

I have had the honour of attending the Spring Servitization Conference for a number of years as both a guest of Aston University and latterly as a Media Partner for the Advanced Services Group and as such have been a first hand witness to just how the conference has grown over the years. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the conference in various pockets of Europe including Manchester, Copenhagen, Luzerne and its great to see it return home to Birmingham in its latest all grown up iteration.

The world of academia and industry really can flourish when they come together to search out solutions and drive each other forward and the Spring Servitization Conference has been an absolutley pioneering and pivotal point within the calendar where that meeting of minds has been able to take place.

And whilst it may sound like an increase in capacity going from the humble Spring Servitization Conference to the more grandly titled World Servitization Conference, the truth is that the name change should have happened a few years back as this annual meet up of the great and the good of the academic servitization community, increasingly being joined by larger and larger numbers of their industry colleagues, really does attract a global audience.

I for one am extremely proud that we are still strongly associated with the conference and am very much looking forward to working with TIm and the Aston team on this event and for many years to come. 

Ericsson's smart factory in Lewisville, Texas, has produced its first 5G base station. Announced last year, the factory will be one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the industry when it is fully operational later this year.

The first product manufactured at the factory is the millimeter-wave Street Macro solution, which is key to Ericsson’s 5G portfolio for its North American customers. All radio access components are housed in one lightweight enclosure, allowing service providers to rapidly grow 5G coverage in complex city environments.

The Street Macro solution, part of the Ericsson Radio System portfolio, is also helping to provide Ericsson’s 5G-enabled connectivity in the smart factory.

Erik Simonsson, Head of the USA 5G Smart Factory, Ericsson, says: “We’re excited to produce advanced 5G radio products for our U.S. customers, to meet the demand for next-generation 5G networks across the country. It’s also exciting to use our own 5G products in the factory for wireless connectivity to increase production efficiency. With the first 5G base stations now rolling off the production line, we are on target this year to have the most fully automated, sustainable 5G smart factory in the U.S.”

Ericsson’s fast and secure 5G connectivity will enable the smart factory with agile operations and flexible production, utilizing industrial solutions such as automated warehouses, connected logistics, automated assembly, packing, product handling and autonomous carts. Ericsson will initially employ approximately 100 people at the facility.

The new USA 5G Smart Factory complements Ericsson’s global supply strategy, which ensures the company is working close to its customers through its American, European and Asian operations, securing fast and agile deliveries to meet customer requirements.

Field Service News' Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland says change is coming, and we should embrace it...

It seems that the current Zeitgeist amongst our collective of excellent columnists here at Field Service News, which is usually a pretty good indicator  of the general mood of the industry at large is one of seismic change.

It seems that in one way or another the vast majority of our commentators have zoned in on change in one form or another.

The technology is perhaps the easier bit to get our heads around. We all have a vague understanding of how AI, IoT and AR can work together to improve our service delivery.

We do need to understand how we handle the data that new technology reveals though as Aly Pinder states in his article around convergence of man and machine  “To turn emerging technologies such as the IoT into the promise being trumpeted, organizations must transform the way they manage this data.” And in terms of the strategy, how many of us can say we have such a firm grasp around the nuanced challenges of embracing servitization?

Yet, the future of field service will inevitably be one of servitized business models and outcome based service offerings - so we had better get our ducks in a row sooner rather than later in this regard. Although it is easier said than done, as Bill Pollock comments in his article, we are essentially going to have to write a whole new book when it comes to understanding what the next iteration of field service efficiency looks like, with a whole new set of metrics and while we are at it, whole new ways of monitoring them.

Bill is of course, an old friend of mine as I have often referred to in this column, and he is without doubt the go-to guy when it comes to analysis into benchmarking KPIs in use by field service organisations - so I hope to catch up with him on an episode of the Field Service Podcast to discuss our own research into this topic and get his ‘Analysts Take’ on our findings.

Speaking of which if you haven’t yet taken a look at our new dedicated online home for Field Service News Research, then you can find it here where you’ll be able to check out all of our latest research reports and also join our list of respondents - each of whom get rewarded handsomely (well they get a Starbucks voucher) for taking part in our ongoing research programs.

Talking of change, I’d also like to just take a moment to wish Zack Bergreen a very, very well deserved, long and happy retirement as he steps down from his role as CEO of Astea after 40 years.

Zack has been a pioneer within the service management industry and is as well respected as he is well liked, so I am sure I am not alone in wishing him all the very best as he steps down.

One thing is for sure, Zack will have seen some incredible change in the 40 years he has been at the helm of Astea. There wasn’t even an internet back then, just things. And remote work really was remote.

But I’d put a hefty wager that the change we are embracing now is more radical and game changing than ever before. As Pollock says, “What we have gotten used to is all about to change.”

Check out the latest issue of Field Service News with all of the features referenced above by clicking the link below now! 

Annual survey requires input from industry.



Research analyst firm, Strategies For Growth℠, has launched its 2020 Field Service Management (FSM) Tracking Survey and is looking for input from the service sector.

Last year, SFG℠ conducted the sixth iteration of its annual Field Service Management Tracking Survey, as well as its first Servitization and Remote Expertise Benchmark Surveys. The results of these three surveys have helped the research and consulting firm to expand the scope – but shorten the length – of its 2020 Field Service Management Benchmark Tracking Survey.

Targeted Survey

This year’s survey is a targeted, multiple choice questionnaire that should still takeless than 15 minutes to complete, the firm says with all responses will remaining strictly confidential, and will only be tabulated and reported in aggregate. However, if respondents provide their name, title, company and e-mail address, Strategies For Growth℠  will be happy to forward them a copy of the topline survey results in a complementary executive-level Analysts Take report to be published a couple of weeks following the completion of the data collection and analysis.

The results of the survey will be published as an executive report in Field Service News later on in the year.

To take part in the survey click here. 

Machines in the Netherlands are most likely to encounter cybercrimes; Ireland is least likely

The severity of cyber-breaches has become more and more intense in recent years. As a result, security experts at Specops Software sought to find out which (Western) European countries are the most cyber-insecure for citizens.

To find out, Specops Software calculated which country is most likely to encounter cyber-crimes by analysingthe percentage of cloud provider attacks on Azure and the monthly percentage of machines that encountered cryptocurrency mining, malware and ransomware.

The results show the Netherlands is the most vulnerable European country to cyber-crime, with the highest rate of cybercrime. This could be due to the large number of cloud provider incoming attacks (16.28%) to Microsoft Azure in their country.

Next is Bulgaria, who have experienced 17.55% incoming attacks/encounters. In third place is Belarus (10.83%), followed by Ukraine (10.35%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (7.06%).

The United Kingdom rank 17^th, due to a high number of cloud related attacks, in comparison to other European countries. 

Ireland are ranked as the least vulnerable country in Europe, where they had the lowest cybercrime encounter rate in every category, except cloud provider attacks – where there is 0.36% recorded incoming attacks on Azure, detected by Azure’s Security Centre.

Cloud attack encounters:

The Netherlands received the highest number of cloud provider incoming attacks, with data stating that 16.28% of Azure accounts have faced breaches. They are followed closely by Bulgaria (11.68%).

Other countries among the highest cloud attack encounters include France (2.73%), United Kingdom (2.02%) and Finland (1.72%).

Cryptocurrency encounters:

On average, Belarus has the highest number of cryptocurrency mining encounters every month, with 0.42% of machines recording the issue.

Next is Ukraine (0.33%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (0.25%) and Bulgaria (0.17%).

The least vulnerable country is Ireland, where only 0.01% of machines encountered cryptocurrency mining. 

The United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Germany and Netherlands are second least likely to encounter cryptocurrency mining, as only 0.02% of machines in each country had.

Malware encounters:

Belarus has the most malware encounters in Europe, with 10.17% of machines in the country encountering them each month on average. 

In second place is Ukraine (9.57%), followed by Bosnia (6.76%), Romania (5.92%) and Bulgaria (5.66%).

The country with the least malware encounters is Ireland, where only 0.7% of machines in the country encountered malware each month on average.

Finland (1.27%), Norway (1.33%), Netherlands (1.33%) and Denmark (1.35%) are among the countries least vulnerable to malware encounters.

Ransomware encounters:

0.09% of machines in Ukraine encountered malware on average every month, making them the most insecure country to malware encounters in Europe. 

Belarus are second most vulnerable, with 0.06% of machines encountering malware, followed by Bosnia (0.05%), Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Greece and Croatia (0.04%).

Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Finland encountered the smallest number of ransomware threats, with only 0.01% of machines facing them each month.

Companies join to bring a powerful device level protection that helps secure the most vulnerable IoT and edge devices, in markets such as industrial and utilities, from outsiders, insiders, and supply chain attacks.

NanoLock Security, the market leader of flash-to-cloud protection for IoT and connected edge devices, announced it is joining with Adesto Technologies Corp.  to collaborate on flash-based embedded security and management solutions for low-density flash memory devices used in products such as smart meters, sensors and controllers in smart energy, water utilities, industrial facilities and more.

The Adesto and NanoLock solution provides a hardware root-of-trust in the device’s flash memory that blocks unauthorized modifications to prevent persistent control of the device. The control of flash updates is moved from the vulnerable remote edge device to a trusted entity in the utility data center, ensuring that only validated commands and updates will modify the flash. In addition, the hardware root-of-trust provides reliable and valuable data such as attack alerts, status reports, and detailed forensic data.

The solution is particularly important for critical infrastructure, where threats can come from various attack sources, e.g., outsider attacks (such as state-level attackers), insider attacks, and off-shore supply chain attacks. To keep infrastructure safe, it is crucial that remote connected devices, such as smart meters, are protected throughout their entire lifecycle from production line to end-of-life.

NanoLock’s technology protects connected edge devices from the moment they are created on a factory floor by prohibiting malicious code from being written into the flash, and provides protection and monitoring throughout the device’s entire lifecycle. This approach is both processor-and operating system-agnostic and requires virtually zero system processing power, which is critical for power-sensitive IoT devices.

“The addition of NanoLock’s flash-to-cloud security and management technology to our flash memory devices can provide robust, device-level defense and trustworthy management for a wide range of low-density IoT devices from smart meters to door locks,” said Graham Loveridge, VP marketing, semiconductor products, Adesto. “Traditionally, providing this level of security in low-density flash devices has been a challenge. We’re excited to team with NanoLock to show that we can provide it at an attractive price point.”

“NanoLock’s patented technology alongside Adesto’s novel flash technology delivers an important additional layer of protection and monitoring for utilities and industrial companies,” said Eran Fine, NanoLock CEO. “Through our alliance with Adesto, we are able to seamlessly secure a variety of IoT devices, such as smart meters, controllers and sensors, to bring new levels of protection and control to connected infrastructure.”

The service conference circuit is a crowded one. For professionals who operate in a time-precious environment choosing the right event to attend, where you can garner the most amount of value for your time is an important business decision. Sharing challenges with other delegates, gaining insight on new tech and sharing a coffee with colleagues should be part of your event requirements.

In this special edition of the Field Service Podcast Becky Johnson from WBR who is overseeing the content at this year's Field Service Connect talks us through the speaker acquisition process: from the initial research involved and the overall honing of the talks and debates. Being close to the trends in the industry Becky also shares some of the insight she has gained during this research process. It's a fascinating listen.

You can reach out to Becky on LinkedIn here. 

Study shows Machine Learning, Cloud and Process Automation key part of software.

The application software sector is undergoing profound and rapid change, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.

The company’s latest report ‘Tech, Media, & Telecom Trends 2020 – Thematic Research’ reveals how the value was historically all in the application itself but is now driven by the integration of software. Listed below are the top application software technology trends, identified in the study:

Cloud Computing

The cloud is an important model for IT resource delivery. The growth of application programming interfaces (APIs) has made sharing data easier and encouraged the development of new applications. A new wave of platform services will use artificial intelligence (AI) to increase operational efficiency and automate workflow controls. Advanced platforms will enable intelligent apps and improve user experience. 

Process automation:

Process automation refers to robotic process automation (RPA), in which new developer technologies will help shore up various phases within the application lifecycle. RPA uses AI, low-code platforms, and software robotics to automate manual processes. Industrial IT providers will continue to invest in RPA innovation.

Machine learning:

Machine learning is a high priority for businesses everywhere. There are relatively few AI specialists, and developing a model is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. As the market matures, enterprises will incorporate data from a variety of sources into their machine learning models.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) libraries:

To overcome the skills gap, vendors are designing products specifically for people without data science skills. Vendors are offering translation services, speech-to-text, natural language generation, image recognition, and video analysis to non-AI specialists. 

Data will become a key differentiator, and an enterprise’s ability to manage and glean insights from it.

Conversational platforms:

Conversational platforms employ a variety of technologies to enable human-like interactions with computer systems. Virtual personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant can schedule appointments, provide weather updates, and play music based on voice commands. In 2020, application platform providers will develop user interface (UI) tools to support advanced conversational platforms.

Open source AI:

AI relies heavily upon open source (OS) technologies. Google's machine learning framework, TensorFlow, is a prime example of this trend. Released via the Apache OS license in 2015, TensorFlow is currently available to developers across most public cloud platforms. Investment in OS AI technologies will proceed apace, particularly among vendors selling both open and proprietary technologies.

Augmented reality (AR):

AR allows the user to see the real world overlaid with a layer of digital content. Having come to worldwide attention in 2016 with Pokémon Go, the next two years will be pivotal for AR. Its chances of crossing over to the mass consumer and corporate markets will be determined by the richness and variety of AR content, the development of smartphone applications, and the arrival of all-in-one glasses.