There has certainly not been a shortage of anecdotes on how COVID-19 should be declared the CIO of the year. I have been in many conversations that have variously blamed or credited the pandemic as being the single most significant event that has gotten organizations scrambling to rethink business models and accelerate their digital transformation – something that had previously been at the back of the mind, now pushed to the forefront of every business decision.

CyberProof Inc., a UST Global company, warns of new cybersecurity threats amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Hackers, including cybercriminals and state-sponsored threat actors around the globe, are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to accelerate their activities and spread their own infections.

Our value system is changing in times of corona. Issues such as responsibility, sustainability, and fairness are in the public eye and rapidly increasing in importance: big problems of the world have reached our society as a whole, as the ‘Fridays for Future” or “Black Lives Matter” movements prove.

The forced inaction of the past weeks triggered companies, institutions, and users to look into augmented reality (AR) and the opportunities it offers. They simply had time to get used to changing work processes and to test new tools and techniques.

Especially in entertainment television, sports TV or shopping, consumers are currently very enthusiastic about video-triggered Augmented Reality (AR), a variant of AR, in which the user holds the smartphone or tablet camera on a moving image and is offered information and interaction options at the same time to match what he/she sees.

NTT Ltd. revealed the findings of its annual Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report titled “The Connected Customer: Delivering an effortless experience”, according to which only 12% of Asia Pacific organizations are delivering a fully functioning experience, yet more than half (64%) consider customer experience (CX) to be a primary differentiator.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Global Future Risks—Future-proofing Your Strategies, 2030, provides a compelling analysis that will help stakeholders understand the impact of future risks through the short, medium and long terms, and equip them to act on clear growth opportunities.

Adobe, IBM, and Red Hat announced a strategic partnership to help accelerate digital transformation and strengthen real-time data security for enterprises, with a focus on regulated industries. The intent of the partnership is to enable companies to deliver more personalized experiences across the customer journey, driving improved engagement, profitability, and loyalty.

Fifteen years ago, on April 23, 2005, the first video, only 18 seconds long, was uploaded to YouTube. Two years later, the first explanatory videos were published, and today a billion explanatory videos are watched worldwide every day on YouTube alone. No wonder that videos are by now responsible for around 80% of global data traffic.

Criteo just announced global availability of its marketing solution for traffic generation, which helps advertisers connect with new audiences to drive engagement and increased website traffic.

Previously in beta testing with over 750 clients, Criteo’s Traffic Generation solution enables marketers to influence prospective users in high-intent moments as they research, compare and consider different brands.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are promising technologies that manage to provide marketers with new opportunities of delivering good content to their target groups.

A breakthrough in the development of quantum-enhanced optical systems could pave the way for advances in encryption, communication and measurement, scientists say.

In a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, a group of researchers, led by Matteo Clerici at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering and colleagues from the UK, Japan and Germany, demonstrates a new method of generating and detecting quantum-entangled photons at a wavelength of 2.1 micrometers.

When brands, like Gojek, allow their costumers and the broader public to participate, something big happens: a close emotional connection with the brand and deep loyalty for a personalized experience arise, as people become a partner of the brand vision and co-creator of a common idea.

For marketers and brands attempting to engage their audience at a time like this, there is no one answer to how consumer behavior has changed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Different people react in different ways, and general observations are no longer actionable.