Apple, not as safe as we may have thought

Amongst most consumers, the general consensus regarding Apple products is that they are more secure and less "hack-able" than other brands. Although Apple is known for creating user friendly interfaces and less redundant code, it can be agreed amongst us technologists that there is nothing special about Apple that actually keeps it safe from hackers.

The main reason why we don’t see a lot hacking amongst Apple products is because it’s simply more popular to go with other platforms such as PC. In a previous blog post, we touched upon how Windows (both XP and 7) made up of over 70% market share for operating systems (excluding mobile devices). Therefore from a hacker perspective, it is much more enticing to create a malicious virus that can be applied to 70% of the world, rather than the other 30% made up of Apple, Linux, and other operating systems.

Recently, it was announced that Apple had released a new patch for both its mobile and Mac operating systems because of a critical security flaw. Quoting an Apple spokesmen, "Impact: an attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS and modify data”. This basically translates into a hacker having the ability to impersonate a protected site such as a banking website to steal valuable information.

This is just one example on how the general view of the consumer is wrong. The customer is NOT always right. Apple products can also have bugs just like any other products. The only difference is that since the market has not deemed Apple the market leader, it does not garner the same attention. 

Video Explaining the Fix of Apple's Security Flaw

Facebook's Horizontal Integration: Buys WhatsApp for $19 Billion

So by now, a lot of you probably know about Facebook's announcement to acquire WhatsApp, a cross platform messaging application, for $19 Billion. This has been one of many acquisitions by Facebook since its initial IPO in 2012 as the social networking giant is attempting to diversify amongst social networking platforms as a whole. 

So the question is... How does WhatsApp add value to Facebook?

Coming from a Finance perspective, the only 2 reasons to acquire another company is 1) to restructure it and sell it at a HIGHER price, or 2) because the company offers synergy, which is defined as the added value of having business units working together. 

For Facebook, it is clear that the motivation is based off of the latter. This acquisition is known as horizontal integration, which is the process in which a company acquires related companies on the same level, ie: messaging services. 


Summarizing the Financial Post, the main motivations are as followed:

1. WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly average users, 70% of which are active on a given day.
2. WhatsApp now handles more than 19 billion messages per day, a figure that is approaching the text message (SMS) volume of the worldwide telecom industry, which is a US$100-billion market.
3. WhatsApp uses internet connectivity rather than a phone network to offer low-cost messaging, costs just $1 (after the first free year) and the company has spent nothing on user acquisition to date.
4. WhatsApp can Facebook strengthen its footprint in international markets and with teens. 

With this acquisition, Facebook believes it now has a significant opportunity to be the leading global communications utility along with its already popular Messaging Services. 

Market Share of Technology

Today's world of technology is a highly competitive landscape. Consumers now have a choice of many different companies that each offer a unique type of service. Within each domain, there is a winner. Below, I will be discussing the market share leaders for Internet Browsers, Mobile Vendors, Operating Systems (non-mobile), and Mobile Operating System based on both internet and referral traffic tracked by Statcounter.

For some of you, these findings may be a surprise. For some of you, perhaps not. Let's begin!

Browser Market Share

With Google Chrome's launch in 2008, it has rapidly become the most popular browser used for non-mobile devices. Given its sleek design, unique features, such as incognito mode, and its in-browser applications, it is no surprise that Chrome has been able to capture market share from many of its competitors. While Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Opera have remained relatively constant in market share, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has taken the biggest over the past couple of years.

Mobile Vendor Market Share

The Mobile Vendor playing field has indeed been the intense. As of January 2012, prior to Nokia's acquisition by Microsoft, the battle for market share between Nokia, Samsung, and Apple was separated by only a few percentage points. In my opinion, consumers in the developed world often disregard brands such as Nokia as it may not produce a product that directly pertains to them. However, given that the vast majority of the world is still developing, it should not be surprising to see the low cost alternative of Nokia to be appealing. 

Operating System (non-mobile) Market Share

Very similar to the Nokia situation, some may be surprised to see how dominant Microsoft OS actually is. Given that most college auditoriums are flooded by a sea of Macs, we see that in actuality, Windows is still the standard. What is interesting is to see how relevant Windows XP is, given it was released back in 2001. However, Microsoft recently announced that it would soon cease support on the XP OS, which may tempt current users to switch.

Mobile Operating System Market Share

Android OS and iOS are currently the two most popular mobile operating systems, accounting for 2/3 of all mobile devices. It is interesting to note that although Android is the market leader, Apple is the leader in the US and the UK. This again sheds light on the socio-economic limitations individuals have on the choice of their products. Given that Apple's iPhone is generally more expensive, the proportion of individuals in developing countries who cannot afford Apple's products is apparent. 

Overall, we are able to get a glimpse of the heavily competitive landscape that is Technology. We can see that although some companies are dominant in some countries, it does not mean it can retain the same dominance in other countries. Although globalization is apparent, it seems that technology vendors are not forgetting to cater directly to its customers, but who knows what the profile of these customers will be in 5 years? 10 years? 25 years? We'll just have to wait.

*Infographics obtained from KISSmetrics

Password Security for E-Commerce Sites

Last week, I wrote about key trends arising in E-Commerce and how those trends are making the digital playing field very attractive to vendors and consumers. However, there are disadvantages of E-Commerce. For example for consumers, there is an issue for online security.

In a study conducted by DashLane, they found that 64% of the top 100 US E-retailers have "highly questionable password policies, resulting in poor security of their users' personal data". A detailed report of DashLane's methodology for this study can be accessed here.

DashLane's Info Graphic on Data Security

With this lack of security enforced by retailers, it puts consumers in a situation in which their personal data can be jeopardized and puts light towards the hot topic of internet security, which has been here since the beginning of the internet.

Some savvy consumers often come up with elaborate passwords that they believe will protect them from hackers, regardless of what E-retailers are trying to enforce. However, hackers are smart.

According to Melanie Pinola of LifeHacker.com, "Our passwords are much less secure than they were just a few years ago, thanks to faster hardware and new techniques used by password crackers" .

In addition, making matters worse, "hackers know a lot more about our passwords than they used to. All the recent password leaks have helped hackers identify the patterns we use when creating passwords, so hackers can now use rules and algorithms to crack passwords more quickly than they could through simple common-word attacks."

This spells bad news as not only are websites not taking the necessary precautions to guide users in creating strong passwords, what we perceive to be strong passwords might not be strong enough. 

So the million (or billion) dollar question is.... "HOW DO WE PROTECT OURSELVES ONLINE?!?"

A few tips from Life Hacker suggests:
1. Avoid predictable password patterns

2. Use Truly RANDOM passwords
3. Use unique passwords for each site

Once the necessary precautions are taken, regardless of what E-Commerce sites enforce, we can continue to enjoy the convenience of E-Commerce with a sense of security regarding our personal data.