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Shipment of Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccines from COVAX Facility Arrive in Laos

COVAX Pfizer Vaccines Arrive in Laos

The Pfizer BioNTech vaccines will be used to protect more than 50,000 people above 60 years and those with underlying health conditions.

70% Of SOC Teams Emotionally Overwhelmed by Security Alert Volume

Trend Micro study reveals the human cost of underpowered Security Operations Centers

 

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 2 June 2021 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today released results from a new study that reveals SOC and IT security teams are suffering from high levels of stress outside of the working day—with alert overload a prime culprit.

According to the study, which polled 2,303 IT security and SOC decision makers across companies of all sizes and verticals, 70% of respondents say their home lives are being emotionally impacted by their work managing IT threat alerts. This comes as the majority (51%) feel their team is being overwhelmed by the volume of alerts and 55% admit that they aren’t entirely confident in their ability to prioritize and respond to them. It’s no wonder therefore that teams are spending as much as 27% of their time dealing with false positives.

These finding are corroborated by a recent Forrester[1] study, which found that “security teams are heavily understaffed when it comes to incident response, even as they face more attacks. Security operations centers (SOCs) need a more-effective method of detection and response; thus, XDR takes a dramatically different approach to other tools on the market today.”


Outside of work, the high volumes of alerts leave many SOC managers unable to switch off or relax, and irritable with friends and family. Inside work, they cause individuals to turn off alerts (43% do so occasionally or frequently), walk away from their computer (43%), hope another team member will step in (50%), or ignore what is coming in entirely (40%).


“We’re used to cybersecurity being described in terms of people, process and technology”, said Dr. Victoria Baines, Cybersecurity Researcher and Author. “All too often, though, people are portrayed as a vulnerability rather than an asset, and technical defenses are prioritised over human resilience. It’s high time we renewed our investment in our human security assets. That means looking after our colleagues and teams, and ensuring they have tools that allow them to focus on what humans do best.”


With a staggering 74% of respondents already dealing with a breach or expecting one within the year, and the estimated average cost per breach USD$235,000, the consequences of such actions could be disastrous.

“SOC team members play a crucial role on the cyber frontline, managing and responding to threat alerts to keep their organizations safe from potentially catastrophic breaches. But as this research shows, that pressure sometimes comes at an enormous personal cost,” said Bharat Mistry, technical director for Trend Micro. “To avoid losing their best people to burnout, organizations must look to more sophisticated threat detection and response platforms that can intelligently correlate and prioritize alerts. This will not only improve overall protection but also enhance analyst productivity and job satisfaction levels.”

Trend Micro Vision One is the company’s answer to the struggles of SOC teams. Prioritized, correlated alerts using data from the entire IT environment help teams spend their time more wisely. Fewer alerts and stronger intelligence allow teams to regain balance in their work life and ease the emotional toll of security.

To find out more, please read the report.

Research methodology

The study is based on interviews with 2,303 IT security decision makers in 21 countries. This includes leaders who run SOC teams (85%) and those who manage SecOps from within their IT security team (15%). All respondents came from 250+ employee companies.



[1] Allie Mellen, Adapt Or Die: XDR Is On A Collision Course With SIEM And SOAR (Forrester, 2021)

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro’s cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.trendmicro.com.hk

#TrendMicro

Phongsaly Province Provides Assistance to Vietnam to Fight Covid-19

Phongsaly donates cash to Vietnam

Phongsaly province of Laos has provided LAK 100 million in assistance to Vietnam as part of efforts to help the country combat Covid-19.

Singapore Companies Rapidly Bringing the Future of Work to Life: Aon Survey

  • 75% of surveyed organisations have made decisions on return-to-office timelines but only 25% of the companies have a return date.
  • 33% of companies expect returning workers to spend only two to three days per week in the office
  • Key issues shaping future-of-work definitions are addressing talent availability concerns, rethinking company cultures and digitalisation

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 June 2021 Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has released the results of a new global human resources (HR) pulse survey focused on the steps companies are taking to bring the future of work to life.

Aon conducted its pulse survey from April 20-28, 2021, with a total of 1,451 human resources leaders and professionals responding globally. Complete study results, across multiple geographies and industries, are available here.

“The ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for an agile and resilient workforce,” said Peter Bentley, Global Chief Commercial Officer & Future of Work Leader for Human Capital solutions at Aon. “The focus on flexible working, while not new, has resulted in an unpacking of additional ‘future of work’ initiatives as highlighted by our survey findings. We see this trend continuing and driving positive momentum as companies build a more flexible, healthy workforce and invest in developing existing employee potential to drive innovation and performance.”

Companies plan for return to the office, but not everyone and not every day

In Singapore, 75% of surveyed organisations have made decisions on return-to-office timeline but only 25% of the companies have a return date.

However, companies do not expect everyone to return to the office. Forty-nine percent of surveyed organisations expect fewer than 75% of office workers to return onsite once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Additionally, flexible or hybrid working options are on the rise, with 33% of companies expecting returning workers to spend only two to three days per week in the office, and another 17% of companies opting to give employees a choice in terms of how much time they spend in the office.


Supporting vaccine adoption through incentives

As workers head back onsite, companies are taking a proactive and supportive approach to vaccine adoption; however, they are largely stopping short of mandates. Only 5% of surveyed organisations in Singapore currently plan to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for employees where allowed by law, with another 9% of organisations actively considering this approach.

Meanwhile, 34% of organisations in Singapore are offering incentives to employees who receive COVID-19 vaccines, most often in the form of paid time-off to receive and recover from injections, and 46% of companies are actively educating employees on the benefits of getting vaccinated.


Future-of-work strategies and inclusion and diversity efforts are tightly linked

Focused on the future, almost three in four surveyed companies (70%) in Singapore have one or more teams or taskforces defining, managing and implementing the future of work. In addition, 80% of organisations say they now have a clear and consistent definition for what the future of work means for their business or expect to have a definition in the next six months.

The three most prevalent issues shaping future-of-work definitions in Singapore are addressing talent availability concerns, rethinking company cultures and digitalisation, cited by 93%, 86% and 80% of companies, respectively.

Looking more closely at inclusion and diversity efforts, 44% of surveyed companies in Singapore state HR teams are most responsible for leading programmes in this area. Additionally, 86% of firms have created or are planning to create inclusion and diversity metrics or goals to track progress, with diversity encompassing diversity of thought as well as employee demographics.

Efforts to rethink location-based compensation continue

With remote work on the rise, 69% of surveyed organisations in Singapore have adjusted, or are considering adjusting, geographic pay differentials as a result of the pandemic. Among companies actively adjusting pay based on shifting employee locations, 87% are re-examining pay rates using fresh market data and 39% are adding more granularity to the geographic zones they consider.

However, making adjustments of this nature isn’t without challenges. Top concerns for Singapore organisations include the difficulty of adopting and maintaining market-aligned pay rates across numerous locations (72%) and employment-related concerns and work policies (67%). In both cases, surveyed companied cited these issues as moderately, very or extremely challenging.


About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.

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#Aon

The MDRT Academy continues to grow with new members from Sun Life Asia

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 June 2021 – The MDRT Academy — a new association helping financial professionals accelerate their careers — recently welcomed more than 670 advisors from Sun Life Asia to its membership ranks. The addition of Sun Life advisors from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia will make Sun Life the MDRT Academy’s largest membership company to date. The Academy will supplement Sun Life’s Brighter Gen and Brighter Pro training and development program, and together support Sun Life’s ambition to be a market leader in quality financial advice.

“Sun Life’s goal is to have the most respected advisors in the industry, known for the quality of their advice and their professionalism,” said Leo Grepin, Sun Life Asia President. “The MDRT Academy is a valuable addition to our Brighter Academy advisor development programs, which build the skills and capabilities to guide advisors along their career journey from rookie, to MDRT, and then leading agency manager. With access to the best training and experience, Sun Life advisors can achieve their career ambitions and deliver the best experience to our clients,” Grepin said.

The MDRT Academy was launched in 2017 to help financial services professionals reach greater production levels and join MDRT. The MDRT Academy was designed to be a fully digital experience, allowing members to access the tools, resources and community anytime and anywhere through an intuitive website and mobile app.

“We’re excited to work with Sun Life, and there is no doubt that the MDRT Academy will help their advisors increase their production, improve their client service skills and learn best practices from experienced MDRT members,” said MDRT President Ian Green, Dip PFS. “The tools for building a successful career in financial services are literally at their fingertips.”

The MDRT Academy features an assessment that helps members better understand and identify their strengths and growth areas — and personalizes content to a member’s needs and areas of interest. It also offers goal setting and performance-tracking tools, monthly webcasts featuring MDRT members, Performance Guides, as well as hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes. MDRT Academy members also have the opportunity to attend MDRT’s Annual Meeting.

About Sun Life

Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2021, Sun Life had total assets under management of $1,304 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

About MDRT

MDRT, The Premier Association of Financial Professionals®, is a global, independent association of the world’s leading life insurance and financial services professionals from more than 500 companies in 70 nations and territories. MDRT members demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and outstanding client service. MDRT membership is recognized internationally as the standard of excellence in the life insurance and financial services business. For more information on the MDRT Academy, please visit mdrtacademy.org. For more information on MDRT, please visit mdrt.org.


#MDRT

GeTS wins 2021 Global Finance – The Innovators Award for Outstanding Innovation in Trade Finance

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 June 2021 – Global eTrade Services (GeTS) is proud to be recognised as one of the Outstanding Innovators in Trade Finance category for “Global Finance The Innovators 2021” annual selection program.

In its ninth year, this unique program by Global Finance recognises organisations that consistently identify and innovate new ways and tools in finance. Award categories include Outstanding Innovations in Cash Management, Corporate Finance, Islamic Finance, Payments and Trade Finance.

Importantly, GeTS’ CALISTA Finance (part of CALISTA – a global supply chain orchestration platform) won this recognition due to the innovative process design and AI technology that enables trade financing to be more accessible, predictable and easier to fulfil for traders.

CALISTA brings together key trade activities such as logistics, regulatory compliance and trade finance on a digital eco-system that serves the shippers and logistics stakeholders. Through CALISTA, shippers can book and track their freight, fulfil regulatory requirements, and secure financing for their trades. CALISTA also supports Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) by helping them to digitalise their sales process and allowing them to collaborate seamlessly and efficiently.

Trade financing is traditionally a complex and timely process with many documents and interactions between the borrowers and financiers. To maintain economic growth and ensure smooth cross-border trade, businesses need access to adequate funds. For example, in Southeast Asia, around 39 million[1] small and medium-sized companies contribute 40 %[2] of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), but these SMEs typically do not have access to financial support. During the COVID-19 crisis, global supply chains were severely disrupted, which further compounded the woes of SMEs.

Plugging the gaps in trade finance between the different trade parties – CALISTA Finance digitalises the entire trade financing application process through the use of optical character recognition (OCR) technology and an Artificial Intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) credit engine. This enables CALISTA finance to offer fast and fuss-free financing with a turnaround time of within 72 hours from application to securing of loans, a process which generally takes approximately 2 weeks for the banks.

In addition, CALISTA Finance has an outstanding performance in risk management and mitigation. As a result, it offers lenders a viable channel to access the potential borrowers in the global trade segment.

“We are very honoured to receive this recognition from Global Finance,” said Chong Kok Keong, CEO of GeTS.

“We will continue to revolutionise the way trade is financed through a one-stop solution that provides financing options where businesses can strengthen their liquidity, get easier access to improve their cash flows and ultimately increase their competitiveness in their trade activities.”


[1] McKinsey Global Institute – Digital Finance for All: Powering Inclusive Growth in Emerging Economies (2016)

[2] SME Policy Index – ASEAN 2018 (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)

About GeTS

GeTS (Global eTrade Services) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CrimsonLogic. As a global leading trade platform company, GeTS is shaping the future of trade and supply chain with its innovative use of technology and deep G2B and B2B domain expertise. GeTS enables the orchestration of logistics, compliance and financial requirements of trade and supply chain seamlessly, smartly and securely. Thus, powering global trade by making it more accessible, predictable and easier to fulfil. GeTS has linkages to more than 60 Customs nodes, 90 ocean carriers & NVOCCs across the world, with more than 175,000 connected parties and conducting more than 40 million transactions annually.

Our parent company, CrimsonLogic, is a partner to governments and businesses globally. For over 30 years, CrimsonLogic has partnered customers to innovate sustainable world-class solutions, products and services in Trade, Legal and Digital Government, enabling significant transformations that have positively impacted governments, businesses and communities. CrimsonLogic is supported by two shareholders – PSA International and Enterprise Singapore.

#CALISTA #CALISTA Finance #TradeFinancing #Fintech #Finance #BusinessLoans #SmallBusiness #Factoring #Creditline #ARfinancing #CashFlow

Laos Reports Five New Cases of Covid-19

Covid-19 Update

Laos has reported five new cases of Covid-19, including cases of community spread in Vientiane Capital.

GROUP8 Brings ‘The Standoff’ Closer With An Exclusive Online Tour

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 June 2021 – With a rise in cybersecurity breaches and the need for remote work amid the pandemic, GROUP8 recognised the need for more extensive and robust cybersecurity solutions across various industries in Singapore. To inspire the local cybersecurity community, GROUP8 recently co-organised The Standoff webinar to bring a guided tour of this globally recognised cyberbattle to Singapore’s virtual scene for the first time, on May 20, 2021.

The Standoff is an annual cyberbattle based in Russia, where the best offensive (Red) and best defensive (Blue) cybersecurity teams are brought from all over the world to compete for the control of a simulated digital metropolis. This year, GROUP8 partnered with Div0, Singapore’s foremost cybersecurity community group, and Positive Technologies to bring a virtual tour of the cyberbattle to audiences from all over the world.

In this one-hour livestream guided tour of The Standoff, Zoom attendees were able to step into the battlefield and observe how the offensive Red team tested the IT infrastructure of the simulated city, while the Blue team contested by defending against these attempts. Taking a leaf out of reality, this city was a digital copy of a modern metropolis – with complete OT and IT infrastructures, such as transportation networks and traffic systems, all powered by the latest technologies.

Unlike a typical Capture The Flag (CTF) game, The Standoff is a highly practical cyberbattle, where teams seek out cyber vulnerabilities found in real critical infrastructures that have been simulated into this hackable city. As an observer or as a contestant from either of the teams, participants were exposed and kept up-to-date with cybersecurity issues; how these issues could have a concrete impact on the digital city and by extension, the real world. Apart from gaining insights from cybersecurity experts and the Security Ops Centre (SOC) team, attendees were offered an analysis of common strategies that attackers utilise to access confidential digital assets.

With a successful close to the webinar, GROUP8 is honoured to bring the The Standoff virtual guided tour to Singapore’s cybersecurity community. Fret not if you have missed the webinar, you could catch it on The Standoff’s Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI25kST2j_Y&t=2567s

GROUP8 is a home-grown cybersecurity and cyber intelligence company which provides solutions such as penetration testing services that are CREST certified in Singapore. With its dedication to offensive cybersecurity research, the team at GROUP8 offers web services that are tailored to any business needs.

For more information, please visit: https://group8.co/

#GROUP8