Tag: international

The 10 most innovative security companies of 2021

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With so many people working from home on their personal devices during the coronavirus pandemic, cybersecurity has gotten more important than ever. Security companies have developed new ways to protect people from malicious activity on their phones and computers—even when they’re on their own—by detecting phishing messages, political misinformation, denial-of-service attacks, and other types of cyberattacks. They’ve also come up with new techniques to help stop fraud by confirming that people are who they say they are without relying so much on passwords and centralized databases that can themselves be targets for criminals. And they’ve built new systems for securing people’s most sensitive business data, whether it needs to be accessible on corporate servers or on individual employee cellphones. Camille François , Chief innovation officer at Graphika. [Photo: Taylor Kay Johnson ] 1. Graphika For tracking disinformation campaigns around the world through the 2020 elections and beyond Researchers at the social network analysis company Graphika made a name for themselves in 2020 by reporting suspected Russian operations targeting conservative voters before the U.S. presidential election, flagging Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, and discovering global misinformation around COVID-19. Working with competing companies—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—helps Graphika spot deceptive activities that aren’t limited to just one site and get posts taken down, rooting out online disinformation. For more on why Graphika is a 2021 Most Innovative Company, click here .  2. Identiq For using cryptography to allow companies to vouch for users without sharing personal data Identiq lets companies verify that new customers are who they claim to be based on digital references from other companies in its network. It has developed cryptographic tools to let companies confirm they’re talking about the same person without having to actually share any data with Identiq or even with each other, meaning fewer opportunities for data breaches or privacy violations. Because data comes from partner businesses’ own systems, it can essentially be kept permanently up to date. For the system to work, Identiq needs a critical mass of business, and a May 2020 virtual summit brought praise from companies like transportation booking company Gett, gift card and payment tech company Blackhawk Network, and international payment company PayU. 3. ZecOps For spotting the hacks that can cause apps to crash—on iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux ZecOps makes automated software that spots when apps crash on computers and phones, then tries to find out what went wrong Read More …

The 10 most innovative Asia-Pacific companies of 2021

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While China remains a powerhouse of innovation in Asia-Pacific—both Tencent and the Alibaba-backed cold-chain logistics startup Cainiao are on our list—companies across the region found game-changing solutions to difficult problems. South Korea’s Seegene helped the world diagnose the novel coronavirus quickly and effectively. India’s MilkMantra allowed the country’s small-scale dairy farmers to bring their products to market, while ensuring quality control. And Australia’s ProAgni has cleaned up the food chain by developing antibiotic-free supplement for cattle and sheep. Read on for more of this year’s best in Asia-Pacific. 1. Seegene For producing a COVID-19 diagnostic test and taking it global, sending more than 55 million test kits to 67 countries The biotech company built a molecular diagnostic test for the COVID-19 virus, which helped South Korea contain the virus in the spring of 2020: 80% of South Korean COVID tests taken in April were made by Seegene. As the coronavirus spread, the company went global, sending over 55 million test kits to 67 countries. 2. Milk Mantra For partnering with USAID to launch an initiative that lets small-scale dairy farmers access their payments digitally Odisha, India-based Milk Mantra sources, packages, and sells dairy products to more than 10,000 independent retailers and subscribers. The company works with farmers to process and test the milk to control product quality. This year Milk Mantra partnered with USAID to launch an initiative to let farmers access their paychecks digitally (previously, some had to travel long distances to access their finances). Milk Mantra also reduced its payment cycle to five days—from 10—to help farmers access their funds faster and avoid disrupting their operations Read More …

The 10 most innovative film and TV companies of 2021

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Because most people spent more time in 2020 cooped up inside than ever before, film and TV offerings transcended the realm of entertainment to become something more substantial. They served as a crucial, sanity-preserving balm, and a point of connection with others similarly stuck at home. With people consuming so much TV and film, it might sound easy for a studio or a streaming service to win audiences over. Considering just how much content was competing for eyeballs in lockdown, however, it took innovation and foresight to truly stand out. Read More …

Why Paramount Plus is betting on sports to get you to subscribe to another streaming service

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Up until now in the streaming wars, live sports were something of a tantalizing appetizer. Mouthwatering and exciting, sure, but not the real reason you signed up. It was great that, say, Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming offering, was set to stream the Olympics last summer (they were postponed because of COVID-19), but fans were primarily interested in bingeing shows such as 30 Rock and The Office . And Netflix, of course, has been emphatic that it has no plans to stream live sports. Even pure sports streaming apps such as ESPN Plus have largely been sold as “complementary” and “additive” services to their linear siblings. There are a couple of reasons for this: One, viewers—and advertising dollars—still flow to traditional broadcast and cable networks, particularly for spectacles such as the Super Bowl, major college football games, and the NBA playoffs. Two, the rights for the most attractive sports content are still tied up with legacy networks, and for the last several years, at least, there’s been some uncertainty that the economics of streaming premium sporting events makes sense. Into this environment comes Paramount Plus , Viacom’s new entry into the streaming playoffs, which launches March 4 and costs $10 a month. (An ad-supported version is set to launch in June for $5 a month). Paramount Plus is seeking to flip the logic that’s put sports on the streaming sidelines. Rather than selling itself primarily as the home of Nickelodeon kids’ shows and big Hollywood movie franchises such as Mission: Impossible —it has those, too—when Viacom laid out its streaming plans last week, it led with a sports pitch. “Paramount Plus will be the leader in live sports,” CBS Entertainment Group head George Cheeks said bluntly. “Bottom line, everything sports fans love on CBS . . . all of this will be available on Paramount Plus.” That means live soccer: Paramount Plus is the exclusive home of UEFA soccer in the U.S., which includes the Champions League and Europa League, and it will air National Women’s Soccer League matches. Read More …

These 5 apps take the pain out of wrangling your huge photo collection

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Let’s get those photos organized. It’s about time, right? First, we’ll review and delete any bad photos on your phone, then we’ll get all your old physical photos digitized. Next, we’ll touch up any that need a little extra TLC, and finally we’ll share the best ones privately with friends and family. Sound easy enough? Great! You can do this. Let’s get started. Sort ’em That camera on your phone takes great photos and—better still—can take a lot of them. But if you’re like most people, you almost never take the time to sort the good photos from the bad. Purpose-built for photo organization, Slidebox ( Android , iOS ) lets you trash the duds with a simple Tinder-like swipe. They can’t all be keepers, after all. For photos you want to keep, you can sort them into albums with a single tap, compare similar-looking photos to see which one turned out better, and synchronize the results to your camera gallery. None of your photos are copied or otherwise kept in the app: It’s purely used for organization. Now, here’s the weird thing. The Android version of the app seems to have been abandoned, but it still works well, and it’s free as in free-free Read More …