On the 1st of March 2024, South Africa’s official regulatory body for registering companies, co-operatives, and intellectual property rights (including trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights), the CIPC, put a notice on its website about a hacking incident on Thursday, the 29th of February 2024.
The recent pandemic has seen a dramatic move towards the use of technology in the business world. While the use of technology has in some instances increased productivity and eased the way of doing business, cybercrime has become is a global phenomenon with company data being hacked on an all to regular basis. The big question is who is responsible for the safety of data and privacy of information. South Africa has world class legislation which at times does not deter cyber criminals due to the lack of enforcement by authorities. Legislation clearly puts the onus on directors of a company to take all reasonable steps to protect sensitive data.
Within our new normal, e-commerce for many has become a great solution to navigate through the uncertainty brought upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic. Allowing businesses to continue trading while still observing strict social distancing measures, e-commerce helps to broaden the reach of businesses and grow their client base into areas that would otherwise be unreachable. With the addition of platforms such as Shopify or Wix, e-commerce has never been more accessible. Yet, even with the ease granted by these e-commerce platforms, some businesses still struggle to successfully implement their business into the digital realm.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have become quite a popular term over the past months with stories of people buying and selling them for millions of dollars. Yet, there is still confusion around the topic for many about what they are which we will hope to clarify by the end of this article.
As emerging technologies become more accepted and established throughout society, old problems become solved and new opportunities start to arise. Blockchain has been around for over a decade and has been popularized mostly through its association with cryptocurrencies. Offering numerous benefits, new applications of blockchain are constantly being researched in the hopes of disrupting industries. One of these applications is that of tokenization – specifically, the tokenization of assets.
Early in January 2021, Facebook’s messaging app WhatsApp received massive backlash in relation to an update of its privacy policy which was meant to take effect on the 8th of February 2021. Effectively, the update allows for new functionality to the businesses feature by allowing WhatsApp to reserve the right to share the different data it collects from you to other Facebook based apps.
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and as more emerging technologies gain traction, more and more opportunities become available to businesses that need to be utilized otherwise they risk falling behind – especially now that we are living in a vastly different “New Normal”. It is now harder for businesses to only rely on word of mouth or the use of bulk emailing to keep their clients informed and must utilize all digital platforms in order to thrive.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital disruption and led to significant, long-term market uncertainty. While this pandemic has forced many businesses to reduce or suspend operations, affecting their bottom line, it has helped to accelerate the development of several emerging technologies. This is especially true for innovations that reduce human-to-human contact, automate processes, and increase productivity amid social distancing.
