Emerging technologies have started to disrupt whole industries and in doing so are demonstrating their role as amplifiers for solution development. Robotics are improving farm productivity in Indonesia and delivering innovative vertical farming solutions in Japan.

Virtual Reality, AI and the IoT are changing the healthcare sector across the US and Europe with simulated surgical training, real-time diagnosis and prevention while drone technology in Africa is helping overcome last mile distribution challenges. In Estonia, Blockchain is already being used to create digital identities.

While in advanced economies emerging technology use cases aim for reformative or incremental change, their application can be truly disruptive in Africa where leapfrogging is possible in the absence of legacy systems. Robotic surgical systems and AI are supporting doctors in developed countries.

In African countries, where lack of qualified doctors is a fundamental bottleneck, connected robotic systems and AI can reduce the dependence on healthcare professionals. With the Urology Hospital in South Africa taking the first step in introducing robotic surgery, we are already witnessing this transition.

Emerging technologies and their role as impact amplifiers change our outlook on how the African continent will overcome some of the biggest development hurdles. Just as the mobile phone has demonstrated how one device has the ability to leapfrog development stages, we predict that emerging technologies have the potential to catalyze exponential transformation through making quality products and services available at affordable prices and through channels that are close to low income customer.

At a high level, emerging technologies with high impact potential are characterized by their abilities to deliver real time data at speed, hence providing deep insights for decision making. This allows for customization of solutions. The growing importance of the individual spurs innovations for democratizing access to products and services. Through a combination of forces, emerging technologies can disrupt whole industries and solution systems. Each lever, valuable in its own right, sets the stage for the next level.

A stupid mantra in the world of tech startups is the Fail-Fast mantra. It begins with thinking on the constructs that it makes no sense to waste efforts when things are not working out, very fast. So, you either scale very fast or you just exit and die as a company. Nothing in between; there is no need to be patient as the future can bring opportunities which may not be available today.

It does happen, often, in venture backed companies as once the metrics are not looking well, they will cease to inject more capital. Just like that you have to fold if you cannot find more alternative capital. To avoid that trap, the startup must ensure it is constantly executing and firing on all cylinders so that it can attract more funding. Otherwise, it has to fail and make way. There is nothing wrong with that, if that execution can happen, very fast.

Many consulting companies like EY had noted that  Fail-Fast could drive innovation in startups when used as a business innovation process. Of course, a whole company can be seen as a complex process, and that means EY thinks that fail-fast applies to a whole organization, by extension.

The success of many digital startups originates from innovation, game-changing business models or a customer experience that significantly disrupts the traditional business models. The “fail fast” culture of startups and their speed of innovation give them sustainable competitive advantages against the traditional businesses that struggle to adopt a similar pace of innovation.

More organizations are now adopting the “fail fast” experimental delivery approach for customer experience using techniques like A/B testing on their websites, mobile applications or social media. This change has helped organizations to reduce the time-to-market of enhancement on customer experience.

But there is another way of looking at this. One, Konga, an e-commerce pioneer in Nigeria, had seen turbulent moments with its numbers. A simple strategy would have been to close the firm, long ago. But the owners did not choose that path. However, over the last few months, the company seems to have figured out some new ways to stay in business. It recently raised new capital and if not mildly profitable, is on the way of being profitable. What is happening here is a company that struggled for years to break more than 200,000 active users but persisted, nevertheless, and could be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It refused to fail-fast.

Another, at international level, is AMD, a global chipmaker and a competitor to Intel. What is happening with AMD is huge and inspirational. In such, underdogs everywhere should find inspiration in the quiet redemption of Advanced Micro Devices, the semiconductor industry doormat for years that has made a massive comeback against longtime foe Intel. Who can believe that AMD will share the phrase “unprecedented performance” in the same press release?

This week at the Game Developers Conference, Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda announced a “long-term strategic partnership” with chip-maker AMD. Bethesda said fans can expected to see “unprecedented performance” from new technologies as a result of the partnership.

A press release from AMD explains that the partnership is for multiple games. Bethesda and AMD will “collaborate to develop and accelerate the implementation of new technologies, including the full potential of low-level APIs, such as Vulkan, and the computing and graphics power of AMD Ryzen CPUs, Radeon GPUs, and AMD server solutions across existing Bethesda franchises,” the release says.

In the technology world you can be down for years without being out. But that is if you can find a way to hang around. AMD has been hanging around for more than a decade and right now it is going through a great moment. Its new chip Ryzen is huge and could change the market dynamics.

Using the fail-fast mantra, AMD will not be here, for any reason. Its stock has moved from less than $3 to move than $15.

This is a huge lesson, the fail-fast has become an excuse not to try harder. It has become a way to just give up fast. It makes it easy to demonstrate no patience and find what works. It is a very bad thinking for startups especially in Africa where finding and executing a winning strategy takes time, owing to the non-homogeneity of the markets and lack of data to drive pre-market strategy. Most times you learn on the fly, refining your business, because pre-market assumptions are way-off.

Do not fail-fast. It pays to not give up easily!

The Kaspersky Lab has published its annual Mobile Virusology report which among others highlighted the evolution of mobile banking Trojans. To prepare this work, specialist officers from INTERPOL’s Global Complex for Innovation have contributed an analysis of mobile malware on the Dark Web to the report.

According to specialist officers from INTERPOL’s Global Complex for Innovation, who have also contributed to the report, the Dark Web remains an attractive medium for conducting illicit businesses and activities. Given its robust anonymity, low prices and client-oriented strategy, the Dark Web provides a means for criminal actors to communicate and engage in commercial transactions, buying and selling various products and services, including mobile malware kits.

Mobile malware is offered for sale as software packages (e.g. remote access Trojans – RATs), individual solutions and sophisticated tools, like those developed by professional firms or, on a smaller scale, as part of a ‘Bot as a Service’ model.

Mobile malware is also a ‘subject of interest’ on vendor shops, forums and social media.

With the changing dynamics of malware and the cybersecurity ecosystem, citizens and enterprises must ensure they are well informed about the risks of digital platforms and computing systems when they are not well protected. Trade secrets, confidential data and personal information are at risks because the world of dark web hosts all kinds of people that show their arts in the white web.

Make a real efforts to understand the dangers of digital platforms and commit to do all necessary to stay safe.

Trojans are everywhere in the mobile ecosystem and it is not getting any better. 2016 saw a near-threefold rise in mobile malware detections compared to 2015 – with a total of 8.5 million malicious installations identified. This means that, in the space of just one year, a volume equivalent to 50% of all the malware detected in the previous 11 years (15.77 million in 2004 – 2015) was released.

Leading the way were mobile advertising Trojans which now make up 16 of the top 20 malicious programmes, up from 12 in 2015, according to the findings of Kaspersky Lab annual Mobile Virusology report, which also highlights the evolution of mobile banking Trojans.

These Trojans are capable of seizing rooting rights, allowing the malware to not only aggressively display ads on the infected device, often making it impossible to use, but also to secretly install other applications. These Trojans can also buy apps on Google Play. In many cases, the Trojans were able to exploit previously patched vulnerabilities because the user had not installed the latest update.

Further, this malware simultaneously installs its modules in the system directory, which makes the treatment of the infected device very difficult. Some advertising Trojans are even able to infect the recovery image, making it impossible to solve the problem by restoring the device to factory settings.

Representatives of this class of malicious software have been repeatedly found in the official Google Play app store, for example, masquerading as a guide for Pokemon GO. In this case, the app was downloaded over 500,000 times, and is detected as a Trojan(dot)AndroidOS(dot)Ztorg(dot)ad.

The Dark Web delusion

According to specialist officers from INTERPOL’s Global Complex for Innovation, who have also contributed to the report, the Dark Web remains an attractive medium for conducting illicit businesses and activities. Given its robust anonymity, low prices and client-oriented strategy, the Dark Web provides a means for criminal actors to communicate and engage in commercial transactions, buying and selling various products and services, including mobile malware kits. Mobile malware is offered for sale as software packages (e.g. remote access Trojans – RATs), individual solutions and sophisticated tools, like those developed by professional firms or, on a smaller scale, as part of a ‘Bot as a Service’ model. Mobile malware is also a ‘subject of interest’ on vendor shops, forums and social media.

What You Can Do?

Besides the obvious one of installing effective anti-virus systems in your computing devices, you need to learn to understand your other options. Cybersecurity, especially at enterprise level, has components of policy, management, technology and intelligence. Facyber has created a top-quality platform to make that knowledge transfer possible in Africa and beyond. You can take advantage of the affordable programs to deepen your capabilities today.