Daily Archives: May 11, 2017

To what extent will natural resources contribute to Zimbabwe’s economy? – New Zimbabwe.com

Posted: May 11, 2017 at 12:47 pm

HAVE Zimbabweans become so myopic that they expect a miraculous return to economic prosperity in the post-President Robert Mugabe era? There seems to be a common misconception amongst us Zimbabweans that replacing the current government will suddenly turn the country into a bread basket again.

Granted, political instability, corruption and erroneous policy execution by government in recent years have left the country in a ravaged state with poor economic growth prospects. But does the absence of corruption and political instability guarantee a return to the kind of economic prosperity often promised by opposition politicians?

Indeed, a salient fact often muted from national economic debate is how exactly the country would position itself for competitiveness in the global economy post attaining stability. Zimbabwe is endowed with vast natural resources, but so are many other countries in the world. How the country produces, consumes and trades with other nations has important implications on the overall value we ultimately extract from our resources.

It is a fallacy to boast about natural resources in isolation in a globalised world where the factors of production land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship have been internationalised. The often-cited beacons of successful extractive industry based economies Canada, Australia and Norway all have a considerable grip on all factors of production, not just the free resource (land).Good institutions have played a key part, but crucially they have not let resource dependence undermine their long run economic growth.

What is often ignored about these countries are the underlying equally large-sized home grown technology, engineering and financial services sectors, which play an even bigger role in building cross-sector synergies and consequently their national competitive advantage.

One of the reasons why many African countries fail to negotiate better deals for their mining sectors is that they often only bring one component of the four factors of production to the table.That places them in a weak and often exploitative relationship.

Take a simplified case of a copper mine in Zambia, for example.The Zambian government offers the mine (land); Rio Tinto finances the development of the mine (foreign capital) and, of course, runs the project as a multi-national company (foreign entrepreneur).

Now Rio Tintos strategic decisions are run from the headquarters of the Anglo Australian company (skilled labour) relegating Zambia to supplying mainly operational, semi-skilled and unskilled labour.Further, the mine itself is capitalised with property, equipment and technology from foreign firms. Financing facilities are meanwhile arranged by foreign institutions in London or New York.

The major economic benefits therefore come down to royalties and taxes, of-course, but also low value non-sophisticated operational activities.It is a vicious cycle indeed; repeat this process over many years and it is apparent why some resource-rich countries are perennially impoverished.Meanwhile, other countries with no natural resources such as Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea continue to thrive economically.

In Africa, Botswana is often cited as a perfect template on how natural resources should be managed, but what exactly has driven their success?Under the Debswana model, De Beers and the Botswana government have equal equity in the venture.Careful analysis shows that the successes of the venture have historically hinged on good governance and effective government priorities aided by a small population more than the merits of the deal itself.

Patience has been a key part of Botswanas tactics.It has taken nearly half a century for Botswana to become an equal equity partner in the venture and to bargain for some limited technology transfer and value-added services as well as some human capital development in the form of select higher skilled jobs being domiciled in the country.

Botswanas weak bargaining position emanated from offering just one component of the four factors of production in negotiations.To renegotiate a better deal, Botswana leveraged the fact that their mines are globally among the highest quality and low cost to operate, their long relationship with De Beers and of course their relatively stable political climate.

Similarly, Zimbabwe will need to offer a well-crafted unique value proposition to negotiate favourable deals, otherwise benefits will remain limited. This is not insurmountable, but remains opaque at the moment.

Another hyped policy decision is on beneficiating minerals to manufacture value-added products. It is no coincidence that most of the beneficiation of minerals takes place in the developed world closer to markets where the final products are consumed. The underlying economic principle being that it is more cost efficient to transport low value added products than to transport high value finished goods.

Global supply chain networks have thus been established based on that principle with huge cost implications of tinkering with those mature value chains. To business executives, a decision to establish a refinery in a specific country is seldom political, but justified by commercial viability and pragmatism.

Multi-national mining companies are often faced with making choices on refineries locations. In that respect, Zimbabwe will compete with other industrial hubs in China, India and elsewhere. The infrastructure challenges Africa face such as energy generation capacity, the absence of adequate transport systems and dilapidated rail networks in most cases render such projects uncompetitive, particularly when the final products are intended for export.

In the absence of vibrant domestic or regional consumption, significantly expanding mining value-added manufacturing capacity appears a long-term aspiration rather than something that can be realistically achieved in a few years.

So, what will ensure that Zimbabwe does not fall into recurring strategic pitfalls where resources perpetually benefit foreigners ahead of local communities? Clearly, political stability, curbing corruption and good institutions are crucial initial steps.Beyond that, however, the strategies articulated by most political parties, lack depth and clarity on how they will counter the market forces stacked against our negotiation capabilities in the global context.

It appears constrained capital availability is the easy excuse to accept the status quo and to offer better concessions to foreign firms.That certainly is a recipe for more frustration amongst locals as that will lead to unfulfilled promises.

The nation needs to dig deeper; without carefully thought out structural reforms that tip factors of production in our favour supported by coherent cross-sector long term strategic goals, harnessing the full benefits of our natural resources will remain an unfulfilled dream.

About the Author: Hopewell Mauwa is an economic analyst and global natural resources strategist based in London. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on hopewell.mauwa@cantab.net

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Wall criticizes attempt to link carbon policy with provincial transfer payments – CTV News

Posted: at 12:47 pm

The Canadian Press Published Monday, May 8, 2017 12:40PM CST Last Updated Monday, May 8, 2017 6:34PM CST

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says any attempt by Ottawa to link transfer money with a province's carbon tax policy would be a serious attack on federal-provincial relations.

Wall says memos obtained by the online publication Blacklock's Reporter show the federal government intends to tie a province's stance on carbon tax to equalization renegotiations.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Wall says that would violate the principles of fiscal federalism and he calls the threat unacceptable.

"I'm also asking him ... to release the unredacted version of these internal memos so all the provinces know what we're dealing with here," Wall said Monday at the legislature.

"I think this is very serious. If the federal government is now saying, 'Look, if you don't support us here, you won't get any of this money,' to which all provinces are entitled to on a formula, well that's less like how to run a federation and more like how you run a crime family."

Equalization is a federal program that transfers money to poorer provinces so they can offer government services at similar levels across the country.

Wall argues Saskatchewan's resource-based economy has contributed more than $5 billion to equalization over the last decade, while receiving nothing in payments.

Saskatchewan officials are contacting the federal government to find out what's being considered, he said.

"First of all, the fact that it would be mused about even is a concern to me, that there's someone in the Department of Finance -- and I have to think it wouldn't be without license from someone very senior -- who's thinking about, well, should equalization payments be tied to some province's support of a specific federal Liberal policy," said Wall.

"That kind of discussion shouldn't even be happening, never mind in the senior levels at the Department of Finance."

He said he's also concerned about other transfer payments including for health, education and infrastructure funding.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna's office tried to ease Wall's concerns in a statement on Monday.

"The issue of pricing carbon pollution is unrelated to the federal government's continual engagement with the provinces on the topic of equalization. Linking the two is not a conversation we are having with the provinces," she said in the email.

Wall said he's pleased to hear McKenna's assurances, but her comments don't address other types of federal payments, such as infrastructure funding.

Trudeau has said all provinces must set up a cap-and-trade system or impose a price on carbon of at least $10 per tonne starting next year, which would increase to $50 by 2022, or Ottawa will do it for them.

Eleven provinces and territories agreed to the carbon price plan in December when they signed the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba did not.

McKenna told The Canadian Press last week that negotiations with the two provinces have continued.

Wall said Saskatchewan will continue to oppose any attempt by the federal government to impose a carbon tax on Saskatchewan.

"Meet us in court," said Wall.

"My point to the federal government is, if they think they have the constitutional authority to impose a carbon tax on one or a couple of provinces, then go ahead, bring it forward and we will take this to court. We're reasonably optimistic about our chances and if they are too, that should be their final vindication."

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The Power of Automation Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report – Skift

Posted: at 12:46 pm

TheSkift Corporate Travel Innovation Reportis ourweekly newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought, and sold.

Last week we weighed in on the corporate travel buzzwords were sick of hearing, even if many in corporate travel think they represent the transformative change the industry needs.

This week, were thinking about a whitepaper from Euromonitor tracing the global race toward greater automation. Automation is already driving costs down for business travelers and enabling travel management companies to get smarter about travel spend and customer service.

Compared with other industries, the travel industry is well-placed to benefit from the new wave of automation, considering that service requires a high level of management, expertise and stakeholder interaction, concludes the report. The biggest sectors to be affected by automation will be service jobs at airports and hotels, but the promise of automation has already hit behind the scenes in corporate travel.

As business travel continues to increase across the world, particularly in Asia, automated tools will only become more important to managing and controlling the experience of travelers.

Andrew Sheivachman, Skift

I think my business travel is getting to me because I had a dream I was dozing off on a plane and I woke up and I was on a plane. @Thx4SharingJerk

Automation Is Poised to Further Disrupt Business Travel:The forces disrupting business travel today are varied, but industry leaders should keep one thing in mind: The needs of travelers must stay a top priority.Read more at Skift

New J.D. Power Survey Says Airlines Passenger Satisfaction Is at All-time High:The past six weeks have been disastrous for the U.S. airline industry. But that doesnt make this survey wrong. For most passengers (yes, even those in coach) flying in North America is much better than it was a decade ago.Read more at Skift

Corporate Payments Are Getting Even More Complicated:Fluctuations in currency price and new technology areadding complexity to the payments arena, particularly in the UK.Read more at Buying Business Travel

U.S. Senators Criticize Airline Customer Service in Committee Hearing: Earlier this week, a House of Representatives Committee interrogated airline executives about service failures. On Thursday, a Senate committee also weighed in. But will Congress take meaningful action? Dont bet on it.Read more at Skift

U.S. May Expand Airline Electronics Restriction Beyond Middle East:If implemented, this will be a disaster for airlines and their customers. Its one thing to have a ban on relatively few flights from the Middle East. But an expanded ban would be a much bigger deal. Its possible a sizable number of customers could skip travel rather than deal with a ban.Read more at Skift

Why Meetings Within Meetings Matter for Large Events:The purposeful creation of meetings within meetings is important for the continued vitality of large meetings because it offers attendees focused discussions and connections in intimate settings.Read more at Skift

Amazon Echo Hears a Challenge From Google in Voice-Powered Travel Search:Despite the hype, neither the Amazon Echo nor the Google Home is delivering the goods yet for voice-command travel research. Googles effort has the most promise, though.Read more at Skift

Travel Tech Startup Accelerators Learn From Early Missteps and Adjust Course:More than a dozen travel startup incubators and accelerators, backed by some of travels best-known companies, have popped up in the past few years. The early word, which is hardly surprising, is that picking startup winners and helping them sign deals isnt just plug-and-play.Read more at Skift

Priceline Group Lags Airbnb in Alternative Accommodations But Its in Hot Pursuit: Booking.com grew its vacation rental supply at a hyper clip, 51 percent in the first quarter. But vacation rentals are different than hotels, where the company has excelled, and the same formula might not be a slam dunk.Read more at Skift

COMMENTS

Skift editors Hannah Sampson[[emailprotected]] and Andrew Sheivachman [[emailprotected]] curate the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails thenewsletter every Thursday.

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Photo Credit: Automation is expected to surge across corporate travel in the future. Automated ticketing machines used by Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines

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Why automation in the age of AI will change the way we think of work – TechRepublic

Posted: at 12:46 pm

Since the Industrial Age, automation has shifted the kind of work that humans must do. And with the current AI boom, anxiety over employment is at an all-time high. Will new technology lead to mass unemployment? Or will a whole new set of jobs replace what we have today?

Of course, the answer is nuanced, and both arguments have elements of truth. But while AI will undoubtedly create new jobs, the technology will hurt workers in lower skill jobs, according to Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice University and a leading expert in AI.

As Vardi pointed out, manufacturing is actually at an all-time high. "It's not that we have not lost manufacturing, it has just changed," he said. "We are still manufacturing a lot in this country, but it has changed and uses 8 million fewer manufacturing employees." Vardi talked to TechRepublic about why, in particular, manufacturing was the "sweet spot for automation."

Two different schools of thought exist when it comes to the impact of automation on jobs, Vardi said.

"There is a school of the thought that very much believed that the economy is self-correcting, and if you automate something you should lower the cost," said Vardi. "If you lower the cost, demand should increase. If demand should increase, you will need to hire more workers."

But even economists, he said, think this view is overly simplistic. "When you lower the cost, demand will increase," said Vardi, "but it's not clear that it will be enough to compensate for it. It's really impossible to predict the result of automation on the local basis."

Vardi raised the example of ATMs. "ATMs is the one example where people thought there would be fewer tellersbut it turned out, we lowered the cost of operating the branch so much the banks opened more branches. And so we have hired more tellers," he said.

What did take jobs away, Vardi said, is the birth of mobile banking. "When do you go to a bank?" he asked. "Never. Technology will kill these branches. The ATM did not, but other technology will ultimately kill many of the branches."

Fintech, said Vardi, is particularly ripe for automation. "The tech community looks at banks as a big, fat, lazy target," he said. "They have obsolete business models, very high services, and nobody loves their bank. The one thing that banks do have is the trust element right, and deposit insurance." Still, said Vardi, "banks are going to have the fight of their life."

So is this age of AI different, somehow, than previous periods of automation?

"People always need to move to something that they do better than machines," Vardi said. "When people lost their jobs in agriculture, they moved to manufacturing. We had machines in manufacturing, but they had to be operated."

Vardi calls manufacturing a middle-skill job. "When the capability of the machine went up and the cost went down, operating industrial robots is now $15 dollars an hour, so we don't need so many people," he said. In terms of the idea of bringing back manufacturing, Vardi said he doesn't "know any economist who takes it seriously. We can try to think of how to have an economy where we encourage job creation, but manufacturing jobs are not coming back."

Instead, said Vardi, "we have higher value kind of jobs, in higher value industries. The question is how do we get the workers to adapt to such industries?"

I asked Vardi what he thought of the argument that technology will create new jobslike when the creators of Flippy, the burger-flipping robot, say that the robot will leave room for employees to do new, creative tasks.

"I think this is the propaganda of the creative class," said Vardi, "that says, 'Look, we get rid of the tedious jobs so you'll be able do new jobs, interesting, creative jobs.' But what jobs? What are these new creative jobs? So people give you example: Data analytics expert, data visualization. I said, 'Okay, who gets these jobs?'"

The point, said Vardi, is that the conversation is mostly confined to the educated class.

"What are the largest corporations in the United States?" asked Vardi. "Let's look at the top six. There's one non-tech company there. It's Exxon. The rest are Apple, Alphabet Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook. What is the total market capitalization of these companies? Between them it's about two and a half trillion dollars," he said. However, these companies only employ half a million people. And most of those employees are highly educated.

With new employment trends, said Vardi, you need to ask three things: Are we creating enough new jobs? Are we creating them fast enough? And, what skill level do the new jobs require?

As AI gets smarter, said Vardi, the definition of what is "routine work" expands. One example is a decision whether to grant bail, which can now be automated using troves of data around recidivism. "We are defining things that used to be creative decision making," said Vardi, "and saying no, it's routine."

"If machine can do it, it's routine," Vardi added. "AI is a moving target. We always call AI what we don't know how to do yet."

Many things we use in our daily lives used to be considered AI, Vardi said. "And now, we're saying those things are just an algorithm."

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IT automation key to achieving digital business goals, remaining relevant – CIO Dive

Posted: at 12:46 pm

Dive Brief:

More than 70% of respondents to a new survey from BMC Software believe businesses that do not embrace IT automation to achieve digital business goals within the next five years will no longer be around in 10 years.

The study also found 92% of respondents agree that demands for new sources of revenue create a unique competitive advantage and operational excellence has created huge pressure to compete digitally. BMC surveyed more than 650 IT decision makers across 12 countries for the report.

By 2020, 94% of IT decision makers expect automation to spread from IT departments into all areas of business. The top three areas of investment priority in the next two years are containerization,workload automation/scheduling and DevOps.

Automation has become a must have for companies instead of a nice to have.For example, as companies increasingly use hybrid cloud capabilities, IT environments become more complex. To manage that complexity effectively and achieve digital business objectives, businesses will need to automate.

Many think that only through IT automation will companies have the time and bandwidth to focus on their broader digital transformation efforts and business goals.

Automation is likely to save companies money that can be reinvested back into the business. A recent McKinsey study found almost all occupations blue collar and white collar have potential for some automation, which could result in a savings of about $16 trillion in wages per year.

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Containers, DevOps, IT automation seen as antidotes to complexity – ZDNet

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More than seven in 10 executives and professionals believe that if they don't automate a good part of their IT operations soon, their businesses will not survive the decade.

That's the key takeaway of a new survey of 654 IT executives and professionals by BMC Software. Business process automation has been proliferating across enterprises for years now, but the pressure is on for IT shops to automate themselves as well. With the rise of digital business, and the artificial intelligence, analytics, real-time capabilities it requires, things are getting too complex for the manual procedures still seen in many IT development and operations.

Along these lines, containerization is the top investment priority for IT executives and professionals over the next 24 months. would like to invest in are containerization, workload automation/scheduling and DevOps, the survey shows.

Interest is running high in DevOps, or the embedded, institutionalized cooperation and coordination between those writing the software and those deploying it into production. DevOps has gained traction across most enterprises, the survey shows. One-third employ DevOps across most their teams, and 24 percent report it's an end-to-end endeavor. Only 19% indicate they either don't use DevOps at this time or are unaware of it.

Issues hindering coordination between IT and their business counterparts include conflicting objectives between business units (42 percent) and 33 percent say there is a "lack of motivation" among business units. Budget and skills issues hamper the digitization efforts of half of the enterprises involved.

Just about everybody, 94 percent of IT decision makers, agree that within the next three years, IT automation will have spread to other areas of the business, "transforming everything." Fifty percent of IT executives say digital transformation is their biggest item on their agendas, and 45 percent say just about every part of their business is involved.

IT leaders are confident that IT automation will help fulfill the challenges of building and running a digital enterprise. The study found that 88 percent of IT decision makers feel they are empowered to deliver the required IT innovation to drive digital business transformation and bridge this gap, and 77 percent of respondents believe that businesses are doing enough to prepare and train the workforce with greater automation skills.

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These 10 cities will lose the most jobs to automation – TechRepublic – TechRepublic

Posted: at 12:46 pm

Low-wage cities such as Las Vegas, Orlando, and El Paso will be hit the hardest by job automation, according to a recent report from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA). And the impact of automation on job losses is likely to be more severe than previously predicted, the report stated: Due to advances in machine learning and mobile robotics, jobs such as truck driving, healthcare diagnostics, and education are more likely to be affected.

"The replacement of jobs by machines has been happening continuously since the Industrial Revolution, but it's expected to significantly accelerate in the coming 10 or 20 years," said Johannes Moenius, founding director of ISEA, in a press release. "Pretty much everyone will be affected, but some metropolitan areas will see a lot more jobs vanish than others."

ISEA examined Oxford University research on the probability of automation for a number of occupations, as well as employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the 100 metropolitan areas in the US with more than 250,000 people employed, the following 10 cities have the largest share of jobs that may become automated:

Image: ISEA

1. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV

65.2% of jobs automatable

2. El Paso, TX

63.9% of jobs automatable

3. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

62.6% of jobs automatable

4. Greensboro-High Point, NC

62.5% of jobs automatable

SEE: Future jobs: How humans and robots will complement each other

5. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL

62.4% of jobs automatable

6. Bakersfield, CA

62.4% of jobs automatable

7. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL

61.8% of jobs automatable

8. Fresno, CA

61.5% of jobs automatable

9. Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC

61.3% of jobs automatable

10. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN

61.3% of jobs automatable

Almost all large metropolitan areas in the US could lose more than 55% of their current jobs due to automation, the report stated. High-tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and Boston are least likely to be affected.

SEE: Video: Panera's automation investment is actually creating jobs

At-risk occupations include office and administrative support occupations, food preparation and serving related occupations, and sales and related occupations. These three categories account for half of the automation potential in the largest metro areas. Meanwhile, transportation and material moving positions contribute to potential employment losses in Riverside, Louisville, and Greensboro.

However, the probability of automation does not equal future unemployment rates, said ISEA faculty fellow and report co-author Jess Chen. A recent report from Forrester Research estimated that automation and robotics will displace 24.7 million US jobs by 2027but that the technology will create 14.9 million new jobs in the same time period, leading to a net loss of 9.8 million jobs.

"Technical feasibility does not imply that automation necessarily makes economic sense. And historically, automation went hand in hand with new job creation both in skilled and less skilled labor," Chen said in the release. "However, the speed and the high share of automation in less skilled jobs raises many questions about whether the economy will be able to make up for the expected job losses. What we do expect is that automation will create winners and losers among cities and regions of the U.S., where losers may not recover to their original employment levels within even a decade's time."

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The Cycle, Not Automation, Is Keeping Oil & Gas Hiring Down – Forbes

Posted: at 12:46 pm


Forbes
The Cycle, Not Automation, Is Keeping Oil & Gas Hiring Down
Forbes
By MARK AGERTON. Despite recent increases in oil and gas activity, some doubt that employment in the sector will ever reach the highs of 2014 again. Producers have been cutting costs and increasing productivity, partly thanks to an increased deployment ...

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Automation Engineer – OilOnline

Posted: at 12:46 pm

The Company: Our client provides unique processing solutions to its customers and after sales services in the food and beverage industries. The company has a word-wide presence and the UK is recognised as one of its most important markets.

The Role: The Automation Engineer will be office based in High Wycombe with travel expected to site 25% of the time with occasional weekend work. There is a very open environment, challenging customers and projects and excellent opportunities for progression, along with a very attractive package.

Depending on your gained experience our client will assist with training in the client's automation systems, project leadership or dairy competence. There is also a position for a Senior Automation Engineer if you are slightly more experienced.

Main responsibilities:

* Development and commissioning of plant automation systems (hardware and software) as part of an overall production solution as a combination of process and automation * Program Tetra PlantMaster solutions based on our Siemens and Rockwell platforms. * Assist Sales and Engineering with automation evaluations and quotations * Perform Hardware configuration, system setup and tests of configurations * Provide technical expertise in customer discussions * Prepare and perform FAT tests * Commission your own code as well as code written by others * Manage medium to large scale multiple projects simultaneously to ensure project meets project plans, budget, and contractual obligations * Projects will be run mostly in UK, but work on projects in other countries will be expected. * The automation project scope includes the complete S95/S88 model (Recipe Handling, HMI, PLC, Data Acquisition and Traceability).

Essential Skills / Qualifications: * Degree in Automation Engineering or similar in combination with a minimum of 5 years working experience in this area. * Experience in processing industries, ideally liquid food or beverages. * Wonderware platform, Archestra and/or InTouch. * Siemens S7 programming and/or ControlLogix. * Databases and SQL-scripting, networks and Windows environment. * Development and commissioning of plant automation systems.

Desirable Skills / Qualifications: * Programming in Tetra PlantMaster. * Experience from project management is important but not vital. * Dairy experience is an important plus.

Key words: dairy, cheese, prepared food, ice cream, beverages, food, processing, liquid processing, pharmaceutical, automation, automation engineer, senior automation engineer

About Fircroft: Fircroft has been placing people in specialist technical industries for approaching half a century, focusing on mid to senior level engineers for contract and permanent roles worldwide. By applying for this job you give consent for Fircroft to contact you, via email & telephone, to discuss your application along with future positions and Fircroft's services.

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Threat detection automation won’t solve all your problems – Network World

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By Eran Barak, CEO, Hexadite

Network World | May 9, 2017 2:22 PM PT

This vendor-written tech primerhas beenedited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, butreaders should note it will likely favor the submitters approach.

A recent Network World article argued that automated threat detection (TD) is more important than automated incident response (IR). But the piece was predicated on flawed and misguided information.

The article shared an example of a financial institution in which analysts investigated 750 alerts per month only to find two verified threats. The piece claimed that, in this scenario, automated IR could only be applied to the two verified threat instances, therefore making automated threat detection upstream a more important capability by orders of magnitude.

The problem with this assertion, however, is that automated IR can do more than just take remediation action once a threat is verified. Automated IR can be applied to each and every one of the alerts TD systems produce, pinpoint the verified threats, and take action to remediate them. In fact, it is because TD systems often return so many false positive alerts, that IR automation is experiencing a distinct surge in popularity right now.

In an ESG survey of 100 IT and cybersecurity professionals, more than half (62%) indicated they have already taken action to automate their IR processes. Another 35% reported they are either currently engaged in a project to do so, or plan to initiate an IR automation project within 18 months.

Perhaps the most valuable benefit of automated IR is it assumes the critical role of trained cyber analysts. Unlike humans, however, the technology can thoroughly investigate and respond to the constant onslaught of alerts produced by TD systems at scale, providing a much-needed solution to the chronic and rampant issue of alert fatigue. Its an unfortunate reality, but most organizations have too many TD alerts to properly investigate. They dont have adequate staffing to follow-up on alerts, and in order to act on even just a small percentage of severe/critical alerts, organizations require ample resources to first classify and prioritize the alerts and investigate every one of them.

According to research from EMA, 92% of organizations receive up to 500 alerts per day. A wide majority (68%) of research participants said they suffer from some sort of staffing impact to their security teams, and larger organizations reported collecting gigabytes to terabytes of data each day. It should come as no surprise then, that EMA found that 88% of organizations were able to investigate just 25 or fewer severe/critical events per day, with a mere 1% of severe/critical alerts ever being investigated.

So, yes, automated TD is certainly important to incorporate into cybersecurity workflows anything that can be done to reduce the number of false alerts will help in the long run. But it shouldnt be considered more important than automated IR, which today can help investigate the crushing volume of alerts, and do so at scale.

The only viable approach to keeping up with automated TD systems and the massive amount of information they deliver -- especially for organizations with limited resources -- is to stop prioritizing alerts to match capacity and instead leverage security automation tools that can investigate and remediate every alert in real-time.

To maintain business security without impacting the bottom line, organizations should seek out solutions that can automatically collect contextual information from other network detection systems or logs. They should also use known threat information and automated inspection capabilities to exonerate and incriminate threats, and fully automate their remediation process so that once a verdict has been made, a file is immediately quarantined, a process is killed, or a CNC connection is shut down.

The sooner organizations recognize that a human approach to TD and IR is unsustainable, the better. Equally crucial is acknowledging that more information (i.e. automated TD) isnt a blanket solution for effectively fighting cybercrime. With rising threat volumes and a shortage of cybersecurity professionals, organizations need to look to artificial intelligence and automation throughout the threat lifecycle and leverage integrated solutions that continually investigate every single TD alert. In doing so, companies stand to boost employee productivity, gain a greater contextual understanding of their security data, drive impactful remediation action and mitigate cyber threats in real-time.

Barak is CEO and Co-Founder of the security automation company, Hexadite. Prior to founding Hexadite he was the Head of Elbit Systems Ltd.'s Cyber Training and Simulation Team, training analysts to respond to cyber threats in both private and public sectors, and served five years in an elite intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

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Threat detection automation won't solve all your problems - Network World

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