Archive for August 15, 2024

TELUS Expert Messaging Breaks Cover

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

TELUS International, rebranding to TELUS Digital Experience (TELUS Digital) later in the third quarter, is at the forefront of digitally transforming customer journeys for media and communications companies, including designing, building and implementing asynchronous messaging capabilities as part of an end-to-end, AI-fueled experience. Asynchronous messaging provides flexible two-way interactions that enable customers to start, pause and pick up conversations when it is most convenient for them, while simultaneously giving media and communications providers greater flexibility to triage and diagnose customer queries to provide thoughtful, accurate and personalized responses. Developed by TELUS International, TELUS Expert Messaging is a cutting edge customer support tool seamlessly incorporated into the company’s existing My TELUS app. The new tool lets TELUS customers access human support whenever it is most convenient for them, 24×7, by sending a message from their mobile device and receiving a notification when an expert has responded, often resolving their inquiry in a single message. The flexible and convenient asynchronous chat feature eliminates wait times associated with traditional phone and live chat queues.

In order to protect against potential vulnerabilities and ensure a secure customer environment, asynchronous messaging systems must be built upon a strong foundation of data privacy and ethical standards. Incorporating Privacy by Design principles, and undergoing extensive risk mitigation testing are key to protecting user data and ensuring their ongoing security and trustworthiness.

Elevating TELUS’ premium digital experience above-the-line as a customer-first differentiator

A leading Canadian telecommunications provider and global technology company, TELUS, has partnered with its subsidiary TELUS International for nearly 20 years to support the ongoing evolution of its customer and employee experiences and operations, to become a fully digital and cloud-native organization.

TELUS Expert Messaging was developed using Engage by Local Measure, an intelligent, pre-built cloud contact center platform built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), to assist agents and provide more personalized omnichannel customer interactions. Engage integrates with Amazon Connect to seamlessly combine customer communications, Amazon Bedrock and machine learning into a single interface. Engage assists agents and improves customer interactions, providing a personalized omnichannel experience.

TELUS Expert Messaging is available in English, with a French version set to launch on MyTELUS app in the fourth quarter.

Learn how TELUS International  and WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, can help your business elevate its customer experience with comprehensive AI solutions and expert consulting, and reduce its cost to serve by improving operational efficiencies at every stage of the customer journey. Reach out today to learn more and unlock the potential of Fuel iX for all industries and inquire specifically about accelerators available to media and communications brands to further expedite CX deployments.

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Uber launches Uber One for Students in Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

As the back-to-school shopping season ramps up, budget-conscious students now have a new way to save on rides and other essentials. Just in time for the fall semester, Uber is launching Uber One for Students in Canada, a special discounted version of our Uber One membership program. 

Whether they’re heading to an early-morning lecture or fueling a late-night study session, postsecondary students can now enjoy significant savings on rides and Uber Eats deliveries within their campus communities and wherever Uber and Uber Eats are available. 

Here are the key membership benefits: 

  • Free Trial: Students who have never used Uber One can try Uber One for Students for free for their first four weeks
  • Membership Cost: $4.99/month (50% off regular price) 
  • Delivery Perks: $0 Delivery Fee on eligible food ($15+ basket), groceries ($40+ basket) and more plus 5% off eligible deliveries and pick up orders  
  • Cashback: Earn 5% Uber Cash on eligible rides
  • Top-Rated Drivers: Only ride with top-rated drivers 

Uber also got students covered with their own exclusive deals to keep them fueled and focused:

  • Dominos 🍕: 10% off every order and score a free order of Parmesan Bread Bites on Wednesdays with orders over $25
  • Starbucks ☕: 10% off coffee runs, in addition to $0 Delivery Fee and 5% off Uber One Benefit
  • Osmow’s 🥙: 5% off their Osmow’s orders (of $15+) and get a free order of Falafel on Monday’s on orders of $15+
  • Mary Brown’s🍗: 5% off their Mary Brown’s orders (of $15+) and get a free Big Mary on Tuesday’s on orders of $15+

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DNC Dealing With A Potential Data Leak Just Days Before Their Convention

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

A firm called ZeroFox released a report on Wednesday, titled “Threats to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.” The report basically claims the following:

Ahead of the DNC, ZeroFox identified Telegram-based bot service “IntelFetch” aggregating compromised credentials related to the Democratic Party and the DNC.

And:

The exposed data, consisting predominantly of URLs paired with login credentials or login pairs, appears to originate from botnet logs and third-party data breaches. While this exposure does not seem to result from a targeted attack, it poses a risk of unauthorized access to sensitive systems and information within the Democratic Party and the DNC. Compromised credentials belonging to registered individuals and staff members of these entities could be used to infiltrate secure systems, access confidential information, and disrupt operations. This unauthorized access could impact the security and integrity of party activities and the upcoming DNC.

Given the political climate in the United States at the moment, that’s likely not good.  Tom Marsland, VP of Technology, Cloud Range had this to say:

Compromised credentials of the DNC goes to show the lengths that threat actors will go to, to research their targets and exploit them. While there is no indication that these accounts were directly compromised, this also highlights the importance of basic cyber hygiene. In the current threat landscape, everyone is a target, and especially those who are working towards a specific interest (in this case politics) where there is “another side”.  As we move deeper into election season, it will be important for everyone to remain vigilant and call out mis- and disinformation campaigns that could lead voters astray.  One of the pillars of our country is free and fair elections, and as cyber professionals, all of us should rise up to denounce these attacks, thwart them through stronger defense (which includes user education on cyber hygiene – MFA, strong passwords, etc.), and band together for the common good of our elections.

Now the DNC has pushed back strongly on this report:

“The language in this report is an irresponsible and inaccurate characterization of the facts,” a DNC spokesperson said. “We take cybersecurity very seriously and have been preparing to host a safe and successful convention for over a year.”

DNC officials added that the records referenced in the ZeroFox report were from 2016, are no longer active and were accessed via external websites, not the official DemConvention[.]com website.

In my mind, any data leak is a bad thing. And I suspect that privately the DNC is super concerned about this. And I also suspect that they’re hoping that this isn’t the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

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New Paris Olympics Infrastructure Attack Threat Landscape Research Reports 166 Abused Domains

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

BforeAI has released the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Infrastructure Attack Report, which details the domain and infrastructure-based threats uncovered related to the Paris Olympics.

By analyzing newly registered domains acquired two weeks before the event, indicating the rise in malicious activities, BforeAI researchers discovered 166 unique domains that leveraged the common signs of DNS abuse.

Significant use of keywords related to the Olympics and specific years or events was found in an attempt to attract traffic and appear relevant to search engines, so the domains in this cybercriminal infrastructure gain an advantage of the ‘domain age,’ which can influence their future SEO. 

Counterfeit Olympic shop domains were increasingly prevalent in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, potentially resulting in significant financial losses for fans and enthusiasts looking to purchase official merchandise and experiences. 

The technical analysis unveils examples of fake shops set up before the Olympics to commit economic fraud and collect personal information with top-selling stores, tickets sold through fake websites for monetary gain and information harvesting, and different websites to support their respective countries.

You can read the report here.

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Bluesky Sees Massive Signups From The UK Because Of Elon Musk’s Stupidity

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

Elon Musk has shot himself in the foot again. This will take a bit of time to explain, so stick with me.

Last month, three girls were murdered in Northern England. That triggered days of far-right rioting which was triggered by online misinformation. And some of that misinformation was amplified by Elon Musk himself. This genius decided to share misleading information with his millions of followers, including one post suggesting civil war was “inevitable” in Britain. That made Prime Minister Keir Starmer react to that and his government rolling out laws to police online content as a result.

The other thing that has happened is this:

It appears that Twitter competitor Bluesky is seeing a significant bump in signups from the United Kingdom since Elon decided to be stupid. The word on the street is that even UK politicians are abandoning Twitter for Bluesky. That’s not a good look for Elon.

Elon really is playing a game that he can’t win. Between this and the EU saying that he has to police misinformation on Twitter, to which Elon responded with a meme from the movie Tropic Thunder, Elon is just asking to get slapped with something that is really going to hurt him. The UK and the EU aren’t going to put up with his antics and are certain to punish him. Or put a more contemporary way, Elon is playing a game of FAAFO. Which is an acronym for F**k Around And Find Out. And one suspects that he’s not going to like the Find Out part of that.

I hope this was worth it Elon. Because right now, you look like a real loser.

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Reddit Announces Reddit’s Partner Badging Program

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 15, 2024 by itnerd

This week Reddit announced Reddit’s Official Partner Badging Program that offers their agency partners exclusive badges for completing Reddit Ads Formula certifications. Agency partners like Tinuiti and GroupM are investing in deepening their knowledge of Reddit ads, and SMBs increasing their spend by an average of 88% within 2 months after completing the certification.

You can find the full blog post here with all the details. 

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